Links - 3rd June 2024 (1 - Polarisation)

Tribalism has come to the West - "The more she spoke, the more I recognised her broad disposition as something I had experienced earlier in my life. Her attitude was almost entirely tribal. Two things, in particular, stood out: an almost blind hatred of a particular group (Republicans); and secondly, the use of deeply personal attacks on individual researchers to justify that hatred. Today, ten years later, this attitude seems to be the prevailing norm. Numerous studies support the hypothesis that American life — not just politics, but life in general — has become deeply polarised. The deeply divided society we now live in increasingly reminds me of clan or tribal behaviour in Africa... In tribal communities, neutral institutions of civil society that Westerners take for granted — such as the police, impartial courts, and the rule of law — simply do not, and cannot, exist. In such societies, everything is tribalised, and the task of building civic institutions is laden with difficulties.   In Somalia, I was taught to be suspicious of anyone from a different clan, to always think harm was coming my way and to be guarded against anyone that was “other.” I come from the Darod clan, and was taught to constantly listen to accents, examine face shapes and overanalyse all non-verbal cues, searching for any indications of a different tribe. I can still identify a Somali (and usually their clan) from across a room.   We were captives of an echo chamber, hearing constantly of the evils of the neighbouring Hawiye clan. We were taught from a young age that the Hawiye were coming to rape, rob, and destroy us. In response, we amassed weapons, hoarded food and exhorted young men (as young as 12) to join the military. The looming threat of the Hawiye was so great that my mother eventually sent my sister and me abroad. In the end, because of such protracted tribal tensions, Somalia collapsed into civil war... While such violence is yet to seize America, all the tribalist ingredients are present...   Some of this has its absurd side: for instance, the strange ways that public-health measures such as mask-wearing and vaccination have become politicised, to the point that I know of fully vaccinated people in California who say they will continue to wear masks for fear of being mistaken for Republicans...   We are, I fear, close to the precipice of serious destabilisation. Many American cities are either militarised (Washington, DC), near a social boiling point (Minneapolis), or have capitulated to anarchist protests and pressures (Portland, Seattle)... Another friend of mine has a daughter who attends a private school outside of San Francisco. Last year, when it was revealed that she had expressed mild support for President Trump, she was pushed down the stairs by a fellow pupil...   The beautiful story of America, the reason so many people around the world still yearn to come here, is to a large extent founded on our rejection of tribalism and our establishment of civic, neutral institutions, based on the fundamental principle of equality before the law... If we continue to slip down this path, the thirst for tribalism will be unquenchable. That’s why moderate liberals need to stand up to the destructive forces that are taking over the Democratic party, just as moderate conservatives need to resist the tribal impulse that often grows in reaction to the other side’s excesses."
Critical Race Theorists don't believe in equality before the law and promote tribalism, so

Polarization in American politics - "Differences between the right and left go beyond politics. Three-quarters of consistent conservatives say they would opt to live in a community where “the houses are larger and farther apart, but schools, stores and restaurants are several miles away,” while 77% of consistent liberals prefer smaller houses closer to amenities. Nearly four times as many liberals as conservatives say it is important that their community has racial and ethnic diversity; about three times as many conservatives as liberals say it is important that many in the community share their religious faith.
The center has gotten smaller: 39% of Americans currently take a roughly equal number of liberal and conservative positions, down from 49% in surveys conducted in 1994 and 2004. And, those with mixed ideological views are not necessarily “moderates.” Despite their mixed ideological views in general, many express very conservative – or very liberal – opinions, depending on the specific issue. As a result, many current policy debates, such as immigration, gun control and health care policy, inspire nearly as much passion in the ideological center as on the left or the right.
The most ideologically oriented Americans make their voices heard through greater participation in every stage of the political process... To those on the ideological right and left, compromise now means that their side gets more of what it wants."

Study: Quitting Facebook Makes You Less Politically Polarized

Why Do Democrats and Republicans Hate Each Other? - "Partisans on both sides of the aisle significantly overestimate the extent of extremism in the opposing party. The more partisan the thinker, the more distorted the other side appears. And when we see the opposition as extremists, we fear them. Our tribal thinking prepares us for battle... having more information from the news media is associated with a less accurate understanding of political opponents. Part of the problem appears to be the political biases of media sources themselves. Of all the various news media examined, only the traditional TV networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, are associated with a better understanding of political views. What about more political engagement and education? Here again, we're out of luck. Those who are most accurate in their understanding of each side's political views are the politically disengaged. They are three times more accurate than the most engaged and passionate partisans. Even education is handicapping — at least for those on the left. The accuracy of Republicans’ views of Democrats is not affected by higher education, but liberals with postgraduate degrees are the least accurate about their ideological opponents. They are also the most afflicted with “affective polarization,” hostile feelings toward people of the opposing political party.  This discrepancy may be a result of the lack of political diversity among professors and administrators on campus... the more educated Democrats are, the less likely they are to have friends who don't share their political beliefs. As a result, there aren’t many opportunities on campus for the left to gain a nuanced understanding of their ideological opponents. Nor is there much chance for students to watch professors model cross-partisan friendships or friendly disagreement. And many of those who hold unpopular political views are unwilling to reveal their thinking. Self-censoring and the associated misrepresentation of preferred views (what social scientists call “preference falsification”) both lead to and result from what is known as “pluralistic ignorance.” This is the incorrect assumption on the part of many members of a community that the majority subscribe to an orthodox view.  All of this suggests that the way to close the perception gap is to expose people to a more intellectually diverse group of people and set of views, and turn down the tribalism.   Newspaper op-ed pages can make a difference by hiring — and fiercely protecting — opinion columnists whose views don't square with those of the majority of their readers. Think tanks, which often follow a certain ideological bent, can hire scholars who are willing to amicably challenge the conclusions of their colleagues. And nowhere is the need for intellectual diversity more urgent than in higher education — the very institutions that were once supposed to protect unpopular thinkers and expose students to uncomfortable ideas. But thanks to the emergence of what is now called “cancel culture,” students, faculty, and visiting speakers are targeted for opposing prevailing campus orthodoxy. Consider some well-known examples of contrarians and gadflies from the past few years: Ronald Sullivan, the Harvard law professor, whose position as dean of an undergraduate residential college was terminated because students complained that his legal representation of Harvey Weinstein made them “feel unsafe”; Allison Stanger, the political scientist at Middlebury who was physically assaulted by students for her discussion with libertarian scholar Charles Murray; Bret Weinstein, the Evergreen State College biologist who was hounded from his position for opposing a “day of absence” when only people of color were welcome on campus; Lucia Martinez Valdivia, the self-identified mixed-race and queer professor at Reed College accused by students of being a “race traitor,” “anti-black,” and “ableist” because she spoke about questioning feelings of oppression; and Joshua Clover, the UC Davis professor whose manifestly uncivil anti-law-enforcement comments were met not with arguments for the value of civil and productive disagreement and against his preferred ad hominem tactics, but with a rally and petition to have him fired.   What these and similar cases have in common isn’t the political leanings of the ostracized faculty members (though many of them are, to one degree or another, politically liberal). It is the apparent inability of their accusers to accept that other points of view should be entertained and discussed on campus, much less accepted as valid perspectives.  That inability is a function of an ideological monoculture in which any view that runs contrary to the prevailing moral code is seen as making people “unsafe;” that the mere presence on campus of people who hold “problematic” views is “harmful;” that words are violence... 15% of Republicans and 20% of Democrats thought the country would be better off if large numbers of opposing partisans “just died.”... Whether on a college campus or in the wider world, find what C.S. Lewis called “second friends.” A second friend is someone you like and respect who disagrees with you... Dissent and disagreement are necessary in order to sharpen our thinking and come to better conclusions"
The liberal cope will be that there's nothing wrong with hoping large numbers of Republicans die, because they are evil

What Is the True Cost of Polarization in America? - "Once rare, government shutdowns have become more frequent, as the major parties fail to compromise enough to even keep the federal government funded and open. The shutdowns are one consequence of rising social and political polarization in the United States. Polarization is not the same as disagreement about how to solve public policy problems, which is healthy and natural in a democracy... Here’s a list of reasons why Americans should strive to avoid worsening social and political antagonism—and to build bridges with each other.
1. We’re segregated in our own communities.
2. Our political culture is more and more antagonistic.
3. We judge and loathe members of other political parties.
4. Our families are being undermined. A recent study found that Thanksgiving dinners were significantly shorter in areas where Americans share meals across party lines. The effect was worse in areas with heavy political advertising...
5. We’re less likely to help each other out.
6. Our physical health is probably suffering.
7. We’re more and more stressed out.
8. We feel pressure to conform in our groups.
9. Deception is more likely.
10. Gridlock is damaging our government institutions.
11. Our pocketbooks are hurting.
12. We’re losing trust in key institutions.
13. It’s hard for us to solve problems even when we do agree.
14. Violence is more likely."

