I know you've heard the term. It has been bandied about by Trump and his followers for some time now. Fake news. But have you ever actually looked at it? We just recently dodged a bullet, created by Mitch McConnell & Co., with regard to the debt ceiling. After initiating the crisis by not rubber stamping the raising of the debt ceiling, as has been done multiple times in the past by both Democrats and Republicans, McConnell voted to kick the can down the road to December. This was his solution to his manufactured crisis.
Basically Mitch McConnell and the Republicans were using the debt ceiling as a political tool to use against the Democrats because they are in the process of negotiating a couple of rather large infrastructure bills. Raising the debt ceiling allows our government to pay its bills. Bills that have accrued under both Democratic and Republican administrations. It will also allow our government to pay the benefits that so many Social Security recipients and our military rely on. It has absolutely nothing to do with bills that may or may not even become law. Yet Republicans and their supporters, such as the TV personality I have a video of, are determined to risk tanking the American, and indeed the world, economy with their bullying tactics.
So here is a video of Sean Hannity excoriating Mitch McConnell for “caving” and voting to temporarily raise the debt ceiling. He professes to be a conservative. Sorry, I don't see it. Conservatives pay their bills. No, all I see is someone who is twisting news for propaganda purposes.
Hannity has one thing right, Joe Biden has been in office 9 months. Hardly long enough to create the inflation Hannity talks about. No, the problems we are facing were made before Biden came to office. I would take everything Hannity says with a large grain of salt. Fake news, indeed.
84 comments:
I first became conversational with the term "fake news" during the run up to the 2016 elections. It had come to mean, to describe, a certain type of website that was beginning to pop up, one which adopted the identity of an ancillary website for a nonexistent newspaper, or even a wholly 'on-line' news organization that didn't actually exist. There would be a webpage and a 'news' article from an ostensibly real newspaper (no real newspaper existed), or it would be the supposed product of a seemingly legit internet news organization which actually had zero organization behind it--just the one website, hosted by commercial web hosting company, and no reporters or editors or offices or any of that stuff. Just made up names for nonexistent people to support the claim of bylines on the nonexistent news organization. Truly and wholly 'fake' news. They supported, it will not surprise you to learn, right-wing political interests almost exclusively.
However, Trump heard the term and liked it and appropriated it for his own use and with his own meaning, and the rest is history.
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From last thread:
"Frankenstein's monster will not be put back in his box easily."
And… I also remember when I first noticed that phenomenon among the Republican 'base' voters, noticed that they were unleashed and could not be re-contained. It was way back during the Obama administration, first term, when the 'Tea Party' Republicans came up out of nowhere to dominate the Republican primaries. For several months FoxNews tried to maintain control over the message and impose some semblance of order on the radical reactionaries who were then starting to run away with the Republican 'message'. After only a few months--six months maybe, maybe even less, Roger Ailes and the Murdochs gave it up. From there on they simply adjusted their programming to parrot whatever stories were already running among the crazies who were dominating the Republican primaries. (There was another brief attempt to reclaim control of the message as FoxNews tried to throw the 2016 nomination to one of the 'establishment' candidates, but that didn't last more than a couple of months at best, maybe less, and they gave it up again and went back to broadcasting a straight diet of fantasy for the nourishment of the crazies once again; they've stayed with that programming decision ever since.)
On the other hand, their loss of control over the direction and content of the Republican 'message' has not deleteriously impacted FoxNews' advertising revenues.
"Truly and wholly fake news. They supported, it will not surprise you to learn, right-wing political interests almost exclusively."
"Fake news", as the term has come to be used in the USA, means "anything which doesn't support my favoured political narrative". The usage above is a perfect exemplar. Objectively, the US Right and Left have jointly created a post-truth society. Last summer your leftist media cheered on a bunch of communist agitators as they rampaged through American cities, looting and burning. "Black lives matter" they chanted, as black businesses burned.
Left and Right vie to own the dominant narrative, and truth will not stand in their way. Disagreements among national legislators and policy makers are represented as malicious and evil. News for y'all, when you paint your opponents as monsters, yore gonna create monsters.
Nobody appears to be worrying about the fact you haven't balanced a budget in twenty years. The rest of the world doesn't give a rat's ass what you spend your money on ... as long as it's YOUR money. You screwed the rest of us in '08 when you shared the benefits of your financial fecklessness with the world. How about getting your house in order instead of whinin' about Democrats being closet Republicans for daring to question the wisdom of spending money you don't have.
How about less hysterics about which of your second-rate incompetents occupies the White House? You might find a better choice of candidates if there was less hateful partisanship. Speaking of which, I know this is from the same lying media stable as the one in Lynnette's post, but I had to laugh heartily at the sheer unadulterated awfulness of Kamala in this clip. She makes Hilary look charismatic!
Most of your post is merely the same sort of hyper-partisan BS I could get from almost any Trumpkin/Republican in America. I don't need to worry 'bout it I don't think. However, the following is specific enough to warrant a comment.
"How about getting your house in order instead of
whinin' about Democrats being closet Republicans for
daring to question the wisdom of spending money you
don't have."
