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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Saturday Night Slap Fights Open Thread: News of Davos

Saturday Night Slap Fights Open Thread: News of Davos

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Things seem to have finished off on a more upbeat tone than expected — per Reuters, “Heard in Davos: What we learned from the WEF in 2024″.

FTFNYTimes has its priorities, though:

Per CNBC, “Alex Soros says a Trump win is a done deal for the Davos elite — but they’re always wrong”:

“In Davos, Donald Trump is already the president,” Open Society Foundations Chairman Alex Soros told a panel at the World Economic Forum on Friday.

“That’s a good thing, because the Davos consensus is always wrong,” he said…

“Donald Trump owns the Republican Party. We’re in something I like to call the Trump cycle, because I think even if — and I believe, if the institutions hold, when — he loses this election, he’ll also be the Republican candidate in 2028 and maybe even 2032 as well,” Soros said, drawing a ripple of laughter from attendees…

“Biden actually has a particular advantage in a polarized electoral environment which is that he’s not polarizing.”

 
Fareed Zakariah, for the Washington Post — “At Davos, all eyes are on America’s presidential election”:

The conversations swirling around the chilly mountain air of Davos, Switzerland, keep returning to one issue. “2024 is the year of 50 or so elections around the world,” Carl Bildt, a former prime minister of Sweden, told me. “But there is only one election we are all talking about: the one in America.”

When abroad, Americans can often be parochially attentive to their own politics, boring their foreign counterparts with long discussions of party politics in the Senate or the prospects of a new governor. But this time, I find it’s the Americans who are weary of their country’s political drama while foreigners are panicking about what might happen in November.

The U.S. election is taking place at a crucial moment. Around the world, we are seeing several challenges to the rules-based international order that has served humanity well for decades. In Europe, the bloodiest war the continent has seen since World War II threatens to upend its security system. In the Middle East, Iran and its allies — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others — are testing their ability to disrupt the balance of power in the region. And in Asia, the rise of China remains the largest long-term disruption, to which one must add North Korea’s accelerating arms buildup and increasingly belligerent rhetoric.

All of these have become tests of will for the United States, which is scrambling to mobilize its allies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East to help deter these threats and resolve crises. But many allies worry that in November, the United States could decide that it has had enough — that these many problems perhaps do not centrally threaten U.S. security and are therefore not worth confronting. Much of the rhetoric of Donald Trump and some of his closest ideological soul mates — from Tucker Carlson to Vivek Ramaswamy — feeds into this fear…

Ever since World War II, Washington, on a bipartisan basis, has adopted an expansive vision of its own security, one that recognized that it alone could help undergird stability in key regions of the world. That global role has helped create what historians call “the long peace” and the open global economy. If Trump wins in November and rejects that broader view of the United States in the world, a retreat could create power vacuums, leave allies exposed, and tempt adversaries to accelerate their attacks and heighten their ambitions. And that is why this time around, it is foreigners nervously watching and obsessing about the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

 
Counter-argument, from Michael Hiltzik, at the LATimes — “Davos, where the rich and powerful go to show off their ignorance”:

Those of us who diligently follow financial forecasts know that the go-to place for mapping out the course of the economy over the coming 12 months is Davos, Switzerland, the host city of the annual World Economic Forum every January.

Rule of thumb: Listen closely to what the gathered business and political leaders predict, then take the other side. Or as the American economist Kenneth Rogoff said in 2020:

“No matter how improbable, the event most likely to happen is the opposite of whatever the Davos consensus is.”…

In 2022, for instance, the then-president of FTX.US, the cryptocurrency firm’s American unit, told attendees that the firm was in a “very good spot” and had so much capital it would soon be looking for acquisitions. The following year, its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was charged with fraud and the firm collapsed. That same year, Davos was certain that a recession in Europe was inevitable; it still hasn’t happened.

In 2008, no one at Davos noticed that the subprime crisis was erupting and therefore that it would produce a major recession. In 2016, no one at Davos expected Trump to win the election or the U.K. to stage Brexit, its departure from the European Union. The following year, the Davos organizers were so mortified that they actually scheduled a session on why the assembled pundits got so much so wrong…

Betty already posted about this interview, but I think (conservative ex-Republican) Patrick Chovanec’s take is worth sharing:

Also, Will Stancil:

 

A note from Politico‘s ‘Wednesday ‘Morning Money’:

Scaramucci versus Davos — Anthony Scaramucci told Zach that the Davos crowd consensus, including many CEOs and diplomats, is that President Donald Trump will win the 2024 election. The good news for Scaramucci, an outspoken Trump critic following a brief stint in his White House, is that he says the Davos conventional wisdom had it wrong in 2016 and 2020.

