Links 2/2/2025

Subscribe to Post Comments

276 comments

1. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 7:22 am

   ‘Global Vissions
   REPORTER: “Given your efforts to reduce the number of federal employees, are there any concerns about protecting the public ?”
   TRUMP: “They’re all replaceable. We want them to go into the private sector. Our dream is to have almost everyone in the private sector.”.’

   Sounds like Trump is listening to his base – Silicon Valley libertarians. Remember that Grover Norquist quote – ‘I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.’ Sounds like this is what Trump and Co. have in mind. You privatize every government function and you will have an enormous amount of contracts on offer to private corporations to profit from. Would you feel safer if all air traffic controllers were people working minimal wage on long hours so the corporation they work for can make bank? There would be a huge amount of institutional memory and experience going out the door, never to be replaced. And the US government? I suppose it could be reduced to only the Defense Department and the State Department – but who would still be hiring a lot of contractors. And look how well it has worked out for the Defense Department already.
   1. griffen February 2, 2025 at 8:21 am

      I think there can be efficiencies wrung from what I would appropriately mark as alleged over employed and under utilized resources. I don’t think American federal employees are greedy do-nothing who have just to clock in and move A to B…for I am as yet, not quite so cynical. But in reality….how much is required in any contracts and procurement practices by say, the Dept of Defense as compared to the Dept of Education? I’ll suggest every single department should be forced to embark on a tactical assessment of just how much is enough…

      Corporate America ain’t a picnic and walking in the park, however…I do think this move towards more private sector practices for hiring and employment probably isn’t a net saving tactic.

      I’m also looking through these headlines and above tweets on USAID overseas initiatives and just wondering out loud….can a few of these foreign countries do without or possibly do with just a little less? The pearl clutching will be a most revealing answer. All them rice bowls and such… Empire work or policy work can appear, surely to some, as busy body nonsense. Example A… Victoria Nuland or Example B… Samantha Power…
      1. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 8:35 am

         What you say is to a large extent true if this was carried out by some smart people. But such is not the case here as we are talking about ideologues – people with a mission – who will not care what they break as when the fracas is over, they will just to back to where they come from. Musk sank about $228 million into Trump’s campaign so will want to make that back again. The people that they are recruiting and bring in on an ad-hoc basis do not sound like they have much skin in the game which makes me dubious as to how this will turn out.
         1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 9:26 am

            Summer Rerun: Journey Into a Libertarian Future: Part I –The Vision, cross posted on NC back in summer of 2020, original publication 2011.
            Lambert linked to this in a late comment in the discussion over Should the Government Be Allowed to Hold Bitcoin? this past Friday, in the context of speculating what power structure is waiting in the wings when the present form of government implodes. The views expressed by the anonymized interviewee are of an eye-watering level of “Simpleton!”.
      2. Carolinian February 2, 2025 at 10:09 am

         In my admittedly limited experience what private big business really craves is to be like, government with a guaranteed revenue stream and as little competition for their services as possible. So of course becoming a government contractor is he next best thing as long as you can get past the bidding process which in days of yore was supposed to keep the greed under control. As has been noted here, under Clinton defense contractors were deliberately consolidated and competition reduced.

         When it comes to Musk the above deform as opposed to reform was the key to his rise since the rationale of Space X was to make space launch more affordable and reliable than depending on oh, say, Boeing. And now that Musk has a dominant position in the business perhaps it’s in his interest to keep Bezos’ hobby rocket business around as a kind of pretend competition. It’s safe to say though that BYD–some real competition–will be blocked to the max.

         And finally the Links article After Antitrust is very much worth a read since it takes on the current left penchant for gradualism and avoiding the true issue. The article looks back at the original progressives:

         “Antimonopoly did not have a place in this toolkit because, as the original Progressives saw it, even firms operating in perfectly competitive markets generate rents. If antitrust or some other antimonopoly initiative sometimes made its way into Progressive policymaking, it was as a fallback when Progressives could not get what they really wanted.”

         What they really wanted was taxation and regulation–the things Republicans like Trump hate the most. It’s a fight between the commons–the public–and those who would enclose those commons–the privatizers–and in this view “markets” and their supposed perfection matter less. Once you toss aside socialism the lefties are sawing off their own limb.
         1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 10:58 am

            You’ve got me thinking that you might be describing part of the mechanics that resulted in the left/liberal split.
         2. TomDority February 2, 2025 at 1:40 pm

            After Antitrust
            Ramsi Woodcock

            Its no suprise that Trump (Trump is only egoist/narcissist and demands his ass kissers make him look good) stating his expressed hope that all government staffers and services be privatized – his ass kissers have told him that they (intellectual cesspools themselves) will endeavor to make him look good and show as proof that trash called – Project 2025 PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION PROJECT-..wherein found is the following
            “Endorsing the federal government as a premier job creator runs counter to decades of conservative opinion that holds that New Deal agencies and subsequent government bodies should never have been created in the first place, and that their red tape and interference is a dominant cause of economic inefficiency” Project 2025 PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION PROJECT

            additionally some quotes from back in the 1920’s of some known and not authors -Tax Facts published in the interest of sound economics and American Ideals

            “In spite of the ingenious methods devised by statesmen and financiers to get more revenue from large fortunes, and regardless of whether the maximum sur tax remains at 25% or is raised or lowered, it is still true that it would be better to stop the speculative incomes at the source, rather than attempt to recover them after they have passed into the hands of profiteers.
            If a man earns his income by producing wealth nothing should be done to hamper him. For has he not given employment to labor, and has he not produced goods for our consumption? To cripple or burden such a man means that he is necessarily forced to employ fewer men, and to make less goods, which tends to decrease wages, unemployment, and increased cost of living.
            If, however, a man’s income is not made in producing wealth and employing labor, but is due to speculation, the case is altogether different. The speculator as a speculator, whether his holdings be mineral lands, forests, power sites, agricultural lands, or city lots, employs no labor and produces no wealth. He adds nothing to the riches of the country, but merely takes toll from those who do employ labor and produce wealth.
            If part of the speculator’s income – no matter how large a part – be taken in taxation, it will not decrease employment or lessen the production of wealth. Whereas, if the producer’s income be taxed it will tend to limit employment and stop the production of wealth.
            Our lawmakers will do well, therefore, to pay less attention to the rate on incomes, and more to the source from whence they are drawn.”
            Written around 1925

            “Laborers knowing that science and invention have increased enormously the power of labor, cannot understand why they do not receive more of the increased product, and accuse capital of withholding it. The employer, finding it increasingly difficult to make both ends meet, accuses labor of shirking. Thus suspicion is aroused, distrust follows, and soon both are angry and struggling for mastery.
            It is not the man who gives employment to labor that does harm. The mischief comes from the man who does not give employment. Every factory, every store, every building, every bit of wealth in any shape requires labor in its creation. The more wealth created the more labor employed, the higher wages and lower prices.
            But while some men employ labor and produce wealth, others speculate in lands and resources required for production, and without employing labor or producing wealth they secure a large part of the wealth others produce. What they get without producing, labor and capital produce without getting. That is why labor and capital quarrel. But the quarrel should not be between labor and capital, but between the non-producing speculator on the one hand and labor and capital on the other.
            Co-operation between employer and employee will lead to more friendly relations and a better understanding, and will hasten the day when they will see that their interests are mutual. As long as they stand apart and permit the non-producing, non-employing exploiter to make each think the other is his enemy, the speculator will prey upon both.
            Co-operating friends, when they fully realize the source of their troubles will find at hand a simple and effective cure: The removal of taxes from industry, and the taxing of privilege and monopoly. Remove the heavy burdens of government from those who employ labor and produce wealth, and lay them upon those who enrich themselves without employing labor or producing wealth.”
         3. brian wilder February 2, 2025 at 7:21 pm

            I think Ramsi Woodcock largely gets the history wrong in some very important ways, not the least of which is the way in which wage-and-price controls and jaw-boning wore itself out as an effective policy approach by the 1970s and also how many of the behemoths of industrial capitalism themselves — U.S. Steel, for example — simply faded away.

            It is true that some of the famous antitrust actions of the 1950s and 1960s were quixotic, but one can simply not underestimate the centrality to the New Deal architecture of the several pieces of banking legislation popularly called “the Glass-Steagall Act” or the Robinson-Patman Act.

            Neoliberalism, as we know it, has been in large part a rationalization of the degeneration of schemes of public utility and financial sector regulation under immense political pressure. I think you need some novel theory of politics that explains how the power to resurrect that ancien regime is to be assembled. One reason why anti-monopoly is an appealing strategy now is that there are plausible reasons to believe that interests harmed by specific monopoly practices and tactics can be mobilized to support attacks on extreme centralization of business power, at least in some instances. A “movement” (almost impossible to imagine) to secure new legislation is not always necessary, as latent laws and powers can be brought to bear.

            But, breaking concentrations of economic power can be plausibly construed as a way to start down the path toward restoring the possibility of a more responsive political power in legislatures, which are dominated now by the lobbyists of enormously powerful business corporations.

            In the 21st century, the acute economic problem of extremely concentrated business power is not typically a classic “monopoly” problem of one firm or a small oligopolistic group of rival firms dominating the “market” for a product, in part because of vast economies of scale, as may have been the case for automobiles or electric power back in the day. The modern problem is common strategic control of what ought to be opposed business interests, as when a Media conglomerate controls production of content, distribution of content, reviews of the quality of content and on-and-on or a so-called Universal Bank owns and operates all kinds of “competing” financial firms. The Pharmacy Benefits Manager could only exist within a corrupted network of health insurers and health service firms under common strategic direction.

            Such concentrations of business economic power are also concentrations of political power. Back in the day when the New Deal regime still held, a Congress critter’s source of power to act independently was based on being able to play opposed business interests against one another. A member of the Banking Committees could play the insurance companies against the local commercial banks against the savings-and-loans against the credit unions against the big city commercial banks against the New York and Boston and Philadelphia investment banks, because those were separate groups with opposed interests and not all the same five or six universal banks. Ditto the Media giants and the Defense contractors.
      3. ACPAL February 2, 2025 at 11:19 am

         I started as a DoD employee shortly before Reagan. Before him we had massive logistics facilities to support the previous wars, large stocks of spare parts and specialists who could move them en-masse and provide depot-level repairs. Then came transisters and integrated circuits with higher reliability and complexity that justified eliminating much of the logistics chain and laying off of tens of thousands of people. They weren’t lazy, their jobs just weren’t needed anymore. Reagan claimed that government was inefficient and incapable of proper management and he was the solution (much as Trump is doing today).

         During my tenure training and oversight of supervisors and managers was reduced to almost nothing and us workers went from public servants to supporting the boss’s promotions no matter what the cost. This was even written into our job descriptions and performance appraisals.

         So yes, government is inefficient and incompetent, by design. Government costs have soared, weapon systems (ex. F-35) are junk, and the corporations have gotten much richer, along with campaign finances.

         Years ago Boeing (when they were an engineering company) had a policy of promoting engineers directly but found that many of them were poor managers. So Boeing rewrote their policies so that to get into management the engineers had to take management courses. Top level government could bring efficiency back into its ranks but it doesn’t want to, it wants to keep management incompetent and corrupt so they can justify sending the money to the corporations.
         1. CanCyn February 2, 2025 at 6:26 pm

            This has been my experience also. In the community college system in Ontario, it used to be that most administrators were promoted up from teaching and teaching was the focus of the school. Over my time in the system, early 00s to 2020s. Management became MBA-ified and it became our job to tow the party line (heh, just corrected a typo ‘party lie’), promote the college and ask what we could for the system and admin, not the students. They were just our funding units (not a lie, that’s what students were called in management docs).
   2. Safety First February 2, 2025 at 8:34 am

      The sequencing is a bit backwards. Mass privatization arguably BEGAN in the DoD and the intelligence agencies; in the DoD this goes back to at least the end of the Reagan era, when they started to privatize army logistics, with a massive acceleration during W-Bush’s “War on Terror”. To the point where by 2003 the Washington Post is running stories about how roughly half of the 2-million “national security” workforce consists of private contractors (hello, both Edward Snowden and whoever had vetted him), while the GAO is publishing almost monthly laments about how privatizing army functions results in triple the cost and half the effectiveness, quite literally (which publishing, oddly enough, came to an abrupt end under Saint Obama…).

      And that was 20 years ago. Things have not improved since.

      If anything, the DoD and the intelligence agencies are the blueprint for how to hand away government services and functions to private corporations, one that, one presumes, Trump’s oligarch friends wish to replicate in places like the HHS or wherever else.
      1. ilsm February 2, 2025 at 10:51 am

         DoD uses an army of advisory and assistance support (A&AS) contracts.

         Strictly they are designed for a program office to outsource writing a system engineering plan (e.g.). They are specifically “services non personal” and thoroughly become personal service.

         From 2003 I was in and out of A&AS work.

         Some A&AS workers were shadows doing for GS and military.

         Yes A&AS was growing from late 1980’s and excused cutting GS during short peace dividend in Clinton years. Flexible became permanent.
         1. scott s. February 2, 2025 at 5:29 pm

            Hiring freeze / head count FTE limits was a common tool used by DoN. If you needed work to get done you had to use the “highway helpers” via E&TS (engineering and technical services) contracts.

            Back when NAVSEA was in Crystal City they had at least 1.5x the typical occupancy so there wasn’t much space. All our meetings were in conference rooms provided by contractors.
      2. KLG February 2, 2025 at 11:22 am

         I remember my post-WWII veteran father explaining to me when I was a boy that one of the most important roles of the US Marine Corps is to protect American embassies and consulates around the world. I have often wondered how things might have gone differently in Benghazi in 2012, for example, if even a platoon of Marines had been on watch. The examples since the change that eventually made Dick “Five Deferment” Cheney rich, they do multiply themselves.