I presume you're referrencing my mentions of Joe Manchin being a fairly moderate Republican at heart, but running on the Democratic ticket in West Virginia because no moderate Republican could survive the Republican primary in a state that voted 70/30 for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
Working from that presumption… I would point out that Joe Manchin is not known have to publicly "questioned the wisdom" of the Trump administration's addition of Trillions of dollars in new debt (i.e. 'spending money [we] don't have'). Instead, like most Republicans, he waited until there was a Democrat in the White House and Democratic majorities in the Congress to heed the call of supposed fiscal prudence in the form of lower deficits.
And I find it curious that you're so very much into promoting Trumpkin/Republican politics in America--isn't there a nation called Ireland where you could support a 20ᵗʰ century fascist resurgence with considerably more impact?
Nobody appears to be worrying about the fact you haven't balanced a budget in twenty years.
Some people are too concerned with raising taxes on the wealthy. They are also too worried about giving any benefits to those who are less fortunate, because that smacks of socialism to them. Never mind that a little more equitable distribution of wealth actually benefits the economy.
There is a fine balance, which we cannot seem to find lately. But then we cannot seem to find anything lately...
Btw, I thought I heard somewhere that most nations don't have a "debt ceiling" per se? Does Ireland? Or Great Britain?
Btw, has anyone else noticed that things are going missing? I couldn't find my brand of facial soap or lotion this weekend. I suspect that the supply chain is screwed up royally everywhere.
And, horrors, the book racks aren't really being stocked very well at all.
It looks like we may be in for a bumpy ride this winter.
Citigroup on Monday ramped up its Brent oil forecast to $85 a barrel for the fourth quarter and said crude will likely hit $90 at times. The Wall Street bank cited "price contagion this winter" and the expected switching of power plants away from sky-high natural gas to oil.
Citi added that a "very cold winter" could see Europe "running out of gas" by February.
"Most of your post is merely the same sort of hyper-partisan BS I could get from almost any Trumpkin/Republican in America."
Yep, that's because yore as deranged as the rest of your hyper-partisan compatriots. No matter how much I wish a pox on both your houses, you'll see it as batting for the other side for the sole reason that it ain't batting for yourn.
"And I find it curious that you're so very much into promoting Trumpkin/Republican politics in America"
Y'all never did have a strong grasp on reality, and the little ya had is slipping. Actually, the only thing that makes Biden marginally tolerable is the fact that he kept Trump out. Trump was a liar who surrounded himself with liars. Biden ain't showing himself to be any better. How many barefaced lies has he told about the advice he got on Afghanistan? One hoped he might not be quite the same mix of incompetent and lyin' sack o' shit as Trump but no, they're both carved from the same dumb log.
I'm happy to let the market decide. Thankfully -- even in today's America -- you still can't fool all of the people all of the time. Which is why Biden's approval ratings are Trumpian in their badness. (That is, before Trump's ratings slid to Hitlerian levels post January 6th).
"Yep, that's because yore as deranged as the rest…"
Utterly shot logic; total non-sequitur. Even were I "as deranged as the rest", it would have no effect on the blatant partisanship that overtook your first post. (But then again, it's totally Trumpian logic to lay an accusation of your own faults on your critics--the classic Trumpian debate retort of "Not a puppet; not a puppet you're the puppet" comes unbidden to mind.) This sort of blatantly broken logic is why I declined to bother to debate that blast of BS that was the body of your first post. (And will likely ignore any further splashes of BS you deposit in this thread.) Talk to the lady instead; she seems to find your BS worthy of her time.
"…has anyone else noticed that things are going missing?"
There's been a shortage of lumber products, especially "manufactured" lumber, i.e. pressure treated, plywood, structural laminates, etc. for better than a year now. But, I buy my soap same as I buy my toilet paper, year's supply at a time.
All that said, there's been plenty of public talk 'bout supply chain shortages. But few that have affected me or drawn my specific attention other than building supplies.
"…sky-high natural gas…Europe 'running out of gas' by
February."
Putin be happy.
"I buy my soap same as I buy my toilet paper, year's supply at a time."
I'm surprised they sell it in quantities that small.
Having nothing else… He goes for the ad hominem assault. (If he'd been observant he could have found a typo to criticize--I'd noticed it after the post, but decided he wasn't worth the effort.)
Still no sense of humour I see ;-)
Lynnette: "How are things going with Brexit? I hear there have been some issues with getting goods delivered?"
Brexit is a clusterf*ck for the UK. So far, Bojo and his Tory minions are trying to claim that the effects are the fault of Covid and of the energy shortage, and that other European countries are suffering the same sort of transport bottlenecks.
However, that excuse is wearing thin. I don't think there are other European countries who are short 100,000 hauliers like the UK. They haven't had to bring the army in to drive tankers to the petrol stations. Nor are they ploughing farm produce into the ground for lack of pickers, or slaughtering animals which can't be transported. Even if they could, the abattoirs are out of CO2 for stunning animals because the fertiliser plants aren't producing it, because of the gas shortages.
Bojo is still picking fights with the French over fishing quotas, while the French have threatened to curb power supplies to the UK. It doesn't help that a fire on the France-UK interconnector has put a gigawatt of power out of action until next spring. Nor that the French semi-state company EDF is constructing the UK's new Hinckley point nuke.
Here in Ireland, Brexit is going swimmingly for now. We have relatively minor supply shortages (though that could get worse depending on the politics). We are one of the UK's largest trading partners, but we have managed to massively increase our exports while having to reducing our imports. In other words, the UK has managed to turn a large trade surplus with Ireland into a deficit.