If it comes down to Trump versus Biden as expected, the SkyBridge Capital founder said business leaders should back the sitting president. Biden’s too old to be commander in chief in Scaramucci’s view, but “he’s got a great staff, and they’ve done a good job,” he said over scrambled eggs at his reserved table at the Davos Hilton Garden Inn.

With regard to Trump, Scaramucci said business leaders are failing to study political history.

“The business leaders were generally okay with Mussolini. They were generally okay with Hitler. Until it goes crazy,” he said. “Then five years into it the cronyism kicks in, the unpredictability of the law kicks in, the expansion of autocratic powers kicks in. … [Trump] has told you he wants to be a dictator. He has told you that he wants to expand the executive powers. He has told you he’s going to go after his enemies.”

Reader Interactions

151Comments

  2. 2.

    piratedan

    apparently we have a long way to go in how we function as a society if there are this many people who have this much money that have completely lost their humanity.

  3. 3.

    Another Scott

    I haven’t clicked the link.

    Google tells me that about 3000 movers-and-shakers attend the WEF. Was there some sort of poll??

    FTFNYT – “In private, many business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum say …”

    Are they named Jared and Ivanka, perhaps??

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  4. 4.

    West of the Rockies

    I don’t actually hear much about the UK as far as post-Brexit economics go…  is their economy chugging along, or have the dire predictions come true?  I’m guessing somewhere in between.

  6. 6.

    ColoradoGuy

    All these Masters of the Universe have to do is spend a few hours reading about the Night of the Long Knives, and how that re-ordered German society. Laws no longer meant anything, just sheer power. Not that different than Putin’s Mafia state. All that matters is power, and their biliions may not protect them.

    Anyone who thinks that TFG won’t have a Night of the Long Knives is being willfully ignorant.

  7. 7.

    Another Scott

    @West of the Rockies:

    TheEconomist from January 2023:

    After Britain formally left the bloc in January 2020 with a bare-bones trade deal, optimists clung to the hope that some of its poor performance was due to covid-19, and so would fade. Perhaps the disruption associated with new trade barriers would be short-lived, as traders got used to new arrangements. It is still too soon to assess Brexit’s long-run effects. But the evidence so far shows that it has hurt.

    John Springford of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank, tries to isolate the effect of Brexit by constructing a phantom country that tracked Britain’s performance before 2016’s referendum result. By using an algorithm to pick from a set of 22 countries rather than just selecting, say, a few economies of a similar size, he builds a plausible description of Britain’s path had it not voted to leave the eu (see chart 1). He estimates that by the second quarter of 2022, Brexit had hit gdp by as much as 6% relative to this counterfactual. Using the same method, he reckons that Brexit dragged down investment by 11%.

    More at the link.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  9. 9.

    Jay

    @West of the Rockies:

    The economic effects of Brexit were a major area of debate during and after the referendum on UK membership of the European Union. The majority of economists believe that Brexit has harmed the UK’s economy and reduced its real per capita income in the long term, and the referendum itself damaged the economy.[1][2][3][4][5] It is likely to produce a large decline in immigration from countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) to the UK,[6] and poses challenges for British higher education and academic research.[7]

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_effects_of_Brexi

    For example, here in Canada, we can’t buy British cheese or meats anymore.

  10. 10.

    Chetan Murthy

    @piratedan:

    that have completely lost their humanity.

    It’s actually worse than you make it out to be: sure, they’re evil, but they’re also *stupid*.  Scaramucci for once has it right, dead, dead right:

    “The business leaders were generally okay with Mussolini. They were generally okay with Hitler. Until it goes crazy,” he said. “Then five years into it the cronyism kicks in, the unpredictability of the law kicks in, the expansion of autocratic powers kicks in. …

    These dumbfucks are the gazillionaires who purport to be The Best And The Brightest [yes, purposeful reference to the book] and they seem to have forgotten the most salient two lessons of WWII:

    big-time war is bad for the rich, b/c you can end up on the wrong end of a rifle, a bomb, or a cattle car
    dictators aren’t going to respect the rule of law: when they decide to expropriate you, there’ll be nothing for you to turn to.

    It’s like that old line:

    “William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”

    Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”

    William Roper: “Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!”

    Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”

    I mean, I get that when it’s a matter of life-and-death, you discard The Law, b/c you’re gonna die anyway.  But these richies aren’t up against that: they just want their cushy lives to continue.  That’s a stupid, stupid time to discard The Law.

  13. 13.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @HumboldtBlue: [T]he action is in Santa Clara, where the Packers lead the ever-odious 49ers –

    But (damn it all) managed to give up the winning TD to the Whiners with not much more than a minute left. Meanwhile Poe’s Crows roasted the Bulls, so both #1 seeds move on.

