RE: RUS lit chat here
Solzhenitsyn died on August 3, 2008, a few months short of his 90th birthday. Only two weeks later, it was announced that Moscow’s Great Communist Street (ulitsa Bolshaya Kommunisticheskaya) was to be re-named “Alexander Solzhenitsyn Street”, an honour bestowed by a personal decree from President Putin.
On the first anniversary of Solzhenitsyn’s death, Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to Solzhenitsyn’s widow in which he described Solzhenitsyn as “a global individual, whose creative and ideological heritage will always hold a special place in the history of Russian literature and in the chronicles of our country”.[ix]
In October 2010, it was announced that The Gulag Archipelago would become required reading for all Russian high school students. In a meeting with Solzhenitsyn’s widow, Putin described The Gulag Archipelago as “essential reading”: “”Without the knowledge of that book, we would lack a full understanding of our country and it would be difficult for us to think about the future.”
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2022/03/solzhenitsyn-putin-joseph-pearce.html

Posted by: Tyrus | May 27 2022 0:36 utc | 104

Canada’s national broadcaster publishes article describing OUN nationalists as “ordinary Ukrainians”
“Lawyers, a factory worker among the ordinary Ukrainians holding the line against Russia at Izyum”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukrainian-nationalists-izyum-1.6463544
“During the Second World War, the group fought for Ukrainian independence under its controversial yet revered leader, Stepan Bandera, allying itself with whoever served its nationalist aims.”
Posted by: jayc | May 26 2022 17:17 utc | 35
Being an ignoramus on history, I wrack my brain to figure out what those “whoever served its nationalist aims” could be. Perhaps Francisco Franco, a fellow Galician? Is it why he send División Azul to the Eastern Front from faraway Spain? However, Germans send the valiant Spanish, surely including Galicians, to the vicinity of Leningrad. WIKIPEDIA: “The division was awarded a Blue Division Medal, personally designed by Adolf Hitler. Spanish casualties in all of the Soviet-German conflict totalled 22,700—3,934 battle deaths, 570 disease deaths, 326 missing or captured, 8,466 wounded, 7,800 sick, and 1,600 frostbitten. In action against the Spanish Division, the Red Army suffered 49,300 casualties. (Those numbers are quite different in Википе́дия).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | May 27 2022 0:43 utc | 106

jailbird lit
The oldest English book I know of, written entirely from jail: The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come (1678) by John Bunyan. Bunyan inhabited the King’s gaol (a bridge in Bedforeshire County) for years because he was an itinerate preacher at a ticklish time when only officially approved preachers were allowed. After holding him a few years, authorities told Bunyan he could have his freedom if he promised to stop preaching. He replied that if he were freed today, he’d be back to preaching tomorrow.
So they kept him locked up, albeit happily occupied with manuscript paper, pen, and ink. The book he cooked up there is very strange indeed. Probably the most influential, almost completely forgotten book in English literature. What makes the work truly fascinating is Bunyan’s class background. There’s virtually no occasion in history for people of Bunyan’s stratum to produce literature.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 27 2022 0:58 utc | 108

Do Re Mi
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin’ home every day,
Beatin’ the hot old dusty way to the California line.
‘Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin’ out of that old dust bowl,
They think they’re goin’ to a sugar bowl, but here’s what they find
Now, the police at the port of entry say,
“You’re number fourteen thousand for today.”
Oh, if you ain’t got the do re mi, folks, you ain’t got the do re mi,
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot
If you ain’t got the do re mi.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 27 2022 1:16 utc | 110

SWIFT will die
Mastercard CEO Teases CBDC Panel: SWIFT May Not Exist in 5 Years

Michael Miebach joined a panel on central bank digital currencies during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting.
DAVOS, Switzerland — Mastercard (MA) CEO Michael Miebach made people gasp. He answered “no” when asked if SWIFT, the current interbank messaging system that allows for cross-border payments, will exist in five years’ time.
He smiled during his answer but the crowd seemingly took his answer seriously.
Miebach spoke on a panel adjacent to the World Economic Forum’s annual (WEF) summit hosted by the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC). The panel discussed the future of cross-border payments and the potential of CBDCs in the financial system.
“If you can get a payment with all the data attached that you need as a company […] the cost savings of that in addition to a payment cost that is lowered, and the overall productivity boost, we can expect if we do this well, that’s the real goal here,” Miebach said on the panel.
The conference officially kicked off Tuesday, with crypto being mentioned frequently in panels adjacent to the conference. The subject is bolstered by the strong presence of crypto companies on promenade, the main street leading up to the Congress, where official WEF panels take place.. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 27 2022 1:27 utc | 112

V

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 27 2022 1:36 utc | 114

Okay, lets try it again.
Speaking of dustbowls Lake Mead, a provider of power and water to several states, is drying up as seen here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 27 2022 1:40 utc | 116

@ 113
The US couldn’t function without illegal immigrants.