The big uncertainty is the state of Northern Ireland. A big element of the Brexit settlement was the introduction of the NIP (Northern Irish Protocol), which kept the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland open, and effectively introduced a customs border in the Irish sea between Northern Ireland and Britain. To say this was causing problems would be an understatement.
NI unionists who don't want to see any diminution of the union between the UK and NI are outraged by the new border. Their less savoury partners, the loyalist paramilitaries, have started saber rattling over it. Of course, the border arrangements were hammered out over five years, and were actually the suggestion of the UK after all attempts to negotiate a softer Brexit were repudiated by them.
The Unionists who voted for Brexit were also warned that the NIP was the inevitable consequence of voting for Brexit. (They actually controlled the UK House of Commons when they shot down Theresa May's softer Brexit proposals). Somehow the Unionists deluded themselves that a hard Brexit would mean a hard border on the island of Ireland, and that they'd cut us nasty Southerners off for once and for all. Now that what they were told was going to happen has actually happened they are screaming blue murder about the solution they voted for!
(cont'd...)
(...cont'd)
Bojo is also crying into his soup about the Protocol which he proposed and signed up to. The UK has been continually threatening to trigger Article 16 of the protocol which is a renegotiation clause in case it's not working as planned. The problem for him and the Unionists is that arguably, the NIP is working perfectly. While Unionists have been complaining about not being able to get English sausages, it turns out they are suffering none of the supply shortages of mainland Britain, because we are supplying them from the South. Farmers and businessmen in the North -- even Unionist ones -- are quietly noting that their joint access to British and EU markets is working to their advantage. The NIP gives them a best of both worlds that is not available to any other region of the UK or Europe.
Nevertheless, NI Unionist politicians have never been shy of throwing the province under a bus to protect their precious union, and it will likely be no different this time. That said, they are likely to shortly lose their First Ministership of the Northern Ireland Assembly to a nationalist party for the first time. The same nationalist party will likely win elections in the South next time out also, leaving a single party in power in both jurisdictions for the first time ever. Calls for a united Ireland are likely to grow -- the 1998 Belfast Agreement makes provision for a referendum on the subject whenever a nationalist majority seems likely. All of these developments could have a seriously destabilising effect on the country, which I am not looking forward to. And this is before we even consider whether Scotland, the UK's other dissatisfied partner, is going to push for an independence referendum.
Cheap and juvenile ad hominem pot shots are widely considered humorous in Ireland, are they?
(Or maybe it's just you gets a charge out of that kind of post. I'd reckon it likely to just be you. I rather doubt most of Ireland is quite as shallow as yourself.)
Well, that's enough for a Monday; I'm down for the night.
Ciao for now.
Lynnette: "Btw, I thought I heard somewhere that most nations don't have a "debt ceiling" per se? Does Ireland? Or Great Britain?"
We signed up to a European Fiscal Stability Pact which is supposed to stop us running a deficit greater than 3% of GDP. It was brought in after the financial crash courtesy of your good selves. (Admittedly, European banks were no less reckless than US ones during the mortgage boom and bust). I suspect all the deficit targets went out the window due to Covid. And of course, unlike us, the UK is not bound by anything since leaving the EU. They have an "Office for Budget Responsibility" which they government can choose to listen to or not.
Btw the European Central Bank, like the Fed, are saying that current inflationary pressures are temporary and will subside. The Brits are saying the same. I suspect there's a few nervous titters amongst it all. The debts that we have all run up since the GFA -- and never paid down -- start to look pretty crippling if you factor in a few interest rate rises. Everyone's forgotten about the incentives to keep your house in order, but it may come back to bite a few asses yet.
"Cheap and juvenile ad hominem pot shots are widely considered humorous in Ireland, are they?"
They most certainly are. Whole country thrives on 'em. You've obviously never been here.
Biden's main attraction has always been that he is not Trump. But having said that, I suspect that the current environment would be a challenge to even the most intelligent of statesman.
So I tend to cut Biden some slack.
*sigh*
We have to work with what we have.
Everyone's forgotten about the incentives to keep your house in order, but it may come back to bite a few asses yet.
Probably. But it won't be the people who ransacked the house that pay the price.
"Whole country thrives on 'em."
Ireland doesn't have much of a reputation for 'thriving'. There were a couple relatively brief historical spells serving as pirate havens, and there's the more recent fairly brief service as a tax haven for foreign corporations (not that much different from hosting foreign pirates). But no significant history of widespread Irish 'thriving'.
(Come to think of it, the Irish don't have much of a reputation for comedy either, even of the juvenile sort you're defending. So, I still think it's probably just you who thinks you're amusing.)
"We signed up to a European Fiscal Stability Pact which is
supposed to stop us running a deficit greater than 3% of
GDP."
He appears to mistake spending caps for a debt ceiling; doesn't seem to understand the difference. So, I'll take up your question.
Most nations do not have a functional debt ceiling. Those that have a nominal debt ceiling (often adopted in mimicry of the American example but soon after abandoned) have almost all discovered some "legal" way to ignore it.
"the Irish don't have much of a reputation for comedy"
... according to a poll of one po-faced leftwinger ;-)
That's the ole' post-truth thing rearing its head ... reality is whatever y'all declare it to be. Can't end well.
I forgot to answer specifically.
"Does Ireland? Or Great Britain?"
No. USNews
I rather think debt ceilings are meaningless. At least everyone seems to find a way around them. Lately it only seems good as a political weapon here.