         As for logistics, back in the day the cooks and other support personnel were soldiers and sailors first. When the enemy breached the perimeter the cooks knew what to do. Now, the “contractor” dispensing ultra-processed Pizza Hut product? He knows how to run. But Big Business is making bank, so all is good.
   3. edman February 2, 2025 at 9:24 am

      Liberals have been supporting the privatization of Medicare for more than 50 years. The ACA literally created the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation that is running pilot schemes to privatize Medicare with a budget of billions with no Congressional oversight. Almost all of Medicaid is already privatized. They openly state that the goal is to have all Medicare beneficiaries in a managed care plan by 2030. This is on top of the horrendous corruption and stealing of the Medicare Advantage program. Finally, the top misleaders of the unions are actually branding their own Medicare Advantage plans. Who needs an independent movement inside labor and in the public sphere? Trump says the worst out loud and moves it faster but the reality is that he has many enablers.
   4. Bill B February 2, 2025 at 10:19 am

      Does he include govt. contractors as “private sector?” Cutting Government Is Easy… If You Go After McKinsey https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/cutting-government-is-easy-if-you?utm_source=substack&publication_id=11524&post_id=152913281&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&isFreemail=false&r=36mcw6&triedRedirect=true
   5. ilsm February 2, 2025 at 10:40 am

      I worked for the U.S. government; 1972 to 1982 active duty Air Force, 1982 to 2003 federal civil service (DOD, short time DoT), rest to 2019 as contractor (mostly in support of my DoD offices).

      In my civil service time most positions were poorly ranked and rated none I could see ever passed a manpower audit. Musk is prescient when he saw “just go in and asked what they do”. Many slots would be dropped. In places with support contractors he would find all the contractors redundant to over rated GS and military employees.

      In weapons acquisition many GS were to be resident continuity, and experts, but when the expert say “the F-35 should pass that test “ they are sidelined.

      Federal civil service is corrupt.

      DOT ATC controllers are a small fraction. They are heavily automated but do critical work, the effect of DEI, must be tracked.

      Can ATC be privatized? IDK! But running FAA by Buttigieg and revolving door Wilkerson is a place to audit.

      Further updating ATC technology funding from a trust fund accumulated off ticket “taxes” is recipe for trouble.
      1. Bill B February 2, 2025 at 12:46 pm

         “Federal civil service is corrupt.” That’s a gross generalization.

         Does Musk really want to make the govt. more “efficient?” Trump said he wants all govt. employees to be private sector employees. Trump/Musk motive is profit maximization for the oligarchs. Now there’s some corruption.
   6. Glen February 2, 2025 at 2:40 pm

      Nothing really new about this as others have pointed out, it’s been going on since Reagan. I was in the USN during the build up to a 600 ship Navy under Reagan, and my impression was that was being accomplished using the know how and logistics base which had been built up during WW2. In fact, most of the senior leaders both in uniform and civilian had been in the USN since WW2 or the Korean war. I’m hazarding a guess (since I was Navy, not Army), but the Bush 1 Gulf wars also were fought using the leadership and logistics core which stretched back to the same era. I left the service a couple years after the fall of the USSR.

      Talking to others that stayed in longer one hears over and over how what was routinely done by military or civilian personnel have been replaced by contractors, and how costs to get things done have exploded, not gotten cheaper.

      But I’m sure if we keep doing the same thing over and over expecting different results – that as Biden stated “nothing will fundamentally change” (except somebody behind all those contracts/contractors is getting a solid stream of profits.)
   7. Jeff H February 2, 2025 at 3:17 pm

      When I read that quote it struck me differently. “They’re all replaceable” could just as easily apply to the public. My impression of The Donald since the early 70’s says that is a consistent perspective from him.
2. Irrational February 2, 2025 at 7:46 am

   Correct link for “Europe’s gas crisis, looking West…”
   https://dailywrap.ca/europes-gas-crisis-looking-west-as-reserves-dwindle,7120278370359425a
3. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 7:55 am

   “Let Donald Trump make Gaza great again – opinion”

   ‘Collective guilt
   LET’S NOT mince words here. The people of Gaza are collectively guilty for invading Israel, murdering, raping and kidnapping Israelis and holding them hostage. The actions of the Gazan people prove they need detoxifying education before the reconstruction should even be able to begin. They are fundamentally evil, and they must pay a price for their actions.’

   So speaks a committed Zionist – who needs to be committed. No awareness at all that the idea of Collective Guilt is a war crime under international law. Or maybe he figures that Israel will be allowed to get away with it and there will never be any consequences. I wonder if he is a believer in infant damnation as well but the gall of this guy. He wants every country in the world to take the Gazans – and pay for them – so that Israel can make bank thus whitewashing Israel’s attempted genocide. Just a reminder of who this writer is-

   ‘The writer is the chairman of Religious Zionists of America, president of the Culture for Peace Institute, and a committee member of the Jewish Agency. He currently serves as a member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council, appointed by President Trump.’

   The Comments section is, ahem, interesting.
   1. Bug February 2, 2025 at 8:35 am

      Interesting that this was in English. They usually publish the Mein Kampf-adjacent screeds in Hebrew only.
   2. DJG, Reality Czar February 2, 2025 at 9:10 am

      Rev Kev: The same vile paragraph poked me in the eye. So let’s repeat this here:

      LET’S NOT mince words here. The people of Gaza are collectively guilty for invading Israel, murdering, raping and kidnapping Israelis and holding them hostage.

      I recall that after World War II and the attempted assessment of the Holocaust, people wrote about the death of God. These elites have nothing to offer except murder and proof of the death of God. The Italian philosopher, Donatella di Cesare, who is Jewish, calls the politics of this era necropolitics, the politics of death.

      I hesitate to dip into the comments section over there.
      1. jhallc February 2, 2025 at 11:07 am

         I didn’t need to go to far into the comments to see where they were headed. Substitute the word “Jews” for “Palestinians” in those comments and it would sound like Nazi propaganda from the 1930’s.
         1. GC54 February 2, 2025 at 5:41 pm

            Flip Gaza(n) for Israel(I) for something closer to reality.
   3. lentil February 2, 2025 at 12:10 pm

      Yes, the Jerusalem Post’s comments section was interesting:

      The commenters (who sounded like they were all Israelis?) were insisting that the Palestinians really ought to be re-settled elsewhere. They said that the population should be broken up and scattered, and sent to live in other nations. The main problem however, according to these commenters, is that the Palestinians are “troublemakers” and no country will want to harbor them for long.

      The idea of what they were describing — the break-up of a people upon separation from what they consider to be their homeland — their scattering to other nations — their loss of status from being a nation (or aspiring nation) to merely being dispersed ethnic communities in foreign lands — who might even come to be hated by their host countries for being “troublemakers”, who might even be expelled from those countries again and again…

      It all sounded so familiar.

      Can you imagine for a moment — the Jerusalem Post publishing a different kind of essay — written by a President of the Culture for Real Peace — one that explores the healing of historical traumas through constructive means — rather than through some kind of violent mechanism of repetition and external transference?

      You may say I’m a dreamer —
      1. Randall Flagg February 2, 2025 at 12:56 pm

         But you’re not the only one.
      2. fringe element February 2, 2025 at 3:10 pm

         The leaders of Zionism were not in Germany during the holocaust, so leveraging that horror to promote their own savagery makes them more cynical and intentional that actual Nazis.
   4. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 12:45 pm

      I suspect this writer and his group are part of the growing ( and soon to be only) wing of Zionism in Israel. . . the Revisionist-Kahanist wing. The relics of the Liberal Zionism wing and the Labor Zionism wing are withering away to zero.

      Ilan Pape’s once-referred-to-here and then-forgotten reference to “Israel” versus “Judea” is worth recalling.
      The LibZios and LabZios should give up on the concept of “Israel” and should go into Diaspora and become Diaspora Jews or whatever else they want to become. The RevZios and KahaneZios are in total command.
      There is no Israel anymore. Its all Judea now.

      People who consider themselves “Israelis” in Papeian terms should save themselves by emigrating physically and spiritually. Every single Israeli who disagrees with or rejects the concept in this “Let’s not mince words here” article should admit they have no future in Judea and should emigrate to save themselves. Let Darwin decide what happens to Judea and the Judeanists.
      1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 12:51 pm

         We are the People’s Front of Judea and Judean People’s Front!
      2. Late Introvert February 2, 2025 at 4:40 pm

         Agreed, how soon before they are being labeled JINOs and treated the same as all us Gentiles.
4. Bugs February 2, 2025 at 7:57 am

   Posted this at the rock bottom of yesterday’s links but I think it’s really interesting in case anyone missed it.

   Credit Slips blog looks at possible reasons Czar Musk might have for wanting access to Treasury payment systems and data:

   https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2025/02/musk-and-treasurys-payment-systems.html
   1. DJG, Reality Czar February 2, 2025 at 9:14 am

      Bugs: Both of the motivations that may be impelling Musk are disturbing. I think that Levitin may be right on both counts. Think of the first as suborning government assets for oppression of adversaries. The second is sacking the government’s intellectual property for private gain.

      Quelle surprise, comme on dit en France.
      1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 10:06 am

         Regarding the second count, I would point out that sacking the government’s intellectual property for private gains has precedent, look at federally funded bio-med research.
      2. marym February 2, 2025 at 11:00 am

         Sacking the people’s property for private gain.
   2. flora February 2, 2025 at 10:16 am

      Thanks. I commented on your yesterday comment to the effect that whatever the motivation – and Credit Slips has a good write-up – it could also be a way to uncover what the US so-called dark budget is paying for.
      1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 10:31 am

         Yes. An audit, were it actually that, might not be a bad thing, risky though, if the auditors are unscrupulous. The potential for selective political prosecution is evident.
         Note that none of the theories put forth regarding “examining” (and maybe tinkering with) the payment system are mutually exclusive. In our present timeline I would expect multiple interests are being pursued.
   3. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

      ‘Junta del Este’
   4. jhallc February 2, 2025 at 10:27 am

      Wasn’t one of the things the Canadian Government implemented during the trucker “covid” protest was to freeze access to banking accounts? I think they also went shut down credit card access. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland’s name pops up in the article below.

      https://www.newsweek.com/banks-have-begun-freezing-accounts-linked-trucker-protest-1680649
   5. jo6pac February 2, 2025 at 11:26 am

      Thanks for the link, I think;-)
   6. Mikel February 2, 2025 at 11:40 am

      Reminds me of what I said to some friends: All that “freezing” of funds is because they are trying to count how much money is available for the skim.
      1. converger February 2, 2025 at 12:53 pm

         Yep. That Musk NASA/DOD hypergrift isn’t going to build itself.
5. fjallstrom February 2, 2025 at 7:58 am

   Musk’s Junta Establishes Him as Head of Government Doomsday Scenario

   This one is spot on, I think.

   By legal and illegal means Musk is clearing the government of anyone who could and would use legal or otherwise means to use the system of government against Musk’s agenda. Thereby making the legality of it irrelevant. Maybe some of the fired gets a payout after a lengthy legal process, it doesn’t matter in the here and now. The state is fundamentally a top-down power structure, only slightly tamed in the last centuries by elections, and checks and balances.

   The way I see it, this is pretty much straight out of the Shock Doctrine. You have a ton of executive orders flooding the information landscape getting people confused and overwhelmed. Now you have the clearing out of any opponents in the civil service and direct control over government functions, including those previously seen as non-political (so that they can be used politically).

   I should re-read it to see what comes next. Was it preemptively arresting labour leaders? Maybe that won’t be necessary in the US considering the weakness of labour unions.
   1. jhallc February 2, 2025 at 10:09 am

      I found that post interesting. Now do one for the four years of Biden’s administration.
      1. Skip Intro February 2, 2025 at 11:35 am

         The first ‘Shock Doctrine’ moment came, IMHO, when gaslit dems woke to discover that their inevitable queen and generation or demographic dominance were a lie or a delusion. Queue the Russian Menace, cause of, and solution to all the DNCs problems. At that point anti-war ACLU dems who may have been watched by the FBI under Bush were now cheering for war, worshipping the FBI, and the CIA, and begging for broad censorship.
      2. converger February 2, 2025 at 1:14 pm

         Whataboutism doesn’t begin to cut it here. Biden was horrific: business as usual. Trump is straight-up oligarchic looting.

         This is how Russia came apart in the 1990s.
         1. Vandemonian February 2, 2025 at 2:26 pm

            …and Germany in the 1930s?
      3. Jhallc February 2, 2025 at 1:50 pm

         Tom Waits – “Step Right Up”

         “We need your business, we’re going out of business
         We’ll give you the business
         Get on the business end of our going-out-of-business sale”

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYyCitIDzvI
         1. fringe element February 2, 2025 at 5:23 pm

            Zappa – “Plastic People”

            “Take a day and walk around
            Watch the Nazis run your town
            Then go home and check yourself
            You think we’re singing ’bout someone else”
   2. DrLes February 2, 2025 at 11:11 pm

      Best solution is to christen Musk “the Real President” in the media, set up series of high-profile interviews to solicit his views on pressing world events, promote his actions as underpinning MAGA’s success … Musk could not resist the attention.

      Trump disposes any who hog his limelight… Musk’s gone.

      Rinse and repeat
6. Steve H. February 2, 2025 at 8:10 am

   > Musk’s Junta Establishes Him as Head of Government Doomsday Scenario

   Splendid. The only part I’d quibble with is “Trump by fiat pulled longstanding government security protection from former military and health officials he felt had betrayed him.” And “those minorities’ long, proud history in the country.”

   But Boot does say “how we’d cover overseas”, which allows treating facts as feelings, and the dignity of the oppressed as pride. So there is that.
   1. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 9:37 am

      ‘Trump by fiat pulled longstanding government security protection from former military and health officials he felt had betrayed him.’

      Three of them are Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook and John Bolton-

      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/23/mike-pompeo-brian-hook-john-bolton-security

      Fauci too come to think of it. Maybe one reason that he is doing so is that he thinks that Secret Security people who should have been guarding him against assassination last year were tooling around with guarding his enemies instead thus leaving him short – twice.
      1. Steve H. February 2, 2025 at 11:16 am

         Whatever his predilections prior to the event, having the concrete material reality of a bullet that near his brain could only have warped it further. Existential.
         1. Erstwhile February 2, 2025 at 12:50 pm

            All good things come to those who wait.
      2. converger February 2, 2025 at 1:19 pm

         I doubt that the Secret Service is so short of capable people that they have to scrimp on who they protect.
   2. Bsn February 2, 2025 at 6:37 pm

      I quibble with you….. “former military and health officials he felt had betrayed him.”

