By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Thank you for your patience, dear readers. This has not been the most productive week for me! Part of my difficulties, shared with Yves, is that so much bullshit simultaneously is hard to process! –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
“I hate it when the sounds of my breathing are captured in birdsong clips.” Not that obtrusive. Anyhow, I like some reality: Footsteps, breathing, dogs barking, trains whistles…. The birds live in the world, after all!
Politics
“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51
“They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.” –Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” –Hunter Thompson
Capitol Seizure
Biden Adminstration
“White House pushes past COVID-19 limits but threat of pandemic looms” [The Hill]. “The White House is simultaneously easing its own COVID-19 restrictions in an attempt to get it — and the American public — back to normal while grappling with the threat the pandemic still poses. The delicate balance was on display this week when hundreds of maskless guests joined for in-person bill signings where President Biden mingled with lawmakers with no social distancing protocols in place. But the ongoing risks of a return to normal were underscored on Tuesday evening when second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, tested positive for the virus. Biden had not been tested for COVID-19 since he tested negative Sunday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday. Biden is not considered to be a close contact of Emhoff, who attended an event earlier Tuesday honoring AmeriCorps week at an urban garden and park in Washington, D.C.” • “Delicate,” or “delicate balance” is a bullshit tell in the Beltway media (I mean, more than usual). It signals that a battle between factions is not completely resolved, that whatever the status quo is within a given field could come unstuck. Policy has nothing to do with it.
“U.S. COVID chief Zients to be replaced by Brown University health expert Jha” [Reuters]. • That’s a damn shame. Jha, a Dean, is said to be good on TV.
“Fed nominee Sarah Bloom Raskin withdraws after fight over her climate change stance” [National Public Radio]. “President Biden’s nominee for a top regulatory post at the Federal Reserve has withdrawn after opposition from fossil fuel interests dashed her hopes of confirmation in the closely divided Senate. Sarah Bloom Raskin had drawn criticism from Senate Republicans for arguing that bank regulators should pay more attention to the financial risks posed by climate change. Her fate was sealed on Monday, when Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he would oppose her, calling Raskin insufficiently committed to an “all-of-the-above energy policy.'” • I don’t know why we didn’t check with President Manchin first. (Obama, remember, was the originator of “all-of-the-above,” including fracking. I had thought that Bush-era Darth Vader figure Dick Cheney’s energy task force had put fracking on the agenda, but the “Cheney loophole” in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that did that.
Democrats en Déshabillé
I have moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Party (“the Democrat Party is a rotting corpse that can’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated post, to which I will periodically add material, summarizing the addition here in a “live” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It turns out that defining the Democrat Party is, in fact, a hard problem. I do think the paragraph that follows is on point all the way back to 2016, if not before:
The Democrat Party is the political expression of the class power of PMC, their base (lucidly explained by Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal!). It follows that the Democrat Party is as “unreformable” as the PMC is unreformable; if the Democrat Party did not exist, the PMC would have to invent it. If the Democrat Party fails to govern, that’s because the PMC lacks the capability to govern. (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” of course.) Second, all the working parts of the Party reinforce each other. Leave aside characterizing the relationships between elements of the Party (ka-ching, but not entirely) those elements comprise a network — a Flex Net? An iron octagon? — of funders, vendors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with assets in the press and the intelligence community.
Note, of course, that the class power of the PMC both expresses and is limited by other classes; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial model’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to mind. Suck up, kick down.
* * *
2022
“Democrats to report $14 million fundraising haul in February” [NBC]. “The Democratic National Committee hauled in more than $14.4 million in February — the most in any February in DNC history — as Democratic donors are waking to the possibility of their party taking a beating in the midterms, according to two sources with knowledge of the committee’s fundraising. February’s total includes more than $7 million from large donors, which was nearly twice the internal high-dollar goal and what one of the sources called ‘the best February in major donor history.’ Many donors opened their wallets last month after not giving in 2021, according to one of the sources. Major dollars just slightly outpaced grassroots money, which averaged $25 online, according to the sources.” • So, it looks CDC removing masks from our public health arsenal worked out well for Democats, Rochelle, good job. And maybe Manchin did Biden a favor by strangling Build Back Better? More: “”We’re getting a lot of donors who didn’t give last year who are now giving,’ the source said. ‘It’s a lot of things. Voter suppression is an issue, people are distressed about that. They feel that if they lose the majority, working-class people will be severely injured. They’ll try to roll things back, you can’t really do anything, that will be it. The progress will stop and it will be an ugly situation.'” • Fingers on the pulse, totally.