3 Strategies to Address Political Polarization in the Workplace - "In the U.S., if you patronize Starbucks, you are likely a Democrat; Dunkin’ Donuts, a Republican. In Hungary, magazines dedicated to hobbies as seemingly benign as fishing and bird-watching are now split down ideological lines.  Research suggests that politics seep into non-political domains when differences of opinion are viewed not merely as disagreements, but as reason to disdain or even loathe the person holding those views. For example, studies have shown that Americans tend to regard those with differing political views as hypocritical, selfish, and closed-minded, and a majority of both Republicans and Democrats feel that political polarization is more insurmountable than racial or socioeconomic divisions... people often overestimate the level of disagreement between themselves and members of opposing political groups, the prevalence of extreme beliefs among those groups, and the extent to which those people view them negatively. We call this effect “false polarization bias” — and it is a global phenomenon... Across multiple industries, research suggests that exaggerated perceptions of political difference can significantly increase employee turnover, create hostility between coworkers, and lead employees to try to hide beliefs they feel may be viewed negatively — all of which can reduce both job satisfaction and effectiveness. This hyperpolarized environment also means that both purchasing and employment decisions can be driven by political leanings, with businesses forced to pick a side to attract customers and talent...
1. Build an environment of cooperation, not competition.
2. Encourage meaningful contact between groups.
3. Create a safe environment for people to share their views."
The link which claims that bans on politics at work don't work has no evidence

Meme - "Republicans are bad" - chalkboard in classroom
"Republicans are bad" - Movie
"Republicans are bad" - TV News
"Republicans are bad" - Concert
"Republicans are bad" - Reading from newspaper
"I disagree"
"You'RE JuST BRAINWASHED"

Meme - The New York Times @nytimes: "A South Korean tour group's van became stuck in the snow outside a house in Williamsville, New York. They homeowners, luckily, had a well- stocked kitchen. And so began an unlikely holiday weekend."
Donna @DonnaHa54890914: "Thank goodness it wasn't in a red state. I'm sorry to have to say that but, we all know the truth about how the feel about foreigners."

How Can We Break Our Addiction to Contempt? - Freakonomics - "BROOKS: You know, entrepreneurship means rolling out something new. And by the way, I might never succeed. But remember that the average successful entrepreneur has 3.8 bankruptcies. I had a couple of bankruptcies. I mean, it wasn’t bankruptcies...
Trying to insult somebody into agreement is the stupidest thing you can possibly do... I mean, it’s completely ineffective, but it feels good. It feels satisfying in the very short run... Ninety-three percent, if you believe Tim Dixon’s data on this, 93 percent of us hate how divided we have become as a country...
The current American polarization has been building for a while now. Here’s an example: In the 1960s, only 42 percent of votes in the U.S. Senate were party-unity votes — that is, votes in which the majority of Republicans opposed the majority of Democrats, or vice versa. By the 2010’s, that number had risen to 63 percent. Here’s some more data to consider: In 1935, the Social Security Act was passed with 90 percent Democratic support and 75 percent Republican support. So — not unanimous, but united. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed with just 60 percent Democratic support but, again, 75 percent Republican. If you look at the major legislation passed in recent years, however, it’s a different story. ObamaCare made it through Congress with zero Republican votes. President Trump’s 2018 tax-reform bill made it through with zero Democratic votes...
We don’t see racial differences and we don’t see gender differences. And we actually don’t see differences between right and left. What we do see is differences in consumption of media. So the more time you consume political information on social media, the more you’re going to be both a victim and a perpetrator of contempt. The more that you watch cable television, you’re going to be a victim and perpetrator of contempt. For example, answering questions like, “What do you think is the biggest threat to the United States?” The likelihood of you saying it’s a person of the other party is directly related to how much political news that you consume. And I don’t even have to know what political news you consume. It’s funny, but it’s not, right? It’s straight hits off the bottle for people who just can’t handle it...
BROOKS: There’s a really great psychiatry professor at Stanford Medical School named Anna Lembke, who has a big new book out about dopamine. And she talks about addictions to video games and gambling and substances and pornography. What they all have in common is that they stimulate dopamine. So if you’re a media addict and you’re watching six hours a day of Fox News or M.S.N.B.C., the reason is because your brain is lighting up like a Christmas tree. The problem is that you’re neutralizing the pleasure you get from that almost immediately, leading you to have to take the drug again and again and again and again. These are the sort of the neurochemical predictors of falling happiness. And then at the more meta level, what you find is that contempt is going to drive love out of your life. There’s a very famous study called the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which is an 80-year longitudinal study of people, when they get old, what do they all have in common if they’re happy and well, and the answer is love. It’s just all you need to know. Happiness is love, full stop...
He focused his research on philanthropy, primarily the motives that lead people to donate money. Out of this research came his first book, in 2006. It was called Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism. BROOKS: There was one thing in that book that people either liked or didn’t like, which was that as a general matter — this wasn’t very political, it was more religious in nature — that people who have strong religious commitments give more to all causes and charities, including secular causes and charities, than people who don’t have strong religious commitments. And people who are more religious tend to be more conservative"
Of course, many Americans believe that anyone can take out a business loan and succeed so if you don't succeed it's your fault
So much for the liberal cope that conservatives don't give more to charity - they just give more to religion (even if we pretend that religious institutions don't do charitable work at all)

Which Countries are the Most Polarized? - "Here are all six of the countries considered to be severely polarized:
Argentina
Colombia
United States
South Africa
Spain
Sweden"

Five Case Studies On Politicization - "One day I woke up and they had politicized Ebola.  I don’t just mean the usual crop of articles like Republicans Are Responsible For The Ebola Crisis and Democrats Try To Deflect Blame For Ebola Outbreak and Incredibly Awful Democrats Try To Blame Ebola On GOP and NPR Reporter Exposes Right Wing Ebola Hype and Republicans Flip-Flop On Ebola Czars. That level of politicization was pretty much what I expected...   I’m talking about something weirder. Over the past few days, my friends on Facebook have been making impassioned posts about how it’s obvious there should/shouldn’t be a quarantine, but deluded people on the other side are muddying the issue... everyone supporting the quarantine has been on the right, and everyone opposing on the left. Weird that so many people suddenly develop strong feelings about a complicated epidemiological issue, which can be exactly predicted by their feelings about everything else... Do Republicans believe certain other things for their own sake, and then adapt their beliefs about Ebola to help buttress their other beliefs? Or do the same factors that made them adopt their narrative in the first place lead them to adopt a similar narrative around Ebola?  My guess it it’s a little of both. And then once there’s a critical mass of anti-quarantiners within a party, in-group cohesion and identification effects cascade towards it being a badge of party membership and everybody having to believe it. And if the Democrats are on the other side, saying things you disagree with about every other issue, and also saying that you have to oppose quarantine or else you’re a bad person, then that also incentivizes you to support a quarantine, just to piss them off...   At worst this choice to emphasize different issues descends into an unhappy combination of tragedy and farce.  The Rotherham scandal was an incident in an English town where criminal gangs had been grooming and blackmailing thousands of young girls, then using them as sex slaves...   The Left then proceeded to totally ignore it, and the Right proceeded to never shut up about it for like an entire month... you would think that the systematic rape of thousands of women with police taking no action might be a feminist issue. Or that it might outrage some people on Tumblr, a site which has many flaws but which has never been accused of being slow to outrage. But the goal here isn’t to push some kind of Platonic ideal of what’s important, it’s to support a certain narrative that ties into the Blue Tribe narrative. Rotherham does the opposite of that... All those conservative news sites that couldn’t shut up about Rotherham? Nothing on Ferguson – unless it was to snipe at the Left for “exploiting” it to make a political point. Otherwise, they did their best to stay quiet about it... what I really liked was the Ferguson coverage started branching off into every issue any member of the Blue Tribe has ever cared about... The Red Tribe and Blue Tribe have different narratives, which they use to tie together everything that happens into reasons why their tribe is good and the other tribe is bad...   When an issue gets tied into a political narrative, it stops being about itself and starts being about the wider conflict between tribes until eventually it becomes viewed as a Referendum On Everything.
From 2014. Meanwhile in 2020 it became the left supporting quarantines and travel bans
Of course, after this we found out that the Ferguson shooting (Michael Brown) was justified, so. But the left tying it to Climate Change, OTOH...

A Warning From a Democrat in a Red State - The Atlantic - "Sometimes it feels as though all citizens of red states are lumped together, as if everyone here, especially those in rural areas, is the same. In early December when McConnell shot down the $908 billion stimulus plan, Twitter lit up with hatred for Kentuckians. Shortly before the November election, the MSNBC journalist Joy Reid tweeted her dismay with the state’s voters. Her followers responded by talking about the stupidity of Kentuckians, many posting memes of shirtless men with mullets or declarations that all people in the state are white supremacists. After the election, the hashtag #FuckKentucky was popular on Twitter. Social media is not known for its decorum, but what troubled me more than the hashtag was the way Kentuckians were painted with broad strokes as hicks, hillbillies, and a host of derogatory terms who live in “the armpit of America” and who wouldn’t deserve pity even if we were “ravaged by COVID.” These volatile responses trouble me, not only because I don’t like being reduced to a stereotype, but also because that response feeds the GOP rhetoric I hear at home: The liberals just think you’re deplorable, so why not flex your muscle any way you can to spit in their faces?"
I like how the moral of the story is not "don't demonise people" but "don't demonise a state because there're liberals who live there"

Thread by @MoreBirths on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Inter-political marriages are less common today than interracial marriages! @jburnmurdoch reports in a great thread how political polarization among young people is driving down marriage and fertility. How can we maintain marriage and families in such a divided world? An analysis by @FiveThirtyEight not long ago found that only about 4% of new marriages in the US are between Democrats and Republicans (versus 20% of new marriages that are interracial)! Given the political divide between young men and women, this doesn't bode well. But looking at @FiveThirtyEight's data, we see a way forward. A lot of young people in the US are identifying as independent (and they are presumably more moderate and tolerant of difference). And those independents are succeeding with all types!"