      They didn’t betray Trump, they betrayed our country – and killed a few of my friends and family.
7. VTDigger February 2, 2025 at 8:27 am

   Jumping for joy at FCC calling out NPR.
   Absolutely blanketed with ads and still has the gall to milk nice grandmas of their pension money every few months with ‘pledge drives’.
   There hasn’t been anything ‘public’ about NPR in a decade at least!
   1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 10:40 am

      Lol, “grassroots” and all that. Like election fund raising. I wouldn’t mind so much if it was Morning Pro Musica and gardening shows all day.
      Do give the video a play. It’s a lovely soundtrack. This was 7:00 am at the breakfast table every morning before school in my day.
      My respect for Lurtsema is on par with Mr Zappa.
      1. Kilgore Trout February 2, 2025 at 1:41 pm

         Agreed. Morning Pro Musica was a regular part of my day, back in the day. NPR isn’t even a shadow of its former self, when it comes to news coverage. It was far from perfect, but Daniel Schorr, among others, would be turning in his grave.
   2. ACPAL February 2, 2025 at 12:15 pm

      As I recall (but couldn’t find online) about 20 years ago some US Senator (possibly Feinstein) threatened to pull NPR funding because of their “conservative bias.” That’s when NPR turned liberal.

      “The Hill” has an article that talks about NPR funding and that only 1% comes directly from the government but that a significant portion comes indirectly from the government. They also get a lot of corporate funding.
      https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/3950550-the-truth-about-nprs-funding-and-its-possible-future/
      1. Carolinian February 2, 2025 at 1:29 pm

         Take away the government approved broadcast licenses and you take awaythe whole ball of wax–particularly for a radio network. Both networks once got a lot more money from the govt but were cut during Reagan. This may explain and even justify their Dem leanings if you work there if not among the public at large. Perhaps Reagan should have given them more money.

         In fact the Kroc widow did give a lot of money and they did swing to the right for awhile.
         1. fringe element February 2, 2025 at 5:30 pm

            Reagan ended application of the Fairness Doctrine. That was when biased, openly dishonest media emerged and became normalized. If we think of mass media as the central nervous system of a society it is fair to say that Reagan poisoned ours.
8. hazelbee February 2, 2025 at 8:31 am

   A few days ago –

   ‘‘Decoupling America’s Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China Act of 2025’’

   – seeks to ban imports of AI technology and intellectual property developed or produced in China, as well as exports of US AI tech to China.

   proposed by Josh Hawley. Republican. Missouri.

   the proposal

   SCMP article

   I only saw this yesterday. it was proposed on the 29th.

   it is… far reaching, sweeping very broadly worded.
   The proposal has $1million fines for directors / individuals breaching it and $100million for entities (companies, universities, etc).

   I don’t know enough about US politics – what happens or can happen with proposals like this?

   or how to read a proposal like this. Is the language additive ? as in all clauses have to apply? (logical and) or is it a logical or – if any apply?

   because a statement like this:
   “any other artificial or automated system, software, or process that uses computation as whole or part of a system to determine outcomes, make or aid decisions, inform policy implementation, collect data or observations, or otherwise interact with humans or communities of humans.”

   that is incredibly broad.
   1. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 8:39 am

      They may as well name it the Not Invented Here Act. As in, unless it is invented in the US, that it will be forbidden to Americans. Thing is, in the long term this could lead to the US becoming a bit of a technological backwater as without having to compete against countries like China, US firms will get lazy and just ‘do enough’ for the local scene.
      1. flora February 2, 2025 at 10:40 am

         Or rename it “the horses are already in the next county” act. / ;)
         1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 10:52 am

            The Trabant Act.
      2. hazelbee February 2, 2025 at 12:43 pm

         Well there is also this that popped up a week ago now.

         It’s to do with US / EU and data privacy laws.
         the short version – Trump messing with appointments compromises the integrity and “independence” of bodies that the EU needs to be there. Which puts at risk the agreements and means potentially:

         “Thousands of EU businesses, government agencies or schools rely on these provisions. Without the TADPF, they would need to stop using US cloud providers like Apple, Google, Microsoft or Amazon instantly. ”

         I have colleagues and customers across the EU. e.g. Germany, Holland, France. They take privacy very seriously.

         EU US data deal and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

         also in politico eu article

         and cio.com article
         1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 1:16 pm

            My take is the main message from the NYOB (European Center for Digital Rights) piece is that the EU need to scale its domestic cloud service. From the NOYB,
            Max Schrems: “While the arguments for the EU-US deal seem to fall apart, companies can rely on the deal as long as it is not formally annulled. I wouldn’t wager against Ursula on this, so I imagine there will be no annulment forthcoming.

            Nevertheless, we seem to live in the era of things going sideways and consequences intended or not. If the EU were forced to quit US cloud services the three biggest losers are Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, collectively 65%, statista.
            Food for thought.
            1. flora February 2, 2025 at 6:09 pm

               Your comment about the EU needing to scale up their own cloud services reminds of something I read on NC: If your business depends on someone else’s platform you don’t have a business. Over to you, EU. / ;)
               1. flora February 2, 2025 at 6:22 pm

                  Many many articles are comparing T to a witless bull in a china shop. (no pun intended). Michael Hudson wrote a good article about the dangers of tariffs. I don’t remember if it was posted here.

                  The Road to Chaos – A Global Balance of Payments War

                  https://michael-hudson.com/2025/01/the-road-to-chaos-a-global-balance-of-payments-war/

                  I defer to Prof. Hudson’s experience and expertise.

                  On the other hand, could it be that this is T’s war on the Davos agenda? I don’t know. He seems to be doing many things that Davos has proposed and also doing them in a way that cuts out the Davos mob. Many EU countries are desperately treading economic water at the moment, imo. The Eastern EU countries seem to be doing better economically than the Brussels Central countries, imo. / ;)
                  1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 6:43 pm

                     That’s a reasonable line of thought. You’ll find no tears here for the Davos crowd.
                     There is much to process right now. The dismantling of all things “checks and balances” leaves me uneasy. Team Trump is going large. What’s the reality on the ground going to look like? A bleak and isolated libertarian hell-scape seems possible. I imagine “housing challenged” will be a feature.
                  2. hazelbee February 3, 2025 at 2:01 am

                     I read a good phrase on what drumpf is doing .

                     “strategic exploitation of cognitive limits”

                     i.e. put out so much change and noise that people are overwhelmed and dont’ resist or even understand the scope of the change.
                     1. timo maas February 3, 2025 at 9:55 am

                        It used to called “throw shit at the wall and see what sticks”.
      3. Young February 3, 2025 at 1:43 am

         This act deserves its own acronym:
         NIHA, pronounced as nee how
         1. flora February 3, 2025 at 4:10 pm

            “nee how”, which sound remarkably like “hello” in traditional Chinese language, “ni hao.” / ;)
   2. Parker Dooley February 2, 2025 at 11:10 am

      So we won’t be allowed to steal Chinese IP?
   3. converger February 2, 2025 at 1:24 pm

      So, the US would try to break GitHub? Censor global open source code? Ban all non-Chinese open source forks and implementations of DeepSeek? Good luck with that.

      US AI is whistling past the graveyard.
9. MicaT February 2, 2025 at 8:38 am

   Does anyone know of a place that lists the items that will be on the tariffs?

   Thx
   1. johnnyme February 2, 2025 at 10:47 am

      The Canadian response has not been finalized/published yet:

      The first phase of our response will include tariffs on $30 billion in goods imported from the U.S., effective February 4, 2025, when the U.S tariffs are applied. The list includes products such as orange juice, peanut butter, wine, spirits, beer, coffee, appliances, apparel, footwear, motorcycles, cosmetics, and pulp and paper. A detailed list of these goods will be made available shortly.

      Minister LeBlanc also announced that the government intends to impose tariffs on an additional list of imported U.S. goods worth $125 billion. A full list of these goods will be made available for a 21-day public comment period prior to implementation, and will include products such as passenger vehicles and trucks, including electric vehicles, steel and aluminum products, certain fruits and vegetables, aerospace products, beef, pork, dairy, trucks and buses, recreational vehicles, and recreational boats.
   2. Katniss Everdeen February 2, 2025 at 11:06 am

      Who knows? Avocados, car parts and washing machines?

      Probably easiest to look at nafta, that wondrous “trade agreement” that gave middle class american manufacturing jobs to mexico and canada so “share price” and “earnings per share” could “grow,” and figure backwards.

      The omnipotent american god of “free” trade giveth, and the omnipotent american god of “free” trade taketh away.
      1. North Star February 2, 2025 at 2:02 pm

         Canada has lost many manufacturing jobs to Mexico and off-shoring to Asian countries. I was never a big fan of the free trade agreements. And excluding oil, Canada now runs a trade deficit with the US. Trump’s tariffs on Canada and his rationale are non-sensical, and will hit the US middle class with higher prices.
         1. Old Canuck February 2, 2025 at 5:43 pm

            A lot of people I talked to this morning were saying that Canada should immediately cut off all oil, gas, and electricity exports to the US and let the Americans freeze in the dark. A century of friendship thrown away.
            1. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 6:21 pm

               If there were some way for Canada to focus the freezing on the people who voted for Trump, I would support that. Trumpenvoters are the aggressors here, not the rest of us.
               Certainly not the Harris voters among us.

               But I don’t know if such precision is possible in cutoffs. If there are secrets to surviving on far less oil, gas and electricity in the event of such a shutoff, non-supporters of Trump should share those secrets with eachother and no one else.
               1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 7:55 pm

                  …who would willingly out themselves as a Harris voter on here?
                  1. steppenwolf fetchit February 3, 2025 at 2:27 pm

                     I would. I’ve done it before and I will do it again. And I’ve laid out my reasons.
                     1. Terry Flynn February 3, 2025 at 2:37 pm

                        Whilst I personally wouldn’t want to support Harris or be seen to support her, I’ve been willing to out myself in terms of support before.

                        For instance, in our 2024 UK General Election I spoilt my ballot, writing “you’re all knobheads” across my ballot. Conservative and Reform were beyond the pale. Lib Dems after their 2010-2015 episode absolutely cannot be trusted. Local Labour are clinical morons. Greens DID have some sensible stuff on MMT and land value taxation….but it was part of a menu of every possible thing anybody could want so why on earth could I trust them?

                        Spoilt ballots get counted here. I wish we were obligated to (1) vote, & (2) have a “none of the above” option so we know just how vile we think our parties are.
   3. IMOR February 2, 2025 at 12:40 pm

      China, imposed Sept. 2024, scheduled to rise 2025-26:
      https://www.whitecase.com/insight-alert/united-states-finalizes-section-301-tariff-increases-imports-china

      Mexico and Canada
      “Mr. Trump hit Canada and Mexico with tariffs of 25 percent on all goods, with a carve out for Canadian energy and oil exports. Those will be taxed at 10 percent. Mr. Trump also placed a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods. The levies go into effect just after midnight on Tuesday, and will be added on top of existing tariffs.” NYT, 02-01-2025
      https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/us/politics/canada-mexico-china-trump-tariffs.html
   4. converger February 2, 2025 at 2:18 pm

      Corn alcohol is another ~1 million barrels/day, ~$26 billion/year in direct US subsidies, >40% of US corn production. Don’t get me started on US fossil fuel and nuke subsidies.

      Aluminum smelters consume ~8 kWh of heavily subsidized electricity per pound of aluminum ingot, pretty much everywhere in the world. There’s about a quarter-kWh of subsidized electricity in each and every soda can. In the Pacific Northwest, data centers seamlessly filled that subsidized electricity niche after the aluminum smelters left for new countries to loot.

      40% of Tesla’s profit margin comes from gaming carbon credit markets.

      Does anyone seriously think that any of those US government subsidies are at risk?
   5. Tom B. February 2, 2025 at 6:34 pm

      The full list (for the initial $30 billion phase) appears at the end of this piece:

      https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/here-is-the-full-list-of-us-products-coming-under-canadian-tariffs-on-tuesday/

      It seems to span 210 pages … The remaining 100 or so $bn coming up in 21 days will be subject to public comment beforehand.
      1. LilD February 2, 2025 at 10:49 pm

         Laid in a big stock of maple syrup. Yes, much is American, but prices will probably be higher soon…
         1. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 11:10 pm

            Maybe lay in some lumber too if you are going to be needing any.
   6. Tom B. February 2, 2025 at 7:29 pm

      A better direct link – one long scrollable list:

      https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/02/list-of-products-from-the-united-states-subject-to-25-per-cent-tariffs-effective-february-4-2025.html
      1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 7:45 pm

         Lol, thanks. That’s a long list!
      2. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 10:36 pm

         U.S. anthem booed by Canadian fans before Detroit Red Wings-Canucks game in Vancouver, Detroit Free Press.

         You don’t say.
         1. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 11:21 pm

            Canadians are hardly going to make new loyal subjects, even though Trump has just called for them to become Americans saying ‘much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada – and no tariffs!’ Canada is about 10 million square kilometers in size while the biggest US State – Alaska – is only about 1.7 million square kilometers in size. And yet Trump wants that huge territory to be only the 51st State. Which means that even if they do join, they will have the electoral power of, say, Rhode Island? Ten provinces, ten States? Ten very unhappy States, including the State of Quebec, and especially after they have been stripped of their healthcare? Trump would never dare.
10. griffen February 2, 2025 at 8:39 am

    We need Mayor Pete, article above from Slate. Yes please and with most excellent haste. He can remind us all of his allegedly sterling reputation as Secretary of Transportation. \sarc

    oh come on… surely there is a back bench he can be relegated. This just can’t be taken on face value, with a serious grain of salt.
    1. Screwball February 2, 2025 at 10:47 am

       I watched some clips from the DNC electing a new leader. They look a bit in disarray as well.