2024
“Half of Americans Doubt Biden Will Run in 2024, WSJ Poll Shows” [Wall Street Journal]. “A new Wall Street Journal poll found that 52% of Americans don’t think Mr. Biden will run for re-election in two years, while 29% do expect him to pursue a second term. Nineteen percent are undecided about his future. Among Democrats, 41% said they think Mr. Biden will run again, while 32% said they didn’t think he would. The poll found 26% of those Democrats unsure. Mr. Biden and the White House have said he intends to run for re-election. People close to the president have suggested he will make a final decision after November’s midterm elections…. If re-elected, Mr. Biden would be 82 years old when he is sworn in to a second term, nearly a decade older than former President Ronald Reagan when he started his second term in 1985 at the age of 73. Mr. Reagan, at age 69, was the oldest president to take office until 2017, when former President Donald Trump was sworn in at the age of 70, a record later eclipsed by Mr. Biden.” • They can still juice Biden up pretty good for a presser or a speech, but I dunno. At some point, he’s going to stumble, or more llikely get his feet tangled up on one of the gang of snarling weasels nipping at his ankles and fall down. (The press, I think, would conceal any actual physical disability, as they did with Reagan, but a scandal would be too juicy to resist, especially if one or some members of their press could boost the chances of their own replacement candidate.) I do think it’s insufficiently appreciated how this generation of Democrat leaders blighted the generations, plural, that should be their successors. You can’t beat somebody with nobody. Harris, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar are all nobodies. Newsom? Really?
If there’s any civil disorder between now and 2024 — and how not? — this will play very well, liberal aghastitude aside:
“If your iPhone can’t catch that picture with you being at a safe distance, then you need to upgrade your iPhone. Stop being on top of my police officers while they’re carrying out their jobs. That is not acceptable & it won’t be tolerated”: @NYCMayor re public recording cops pic.twitter.com/wwPpZP4lax
— Matthew Chayes (@chayesmatthew) March 16, 2022
RussiaGate
“The NYT Now Admits the Biden Laptop — Falsely Called “Russian Disinformation” — is Authentic” [Glenn Greenwald]. “One of the most successful disinformation campaigns in modern American electoral history occurred in the weeks prior to the 2020 presidential election. On October 14, 2020 — less than three weeks before Americans were set to vote — the nation’s oldest newspaper, The New York Post, began publishing a series of reports about the business dealings of the Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in countries in which Biden, as Vice President, wielded considerable influence (including Ukraine and China) and would again if elected president. The backlash against this reporting was immediate and intense, leading to suppression of the story by U.S. corporate media outlets and censorship of the story by leading Silicon Valley monopolies. The disinformation campaign against this reporting was led by the CIA’s all-but-official spokesperson Natasha Bertrand (then of Politico, now with CNN), whose article on October 19 appeared under this headline: “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.'” • I’m tellin’ ya, dozens! Greenwald justifiably does a happy dance: “The archive’s authenticity, as I documented in a video report from September, was clear from the start. Indeed, as I described in that report, I staked my career on its authenticity when I demanded that The Intercept publish my analysis of these revelations, and then resigned when its vehemently anti-Trump editors censored any discussion of those emails precisely because it was indisputable that the archive was authentic (The Intercept’s former New York Times reporter James Risen was given the green light by these same editors to spread and endorse the CIA’s lie, as he insisted that laptop should be ignored because “a group of former intelligence officials issued a letter saying that the Giuliani laptop story has the classic trademarks of Russian disinformation.”) I knew the archive was real because all the relevant journalistic metrics that one evaluates to verify large archives of this type — including the Snowden archive and the Brazil archive which I used to report a series of investigative exposés — left no doubt that it was genuine (that includes documented verification from third parties who were included in the email chains and who showed that the emails they had in their possession matched the ones in the archive word-for-word).” • Looks like Trump picked the wrong angle to work. Oh, and Greenwald invents the term “media employee,” presumably as a rectification of names for “reporter” and “journalist.” Woth reading in full.
“Now that Joe Biden’s president, the Times finally admits: Hunter’s laptop is real” [New York Post]. “Forgive the profanity, but you have got to be s–tting us. First, the New York Times decides more than a year later that Hunter Biden’s business woes are worthy of a story. Then, deep in the piece, in passing, it notes that Hunter’s laptop is legitimate.” • “They [family blogging] lie right to your face.” –Elmore Leonard, City Primeval.
“What We Know and Don’t About Hunter Biden and a Laptop” [The New York Times]. • Nobody can work the indefinite article like a media employee at the Times.
Realignment and Legitimacy
“Central Ohio man among Americans volunteering to join Ukraine’s international legion” [The Columbus Dispatch]. “When Henry Hoeft found out on Feb. 26 that the Ukrainian government had formed a volunteer military unit for foreign fighters to join the war against Russia, the former infantryman in the U.S. Army applied right away. Hoeft, a 28-year-old Frazeysburg resident, is among the 16,000 foreigners who, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, have signed up for the newly established International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine. Despite safety risks and legal uncertainties, more than 3,000 U.S. citizens have reportedly applied, with hundreds already arriving in Ukraine. Submitting a passport copy and proof of military experience is all it takes for American citizens to join the newly established International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine. Hoeft turned in his materials to the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, D.C. and booked a flight to Poland the same day. Hoeft, who said he is half-Ukrainian on his father’s side, has previously identified himself as a member of the ‘Boogaloo Bois,’ which has been characterized as a far-right extremist group. Operating under the alias ‘Henry Locke,’ the man was among a team of Ohio Boogaloo members who were at a Black Lives Matter protest carrying AK-47s, AR-15s and extra magazines last year.” • C’mon, let’s be fair. A man never knows when he’ll need an extra magazine.
