…when it all seems much the same mess from day to day it can be easy to sort of miss how far from one place the same place can get…but…for…context…or maybe scale…when I was a kid this was…to a lot of people…basically an unthinkable scenario

For the first time, an Irish nationalist will lead Northern Ireland’s government [NBC]

…& for those of you who share my love of irony…there was a moment when, due to the tories need for somebody, anybody to let them cling to a whisper thin grasp on power right in the middle of “getting brexit done”…they lent on the DUP…who…are an odd lot…bound to be when your name has the words democratic & unionist in it but your worst nightmare is a vote to unify your country with the bulk of its landmass…it doesn’t actually stand for deluded ulster provos…or don’t understand politics…but…they do tend to believe that they can be part of the country they aren’t physically attached to but not the one they are without involving any borders…so…you know…brexit probably made complete sense to them…anyway

With Sinn Féin in first minister post, has the republicans’ day come at last? [Guardian]

…it’d be a big deal…”normally”…like…I dunno…this would normally be more than enough to see someone off in the game of politics

In October 2021, former president Donald Trump announced that his media company, the owner of the platform Truth Social, had sealed an incredible deal: a merger with a “special purpose acquisition company” that would deliver to his firm $300 million toward his promise of giving “a voice to all.”

By then, however, the insider trading by investors in the SPAC, Digital World Acquisition, had already begun, according to documents filed recently in the criminal case against three Digital World investors who’ve been charged with securities fraud in New York federal court.

…it’s…well, for a thing that’s complicated & opaque it’s pretty straightforward, really…it sounds hard to believe that it ever works the way it’s supposed to…but these things are a church/state kinda deal…you get some perks for doing it that way that make the numbers look bigger…but the fund that gets pooled has to be stacking paper with no particular purchase in mind…& then pick one…if you already agreed to that part you have to call your fat stacks something else & you don’t get the perks…&…given how much of a shitshow truth social is & always has been…it isn’t like there was subtlety involved even when the whole thing sort of fell apart…it’s…a miracle of sorts that there isn’t a video clip of hair furore calling the investors bitches for going back on their word after agreeing before he even had a truth social that they’d give him a shit-ton of money for it & now they won’t pay up…& how that’s what’s wrong with america that only he can fix…& that’s before you even get to some of the sketchier parts of these dealings

One investor, the Miami Beach businessman Anton Postolnikov, had amassed a huge stake in Digital World. Postolnikov, who was born in Russia and is the nephew of a longtime Russian government official, sold most of his stake just days after Trump’s announcement sent the stock soaring, according to an FBI agent’s search warrant affidavit. His profit: $22 million.
[…]
Those profits caught the attention of federal officials who launched a sprawling investigation into Digital World’s investors, the details of which raise questions about how Trump, who built his political reputation in part on having mastered “the art of the deal,” ended up committed to a business arrangement that federal agents now allege was undermined from its inception by financial fraud.

…&…ok…there’s so much grift in everything dolt45 that it’s hard to keep up much less keep in perspective…& this part seems like it’s just about money & not about the important shit the cases he’s holding off like multiples of the sword of damocles are…but…you know how sometimes there’s a thing in a picture that’s just there “for scale”…well…given that the proverbial thousand-word picture has traditionally been more than enough to sound a political death knell

‘People said it did in his career’: 33 pictures that defined British politicians [Guardian]

…the fact that this is barely a ripple in the perfect storm that is coverage of the “he could actually win again” alternative-reality horror show that we like to call the news…I dunno…kind of takes my breath away?

Trump and Trump Media have not been accused of wrongdoing in the case. But Trump Media has been blocked from accessing the $300 million it expected to receive through the merger — money that it could use to build out Truth Social, Trump’s main online megaphone, ahead of the November election.

Rejected by banks and lenders over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and his long history of bankruptcies and business failures, Trump had approved the merger of his company with a special purpose acquisition company as a way to raise money in the months after he lost the White House. Often called “blank check” firms, SPACs promise access to public stock investors with fewer financial disclosures than a traditional corporate listing requires.