       With all the clowns in positions of power (and those trying to get there) we should be circus and not a country.
       1. griffen February 2, 2025 at 11:33 am

          I thought about this notion previously when discussing the Biden administration…That clowns should have collective response and deny any such alleged statements, that they can somehow resemble our national leaders and politicians. Maybe clowns really do carry themselves more uprightly and are to be trusted ? \Sarc

          the circus will be on daily display now that everyone will or just must freely admit, to the New Emperor is lacking his new clothing; whereas with the Biden administration we must contend with the acknowledgement of his awesomeness at being our 46th President. Vomit inducement if you just maybe, find something not right with most of national media… It’s though a 50 year record as a politician was just not worth the trouble to assess or possibly critique.
          1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 11:35 am

             I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.

             Will Rogers
    2. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 10:47 am

       It certainly has the feel of the movie Cabaret, which means our wayward Weimar ways might not cut it anymore.

       I expect Mayo Pete to be an endorser for Hellmann’s soon…
11. duckies February 2, 2025 at 9:05 am

    This is the way https://t.co/ia9dI42Re6
    — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 1, 2025

    Did Musk just re-invent prison labor?
    1. wendigo February 2, 2025 at 10:57 am

       Or a legal way for Musk to have slaves?
       1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 11:04 am

          It sounds awfully fishy, that chain-gang letter, er, X

          My dad was born in 1924 and lived in Prague, and the goose steppers were keen on men his age going to work for the 3rd Reich, but luckily his family had a good friend who was a doctor, and over the course of the war daddy-o was diagnosed with just about every highly communicable yet non fatal disease you can imagine-all of them imaginary…

          He never lifted a finger for the fascists~
       2. Parker Dooley February 2, 2025 at 11:11 am

          13th Amendment.
          1. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 12:59 pm

             Here is the Thirteenth Ammendment.

             ****************************************************************

             Thirteenth Amendment
             Section 1
             Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

             Section 2
             Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

             ******************************************************************

             And in case you didn’t see it, here is the Legal Slavery Loophole, copy-pasted from the Thirteenth Ammendment just above.

             . . . ” except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,” . . .

             There it is. Do you see it? Do you get it? Convict Slavery is Legal and Constitutional under the Thirteenth Ammendment. If the government wants ten million slaves, it can convict 10 million targets. As President Musk might say: ” We’ll convict whoever we want. Deal with it.” And government and the convict slave renters won’t have any incentive to keep the rented convict-slaves healthy or even alive. To paraphrase Jay Leno from another context: ” Kill all you want. We’ll convict more.”
             1. wendigo February 2, 2025 at 1:46 pm

                Apparently there are 20 million criminals on the loose in America.
                1. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 6:24 pm

                   Well, if 20 millions criminals are what is needed, the laws can be written and/or enforced in such a way as to criminalize 20 million people.

                   And maybe decrees from President Musk will be sufficient. No laws needed.
             2. Grateful Dude February 2, 2025 at 2:06 pm

                if the punishment is involuntary labor, doesn’t the sentence have to specify that? Does a prison authority decide how to punish a convict?

                The prison is the punishment. A convict is sentenced to prison confinement as punishment, not sent to prison to be punished by the prison guards or some private company.

                IIRC, there used to be sentences such as “twenty years at hard labor”. Maybe there still are. I sense that legally, the law that sets the punishment for a crime, say, depending on mitigating factors, 2nd degree murder can be punished by a prison sentence of 10 to 30 years in prison. Does that implicitly include slavery for that time?
                1. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 6:28 pm

                   Did it implicitly include Convict Leasing for decades in the South when randomly encountered Black people were rounded up and convicted of something in order to be made available for Convict Leasing. Did anyone ever tell the authorities involved that it didn’t?

                   The law will be shystered to implicitly mean whatever the authorities want it to mean. If the authorities want sentences to implicity mean Convict Slavery, then the authorities will imply that implicit meaning. ” Watch, and learn” as Dr. Zoidberg sometimes says on Futurama.
          2. hunkerdown February 2, 2025 at 1:09 pm

             Puritans have a long history of making up misdemeanors to provide victims for their violent personal trespasses. Maybe we should stop forgiving them for anything.
             1. converger February 2, 2025 at 1:29 pm

                So did apartheid.

                So does Netanyahu’s Israel.
       3. Steve H. February 2, 2025 at 11:30 am

          Ha ha, ha..
    2. BrianH February 2, 2025 at 6:30 pm

       The Dem candidate for president was a big advocate for prison labor. Maybe she’ll join Musk in his endeavor.
       1. heh February 3, 2025 at 9:33 am

          A bipartisan effort means that something must be worth it.
       2. steppenwolf fetchit February 3, 2025 at 2:33 pm

          Harris is/was such a Loser. She is/was the Weakest Link. Why would Musk need such a Loser anywhere near him?

          Here is President Musk’s basic sentiment ( I added two more lines to his several-years-old literal quote).

          We’ll coup whoever we want. Deal with it.
          We’ll coup you too. Boo hoo hoo.

          So what does President Musk need Harris for?
12. Jabura Basadai February 2, 2025 at 9:25 am

    sometimes rolling through the links here this is how i feel –
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhe9kRCySxM&t=18s

    or another way to look at it
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCzD3ONQsmM&t=21s

    market will tank tomorrow – Drumpf will lose his charm as the cost to live goes up –
    Ken Martin head of DNC is the new elevator operator to hell – they learned nothing –
    it’s going to get ugly fast –
    1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 11:03 am

       Cheer up. We’re all in this together, which is not nothing. I’m looking forward to my “zero-gravity” moment, though not so much what comes after.
       1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 11:10 am

          Many in Russia after the fall of Communism looked forward to Capitalism even though they knew almost nothing about it.

          Most everybody in the USA after the fall of Capitalism will dread what comes next, if you think longing for the 50’s was a thing, how about longing for the 20’s?
          1. Skip Intro February 2, 2025 at 11:43 am

             I believe we replaced most capitalism with neofeudalism already. Observe, if you will, the divine right of Capital, the supernatural primacy of ‘the market’, and the crop of oligarchs metaphorically exercising their prima nocte rights.
             1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 12:02 pm

                Yes, I agree. I tend to view things through this lens, perhaps at a degree which is detrimental to my opinion, lol, but yes. Oligarchs, sycophants, and rice bowls.
                …because I’m snow
                snow crashing….
       2. Jabura Basadai February 2, 2025 at 12:30 pm

          understand & thankful for what you and Wuk express and i’m not reaching for the bottle of iodine to chase the pills – the relentlessness is accelerating & sometimes overwhelming – besides my orchard, here’s my goto –
          https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2023/07/02
          1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 12:32 pm

             Might want to slit your risks and embrace something where money has nothing to do with it, such as your orchard.
             1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 12:44 pm

                Yup. I got the cat pride, who, due to cold conditions, are currently inside and sacking the camp in real time.
             2. Jabura Basadai February 2, 2025 at 4:19 pm

                thanks for the chuckle Wuk – ‘slit your risks’ – i am working on the orchard – winter can prune apple & pear trees – found an arborist to help – and mrysk, i use to have a cool cat we called Grizz – a feral brought into a friend’s work who ended up with me – after 3 years he would finally climb into my lap – Grizz had kitty AIDS and was an indoor cat and good mouser, lasted 12 years – my domain is too small to have a feline and my daughter and partner have a Hemingway cat, Grimm, with extra toes on every foot and don’t want to crowd his space – Grimm also an indoor cat – Roscoe the pooch has adjusted well and is small enough to hang in the lap – i’m doing ok – being 75 there was a time when all this information was not readily available and pretty much in a weed haze then, but now it’s a fire-hose of info – the amount of info linked here and the level of the commentariat is such that listening to most folks these days is just an astonishing realization of how successful Bernays, John Watson et al have been with propaganda – oh well – shot of cognac & petting Roscoe now after walking out in the Michigan snow – just learned “Sunny Side of the Street” on guitar, will go practice it some more – thanks for comments, much appreciated –
    2. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 6:30 pm

       Tens of millions of maganazi trumpanons will beg their God-Emperor Trump to give them someone to blame for their cost of livings going up, and he will give them someone.
       1. Q7T February 3, 2025 at 2:59 am

          lol.

          Give it a rest, this is down right hyperbolic. Trump didn’t win on the backs of the true believers, he won on the margins of those voting against what the other compadres ran.

          The worst part thus far of Trump’s re-election has been this dramatic-to-the-point-of-nonsensical wailing, weeping, & gnashing of teeth.
          1. steppenwolf fetchit February 3, 2025 at 2:37 pm

             Well okay. ” Millions” then. His worshipful base is what he added those others to in order to be able to win. And his worshipful basemembers will respond exactly as I predict.

             Actually, Harris lost/ threw the election, with major help from Biden. I read somewhere that Trump got 3 million fewer votes than he got last election. But Harris got 13 million fewer votes than Biden got last election. Biden-Harris created the vacuum that sucked Trump into office.

             So I’ll give it a rest for a little while. But then I will be right back at it from time to time whenever appropriate. But you already knew to expect that.
13. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 9:27 am

    “Data from the deadliest U.S. air accident in a generation show conflicting altitude readings”

    Please don’t tell me that this crash was caused by an improperly calibrated altimeter. Still doesn’t explain why the Blackhawk was following the wrong side of the Potomac though.
14. timbers February 2, 2025 at 9:31 am

    New Not-So-Cold War

    Exclusive: U.S. wants Ukraine to hold elections following a ceasefire, says Trump envoy Reuters

    Someone on Team Trump has done some more listening to Putin/Russia. Dems should demand an investigation to unmask this traitor who is clearly conspiring with Putin in his quest to conquer all of Europe. Also, this and allowing Chevron to continue operations in Venezuela might suggest the smaller and less important fights are being tamped down to prioritize focusing on bigger and more important fights. China?
    1. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 9:46 am

       As for Venezuela, I see that they are releasing 6 Americans to go home and say that they will accept Venezuelans being returned from the US. Elliott Abrams flipped out when he heard about this deal-

       https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuela-six-detainees-trump-envoy/

       So yeah, picking a fight with Venezuela would just be a distraction for him as he has bigger fish to fry. Maybe China but he hit them with only 10% tariffs so perhaps he want to concentrate on home issues first.
       1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 10:13 am

          Elliott Abrams flipped out… , heh heh, a strong, readable signal. I’d like to read “stroked”. Here’s a quote from him from Rev’s link.
          “”This is terrible timing,” said Elliott Abrams, who served as special envoy to Venezuela and Iran during the first Trump administration. “A meeting with Maduro will be used by him to legitimize his rule and show that the Americans recognize him as president. If the purpose is to deliver a tough message about migration issues, the president could’ve done that himself. There was no need to send someone to Caracas.”
          terrible timing, lol, career-wise?
    2. Yves Smith February 2, 2025 at 11:33 am

       Sadly, no, or not carefully.

       Russia is not doing a ceasefire.

       Ukraine needs to have elections to have a legitimate leader that can revoke the decree that Zelensky instituted in Sept. 2022 barring negotiations with Russia if Putin was president. That has to be credibly revoked before any negotiations start. And as with the Istanbul talks (and the US and the North Vietnamese back in the day) the war continued while the negotiations were on.
       1. timbers February 2, 2025 at 12:49 pm

          Agree with everything you mentioned. Just amazed there is some indication however small of Trump team actually listening or bothering to learn even a small bit of what Putin is saying…even uncarefully. Biden would never have done this and likely couldn’t have bothered to know anything regarding Zelensky’s legal status nor cared if it did.
       2. Skip Intro February 2, 2025 at 2:27 pm

          I think this requirement, which which we heard from Trump’s side as well as Russia’s, combined with the NATO/Trump demand that Ukraine mobilizes their teenagers for cannon fodder in a lost cause, are a poison pill for negotiations. Zelensky is unlikely to be reelected, and mobilizing 18 and up puts it out of reach. Slow walking to ‘ceasefire’ negotiations while letting nature take its course through the math of attrition should make eventual negotiations with whatever government emerges after the military collapse much easier.
       3. hk February 2, 2025 at 4:59 pm

          Ditto with Korea: talks began in 1951. Nwxt 2 years were much bloodier than the first. And, furthermore, talks began only after both sides were comvinced that winning is no longer feasible–exactly the opposite of Ukrane. I think, if Ukraine were like Korea, US is playing USSR and EU, that of China, except there is no million-man Estonian Volunteer Army on the way to balance the scale (and it still took months of hard fighting to convince both sides that winning was no longer feasible.) If Kaja Kallas wants to be the second coming of Mao, she’d better start mobilizing some Estonians (do they even have a million people, not counting ethnic Russians?)
       4. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 6:34 pm

          Who would dare to run for legitimate President of Ukraine to revoke that Zelensky decree of Sept. 2022 when they know that the Banderazovis would assassinate them for revoking that decree?

          The Ukranormal majority would have to slaughter the Banderazovi community into abject internal surrender or into physical extinction before any such elections could take place.
15. Neutrino February 2, 2025 at 9:48 am

    Durnovo, a name with which I was not familiar, is the subject of a long-form transcription of a YT video. He looked at Russia leading up to the eventual WWI, with very specific predictions.

    Worth reading through for discussion the methods and observations in forecasting and predictions. At the end there are also some resources, e.g., mindmaps, and examples for further investigation.
    1. Maxwell Johnston February 2, 2025 at 12:12 pm

       Thanks for the link. Durnovo is a fascinating character. Nicholas II had numerous first-rate advisors (not only Durnovo but also Count Witte, Stolypin, Kokovtsov, and many others). Unfortunately Nick the Second was a dunderhead who listened far too much to his equally dunderhead wife and to Rasputin. One of the more irritating things about life in modern Russia (along with psychokiller deathwish car drivers and a widespread antipathy to obey the law, aka corruption) is the recent (last decade or so) and ongoing rehabilitation of the last of the Romanovs. I’ve driven past taxpayer-funded street billboards featuring a photo of the once-royal family and the tagline “Forgive Us!”. IMHO Nick the Second pretty much got what he had coming to him.

       Russia has produced many interesting thinkers whose out-of-the-box ideas have attracted little attention in the West. Dugin is much maligned, but he is a thoughtful chap with some astute observations. Vernadsky. Gumilev. My wife avidly follows an economist named Katasonov who writes unbelievably long and complex essays on the international financial system. TLDR and I often disagree with him, but his level of erudition puts the likes of Krugman to shame. Glazyev is another economist (and Russia’s closest equivalent to a MMT proponent) worth paying attention to, given the events of the past few years.
       1. Daniil Adamov February 2, 2025 at 1:56 pm

          Re: Nick the Second, if you think you have it bad in Moscow, Yekaterinburg is still most famous for being the site of his death, a fact that greatly attracts tourists and pilgrims, the latter both through his official ROC standing as a martyr and through the heretical cult of him as our national saviour (he died to redeem our sins against him, basically). Since I more or less share your opinion on him, I find this situation very vexing.