Ryan Burge 📊 on X - "The finding that young women are becoming a lot more liberal while young men are becoming a lot more conservative DOES NOT REPLICATE in the Cooperative Election Study. In fact, the two lines have run in almost perfect parallel for the last 15 years. "

How Selective Empathy Can Chip Away At Civil Society - "Konrath collected decades of studies and noticed a very obvious pattern. Starting around 2000, the line starts to slide. More students say it's not their problem to help people in trouble, not their job to see the world from someone else's perspective. By 2009, on all the standard measures, Konrath found, young people on average measure 40 percent less empathetic than my own generation — 40 percent!... when the wife of white nationalist Richard Spencer recently told BuzzFeed he had abused her, the question debated on the lefty Internet was: Why should we care that some woman who chose to ally herself with a nasty racist got herself hurt? Why waste empathy on that?...   The new rule for empathy seems to be: reserve it, not for your "enemies," but for the people you believe are hurt, or you have decided need it the most. Empathy, but just for your own team. And empathizing with the other team? That's practically a taboo.  And it turns out that this brand of selective empathy is a powerful force.   In the past 20 years, psychologists and neurologists have started to look at how empathy actually works, in our brains and our hearts, when we're not thinking about it. And one thing they've found is that "one of the strongest triggers for human empathy is observing some kind of conflict between two other parties," says Fritz Breithaupt, a professor at Indiana University who studies empathy. "Once they take the side, they're drawn into that perspective. And that can lead to very strong empathy and too strong polarization with something you only see this one side and not the other side any longer."...   Researchers who study empathy have noticed that it's actually really hard to do what we were striving for in my generation: empathize with people who are different than you are, much less people you don't like. But if researchers set up a conflict, people get into automatic empathy overdrive, with their own team. This new research has scrambled notions of how empathy works as a force in the world. For example, we often think of terrorists as shockingly blind to the suffering of innocents. But Breithaupt and other researchers think of them as classic examples of people afflicted with an "excess of empathy. They feel the suffering of their people." Breithaupt called his new book The Dark Sides of Empathy, because there's a point at which empathy doesn't even look like the kind of universal empathy I was taught in school... Breithaupt proposes an ingenious solution: give up on the idea that when we are "empathizing" we are being altruistic, or helping the less fortunate, or in any way doing good. What we can do when we do empathy, proposes Fritz, is help ourselves. We can learn to see the world through the eyes of a migrant child and a militia leader and a Russian pen pal purely so we can expand our own imaginations, and make our own minds richer. It's selfish empathy. Not saintly, but better than being alone."
When people talk about "empathy", they usually mean weaponised selective empathy

Meme - Patrick Ruffini @PatrickRuffini: "*median Democrat becoming much more consistently liberal, while median Republican stays quite moderate* Remember that it’s Democrats’ massive lurch left that’s driving political polarization and the culture war. Republicans pointing out an extreme thing the left did does not make a culture war. The extreme thing does. “I can’t believe you’re talking about this” usually means the thing is bad and you don’t want to talk about it."

Links - 2nd June 2024 (2)

Freeland apologizes for saying Poilievre wears more makeup than her

My patient thinks he's a werewolf: 10 years as an NHS psychiatrist - "he leaps up and snarls. ‘Oh God, I can feel the beast coming on!’  The nurses hold their hands out, palms facing down to placate him. His eyes bulge from their orbits and I’m careful not to meet them, lowering my gaze to signal submission.  ‘Femi, I think everyone would feel calmer if you sit down again. Also, it’s only the morning and I didn’t think werewolves came out during daylight hours.’  ‘Is it?’ he says looking around the room, disorientated. He’s been awake most of the night and there are no windows in here.  ‘Yeah, look, it’s only just after 8am,’ I say, showing him my watch.  ‘Oh,’ he says, surprised. Then he sits back down again. The team and I collectively relax, and thank God that we’re not working the night shift... Someone wriggles his trousers down, and two needles, one containing antipsychotic and another a rapid tranquilliser, are plunged into the gluteal muscle of his backside. Disturbing animalistic grunts and screams spray from his mouth. The bulging whites of his eyes tell the fear of someone who genuinely believes he’s being put down like a dog at the vet.  During such moments I can’t help wondering if psychiatric hospitals are actually good for people’s health. A ward patient once told me they weren’t suicidal until they were incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital. Another terrified inpatient once asked me quite sincerely, ‘Am I in hell?’  As Femi’s struggling slowly subsides and the tortuous noises become softer, I wonder what the alternatives are. Let severely disturbed patients eat the staff for breakfast? Uncoil the asylum chains and dust off the straitjackets? Seclusion, physical restraint and enforced medication aren’t a good arrangement, but are perhaps the least bad ones." Beauty queen shot dead after leading killers to restaurant with octopus ceviche - "An Ecuadorian beauty queen was assassinated after her Instagram post of a plate of octopus ceviche led gunmen to the restaurant where she was dining.  Police are investigating the shooting of 23-year-old Landy Párraga amid media speculation the hit was ordered by the widow of a drug lord with whom she is believed to have had an affair. The beauty queen and social media influencer was gunned down shortly after her name appeared in a corruption inquiry linking judicial officials to organised crime.  Párraga had just posted a photo of the ceviche she was about to eat for lunch to her 173,000 followers on Instagram when two armed men burst into the restaurant in Quevedo and fired several times at her."

Meme - "America invented craft beer, and Budweiser is a multinational. Average back in the day beers were 5% ABV. Light beers are 3.2%. Craft beers are usually 6%+. I guarantee your country's beers are weaker than average craft beers"
"Hahaha - mate, some of my local craft breweries are older than your country."

Meme - Hakeem Jeffries: "The Supreme Court has ruled. America is not a monarchy. Trump is not a King. There is no doctrine of absolute immunity from Congressional subpoenas. The American people WILL get to see the President's tax returns one way or the other."
Hakeem Jeffries @RepJeffries: "The Supreme Court majority has zero legitimacy. Ghosts of the confederacy are alive and well."

Meme - "The "Shopping at Aldi's" Starterpack
Crust toothpaste
Dave beauty cream bar
Log's Cracker chips
KatKot. Have a break, Have a Kat Kot
Nut Master. Hazelnut spread"

Idaho teen arrested for allegedly plotting to attack church in name of ISIS - "Alexander Mercurio was charged in a criminal complaint with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He remains in custody and has not entered a plea, according to court records.    Investigators alleged Mercurio was about to attack at least one church in his area on April 7 — a Sunday — with guns, knives, and flammable chemicals, but they said they foiled his plans before he could carry out his plan.  Mercurio is accused of writing to an unnamed FBI source that he was set to "stop close by the church, equip the weapon(s) and storm the temple, killing as many people as possible." His goal, according to investigators, was to carry out an act of martyrdom before the end of Ramadan — the holy month observed peacefully by Islam practitioners across the globe that emphasizes prayer and fasting — and pledge his allegiance to the leader of ISIS.  "I am going to perform a martyrdom operation very soon," he allegedly wrote in one recent message. "The targets will be the various churches in my town."... "The defendant swore an oath of loyalty to ISIS and planned to wage an attack in its name on churches in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing Mercruio's arrest on Monday. "Thanks to the investigative efforts of the FBI, the defendant was taken into custody before he could act." "

Under One Roof: How The Covered Walkway Conquered Singapore - "The history of the covered walkway in Singapore began in the usual manner: With a piece of paper signed by Raffles. The Town Plan of 1822 (the ‘Jackson’ Plan) did not just divide Singapore into the familiar zones of Dhoby Ghaut, Chinatown, Kampung Glam, etc. It also mandated the construction of Singapore’s first covered pedestrian walkways.  Article 18 of the plan states: “Description of houses to be constructed, each house to have a verandah open at all times as a continued and covered passage on each side of the street”. These ‘verandahs’, built into shophouses and providing protection from both sun and rain, would later be known as the five-foot-ways. (Even though their actual width ranged between 6-8 feet.)...   Since Raffles was not an architect—or a man who did much walking—historians have often speculated on how he dreamed up the idea. After all, with malaria endemic and fresh water running short, you would think that Raffles had bigger problems than UV protection—but apparently not. Furthermore, covered walkways were not so common in Great Britain, which had a shortage of shelter despite its ceaseless rain... In the Dutch capital of Batavia (i.e. Jaya Karta/modern-day Jakarta), the Dutch East India Company (VOC) had created regularly lined streets with overhanging eaves for shelter. Raffles, who served as the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies and wrote The History of Java, certainly had both time and inclination to observe the local architecture—when he was not busy attacking it.   Indeed, his The History Of Java does make special mention of women preoccupied with “spinning and weaving on an elevated verandah in front, where they are protected from the rays of the sun, by an extended projection of the pitch of the roof.”... Depending on their mood and ideological fetish, experts have variously attributed the covered walkway to either Southern China, Javanese Vernacular architecture, or the House of Habsburg (Spanish branch)...   By the mid-1800s, five-foot ways were to colonial Singapore what money shots of MBS are today—a tiresome cliche. Western travellers in particular simply could not get enough of these ‘exotic’ thoroughfares...   After nearly a century in exile, the covered walkway had made its triumphant return.  But why now? What changed in the1980s/1990s in Singapore? What made covered walkways so suddenly en vogue? Mr Fernandez’s book might have you believe that our government dreamed it up alone in a eureka moment, but the right answer lies in a confluence of factors. For starters, Singapore has been growing in (1) affluence in the decades post-independence. Since the 1970s, HDB built not just to meet the need for shelter, but also to fulfil the more esoteric desires of Singaporean home-owners. Covered walkways are a natural extension to lifts-which-stop-on-every-floor and exercise corners... For the Public Works Department, however, the walkway was a means to a very different end. Like the HDB, there was rapid expansion of covered linkages in the 1980s and 1990s. Unlike the HDB, the PWD used covered walkways to (3) encourage the use of public transport. By linking MRT stations and bus shelters seamlessly to homes, it reasoned, more Singaporeans would take the train instead of calling for Grab... These practical schemes were preceded by (4) deeper rumblings at the philosophical and ideological level. In the 1970s, post-colonialism emerged as a mode of thinking and gained widespread acceptance in fields like history, sociology and literature. Architecture was no exception and many a young designer began re-thinking the urban environment along historical lines."