  14. 14.

    Chetan Murthy

    @West of the Rockies: I read Chris Grey’s BrexitBlog pretty religiously (he had weekly posts): chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/

    His analysis is that Brexit is killing Britain, more or less.  I’m not going to try to find any particular quotes, but basically yes, as @Another Scott: notes, Brexit has resulted in vastly less investment, less trade, less economic activity.  Or as the noted historian Ian Kershaw put it:
    “Brexit would be the greatest act of national self-harm in postwar history”

  15. 15.

    Chetan Murthy

    @ColoradoGuy:

    Anyone who thinks that TFG won’t have a Night of the Long Knives is being willfully ignorant.

    Yes indeed!  I mean, at least Hitler and Mussolini *started off* with the idea that they were restoring something, and they were pretty much hand-in-glove with the conservatives in their countries.  But TFG?  He’s a fucking mobster.  He’s not a “stationary bandit who wants more of the pie”: he’s “a roving bandit who wants to rape your daughters, slaughter your cattle, and burn your houses down looking for hidden jewelry”.

    These fuckers are idiots to think they can trust him.

  16. 16.

    SFAW

    @Chetan Murthy: ​
     
    People think “the first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” was meant as a way to get rid of the shysters/pettifoggers, when it was really about destroying legal protections for the people.

  18. 18.

    Mousebumples

    @Uncle Cosmo: But (damn it all) managed to give up the winning TD to the Whiners with not much more than a minute left.

    Hopefully, we* will have a new Defensive Coordinator soon enough.

    It was a fun run while it lasted.

    *I’m a shareholder, so, yes, I use the term “we” when talking about My Team.

  20. 20.

    Jackie

    Here’s a bit of good news:

    In a Saturday night filing, E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers told the court they intend to admit as evidence Donald Trump’s post-court press conferences and campaign statements from this past week.

    Lisa Rubin: “Why? Because his continued defamation of Carroll, even as the trial is ongoing, is entirely relevant to the jury’s consideration of punitive damages.”

    GOOD!

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    because I think even if — and I believe, if the institutions hold, when — he loses this election, he’ll also be the Republican candidate in 2028 and maybe even 2032 as well

    Oh, I hope Dump is long dead and buried pissed on before either of those years.

  22. 22.

    Another Scott

    TheHill is having fun:

    Turnip deflected the criticism that arose after he appeared to mix up Haley and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday while talking about Jan. 6, stating his reliance on sarcasm during speeches and emphasizing that he aced a cognitive test, that he claimed he took “a few months ago.”

    “A lot of times I’ll say that President Obama is doing a lousy job, meaning that Obama is running the show,” Trump said during his rally. “They’ll say, Donald Turnip doesn’t know who our president is. No, no…A few months ago, I took a cognitive test, my doctor gave me, I said give me a cognitive test just we can…you know…and I aced it. I also took one when I was in the White House.”

    [ snort ]

    “just we can… you know”

    Yes, people ask their doctors for a cognitive test all the time for no reason at all…

    [ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]

    She’s got him rattled, and that’s why he’s ramping up his attacks. If she’s smart, she’ll stay in the race even if she doesn’t win NH or SC. He’s a fragile baby and she won’t get a better chance. And the free press she’s getting will only increase as his attacks increase…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  23. 23.

    hitchhiker

    The thought of Jamie Fucking Dimon hobbing and knobbing in fucking Switzerland and sniffing about how disrespected Trump voters feel is truly enough to make a potato’s eyes water.

    Hey, Jamie? Fuck. All. The. Way. Off.

  24. 24.

    Jackie

    Interesting: Sarah Hutchinson-Sanders daddy endorses Haley.

    THAT throws a monkey wrench into Sarah’s dream of being TIFG’s VP choice!

  26. 26.

    SFAW

    @Another Scott:

    “I aced it”

    No one “aces” a cognitive test, you lying moron. One can fail it — which you probably did, you liar — but it’s not graded like the SAT.

  27. 27.

    Anyway

    It’s not like Biden and the Ds are stripping away their billions – its a modest tax increase they’re looking at. Whiny reactionaries.

  30. 30.

    Hungry Joe

    @Chetan Murthy: The hell of it is — the most GRATING part is — they’ll continue to live their cushy lives regardless. The only difference might be that when their accountants present the spread sheets listing their total assets, a few of the digits will be a little smaller. No selling the place in the Hamptons, no having to opt for a lower-grade teak on the new yacht. Like Edward G. Robison’s  gangster Johnny Rocco in “Key Largo,” what they want is MORE.

    “And you won’t ever have enough, will you?”, one of the characters asks him.

    “No,” Rocco says. “No, I don’t believe I ever will.”