Their representation in particular industries is even more pronounced, and the Department of Agriculture estimates that about half of the nation’s farmworkers are unauthorized, while 15 percent of those in construction lack papers – more than the share of legal immigrants in either industry. In the service sector, which would include jobs such as fast food and domestic help, the figure is about 9 percent. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 27 2022 1:57 utc | 118

@ Foxbat | May 26 2022 22:18 utc | 80
thanks! “In the Belly of the Beast” looks like an intense book.. i don’t think i can read that book based on the reviews i read.. it might be quite good though.. same deal “A Hero of Our Time”… maybe i am a wimp when it comes to reading some stuff.. i looked at the overview on those books, but i am scared to read them! thanks regardless..
@ bevin | May 26 2022 22:35 utc | 84
thanks… “Borstal Boy” on the other hand looks like something i could actually read! i have never heard of all these books before..
@ bevin | May 26 2022 22:44 utc | 88
it only sounds sweet because it is not the reality! i play up and down the island and it is part time, although i was playing full time back in the 90’s… i have had to play many styles of music – blues, rock, country, theatre shows and etc. at this point it is mostly part time.. i used to teach as well, but i haven’t done much of that since covid.. although i get a pension i continue to play live shows because i love playing.. i did a jazz gig on monday – the holiday) down in victoria at an outdoor church member celebration for the family.. it was like family day – hamburgers, hot dogs, fun games and etc. for kids and adults.. it was super fun and i got paid a nice amount.. now with gas prices, travelling 60 miles, or 100 kilometers for a gig is expensive.. a few of us carpooled together.. nanaimo is too small to just play jazz, although i wish i could play jazz more often.. i see you are into woodie guthrie.. i enjoyed the bio i read on him by joe klein .. i wanted to know more about him given how influential he was as a musician, activist and etc. etc.. i enjoyed the book.. i have read a lot of musician, songwriter bios, or autobiographies..

Posted by: james | May 27 2022 2:20 utc | 120

lots of good comments here.
Tom_Q_Collins | May 26 2022 22:04 utc | 77
too much to refer to and recall, but I think Don Bacon and others, maybe yourself, have proven how something can be both very real and not real at the exact same time. there is nothing but a superabundance of housing and money in the US, before we even get to every third business being shuttered on a typical US city street.
one major problem is that the “helping agencies”, churches, social services public and private, are there to put truly heroic efforts into things like building more “tiny homes” or getting some “affordable housing” built. totally unnecessary activities that are utter wastes of resources and contrary to any principle of environmental protection. i know this very up front and personal.
but by not having a iota of conflict with the general social setup, all these “helpers” get to be superheroes, who become quite resentful, like every good capitalist, when shown what a “vanity of vanities” their labor is. watch the daggers come out if you suggest that the ever increasing numbers of homeless prove that these do gooders are wasting their time. “the parched eviscerate soil gapes at the vanity of toil.” maybe when it hits 130F people will stop their pointless labor? nah. what are they going to do if they aren’t chainsawing a tree or a cow or a Palestinian village?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 27 2022 2:51 utc | 122

James @ 29:
Thomas Malory wrote “Le Morte d’Arthur” while in prison and O. Henry started his career as a short story writer while in prison. “O. Henry” in fact was the pseudonym used by William Sydney Porter to publish his stories while he was in prison to hide the fact that he was serving time (for embezzlement) from his publisher.
It must be said that not all books written by prisoners are interesting or insightful. Adolf Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf” while he was in prison.

Posted by: Jen | May 27 2022 3:10 utc | 124

@ rjb1.5 120
Yes, it’s possible to live cheaper and better. One possibility is an RV Park Model which is available in the $20-50+ K price range, while living in an RV park can bring other amenities.
The “bible” for this type of living of course is Thoreau’s Walden. What are the essential things in life? An $1800 a month mortgage payment? I don’t think so.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 27 2022 3:20 utc | 126

Okay. We all tee’d it off so my most favorite , jen, can make a hole in one with the Mein Kampf reference.
Gallow humor at its best. Jen rules!