Meme - Jo @JoJoFromJerz: "If I hear one more Republican ever whinkng and crying about how some Democrat was mean to them in a restaurant I'm going to lose my fucking shit"
Jo @JoJoFromJerz: "Tonight was a rough one. I was at a Yankees game with my league team and out of the blue (and thanks to alcchol) I was targeted. Coaches whi had just become aware of my Twitter started screaming my name and my handle and then they started taunting me. Tbh I'm shook"

Meme - "When you're trash, but you're the best trash *golden trash bag*"

Meme - "Les eaux *l'alcool*"
Commentaire: "De vie"

The secret to choosing a perfect steak – seven beef myths busted - "Myth 1: Fillet steak is the best cut...
Ask any expert and they’ll tell you that it’s not as simple as saying fillet steak is the “best”; rather it depends on what you’re after when it comes to taste, texture – and price. “The best steak doesn’t exist,” says chef Paul Foster, the owner of Stratford-upon-Avon restaurant Salt and author of How to Cook Meat Properly. “[Fillet] is the most tender,” he admits, “so if you’re looking for the most tender steak, then you’ve got to go for fillet. But it doesn’t have very much flavour.” Flavour often comes from meat taken from parts of the cow that have done more “work”, so for Foster, rib-eye (from the forequarter of the animal) is a great choice, delivering plenty of flavour and texture...
Myth 2: Bone-in cuts are always better...
while cooking meat on the bone can be great in general, when it comes to steak it’s not necessarily going to add much because of the way we cook it, points out Foster. “Cooking on the bone does add flavour, but that needs to be over a longer period of time."...
Myth 3: Named breeds mean superior beef...
In some modern breeds the cattle are bred to put down lean meat faster, resulting in less fat than traditional, “old-fashioned” breeds... Crossbreeding is common. “If [a supermarket steak says] it’s a Hereford or an Aberdeen Angus, there will be a proportion of that breed in there,” says Smith. “But it won’t necessarily be a pure breed.” Likewise, your highly prized Wagyu steak might be “a 50 per cent cross,” says Smith, “so you don’t have that full flavour; it won’t have all the marbling and the succulence that a full-blood has.”...
Myth 4: Lots of fat is good...
lots of fat can be good (“it does an amazing job for flavour,” agrees Stanley), but there are two caveats. Firstly, how the steak will be served. While fat-rich Wagyu beef is seen as a marker of quality and is highly regarded by top restaurants, trying to mimic it at home for your steak-and-chips dinner might not be the best idea. “In Japanese culture [Wagyu will be sliced] thinly like sashimi, or dipped in hot dashi [an intensely savoury broth]. So you get a small mouthful,” explains Foster.   “But if you tried to serve someone a big Wagyu steak, they’ll be feeling pretty sick by the end.”... the distribution of fat plays a far more significant role than the quantity. Foster’s advice is to look for a steak that’s a dark cherry red, with even marbling...
Myth 5: Aged steak is always best...
More important than the duration is how the meat has been aged, argues Smith. Dry ageing describes when meat is exposed to air, in many cases hung but sometimes on a rack, allowing its moisture to evaporate, whereas a different process – called “wet ageing” by some – sees meat vacuum-packed, sitting in its own moisture, then left to age. The latter method is more common, especially when it comes to supermarket meat, and it ensures the weight doesn’t reduce too much through evaporation of moisture, but doesn’t necessarily mean the steak will taste as good as a dry-aged version...
Myth 6: Supermarket steak is always dreadful
Myth 7: Buying steak from the butcher is far more expensive than from the supermarket"

Meme - Elyse @ayeeelyse: "Was being responsible and didn't drive home after happy hour last night. Came back to pick up my car and it's in a fucking farmers market."

Meme - "How to Get Through Tough Times. Gaslight Yourself. Tell yourself that it's making you stronger and the universe is just testing you."

Meme - "What is the moral difference, if any, between a shitposter and a civilian?"
"A shitposter challenges the status quo through dank memes, and risks bans and diminishing relationships in order to promote freedom of thought. A civilian does not"
"Exact words of the text."

Why the coins in your pocket make you a Roman - "Twenty-two centuries after it was first struck, the denarius remains embedded in the cultural and linguistic memory of East and West. Every day, Spanish speakers around the world refer to dinero when they talk of money, just as Portuguese discuss dinheiro and Italians denaro. While in bustling souks across North Africa and the Middle East – but especially in the markets of modern Tunis, watched over by the spirit of the city’s most famous son, Hannibal – the dinars still change hands."

New mRNA cancer vaccine triggers fierce immune response to fight malignant brain tumor - "In a first-ever human clinical trial of four adult patients, an mRNA cancer vaccine developed at the University of Florida quickly reprogrammed the immune system to attack glioblastoma, the most aggressive and lethal brain tumor."

X-Men '97 Airbnb: Go Inside Mansion With Wolverine Bedroom - "Airbnb has redesigned a private mansion in Westchester, N.Y. — the home of the X-Men in Marvel comics — into a replica of the mutant manor from “X-Men ’97.”  The mansion, decorated in the 2-D animation style of the Disney+ series, is complete with replicas of Wolverine’s and Jubilee’s bedrooms, Beast’s science lab, the telepathic Cerebro device, the Danger Room and other features. There’s even the severed head of an evil, robotic Sentinel laying in the front yard to greet you as you arrive. The “X-Men ’97” mansion is part of Airbnb’s new Icons line, a series of unique experiences located around the world inspired by movies, TV, music and art. The company unveiled its first 11 Icons, which include the “Up” balloon house, Riley’s Headquarters from “Inside Out 2,” Prince’s “Purple Rain” home and more. Most of the Icon locations are free, and the others cost less than $100 per guest...   Every nook and cranny of the mansion is vibrantly colored, with bold comic book sketch lines applied to surfaces to make it feel like you’re actually in an episode of “X-Men ’97.” Portraits of Charles Xavier, Magneto, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Gambit, Bishop, Beast and more adorn the entryway. As you go inside, you’re greeted by three X-Men “trainees” who guide you through the experience.

UK one of the best places to survive a global collapse of society, says study - "The UK would be one of the best places in the world in which to "restart life" in the event of global societal collapse, according to a study. New Zealand topped the list while Iceland, Australia and Ireland also ranked highly... The team at Anglia Ruskin University's Global Sustainability Institute looked at a range of factors, including access to energy sources, climate, the availability of arable land and population density.  As an island separated from the Eurasian landmass, the UK scored highly in its ability to protect its borders from unwanted mass immigration... Countries were ranked on their ability to grow food, produce energy and control unwanted immigration. States with low population density and moderate climates ranked highest in the study... Reports in recent years have noted that a number of Silicon Valley's tech billionaires have bought up land in New Zealand, which the study said would be the best place to survive a societal collapse."

How to fall in love, according to a Hinge behavioral scientist - "F*** the spark: This is actually one of the chapter titles in How to Not Die Alone. Chasing the spark based off of initial chemistry alone is a losing battle — and I have witnessed this too, among my clients and podcast listeners. Instead of prioritizing butterflies, look for deeper elements of connection and a window into your date's values. Go on that second date and see what unfolds."

Intimacy: Back to reality - FML - "Today, as her parents were supposed to be out of town, I stayed over with my girlfriend, and we ended up in bed together. Later on, while poking through the fridge, I heard footsteps, so I said, "Didn't think you'd be walking after that." I closed the fridge and saw her dad. FML"

Meme - Perma Banned: ""You'll own nothing and be happy" So sayeth the rich celebrity writer living the life of luxury and power, to the peasants and the commoners."
Stephen King @Stephenking: "Just because you bought it doesn't mean you own it."

Do the Hustle! Empowerment from Side-Hustles and Its Effects on Full-Time Work Performance - "Side-hustles, income-generating work performed alongside full-time jobs, are increasingly common as the gig economy provides opportunities for employees to perform supplementary work. Although scholars have suggested that side-hustles conflict with full-time work performance, we assert that psychological empowerment from side-hustles enriches full-time work performance. We argue that side-hustle complexity—the motivating characteristics of side-hustles—positively relates to empowerment and that side-hustle motives moderate this relationship. A study of 337 employees supports these assertions. We then investigate the spillover of side-hustle empowerment to full-time work performance in a 10-day experience-sampling method study of 80 employee–coworker dyads. We address an affective pathway in which daily side-hustle empowerment enriches full-time work performance through side-hustle engagement and positive affect at work. We also consider a cognitive pathway wherein side-hustle empowerment distracts from full-time work performance through side-hustle engagement and attention residue—persistent cognitions about side-hustles during full-time work. Overall, performance enrichment from side-hustles was stronger than performance conflict. We also consider affective shift from full-time work to side-hustles, finding negative affect from full-time work strengthens the relationship between side-hustle empowerment and engagement. Combined, our two studies examine the source of side-hustle empowerment and how side-hustle empowerment influences affective and cognitive experiences during full-time work."