Trump allies have claimed that the SEC’s delay in approving the merger proves he’s being persecuted by the Biden administration. But the cache of investigative documents, submitted as part of the pretrial discovery process ahead of a spring trial of those already charged, shows the investigation went far beyond the SEC.

The documents detail the involvement of agents and investigators from the FBI, the SEC and Homeland Security Investigations, which is the division of the Department of Homeland Security dedicated to rooting out cross-border criminal activity and which includes one of the government’s most elite anti-money-laundering teams. The documents suggest the investigation is ongoing.
[…]
The hundreds of pages of documents include a previously sealed indictment, HSI reports detailing undercover operations, emails, text messages, transcripts of recorded conversations, prosecutors’ memos summarizing evidence, and affidavits supporting search and seizure warrants for phones, digital data and bank accounts.

At a hearing in July, Nicolas Roos, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who has led some of his office’s highest-profile cases, including the prosecutions of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, said prosecutors were in possession of roughly 2.5 million emails and other documents, as well as copies of several seized cellphones.

…there’s a non-zero chance they expected all this to fly…quietly…because to them it literally is business as usual…but…the fact they repeatedly can’t seem to correct for the part where they are constantly giving significant individuals & institutions unusual incentives to pay unusual amounts of attention to them…on account of how that’s the whole point of not only the institutions but also putting yourself forward for the highest office in the land…well…it’s never really made a convincing case that they have any best to have sent, has it?

In July, Digital World said it would pay $18 million if the merger goes through to settle SEC charges that it had misled investors and violated rules designed to counter fraud. Digital World said last month in an SEC filing that investigations by the SEC and Justice Department could “delay, materially impede, or prevent” the merger.

…mind you…while you’re amassing chump change…I’m guessing it’s not hard once the bit about being holed below the waterline makes itself clear…to identify the…rats…by the flight pattern

The biggest financial losers from the insider-trading scheme, however, probably were early Digital World investors who believed in Trump’s company enough to buy up shares in the hours after he announced the merger deal. In the days when the insiders were cashing out, Digital World’s share price peaked at $175. Shares closed Friday at $40.60.

…nobody’s actually said the ketchup hit the wall over this…but…I’d bet good money fits were…& very possibly are…pitched over this not going the way he was told it would…because personally I think the difference to his finances this would have made argue for it being the primary vehicle by which he expected to get a cash infusion…on…call it the “back-end”…where bungs are employed to cherry pick which bucks stop with you & which get passed to whoever’s headed under the bus…so it plays as an oddly quiet but entirely massive spanner in his works…& that means it makes me smile every time I see a reference to it…because unless or until something comes up to suggest there’s a legal avenue to transmute the thing into a DOA deal…there’s only so long they can delay…& the result does a fantastic impression of the inevitable

One executive at Rocket One, Allen Beyer, told the firm’s leaders after the meeting that he was underwhelmed, writing in a text message that Trump’s last online venture, a blog, “was an embarrassment” and that the idea of an app just for “Forever Trumpers” would “be a bust,” the affidavit said. “Would you ever be associated with this as a ‘founder’ or anything in case it goes up in literal flames?” Beyer wrote. He did not respond to requests for comment.

…not an unreasonable observation, to be fair

…but…at least the way it was explained to me…what wouldn’t be reasonable…or…ah…legal…would be if there was some pre-existing mechanism that promised to make it a guaranteed safe bet

Garelick replied, however, that the investment came with “downside protection,” the affidavit said. Garelick, Shvartsman and his brother, Gerald, who ran an outdoor-furniture store, invested enough to guarantee Garelick a seat on Digital World’s board, the indictment said.

…maybe if she’s feeling a bit better & can be bothered our meg could tell us if there’s some way that the phrase “downside protection” in this context doesn’t equate to a lack of backside protection from the law putting a boot up your ass…but I certainly don’t know of any that wouldn’t be at least as illegal again?

The three men had signed confidentiality agreements before the meeting saying they would not trade on the inside information. But over the next few months, they bought up hundreds of thousands of dollars of Digital World shares and trading contracts, known as warrants, for small fractions of the price the shares would command once the deal was publicly disclosed.