    Will those Davos monsters ever have enough?

    No. No, I don’t believe they ever will.

  31. 31.

    dmsilev

    @Another Scott: His ‘explanation’ doesn’t, of course, make any sense. What sort of sarcasm would be involved in saying that Haley was responsible for Capitol Hill security?

  33. 33.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Hungry Joe: Actually, I don’t think so: in Hitler’s Germany there were richies who were expropriated; hell, during the Night of the Long Knives (per @ColoradoGuy: ) well-placed conservative politicians were not merely expropriated, but murdered.  And that was early in Hitler’s reign, when he was relatively tame.  The idea that a mobster like TFG would be restrained …. hahaha.

    Dimon &co don’t understand what they’re fucking around with.  They could very well lose their necks (or equivalently, have to flee abroad, leaving behind the vast majority of their wealth).

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato:

    No kidding.

    Although it’s a futile wish, I would dearly love to see an interviewer say to him something along the lines of “You keep lying about everything and everyone, but most especially about your abilities and accomplishments — for example, you keep saying you’re a ‘stable genius,’ when it’s clear you have a tough time stringing together a coherent sentence. Most, if not all, psychiatrists and psychologists agree that your behavior shows that you are immensely insecure, and likely a massive narcissist — which is not a good thing — and so you try to cover it up by lying. Why are you so insecure? Why do you lie as easily as most people breathe?”

    I would also like to see the NY Jets win this year’s Super Bowl.

  37. 37.

    wjca

    @NotMax: No Marmite either?

    “See? Some good came out of it.”   ;)

    Besides, Vegemite is far better.  Being Australian, it’s still available.

  38. 38.

    Lyrebird

    @Another Scott: I appreciate your use of root vegetables.

    I actually like turnips, though, not aspiring dictators!

    He is repugnant, and the people who have found him useful are still f’ing dangerous.

    Haley is disturbing, but I appreciate her raising the fitness issue.

  39. 39.

    wjca

    @Anyway: It’s not like Biden and the Ds are stripping away their billions – its a modest tax increase they’re looking at. Whiny reactionaries.

    The only way they even notice is either a) they see it mentioned whined about in the WSJ, or b) their accountants happen to highlight it in their report.  Otherwise, it isn’t even big enough to qualify as a rounding error in their net worth.

  40. 40.

    Hungry Joe

    @Chetan Murthy: You may be right. But Trump isn’t driven by twisted ideological goals like Hitler’s; he just want more adulation, more money, and then more adulation. The U.S.? The American volk (as it were)? He not only doesn’t care, he never gives it/us a thought.

    Still … you may be right.

  41. 41.

    HumboldtBlue

    @SFAW: ​ 

    People think “the first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” was meant as a way to get rid of the shysters/pettifoggers, when it was really about destroying legal protections for the people.

    Indeed.

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    WaPo reports that Nikki Haley is questioning Trump’s cognitive fitness after he loopily accused her of bungling Capitol security on 1/6. Haley’s supporter NH Gov. Sununu is also dragging Trump for the mistake.

    Haley and Sununu are also roping Joe Biden into their attacks on their party’s deranged leader, saying both are too old, which makes them marginally more honest than media outlets that harp on Biden’s age without mentioning Trump’s advanced years. I guess somebody had to get the word out.

    Like a mossy plastic ball in a leaky convenience store toilet tank, gross Trump toady Elise Stefanik bobbed to the surface to make an incoherent defense of Trump’s nonsensical remarks because she wants to be VP so bad:

    “The reality is Nikki Haley is relying on Democrats, just like Nancy Pelosi, to try to have a desperate showing,” Stefanik said.

    It makes no sense, but Stefanik knows all about desperate showings.

  45. 45.

    Hungry Joe

    @wjca: Many years ago I had an Aussie girlfriend. We had an arrangement: 1) The Vegemite jar in the fridge had to be in a plastic bag; and 2) she had to announce when she was about to take it out, and give me time to leave the room.

  47. 47.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Hungry Joe: My boss in France had this particular cheese that was so smelly his wife made him leave out on the balcony of their flat in a tupperware.  I forget what the name of the cheese was, but I do remember it was conical and the surface was bright red.  Oh, and they were both French.  So this was a cheese too smelly for (some) French people.

  49. 49.

    SFAW

    @Chetan Murthy:

    According to Teh Google, it’s called Boulette d’Avesnes. Never heard of it before. Probably won’t go seeking it out.

    Well, maybe I will, right after I get some Venezuelan beaver cheese.

  51. 51.

    sdhays

    @Hungry Joe: But Trump isn’t driven by twisted ideological goals like Hitler’s; he just want more adulation, more money, and then more adulation.