...reality is whatever y'all declare it to be. Can't end well.
Yes, well, his Orangeness was famous for that. It seems to be what the Republican party is dealing in nowadays. And, no, it won't end well. *sigh*
It just makes me want to bury my head in Netflix. Fantasy can be a comfort.
On another note, winter is fast approaching and some of my trees are already quite bare. They started losing their leaves in August due to stress from the drought. Along with that some crops are less plentiful, such as oats. There is an energy crisis in China because so many of its coal mines are flooded. Welcome to the beginning of serious climate change...
"Lately it only seems good as a political weapon here."
Yes, and it's been working very, very well as a political weapon.
The Trumpkin/Republicans have been quite pleased to have it available; it has been valuable to them.
There is some reason to suspect that its value is decreasing as the they use it more and more often. Simply put, the independent, 'swing' voters may be starting to notice and, perhaps more importantly, to understand how they've been using it.
(It's not often that McConnell has to give ground, and he didn't do it this last time because he wanted to save the nation or any such silly, idealistic stuff such as that. He gave ground because he thought he was losing the fight for public opinion by fighting on that ground. He'll be wanting to regain that ground he surrendered come December and it comes time to revisit this issue. It's not clear he'll be in a position to do so, but he's clever, and the pressure on him to revisit this issue and not 'cave' this time will be intense unless he gets out ahead of his caucus's expectations.)
All indications are that we're gonna be able to get a Moderna booster shot here in a few weeks, maybe even a few days.
Lynnette: " There is an energy crisis in China because so many of its coal mines are flooded. Welcome to the beginning of serious climate change..."
To pin it on climate change you'd have to show a worsening trend over a long number of years. The media has stopped even bothering about historical comparatives and is now attributing every extreme weather event to climate change. It makes good clickbait but it's scientifically illiterate.
The Chinese dynasties were nothing if not good record keepers. The Yellow River has flooded in more than two out of every three years since the start of the iron age, two and a half thousand years ago. Like most even slightly developed countries, the impact of modern floods in China are a minute fraction of what they were historically.
The 1931 floods -- when China's population was a third of what it is now -- were the deadliest natural disaster in human history. They killed somewhere between one and four million people and rendered eighty million homeless. Seven years later a flood killed a half to one million people (though that one was manmade). The 1887 floods killed one to two million people.
There's a reason they call the Yellow River "Zhongguo de Tong" (China's Sorrow). It flows out of 14,000 ft mountains across a loessal plain and carries away so much silt that it then builds its own embankment up to ten metres above the surrounding countryside. It and its tributaries are a constant disaster waiting to happen. Average rainfall is elevated slightly in the last decade in China, but not significantly higher than the 1940s, another wet decade.
The real Chinese flood story right now is the flood of property defaults. The Evergrande story in the news is only the tip of the iceberg. I've been droning on about the coming property implosion for years, but I think we're finally at the tipping point. The Chinese government are clearly going to do everything in their power to manage the crisis, but the longer the bubble has gone on the less room there is for manoeuvre. It is too late to keep all the plates spinning.
I think it will still take some years to unwind, but every property statistic in China is off-the-charts crazy right now, and something has to give. Most important of all, the Chinese public who have three quarters of all household wealth tied up in property are beginning to realise the game is up. There have been a trickle of protests over the last few years where developers have started selling new property for less than previous prices, but now the floodgates are opened. Real estate companies are going bust, entire clusters of unoccupied high rise towers are being demolished, new property that has been paid for up front is not being delivered. It definitely seems like the beginning of the end. An interesting video on the subject here.
"To pin it on climate change you'd have to show a
worsening trend over a long number of years."
Ain't no such rule as that. You just made that up.
"Ain't no such rule as that."
Dunce.
You made mention earlier of a "poll of one". (…not to dally overlong with that…)
You threw out a quick con, a new rule you just made up for the moment, and tried to follow it up with a diversion to a new subject (to Chinese overbuilding) so the con could take hold without examination. I spotted that clear 'nuff.
To pin it on climate change you'd have to show a worsening trend over a long number of years.
I guess I'm not sure what would be considered long number of years in terms of Earth's age? Yes, China has had issues with flooding over a long period in human years, but what about Earth's? And from all I have read on climate change it is very likely that the change will not be linear. We will have periods of fluctuation. But climate change will cause the extreme events to become more frequent.
I will grant you that perhaps the pandemic has exacerbated the effects of climate issues.
I think it will still take some years to unwind, but every property statistic in China is off-the-charts crazy right now, and something has to give. Most important of all, the Chinese public who have three quarters of all household wealth tied up in property are beginning to realise the game is up. There have been a trickle of protests over the last few years where developers have started selling new property for less than previous prices, but now the floodgates are opened.
Three quarters? Now that is really a scary number. So we may see in our lifetime again what happens when a communist country's economy implodes. Actually I am not looking forward to that. In the case of China they are too intertwined with the global economy, unlike the former Soviet Union. If we think we have supply shortages now, just wait.
An interesting video on the subject here.
What a waste of resources!
"The 1931 floods…Seven years later a flood…The 1887
floods…"
Improper examples for comparison. The Chinese have undertaken almost a century of party-directed (meaning massive compulsion) water control projects in the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys since the last of those events. Also, modern communications--or, in the case of pre-1980s China, semi-modern communications--have cut down on the number of fatalities. The government can now order the necessary evacuations and get the word out to the cadres in the field. Been able to pull that off since the 1950s probably. Apples to oranges.