The men also spoke with Postolnikov, another Miami-area entrepreneur who, like Shvartsman, was involved in the business of international payments. According to British financial records, Postolnikov owns a bank headquartered on the small Caribbean island of Dominica, called Paxum, that promotes itself as a financial conduit for online adult entertainment — an industry, like marijuana dispensaries, that banks traditionally have chosen to avoid.

Born in St. Petersburg, Postolnikov had in 2017 faced an arrest warrant in his hometown on charges of tax fraud, according to a court ruling obtained by The Post. That warrant, the ruling shows, was lifted in 2018, following the direct intervention of Russia’s deputy prosecutor general, who said the case was without merit.

By 2021, Postolnikov, whose uncle, Aleksandr Smirnov, had served for most of the last two decades as a senior member of the Russian government, was saying in online profiles he lived in Miami Beach. In March 2021, he donated $30,000 to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s reelection campaign, campaign finance records show. A month later, according to Miami-Dade property records, a company he owns bought a $6 million condo on Fisher Island, a private island near Miami Beach once named “America’s richest Zip code.”

In June 2021, after the meeting with Orlando, Garelick wrote Postolnikov an email referring to some “good times last night,” without details, and asked about his interest in investing in “that Trump Media Group SPAC we mentioned,” the affidavit alleges.

…wrote…writing…notes…taking notes…something….it’s right there

…sorry…where was I?

[…temporary admission that the spontaneous update induced reboot cycle I hadn’t factored into my time management this morning means this is/was due up before I got anywhere near done…so…if you’re reading this there’s a good chance the post will at some point be different…&…let’s face it…almost certainly longer…as time goes by?]

…ok…at least I don’t have to start this up again…so…if I can find my place…let’s see

The investigators weren’t finished, however. In a search warrant affidavit, FBI agents said they were on the hunt for any information related to the relationships between Orlando, Postolnikov, the Shvartsman brothers and others who traded in Digital World stock.

They weren’t the only ones interested in the case. SEC officials had one month earlier started asking Digital World about its investors’ identities and its communications with Trump Media, an SEC filing shows. And a team of Miami agents specializing in illicit proceeds and foreign corruption inside HSI’s El Dorado Task Force, which tracks financial crime, launched a joint effort alongside the FBI and SEC — code-named “Trust Social” — once they’d realized they were pursuing “the same investigative targets,” HSI said in a July 2023 report documenting the indictments filed in court.

In December 2021, more than $16 million had been moved from a Rocket One brokerage account into two OptimumBank accounts in Shvartsman’s name, the indictment said. From there, the money was shuttled into a “wash account” that Shvartsman’s company Transact First had used to transfer millions of dollars in a single day, an HSI agent said in an affidavit for a bank-account-seizure warrant later signed by a judge.

…trust social…I don’t know how these naming protocols work…but

…sorry…probably should be concentrating on things like “wash account”, really…it’s a more…appropriate focus

The account’s “sheer volume of high-dollar transactions” made it a “convenient tool to conceal the proceeds of illegal activity,” according to the affidavit. Over the next several months, it alleged, millions of dollars filtered from that account into another bank account in Shvartsman’s name.

Trump Media later received a $2 million promissory note from a lender called ES Family Trust, Digital World said in an SEC filing last year. According to media reports, the trust’s only named trustee, Angel Pacheco, says on LinkedIn he is also a director at Paxum, Postolnikov’s bank.

…uh huh…but…the carter page FISA warrant mis-step is like the gloves in the OJ trial or some shit…so we’re still litigating that instead of expanding that RICO problem the phantom of this opera has into a public airing of just how much of his book-keeping runs through russian laundries…because…that’s old news?

Shvartsman told the man he needed help, due to the “recent Russian related sanctions,” in moving some of his assets — which included “some real estate, a small amount of cash (described as ‘a few million bucks’) and a yacht” — into a company he intended to create in Belize, according to an HSI investigative report in the “Trust Social” case filed with the court.