“Ukraine War Shifts the Agenda in Congress, Empowering the Center” [New York Times]. “The escalating crisis in Ukraine is upending policy and political thinking on both the left and the right on Capitol Hill, as an immediate threat to the global order and soaring energy prices empower the political center at the expense of the two parties’ flanks…. ‘It’s bringing Congress together in a way, frankly, I haven’t seen in my 12 years,’ Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware and a confidant of President Biden, said on Tuesday of the consensus to support Ukraine. ‘You’d have to go back to 9/11 to see such a unified commitment.’ That has meant a retreat by both parties from the policy proposals and political messages that most thrill their core supporters. On the left, Democrats are acquiescing to higher military spending and dropping a bid to pull back rapidly from fossil fuels. On the right, Trump-era isolationism and attacks on the trans-Atlantic alliance are being relegated to the fringe in Congress. Plans to make the president’s son Hunter Biden and Ukrainian corruption front and center in a Republican-controlled House now seem far-fetched.” • I guess the Times waited to assign the Hunter Biiden story until they thought it was safe. As far as policy and grand strategy, the last thing the country needs is a “unified commitment” on the order of 9/11.
#COVID19
Case count by United States regions:
Fellow tapewatchers will note that “up like a rocket, down like a stick” phase is done with, and the case count is now leveling down. At a level that, a year ago, was considered a crisis, but we’re “over” Covid now, so I suppose not. I have added a Fauci Line.
NOTE I shall most certainly not be using the CDC’s new “Community Level” metric. Because CDC has combined a leading indicator (cases) with a lagging one (hospitalization) their new metric is a poor warning sign of a surge, and a poor way to assess personal risk. In addition, Covid is a disease you don’t want to get. Even if you are not hospitalized, you can suffer from Long Covid, vascular issues, and neurological issues. For these reasons, case counts — known to be underestimated, due to home test kits — deserve to stand alone as a number to be tracked, no matter how much the political operatives in CDC leadership would like to obfuscate it.
The official narrative was “Covid is behind us,” and that the pandemic will be “over by January” (Gottlieb), and “I know some people seem to not want to give up on the wonderful pandemic, but you know what? It’s over” (Bill Maher) was completely exploded. What a surprise! This time, it may be different. But who knows?
MWRA (Boston-area) wastewater detection:
Flattened out, continues encouraging (and independent from the CDC). The MRWA is divided into two sections, North and South. Tuesday, South was rising, albeit slowly. Now the North is, too. The aggregate of the enormous Omicron spike conceals this.
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) service area includes 43 municipalities in and around Boston, including not only multiple school systems but several large universities. Since Boston is so very education-heavy, then, I think it could be a good leading indicator for Covid spread in schools generally.
From CDC Community Profile Reports (PDFs), “Rapid Riser” counties:
Remember that these are rapid riser counties. A county that moves from red to green is not covid-free; the case count just isnt, well, rising rapidly. And what’s with Idaho?
The previous release:
Here is CDC’s interactive map by county set to community transmission:
bers aren’t jiggered.
Hospitalization (CDC Community Profile):
A few orange spots. It’s curious how peripheral islands like Guam, the Northern Marianas, or the Virgin Islands keep having outbreaks. From the point of view of our hospital-centric health care system, green everywhere means the emergency is over (and to be fair, this is reinforced by case count and wastewater). However, community transmission is still pervasive, which means that long Covid, plus continuing vascular damage, are not over. (Note trend, whether up or down, is marked by the arrow, at top. Admissions are presented in the graph, at the bottom. So it’s possible to have an upward trend, but from a very low baseline.)
Death rate (Our World in Data):
Total: 994,739 991,038. Heading slowly downward. I have added an anti-triumphalist Fauci Line.
Covid cases in top us travel destinations (Statista):
Stats Watch
Manufacturing: “United States Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index in the US rose to 27.4 in March of 2022 from 16 in February and above market expectations of 15. It was the highest reading since last November. The survey’s indicators for general activity, shipments, and new orders all rose after declining last month. The employment index and both price indexes climbed higher and remain elevated. The survey’s future general activity, new orders, and shipments indexes moderated, but the surveyed firms remained generally optimistic about growth over the next six months.”
Manufacturing: “United States Industrial Production” [Trading Economics]. “Industrial Production in the United States increased 7.5% yoy in February of 2022, the biggest annual gain since June last year. Manufacturing jumped 7.4% and mining 17.3% while utilities output contracted 1.2%.”
Employment Situation: “United States Initial Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell by 15 thousand to 214 thousand in the week ended March 12th, the lowest in 10 weeks, from a revised 229 thousand in the previous period and compared with market expectations of 220 thousand.”
Manufacturing: “The right to repairable broadband befits a supposedly critical utility” [The Register]. ” A broadband network designed to favor uptime and repairability means that pretty much everyone should be able to fix almost anything that goes wrong – or can feel confident they can ask a more knowledgeable neighbor to have a look in.” But there’s a happy ending: “On day six of disconnection, a technician visited and reported that another repair person had replaced some equipment under the footpath in front of my home and then neglected to re-connect my line.”