Japanese city loses residents’ personal data, which was on paper being transported on a windy day - "The Aichi prefectural government has issued an official apology for improper handling of the personal data of 121 resident households. The incident took place on April 19 and involved data pertaining to residents of government assisted housing at four buildings under the jurisdiction of the Prefectural Public Housing Division... Unfortunately, this data was stored on physical media, which, as we’ve seen before, can cause problems for Japanese government agencies. There was the time, for example, when the Tokyo police department lost citizens’ data that they’d stored on floppy discs, or that other time when a city employee in Hyogo Prefecture got drunk, passed out, and lost a USB memory stick with residents’ personal information on it.  The Aichi government’s blunder was even more old-school, however, as it was carrying out its data transfer by physically transporting 1,696 pieces of paper, placed inside a cardboard box. What’s more, they upped the degree of difficulty by opting to transport the box in a handcart and having someone walk it over, out on the streets, to its destination, instead of driving it over. Oh, and they decided to do this on a day with strong winds.  The silent-era comedy movie setup was, it seems, too much for fate to resist. Before the public corporation employee who was pushing the cart reached the capital building, the cart tipped over and the box opened up as it tumbled out. Though the worker attempted to grab the documents, two hands aren’t nearly enough to snatch 1,696 papers, and many blew away. The search for scattered documents continued until sunset, at which point the Aichi government began contacting affected residents to inform them of the data leak/blow-away. The search continued for two more days, but without all of the documents being recovered...   No improper use of the lost data has been discovered at this time, and in addition to issuing an apology the Aichi prefectural government says it plans to switch to digital records for this part of housing administration process, which will allow them to transfer data without any weather or cart balance concerns."

Meme - "Teach your children to chase waterfalls, not wifi."
"O yeah cuz we all have waterfalls in our backyards, jayla"

Meme - Amazing Maps @Amazing Maps: "Blonde hair map of Europe
Percentage of light hair in Europe
80% or more - Central Norway and Sweden, South Finland
50-79% - Central England and Southern Scotland, Iceland, Denmark, Northern Poland, most of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Northwest RUssia, msot of Norway, North and South Sweden, North Finland
20-49% - North half of Portugal, Britanny, Eastern France, most of Switzerland, Benelux, Germany, most of Central Europe, Southern Britain, Northern Scotland, Ireland, most of European Russia
1-19% - Most of France, Most of Italy, Southern Switzerland, Spain, the southern half of Portugal, The Balkans up to southern Ukraine, Turkey and North Africa and the Middle East (?!)"

'Butt Squad' organizer admits he slept with two of the models - "Grechin picked up the tab for the $13,500 all-expenses-paid trip by the 21 women to the conservative country, according to The Sun, which interviewed the property tycoon who has reportedly been seen eating with George Clooney and posing with Hillary Clinton.  “I live the way 90 percent of heterosexual males on this planet would like to live but don’t. And I don’t want to apologize for it,” he told the news outlet via cellphone... Grechin insisted that the models — who faced charges of public debauchery but have since been released and left the country — are just “friends” and not involved in prostitution... “What the girls did is wrong, based on the laws of Dubai. But we are talking about a bunch of very young, excited, open-minded, regular girls who have nothing to do with escorting, modeling or anything else,” he told the outlet.  “In Dubai, everything is on camera. If we had other guys coming over, if these girls were prostituting, it would all show up,” Grechin said. “I’ve had sexual relations with two of these girls — and not at the same time. We’re normal people.” He added: “To understand the mentality of these women, you have to understand the culture they come from. It’s a much more open society.  “They look at Instagram and Playboy magazine and feel sometimes it’s OK if you’re beautiful to show the outline of your figure,” Grechin told The Sun.  “That doesn’t mean they want to participate in a filmed orgy or porn. There is a clear difference in our culture between something that is sexual and something that is aesthetically pleasing and beautiful,” he added.  Grechin described how the “Butt Squad” photoshoot unfolded, saying the group spent April 3 at a pool and a restaurant before going to Russian IT boss Alexei Kontsov’s penthouse in the posh Marina district. After removing their swimwear, some of the women went out on the balcony to take a photo with the panoramic view, he said... He said an unknown neighbor snapped images of the women and posted them on social media.  “We have no idea who filmed it or why. They’re the ones producing the pornography and distributing it, not us,” Grechin said...   One of the women, 23-year-old Nataliya Chuprina, called the balcony photo a “souvenir,” a “keepsake for ourselves,” The Sun reported... Grechin’s globetrotting lifestyle included monthly parties with beautiful women he says are his friends in various exotic locales, including Thailand, Bali and the Maldives.  “I’ve lived my dream life for decades. I’m very sorry it has become public because of an idiotic 30 seconds on a balcony,” he told The Sun."

10 Pics Of Jeff Goldblum Lookin' Like A Snacc While Resembling Various Pop-Tart Flavors

Dog owner horrified after groomer's autocorrect text fail - "the pet specialist alerted his parent around 10 a.m., “Hi Dexter is dead.”  Thankfully, the employee realized their grave blunder, and desperately sent a subsequent text to clarify what they meant: “Hi dexter is ready now!! Sorry stupid auto correct.”... a Wisconsin woman’s text to her father sparked a full-blown police investigation after it autocorrected to say she was being “stabbed” — instead of “swabbed” for COVID-19."

Constipated woman 'lost 10 years of memory' after straining too hard on toilet - "The anonymous woman had a 'mental blackout' because of constipation, according to reports from Hong Kong. The China Post claims the woman forgot a decade of her life for an eight-hour period after struggling on the toilet. Her memory returned after an overnight stay in hospital, although she still cannot remember the eight hours after her visit to the lavatory. Neurologist Dr Peng Jiaxiong told reporters that the woman suffered from 'transient global amnesia', a mysterious condition resulting in sudden memory loss... "If you are physically pushing very hard, you could cut off blood supply to the brain.""

Chinese crooks behind one of the world's 'largest online scams' - "Chinese scammers using fake websites purporting to flog designer products at huge discounts are believed to have made off with the credit card details and personal data of some 800,000 people in Europe and the US, an investigation has revealed... English versions of the sites are accompanied by duplicates in several European languages including French, German, Spanish and Italian, designed to dupe unsuspecting shoppers from the continent to North America. And though roughly two-thirds of them have now been deactivated, investigators believe more than 22,500 are still live and continue to trick bargain-hunting online shoppers. SR Labs, a German cybersecurity consultancy that uncovered the scam, said that a group of programmers appeared to have created a system to rapidly generate and deploy new sites, dramatically increasing their reach. The Chinese group, labelled 'BogusBazaar' by SR Labs, is believed to have swindled millions of pounds, euros and dollars from their victims since it launched the first sites in 2015... in many cases, the scammers were not after money. Often customers were told upon checkout that their bank, or the website itself, had rejected the payment request. Though the money may have remained in their accounts, their personal details - including full name, address, credit card number and three digit security code - were all in the hands of the scammers. 'Data is the new currency,' Jake Moore, a global cybersecurity adviser at the software company ESET, told The Guardian. 'The bigger picture is that one must assume the Chinese government may have potential access to the data,' he said... a core team develops the software and supports the operation of the network, while franchisees 'manage the day-to-day operations of fraudulent shops.'"

Hysterics for Hamas

Hysterics for Hamas

"The female tilt among anti-Israel student protesters is an underappreciated aspect of the pro-Hamas campus hysteria. True, when activists need muscle (to echo University of Missouri professor Melissa Click’s immortal call during the 2015 Black Lives Matter protests), males are mobilized to smash windows and doors or hurl projectiles at the police, for example. But the faces behind the masks and before the cameras are disproportionately female...

Why the apparent gender gap? One possible reason is that women constitute majorities of both student bodies and the metastasizing student-services bureaucracies that cater to them. Another is the sex skew in majors. The hard sciences and economics, whose students are less likely to take days or weeks out from their classes to party (correction: “stand against genocide”) in cool North Face tents, are still majority male. The humanities and soft social sciences, the fields where you might even get extra credit for your intersectional activism, are majority female. (Not surprisingly, males have spearheaded recent efforts to guard the American flag against desecration.) In progressive movements, the default assumption now may be to elevate females ahead of males as leaders and spokesmen. But most important, the victim ideology that drives much of academia today, with its explicit enmity to objectivity and reason as white male constructs, has a female character.

Student protests have always been hilariously self-dramatizing, but the current outbreak is particularly maudlin, in keeping with female self-pity. “The university would rather see us dead than divest,” said a member of the all-female press representatives of UCLA’s solidarity encampment on X. The university police and the Los Angeles Police Department “would rather watch us be killed than protect us.” (The academic Left, including these anti-Zionists, opposes police presence on campus; UCLA chancellor Gene Block apologized in June 2020 after the LAPD lawfully mustered on university property during the George Floyd race riots.) Command of language is not a strong point of these student emissaries. “There needs to be an addressment (sic) of U.S. imperialism and its ties to the [University of California] system,” said another UCLA encampment spokeswoman.

It was not too long ago when administrators started bringing in therapy dogs to campus libraries and dining halls to help a female-heavy student body cope with psychic distress, especially after the election of Donald Trump. “Trigger warnings” were implemented to protect female students from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and other great works of literature. Campus discourse and its media echo chamber rang with accounts of the mental-health crisis on campus, whose alleged sufferers were overwhelmingly female.

Par for the course, then, when the editors at the Columbia Law Review (majority female) adopted the rhetoric of trauma in demanding that Columbia Law School hand out a universal pass for Spring 2024 coursework. A May 1 action by the New York Police Department to evict violent trespassers from an administration building had left them, they wrote,  “highly emotional,” “irrevocably shaken,” “unwell,” and “unable to focus”—in other words, displaying all the symptoms of Victorian neurasthenia.

It was not too long ago when a predominantly female professoriate, student population, and bureaucratic apparatus embraced the idea that students’ “safety” should be protected against the “hate speech” that allegedly jeopardized it. (Males, by contrast, place greater emphasis on academic freedom and truth-seeking, regardless of the alleged emotional consequences of intellectual inquiry.) Examples of dangerous speech included arguments that racial disparities are not caused by racism and that human beings cannot change their sex by proclamation.