The specialist, though, was actually a government informant wearing a hidden microphone, according to HSI investigative reports, which refer to him only as “SA-2894-MI.” And after Shvartsman asked for his assistance in setting up new bank accounts, perhaps in Switzerland or Western Europe, the informant told Shvartsman he would be happy to help — in exchange for a fee “above the typical rate.”

…any day now paul newman is going to show up to testify before congress

The secretly recorded meetings featured moments of tension. During one March 2023 meeting inside a Rocket One office north of Miami, Shvartsman signed documents to move his assets into an offshore trust and then warned he would “have to kill” the informant if the man tampered with Shvartsman’s fortune, according to the government’s transcript of the meeting.

When the informant told another man in the room, “That’s the second time he said he’s going to kill me,” Shvartsman responded, “I don’t f— around,” the transcript states.

…seriously…how hollywood did this play out…for a deal that put the cart before the horse the life imitates art of it all is like something that could crack the perpetual motion problem if we could find a way to yoke it to a turbine

But the conversations also showed the men getting to know each other. During the March meeting, Shvartsman said the main reason he wanted to move his assets was “the ordeal with ‘Trump’” and his “desire to not have the funds acquired from that investment taken from him,” according to a “debriefing” statement from the informant included in the HSI report filed with the court. Shvartsman’s attorney also told the informant then that his client was “your classic serial entrepreneur” and had a “fetish for superyachts,” according to the government’s transcript.

…ok…bond villains aren’t *technically* hollywood…but…same difference, surely…identity of indiscernibles & all that quacks-like-a-duck leibnitz’s law good shit…nah…ambramovich’s boat has an escape submersible & a fucking rocket-based point-defense system…I’m telling you…some shit writes itself

During the meetings, Shvartsman offered to introduce the informant to new clients, saying he knew a Russian-speaking “high-ranking Army or military officer” in Ukraine who needed help moving a “significant amount of money,” according to a transcript detailing what the informant told agents after one April 2023 lunch. “There’s guys in the Ukraine sitting on a lot of cash,” Shvartsman told the informant in another meeting, according to the government’s transcript.

But he also extended to the informant his own connections, saying he had a Russian friend who lived on Fisher Island and owned a bank in Dominica that could provide banking services to Russian, Chinese or Ukrainian individuals facing “sanction issues” or other financial restrictions, the government’s transcript shows.

…guys in *the* ukraine sitting on a lot of cash…uh huh…in a movie they’d call that “foreshadowing”…or…possibly…hanging a lampshade on a motherfucker

In the HSI report from July documenting the arrests, agents said all three men had “ties to Ukraine and Russian Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs),” a term for prominent officials believed to be vulnerable to bribery or corruption. A Justice Department statement said the men faced up to seven counts of conspiracy and securities fraud, with maximum sentences of 90 to 130 years in prison.

But Shvartsman’s talks with the informant didn’t stop.

In July 2023, a week after he pleaded not guilty in a New York courtroom, he met with the informant to ask about the status of his asset transfers, the government’s transcript of their meeting shows. The informant assured him that his assets were in the process of moving from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom and then to Belize, according to the transcript — “the full Singapore with a double dip, as we call it, with having the U.K. thrown in there, just to give it that added cleanliness and polishing off,” he said.

The men also discussed whom Shvartsman wanted to nominate as the ostensible leaders of the local shell companies — “no Russians,” the informant confirmed — and proposed a crew that, at one point, included “two Ukrainians, a Canadian and a Bulgarian,” the transcript states. The assets’ spin through Hong Kong, the informant said, would ensure they stayed “out of reach of the U.S. government because, you know, it’s China, basically,” according to the transcript. “That is the big washing machine.”

…ABC…always be criming

Shvartsman pushed for details on the “full Singapore” process and a Swiss bank account. And the men agreed on a system of code words that Shvartsman could use, once the money was sheltered, to secretly send messages to the informant’s operatives over the phone: a “green” code to approve a transaction, and a “red” code if Shvartsman was facing an emergency or under investigative duress.