Posted by: lex talionis | May 27 2022 3:43 utc | 128

@ Aleph_Null | May 27 2022 0:58 utc | 106
sorry, i neglected to acknowledge and thank you for your post on this topic… i was riveted by your response to malenkov @ 121 as well.. thanks for your posts..
@ Jen | May 27 2022 3:10 utc | 122
you never cease to amaze me jen… thanks for this education too! i agree with lex, lol!

Posted by: james | May 27 2022 3:59 utc | 130

@ rjb1.5 | May 27 2022 4:04 utc | 129
i find your posts thought provoking.. that is a good thing.. cheers..

Posted by: james | May 27 2022 4:14 utc | 132

@ 131 don.. there is a lot of rain in the north west.. it is raining here right now.. the garden likes it.. well, maybe not the squash and tomatoes but mostly everything else.

Posted by: james | May 27 2022 5:26 utc | 134

It appears that I picked a bad time to ask my previous question on a non-Ukraine open thread re: life in Mexico.
I don’t know if that question will be answered this time around, or even this one, but if it’s not too much trouble:
I was visiting a Duran page discussing homicides, murders, etc. in the US, and one commentator posted links to statistics of murder rates in each country, which listed Russia as having more intentional homicides per 100,000 people than the US, and Mexico having it even more so.
His links were:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/murder-rate-by-country
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/indicators/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5/rankings
It has me worrying. I would hate to imagine that there is no country other than Russia and China (and maybe Iran too) that is safe to walk alone at night in, especially for children, and that isn’t a USAian vassal state at the same time.
Are these statistics re: murder rates in Russia and Mexico vs the USA even legit? Or is it bogus created by Western ‘intelligence’ agencies?
(Then again, there are those who live in Mexico or have been there and are still alive and kicking, so maybe it’s not as big a deal as I’m making it out to be?)

Posted by: joey_n | May 27 2022 9:20 utc | 136

Confronted with surging energy prices and rocketing inflation, but determined to deny that the policy of blocking imports of Russian fuel has anything to do with it, the British Government have come up with a clever trick to “bring down” inflation by announcing £400 off household energy bills.
If the British Office for National Statistics decide the £400 off energy bills is a rebate, rather than income support, it will bring down inflation because the full rise in energy bills won’t be counted.
So a technical measurement decision which ultimately has zero impact on reality could decide whether the headline inflation rate is over 10%.
Therefore, expect British inflation to “drop”, other Western Governments to follow, and calls that the West is winning.

Posted by: Pat Bateman | May 27 2022 10:23 utc | 138

my favorite short story writer from that period was H.H. Munro. Sredni Vashtar was a masterpiece.

Posted by: pretzelattack | May 27 2022 11:50 utc | 140

@Tom_Q_Collins #81
Michael Shellenberger has studied homelessness in San Francisco.
He says it is not a function of housing prices per se – it is a function of mental illness and/or drug abuse.
And the drug thing isn’t an exaggeration. The methadone is only a part of it; the free needles, the basically utter lack of law enforcement (you can see people shooting up all over the place, not just the bad parts anymore) all contribute to making SF a junkie paradise.
My own multiple decades in SF give me the same view.
The reality is that the homeless on the streets in SF are not:
1) old people forced out of their homes by high rent. The really old either have already moved out or live in rent control. I ran an in-home senior care franchise for 18 months and met quite a number of them personally. One of the first I met was a lovely 82 year old lady (back in 2008) who was a hair stylist in the 1960s/1970s; she lived in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath Cow Hollow flat which would have gone for $2500 then, easily ($4K now) but she paid $219/month rent.
2) families with kids. I don’t see ANY children in the homeless encampments
3) working age people who actually work in jobs. My prior place – there was a literal stolen bicycle chop ship down the street from me. There were 3-5 tents that changed proximity and order every week or two, but every one had a pile of bike parts (or several piles) next to it and a yellow truck would pull up once in a while and upload working bicycles. The occupants were 4 men and 1 women – all under 30.
I actually know people priced out of SF – not unusual given that SF has literally the highest average rent in the entire world. They don’t go homeless, they move to the suburbs or out of state. But on the other end of the spectrum: one of the guys I hired to help me move lived in 500 Folsom: one of the literally brand new, high rise condominium complexes. He is in one of the heavily subsidized, low income housing set asides and described the draconian conditions he lives under. On the other end of the spectrum, the low income housing projects in the Western Addition and back side of Potrero Hill are pretty decent outside from a distance, less so in close proximity.

