The whining and handwringing from the right over the release of Trump’s tax returns is making me crazy. Seriously? The man who refused to release his returns as every other presidents for the past half century hve done, had foreign business entanglements, refused to divest his companies and was clearly still involved in the businesses throughout his term is running for president again! He officially announced it! As Noah Bookbinder in the Atlantic writes: Getting Trump’s tax returns should not have been this hard. Every president elected since Richard Nixon—with the exception of Trump—has publicly disclosed his tax returns. Tax returns can tell the American people, and Congress, whether a president is following the law and behaving honestly. Crucially for Trump, who uniquely and inappropriately retained ownership of a massive international business while president, they can provide information about conflicts of interest that may have swayed his decision making. They’re out.
Reading
New Year's Eve eve lunch.
Always the most hilarious "criticism," though one which political reporters love to take seriously.
Text from an insider in NY politics: “The so called progressives have now completely politicized the selection of chief judge.” https://t.co/GUkPRnbOVv
— Gerson Borrero (@GersonBorrero) December 30, 2022
It seems that the NYT wants to push a story of declining homeownership rates, but the data refuse to cooperate, so they ignore it.
The post The NYT Doesn’t Have Access to Census Data: We Do Not Have a Record Number of Renters appeared first on Center for Economic and Policy Research.
What’s that we hear from Mar-a-Lago? It finally happened at 9 a.m. ET this morning (NBC News): A House committee made public six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns Friday, the culmination of years of legal wrangling and speculation about what might be contained in the filings. The House Ways and Means Committee had voted to make the thousands of pages of returns public in a party-line vote last week, but their release was delayed while staffers redacted sensitive personal information like Social Security numbers from the documents. Here they are. What is in there that Trump was so desperate for the world not to see? After all, he bragged in 2016 that paying no taxes made him smart. The smartest guy around. Why not showcase that brilliance? Tax pros will study Trump’s 500 or so business empire of trusts, limited liability corporations and partnerships.
U.K. medical practice mistakenly texts patients they have "aggressive lung cancer" instead of wishing them a merry Christmas (Thanks to gahick)
...you need to believe us. (Thanks to pharmaross)
Tasmanian devil found under couch in Hobart home, after being mistaken for dog's plush toy (Thanks to Janice Gelb, Rich Alpin and Doug in Sacramento)
The latest links… “A.I. [learns] through statistical distribution the best word to use, the distribution of the reasonable words that could come next. I think moral decision-making can be done like that as well” — an interview with computer scientist (and MacArthur “genius” grant winner) Yejin Choi (Washington) on morality and artificial intelligence. “Some researchers say it does not make sense to frame something that is a normal biological process as disease. Further complicating things… is that there is no agreed-upon point at which a person becomes old” — Is old age a disease? Is a “yes” answer “ageist”? Or is the view that ageing is acceptable ageist?
Russia is a major metals producer and exporter. According to Institut Polytechnique de Paris, last year the country held a 13% market share for titanium production, 11.2% for nickel, 10.5% for platinum, 5.4% for aluminum, 4% for copper and 4.4% for cobalt. It is the world’s top producer of palladium, a rare metal used in car manufacturing, accounting for 37% of production in 2021.…
Russia is not only a major producer of primary aluminum but it is also embedded in the global supply chains needed to make the metal....
RT (Russian state-sponsored media)
Russia to divert metals away from WestHaving posted review articles for the past couple of days I did wonder what I thought my most important post of the year was since many others seem to be working that theme at present. Somewhat randomly (meaning I did not go back and look at them all, and nor did I look at stats) I settled on this, which was published on the blog on 2 July 2022 having previously been on Byline Times:
"Center-left" instead of "left"? It's simply moving the Overton window somewhat to the left after it having been pushed rather far to the right toward the fascistic model of a corporate state. The correction that Richard Murphy suggests is just that, a course correction rather than a radical proposal. But something is better than nothing. Neoliberalism pursued to its logical conclusion ends in corporate as a type of fascism rather than the freedom it advertises as "economic liberalism." The end-state is not democracy as rule of, by and for the people but rather plutocratic oligarchy, empire, and imperial wars.
Twitter offices in disarray.
At Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, where the company has missed rent payments, Mr. Musk has done the same, consolidating workers onto two floors and closing four. He also canceled janitorial services this month, after those workers went on strike for better wages.
That has left the office in disarray. With people packed into more confined spaces, the smell of leftover takeout food and body odor has lingered on the floors, according to four current and former employees. Bathrooms have grown dirty, these people said. And because janitorial services have largely been ended, some workers have resorted to bringing their own rolls of toilet paper from home.
What Russia says about ourselves One of the pleasures of writing for an old-school blog is not being assigned a boring end-of-year review or best-of piece. Plenty of those this week elsewhere. These two reports by BBC News Russia editor Steve Rosenberg are more relective. The first examines how Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has changed Russia. “Special Military Operation” Russia feels different from both communist Russia and independent Russia. “The economy and industry here have been virtually put on a war footing,” says Rosenberg, since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Not every Russian supports the war, Rosenburg finds, but “many Russians do buy into the Kremlin’s alternative reality, according to which in Ukraine Russia is fighting Nazis and NATO and fighting to defend Russia.” It is an eerie window into a culture other than our own in which the person beside you on the tram exists in a separate reality of alternative facts. It is a reminder, and not a comforting one, that in some ways MAGA Republicans, for all their chest-thumping claims to patriotism, are more Russian than American. Some might even agree.
The face of Jesus has appeared again — this time on felled poplar (Thanks to pharmaross)
The Humane Society of Utah says it is seeing an increase in rabbit hoarding in the community this year. (Thanks to pharmaross)
Cops: Driver Said He Hit 120 MPH After "A Good Song Came On His Stereo" (Thanks to pharmaross)
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
I had a note in my script to draw blood dripping out of their mouths, but then it turned out horrifying enough without it.
Today's News:
“I fancy that over-confidence seldom does any great harm except when, as, and if, it beguiles its victims into debt.” (Fisher 1933, p. 341) The man who penned those words wrote them from bitter experience. Irving Fisher, who is far better known for the statement that “Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently … Continue reading "Margin Debt at Levels Not Seen Since the Peak of the Roaring Twenties Mania—and Falling"
Charleston Police help rescue several balls caught in tree (Thanks to pharmaross)
In 2021, government officials and media executives from Russia and China discussed the exchange of news and social content.
The post Hacked Russian Files Reveal Propaganda Agreement With China appeared first on The Intercept.
Our 3rd most-read article of the 2022.
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Originally published November 10, 2022.
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I get up at 4:30 a.m. for some pre-dawn food prep. Today, it’s my turn to bring a snack and read a story for my son Ash’s preschool class. The school does not allow nuts, dairy, eggs, sugar, or any pro-oxidant fruit. My snack will be simultaneously nutritious, allergen-free, and appealing to three-year-olds—something like dinosaur-shaped muffins that taste like rainbows but are made of steamed arugula.
While the muffins are baking, Ash wakes up. He is in a great mood after an uninterrupted twelve-hour slumber, eager for another day of joyful learning. He transitions through every part of the morning routine without complaint or delay, and we arrive at school precisely in the middle of the allotted five-minute drop-off window.
New year, new you!