The “green” phrase was “How’s your girlfriend, Alexandra?” a transcript shows. Asked for a “red” phrase, Shvartsman responded, “Anything else.”

In November, a magistrate judge signed a warrant authorizing the seizure of Shvartsman’s bank account. A federal agent said the account contained roughly $15 million, though bank records cited in the seizure-warrant affidavit said it had reached as high as $44 million the month before.

The wild probe into investors of DWAC, Trump Media’s proposed merger ally [WaPo]

…wild…is kinda mild if you ask me…but…it’s wild to me how much of a footnote that whole thing can be on account of holy shit the shit that’s going down

U.S. Strikes Test Iran’s Will to Escalate [NYT]

…&…in holy terms…iran is functional shorthand for a worldview that considers legal frameworks & international borders to be a western secular affectation & considers itself to be a parallel pseudo-religious dominion with a penchant for the brutal mistreatment of women & children…& poor people…to the point of making *checks notes* the house of saud look like an inviting proposition

BRICS Holds $45 Trillion in Wealth After Saudi Arabia Joins

McKinsey and BCG accused of withholding information on ties with Saudi Arabia [FT]

Were the Saudis Right About the Houthis After All? [Atlantic]

Why Saudi Arabia Is Staying on the Sidelines in the Red Sea Conflict [Foreign Policy]

…I mean…I don’t know how many of you clicked through to that map graphic from the guardian the other day…but as visual metaphors go…if the red bits came off like first a thumb & then the fingers of a grip reaching up to swallow the region in open conflict…saudi arabia basically was the palm of that hand…so

Stop looking for loopholes, UN warns, after Saudi hints end of fossil fuels ‘just one option’ [Guardian]

…at least some of the reasons are pretty obvious

BP’s green agenda all at sea as sinking profits forecast renews fossil fuel call [Guardian]

…but

ExxonMobil blocks activists’ attempt to seek climate strategy vote [Guardian]

…what’s that you’re muttering in the back?

In a world built by plutocrats, the powerful are protected while vengeful laws silence their critics [Guardian]

…still…you don’t have to be george monbiot to know…jared kushner is no lawrence of arabia…so…here we all are…& isn’t everyone having a jolly time of it

What Can We Possibly Say to the Children of Gaza? [NYT]

…sorry seems like the odds on favorite for a place to fucking start…but…in terms of stuff that might have a chance of seeing them grow up into adults that don’t harbor murderous intent towards the architects of their suffering…my guess would be the trick to it isn’t going to be in the saying department

Fresh strikes in southern Gaza as talks on two-month pause in fighting continue [Guardian]

US House to vote next week on standalone $17.6bn bill for aid to Israel [Guardian]

…funny how sometimes they wanna follow the money until they find a way to turn it off…&…sometimes they don’t want anyone following the money that flows through their own personal fetid pipelines…but I’m sure that’s purely coincidental & not representative of anything about anybody’s representatives

US and UK hit 30 Houthi targets in Yemen in second set of strikes in region [Guardian]

…that’s a relief…bound to calm everybody down, that is

US strikes will have disastrous consequences for region, warns Iraq [Guardian]

…sure…but they would say that, wouldn’t they…stands to reason?

…but…hey…so long as everybody play they position…we cool…right…the game is the game?

…friedman was going for it about a biden doctrine the other day in the NYT…&…I don’t know how I feel about pinning my hopes to that needle getting threaded while the other hand keeps the domestic plates spinning

Biden’s grand bargain: can a new Middle East emerge from the turmoil? [Guardian]

…I dunno…can it?