Now, while still asserting their own unsafety, the pro-Hamas protesters have done an about-face when it comes to political disagreement and “safety,” at least where pro-Israel students are concerned. Nas Issa, a Palestinian alumna of Columbia University, told the New York Times that she saw a difference between feeling uncomfortable and feeling that you are in danger. Challenges to your identity or political ideology “can be personally affecting,” said Issa. “But I think the conflation between that and safety—it can be a bit misleading.”

It was also not too long ago when college campuses were shutting down or locking students in their dorms as an anti-Covid policy, notwithstanding overwhelming evidence showing that adolescents faced virtually no chance of serious Covid complications. This zero-risk policy, in its inability to balance costs and benefits rationally, was quintessentially female. It is fitting, therefore, that N95 masks have been repurposed as go-to accessories for the most up-to-date anti-settler-colonialist look. Females at the Columbia rally in front of Butler Library passed out the masks to the few participants not already wrapped up like mummies. When asked what the point was, one distributor answered, “to protect against Covid”—an answer that, sadly, could as easily be sincere as duplicitous.

Assuming the latter to be the case, hiding one’s face to escape accountability for one’s actions is the antithesis of manly virtue. The swaddled students would say that they have been forced into such precautions by the risk of “doxing.” But while a home address is properly private and should not be disclosed without permission, a face is public, and participation in public protest fair game for political accountability. The muffled freedom fighters are also aping Third World terrorists, of course, but the worst that might befall these revolutionary wannabes is rejection from their favored investment or consulting firm, not execution.

The dead white males emblazoned on the frieze of Columbia’s Butler Library would not have been surprised by the scene below them. Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Cicero, and Virgil knew a thing or two about herd behavior and the irrationality of the mob, even if the students knew nothing about the great minds etched above...

The founders of Columbia University would have been alarmed, however, to see students illegally colonizing campus grounds and vandalizing college buildings. They would have been dumbfounded to learn that university administrators were meekly negotiating with the vandals and that faculty in neon vests were protecting the trespassers. The idea that student demands should set the school’s agenda would have struck any nineteenth-century academic as surreal.

Universities now assume that students have the right (some would say the duty) to disrupt the system; they bow before students’ every whim. The pro-Hamas protests have unleashed a wave of 1960s nostalgia...

Actually, the pro-Hamas encampments have little to do with “thinking,” fresh or otherwise. Like the spread of trans identity among young females, the tent eruptions are a case of social contagion. No change in Israel’s tactics in the Gaza Strip over the last two months explains the ubiquity of encampments now. Rather, they are copy-cat behavior, like the early 1960s hula-hoop craze among teenyboppers—accelerated by the fact, so galling for the participants, that they are about to lose their sympathetic administrative foils come summer vacation.

Schmemann enthuses that disruptive student protests are an “extension of education by other means.” If so, that education now means refusing to engage with contrary viewpoints. At the April 29 protest at Columbia, a masked marcher was wearing a “Fags for Falestine” (not a typo) t-shirt. Asked how far he thought he would get organizing a gay-pride demonstration in Gaza, he stormed off and declined to answer. Every other question posed to the zombie file, such as whether a black protester knew anything about the long history of Arabs enslaving black Africans—a practice ended only by Britain’s naval vigilance—or was aware of current racial views among Arabs, was met with a similar stony silence.

Two days before the march, Iraq passed a law imposing up to 15 years’ imprisonment for gay sex. One of the chants whined out by Columbia’s female chant-callers was:

Hands off Iran, hands of Iraq and the Middle East;

We want justice, we want peace.

The protesters’ demands for LGBTQ justice extend only to docile Western powers. They give their Middle Eastern idols’ overt homophobia a free pass—if they even know about it.

Theater requires the willing suspension of disbelief. But to take seriously the narcissistic melodramas played out on campus quads today requires active commitment to untruth—the untruth that the students know enough about the world to deserve attention from adults; the untruth that they are engaged in heroic behavior, when their brightly colored tents resemble nothing so much as childhood forts, well provisioned with cookies and comic books; the untruth that the trespassers and vandals possess any bargaining leverage independent of what the university voluntarily confers on them; the untruth that an American college could have any effect on Middle East politics. These mediagenic morality plays are well-rehearsed; they spring from hundreds of such theatrical interactions over the last several decades between self-involved students proclaiming various forms of victimhood and co-dependent student-services bureaucrats who need performative conflict to justify their jobs.

But while the “uprisings” will have no effect on the Middle East, administrators’ prolonged paralysis in dealing with them, only now cracking up here and there, will confirm their participants’ self-importance—what Schmemann calls the “frightening and beautiful . . . faith that mere students could do something about what’s wrong with the world.” Graduates will take this self-importance with them into what used to be called the real world, now being remade in the image of intersectional theory, with the same teary, excitable females leading the way."

 

 

Dr Jordan B Peterson on X

"Cluster B psychopathology, resentment, neurotic self-consciousness and a pronounced agreeable proclivity to infantilize even the serpents and to "care" for them. And let's not forget the unconscious wish for male domination, manifested in an insane provocativeness."

Jan Brauner on X

""It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers−out of unorthodoxy." -Orwell, 1984 h/t @JoeBar79"

Links - 2nd June 2024 (1 - Inflation)

What’s the Loblaw boycott in May all about? - "Sylvain Charlebois, a researcher and professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University, says he’s not surprised by the anger directed at Loblaw brands.  “I think it’s quite expected to see so much anger against grocers, and in particular Loblaws,” he said.  He points out the bread price-fixing scandal is still fresh, people equate grocery store price increases with former Loblaw CEO Galen Weston, and a lot people don’t appreciate the impact of supply chains on grocery store prices.  “Loblaw’s PR strategy over the last several months has been amazingly pathetic, to be honest. It’s like they were looking for this boycott,” he said.  However, Charlebois says the anger may be wrongly placed.  “When you look at the data, technically the boycott should be against all grocers because food prices have gone up everywhere, not just at Loblaws,” he said  “We did a survey recently and Loblaws is seen as the best discounter in the country, followed by Walmart, third place is Costco, fourth is Metro and fifth is Giant Tiger.”  Lastly, when asked if a successful boycott could lead to lower prices, Charlebois said no, but the good news is that grocery store prices are already starting to come down."

Opinion: Loblaw’s facade of benevolence has fully cracked - The Globe and Mail - "Loblaw should be seen as a great Canadian success story. It’s a family business that opened its first self-serve grocery store in Toronto in 1919, and since then has grown into a bona fide behemoth, with 220,000 people across the country on its payroll. Loblaw operates both premium and discount grocery brands, a clothing brand, a financial brand, Shoppers Drug Mart stores, and has partnerships with Esso and Mobil gas stations. It is an omnipresent feature of Canadians’ everyday lives; Loblaw is there when you get your gas, your groceries and your prescriptions.  Perhaps that’s part of the reason why it has become such a target for the public’s frustrations over the rising cost of groceries. (That and the fact that Mr. Weston featured himself in its advertising for so many years. Could anyone pick David Sobey, of the Sobeys grocery empire, out of a crowd before his death in 2023?) Loblaw has grown – and has been permitted to grow – so big that Mr. Weston is now the face of food inflation in this country... But it would be too simple to say Loblaw is merely a victim of its own success. It was part of a scheme to fix the price of bread for over 14 years. It cancelled its $2-bonus “hero pay” for front-line grocery workers after the first wave of the pandemic, even though the second wave of the virus was much larger. It has resisted signing on to a grocery code of conduct. And it recently changed its discount on nearly expired food from 50 per cent to 30 per cent – only to reverse course in response to public backlash.  Loblaw has a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders to try to maximize profits, so from that perspective, many of these moves (the legal ones) are defensible and expected. But to the public, they are nevertheless irksome, particularly when Loblaw’s branding is about looking out for struggling families trying to keep up with rising food prices"