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"…when a communist country's economy implodes."
Probably doesn't matter much; doesn't affect the validity of your point, but China's not really a communist country anymore.
"An interesting video on the subject" somewhere…
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Meanwhile, back at the ranch…. Bernie Sanders filed an Op-Ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Joe Manchin's home town, West Virginia newspaper. The Op-Ed lays out all the ways that Biden's 'Build Back Better' initiative will be beneficial especially to the poorer residents in our nation and specifically and especially to the low-income voters who inhabit West Virginia in a such great number (which legislation Manchin always names by its original price tag of $3.5 trillion). Apparently Manchin is not pleased, and went on FoxNews to let that much be known to all his West Virginian supporters--that along with a reminder that Sanders is actually a Socialist in Democrats' clothing.
Me: "To pin it on climate change you'd have to show a worsening trend over a long number of years."
Lynnette: "I guess I'm not sure what would be considered long number of years in terms of Earth's age?"
I meant the so-called "climatological normal" of thirty years. Climate isn't the same as weather, so you can't have climate change without measuring against a baseline and showing a trend.
Dunce: "Improper examples for comparison. The Chinese have undertaken almost a century of ... water control projects."
They were entirely proper examples -- countering anecdotes with anecdotes. You wanna academic treatise on Chinese flooding? I got plenty of those too. Not gonna waste them on yore rancid self though. China's modern problem is urban flood control.
You can "counter" with whatever makes you feel good; I suppose making yourself feel good is as valid a goal as any other. It was the comparison that was invalid, not so much the urge to 'counter' nor even your surrender to that urge (and I later realized I should properly have written 'invalid' as my adjective rather than 'improper')
And you can play the sophist as well as the dunce. Y'all gonna have to play that game on yer own, though.
Meanwhile, China moved to downplay the gaping wound in the property market ...
"A People’s Bank of China official has said the spillover of a crisis at Evergrande on the financial system was “controllable”, in the central bank’s first official comments on the world’s most indebted developer since it missed international bond payments last month."
"The statement came as the company faces increasing scrutiny from regulators ahead of a potential default next week, with Hong Kong’s audit watchdog announcing a probe into PwC’s most recent audit of its accounts. Zou Lan, an official at the PBoC, told reporters at a press conference on Friday evening that the Evergrande situation was being resolved by local governments and authorities through “market and rule of law principles”, according to state media."
"The comments represent a significant intervention from Beijing after Evergrande sparked volatility across global markets when it missed an interest payment due on September 23 on one of its dollar-denominated bonds, triggering a 30-day grace period. The company’s rapidly unfolding liquidity crisis has shown signs of spreading across China’s real estate development sector, where the number of defaults is growing, raising concerns over possible fallout for China’s wider economy."
"Last week developer Fantasia defaulted on a $206m bond, while Sinic Holdings said a default would “likely occur” regarding a payment due on Monday. Offshore yields on China’s riskier corporate borrowers have hit their highest level since 2009. Lan said Evergrande had been “poorly managed” and “failed to operate cautiously”, but that the real estate industry more broadly was healthy."
(Financial Times)
"And you can play the sophist as well as the dunce…"
Just reminding you that it was the comparison that was not valid. (And that I got no use for your attempts to 'counter' with smoke and mirrors.) There was nothing fallacious about my point.
However, your insistence on comparing apples and oranges here reminds me of when you tried to argue that we should be comparing "charcoal residues" from forest fires in virgin Northwestern forests of hundreds of years ago to the "charcoal residues" left after forest fires in modern lower California (now overrun with invasive chaparral) or with the residues found after fires run through the Oregon/Washington orchards present there today. You got no clue 'bout the outside world it seems, or how those things work. You're a city Irish ain't ya?
Petes: Climate isn't the same as weather, so you can't have climate change without measuring against a baseline and showing a trend.
Yes, I think what scientists have been saying is that we are seeing more extreme weather events more frequently. China isn't the only country that has experienced massive amounts of rainfall.
I would consider the 1930's to be only a short time ago considering the age of the Earth.
But it really doesn't matter what you or I think. It is unlikely anything will be done to change our future as long a politicians cannot agree on anything. It makes me glad I'm over 30. And it takes a lot for a woman to say that!
Lan said Evergrande had been “poorly managed” and “failed to operate cautiously”, but that the real estate industry more broadly was healthy."
Considering the number of enormous towering buildings China has that are empty I find that hard to believe. But he has to say something that won't spook investors. I don't know, I think we may see sooner rather than later a reckoning for China. It is like the pandemic has laid bare all of our greatest weaknesses.
I am going to a play tomorrow. The first one in over a year and a half. The theater is requiring proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test. I am fine with that.
I am still not sure about dining in. The community spread in my area is high now. Maybe it will still be nice enough so that we can eat outside.
"Yes"
Lynnette @ Sat Oct 16, 09:25 PM ↑↑
No.
We don't necessarily need a baseline nor a "trend". He's just taking advantage of your desire to seem "reasonable".
I throw a rock at a picture window on a house (close range--energetic toss). I don't need a baseline nor a trend to tell me what's gonna happen. (Absent some very unusual intervening circumstances.) Experience counts. Glass breaks. Don't need no baseline nor proof of a trend to tell me that. Could be the first time I ever did that on purpose (would be in fact). Makes no difference. I don't need no baseline nor trend. Window gonna break.