          I’d note, though, that Rasputin also urged him to stay out of WWI, and IIRC with the same basic reasoning: that it would cause great misery to the people, leading to a revolution. I don’t think it was a mystic inspiration so much as common sense, though of course intellectually far less impressive than Durnovo’s detailed analysis. I’m not sure that Nicholas II’s problem was really listening to the wrong people, though that did happen fairly often. His real problem was extreme stubbornness and self-delusion, a reluctance to listen to anyone who wasn’t telling him what he wanted to hear, and also an apparent desire to neither wield his power to any great effect nor give it to anyone else to wield (whether officially or unofficially). And many of his ministers encouraged this, which was more damaging than any amount of merely bad advice he might have received.
          1. Maxwell Johnston February 2, 2025 at 4:18 pm

             I wasn’t aware that your city has become a kind of tourist shrine for Romanov worshippers! I still think of Yekaterinburg as Yeltsin’s hometown, as well as (coincidentally or not) a hotbed of organized crime in the 1990s. Times change.

             My understanding of Nick the Second was that he was essentially weak-minded and vacillating and usually took the advice of whichever advisor saw him last. And of course they all figured this out and hence strived to be the last one he saw before decision time.

             Definitely neither a saint nor a martyr, just an incompetent ruler who led his country to disaster.
             1. Daniil Adamov February 3, 2025 at 6:15 am

                Well, the Yeltsin Centre (US-style presidential library) and the ostentatious graves of 90s bosses are both big tourist attractions, so that much hasn’t vanished. But “the city where they killed the Tsar” outshines them both as a tourist draw. Plus as you say the Nicholas cult (or rather cults) took off in the last few decades, and this was the obvious spot for it to congregate on.

                From what I’ve read Nicholas II gave the impression of being weak and vacillating because he had a very abnormal sense of priorities. He could be very stubborn and petty about some formal questions, since that seemed to be of greatest importance to him (e.g. making sure to edit out “undue” concessions suggested in the post-1905 revolution speech Trepov wrote for him), and about his theoretical authority. He was flighty when it came to “minor” issues of governance that he believed best left to advisors… though not in a way that would let any one of them have the authority they would need to succeed. Either way, though, he was uniquely ill-suited to govern an empire that always placed an abnormal emphasis on the ruler’s personal involvement in matters of governance.
          2. hk February 2, 2025 at 5:03 pm

             So, basically Joe Biden is a reincarnation of Nicholas II.
             1. Daniil Adamov February 3, 2025 at 6:04 am

                There are some troubling parallels, although I’m not sure if Biden had many good advisors.
16. RookieEMT February 2, 2025 at 10:15 am

    I’m scouring nitter but I don’t see any other mentions of the protests outside Zelensky’s office. The usual pro-Russian accounts (Russians with Attitude) or RT aren’t mentioning this either.
    1. Yves Smith February 2, 2025 at 11:35 am

       It looks like a very tight shot so crowd could be as small as 200, as in not very newsworthy.
       1. ambrit February 2, 2025 at 12:57 pm

          A secondary colour revolution on the part of some faction of the Masters of the Universe?
          First, gin up some “popular discontent” of a very public nature.
          Second, have a “false flag” event that opposes the “popular discontent” groups.
          Third, blame the status quo regime for the violence.
          Fourth, send in the regime change cadres to secure the “Peace.”
          Fifth, extend kind wishes and legitimacy to the resultant regime.
          The size of the crowd is not the point. The pictures themselves are the point. Marshall McLuhan in action.
          Something about the methodology, “How to spot a psyop”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3AN2wY4qAM&ab_channel=ChaseHughes
17. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 10:17 am

    Yo, Noem & Nancy. let’s kick it
    ICE, ICE Barbies
    ICE, ICE Barbies

    All right stop, collaborate and listen
    ICE is back with the brand-new makeup intention
    Something, grabs a hold of eye shadow tightly
    Flows like Earl Scheib daily and nightly
    Will it ever stop? Yo, I don’t know
    Turn off the lights and they’ll still glow
    To the extreme they walk the border like a supermodel
    Light up a stage and wax eyebrows on the video
    Dance go rush to the immigrants, some from Montevideo

    They’re killing Emma Lazarus’s hopes like a poisonous mushroom
    Deadly when they go on a 1-way wetback melody
    Anything less than getting the best is a felony
    Love it or leave it you better gang way
    You better hit bull’s eye the undocumented can’t play
    And if there was a problem, yo, they’ll solve it
    Check out them losing face while their blush resolves it

    ICE, ICE Barbies
    Vanilla ICE, ICE Barbies
    Vanilla ICE, ICE Barbies
    Vanilla ICE, ICE Barbies

    Now that the Republican party is jumping
    When January 20th kicked in and the Barbies are primping
    Quick to the point to the point of yucko!
    They’re applying concealer like a pound of stucco
    Making them look like Tammie Faye if you ain’t quick and nimble
    I go crazy when I hear looking good is a status symbol
    And foundation with a souped up-tempo
    I’m on a roll and it’s obvious saving face is their temple

    Yo, man let’s get out of here
    Word to your mother
    ICE, ICE Barbies too bold
    ICE, ICE Barbies too bold, too bold
    ICE, ICE Barbies too bold, too bold
    ICE, ICE Barbies too bold, too bold

    Ice Ice Baby, by Vanilla Ice

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOQtzxPnoY0
    1. griffen February 2, 2025 at 11:01 am

       Heh heh…that’s a highly valued skill at the rhyme and keeping with the original song’s rhythm….the original being on the personal soundtrack from high school senior year.

       I now can’t help wondering… just how much did the artist otherwise known by his given name, Rob Van Winkle*, have to forfeit to the Queen band members and also to David Bowie?

       Vanilla Ice. Word to Thy Mother.
       1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 11:18 am

          Just a teaser cause I’m not so good at the poetry, but I’m loving that Noem acquired title back in ’90.
          South Dakota Snow Queen
          If you know what I mean….

          Leslie West
          Mountain
       2. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 12:47 pm

          If threatened with horrible consequences for not knowing any other Vanilla Ice songs,…I’d have to pay the piper

          …but his one ditty i’m aware of has been quite useful, and i’ve been waiting like forever to include Earl Scheib in a song
          1. griffen February 2, 2025 at 4:39 pm

             I have to concur, as I could not name a 2nd hit even after I was using a cheat sheet…

             Hey at a bare minimum, coming from that era he didn’t cheat his listeners a la the fake band called Milli Vanilli..One hit wonders and fake hit wonders…very Ha ha…

             “Girl you know it’s true…hoo,ooo , ooo, our careers went kapoo”…
    2. ChrisFromGA February 2, 2025 at 11:15 am

       M T-G is offended that you did not include her in the parody.

       She’s a little more country than Nancy and Kristi but she looks good in red.
       1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 11:22 am

          My bad, she’s my favorite heroine addiction after the Palinstinian Movement flamed out and Caribou Barbie went away on her snow machine, with the gas tank running on empty.

          The latter was good for laughs, my favorite being this poultry in motion behind her as she was pardoning a turkey in Alaska…

          Turkeys Slaughtered Behind Sarah Palin During Interview

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu785cJgG-w
          1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 11:27 am

             Wait, how could I forget the ‘Tele-Palmter’?

             CNN: Sarah Palin, Palmgate

             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr-4zDjt37M
18. flora February 2, 2025 at 10:18 am

    From ScheerPost.

    Jerusalem Post Targets MintPress After Exposé on Israeli Spies in US Media

    https://scheerpost.com/2025/01/31/jerusalem-post-targets-mintpress-after-expose-on-israeli-spies-in-us-media/
    1. AG February 2, 2025 at 4:12 pm

       How nice – your own colleagues.
       But then – its the JP
19. ChrisFromGA February 2, 2025 at 10:23 am

    Re: Tariffs

    Just thinking aloud, could this be the “coup de grace” for the WTO? Someone over at Mish’s blog put it well:

    “Trump is making no pretense at all of following the law. He’s flinging tariffs for reasons unrelated to trade which violates the treaties. What he’s really doing is trying to dynamite the world trade system which runs based on legal treaties. It’s crazy.”

    People can cheer these tariffs or not. But I would not cheer this even if I agreed in principle.

    The US Senate ratified USMCA by an 89-10 margin. Scrapping the deal was not legally Trump’s decision to make no matter what pathetic excuses he makes.

    Source – mishtalk.com

    I agree that Trump is really not agreement-capable. One silver lining here is that Mexico and other countries are now free to disregard any rulings from the WTO that are adverse to their interests, like the recent ruling on GMO corn that went against Mexico.

    The big question is will Mexico and other countries continue to cling to agreements that the other side isn’t honoring? That seems crazy to me. Yet China’s initial response was to file suit under the WTO.

    Does China really think a mere lawsuit under international law will stop Trump? Maybe they’re just covering all their bases.
    1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 10:52 am

       We’re trying to go back to the 50’s when the USA was top dog, and the new ‘Marilyn Monroe Doctrine’ is in place, i.e.

       ‘Demands are a girl’s best friend’
       1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 11:26 am

          “Live Large and Let Die”
          1. ambrit February 2, 2025 at 1:09 pm

             “On Their Infernal Majesties’ Secret Service.”

             On the subject of “Demands,” why, wasn’t a lot of this the result of the machinations of the “Little Girl from Little Rock?”
             The facts of political life according to Huma and Hillary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyyERDu5D3k&ab_channel=DragonBossJPX
    2. Objective Ace February 2, 2025 at 12:02 pm

       I think China is playing 3d chess here. They’re less concerned with American tariffs than they are trying to become the new global hegemony. Showing they are capable of rules based policy is more important to them than any immediate retaliation over unfair tariffs.
       1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 12:16 pm

          And the punchline is we are making it so easy for China to operate within a rules based order. Lesser evil doctrine with benefits. China’s good at infrastructure too. We are not (unless the motivation is getting to Vegas, lol). And best not to talk about agreement capability.
          Heck, China doesn’t even need to go three dimensional. There will be buy-side demand.
          1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 12:18 pm

             The world is our Sphere!
             1. ambrit February 2, 2025 at 1:11 pm

                Time to put the peddle to the metals?
                1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 1:15 pm

                   Yes, Reynolds Wrap can easily double as a toque or a handy reusable cooking surface.
       2. ChrisFromGA February 2, 2025 at 12:43 pm

          The WTO was I think Western-devised institution; it’s HQ’d in Geneva (a bit more neutral.)

          If I were China I’d be thinking about creating new institutions to replace these ones. Rules-based policy that originates from either Europe or the US isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
          1. Vandemonian February 2, 2025 at 3:29 pm

             An additional role for BRICS, perhaps?
             1. ChrisFromGA February 2, 2025 at 9:21 pm

                I’d really like to know what Xi Jinping is thinking. There ought to be a role for BRICS here, for sure, in replacing institutions like the World Bank and WTO. My sense is that Chinese leadership prefers to proceed cautiously, and wait for some big event to create a vacuum.

                China seems content to be a world power but not a hegemon. Perhaps starting the replacement to the WTO is just too big a burden for any one country in the new world that is emerging, and there will have to be a consensus among the BRICS.
    3. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 1:09 pm

       They could be covering all their bases before a watching world. Didn’t I read somewhere that Putin has taken care to make every action he has taken framed and explained in terms of legality? The ChinaGov will do the same before taking its necessary extralegal actions in today’s extralegal world.
       1. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 6:58 pm

          Putin is after all a trained lawyer which explain his legalistic approach.
    4. converger February 2, 2025 at 1:38 pm

       Trump tariffs are the best thing that ever happened to China. A decade from now, everybody will be trading with them instead of the US.

       It took the UK nearly three generations to make itself an irrelevant economic and technological backwater. The US is about to pull it off in a single decade.
    5. Pearl Rangefinder February 2, 2025 at 3:10 pm

       Most of my friend’s group here are ShitLib or Shitlib ajacent, some of them actual employees in the Canadian Federal public service, and at a get together last week the subject of the upcoming tariffs came up. The general sentiment as expressed by one of them was “I’d rather burn the country to the ground than make any deals with Trump” – and that USMCA was an especial sore point after Canada and Mexico had already bent over to accommodate Trump the first time. So I thought that was interesting, we’ll see if the sentiment is widespread amongst our ruling classes here once the costs start piling up with this trade spat. Unfortunately years and years of ‘integrating’ our economy with our “good friend and neighbour to the South” [LOL] has left us exceedingly vulnerable to these kinds of games.
20. flora February 2, 2025 at 10:25 am

    Norway’s govt collapses over energy disputes.

    Eurosceptic party quits Norway’s government, almost half of cabinet departs

    https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/30/norway-government-collapses-after-eurosceptic-party-quits.html
21. Sub-Boreal February 2, 2025 at 11:27 am

    Trump will be sorry that he picked this fight: Red state alcohol is currently being removed at B.C. Liquor store in Victoria.
    1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 11:28 am

       Isn’t this essentially the plot to Canadian Bacon, albeit in reverse?
       1. ACPAL February 2, 2025 at 10:52 pm

          I just watched ‘Canadian Bacon.’ It would have been more humorous were it not so close to reality. Where the movie president wants to start a cold war with Canada our own president wants to start one with Canada and Mexico (and everyone else). The movie has excellent portrayals of the MIC, slanders US citizen’s gullibility, collusion with the MSM, a short advisor with dark curly hair, and even a false flag operation. I can’t decide if this is art imitating life, life imitating art (it’s almost as if the Trump administration is playing out the movie), or life imitating art imitating life, etc.
    2. danpaco February 2, 2025 at 12:39 pm

       Same with the LCBO in Ontario. Added to the boycott of Russian spirits the shelf displays are really in flux!
       My wife joked/observed this morning that Doug Ford (our premier), who just called an election, always starts an election campaign around alcohol!
       1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 12:42 pm

          A day without alcohol is everyday for our Teetotalitarian Leader, whose very own internal distillery secretes 80 proof malarkey.
          1. Pearl Rangefinder February 2, 2025 at 3:13 pm

             Strangely enough, our Premier Doug Ford, despite being the ‘Buck a Beer’ Premier, is also a teetotaler. Why he is so obsessed over alcohol sales is beyond me!
    3. Es s Ce Tera February 2, 2025 at 2:25 pm

       Quebec too, it seems. That’s three provinces. The California wine industry is probably goners.
    4. Es s Ce Tera February 2, 2025 at 5:23 pm

       Also, the restricted list is looking like it’s Bourbon-heavy, which makes a lot of sense. The US is the world’s primary source for Bourbon whiskey which is corn mash. Jack Daniels, Makers Mark, Knob Creek, Elija Craig, Buffalo Trace, Woodford Reserve, etc. So I think we may also see secondary impacts on US corn farmers.