    Umm…Trump is very, very racist. He also hates Muslims. Not fond of Jews either.

  53. 53.

    eclare

    @Betty Cracker:

    WTF is a “desperate showing”?  Also, Nancy is a Democrat, shouldn’t she rely on them?

    Stupid questions, I’m sure, because I don’t have one of those fancy Harvard educations.

    BTW as always Betty Cracker, your turn of phrase is masterful.

  54. 54.

    RaflW

    It just amazes me that most consumers would rightly say that they hate (just to pull three examples) Comcast, United Airlines, or their for-profit health insurer.

    So why do we act like the CEOs of these companies that treat their customers like sh*t, and suck at making strategic business decisions for their stakeholders, are deserving of ‘important’ opinions?

  56. 56.

    Chetan Murthy

    @SFAW: That could very well be the thing (it was 30yr ago, I’ve completely forgotten the name).  Sadly, here in SF I doubt I can find it, or I’d get some just to see what all the fuss was about.

  59. 59.

    wjca

    @mrmoshpotato: And I’d like the Bears to not suck next season.

    The joy of Chicago: both the Bears and the Cubs.  Well, consistency is supposed to be a virtue of some kind.

    Personally, as part of a family of what you could call ex-pat (i.e. not living in Chicago) Cubs fans, I’d prefer they be consistently good.  But I know better than to hold my breath.

  62. 62.

    Kristine

    Not the most comforting read before turning in. One consolation is that every time I’ve seen Dimon on TV he comes across as a clueless idiot.

    The Law of the Septic Tank. The big chunks rise to the top.

  64. 64.

    Jay

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Fromage.com

    Kevin Seah online

    Cheese.co

    As it is a raw milk cheese, you might not be able to have it shipped to the US. You can have it shipped to Quebec and pick it up from there, : ), but only Quebec.

  65. 65.

    Redshift

    @eclare:

    WTF is a “desperate showing”? Also, Nancy is a Democrat, shouldn’t she rely on them?

    As far as I can guess, Stefanik is pretending to deny the TFG mix-up with Pelosi, so she can claim Haley is somehow the one bringing Pelosi into the situation. Or something. But trying too hard to figure out risks brain damage.

  66. 66.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jay: oh, nice.  cheese.com knows of the cheese.  I’ll have to dig around and see if anyplace can ship it to SF.  Thank you!

  71. 71.

    Jay

    @NotMax:

    For a lot of “foods” and “beverages”, it’s cheaper to make them in Canada, and tailor them to the Canadian Palate, than import them.

    CheezeWhiz in Canada contains real cheese, unlike the US. Chocolate bars have less sugar than in the US or Britain, etc.

    So if it’s popular or niche, like Guinness, you buy a lisence from the “Brand”, and make it in Canada, rather than importing it from Ireland.

  72. 72.

    gene108

    An underreported story the media really hasn’t followed up on are the number of former Trump administration officials, from Cabinet Secretaries on down, who have publicly stated a second Trump term would be a disaster and he should not be re-elected because he’s an immoral liar who only cares about himself.

    Ive never seen so many former officials shit talk their old boss like this. I figure they’d be taken a bit more seriously by the media, as they saw the former president at work and are now horrified he might be president again.

  73. 73.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Jay:

    I hear the new labeling requirements (For UK sale only) are causing confusion because people think that the product is unfit for sale in the EU…lol!

    Talk about unintended consequences.

  74. 74.

    gene108

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I think the rich fuckwads who backed Hitler, Mussolini, and Imperial Japan basically came out of the war okay, as long they didn’t fall under Soviet rule.

    Krupp, BMW, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, etc. weren’t dismantled by the Allies. They made some changes away from arms manufacturing and carried on.

  76. 76.

    Jay

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    It is “unfit” for sale in the EU or be exported outside the UK.

    Is it “safe to eat?”. Who knows.

    They will be back to boiled grey mutton and mushy peas in no time. No more curries. They will still have “chips, or as sane people call them “French Fries”, but they lost about half of their fishing rights.

  77. 77.

    Jay

    @NotMax:

    It is, but it’s mostly seafood, untaxed smokes and illegal pure grain alcohol.

    That is how Newfie “Screech” was made. An empty rum barrel from the Carribean, grain alcohol smuggled in from St. Pierre, molasses or demerra sugar and hot water. Let it sit for a month.

  79. 79.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Hungry Joe:

    A friend of ours in Australia sent us a squeeze tube and jar of Vegemite. We tried the tube, once. Lightly. On buttered toast, as recommended. We didn’t have more than one bite each. After that we looked at the containers once in a while until we eventually threw them away.

    We still dearly love our friend in Australia.