Posted by: c1ue | May 27 2022 13:27 utc | 142

@ Foxbat | May 27 2022 13:23 utc | 139
If Lord Byron and Yevgeny Onegin had a boy child, he’d be Pechorin, the (anti?)hero of Hero of our Time.

Posted by: malenkov | May 27 2022 13:31 utc | 144

@Tom_Q_Collins #91
A significant part of that is Proposition 13.
There is a very clear divergence between both housing and rent costs in states with high property taxes vs. states with Proposition 13 type setups.
Note that California housing even in inland cities such as Fresno are far, far more expensive than say, Texas – so it isn’t just a function of income disparity.
Proposition 13 is also at least partly responsible for the crapification in SF. Go to Redfin or Zillow sometime and randomly browse the property taxes paid in high price districts in SF like Pacific Heights. You’ll notice that a huge number of these $5M+ Zestimate properties are paying $2500 or less a year in property taxes due to Prop. 13 when the exact same property purchased by a new owner would be paying $50K+ a year in property taxes.

Posted by: c1ue | May 27 2022 13:36 utc | 146

@Altai #99
You are correct and incorrect.
Yes, any centralized system is a higher penalty for privacy/security failure than a distributed system, but the capability to confer privacy/security is greater as well.
For example: you cannot execute a credible cyber security program without literally 8 digits of annual budget – and mid-8 digits to low 9 digits. Just having a single expert in each of the 5 major domains is 7 digits of payroll right there; the tools are also extremely expensive to buy/rent and cost more payroll to operate.
Without these people and tools, you are deploying security through obscurity.
If you are really concerned about maximum privacy and security – don’t use the internet at all.
Cloud storage is a privacy implosion waiting to happen, as is multi-device calendar or any other type of sharing.
Convenience <> privacy and security.
But in the context of Google vs. Proton: which do you think is more likely to at least attempt to secure your data? from everyone including itself?
I’d say the latter…

Posted by: c1ue | May 27 2022 13:49 utc | 148

malenkov if such a union were to come to pass, the child could be said to have been born with the horn – a true monster of the interegnum!

Posted by: Foxbat | May 27 2022 13:56 utc | 150

@Tom_Q_Collins #101
I lived in Austin for 5 years in the late mid 90s.
Yes, Austin has become “it” recently but I guarantee you rents are still far more affordable than SF 🙂
But yes, the notion that building more fixes the problem is not inherently correct. I’ve lived in the same neighborhood in SF since I moved here in 2002. Despite the influx of literally 15+, 20+ to 40 story residential towers plus an entire neighborhood of 4-6 story apartments not more than 1/2 mile away, rents have done nothing but increase after 2009 until COVID.
We are seeing a fascinating experiment go on right now: the US is in an interest rate raising regime such that the median price US house at average mortgage interest in 2022 is literally 2x the monthly payment vs. the exact same median price house at average mortgage interest in 2021. This is essentially the Wolfstreet view.
Harris Kupperman has noted, however, that the number of houses built since the 2008 implosion has underperformed vs. population growth ever since – and so believes the housing market is not going to affect housing prices because the cost increases are not going to deter those who have money and want to enjoy mortgage interest deductions and greater quality of life.

Posted by: c1ue | May 27 2022 13:57 utc | 152

The major problem with America? This country has fallen in love with a mantra that says;
“Business uber alles”, and the more money you make, the better you are. “By any means necessary”.
And that mind-set has permeated the whole of our society, to include our foreign and domestic policies, from top to bottom.
The health and welfare of the people and society is not considered. It’s ALL about $.
And that mindset has made this nation (empire), mean and greedy.
Exploiting humanity, here and abroad, has become the U$A’s prime religion.

Posted by: vetinLA | May 27 2022 14:04 utc | 154

@malenkov #143
I would agree with that.
There is also a kind of in-between: homeless who don’t work but live in their cars.
I know guys who lived that life, but it is precarious.