‘It could cost him the election’: Muslim and Arab Americans reject Biden’s ‘inept’ outreach [Guardian]

…I mean…I know what I’d like the answer to be…& I know what logic seems sound about why the alternative ought to be visibly so much worse in such a staggeringly obvious way that it ought to be the sort of question I’d happily equivocate about all day…content in the understanding that everybody understood the point was to refine the option & not to pick the never-knowingly-lesser evil…but

‘Andrew Tate is a symptom, not the problem’: why young men are turning against feminism [Guardian]

…if hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…how’s it meant to compete with the self-loathing of a proto-incel in the deterrent stakes…I mean…boys will be boys is all very well…& some people never do grow up…sure…but…look…how do I put this…some of ’em…are fucking wrong ‘uns…& you want to nip that shit in the bud…for everyone’s sake…that shit ain’t right…I don’t give a fuck what the right thinks they want to alt- about it

New Mexico man pleads guilty to drive-bys targeting Democrats’ homes [Guardian]

…but…you know what?

I’ve been writing about pro-family policy for basically my entire career, and I’ve always assumed that America could learn something from the European experience — not that the Nordic model in particular is necessarily ideal, but at least that policy can shape fertility decisions and work against anti-natal trends. And I still think that: I’m very happy, for instance, that the House just passed a child tax credit expansion, because in an age of declining birthrates, every little bit helps.

…that skip from “pro-family policy”…which is a misnomer & a fucking half to start with…over to trying to make some sort of “pronatal” fetch happen…even for ross that’s some lipstick on pigshit he’s rolling around in…rhetorically speaking, of course…I’m sure ross only fucks pigs that are pre-sanitized…so to speak

So let’s talk for a moment about the cultural and psychological aspect, the role of people’s thinking about the world in their fertility decisions. And let’s save certain big issues (secularization, the role of the internet, the alienation of the sexes) for another time, and focus on two specific forms of anti-natalist culture.

…no, ross…let’s fucking not…because that would be dimestore sophist bullshit & you absolutely fucking know it you pissant pipsqueak professionally prevaricative proselytization production line of an ambulatory posterior…you’re literally out here trying to scrub up the great white replacement theory into something that people who think they’re decent might not be horrified by…& some latin terms aren’t going to keep you out of fucking purgatory if the catholics turn out to have the right of it on the whole abortion thing you’re also in bed with…you fucking oxymoron of a man

Consider, first, this extended post from a demography-focused account on X making the case that contemporary attitudes are more explicitly anti-natal than many people recognize, that the too-many-humans worldview of figures like Paul Ehrlich, the author of “The Population Bomb,” infuse modern society in a profound and under-indexed way. In this theory, people aren’t having kids because of the power of “an ideology that says there are too many people and they are wrecking the planet,” which has encouraged a great many young people to simply “believe having children is bad.”

…because they couldn’t possibly think…I dunno…something like…”fuck me – I didn’t ask to be born into this shitstorm but I can’t help feeling some kinda way about that & when I imagine a kid of my own looking at me 15-20 years from now & asking why I chose to have them…I come away feeling like I ain’t equal to that whole scene, man”…no…these people who got born are against birth itself…sure…because that means you can tell yourself you haven’t had your head up your ass for so long you forgot what shit even smells like because that’s your idea of fresh air…& you know what the kicker is…I just bet ross sleeps like a log…just as regular as he pinches these loaves off in the pages of the times

It’s notable that the evidence marshaled by the post’s author for Ehrlichism’s potency starts with the anti-natalism evident in online reader comments on articles in major newspapers. That tracks with my sense that once Ehrlich’s prophecies of doom failed to materialize, his worldview became a kind of submerged ideology, the sort you see in, well, comment threads — present below the surface of liberal society, influential with many older liberals who imbibed it in the 1970s, but a bit too embarrassingly out-of-date and even racist-seeming to be a full part of official progressive ideology.

…he’s cracked it wide open, there…it’s us, guys…it’s all our fault for commenting online while turning down the kool-aid, see…comment threads have unraveled society’s whole big-picture tapestry & you should all feel very, very bad about what you’ve done…not like brave ross resolutely cashing those checks like the proud culture warrior our times demand

For all his obsession with innovation, Peter Thiel has some stone-age views [Guardian]

…oh, come on now…have some respect…it’s fucking sunday…we don’t mention the t-word

[…]
But the no-kids-because-of-global-warming narrative seems importantly different, less about overpopulation per se and reflecting instead a pessimism about one’s children’s prospects in a warming world. And before giving pride of place to that kind of pessimism in our explanations, it’s worth looking at a different ideological force: Not the anti-natalism of despair, but the anti-natalism of bourgeois propriety.