  80. 80.

    frosty

    @Jackie: I’m sorry, I was rooting for the Packers because I’d rather the Ravens face them than the 49ers.

    Today was Edgar Allen Poe’s birthday. It was a good omen!

  83. 83.

    eclare

    @Jay:

    I lived in London in 1996 and still remember seeing “meat” pies for sale.  What kind of meat?  Who knows?

    I am permanently banned from donating blood in the US because of my time in the UK and the possibility of mad cow disease.

  84. 84.

    Jay

    @NotMax:

    back in the day, had alcohol, tasted like rum, a fraction of the cost.

    Now “Screech” is a NFLB rebottling bottling of the cheapest Caribbean dark rum available.

    The barrel infuses flavor, it’s now popular amongst microbreweries and wineries to re-use barrels used to age other alcohol products.

    The real small scale money these days is to use charcoal filters* to “wash and rebrand” the cheapest vodka that money can buy and sell it as a boutique premium small production product.

    *Brita filters work.

  85. 85.

    NotMax

    @eclare

    A place fairly nearby often has on the sandwich board outside “smoke [sic] meat plate.”

    No, never have ventured inside.

  86. 86.

    Jay

    @eclare:

    BSE would probably have shown up by now.

    At a deli or pub, the staff could tell you what kind of meat, but you have to ask.

    At a market, because of EU rules, the label on the back would have to break it down.

  87. 87.

    Mag

    The Davos / Jamie Dimon crowd are idiots. Trump intends to follow the Putin model of oligarch shakedown. He’s already said he’ll go after anyone doing better than him in politics or business. Trump: “…if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say go down and indict them, mostly they would be out of business.”

  88. 88.

    eclare

    @Jay:

    Yeah, it’s crazy to me that after 28 years I still can’t give blood.

    I never bothered to pick up one of those frozen pies to look at the back.  I just saw the label and passed.

  91. 91.

    eclare

    @NotMax:

    I doubt that means the same thing here as it did in the UK.  It might mean an assortment, like smoked brisket, shoulder, etc.  I’d be curious to go in and see.

  92. 92.

    Jay

    @eclare:

    Back in the 80’s, I was in a pub in Cornwall. I asked about the “meat pies”. In a very thick Cornish accent, I was told that they were “Cornish Pasties”, served with a dipping sauce.

    Further questions turned out that the “dipping sauce” was ketchup cut with soya sauce, and the “meat” was locally sourced Red Squirrel, (culled invasive species) and 20% red wattle pork, (for the fat).

    They were good, the dipping sauce was not. The beer was, even though it was warm.

    Lucas, the Lord of Darkness, right?

  93. 93.

    eclare

    @Jay:

    Hmmm…I don’t know if I could eat squirrel.  Plus, how big are these squirrels?  If they are around the same size as the ones around me, it seems like they’d be hard to clean and prep.

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    @eclare

    Well, plate means plate lunch in local lingo, so whatever the unidentified protein is in a divided take-out platter along with the mandatory “two scoop” rice and a scoop of potato-mac salad.

  95. 95.

    Jay

    @eclare:

    I have HPV. For about a decade, I could not donate blood, but then. supplies got so low, that I can give blood, (I have a special card), to ensure that my blood is only used to create plasma.

    Here however, the whole blood bank system is national. not private, and nobody get’s paid for donating blood.

    You get some orange juice, a cookie and a bandaid.

  97. 97.

    Jay

    @eclare:

    they are about half the size of a rabbit. Volenteers cull the squirrels, abbtoirs butcher them and the meat is “free”.

    Here our native squirrels, the Douglas Squirrels are being displaced by introduced and invasive red and grey squirrels, which are 3 times their size and are much more aggressive and omnivorous, songbird are also affected, as reds and greys rob nests in the spring.

    We don’t have a cull program here.

  99. 99.

    NotMax

    @Jay

    Every single time I’ve given blood whoever takes the pressure stops and calls over someone more senior to confirm the device isn’t broken. Because my BP is normally so low.

  103. 103.

    eclare

    @NotMax:

    Ah, that helps.  Here a meat plus three means a meat (basically a protein), which could be fried chicken, pork chop, fried steak, etc., plus three veggies. It does not mean an unidentified “meat.”

    Those sides do not sound appetizing.

  106. 106.

    eclare

    @Jay:

    When I donated at the Red Cross, that’s all I got, juice and a cookie.  From the ads I see that people here can make some good money  donating plasma.  Decades ago at college there were tons of billboards near the school with ads to donate.

  107. 107.

    Jay

    @eclare:

    one of the classic bro movie lines, dudes were brainstorming how to quickly make some money,

    Idiot #1, “We can sell blood and sperm!”

    Idiot #2, “Eeeeew.”