Tech: “Coupling, drift, and the AI nobody noticed” [Jon Stokes]. “[T]his bot-vs.-bot thing isn’t just a black hat reality. It’s already here on the white hat side, where quite a few of the well-funded startups based on GPT-3 [a “shockingly good ‘language trainer’] are explicitly aimed at producing market copy and other types of content that performs. This means it performs on SEO and it performs in terms of virality (i.e., it can game social media curation algorithms). So what happens when these bots that are already talking to each other start training each other? What happens when they get good at manipulating each other — when they meld into a tightly coupled system, where each individual bot is just a sub-module in a larger, unified AI? The above is not a rhetorical question. I don’t know the answer. I don’t know what it would look like or really even mean for humanity if we had sort of accidentally and without knowing it built a giant AI out of a loose federation of ML models that had started talking to each other and eventually found some kind of coupled, synchronous steady state. What would that system do to the unwitting humans that were embedded in it as actors? How might such an entity train us and manipulate us? How would we even know this was happening?” • Those are very good questions. Why don’t we just outlaw social media curation until we find out what’s going on? (The backlash against Twitter [family blogging] the chronological timeline must have been pretty insdent for them to back off. What is so hard about the concept that people want to hear from accounts they select, in reverse chronological order?)
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 23 Extreme Fear (previous close: 22 Extreme Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 17 (Extreme Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Mar 17 at 1:25pm.
Book Nook
“That Beauty Which Hath Terror In It: In Praise of Nature Writing” [Salvage]. “Somehow that flayed encounter with the raw matter of being [in The Maine Woods], and the ‘higher law’ to which it pointed in the multiracial creed of Transcendentalism, a non-parochial universalism, in which every atom of every being was touched with divinity, was political. As Laura Dassow Walls explains in her biography of Thoreau, ‘this insight proved absolutely transformative’. Slavery was ‘an abomination to be stopped at any cost’. The subjugation of women ‘must end’. Children ‘must never be punished as sinners nor trained as workers’. Three years after his failed expedition, Thoreau published On Civil Disobedience. Eight years later, in 1854, he wrote in a thundering rage upon learning that the escaped slave Anthony Burns had been returned to the slavers by the Boston authorities, and militant abolitionists arrested following an attempted liberation: ‘My thoughts are murder to the State, and involuntarily go plotting against her.’ In 1859, he delivered his Plea for Captain John Brown, in defiance of the overwhelming preponderance of white opinion: the ‘government menials’, he was particularly pleased to note when reflecting on Brown’s violent delivery of human beings from bondage, ‘were afraid of him’. In nature, Thoreau had found not an escape from entanglement with the social world, not an alternative to political radicalism, but the ‘confirmation of our hopes’. And: “Writing is a special form of dead labour which prolongs the life of perception, memory, experience, calculation and desire. It is, in the vocabulary of evolutionary biologists, ‘cumulative culture’, a force-multiplier. Civilization, from the dynastic states of Egypt and Mesopotamia, to the digitally written systems of late capitalism, is unimaginable without this social learning. Homo sapiens is an evolutionary ingenue. We have nothing on what Heathcote Williams described as the ‘fifty-million-year-old sagas of continuous whale mind’. Homo scribens, however, is the apex predator on the planet. The abstractive properties of writing allow the matter of the world to be transformed into ‘a carefully patrolled domain of phantom entities’, as David Wengrow puts it. Homo scribens is already complicit in the Anthropocene, the geological epoch of humanity in its capitalist phase. All social orders are written, from contract to constitution. The metabolic flow of a society depends on its being remembered and automated. No society, however, is as constituted by the violence of written abstractions as one dominated by the capitalist mode of production.” • As we see from “sanctions.”
Guillotine Watch
“Ex top lawyer who bilked fintech company gets three years in prison” [Reuters]. “A former top lawyer for a California-based fintech company, who used its funds to pay for dog boarding and other personal expenses, has been sentenced to 37 months in prison, according to a new court filing. Brooke Solis was ordered by Judge James Donato in San Francisco federal court, to pay $500,000 in restitution to Good Money Inc., which was listed in the filing as victim of the wire fraud.” • Oh, man. “Good Money, Inc.”? Never eat at a place called Mom’s…..
News of the Wired
“How stronger hands lengthen your life” [Axios]. “The single most effective set of muscles you can work to extend your life is in your hands. This shocked us, too. But many health and fitness experts argue that since falling is the leading cause of injury-related death once we cross 65 years old, we should start strengthening our hands now. The threat is getting worse. Death by falling increased 30% from 2009 to 2018, according to CDC data. Stronger hands grip tighter to prevent falls — and brace stronger when you tumble. Grip strength is especially important for those older adults who use canes, walkers or handrails or need assistance getting out of chairs, says David Bellar, a kinesiologist at UNC Charlotte. It’s not just bracing yourself. Scientists have linked stronger hands to healthier hearts. One study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that higher grip strength was correlated to lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar and higher good cholesterol levels. The most effective way to improve your grip strength is a simple dead hang, which works like it sounds — hanging still from a bar with your feet off the ground. Start by holding as long as you can, then work your way up from there. Or try the farmer’s carry: Take a walk around your house or gym with two heavy objects in your hands. You can also work on your grip while sitting down with some easy exercises. Here are links to two tools to use at your desk to build stronger hands.”
Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Via ChiGal:
ChiGal writes: “Is it a sea horse or a medieval dragon insignia? not exactly flora or fauna but certainly of the natural world. The ice on the downspout melted and slid down the wire from the building, luckily not a power line!” Certainly has that when-the-heck-is-spring-coming feel to it!
Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the recently concluded and — thank you! — successful annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:
Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated.
If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!
109 comments
Comments are closed.
re: over-armed, under-literate
It’s totally understandable why anyone volunteering to enter a war zone like the Ukraine’s would desire extra magazines. Who wouldn’t get bored when helplessly sitting out a Russian artillery barrage in the basement of a ruined supermarket? Sadly for these young mercenary hopefuls, they seem to have a preponderance of issues of Soldier of Fortune….
Always got a kick out of how that magazine was published in Boulder, of all places.
I would always take a New Yorker with me backpacking, but even 1 magazine was overkill.
What Henry Hoeft found out on Mar 13:
https://twitter.com/UrOrientalist/status/1503790042216599565
Yes. I kept reading the story expecting an Update which included this video. But alas…
Please retweet to all your friends… if you are allowed to.
Dear u/spindokto might be in Ukraine to avoid mandatory sentencing for something. Community service, DNC style.
NYC Mayor, circa 1938:
‘Unless you have a Leica or Rolleiflex, and know all the f-stops and how to use them, I do not want to see any Kodak Brownie cameras taking shots of crime scenes in the Big App/le’.
“The NYT Now Admits the Biden Laptop — Falsely Called “Russian Disinformation” — is Authentic”
Hunter, in countries in which Biden, as Vice President, wielded considerable influence (including Ukraine and China) and would again if elected president. The backlash against this reporting was immediate and intense, leading to suppression of the story by U.S. corporate media outlets and censorship of the story by leading Silicon Valley monopolies. The disinformation campaign against this reporting was led by the CIA’s all-but-official spokesperson Natasha Bertrand (then of Politico, now with CNN), whose article on October 19 appeared under this headline: “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.’”
=================================================
I commented on this when flora posted it this morning, but I am still outraged. Of course, being angry won’t do anything – I have to accept that there was a conerted and all pervasive interest in indoctrinating me to believe in a nation or laws, not men; land of the free; one man, one vote; etcetera but that all means less than any advertizing slogan. But it does affirm, that other than sports scores, there is an agenda behind ALL the America news, and that agenda is to comfort the comfortable, and afflict the afflicted. NOTHING the American press reports can be taken at face value…
Was it ever thus, or has it gotten worse? There was a time of the Pentagon Papers, the Church commission, where the whistleblowers were protected – now Assange, Snowden, and any others who dare expose government malfeasance end up in grave danger.
This only goes to show why Assange was such a problem for our psycho leadership class. (I really have to find a term that encompasses the politicians and oligarchs that get to make the decisions in our lives which also has the right amount of derision. No success on this so far.)
And despite my anger, I am also now trying to parse what it means that we now get this admission. I think it says that Biden is now disposable. Which terrifies me because I have to wonder who they have in the wings. It can’t possibly be Harris.
Try “bourgeoisie”?
After I learn to spell it. ;)
I might need to add an adjective or two depending on the day, but yeah.
who decides #3 and #4 if the republicans sweep the midterms and take the house and senate? maybe cooler heads are setting up to ensure Biden takes all the blame so this entire fever can be shut down without taking out all the other congresscritters with their hands in the Ukraine loot pile…
Maybe Clinton . . . . again. This time for sure. Third time’s a charm. Try try again. Etc.
And Harris will be her VP running mate. If the pair is elected, that will give Harris 8 years of training and seasoning and preparation for her 8 years after Clinton’s 8 years.
the exceptions prove the rule(s), and the exceptions are heavily touted to mislead all about what the true rules are, and how they are not as we believe them to be.
as far as i can tell, the press has always been a tool in the hands of the powerful, or factions who have interests of their own in usurping them for their own ends. even at just a localized level–the town newspaper took the place in an ever secularizing society of your priest telling you what to think and whom to support.
That phrase refers to “Proving”a firearm in a proof house by seriously overloading it.
Sigh.
What you need to know about Jha…
Great thread by Justin Feldman:
https://twitter.com/jfeldman_epi/status/1504424757038616576
So basically Zients with better credentials. Lovely.
Also, from my post in today’s LINKS:
So Jha is the new covid response guy.
Check this out:
CDC announces the new mask guidelines on Feb. 25:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/25/cdc-relaxes-mask-guidance-allowing-most-people-to-ditch-masks-if-hospitalizations-remain-low.html
On the SAME DAY, an opinion piece by Jha appears in the NY Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/opinion/cdc-covid-guidelines.html
We’ve Entered a New Phase of the Pandemic. It’s Time for New Metrics.
If the opinion piece appeared on Feb. 25, then Jha would have submitted it prior to Feb. 25, the date of publication. So…he knew about the guidelines ahead of time, right?
(h/t to Justin Feldman)
https://twitter.com/jfeldman_epi/status/1497425778287468548
Anyone find it weird that a public health dean wrote about these policies approvingly before they were even announced (given the publishing timeline) and then administration officials highlight it as evidence their own policies are supported by the scientific community?
You should have heard my conversation with another prominent public health dean today about this appointment.