The historical geological record of the Earth clearly establishes that global warming follows close on the heals of increases in greenhouse gases, always, every time so far, for as far back as they can tell.
Experience counts--to Hell with baselines and trends. He wants us to believe it's gonna magically be different this time, it's up to him to make the case for magic. Ain't our job to disprove magic just 'cause he invoked the extremely unlikely possibility of magic happenin'.
LOL. Someone should tell those scientists to stop wastin' money on computerised climate models instead of throwin' rocks at windows. 😁🤣
The climate models were developed in reliance on experience--precisedly that 'rocks at windows' kinda stuff to which you've closed your eyes. They had the climate models runnin' long before the overwhelming majority of climate scientists were willing to acknowledge the proof of the developing trend (which is why they got caught off guard by the speed with which it's happenin' now).
And you are freakin' clueless or you'd have figured that much out already.
You're too busy trying to pretending you don't believe the trend has been proven, but your attempts at diversion are telling a different story, a con man's story. They're your effort to con your way past the admission of what you already know to be true.
Just waiting for the play to start. Not too many people here. We'll see how gull the theater is. I suspect some may be put off by the need for proof of vaccination. It's that kind of area.
We chose to dine in.
*sigh*
Full
So… Did you enjoy your day at the theatre?
I did. The play wasn't the best but it was just nice to do something normal. They required masks during the time we were in the theatre, on top of the proof of vaccination. I was perfectly fine with that.
RIP
Colin Powell.
Despite being vaccinated he passed due to Covid 19 complications. I always liked him. It is sad to lose someone of such stature.
Dunce: "You're too busy trying to pretending you don't believe the trend has been proven..."
Dunce, previously: "We don't necessarily need a baseline nor a 'trend'"
You definitely ought'a stick to throwin' rocks at windows. That other stuff ain't yore strong point.
Seems you don't recognize strong points either.
Powell should have at least outlived Dick Cheney in the end. Had the karma thing worked out as it is often advertised, he'd have got that much back out it at least.
I noticed that Trump has sued the House's Select Jan 6ᵗʰ Committee for investigating the attempted coup of that date (and the National Archives, which holds the paperwork in question). He seeks to enforce Biden's Executive Privilege exemption to subpoenae (over Biden's objection). I don't see that Trump's got much of a legal leg to stand on, but I do see a reasonable likelihood ('high' likelihood may be more accurate) that our newly right-wing, authoritarian-friendly Supreme Court could keep the lawsuit alive and the documents the Democrats seek hidden until after 2024, when it won't make any difference anymore.
By then Trump will have either lost his bid for a second term as President (and will either have won or lost in his second attempt to foment an insurrection) or he will have won the 2024 election and will be shutting down the federal courts on specious national security claims (or something else equally invalid).
Liz Cheney has come out and said bluntly that Trump is trying to hide his involvement in the insurrection. She appears to be calling for Republicans to stand up and do the right thing. Good luck with that. But it is to her credit.
Plus…. She has a firm grasp on the obvious. To wit:
"…Trump is trying to hide his involvement in the insurrection.
_________________________
On another front… Trump has announced the roll out of a new "social media" platform for himself to dominate. It will be called "Truth". A beta version is expected to be available for download from the Google Store sometime in November of this year, with a general release targeted for some time during the first quarter of 2022. (Presumably he's learned at least a little bit from his first, failed attempt to create his own proprietary internet following, and is expecting that this one will go a bit better.)
It looks like I was wrong. Laundrie was in the Nature Preserve the whole time. They just identified the remains found there as his.
It will be called "Truth"
Trying his hand at comedy now?
It looks like the voting rights bill has died. *sigh*
On another note...
My cousin's wife sent me a link to a YouTube video by a rightwing satirist.
Not only did he play fast and loose with facts but he stole some of the critical points the left have been making against Trump and used them against Biden. No originality.
But disturbing that my cousin and his wife find him amusing or even factual.
"Trying his hand at comedy now?"
Does the name "Pavda" ring a bell?
Perhaps a reminder from the Wiki people will help?
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"No originality."
Repeating whatever accusation has been made back at the person making the accusation is a tactic Trump picked up in his 20s from his then lawyer Roy Cohen. He's found it useful then and since, and he uses it a lot. (I noticed that Petes has picked up that tactic recently, from studying Trump I reckon it--he's picked up a couple of Trump's habits I've noticed.)
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Curious thing about the Laundrie discovery… The FBI let his parents in to the nature preserve for the very first time, and they pretty much walked straight to the body; found it the first place they looked. The FBI just followed them there.
"It looks like the voting rights bill has died."
And yet, nobody's reminding Manchin, not in public anyway, about how he was gonna personally round up ten Republicans to support a watered-down version of a federal voting rights bill if they'd just agree to water it down to suit Manchin (which they did, but then he didn't come through with the ten Republicans) That all seems to be forgotten. And Manchin's resistance to reform of the filibuster goes forward apparently completely unfazed.
Trump does seem to have learned some lessons from less than Democratic people. Yet this does not seem to bother some of our elected representatives.