    Idiot #1, “Not mixed together!”

  108. 108.

    eclare

    @Jay:

    So true!

    I’ve had smoked bologna, pretty good.  And it is not the big disk with the red plastic string label.

    The very good and popular bbq restaurant near me has bbq bologna, although I’ve never had theirs.

  113. 113.

    Nelle

    @Lyrebird: It’s not like the media could raise the issue.  I looked at the WaPost yesterday to see if they would directly report on his crazy Haley-Pelosi conflation,, but nothing there that I found.  Later in the day, it came up,  but only in a report about Haley and what she was saying.

    Why is everyone so intimidated by this shuffling old man who yells at clouds?

  114. 114.

    Matt McIrvin

    Oh, he wasn’t really confused about who the President was–he just thinks Barack Obama is Joe Biden’s secret puppetmaster, which is a completely sane and healthy-brain thing to think.

  116. 116.

    Elizabelle

    WRT the blog top and the deplorable Jamie Dimon:

    ETA: Jeezus. I thought Dimon was retired. He is not …
    Clearly, he is a greedy SOB and is willing to ignore the parallels from the 1930s, which are not subtle.

    One of your malefactors, right there, with a rapt audience of stenographers from CNBC.

    Pretty likely he sits on some corporate boards (from which he derives income and other benefits). He should not. Off to check that now.

  117. 117.

    Elizabelle

    My bad.  I thought Dimon was retired, a chairman emeritus.  He is not.   Per Wiki:

    James Dimon (… born March 13, 1956) is an American billionaire business executive and banker, who has been the chairman and  CEO of JPMorgan Chase since 2005. He has also been on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

    From JP Morgan’s bio of their fearless leader:

    Dimon earned his bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He serves on the boards of directors of a number of non-profit institutions including the Business Roundtable, Bank Policy Institute and Harvard Business School. Additionally, he serves on the executive committee of the Business Council and the Partnership for New York City, and is a member of the Financial Services Forum and Council on Foreign Relations.

    The CFR, at least, should feel shame to have such a prominent member who is willing to ignore the history of the 1930s.

    And of course he’s got a Harvard MBA.

    His estimated worth is $1.6 billion, and he was paid about $36 million last year, if memory serves.

    Let’s keep an eye out for any blowback.

  118. 118.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    If you can’t trust the judgment of the bankers who created the Great Recession then who can you trust?

  119. 119.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: It’s interesting that he’s not claiming Kamala Harris is the puppetmaster, which was a popular scare line in 2020.

  121. 121.

    Elizabelle

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:  That’s clever.

    I am still sitting here in shock.  Skipped right over the paragraphs identifying Dimon; went to the insane remarks.  Truly did feel a chill down my back when realized Dimon still heads JP Morgan Chase.

    FWIW, he used to be a Democratic donor.  Maybe still is.

    Again.  Jeezus.

  124. 124.

    eclare

    @Elizabelle:

    Dimon knows if he doesn’t kiss TIFG’s ass, TIFG will come after him.  It’s craven AF, hypocritical, and cowardly, and if every bidness genius in the US would band together, maybe we could humiliate TIFG with a huge loss.

    But Dimon is afraid TIFG will come after him.  And unfortunately he is not wrong.

  125. 125.

    AM in NC

    @eclare:  I lived in London from 90-92 and had the same problem with blood donation. BUT, just recently, they lifted the ban, and we can donate again!!!

  127. 127.

    artem1s

    @Chetan Murthy:

    He’s not a “stationary bandit who wants more of the pie”: he’s “a roving bandit who wants to rape your daughters, slaughter your cattle, and burn your houses down looking for hidden jewelry”.

    IOW Reavers. “If they take the ship country, they’ll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing – and if we’re very, very lucky, they’ll do it in that order.”

  129. 129.

    EarthWindFire

    @eclare: This. 100 percent. Like so many jackals have pointed out, if they think it makes them safe, they’re wrong.

    Overall, though, this makes me more optimistic about a Biden win. Part of the reason we got here is that we got tired of listening to the point-one percenters huff each other’s farts and seeing them screw things up for us. If they’re huffing farts in favor of Trump, I like our chances.

  133. 133.

    eclare

    @Elizabelle:

    I believe for Dimon in the same philosophy regarding Jim Cramer’s stock predictions:  do the opposite of what he says.  There is even a fund set up to short everything Cramer recommends, I think it does pretty well.

    I am also optimistic. The CEO’s don’t have to worry about Joe, he doesn’t believe in punishment.

  134. 134.

    sdhays

    @Matt McIrvin: Well, we know he wasn’t actually claiming Obama is a puppet master, right? He was confused because he has brain worms. If he was actually claiming Biden is a puppet, he would have remembered Kamala. But he can’t even remember which woman he’s whining about for 5 minutes.