Thread by @igetredpilled on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "🇨🇦BANK OF CANADA IS IN A BIND🔒
Canada’s economy is weakening quickly. Businesses are going bankrupt, unemployment is rising, and GDP per capita is abysmal.  For 13 years BoC held rates at 2% (or less) so Canadians grew addicted to cheap debt and took on a lot of it. Now that we’re sitting at 5% rates it’s a shock to many people.  The debt accumulated by businesses, consumers, and the government is no longer feasible which is why many are calling for imminent rate cuts. Given the weakening economy I’m sure rate cuts are on the BoC’s mind but it’s not that simple.  If BoC cuts rates too soon we risk a second wave of inflation and a repeat of the 1970s...
In Canada there is one main internal force working against the BoC in their fight with inflation - the government.  The federal government has welcomed a record amount of immigrants which exacerbated supply issues - the result is an increase in demand-pull inflation. The idea of mass immigration was to suppress wages and artificially prop up GDP, but we’re also seeing an expansion of the public sector to assist in the illusion of a strong economy.  Government at all 3 levels are also guilty of reckless deficit spending and amassed an unsustainable amount of debt in the process. With interest rates at higher levels the government is urging the BoC to cut rates to make their debt load more manageable.  The carbon tax is another inflationary pressure that not only increases the price of gas at the pumps, but also places additional operating costs on businesses. These businesses, in turn, increase the price of their products/services to offset the cost of the carbon tax.  These are all contributing factors to higher inflation and preventing BoC from cutting rates.
Demand-pull inflation occurs when demand for goods and services exceeds supply in the economy - it’s often described as “too many dollars chasing too few goods”. This is exactly what we’re seeing today largely due to mass immigration.  Canada's population added 1.27 million people in 2023 alone, reaching a record high population of 40.77 million. This is the highest growth in over 65 years.  These immigrants essentially create demand out of thin air and put a strain on supplies. Some of them even exploit Canada’s welfare system, receiving government money and not contributing to society in any productive manner.  This amount of immigration is helping to prop up GDP, but the government is going one step further and expanding the public sector.  The size of the federal public service reached 274k employees in 2023 which is a 40% increase since 2015. Compensation for federal bureaucrats also increased by nearly 37% during this time. As a result, the public sector is also propping up our overall GDP.  This is bad for 2 reasons:
(1) a “strong” GDP signals the BoC to not cut rates; and
(2) this is not productive GDP so it doesn’t realistically indicate economic growth (see pics below).
So, not only is the government creating demand-pull inflation but they are also artificially propping up GDP to avoid a recession. These are two reasons the government is actually causing the BoC to keep rates higher for longer (even though they’re begging for rate cuts)
With unprecedented deficit spending our governments have contributed to high inflation and amassed record high debt doing so... This leaves the Canadian government vulnerable to sovereign default.
The carbon tax is another unnecessary inflationary pressure. On April 1 the tax is set to increase 23% from $65 to $80 per tonne (and an additional $15 every year until 2030).  Not only does this increase the price of gas at the pumps but also puts an additional cost on businesses, at a time when businesses are struggling to stay afloat. In turn, these businesses will increase the price of their products to compensate for this additional cost.
The BoC is at the mercy of the Fed - if the Fed doesn’t cut, the BoC can’t cut; not without collapsing the CAD and accepting a second round of inflation anyway. In the US right now inflation is sticky and the economy seems to be chugging along just fine, they’re in no rush to cut rates.  There is also the concern of oil prices, which was also a contributor to the inflation crisis in the 1970s...
Stagflation is when an economy faces both stagnant growth and high inflation at the same time - this leads to rising unemployment. This is where Canada is likely headed and the BoC can’t do anything about it anymore.  If the BoC cuts too soon, inflation will come roaring back which will only force them to raise rates even higher.  If the BoC doesn’t cut soon enough, businesses will continue to go bankrupt, unemployment will rise, and the housing market will take a massive hit.  Even with stagnant growth (or even contraction) in most sectors, the government will continue to expand and make every attempt to avoid a technical recession. High inflation could be inevitable given the external factors on the price of oil, in addition to the carbon tax which is specific to Canada. Unemployment is rising fast and will continue to increase as businesses fail to pay off their loans and are forced to close up shop.  It’s only a matter of time before Canada has to face the music."

Why Japan Stands Virtually Alone in Keeping Interest Rates Ultralow - The New York Times - "Inflation in Japan (excluding volatile fresh food prices) has reached 3 percent, the government reported on Friday, the highest since 1991, excluding a brief spike related to a 2014 tax increase. But stripped of food and energy, Japanese prices in September were just 1.8 percent higher over the last year. In the United States, that number was 6.6 percent... The Bank of Japan introduced its current monetary easing policy in 2013, when the prime minister at the time, Shinzo Abe, pledged strong measures to stimulate economic growth that had stagnated for decades.  The plan included unleashing a torrent of government spending and reshaping the structure of Japan’s economy through initiatives like encouraging more women to join the work force.  But the most important element was making money cheap and readily available, a goal the Bank of Japan achieved by bottoming out interest rates and vacuuming up bonds and equities. Mr. Kuroda pledged that it would maintain those policies until inflation — which had been nearly nonexistent — reached 2 percent, a level economists believed was necessary to lift wages and expand the country’s anemic economy. Nearly a decade later, Japan’s longtime commitment to using ultralow rates to stimulate growth has made its economy particularly vulnerable to the damage that rate increases can cause."
Clearly, excess monetary supply is what causes inflation

Opinion: We no longer believe inflation will come down any more, and that’s dangerous - The Globe and Mail - "First of all, consumers’ expectations of inflation drives behaviour. If shoppers of major durable products (for example, appliances or vehicles) expect that prices are going to rise at a faster rate than their income, they may make a decision to purchase that item today, rather than in the future. The same goes for businesses looking to make capital investments in machinery and equipment. This introduces what economists call a distortion – the choice of what and when to buy is altered by information which may not be correct. That results in suboptimal economic decisions.  The second reason why it’s important to anchor inflation expectations is to prevent an inflationary spiral. If workers believe inflation to be, say, 5 per cent, they’ll expect a 5-per-cent increase to their wages. With labour shortages still plaguing many industries, employers may have no choice but to comply. In turn, higher labour costs will be passed on to the price of goods and services – et voilà, a self-perpetuating inflation spiral. Finally, if consumers believe inflation to be significantly higher than the official rate, it erodes their confidence and trust in public institutions such as Statistics Canada, the Bank of Canada and even the government itself. In a world already plagued with a lack of trust in official institutions and a rise in skepticism around “fake news,” even lower confidence in official data erodes our ability to have healthy citizen discourse on policy. How long our inflation expectations remain unanchored is yet to be determined. But the fact that the most skewed expectations are among young people is not encouraging. These are the consumers, the home buyers and the voters of the future. And if they believe inflation is going to be 9 per cent five years from now, we have a problem."

Kellogg's CEO criticized after suggesting 'cereal for dinner', but is that healthy for you? - "Kellogg’s CEO Gary Pilnick is facing backlash after suggesting that cash-strapped households save money by eating cereal for dinner... Consumers already were turning to cereal after breakfast, however. More than 25% of Kellogg’s cereal consumption is for meals other than breakfast, including dinner and snacking"

Food spending in US is highest in 30 years: Data - "Consumers in the U.S. are spending 11% of their disposable income on food — the highest it has been since 1991... relief isn’t anywhere in sight for consumers as food companies and restaurants claim they are still faced with rising labor costs and increased prices for ingredients"

Y'all stopped buying McDonald's because it got so expensive so the CEO says "affordability" is going to be a priority now

Bank of Canada says more time is needed to bring down inflation - "Bank of Canada (BoC) Governor Tiff Macklem said on Tuesday more time was needed for monetary policy to ease price pressures while he warned that the biggest driver of prices - shelter costs - cannot be tamed by borrowing costs."
Interest rate hawks will be upset, since they think jacking up interest rates is the way to go to tame inflation

CHARLEBOIS: The genius of the 'greedflation' campaign - "When considered as a percentage of total sales in the last 12 months, the combined profits represent only about 3.4%, which is an incredibly modest return. Additionally, this figure includes non-food items like cosmetics and prescription drugs, which typically have higher profit margins... blaming the food industry has been, and continues to be a convenient diversion for politicians, diverting attention away from the real issues impacting inflation, such as public overspending and fiscal policies, among others. However, grocers are not without blame either. Beyond profiteering, the industry has some challenges to address. Regulatory compliance has been an issue, and the bread price-fixing scandal has certainly tarnished the industry’s reputation. While it’s true that some level of greed exists in the food industry, as in any economic system, it can also be taken to an extreme. Our grocery chains here in Canada are well-managed, but it is also to note that profit margins in other countries like the United Kingdom and the United States are about half of what they are here. While acknowledging that the evidence of profiteering in Canada is weak at best, there is a need for more competition in the market. Francois-Philippe Champagne, the Minister of Innovation, who is on a mission to increase competition, has called upon other grocers abroad to invest in Canada. However, the challenge lies in making Canada an attractive destination for investment, which cannot be achieved without a mandatory code of conduct that levels the playing field between the major grocery chains, independent grocers, and suppliers alike. Right now, players like Loblaw and Walmart have way too much influence and are dictating supply chain rules, a dimension consumers don’t necessarily see. It’s been like that for a while now. With a well-defined mandatory code of conduct, Canadians may have to wait a considerable amount of time before witnessing the entry of new grocery players into the Canadian market."

The Liberals are only pretending to care about affordability if these are their solutions - "the Trudeau government wants to amend the Competition Act, the federal law regulating competition in the marketplace, to establish a “Grocery Task Force” to supervise “big grocers,” stabilize prices, and monitor and investigate practices such as “shrinkflation”—that is, when producers reduce the size of products due to rising production costs.  While the government’s proposals are light on details about enforcement, it’s easy to imagine the difficulty the Competition Bureau, the federal law enforcement agency tasked with enforcing such things, would face in determining, for example, what constitutes shrinkflation. If a grocer changes the packaging size and price of a specific product, is that always shrinkflation? Or is that grocer, in an effort to cover their full costs, simply expanding the range of options for consumers who may opt for lower prices over higher volume? In reality, if the Trudeau government wants to help lower food prices for Canadians, it would reduce tariffs on imported dairy and other food products and eliminate provincial marketing boards. These costs are passed on to consumers at the checkout line.   Also according to the economic update, the government plans to crack down on so-called “junk fees” such as roaming charges, excessive banking fees, and airline fees. But how would competition authorities determine when certain fees are “junky” while other fees are legitimately meant to recover costs for services customers desire? Clearly, such judgments would be totally arbitrary. And if the government prohibits specific fees, without helping increase competition in the affected sector, the new fee prohibitions will likely result in increased prices for other transactions involving affected businesses. In an effort to reduce prices for Canadians, the Trudeau government will simply push costs from one consumer—or one transaction—to another.    It’s also noteworthy that the worst-offending industries, in the government’s eyes, are among the most sheltered from foreign competition. Specifically, in Canada, foreign ownership restrictions in sectors such as media/telecommunications and air transportation are among the most restrictive in the developed world. If the government wants to meaningfully protect consumers, it would scrap direct and indirect restrictions on foreign competition in these industries—for example, eliminate “cabotage” regulations that prevent foreign airlines from operating domestic routes within Canada. More competition in the air means lower prices for Canadian air travellers. Finally, the Trudeau government wants to address so-called “planned obsolescence” where manufacturers create demand for more expensive new versions of existing products by deliberately designing products (e.g. smartphones) to wear out or function less effectively over a relatively short period of time. But the concept of planned obsolescence is open to debate since informed consumers in a competitive marketplace will purchase products at the lowest available price with “lifespan” (and other factors) in mind.  Furthermore, planned obsolescence is often—if not always—in the consumer’s best interest. “Value engineering” is a design process meant to use as little material as possible in a product while still delivering an acceptable lifespan. For example, the useful life of a smartphone is limited to a few years due to rapid technological improvements in both software and hardware. It would be wasteful to build a smartphone with a physical lifespan much longer than its useful lifespan. Competition policy bureaucrats in Ottawa are likely ill-equipped to distinguish between efficient and inefficient product obsolescence."