I believe Mary Trump has said that (according to internal 'family' reports from Ivanna Trump) Hitler's "Mein Kampf" was one of the few books Trump ever tried to read. (Which comes as something of a surprise to me only because it's not an easy read--Hitler's writing style was about as disorganized as were his fairly rambling speeches--he shared that 'fairly rambling' and disorganized speaking style with Trump, as you may or may not have noticed.)
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(I haven't even tried to read her book, but I seem to recall reading that in a printed review somewhere.)
I haven't finished her book yet, I kind of got distracted. But I believe you are right about Mein Kampf. The idea of reading anything pertaining to the idea of democracy, which is what this country was supposed to be about, does not seem to have crossed Trump's mind. For him it's all about power, his, which was what he learned from his father.
I listened to an analyst on CNN talking about the situation at the southern border. The number of people attempting to cross from Mexico into the US has increased by a huge amount since Biden took office. What was interesting was that these people are not just from countries from south of the US but from just about every region of the world. The analyst was saying that the Biden administration has gone back to "catch and release" which was discontinued under Trump. His take on this being that that is the reason people feel they can get into the US easier. However, the numbers are much larger then before Trump took office when that policy was in place.
Two things strike me about what is happening at the border. If we had enough staff and facilities in place to hold people until their cases are determined then catch and release would not be the default to overcrowding. The second point is that if catch and release was being done before Trump and the numbers were lower at that time then it can't be the only reason people are now deciding to make the attempt to get into the US. I realize that the buck stops at the President's desk, but we really need to understand the root cause of why people are now doing what they are doing. Because if it is a combination of factors; climate change, social unrest, the pandemic, we will probably see the numbers continue to increase.
But I gotta say, we have a lot of jobs going begging. So much so that it is starting to disrupt the economy. If these people want to work, more power to them, because it appears that Americans don't.
"The analyst was saying that the Biden administration has
gone back to 'catch and release' which was discontinued
under Trump."
The analyst was saying it wrong. The Trump administration was 'releasing' many of those it caught to camps just over the line to the Mexican side. This caused a huge build-up of people there who were (and now are) coming back over the border again and again and again. (Biden has tried to quit that part of Trump's policy.)
"His take on this being that that is the reason people feel
they can get into the US easier."
Well, the Republicans keep braying at the top of their voices that Biden has an "open border" policy. Biden keeps saying "No, that's not right", but the "coyotes" the people smugglers, are playing clips of the Republican Senators saying that Biden's opened the border on the radio stations all across Central and Southern America, trying to drum up business. The distinction between Republican Sentors saying that on the radio (translation provided by the helpful coyotes, of course) and Democrats saying it ain't so is getting lost on the potential customers for the coyotes. (People tend to hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest.)
All that said, I'm still of the opinion that we got quite enough people here already. We don't need more. If the capitalists are having trouble filling their jobs, then they need to offer more incentives--higher pay, and especially better working conditions.
If the capitalists are having trouble filling their jobs, then they need to offer more incentives--higher pay, and especially better working conditions.
I think we are starting to see that here, at least the better pay part. I am thinking some kitchen restaurant workers make more than I do! Although they probably don't have the benefits.
Poland, Italy, and the Netherlands have demanded that the E.U. launch an investigation of the Russian natural gas mega-corporation Gazprom for price manipulation and abuse of its semi-monopoly status. (Smaller Eastern European countries (non-E.U.) are reporting that Russia is putting a squeeze on their gas supplies just as they're trying to stock up for winter.) Putin be happy.
Germany opposes making Putin unhappy at this point.
Politico
Did they really expect anything different from Russia? I have always thought it a mistake for European countries to rely on Russia for natural gas. This will only get worse.
Perhaps a more illuminating question would center on whether anybody expected better from Germany?
(With Germany opposed to an investigation the request of the smaller countries will go nowhere.)
It seems the the game is afoot in Asia.
A joint Chinese and Russian naval exercise, in which a flotilla of 10 warships completed a near circle around Japan's main island, has been touted by the two countries as a means of ensuring stability in a volatile region.
But analysts say the drills are likely to have the opposite effect, potentially reigniting regional tensions and enhancing claims by the Japanese government that it needs to increase military spending to counter Chinese aggression.
Perhaps a more illuminating question would center on whether anybody expected better from Germany?
Didn't I read somewhere that Germany was dismantling its nuclear facilities? They were favoring natural gas? Personally I wouldn't want to rely on Russia for anything.
Germany shut down all their nuclear power sites immediately following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan. Germany is currently razing rural villages to make way for new coal mining operations to recover the electrical capabilities it lost in that (rash, in my opinion) decommissioning of power plants. WashingtonPost
New coal mining operations? I thought Germany was one of the leaders in green technology? They appear to be regressing.
On that note, I noticed this warning on energy prices.
Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman warned Tuesday that high energy prices will likely set off social unrest around the world.
"We're going to end up with a real shortage of energy. And when you have a shortage, it's going to cost more. And it's probably going to cost a lot more," the private-equity billionaire told CNN International's Richard Quest at a conference in Saudi Arabia.
Unfortunately the transition, if we are even going there, to green technology will probably happen in fits and starts, making the path rather rocky.
I'm kind of sick of Manchin and Sinema. They seem to be power hungry.
"… power hungry."
Not that I disagree with your point…. I will grant ya that Manchin is milking his 15 months of fame. But, generally, people don't get to be United States' Senators unless they rate above average on the 'power hungry' scale.