Posted by: c1ue | May 27 2022 14:11 utc | 156

Sputnik: “Pet Hamsters & Guinea Pigs Could Be Culled as ‘Last Resort’ to Stop Monkeypox Spread – ECDC”
bwahahahahaha
I reckon, the mechanisms of bestialitydroplet action are not well understood.

Posted by: sln2002 | May 27 2022 15:17 utc | 158

sin2002, “bestiallitydroplet action” lol. You must know something I don’t – Does it condense or aerosolise?

Posted by: Foxbat | May 27 2022 15:30 utc | 160

Blinken’s China Policy speech merely repeats the same old projections and lies, which is what we’ve come to expect. This Global Times article immediately highlights this one:
“Even as the war rages in Ukraine, Blinken said that the US remains focused on China as the country has ‘become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad.'”
This accompanying Global Times editorial does a good job of parsing Blinken’s words and notes they weren’t as war-like as Pompeo’s were in 2020:

For example, Blinken expressed the willingness to strengthen direct “communication across a full range of issues” with China, adding that Washington “does not seek to transform China’s political system,” and “does not seek to stop China from growing their economy,” the US “does not want a new Cold War,” “does not want to sever China’s economy from the global economy” and “does not support Taiwan independence.” However, as an old Chinese saying goes: “We do not only listen to what one says but also watch what one does.” We will wait and see.
Of course, that is not the whole content of Blinken’s speech. Those “beautiful words” often come with a following sentence, like stating that Beijing poses the “most serious long-term challenge” to the international order, and it is necessary to ensure that China complies with international rules while the US “will shape the strategic environment around Beijing” and “call for change, not to stand against China, but to stand up for peace, security, and human dignity.” The US policy toward Taiwan island remains unchanged, but “what has changed is Beijing’s growing coercion.”
The diplomatic rhetoric still requests Beijing to submit to Washington’s hegemonic demands and this speech on China policy follows Washington’s inconsistency between minds and words. It wants to be in the international moral high ground while putting the interests of the US first.
We certainly hope that Washington is serious about not falling into a “new Cold War” with China, but the biggest problem is that it always says one thing and does another. US President Joe Biden announced the launch of the “Indo-Pacific Economic Framework” during his just-concluded Asian trip, which is considered to be a “clique” to exclude China, and issued a joint statement with many parts of the content targeting China after the Quad summit. On many occasions, the US has talked a lot about “avoiding a new Cold War,” but in practice, it has divided the camp with ideology, put the pluralistic world into a battle between “democracy” and “autocracy” and arbitrarily asked other countries to choose sides. Isn’t this paving the way for a “new Cold War?”

Deeds, actions and behavior, not words is how China will judge the Outlaw US Empire since it’s very well known that its oft stated aim is to eliminate Russia as a competitor so it can then reduce China. IMO, Blinken did nothing to prove to China that the latter policy is no longer sought. China will continue as is has.
Meanwhile, China’s FM Wang Yi began his important South Pacific Tour, stopping first in the Solomon Islands where he declared:
“Solomon Islands shows respectable courage in developing ties with China.” [My Emphasis]
Wang YI’s words were aimed specifically at the other South Pacific nations he’ll visit and more broadly at the entire Global South. IMO, it’s very clear that China and Russia’s messages to the Global South are urging similar behavior: Don’t be coerced by the Outlaw US Empire; the time is now to stand up to its lawbreaking with us and our allies.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 27 2022 15:56 utc | 162

What is Deportees?
@ lex talionis | May 27 2022 3:37 utc | 125
It’s another great song by Woody Guthrie, about California (also see Guthrie’s capsule adaptation of Grapes of Wrath, called Pastures of Plenty). These aren’t just songs, and the books discussed in here aren’t just books. History traverses our entire culture, and always has, every single day. Hopefully this point doesn’t sound too pedantic: my studies into Russian thinkers (Berdyaev’s book on Dostoievsky, for instance) leave me with a strong impression that basic cognitive categories break down differently for different peoples. From our Western point of view, it might sometimes feel like theology, anthropology, psychology — not to mention geopolitics — are getting too mixed up in works such as Dead Souls, Brothers K, or Master & the Margarita. Russian artists have this tendency, it seems, or would clarification be a simple matter of changing the prescription on our spectacles?
I’m really glad there’s another Donald Goines fan in the bar. In my case, a random gentleman bumped into me in the fiction aisle of Shakespeare & Company (on Telegraph, in Berkeley), specifically to recommend Goines’ works. That really happened, just once, many years ago — never before or since.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 27 2022 16:12 utc | 164