       American exports of booze, from https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/commodities/distilled-spirits-0:

       European Union $885.68 Million
       Canada $262.05 Million
       Mexico $138.98 Million
       Australia $138.56 Million
       1. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 6:41 pm

          Most corn grown in America is xeno-gene polluted GMO corn for industry and industrial fuud additives.

          I don’t believe the corn-liquor industry uses GMO corn. If I am correct, that Canadian ban would only affect the relatively few farmers who grow the relatively small amount of clean nonGMO corn needed by the whisky industry.
22. Mikel February 2, 2025 at 11:49 am

    Hampton Institute
    @HamptonThink
    ·
    “Fascism is the inevitable conclusion to capitalism. Liberals are capitalists/imperialists. The systemic developments of monopoly/finance capital being buoyed by neoliberalism, which served as a bridge to corporate governance & overt fascism, is a bipartisan phenomenon in the US.”

    It’s a multi-polar phenomenon the global elite agree on. China corrals some oligarchs. Russia had to corral some oligarchs in favor of others that weren’t as hell bent on selling out Russia. Other countries talk about “reforms”. But the overall fascination with systems put in place the the US-led post WW-II global order is still fairly strong.
    1. Aurelien February 2, 2025 at 12:02 pm

       Fascism is a very probable result of the failure of capitalism. Go to any collapsed state or conflict zone run by gangs and militias, and you find the basic principle of fascism–rule by the strongest–in full flower. There are parts of cities in Europe where the police don’t go and the state hardly operates, ruled by ethnic gangs, which are only a few steps removed from fascism.
       1. Bazarov February 2, 2025 at 1:05 pm

          I think you’ll find “rule by the strongest” in most places on earth (usually, certainly not always, whoever’s wealthiest), not just fascist or semi-fascist countries. In the United States, most everyone I know is ruled most of their waking hours by the rich through their representatives: the bosses. And it’s the richest of the rich who’re the bosses of the merely rich.

          What makes fascism different, in my view, is more the manner in which the strong maintain power. Like in the liberal rule-of-law type arrangement, you get a more-or-less organized capitalist economy with fascism but unlike it, you get open terror government. No sop to democratic rights, intimidation and head-cracking all the way down.
          1. Aurelien February 2, 2025 at 2:22 pm

             The difference is that in fascist systems, raw power and the willingness to use violence are all that count. Competition to the death is the norm, and even in government, as under the Nazis, different groups feud with each other, using all available methods. There’s a difference between being “ruled” by a distant government or by a company hierarchy, and being threatened with death if you don’t hand over your valuables, or if you protest. At least I think there is
             1. ChrisFromGA February 2, 2025 at 9:52 pm

                Sounds an awful lot like Ukraine’s current regime. Note how they kill each other – conscripts killed for not fighting, recruiters getting killed for trying to press gang citizens.
             2. Procopius February 3, 2025 at 6:16 pm

                In many ways the Nazis were sticklers for observing the law. Of course they wrote the laws to benefit themselves, but they followed the traditions of their countries. That’s one reason why the Nazis left such complete documentation of their crimes. The Gestapo had strict rules about when they could torture people — and I believe they adhered to them.
          2. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 4:14 pm

             Maybe it’s the economy that’s fascist, IDK, the term is losing its meaning via overuse, not razzing you personally here, it’s what we got until we adapt some categories. Your first part accurately describes my office days in the FIRE sector. What I found curious was the religious belief in that order. If gods require believers to thrive, then perhaps the same holds true in this case.
       2. ambrit February 2, 2025 at 1:20 pm

          The same observation is applicable to American urban regions. Add to this the Pan American phenomenon of the police forces being another “gang” and we get near classic City Stateism.
          1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 3:46 pm

             …pass the Duce ‘pon the right hand side?
       3. flora February 2, 2025 at 6:33 pm

          re: “Fascism is a very probable result of the failure of capitalism. ”

          Norman Finkelstein makes the same argument, utube, ~12+minutes.

          Trump doesn’t need fascism, he has no opposition | Norman Finkelstein | The Big Picture

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ07xe_W4Pc
       4. Kouros February 2, 2025 at 6:50 pm

          Some quite reputable Marxists like Lesurdo or Rockhill beg to disagree. Also, the examples of Italy, Germany and Japan in the 1930s are what people have in mind when they think of fascism. Which couldn’t have been enacted without the greatest support from the industrialists and bankers…
          1. Aurelien February 3, 2025 at 4:55 am

             This is the problem Marxists have, because the authorised interpretation from Moscow during the rise of Fascism, constrained by the limits of Stalin’s ideology, was precisely of Fascism as a stage of capitalism. The fact that it wasn’t, and that many working class Germans supported the Nazis rather than the Communists, is something that Moscow never understood, and can be argued to be one reason for the Nazis’ (electoral) success. This interpretation remained very influential on the Left because it was emotionally satisfying, and was indeed the official interpretation in the old GDR. Ian Kershaw’s book on the historiography of the Nazis has a good section on this, and why the whole argument is flawed.

             In reality, the Nazis had very little support from finance and industry before 1933, which would have much preferred a traditional conservative right-wing government involving the Church and the Army, such as was later installed in Spain. The Nazis were bankrupt at the time of the last free elections in Germany and no-one would lend them any money. But Hitler gambled that the Nazi would be invited to join the government to help produce a majority in the Reichstag, and he was right. Once Hitler was installed as Chancellor, he was regarded as a bit if a Zelensky figure, a clown who would be easily manipulated. The rest is history (and historiography.)

             It has to be said, I suppose, that Fascist ideology is sufficiently unattractive and hard to take seriously that it’s much easier to impute other ideas to them than to grovel around in the mud trying to find out what they actually thought
             1. Kouros February 3, 2025 at 2:54 pm

                Some argue that Musolini got sponsorship in sterling pounds when he started his move to power…

                And Lesurdo and Rockhill are our contemporaries, do not follow the Moscow call, which nowadays is not there anyways… ANd from what I heard/read, they do try to follow a sound and fact based analytical methodology.
    2. Sub-Boreal February 2, 2025 at 12:38 pm

       And this connects with climate. Still puzzled that social scientists are surprised by: Why the impacts of climate change may make us less likely to reduce emissions.

       Technical summary

       There is some evidence to support the common intuition that, as the direct impacts of warming intensify – particularly in the affluent Global North – a politics ambitious enough to confront the climate emergency may finally find support. However, it seems at least equally likely that the opposite trend will prevail. This proposition can be understood by considering various indirect impacts of warming, including the widening of socioeconomic inequalities (within and between countries), increases in migration (intra- and inter-nationally) and heightened risk of conflict (from violence and war through to hate speech and crime). Compiling these impacts reveals a considerable and highly inconvenient overlap with key drivers of the authoritarian populism that has proliferated in the 21st century. It highlights the risk of a socio-ecological feedback loop where the consequences of warming create a political environment entirely at odds with that required to reduce emissions. Such a future is, of course, far from inevitable. Nonetheless, the risks highlight the urgent need to find public support for combined solutions to climate change and inequality, which go well beyond the status-quo. This is necessary not only for reasons of economic and climate justice, but in order to mitigate political barriers to carbon mitigation itself.
23. antidlc February 2, 2025 at 11:57 am

    Ken Martin elected chair

    Also:
    https://x.com/davidhogg111/status/1885934686075064347

    David Hogg 🟧
    @davidhogg111
    I’ve just been elected as a Vice Chair of the DNC. I’m deeply grateful to the members for their trust and belief in me and I don’t take it lightly. Now it’s time to get to work.
    1. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 1:16 pm

       So . . . the DNC and hence the Democratic Party will be doubly recommitted to Liberal Fascist Gun Control.
       We won’t see another Democratic ( or any other “gun control” ) president for decades to come at least.

       And gun-control nuts will increase recruitment into the MAGApublican Party by doubling down in insults like ” gun-humper” and “ammosexual” because that convinced conservatives and Republicans to support so-called “gun control” so much in the past.
    2. CA February 2, 2025 at 1:56 pm

       “David Hogg” elected Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee:

       Maniacal antagonist on China.
       1. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 6:45 pm

          Am I thinking of the wrong Hogg? I am thinking of the “anti-gun activist” Hogg from Florida. I saw the name and got triggered.

          So I went online and looked it up. It is the “right” Hogg. The Democrats will not elect a President of any kind for decades and decades and decades.

          And I find it strange to think that such a nice young liberal would be a maniacal antagonist on China. Maybe I will go online and look up about that for at least a minute or two.
24. rowlf February 2, 2025 at 11:59 am

    Georgia lawmakers introduce legislation to remove data center power costs from residential bills

    (State Sen. Chuck) Hufstetler said in a recent statement that he introduced the legislation to make costs go where they’re supposed to.

    “I have introduced legislation that would remove the costs of construction, distribution and transmission costs from our consumer bills who are currently bearing these costs and place the costs where it should be. Those that are responsible for these costs should be paying it. We have had six rate increases on consumers in the last two years in part to pay costs brought about by others,” Hufstetler said online. “We now have the fourth highest consumer bills in the country. Our data centers can be good for the state but many of them I talk to agree they should be paying these costs.”
    1. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 1:17 pm

       That sounds like a good bill no matter what party Hufstetler is from.
       1. John Steinbach February 2, 2025 at 2:17 pm

          Here in Virginia, bills designed to curb data center development have bi-partisan support, but, unfortunately, also bi-partisan opposition.
25. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 12:09 pm

    I wonder why the TV show ‘CSIS: Gulag Hockeypelago’ never got green-lighted?
    1. ambrit February 2, 2025 at 1:22 pm

       The potential producers could not resolve the question of whether to call it a “Docudrama” or an “Infomercial.”
26. Mikel February 2, 2025 at 12:11 pm

    Did a Trump executive order just cripple the global US regime change network? – The Grayzone

    Well, just spitballin’, but what if it’s just until the next wave of elections in various parts of the world are over?
    The people are just being moved around and the network will be rebranded with a variation on directives.
    1. rowlf February 2, 2025 at 6:15 pm

       There was some wag a few years ago that quipped that J6 happened because of pandemic travel restrictions keeping the US regime change network stateside.
27. GC54 February 2, 2025 at 12:29 pm

    Figuring US gasoline price increases if 25% tariff on Canada+Mexico crude imports.

    Gouging by retailers in short term then reset $0.10/gal higher than seasonal is my guess. My crude analysis : Canada+Mexico is 4.5 mbpd atop US 13.5 ~1/4 of crude supply. Crude oil is ~1/2 of $/gal on average according to EIA graphic from last yr. Last wk retail averaged $3 So $1.50 is increased by tariffs by 1/4 x 25% = 1/16 so $1.50/16 =$0.10/gal. Seasonal variations in gasoline prices due to changing refinery mixes are much larger than this. And one should account for changes in crude oil weights. The EPA has occasionally waived oxygenated gasoline requirements to reduce prices + stockpile released that mysteriously correlated with elections. San Jose gasoline was $4.70/gal on Friday.
    1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 12:52 pm

       I don’t think we hit Jackpot until a gallon of 87 octane is $7.77
       1. steppenwolf fetchit February 2, 2025 at 1:20 pm

          Jackpot is a slow-rolling process, not a single event.

          Turning covid into a pandemic and then an endemic pandemic was part of Jackpotting the population. Turning bird flu into Spanish Flu 2.0 will be another part of Jackpotting the population if the authorities can buy enough time for bird flu to do the necessary mutating and evolving.

          The authorities carry out their Jackpot Plan step by step by step.
          1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 1:25 pm

             Gasoline, pot and TV sets are about the only items that haven’t inflated greatly such as everything else.

             You couldn’t call $7.77 a gallon for go-juice the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it turns an awful lot of long distance commuters into non profit organisms.
    2. Alice X February 2, 2025 at 2:55 pm

       Per NYT 10% on Canadian crude, not clear on Mexico.
       1. GC54 February 2, 2025 at 9:21 pm

          Scale accordingly so $0.04/gal price boost if Mexico is hit likewise, to first order approximation. A purely performative tariff, no surprise.
28. user1234 February 2, 2025 at 12:57 pm

    A video of a muppet renaming countries
    https://x.com/OlgaBazova/status/1885968080909562060
29. ciroc February 2, 2025 at 1:09 pm

    >What DeepSeek Says About Nuland’s Role in Ukraine War

    While I was impressed that Grok and ChatGPT provide higher quality journalism than the MSM, I was disappointed that DeepSeek acts like a proxy for Beijing.
30. CA February 2, 2025 at 1:28 pm

    https://www.as-coa.org/articles/approval-tracker-mexicos-president-amlo

    January 28, 2025

    Approval Tracker: Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum
    By Chase Harrison

    How do Mexicans rate their first presidenta on security, the economy, and social programs after three months in office?

    In June 2024, Claudia Sheinbaum won Mexico’s presidency with a historic margin, capturing the largest share of the vote since 1982. Since her inauguration on October 1, 2024, Sheinbaum has continued to command widespread support in her country. Her approval hovers over 75 percent in most polls.