The frequent use of 4 letter words would have made George Carlin proud.
There are many who for their own reasons are remaining silent in the public health community ( to their forever shame) who are very unhappy with the entire COVID situation and history. We will see how this all works out.
As much as I have really thought Dr. Fauci and Dr. Walensky need to be cashiered after all the missteps and disasters, I have no doubt that it is very likely their replacements would be even more corrupt and problematic. Trust me, the well is deep.
This move today just solidified my feelings in that regard.
Why, though? Who wins from this?
“Ukraine War Shifts the Agenda in Congress, Empowering the Center” [New York Times]. “The escalating crisis in Ukraine is upending policy and political thinking on both the left and the right on Capitol Hill, as an immediate threat to the global order and soaring energy prices empower the political center at the expense of the two parties’ flanks…. ‘It’s bringing Congress together in a way, frankly, I haven’t seen in my 12 years,’ Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware and a confidant of President Biden, said on Tuesday of the consensus to support Ukraine. ‘You’d have to go back to 9/11 to see such a unified commitment.’ That has meant a retreat by both parties from the policy proposals and political messages that most thrill their core supporters. On the left, Democrats are acquiescing to higher military spending and dropping a bid to pull back rapidly from fossil fuels. On the right, Trump-era isolationism and attacks on the trans-Atlantic alliance are being relegated to the fringe in Congress. Plans to make the president’s son Hunter Biden and Ukrainian corruption front and center in a Republican-controlled House now seem far-fetched.”
=====================================================
9/11 – weapons of mass destruction, Iraq, the Patriot Act…we stood together
Hunter Biden – as usual, we must move forward and upward past past crimes (as opposed to future crimes) as we are ever twirling, twirling upward and backward into the future….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqjhHVUzl8o
This quote pretty much says it all. One War Party, indivisible. Anyone on the “left” or “right” who disagrees can go f**k themselves. Inspiring.
Sad, but true
Washington DC: Death Cult
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/white-house-releases-ventilation-guidelines-meant-to-address-indoor-covid-spread/ar-AAVcB9T?li=BBnbcA1
White House releases ventilation guidelines meant to address indoor Covid spread
“building operators to consider”==so it’s a plan to have a plan, after they plan what to plan about?
Well, I suppose it’s better late than never. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) was publishing guidelines way back in August of 2020: https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/covid-19-one-page-guidance-documents. Alas, largely ignored.
This morning in the Boston Herald: Boston-area coronavirus wastewater is ticking back up after plunge: ‘Something we need to keep our eye on’
“The Boston-area coronavirus wastewater tracker is showing that COVID levels are starting to tick back up after the steep plunge following the omicron surge.
The sewage data from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s pilot study on COVID wastewater is the earliest sign of future virus cases in the community, so epidemiologists and officials pay close attention to it.
The south of Boston’s COVID wastewater average has increased 59% since the very low level at the start of March, and the north of Boston’s average has gone up 18%. Both the south of Boston and north of the city COVID wastewater levels are currently low, but the tracker is “something we need to keep our eye on for the next few weeks,” said Boston University epidemiology Professor Matthew Fox.“This could be the result of travel during the school holidays or it could just be an anomaly,” he added. “We are in a period of low transmission and we do expect an uptick at some point.”
“The hope is that any future upticks will be less intense and briefer than what we have seen to date, but we will have to wait and see,” Fox said.
The recent increase in the COVID wastewater is likely due to the loosening up of mask mandates and businesses bringing people back in, said Davidson Hamer, a Boston University specialist in infectious diseases.
“If the wastewater continue to rise, it could be pretty worrisome,” he added, noting that infection rates are climbing in Europe, which has been an early indicator for trends in the U.S.
There’s evidence that the BA.2 variant, also known as the stealth omicron variant, is leading to the rise in European cases — along with more people gathering without masks indoors.Hamer said he wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an increase in local COVID cases over the next few weeks.
“If there’s a surge in hospitalizations and BA.2 is taking off, then we may need to tighten up again,” Hamer said. “But no one wants to do that right now.””
What is so hard about the concept that people want to hear from accounts they select, in reverse chronological order?
Because Twitter’s paying customers are the advertisers, not the users, they will always be seeking a way to get more viewers and visibility for the ads. The non-chrono timeline options that have been pushed have all been different ways to sneak in more ads. The chrono timelines have a limited amount of times/ways the ad space can be pushed in front of the user before being temporarily silenced, so there’s a type of ceiling on how many ads they can grow in the chrono timeline. I’m not sure why they haven’t rolled out a paid (ad-free or different types of ad metadata collection) tier to try to offset some of that tension in their business model.
Yes, I did understand that, but well stated.
I’m not paying for an edit button because that should [family blogging] be included.
I’d pay for no censorship though!
“I’d pay for no censorship though!”
Alas, we have been outbid on that item.
I have a hunch but no proof that the reason they’ve never offered a paid tier (with an edit button or the ability to control which followers see what content) is because they have some internal numbers on how much of the user base is non-active, non-human, or related in some form to marketing or other swarms tied to a much, much smaller number of active users. In other words, rolling out a paid tier would expose how much of their ‘business’ is built on the perception of an audience, rather than the actual value the platform is supposed to bring. Imagine all those millions spent on data centers and south bay salaries for less than 500k users who might be willing to pay $5/month. Probably doesn’t offset the venture capital investment put in since 2006, but once the understanding is out the gig is up for everyone. And I think Twitter floats some other bets (like Block), so it has to remain and unknown unknown until all the platforms begin questioning whether the cost is worth the value.