pussy comitatus.
pity the one guy who fled. at least he’s honest.
oh my prophetic soul! How long before Biden gets up on national TV and says to a kid, “You are not likely to get coronavirus or pass it to your parents from school.”
oh wait. he already said that.
“you are not likely to wind up like that pile of corpses at that school in Texas whose name I can’t remember.”
biden will soon be leading the nation in lots and lots of “moments of silence”, while his failing mental excel spreadsheet tries to fit the rows and columns and formulaic words to the tragedy of the hour.
where’s the national truant officer in this time of crisis? she better start practicing on filling for Joe,
sista soljah, rub some onion on the back of your hand to fake a tear when needed. you and pelosi.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 27 2022 16:27 utc | 166

rjb1.5 | May 27 2022 16:27 utc | 166
pussy as in fraidy cat. mother courage seems to have been on the job. so much so that pussy comitatus had to stop them. can’t have someone else doing your job, now can you? especially not a woman.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 27 2022 16:45 utc | 168

@ pretzelattack | May 27 2022 11:50 utc | 140
i don’t know about those books either! thanks for all your posts!
@ Foxbat | May 27 2022 13:23 utc | 141
thanks man! yes, apparently the books highlight really revolve around his correspondence with norman mailer – yet another author i have not read… as you say – the world is full of so much great literature and we can possibly only read a fraction of it… thanks so much for sharing your personal insights here..
all you folks at moa never cease to amaze me! put me in the same category as lex!!

Posted by: james | May 27 2022 16:57 utc | 170

@161 chas & Aleph_Null – Thanks for the Woodie Guthrie explanation.
And Aleph, you don’t sound pedantic at all. I think a lot of the collective West needs a trip to the ophthalmologist to help with their capabilities of seeing things clearly. That is a nice metaphor. ( I had to try like 8 times to get ophthalmologist spelled correctly. )
God willing, we will make it through all of this. Much love to everyone, especially our host!

Posted by: lex talionis | May 27 2022 17:11 utc | 172

Posted by: Michael.j | May 26 2022 23:22 utc | 94
Iran has responded in kind. The Greeks assisted with the theft of Iranian oil, so two of their tankers have allegedly been captured by Iran.
https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-iran-dubai-5bbb7e35405a91ae9ceffbda17b59475

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 27 2022 19:13 utc | 174

Posted by: c1ue | May 27 2022 13:57 utc | 152
Agree with all of that, of course. Yes we lived in Austin. Myself off-and-on from 1991 (engineering school at UT) to 2021. I moved back and forth to El Paso, then Irving and San Antonio before moving back to Austin in 2002. I saw the changes first hand. And rents, effectively anyway, are just as unaffordable as San Fran when you adjust for the income disparity between the working class (teachers, firemen, police, etc.) and the technocracy/oil money class. Old money in Austin has always been trial law, land and oil. New money is tech and healthcare.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 27 2022 0:36 utc | 105
OK, dude now you *are* getting pedantic. I don’t really have time to argue over semantics with someone whose opinions I share.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 27 2022 19:19 utc | 176

@ 175
Guns are now the leading cause of death for American children.
And there are side effects. NPR had a story on yesterday that I caught just a piece of while driving.
Here’s what I heard (subject to correction) from the academic man from Northwestern University(?) as I listened to him.
A study was done on the survivors of school shootings, which have gone on for some time. The study found that the survivors of these shootings, the observers of them, fared significantly poorer later on in life, compared to other peer groups, with lower income, poorer jobs, worse marriages, etc. The weren’t killed but they suffered.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 27 2022 19:57 utc | 178

which comes first – the chicken of drugs or the egg of losing housing?
Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 27 2022 19:54 utc | 177
What comes first, for me, is recognizing the pathological tells of rentier psychology, such as the narrative rentier sickos, here in this bar, find so inexplicably attractive: That homelessness originates from drugs and “mental illness”. You and all the landlords, conveniently on the same side of the fence. This is what “rentier psychology” looks like. Do you get it now?
Oh. Somehow, I didn’t expect you to.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 27 2022 21:20 utc | 180