    Sheinbaum’s popularity—alongside majorities in both houses of Congress—has aided her in advancing her agenda and that of her party, Morena. She has overseen the passage of numerous constitutional reforms and announced a six-year industrial plan to grow the economy and attract investment. Her government is also in charge of the implementation of constitutional reforms passed in the final months of the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), her predecessor and political mentor. These include unprecedented nationwide judicial elections, scheduled for June of this year.

    January, 2025

    Approval = 75+%
31. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 1:31 pm

    Threats and killings increase in the area where agribusiness expands in the Amazon rainforest Brasil de Fato
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    It’s harvest time for Navel oranges here, with many old time orchards also having Valencia oranges which ripen about 6 months later, but nobody plants that much in the latter anymore-as one fellow cabin owner with a lot of acres related, ‘they’re ripping out rainforest in the Amazon to plant Valencias and the market is flooded with Amazon orange juice.’

    And to come full circle, the first Navel oranges came from Brazil to Southern California in 1873, but can’t be grown there now.

    By the way, drove by a Navel orchard with about 15 cars parked near the road. I didn’t note any kind of fear or anything among the fieldworkers who are an average age of 45 here, doubtful they are still undocumented.

    Book tip:

    Oranges, by John McPhee
    1. Laura in So Cal February 2, 2025 at 4:43 pm

       “Navels can’t be grown there now”. My tangerine and Washington navel orange trees were the most prolific they’ve been in years this year. I’m not alone as people are bringing in bags of backyard citrus to work to give away.

       I’m guessing the article was talking about commercial groves.
       1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 4:47 pm

          Navel oranges cant be grown in Brazil now, sorry for the misunderstanding.
    2. MaryLand February 2, 2025 at 5:35 pm

       My dad picked oranges and other produce in California during the Great Depression. He was a white Midwesterner who hopped trains to get to California for work since jobs were hard to find at that time where he grew up. The pay could not have been good picking fruit even then as he slept rough in pop-up migrant camps. Not sure how many of his coworkers were from Mexico, but many were white American citizens. WWII brought him into the army as an older recruit and after that he went into the civil service. He didn’t choose to go to college on the GI Bill as he wanted to get married and start a family right away. His civil service job provided us a middle class living that paid the bills but not much more. After my mom got a clerical job they were able to send us kids to college starting our boomer generation on a path to a higher standing of living. We had free college for the first two years at a local community college, followed by 2 years at a 4 year college. This is harder to do at today’s college costs.
32. Bsn February 2, 2025 at 1:35 pm

    Concerning the article “FCC Probe Into NPR, PBS Denounced as ‘Attack on the Freedom of the Press’ in Common Dreams, I had fun reading the comment section. I’d given up reading Common Dreams a long time ago, it had become another gvt. lapdog mouth piece. But the comments were interesting and about 60/40 relating how NPR and PBS have become corporatized and a vehicle for government propaganda. Good news that the average leftist in America may be waking up, eventually (and hopefully).
    1. Late Introvert February 3, 2025 at 12:57 am

       NPR stopped being relevant arond the time they brought on Generals to cheer on the Iraq War. That was a long time ago. I remember when they did not totally suck.
33. JEHR February 2, 2025 at 1:37 pm

    You may want to read what Michael Hudson has written about the tariffs in Mexico and Canada and what it may mean for the future: https://michael-hudson.com/
    1. nyleta February 2, 2025 at 4:50 pm

       Probably after breaking a few countries on the balance of payments cross they will seek to impose a new Plaza Accord on China, the main target, which is being kept in the background for now. Hopefully they will not eat the cat food.

       As long as we get 80’s music back it will be worth it.
    2. Socal Rhino February 2, 2025 at 6:50 pm

       The response of debt default is the one option I haven’t seen among the flurry of comments this weekend on X. I wonder if it is part of Bessen’s calculations.
    3. A1 February 2, 2025 at 8:29 pm

       Mr Hudson is bullshitting about the auto pact. It was 1965 and a great deal for Canada. Canada officially went from part of the empire to part of the US. I looked at a copy and he is not a signatory. Given Mr. Hudson is 85 that means he was 25 when the Auto pact was signed. Was a 25 year old Mr. Hudson the guy doing what? Advising Lyndon and Lester? Getting coffee?

       We had an election about extending the Auto Pact in 1988. The side that wanted to extend the Auto Pact won. Mr. Hudson should stay away from the weed.
       1. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 8:37 pm

          Look if you don’t like the guy, just say so. Just stop waffling around the edges and putting in all these subtle insinuations. Just speak your mind instead of all these drive-by accusations. /sarc

          By the way, I don’t like you either.
          1. judy2shoes February 2, 2025 at 9:54 pm

             “By the way, I don’t like you either.”

             Good thing it’s evening here and I’m not drinking coffee, Rev. Thanks for the laugh and the perfect rejoinder.
          2. CA February 2, 2025 at 11:29 pm

             Michael Hudson is superb.

             Notice that Canada has trailed the US in growth of per capita GDP for decades, an indication of poor domestic policy for a country vastly resource rich:

             https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1ChKn

             August 4, 2014

             Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for United States, Canada and Mexico, 1977-2023

             (Indexed to 1977)
34. Jason Boxman February 2, 2025 at 1:43 pm

    So what’s telling is that, intuiting that this would be the trajectory of Trump’s second term, rather than run on, or even provide during Biden, material benefits, Democrats preferred this outcome to providing said benefits. (Recall the termination of various benefit programs under Biden, their “expiration”, when these are very much the kinds of programs that liberal Democrats claim to be “fighting for”.) Also telling that three months after the election, Democrats as yet have no particular unified response to Trump’s aggressive start to his second term.

    This year is gonna be lit.
    1. MaryLand February 2, 2025 at 5:17 pm

       It looks like the Dems are going to wait quietly for the backlash to give them more seats in the Congress at the midterm elections. They maybe want maximum outrage, so why prevent it?
       1. Jeff H February 2, 2025 at 6:28 pm

          Another guaranteed to fail approach. The idea is that whatever ideas they throw out there will sound better. They have so damaged their brand than no one will trust or believe them.
          These people have their heads so far up their cognitive bias, I’m surprised they can breathe.

          Reality is a cruel mistress, the longer she’s denied the more painful the reconciliation.
35. Socal Rhino February 2, 2025 at 1:56 pm

    Re reactions to Musk’s moves

    Entering his second term, there seemed to be wide skepticism that Trump would actually be effective at changing the course of the Federal bureaucracy. I saw quite a few people mock the idea that Musk would be able to accomplish anything meaningful and opinions that DOGE was just a shiny object to distract the populace while Trump plotted a typical Republican path of tax cuts and handouts to business interests. That was how I saw things going myself, with the additional hope of fewer wars.

    Two weeks in, that view looks rather off. Rather than tinker at the edges, the new admin is targeting the jugular, the money flows. Want to find out where money moves? Turn off the spigot and see who yells about it. For example, USAID.

    What Musk appears to be doing is not much different that the tactics I’ve seen at the Fortune 500 companies I’ve worked at where, executives unable or incapable of identifying corporate bloat imposed sweeping cuts – your budget (or your headcount) will be xx% of last year, figure it out. This was at insurance companies and banks, not Silicon Valley, long before Musk did a more extreme version at Twitter. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad approach but tends to be taken too far since such “hard” decisions are actually very easy and don’t require much beyond ruthlessness.

    It is human nature that many people will agree with the notion that most jobs today are bullsh*t jobs but will disagree when it’s their jobs or the jobs of their colleagues.

    I think it is entirely reasonable to worry that putting a US oligarch in charge of this effort is dangerous. On the other hand, what’s the alternative? No one is going to break their own rice bowls. Every move should be scrutinized, and no one should have blind faith in these guys, but I’m not ready to despair over the incoming crew being less ineffective than anticipated.
    1. ChrisFromGA February 2, 2025 at 9:24 pm

       Musk is now saying “USAID must die” after senior security staff put on leave after trying to physically stop his agents from seizing records:

       https://www.marketwatch.com/story/usaid-security-leaders-put-on-leave-after-trying-to-block-musks-doge-from-accessing-classified-data-02bb32ef?mod=mw_latestnews

       The Trump administration has placed two top security chiefs at the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Elon Musk’s government-inspection teams, a current and a former U.S. official told the Associated Press on Sunday.

       Members of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, eventually did gain access Saturday to the aid agency’s classified information, which includes intelligence reports, the former official said.

       Now, that is some drama. I have too big of an imagination, but I can see this leading to some serious legal trouble for some folks associated with USAID who may be knee-deep in corruption (cough, Ukraine.) DoJ indictments, anyone?
36. Jason Boxman February 2, 2025 at 2:05 pm

    From Musk’s Junta Establishes Him as Head of Government

    With rapidity that has stunned even longtime political observers, forces loyal to Musk’s junta have established him as the all-but undisputed unelected head of government in just a matter of days, unwinding the longtime democracy’s constitutional system and its proud nearly 250-year-old tradition of the rule of law. Having secured themselves in key ministries and in a building adjacent to the presidential office complex, Musk’s forces have begun issuing directives to civil service workers and forcing the resignation of officials deemed insufficiently loyal, like the head of the country’s aviation authority.

    Cute, but as we know what’s missing in this narrative is: Where’s the guns?

    I think federal employees could simply just ignore all this; how much of it is actually legal? Unless a squad of paramilitary walked into the Treasury and gained control over the systems at gunpoint, why comply?

    Or perhaps a soft-coup was always an easy possibility, and people would rather avoid any blowback from trying to intervene by just saying “no”, even without any risk of physical assault. The financial and career costs to refusing perhaps are too high, the payoff uncertain.

    Conversely, with what army does Congress enforce federal statutes if the Executive openly flouts them?

    All of this further degrades the legitimacy of an already rotten system.
    1. MG February 2, 2025 at 11:34 pm

       USAID Security tried to prevent Musk’s DOGE from entering this weekend into sensitive areas including the USAID IG’s office and sensitive national security data because they weren’t authorized.

       The security staff were all suspended including their Captain on Saturday.
    2. Robert Gray February 3, 2025 at 4:55 am

       > Cute, but as we know what’s missing in this narrative is: Where’s the guns?

       I remember being absolutely gobsmacked some years back (10? 15?) when I saw a story in the news about how the budget of the Social Security Administration included x-number of tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars for small arms ammunition. Zounds, why does the Social bloody Security Administration need guns?
       1. steppenwolf fetchit February 3, 2025 at 2:48 pm

          If various “pro-governance” holdovers somewhere within the government decide that the Muskites are an immediate survival-menace to the country itself, and they decide he and his people must be “ectomied” from their closeness to government Right Go Dumm Now , could they mobilize enough government-derived armed forces to round Musk and all the Muskites up and/or kill them if necessary?
          Could Musk and the Muskites find enough other government-derived armed forces to protect themselves and then counter-attack? Or private security forces and armies? I’m sure they would try.

          Only swift and extreme armed violence will remove the Muskites. Would such an attempt trigger a “civil war” between different Armed Government Factions and Forces?
37. AG February 2, 2025 at 2:08 pm

    3x JACOBIN:

    1) The Politics of the Woking Class

    By Dustin Guastella

    Musa al-Gharbi’s We Have Never Been Woke pinpoints the hypocrisies of professional elites who use social justice jargon as status markers. Yet the book exaggerates their agency, casting “wokeness” as a core driver of economic inequality.
    https://jacobin.com/2025/02/wokeness-al-gharbi-review-bourdieu

    2) How Amsterdam’s Early Social Housing Failed Workers

    ByTim Brinkhof

    In 1901, the Amsterdam city government started to replace privately owned slums with cooperatively run housing. The project attracted many innovative designers, but its aesthetic function didn’t always suit the needs of the new homes’ inhabitants.
    https://jacobin.com/2025/02/amsterdam-social-housing-architecture-workers

    3) A New Coalition to Defend Palestine

    By Ronnie Kasrils

    Nine countries in the Global South have come together to form the Hague Group, dedicated to ensuring that international law is enforced against Israel. The alliance marks the revival of a proud tradition of Third World solidarity.
    https://jacobin.com/2025/02/hague-group-apartheid-israel-genocide
38. CA February 2, 2025 at 2:18 pm

    https://english.news.cn/20250202/f3e79f5f83a64e89a0b39c1ff8c45e1e/c.html

    February 2, 2025

    Australian PM wishes for stronger ties with China

    “Australia is fortunate to look north to the fastest growing region of the world in human history, and that represents an incredible opportunity for Australia to seize.” Australian PM Anthony Albanese has expressed the wish to see stronger ties between Australia and China.

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1C1nG

    August 4, 2014

    Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China and Australia, 1977-2023

    (Indexed to 1977)
    1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 5:27 pm

       I’m reading Queensland is getting massive rain and the corresponding flooding right now, “up to a meter” in 24 hours, presently clocking, one fatality so far. That pesky climate change doing its thing, I assume including chiseling at GDP.
       1. CA February 2, 2025 at 6:46 pm

          “Queensland is getting massive rain and the corresponding flooding…”

          Australia has developed well, the economy is fine with only moderate debt. What Australia needs now is significantly increased infrastructure investment to counter continued warming effects. Australia needs to increase investment from about 24% to about 32% of GDP, beginning now.
          1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 7:12 pm

             That would be good advice at home too, but that’s a really big number and a lot of rice bowls.
          2. Skippy February 3, 2025 at 12:50 am

             Its a bit of a pickle in north Qld as Skilled Labour and Equipment is short for this sort of thing, not to mention long lines of transport. Its basically all mining and cattle north of Noosa Beach. Currently the southern states are being blasted by a 40-ish C. heat wave and up north is in monsoon season buffed by AGW, Cyclones are also in the mix now.

             Only about 27.5M people in OZ IMO, very thin up there.
       2. CA February 2, 2025 at 7:05 pm

          https://english.news.cn/20250123/69a7a3ac564b4e979cac2e4f8f38f1c3/c.html

          January 23, 2025

          Australian PM commits additional funding for nation’s green bank

          CANBERRA — Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced extra funding for the nation’s green bank to boost investment in clean energy projects.

          Albanese and Chris Bowen, minister for climate change and energy, said on Thursday that the federal government has directed an extra 2 billion Australian dollars (1.25 billion U.S. dollars) to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).

          They said in a joint statement that the additional investment would unlock an estimated 6 billion AUD (3.76 billion USD) worth of private sector investment in decarbonization projects, supporting jobs, economic growth and energy security.