Nevertheless, Manchin is a fairly known quantity to me. My biggest complaint about Manchin is not that he's not a 'real Democrat' (he's as 'real' as a Democrat could get and still win a Senate seat out of West Virginia). My biggest complaint is that I can't trust a word he says in public. (He's a bit more honest in private conversations with peers whom he can expect will not rat him out to the press, or so I've gathered.) However, he is fairly predictable, so I don't have to rely on what he says to reporters to know generally how he's gonna act and react. (But I will concede, the more attention I pay to the bullshit lines he feeds to the press, the more he pisses me off.)
I've been more curious about Sinema's motivations and goals. I've been watching her moves and reading reviews by those who claim to be her friends (or allies at least), and by those who claim to be former friends (same caveat), and those who claim to have never been her friend. Plus I been reading reviews by reporters who claim to have interacted with her historically, even if they've pledged to keep those specific interactions off the record. I find that the more I know about Sinema, the less I like her, and I already like Sinema much less than Manchin (and I'm not overly fond of Manchin). I also find her much less predictable than Manchin, and not even barely consistent in her own principles (assuming she actually has any principles), nor much interested in becoming either predictable nor consistent.
I judge Sinema to be a sort of Democratic version of Marjorie Taylor-Greene. (Whom, I'm given to understand has recently dropped the hyphen and now goes by 'Marjorie Taylor Greene' instead.)
This is not a compliment.
However, as Manchin pointed out a week or so ago, the solution to the Democrat's Manchin problem is simply for the Democrats to elect more Democrats and thereby flush Manchin out of his perch in the catbird seat.
The solution to the Sinema problem looks to me to be getting her successfully primaried in Arizona. Electing more Democrats would also help, à la the Manchin problem. (Word's going about that Sinema, not Manchin, is the real threat to jump from the Democratic Party to a claim of being an independent. Now that she's in the Senate, she may figure she can stay without maintaining a party affiliation. She may be correct.)
Electing more Democrats would also help...
I think that would solve a lot of the current problems with governing at the moment. Not to say they are perfect, but perhaps they could get something done that would actually benefit the American people in general.
"…perhaps they could get something done that would actually
benefit the American people in general."
Breaking the back of the American neo-fascist movement led by Trump would be of great benefit to the American people in general.
The Trumpkin/Republican Party will not abandon its quest for an American fascist state, ruled by them, until and unless it's proven to them that they cannot achieve that goal. They currently think there's a chance of pulling off the destruction of our Republic as 'an inside job', à la the rise of Mussolini and his National Fascist Party (PNF by its initials in Italian) or the rise of Hitler and his National Socialist Party, a/k/a the Nazis.
If they are forced to admit to an inability to pull it off as an inside job, they'll try it as an insurrection again--following closer to the model of Francisco Franco's bloody revolution in Spain.
But, Trump is basically incompetent. So, it'll be better if they're forced to attempt the insurrection again before Trump dies and gets replaced by a more competent Great Leader.
First thing then, is to beat them at the ballot box again, hopefully pulling off a long shot win of another legislative majority in 2022, followed (more importantly) by another loss by Trump to Biden in 2024.
I'm willing to concede the likelihood that I'll have to go back to working against the Democrats soon after they've achieved that first goal. It's likely that they'll try to "equalize" too much of the American economy for it to run at its best. (Although they do seem to be making a run at becoming the Party of Rich, which is incompatible with the necessary redistribution of income and assets.) They may adopt 'bleeding heart' immigration policies with which I'll pragmatically disagree. Etc. But, those sorts of second tier problems can easily await the resolution of the first problem.
First things first.
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And now, having broached the subject of immigration, I'll take a moment to suggest that America's jammed up ports won't really benefit from an influx of cheap, immigrant labor. Bloomberg Just running an overnight shift at the ports, like the rest of the world does, will help a lot more.
I'm not going to speculate on the condition of Minnesota's kitchen help.
First things first.
Yes, indeed. We are not past the danger that Trump and his ilk pose. One step at a time.
I have in the past preferred a balanced government in the hopes that neither side will do something to tip us too far one way or the other. But right now it does appear that the clear and present danger is from the right. If that ever flips the other way then I too would stand against that over correction.
Speaks for itself; no further comment necessary:
"TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s flagship university…blocked [three
professors] from testifying in a lawsuit challenging the state’s
new law voting restrictions.
"Top University of Florida officials asserted that it was a
conflict of interest for professors to testify in the lawsuit
because they’re state employees. It’s a notable turnaround in
university policy, which for years allowed professors to testify
in lawsuits against the state — including one that
unsuccessfully challenged [a] state law that restricted voting
rights…"
Politico
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"First Responders", a modern term admired mostly for its pliability I think, have begun calling in sick in high numbers in both Chicago and New York City, rather than openly defy the vaccine mandates going into effect over this weekend. I suspect this is their first step towards a grudging, reluctant knuckling under to the mandates being imposed on public workers in both cities.
(It should be noted that police officers have a much higher degree of "non-compliance" compared to other groups of municipal employees. Firefighters appear to come in a fairly distant second.)
Pete, Pete, Pete, why even bother. I read the first few posts in this thread and nodded my head at every one of your posts and shook it at the replies. No wonder you gave up.
And just as a specific item: having Lee, the dullest of dulll Americans question Irish humor, which is top tier, that was just baffling to witness. (And you’re of course more correct than the other two on facts also, not as correct as I would’ve been but pretty close)
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