(Not aimed at) bevin | May 27 2022 1:09 utc | 109
Whoever this Eamon McKinney is —
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/05/26/the-globalists-race-against-time/
— he needs to practice fact-checking; the idea that Trump lost in 2020 to “a blatantly fraudulent election” is pure balderdash.
First of all, Trump is a scatter-brained ignoramus and a lifelong swindler, having been taught the trade by his racist swindler of a father. He is also a malignant narcissist who cannot abide even the slightest whiff of disagreement and who goes on personal tirades in response to any and every bit of criticism from anyone, anywhere, regardless of how lowly and powerless they might be.
At Trump’s direction, his minions took more than 60 cases of supposed election fraud to court, in many cases in courts presided over by Trump appointees, and lost every single one because once in court, those minions had to admit that they had not the slightest bit of evidence, and without evidence no case can proceed to trial.
Some major news outlets began, as early as 2016, to keep a tally of Trump’s public lies. Those outlets chalked up similar tallies, most of them numbering in the mid-30-thousands.
Mr. McKinney should stick to China and to his corporate doings there, until he gains at least a bit of knowledge about Trump’s lunatic and criminal behaviors.

Posted by: AntiSpin | May 27 2022 21:54 utc | 182

Aleph_Null@180
You are so right.
It is one of the most disappointing aspects of visiting this place that so many customers at this Bohemian Bar are thoroughgoing bourgeois with all the petty prejudices of the proudest congregants of the Church of Conformism beneath a thin veneer of radical dissent.
Still nobody has to drink here. Nobody has to drink at all.

Posted by: bevin | May 27 2022 21:59 utc | 184

@ bevin | May 27 2022 21:59 utc | 184
Thanks for your encouraging words. Right after I worked out rigorous proof of the equation L = N (Landlords are Nazis) — with which you might not totally agree! This is the only bar attached to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, here. I love the smell of dialectic in the morning, so this is a haven of zero disappointment for me. None of us is “right” imho — that sort of thing has to be worked out together. In my dotage I’ve formed the habit of writing quickly, not looking everything up. I was terribly wrong about Bertrand Russel and (my mathematical guru) Gottlob Frege a little bit ago. It’s good to be totally wrong in front of everyone, I think, so I can get over myself. Like the flaw inserted by Navajo weavers.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 27 2022 22:29 utc | 186

Many thanks to all responding to the Russian literature theme – and those who widened the category — welcome all! I’ve only skimmed through, apologies as I was absorbed in my own reflections on the first chapter of “The Master and Margarita”, seeing the connection in my own mind to “The Brothers Karamazov”. So, James, I will address your difficulty with the Bulgakov thusly: it’s my own theory, (mightn’t lead anywhere for others) that TM@M at least begins taking its ‘hero’ as Ivan, who is described in that first chapter as a poet who writes under the name of ‘Homeless’.
Here I will thank downtownhaiku @ 98, 99 for providing links to the two translations I encountered the first time I was reading TM&M – both seemed well done. I cannot remember how the 99 version translates ‘Homeless’ – Pevear says in his notes that Bulgakov wanted the name to signify a person without family. That is the difference really between Ivan and Alyosha in TBK – they have the same father and mother, but it is only Alyosha who remembers his mother and even embodies her at one point in the novel.
Also, in that first chapter, Ivan the poet ‘Homeless’ is described as being ‘broadshouldered’ — there’s a point in TBK where Alyosha sees his brother walking away with one shoulder higher than the other…
I would say, Block from block8 @ 50, yes, you have a point favoring ‘The Devils’ (I named a son after Stepan Trofimovich – he’s a really fleshed out liberal – I love him!) But though you are correct that Dostoievski died soon after completing TBK, although that work was published first in installments, it was afterwards released as a completed work, and his notebooks show that every page had been carefully worked over before being submitted for publication.
Finally, for James again (send us some of your rain!) asking about prison stories, my favorite Solzhenitsyn novel (found in a thrift shop) is ‘The First Circle’ – about zheks or scientific prisoners in a converted mansion outside of Moscow, comparing them to Dante’s first circle of hell.
Again, enjoy!