  137. 137.

    catclub

    @gene108: Ive never seen so many former officials shit talk their old boss like this. I figure they’d be taken a bit more seriously by the media, as they saw the former president at work and are now horrified he might be president again.

     

    On the other hand the media does  know that Trump hired them in the first place, so they know they are basically crappy people.

  138. 138.

    Tinare

    @eclare: I am also banned for being in the UK for school in 1988. I keep wondering when they’ll figure out a way to screen or lift that. What do they do in the UK? And shouldn’t my brain have already turned to Swiss cheese by now if I truly was exposed? (Some many argue that has…)

    Just saw the comment about it being lifted. I will have to look into that.

  140. 140.

    trnc

    @Hungry Joe

    @sdhays:

    Hitler had to build up to the point where they could exterminate people. I see no difference between that build up and what DT and his minions are pushing for brown immigrants.

  141. 141.

    Montanareddog

    @Tinare: I am banned and I was there for all of 9 months in 1990, and I am a vegetarian. But I guess it is too costly to evaluate each case on its merits. A simple set of criteria and that’s it.

  142. 142.

    Montanareddog

    @Jay: I strongly suspect that the locals were taking the piss out of the “Yank” ( I know you’re Canuck)

    Red squirrels are indigenous, tiny and endangered, maybe even extinct in Cornwall as they are in most of Southern England.

    Grey squirrels are the invasive species. A pest but I suspect not worth the trouble or cost to hunt, and butcher. A Cornish pasty is pastry, vegetables and a few small pieces of lamb. Ain’t no way it would be cost-effect to use any game.

  143. 143.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @SFAW: Knowing Trump he basically he threw a fit at the doctor until he changed the results like Trump does with golfing.

  144. 144.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Villago Delenda Est: The enemy is fascism, and its dupes, the parasite billionaire overclass.

    “Dupes”, my democratic Democratic arse. See below:

    @gene108: I think the rich fuckwads who backed Hitler, Mussolini, and Imperial Japan basically came out of the war okay, as long they didn’t fall under Soviet rule.

    Krupp, BMW, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, etc. weren’t dismantled by the Allies. They made some changes away from arms manufacturing and carried on.

    “Willing (or eager) accomplices” is closer to the truth. And der Untergang taught them the wrong lesson, i.e.:

    Hey, a few million people died, a few more million lost their homes, but we BOTUs** stayed safe in our bomb shelters and made out like bandits – barely got our stock certificates ruffled! How bad could another round be?

    (** Bastards Of The Universe)

    The victorious Allies should have strung up a couple dozen of the biggest industrialists pour décourager les autres. But nuh-uh, had to fight doGless Comm’nizm for the benefit of the oligarchy’s bottom lines everywhere…

    And that’s where we are now. The oligarchs don’t care what form of gummint a nation has so long as they can “do bidniz” with it and avoid any responsibility for their rapacious actions corporate or personal. And it’s easier to “do bidniz” with a few autocrats who’ll keep the masses in line and can be bought off. They think Putin is at heat just one of them.

    Eventually they’d realize  an “oligarch” with thermonuclear weapons and assassination squads is something qualitatively different – but by then it’d be too late for them and far, far too late for the vast majority of humanity. That’s why the good guys have to win, now and for the foreseeable future

  145. 145.

    Rjv

    How the Davos Pundits Got It Wrong: President Clinton, Anyone?

    • Predictions from 2016 show perils of assessing political risk

    January 15, 2017

    Bloomberg News

  146. 146.

    Another Scott

    @eclare: When I was a kid in suburban Atlanta, the couple that watched us when my mom had to work on Saturdays included a guy with one arm who liked to drive us around in his pickup truck.  One day he happened to see another car run over a squirrel, so he turned around, collected it, and took it home to his wife.  He told her he saw it get runover, so he knew it was fresh.  She did the prep-work and they had it with dinner that evening (I wasn’t there).

    Necessity, and all that.

    Some fools at the DC zoo released a bunch of black squirrels from Quebec into the city in 1902 and 1906.  They’re slowly moving into the NoVA suburbs and beyond (we have 2-4 or so that I’ve seen in the last few years).  Given that the grey squirrels are often huge from raiding bird feeders and stuffing themselves on acorns (and they haven’t yet figured out that it’s not a good survival strategy to weigh (roughly) 10+ pounds with all the foxes around), the black ones might have a chance to displace them.

    Stupid humans…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  149. 149.

    Quadrillipede

    @Montanareddog: FWIW, I grew up in the UK, and never heard of any instances of people eating squirrel. (Although I spent most of my time in the NW, Midlands, NE and London…)

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