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Open thread 1/30/24 — 26 Comments

  1. Do Unicorn farts contribute to global warming, AKA, the climate crisis?

    ‘On the face of it no, but actually, Unicorns bring exterresterial carbon into the biosphere, so yes, Unicorns do contribute to global warming.’ (completely made up)

  2. No they come from another part of the multiverse? Make up solutions to non existent problems

  3. So the harvard diversity officer plagiarism her husband from u w madison where he was a diversity officer hacks all the way down

  4. Everybody’s doin’ it, doin’ it, doin’ it….
    But REMEMBER, it HAS TO BE taken in context(!)
    (…Since we all know that INSISTING on NOT plagiarizing—or honesty generally—is White Supremacist, Raycist garbage….)

  5. how-much-does-human-breathing-contribute-to-climate-change?

    The only reason that question is relevant is if one intends to cull the population down to an “acceptable” emission level after finding the answer. And trust, the answer will be above acceptable.

    Invariably, those looking into that “issue” have a lower acceptable level and you.

    Invariably.

  6. ‘On the face of it …. up against the wall, or stand next to the trench.’

    What comes next is no surprise.

  7. Don’t worry, there’s always Fentanyl… (and tranq)…in the meantime.

    – – – – – – – – –
    And in other “you-just-can’t-make-this-stuff-up”(AKA unwholesome) news…
    “Bombshell Discovery Could Save Trump $83.3
    Million in Carroll Case”—
    https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/01/30/bombshell-discovery-could-save-trump-833-million-in-carroll-case-n4925953

    Sheesh….
    Taking into account, of course, that governance under “Biden” is, by definition, “scandal-free”….

  8. Banned Lizard @ 2:54pm,

    In that piece Paul Farhi writes, “What makes this so unnerving is the fact that the meltdown has come amid—and in seeming defiance of—a generally booming economy.”

    I’m sorry he lost his job last December, but if that’s an example of his ability to get to the truth in journalism he might want to consider switching occupations.

    What percentage of Americans would agree that this is a “booming” economy?

    But, I suppose he read that in the Washing Post (his former employer) or New York Times, so despite being out of work himself, and seeing most of his friends lose their jobs, and seeing the cost of his groceries go up every month, and his auto insurance likely being 20% – 30% higher and his apartment rent or mortgage interest soaring… it’s a “booming” economy.

  9. Rufus, Banned Lizard: Regarding a
    “booming economy”: To some who hate capitalism, this phrase is a sardonic “them vs us” jab.
    I. e., evil capitalists are getting richer by raising prices on their non-capitalist victims.
    Socialists & communists can attack capitalism this way, demanding redistribution.
    Leftist-run Austin is full of this.

  10. RE: China’s precipitous population decline

    How about these figures as one indicator of the true situation?

    There could be a number of things which could cause such a drastic decline, but I’m betting it’s mainly that people in China–particularly in the larger urban areas (as opposed to the usual situation in rural areas, where extra kids are extra, non-paid help, kids in an urban area are a lot more expensive to raise, and a lot more trouble, when you live in a very small apartment, work very long hours, and aren’t paid very much at all, or are having a great deal of trouble finding any job at all at any salary)–are just not having that many children anymore.

    New years births in Shanghai, China’s most populated city.*

    1990–2784

    2000–1148

    2010–380

    2020–156

    * See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTWh9rzW-Do&t=1299s

  11. Marlene,

    I hadn’t thought of it that way, but perhaps that was his intent. It doesn’t read that way to me, but you may be correct. And, in that sense, I agree with Fahri and the Austonians (Austinites?). The 1% are getting richer and the market did boom last quarter. But isn’t that the case everywhere, in any economic system? Hard to imagine how one keeps the “haves” from having more. Vladimir Putin’s home is quite nice, as is Xi’s. Raul Castro, Kim Jong Un… Not sure how Socialism or Communism will change that. However, in true capitalism the “have nots” have a lot more.

  12. farhi is a clown, you can see that from his twittter feed, which is like alec baldwin’s revolver, the Bezos like the Carlos Slims and a dozen other papers, just produce blank pages,

    the joke about socialism vs capitalism, in capitalism, man exploits man,…In post soviet Russia, where Taibbi had his formative experience it was a synthesis of state and public power, the apparatchiks, the nomenklatura in large part became oligarchs the oprichniks, the security men, became siloviki men of power thats a reductive way of seeing thing

    A similar thing happened with the PLA, which haven’t really fought any kind of external skirmish since 1979, with Vietnam, they became the framework for a larger private apparat,

    consider someone who hasn’t been fired David Ignatius, and probably never would in part because he has a sideline as labeled thriller writer, he is a prince of the post, his father was an executive under the old regime,Katherine Graham’s and deputy navy secretary
    his first gig was unraveling the Company ties to Arafat’s most cedulous operative, Ali Hassan Salameh

    and he serves the state function of propagandist see Khashoggi dirge,

  13. miguel cervantes–I don’t know.

    The problem is, of course, that what one would have good reason to believe are actually accurate Chinese government statistics on any subject are extremely hard to come by.

    Since everything, every sphere and aspect of life in a Communist state like Communist China, is viewed through a political lens, statistics on population numbers and trends–like many other statistics–are manipulated and/or suppressed in order to send the signals, the “image,” that the CCP wants to project about China, the successes of dictator Xi, and the Chinese Communist Party.

    Take, for instance, the recent youth unemployment statistics, which, when they started to reach 20, then, 30 percent, were just no longer reported.

    Take a look at the linked video above, where Ms.Lei has tried to look at some indirect indicators–numbers of mandatory baby injections as a clue to actual birth numbers, salt usage as an indicator of population size, etc.–to come up with a more likely estimated number for China’s actual population, which she believes is not 1.4 billion, but is actually more like one billion, or even substantially less.

  14. P.S. RE: China’s image vs. the reality

    An authoritative Chinese academic expert on China’s demographics has recently said that the Chinese Census had overestimated the number of Chinese in the last Census by 100 million people, and, moreover, that a lot of these over-counted
    people were young people.

    If as this expert and Ms Lei above believe, China’s population is smaller, perhaps much smaller than it is generally accepted to be, then the catastrophic population collapse which analysts like Peter Zehan had been are saying will happen by 2100 will likely be happening much, much sooner.

    Zehan has recently said that the Chinese government has about 10 years to take whatever steps it thinks best for the survival of the Chinese nation (and, of course, for the continuation of it’s own power and control) before their drastic decline in population will really be felt; the greatest population collapse in recorded human history, which by 2050 will result in the halving of the Chinese population.

    Thus, the number (and the ratio) of younger, active and capable, tax-paying members of society will drastically decline, to the (ratio) number of elderly and/or retired, much less capable, none or little tax-paying citizens–all needing increasingly higher levels of medical and other care, which will dramatically increase–and, thus, China’s pool of manpower, finances, options, and ability to act will become much, much more limited.

    It would seem to me that if XI is well enough informed to know of and to come to realize that this unavoidable demographic collapse will soon be upon him (but given Xi’s reported elimination of any and all rivals and his consequent isolation, and his sometimes fatal response to those who tell him bad news, he may not have been informed of, or, if he has been informed, may not even believe in the reality of the looming catastrophe), he may well make some radical decisions, and perhaps take some panicky and drastic actions as his response.*

    * See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ktQ1-tZczQ

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