Meme - Roo Barker: "Ahhh Austrians, predicting 29 of the last 1 cases of mass inflation. Congrats! you were right this time!"
Hannah Cox @HannahDCox: "Literally everyone with an Austrian Econ 101 understanding saw it coming..."
Dave Marinara @DaveMarinara: "Insane! Change the name of your publication."
The Economist @TheEconomist: "The sharp increase in inflation over the past year has blindsided many economists. Almost no one saw it coming"

Meme - "Regular: $3.699
E85 - $3.299
Diesel - $5.599
Coffee - $1.299"

Meme - "Blaming rising prices on profit-seeking is like blaming a plane crash on gravity."
"Eggs US (USD/Dozen)
Egg Companies Discover Greed
Greed Forgotten
Egg Companies Rediscover Greed
Greed Forgotten
Egg Companies Rediscover Greed
Greed Forgotten
Egg Companies Rediscover Greed
Greed Forgotten"
Keywords: less greedy, more greedy
Addendum: iFunny seems to have deleted this

Canada's worker shortage problem isn't going away anytime soon - "a lot of people who lost their jobs during the pandemic may not return to them once the economy reopens. A survey in January by U.S. think tank Pew Research Center found that two-thirds of American workers have seriously considered changing their occupation or field of work since losing their job.  A survey of 217 American businesses done by the Economic Outlook Group LLC found that 22 per cent were having trouble finding employees because their former workers had chosen new careers or returned to school, while 46 per cent said attractive unemployment benefits were to blame...  the shortages that existed before the pandemic, the old-fashioned ones, will stick around. It’s not even a question of money.  “Plumbers, believe me, make a lot of money,” Tal said. “We simply cannot attract people.”... “You go to Germany and say you’re a plumber, it’s like saying you’re a doctor, ” he said. “Try to get a plumber in Canada. Good luck with that.”"
From 2021. Labour market shocks have consequences
Of course, the left keeps claiming they just need to raise wages even more. And the right keeps claiming it's due to printing money

The federal food price plan makes no sense. Politically, that may not matter - The Hub - "Families across Canada are struggling with high food prices.  On average, food costs 18 percent more in July this year compared to two years earlier. This is much faster than the usual 2 percent annual price growth. Indeed, it’s the most rapid acceleration in food price growth since the late 1970s. And for an average family, this adds roughly $150 per month in additional costs... First, it will browbeat corporations by calling leaders of large grocery chains to “an immediate meeting in Ottawa.” Second, they will consider taxing grocery stores.  At first glance, this makes no sense.   With a little more thought, it makes even less.  Taxing grocers will not ”restore the grocery price stability that Canadians expect,” as they claim. Neither will stern words.  But conveniently for the government, that may not matter. There are strong indications that food prices may stabilize soon regardless, allowing the government to claim victory. Let us first examine the government’s main, if only implicit, claim: corporate greed and a lack of competition cause high food prices.   Many agree. Corporations are an easy political target, after all. And the government’s NDP partners, for example, focus almost exclusively on this as the primary cause of inflation.   I wrote at length on this for The Hub last year. The data is crystal clear: rising profit margins are not a particularly important cause of rising prices. Those conclusions remain as true today as they were then, and they are as true for food as they are for inflation overall.  Food and beverage retailers in Canada earned roughly 4.2 cents in profit per dollar sold in the second quarter of this year. Although up from 3.7 cents a year earlier, this is not a major factor in rising food prices. For perspective, this contributed 0.5 percentage points to the 9.1 percent food price increase between the second quarters of 2022 and 2023. That’s not zero. But it’s close. Even over a longer period, changing markups account for little. Since early 2020, grocery prices have risen by 21 percent. Had markups not increased, they’d be up by 20 percent. A key driver of grocery price changes is not corporate greed but farm product prices and input costs, including for producers elsewhere in the world.  There’s good news for consumers here: the cost of many important farm inputs has fallen recently... The government will naturally claim credit. It was their harsh words and threat of a tax, they’ll almost surely say, that caused prices to stabilize.   It’s hard to see this as anything but a cynical move to mislead Canadians, cast blame on a politically unpopular group, and claim credit for improvements that were beyond their control.   That is bad enough. What was worse about the government’s plan was what it did not contain.  If politicians wanted to lower food prices, they would repeal policies that deliberately raise them.  Canada has several artificial and restrictive agricultural policies. We force farmers to hold costly licenses to produce milk, for example, and impose prohibitive tariffs of almost 300 percent on imports. Want a dairy cow in Alberta? The permit alone will run you roughly $50,000. The effect on prices of this policy—known as “supply management”—should be obvious. Actual estimates are stark. Eliminating supply management for milk would cut prices nearly in half, according to the OECD. This adds up. One in every seven dollars spent on groceries by the typical Canadian family is spent on dairy products.. Support for policies that raise food prices is, to be clear, an all-party problem. Conservatives, Liberals, and the NDP dare not touch it. Dairy farmers have a powerful lobby."

Singh challenges Bank of Canada inflation report, found no profiteering - "“Our estimates suggest markup growth accounted for less than one-tenth of inflation in 2021,” said a BoC report.   “Furthermore, by 2022, when inflation reached its highest levels in recent years, growth in markups was near zero or negative.”  “Counter to what we would expect if firms were using their market power to raise prices, increases in the markups of Canadian firms do not coincide with the high inflation in 2021 and 2022,” said the report The Contribution of Firm Profits to the Recent Rise in Inflation.   “Rather, the data suggest the contribution of changes in markups to inflation was limited.”  “Markups did grow after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” wrote the BoC.  “However, our results do not indicate this markup growth was inflationary. Most of the growth in markups occurred in 2020, a year characterized by low inflation.”... Singh pointed out that a review conducted by the Competition Bureau (CB) of grocery chains did reveal higher profit margins for these companies."
When you cherry pick data to reach your conclusion. Clearly grocery chains are representative of the whole economy

Trudeau’s record immigration targets contributing to inflation: Scotiabank economist - "Economist Derek Holt joined a growing number of professionals in the industry warning that the record targets are negatively impacting the Canadian economy in several ways.   “Alas, no one will win a Nobel Prize in Economics for observing that when you add a massive surge of immigration into a market with no supply, rents and house prices will push higher,” wrote Holt... “Immigration may be adding to domestic strains and pricing power in these sectors. Health care was up 0.3% and auto insurance increased by 0.5%. More drivers, more folks in the health care system,” observed Holt...   Instead of heeding calls from economists to bring back immigration to manageable levels, Liberal Immigration Minister Marc Miller has said that he is even considering boosting immigration even further to deal with the housing crisis."
Economics is racist, so

Trudeau Liberals claim victory on inflation as food and housing spike | Toronto Sun - "It’s almost all driven by a drop in the price of gas compared to a year ago while food prices, rent and mortgage payments continue to spiral out of control."

Posthaste: Canadians are desperate for other ways to tame inflation besides rate hikes - "High inflation has two drivers: elevated demand and constrained supply. Governments, the economist suggested, have the tools to tackle both. To slow demand, governments could raise sales taxes, although doing so could lead to higher prices. However, Vachon said inflation is typically tracked excluding taxes. He suggested governments could tackle overconsumption with right-to-repair legislation and address “planned obsolescence” in consumer products. Also on the policy side, governments could look to increase competition and reduce costs for business. “The Fed and other central banks would probably have an easier time if governments opted for policies that would curb
demand,” Vachon wrote. Cutting government spending also made Vachon’s list of helpful tactics to slow demand in inflationary times, something he noted governments failed to implement. Many economists argued earlier this year that generous government spending helped to foil the Bank of Canada’s efforts on inflation. TD Economics said in a note prior to the April 2023 federal budget that provincial inflation relief programs, such as one in Quebec, and government subsidies including those for daycare, worked at cross purposes to the Bank of Canada’s efforts to douse demand. “Financial tightening by the Bank of Canada is being mitigated by government programs,” wrote Beata Caranci, TD’s chief economist. During the pandemic, central banks were quick to realign interest rate policies to help economies survive, Vachon at Desjardins noted. However, governments haven’t been as quick to return the favour. Post-pandemic government spending remains high in many countries. Indeed, Ottawa, in its 2023 federal budget, added $43 billion of net new spending. Tinkering with supply, however, appears a longer-term proposal, the Desjardins economist said, with any changes taking quarters or years to come into effect, including measures “to increase the number and size of businesses, introduce new technologies or production methods, increase housing, upgrade infrastructure, improve worker training.” Governments could also take steps to avoid supply shocks, a phenomenon the pandemic brought sharply into focus."

Pace of government spending ‘not helpful’ in efforts to tame inflation: Macklem - "The Bank of Canada’s efforts to tame inflation by raising interest rates are at odds with the projected pace of government spending, says governor Tiff Macklem."
Weird. Doesn't he know what Trudeau supporters do - that inflation is a global phenomenon and government spending has nothing to do with it?