Pet theory: Twitter’s primary function is instant messaging and legal compliance for Super PACs. If they couldn’t do that, Twitter would have no reason to continue losing money.
Well, it being Twitter, ‘tension’ is their business model.
Nitter hides you from adverts, and I think there are some browser add-ons that help too.
The Tweetbot (paid) app/application for iOS and MacOS cuts out ads and the plethora of “warnings” that Twitter throws up. A tad pricey but worth it if you’re allergic to imposed nuisances and clutter and want a clean interface and customization options.
The blood has not even stopped flowing:
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Indo-Pacific/US-to-build-anti-China-missile-network-along-first-island-chain
Starting to regret not finding a nice and extremely remote plot of land on which to put a bunker.
Wasn’t that happening in the Ukraine a major factor that triggered the Russian invasion? What if Russia helps set up a chain of S-400 missiles systems to help neutralize that threat. Will the US sanction Russia for doing so?
That article is from March 21, 2021.
Here is one not behind a paywall….
https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2021/03/02/eyeing-china-indo-pacific-command-seeks-27-billion-deterrence-fund/
They were requesting the 27 billion over 6 years, with about 5 billion for 2022. Congress responded with giving them an additional 2 billion for 2022, totaling 7.1 billion!
From the following article in dec, 2021…..
https://breakingdefense.com/2021/12/pacific-deterrence-initiative-gets-2-1-billion-boost-in-final-ndaa/
And of course for some this is wholly inadequate!
https://georgetownsecuritystudiesreview.org/2021/10/10/the-need-for-a-properly-resourced-pacific-deterrence-initiative/
Good times!
Antidote:
Never thought I would have seen a seahorse taking it’s life, so far from the sea and yet made out of water-I can understand the frustration. Did it leave a note?
Hunter is an admitted alcoholic and cocaine addict whose sister in law claims to have taken a pistol from him and thrown it in the garbage because she was concerned about his mental state.
When you purchase a pistol legally you are required to fill out ATF form 4473 and undergo a criminal background check.
You can find that form online, it is explicit about who is prohibited from owning a firearm and the penalties for lying on the form.
Drug addicts are prohibited from owning firearms.
And lying on a form 4473 is a felony..
How long should I expect to wait before R Hunter Biden is arrested for committing a felony with a gun?
Not exactly. Some authority a #psychiatrist, or a court of law has to find you an addict. And for someone after a time you are not. A self-admission for the purposes of this law are not admissible. I guess you could argue with the seller that you are crazy & such and thus not entitled to purchase. And that may of even happened in the history of the world but I doubt it.
How long should I expect to wait
Does never work for you because never is how long you can expect to wait
TS
uh, forever, eternity, and infinity come to mind…
As I noted, that equal justice under law aphorism is less accurate than every advertizing slogan, including the one for miracle water.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQVri6Gt4OI
It’s coming. He probably forgot to file it. It’s in his car along with his crack pipes, Delaware AG’s badge, and those photos of Anastasia grinding her boot into his chest.
The not so Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
>“Half of Americans Doubt Biden Will Run in 2024,
And at least one Canadian (me). The way he was stumbling over his words in the SOTU address I can’t see a re-run. He’s 79. He’ll be a few days short of 82 come election 2024. Two-and-a-half-years at his age is a long time. Furthermore, the ninth decade is a perilous one for most seniors (especially men), even without the stress and fatigue of a grueling election campaign. And, after Covid and Ukraine, I suspect the poor man will simply be too exhausted to put his hat—if he can find it—in the ring.
Trump 2024! (not an endorsement)
The Big Republican in town (son of a former governor who famously urged Nixon to nuke the hippies) already has an 8×4 Trump 2024 Save America Again sign prominently displayed outside a building he owns in the center of town. His Trump 2020 sign was repeatedly vandalized. It’s gonna be a long two years.
Hi fellow Canadian! The Donald would be 78 on Election Day in 2024. I agree that the Democrats are in big trouble (deserved) but I’m not sure that Trump will be the Republican nominee. There are younger monsters appearing on the horizon.
Meanwhile up over, waiting for Trudeau…
Mulroney is only 82, tanned (as much as can be expected) and rested.
I’m in the camp that predicts he won’t survive to run. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the last year of his term features a whole lot more Dr. Jill than Joe in the public eye – a contemporary version of Edith Wilson. Everyone will despise QuéMala beyond bearing by then and won’t let her assume the presidency through Article 25 or death if there’s any way to finesse it. I’d bet on an animatronic Biden being hauled out every now and again before a Harris regime is pronounced, as long as he doesn’t kick it in public on camera. (Without sticking a fork in ’em, who could tell the difference between a robot Biden and a meat Biden?)
Snark alert…..
