The "Finding the Money" Documentary draws some attention...

 

Think about this. https://t.co/bR8VIrvd1Z

— Stephanie Kelton (@StephanieKelton) February 21, 2024

The State of COVID + Generous Rich Peeps

 

Stranger in drugstore: Why you wearing a mask
Me: Don’t want Covid
Stranger: LOL it’s here to stay
Me: Why you buying sunscreen, isn’t the sun here to stay?
Stranger: What
Me: Why you buying hand sanitizer, aren’t germs here to stay? Why you—
Stranger: Fuck this pic.twitter.com/LIdtc42RYF

— 🐀 (@Guiness_Pig) February 13, 2024

one of the biggest scams in america is celebrity philanthropy. i know it’s in your nature to want to believe there’s rich people out here doing good by regular folks but…that’s rarely the case. once u see how the non profit scene works u will get insanely jaded pic.twitter.com/Wxx9sinQmR

— lil h (@bigsnugga) February 14, 2024

Tucker Carlson's Putin Interview

 

Here's a complete transcript (English + Russian)

Naked Capitalism's reaction.

Ian Welsh's reaction.

Gilbert Doctorow's reaction. 

Larry Johnson's reaction...cites US press reactions.

I confess I'm partial to the transcript rather than the video. Ian Welsh is my favorite link for reactions.

Pretty much the universal consensus among those reactions: Putin is at the top of his game, and obviously more intelligent and coherent than any Western leader, although Doctorow criticizes him for starting with a history lesson. (One might expect a country whose form of polite address names ancestors--e.g. Vladimir Vladimirov--would value historical explanations.)

I'll add that electing weak, even senile leaders serves the portion of the population that wants a weak state. These people are the wealthy elite who often got that way through fraud or deceit, or inherited from those who did ("Behind every great fortune lies a great crime" - Honore de Balzac). They have found strong states serve too many people, and threaten the fortunes this elite can extort from the population with impunity.

US vs. China

 

This is an interesting study by Europe's Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) that demonstrates that much like "the US is the world’s sole military superpower" (spending more on its military than the ten next highest spending countries combined), China is now "the world’s… pic.twitter.com/IaCyzt4as3

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) February 4, 2024