This kind of anti-natalism isn’t anti-human, it doesn’t panic about teeming masses and polluted cities, it’s fine with people who want kids having kids. But it encourages a belief in family formation as a kind of consumer preference, one option among many, that deprioritizes its pursuit in the crucial decades when having kids is possible or easy. And it sets social expectations in such a way that most people’s understandings of respectability and propriety and good sense end up delaying reproduction, shrinking family size and leaving too many people with unfulfilled fertility desires.
[…]
This, more than Ehrlichian anti-natalism, is what I see when l look around my own social ecosystem — though it takes different forms for different social classes. In the Financial Times interview, Finland’s Rotkirch emphasizes the professional-managerial script in which having kids is a kind of a capstone achievement, something you only do after you’re completely set, which means after you’ve spent years climbing the ladder of graduate programs and professional advancement that leaves you with a relatively narrow family-formation window. Which for some is OK because they really don’t feel like having kids at all — but for others it leads to […] depressing anecdote[s]

…all true wisdom is, after all, anecdotal at heart…in a hearts & minds sorta way…that’s…just their way…like that chitinous fella that frog offered to ferry across a waterway that one time

But I also see another version of bourgeois anti-natalism, less upper-class professional and more middle-class, where people get married relatively early, have a kid or two and then just assume that a larger family would be impossibly burdensome and therefore fundamentally irresponsible. These are people whom I expect will feature in Tim Carney’s forthcoming book on the cultural impediments to raising kids in America, not just having them — people who like children, who like being parents, who inhabit the middle class of the richest country in the history of the world, but for whom current norms and expectations and even regulations (those hulking car seats!) around parenting militate strongly against having three kids instead of two, four instead of three, two instead of one.

…god-damn it…if you’re white…own a home that doesn’t have to be staked to the ground so it won’t fly off in high winds…&…presumably…are white…just to double-down on that part…& you ain’t having babies until even a US backseat ain’t big enough to fit the car seats into…you’re the decline & fall of western society…you…personally…breed faster, bitches…ross says it’s the only way to save our souls…oh…no…wait…I’m hearing he doesn’t like people to talk about souls…it’s too close to the spirit of the law…& that makes him uncomfortable being a man of letters & all…&…you know…faith & shit

As is the policy corollary, the deep-seated instinct among some Republicans that pro-natal policy is a bad idea because everyone should be exclusively responsible for their own kids; that you shouldn’t even have children if you can’t afford to support them at a certain base line level of middle-class comfort, that needing a tax credit or family leave is itself a form of irresponsibility, that the government shouldn’t be in the business of social engineering when it comes to favoring an extra kid over an extra car or a kitchen renovation.

Whatever else we can say about the increasingly desperate demographic straits of much of the developed world, in the situation we’re facing, it’s clear a reliance on this kind of bourgeois normalcy is not going to be enough.

The Varieties of Anti-Natalism — and the Roots of a Demographic Crisis [NYT]

…well, thank fuck there’s people out there like ross…where would we be without his staggering insights & their accompanying supply of practical, plausible solutions that definitely have everybody’s best interests at heart…the man’s a fucking saint…& the times must swell with pride every time they thank their lucky stars for having managed to steal him away from the open market before they could out-bid their fervent desire to sprinkle his gold-dust upon their august pages

…yes

…I am aware I seem to be “in a bit of a mood today”…but it could have been worse…I could have started here

Elon Musk is unfathomably rich. Here’s where his money is stashed. [WaPo]

…so I think we can all agree we dodged at least one bullet today?

…probably should have stuck to theme tunes, really…but…to really flog the dead horse of that bit about life imitating art to the point it wouldn’t surprise me to see paul newman make an appearance

…& that weak line about carter page & the OJ stuff…well…skimming through that soundtrack

…clearly there’s only one thing for it…somebody better get carter