          “We are building Australia’s future, not taking Australia backward,” Albanese said…
          1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 7:29 pm

             I was just hearing about that. I also heard that there’s considerable opposition to Albanese’s “green” initiatives in the west, but I’m too unread in things Australia to really know what I’m hearing. At face value it looks like a good idea. Are you thinking it’s a message to China that Australia is serious about investing in infrastructure?
             As a matter of chance I’d commented somewhere else here today that China will have no shortage of customers on its “capable and agreement capable” world tour. Maybe they could have a rep stop by the cat ranch.
    2. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 7:18 pm

       Albanese may have woken up to the fact that putting all of Australia’s eggs into the Trump egg basket may not be really wise and that a bit of diversification may not go astray. There is an election this year in Oz which should be interesting. The opposition is promising to build nuclear reactors in every State, adopt Trump’s ideas of reforms – and probably declare war on China if they have the time.
39. CA February 2, 2025 at 2:26 pm

    https://x.com/Kanthan2030/status/1886054615210434703

    S.L. Kanthan @Kanthan2030

    Japan has placed sanctions on staggering 110 Chinese companies! 

    Japan’s new export controls include semiconductor chip-making lithography machines and cryocoolers needed to manufacture quantum computers. 

    This is due to pressure from the US. 

    Bad for China-Japan relations. Also, bad for the Japanese economy, since China is the biggest buyer of these hi-tech products.

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiycrDRbIAEbTdX?format=jpg&name=small

    9:10 AM · Feb 2, 2025
40. CA February 2, 2025 at 2:27 pm

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1t5Ok

    August 4, 2014

    Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China and Japan, 1977-2023

    (Indexed to 1977)
41. AG February 2, 2025 at 2:40 pm

    re: Russia’s Quantum Leap: Rosatom’s Breakthrough Set to Transform AI, Healthcare, and More

    A quantum research project conducted under the auspices of the Russian nuclear corporation Rosatom is poised to cement Moscow’s place as one of world’s technological powerhouses.

    https://sputnikglobe.com/20250201/russias-quantum-leap-rosatoms-breakthrough-set-to-transform-ai-healthcare-and-more-1121524625.html
42. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 3:56 pm

    Terminator 7 Months Severance

    A Cybernet-ic from the future is purposely unleashed on Big Fed & let in without knocking, and thus is now in charge of $kynet.

    Coming to a work theater near you.
    1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 4:37 pm

       You won’t be back.
       1. Wukchumni February 2, 2025 at 4:51 pm

          Que sera, Conner.
43. XXYY February 2, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    Will the Nord Steam gas pipelines be turned back on soon?

    Amazing to see this possibility finally breaking into the news. The article describes this as a “bargaining chip” in upcoming discussions, but I’m not sure who will be using it as a chip. Obviously European countries (especially Germany) would benefit from restoring cheap Russian gas, and the Russians wouldn’t be opposed to the idea either, as far as I know.

    The major entity opposed to this idea is clearly the US, who has been hostile to Nord Stream since it was initially conceived and (according to Sy Hersch) was responsible for blowing up the line several years ago. Clearly the US thought the loss of this pipeline would be devastating to Russia, but like every other idea coming out of Washington lately has backfired badly, hurting ourselves and our friends while leaving Russia intact or even better off.

    I assume US hostility to Nord Stream has been responsible for keeping this relatively easy repair out of the realm of possibility for three or four years now, despite the obvious advantages that would accrue to the European population. Evidently economic realities are starting to trump Washington-based ideologies at last.
    1. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 7:24 pm

       March 2025 headline and story-

       ‘Mysterious explosion destroys the last NS2 pipeline. US Navy ships in the area at the time report that they saw a sailboat in the area resembling the Andromeda. The EU Parliament agrees not to discuss the subject except to blame it on Russia. The EU then proceeds to give Trump a medal like they did for old Joe for US-EU relations.’
44. ArvidMartensen February 2, 2025 at 6:07 pm

    The terrible collision between the copter and the passenger plane is going to severely dent the place of women in aviation.
    f the female copter pilot did the same courses and passed the same exams as her male colleagues, then she is not a DEI hire.
    If she was given a free pass then that needs to be called out. Otherwise she was entitled to her place.
    If the collectively made a catastrophic error, then let the chips fall where they may, on all of them.
    But the DEI anti-woman smear is already starting and here is a great example: https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2025/02/so-she-is-hero-now.html
    1. .BrianC - PDX February 3, 2025 at 1:26 am

       Facts are facts. We don’t know all of them, but we know a few.

       – The Pilot in Charge was a woman with 500 flight hours.

       – She was on a night time check ride being evaluated by an instructor pilot with ~1000 hours

       – The crew *may* have been short one crew member. Reddit posters claiming to be rotary wing pilots that have flown that route at night typically say the aircraft is manned with 4 crew. So there are two extra sets of eyes. One set for each side.

       – ATC had a situation where one controller was manning two screens.

       It *appears* that *if* the PIC had successfully maintained the proper altitude, for this section of the route, things *may* have worked out.

       PIC means she was ultimately responsible for the helicopter position, speed and direction. If she navigated the helo into the path of the jet that is on her.

       Andrei and others are pointing out that this *does not make the PIC a hero*. She might be a super good person, but in the one job she was responsible for performing, it appears she screwed up big time. Captain Sully had bird strikes in both engines and he and his copilot managed to safely ditch in the Hudson River with no loss of life. Captain Sully and his copilot can claim the hero title. The PIC in charge of a helo, if ultimately found to have flown into the path of the jet, is in no way a hero. Sorry.

       The NTSB evaluation is *not* complete. The final definitive determination of the altitude of the helo has *not* been released by the NTSB, but one can make some conclusions based on the fact that in their press conference they were very certain of the altitude of the jet at impact to within +/- 25 feet.

       We have no idea of her flight class evaluations and training fitness reports. That will come out in time. I agree that if she passed the flight quals and made the grade, by definition she’s not a DEI hire.

       As a layman however… I find it hard to believe that a pilot with ~500 hours would be given, as a matter of course, a check ride through a complex route at night. In a situation with mixed military/civilian aircraft.
       Night flight at Fort Rucker? Or during a dead time at Reagan Nat in coordination with ATC? Ok maybe.
       Otherwise — WTH? Likewise a check pilot with ~1000 hours?

       When I was a kid our neighbor down the street flew gunships for the MT National Guard. He had several thousand hours in rotary, fixed wing and multi-engine. He gave evaluations for pilots in his guard unit. The night time attack runs with multiple helos in the air and *no* navigation lights showing while under 100′ agl made for interesting stories. This was in an environment considerably easier to fly in than the area around DC.
       1. Yves Smith February 3, 2025 at 7:50 am

          This is serious Making Shit Up.

          Had you bothered spending a mere couple of minutes on a search engine, you would have found the US armed services allow for very low flight times for pilots, compared to commercial pilots. This has nothing to do with DEI and everything to do with different standards. And those standards likely come from commercial airlines having long had a very rigorous safety culture (and regulations that reflect that, which the industry support) so as to make passengers who would otherwise feel anxious regard hurtling through the air as safe.

          For instance, from WBALTV:

          Flight-time experience can vary widely between military and commercial helicopter pilots, which can be a big factor in situational awareness.

          SkyTeam 11 Capt. Roy Taylor provided new context about training that U.S. Army Black Hawk pilots undergo….

          Taylor, who has more than 26,000 hours of piloting helicopters, explained what the extra hours have given him….

          “The time gives you the opportunity to understand that you have to have situational awareness, more time in the aircraft gives you that situational awareness, so that you’re able to multitask — and multitasking is a very big thing in dealing with helicopter flying.”

          Taylor said when he trains helicopter pilots for the military who want to transition to commercial flights, the pilots often don’t have enough flying time to meet the minimum requirement.
45. amfortas the hippie February 2, 2025 at 6:25 pm

    ‘my mexicans’ calledme, told me they were finally heading out here.
    so i wnt forth, captured 3 problematic chickens, and then took the big ass dog cage on the dolly down to where i had most of the geese sequestered.
    captured 2 satan geese(black ones, recessive gene, boys’ terminology) and a random female.
    the big satangoose gave me a fight.
    on the back porch, all closed in for the wind from hell.
    smashed my 2 middle fangers on me right hand against the doorpost.
    its wrapped, with tiger balm…hence inaccurate typeing.
    they were supposed to be here ere 11am…but mexican standard time is a real thing, it turns out.
    manana.
    so i made $75 and a 12 pack of shiner.
    and its 85 degrees…rest of geese are really cross with me,lol…and the chickens dont give a damn.
    got all the next door chores done, already…and im nekkid at the wilderness bar, drinking beer, and fikken to smoke a homegrown hogleg.

    looks like it was eventful day, but i dont really care anymores.
    trump appears to be an accelerationist,lol.’
    who knew?!
46. amfortas the hippie February 2, 2025 at 6:36 pm

    https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1730345-REG/sony_zv_1f_vlogging_camera_with.html

    everybody and their dog has been telling me for years to get a youtube thing with all the crazy stuff i get up to out here.
    so ima bout ready to take the plunge.
    is that^^^^ a decent one?

    and i dont trust google with a hole in their head, and im naked for most of my doins out here…so maybe onlyfans?
    lol.
    (upset the already mad geese even further by laughing uproariously at th idea of a crippled, bearded, longhaired, grampaw guy with missing bottom front teeth, no less…
    doing radical yeoman farming and holding forth about agrarian anarchism, etc…with an onlyfans page,lol)
    1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 6:54 pm

       Heh heh heh, I wish I had the courage to do that. I imagine you will make more bank on onlyfans. I don’t like youtube even though I view stuff on it and link to it. Friggin monopolies.
       1. amfortas the hippie February 2, 2025 at 7:04 pm

          i try to be polite to my neighbors at the end of the road, and all…
          keep a towel handy, etc.
          but i dont think they care.
          never once look over here as they pass by.

          otherwise, i dont care who sees me nekkid.
          “naked came i into this world…” and all.(Don Quixote)
          i just need some extra income.

          so, anybody know if thats a decent camera?
          or if this is something to pursue?
          1. johnnyme February 2, 2025 at 9:44 pm

             I’m not a vlogger but no matter what camera you buy, the mount you use is just as important. If you’re going to be doing location shoots around your place (which I hope you do), a flexible mini-tripod like the Joby GorillaPod that you can wrap around just about anything sounds like a must-have for you.
             1. amfortas the hippie February 2, 2025 at 9:59 pm

                thanks.
                in a file, now.
                ill start with the minimum expenditure possible.
                what amazes me is that folks pay for such stuff,lol
                1. johnnyme February 2, 2025 at 10:11 pm

                   GorillaPods are fun, fun, fun and great to take along on wilderness adventures.

                   If one of your boys has a smartphone, I’d say commandeer it for a while for testing and experimentation before taking the plunge on a camera. :)
                2. timo maas February 3, 2025 at 9:50 am

                   You would also need lapel microphone, if you want to talk that is (and for the people to understand what you are saying).
             2. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 10:14 pm

                Sounds like that mount will double for a make-do portable blow dryer pipe de-freezer, (Conair Pro Yellow Bird sold separately) if that adds to the attraction.
                1. amfortas the hippie February 2, 2025 at 10:38 pm

                   in the file, as well
                   people pay for this sort of “content”.
                   remarkable.
                   i suppose if i wankd on fruit it would get me even more subscribers.
                   what a world we’ve allowed to be built around us.
    2. The Rev Kev February 2, 2025 at 10:14 pm

       You should perhaps look at Alex Christoforou’s videos to see one way that you could do it. A sort of walk and talk with occasional sit downs-

       https://www.youtube.com/c/AlexChristoforou/videos

       To be fair, New Atlas’s Brian Berletic tried it once or twice but found it exhausting.
       1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 10:47 pm

          Wuk introduced us to Wunderhussy, found on YouTube, who shoots videos of her passion for enjoying the great outdoors, often with a similar disdain for clothing.
47. flora February 2, 2025 at 8:07 pm

    From Meryl Nass.

    Lockheed told us 3 months ago you could commandeer a Blackhawk helicopter from a distance

    Why did it take so long to make public the pilot’s name? Where are the black box recordings?

    https://merylnass.substack.com/p/lockheed-told-us-3-months-ago-you
48. Tbroricky February 2, 2025 at 8:37 pm

    Is Project 2025 a color revolution by the the world’s elite overlord class with the plan of replacing the government workers with private “NGOs” reflecting the actions and ideology like those in today’s country of Georgia? And I may have missed it but why isn’t today’s DOGE being compared to the Venetian doge of the 8th century?
    1. mrsyk February 2, 2025 at 10:54 pm

       We’ve been dancing around the subject. Unfavorable signal to noise ratio for more than speculating at the moment, but yeah, could be some version of that. There’s quite a bit of informed opinion amongst the 250 or so comments above if your interested.
49. MG February 2, 2025 at 11:08 pm

    No but it is a way to use prison labor to not even pay market rates in El Salvador and cut private competition. All of the while there is nearly complete opaqueness about the entire process including where the revenue generated ends up. Instead, it is sold as a “rehabilitation” program to teach non-murders and rapists skills for when they leave prison with the revenue generated being used to fund the prisons and the innates training.

    Nukele is already doing this in El Salvador en masse. The “roundups” are part of the continued state of emergency since it started in 2019 & is still ongoing including a bunch of arbitrary arrests of younger men. Crime has been dramatically reduced but there is no reliable or credible crime statistics available since no one in the public has access to the figures & data. Same thing on arrests or people in prison.

    It’s a different version of hell than when narco gang control was so prevalent but a version of hell, nevertheless.
    1. MG February 2, 2025 at 11:15 pm

       By the El Salvador’s own estimates, they have imprisoned more than 1 in 57 civilians and the unofficial estimates from ages 18-45 for males are 10-12x that.

       People think the American prison population is large now at 1.23M although it has come down a bit in the last several years.

       There are roughly ~110M Americans between 18-45 and roughly half that are male.

       Imagine adding another 10M+ American males this age to the prison population to get an idea of what El Salvador has done.

Comments are closed.