Posted by: juliania | May 27 2022 23:18 utc | 188

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 27 2022 21:20 utc | 180
Agree with that. The housing and homelessness crises are of course deeply intertwined and the rentier class does all that they can to paint a picture of scumbag drug using nutcases being primarily responsible for the latter. But the rentier class has to resort to different messaging when it comes to why lower- and middle-middle class families and individuals can’t afford to pay the rents or mortgages. There they usually end up with some permutation of the ‘prosperity gospel’ whether they realize it or not. Work harder for your corporate master and maybe you can actually afford a home!
Posted by: AntiSpin | May 27 2022 21:54 utc | 182
Agree with that as well, with one major (albeit not with what you said) quibble. In many ways every US election is ‘stolen’ and has been for a long time. Whether it’s by limiting the vote, turning people off to voting, judicial corruption, backdoors in voting machines, state level politics, preselecting two candidates between whom one “must” choose the LOTE, and in more recent years – ala Trump 2020 – a coalescing of the major media powers and one party over the other to tamp down offending narratives or prevent the population from seeing inconvenient news until the election has passed. That of course isn’t anything new in principle, but the scope was pretty unprecedented.
All of that said, there was definitely no voter fraud on any significant level or that favored one candidate over the other and I too am getting fed up with Americans passing off The Big Lie as the truth. When foreigners make fun of our corrupt voting process I don’t mind (including b) because after all, “we” are the ones willy nilly declaring the elections of other countries to be fraudulent…when they’re on the official enemies list or aren’t throwing the doors to their countries’ natural commons, welfare state and energy/technology resources to the rabid gangster capitalist western FIRE sector.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 28 2022 0:12 utc | 190

Posted by: Tyrus | May 27 2022 0:36 utc | 104
Re Solz… thank you, very interesting. And it makes it easier for me to entertain the notion that Russia has good intentions fundamentally. After decades growing up and living in the Empire of Lies this is not an easy thing to do.

Posted by: Scorpion | May 28 2022 0:59 utc | 192

Posted by: bevin | May 27 2022 1:25 utc | 111
Thanks for your posts. You remind me that I wanted to say “The Master and Margarita” is written in a style more used by such writers as Gorky so before Dostoievski was exiled his first work “Poor Souls” was written somewhat anti-Gorky as one of the characters is offended by the short story “The Overcoat.” So, D. might also not enjoy the Bulgakov satire. I am trying to see why his ‘scriptural’ chapters are not scriptural as the Gospels relate — from the point of view of Satan they of course would not be, yet there are truths there…which takes me back to the epigraph of the novel:
‘…who are you then?’

‘I am part of that power which eternally

wills evil and eternally works good.’

Goethe, Faust
Which seems to have happened, at least sometimes, with respect to some recent decisions on the world stage.
The time in which Bulgakov is writing his novel, we might say ‘cancel culture’ has become the norm. That’s what makes it relevant, I think. There was a time in the US when the encounter with novels like this were proof of the ‘eternally works good’ part of the epigraph.

Posted by: juliania | May 28 2022 1:48 utc | 194

This video contains pictures of different Palestinian cities during the 1920’s and 1930’s, before the creation of the state of israel by the zionists in 1948.
Short video / Palestine before 1948
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGBoGKPZlQE

Posted by: Paul | May 28 2022 2:17 utc | 196

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 27 2022 0:58 utc | 108
I seem to remember reading “Pilgrim’s Progress” at my somewhat high Anglican girls’ Grammar school (high school) in New Zealand. Ancient history; I think it was required reading. We sat on the floor of the Assembly Hall for ‘Messiah’ too; all of it.
Who would true valor see
Let him come hither
One here would constant be
Come wind come weather
There’s no discouragement
Can make him once relent
His first avowed intent
To be a pilgrim.
Who so beset him round
With dismal stories
Do but themselves confound
His strength the more is
No lion can him fright
He’ll with a giant fight
And he will have the right
To be a pilgrim.
Since Lord thou dost defend
Him with thy spirit
He knows he at the end
Shall life inherit
Then fancies fly away
He’ll fear not what men say
He’ll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.
[In honour of Paul Bunyan; I did not know he was in prison. Thanks, Aleph_Null, part of my heritage!]

Posted by: juliania | May 28 2022 2:38 utc | 198

@juliania
And actually, was this thread about books? (I lose track.)
Did you ever read Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger? Someone described it once as one of the loveliest books in the American culture. I always keep it on the top shelf, for the glow that comes from it.
If you haven’t read it, seek it out 🙂

Posted by: Grieved | May 28 2022 6:17 utc | 200