‘They’ did it with Reagan after Hinkley killed him in 1981. That’s a Disney Animatronic version of Reagan for the next eight years. So, there is precedent. Plus, we could do much worse than Dr. Jill. Think Dick Cheney, or Nancy Reagan’s astrologer. /s
Emily Litella via séance…
‘What is all this about a lapdog, you think the whole world was in cahoots about a missing pooch, and that dog won’t Hunter!’
Noted for Warren omission…
And just who would our nobody of a President pick as a VP if Joe isn’t up to the job (I thought he strung words and paragraphs together decently @ the SOTU-even if he didn’t believe a thing he uttered) anymore. Traditionally you select somebody less worthy of you-kind of like what Biden did.
Warren isn’t from the younger generation, was a Republican long after she should not have been, and isn’t the by product of the usual candidate recruitment. She made her own star and filled a vacuum left by the state of the Massachusetts Democratic Party which I’ve always felt is the worst state party.
Warren seems young in comparison to the er, leading lights of the Donkey Show.
Then there is Gabbard, doing a Hybrid Democrat Republican politica thing. Some have raised the spectre of Gabbard being Veep to Trump 2.0. I think she is more ambitious than that. How about a Gabbard / Warren ticket? It checks all the boxes.
If Gabbard has any common sense, she won’t associate with Trump in any way. She will be nice about it, but she can see how Trump uses and befeces people.
Well Cuomo is running witch hunt ads, so he is rested and ready. And considering Biden’s record, having the most dead from COVID AND having killed a few grandmothers is not a disqualifying feature now.
Even though I was pleased that the third man in the room faced some problems even if it didn’t come with well deserved jail time, I did wonder how it happened. There is a part of me that cannot shake the thought that he got too popular in the first year of COVID for Hillary’s liking. It couldn’t just be that he finally pissed too many people off…
I’ve been seeing those Cuomo ads. They’re everywhere all of the sudden, really playing up the “victim” card (as in: “I was a victim of cancel culture”). There are noises about his running for governor. I can’t fathom him winning this soon after his departure, but then nothing really surprises me anymore. I have frankly been puzzled about what he’s up to. Does the Dem Machine think they have no one else who could take on Trump in 2024?
There are few people who can match Hillary’s level of ruthlessness. But Cuomo is up there. And like Hillary, he has powerful friends.
Perhaps they could run together. He could be Hillary’s VP. He is younger than she is.
I hadn’t thought about it, but Hillary-Cuomo is just as likely as Hillary-Harris.
(bold mine)
Given the policy response (or lack thereof) from our political class, is it wrong of me to watch from afar with amusement as they eat their own dog food on this new “endemic” phase of the ongoing pandemic?
This seems broadly similar, in a way, of the wealthy elite actually fighting their own wars. Good on them. See how you likes the COVID, and the long COVID, that you’ve sentenced everyone else to. Perhaps they won’t much enjoy it?
We shall see.
In either case, they’ll have access to the best health care money can buy. Can’t say as much for the “essential” workers we haven’t heard about in 18 months now.
Would it be wrong to hope that they all get the disease they work so hard to spread to all the rest of us?
Hmmm, so there is something to the son of a vice president being on the board of a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch that’s wanted for embezzling >$1B from his own bank, funding ultra-nationalist fascist paramilitary organizations and the current Ukrainian president? I remember the simpler old days when Joe told us he never discusses business with his son so it couldn’t possibly matter.
Book recommendation: “Born in Blackness” (Howard French), one of those books I wished was twice as long. It convincingly turns the history of western Europe and its empires upside down. French’s journalism chops make it quite readable without too much of the muck associated with popular history surveys.
My humble apologies if this has been posted here before but it is a talk from Michael Hudson that was presented right before Russia invaded Ukraine and it discusses “How and why the US cannot recover, is it a failed state?” Transcript included.
https://youtu.be/c9Ds1h_WMpQ
Where’s the transcript? Thanks
He might be referring to the three-dots at the bottom right which when clicked reveals an option called ‘Show transcript.’
Doesn’t open anything for me (in the US). I’m letting the video buffer some to see if that helps.
Accessing that link on a desktop browser (at least on Debian Linux Firefox), there is a “…” link instead of the “Report” link that appears on the same smartphone youtube video page. Clicking that “…” link produces a two-entry menu of “Report” and “Show transcript.”
I guess youtube, being a video medium, doesn’t want to encourage literacy among their addicted smartphone fans.
And the dots only appear if you are logged in to a YouTube account
If you read the transcript, how could you see the You Tube ads? I wonder if You Tube has, or will have, a condition for being permitted onto You Tube that says, ” making a transcript will be forbidden, and the discovery of a transcript of any You Tube talk or presentation will lead to immediate disbarment and erasure of all the violator’s content from You Tube, now and forever.”
At which point, the transcript-biased will have to decide whether to bite the bullet and watch the video.
Sports desk
I’m trying to figure out who got the biggest standing ovation, Alex Ovechkin for his 767th goal at a home game in Washington DC, moving him into third place in all-time NHL goal scorers behind Gretzky and Howe, or Volodymyr Zelensky for his address to the US congress just across the way a day later. I’m guessing Ovechkin because the audience was much larger.
One thing is certain: Ovie will be alive this time next year.
Speaking of that, why isn’t Ovechkin canceled? He’s a Russian playing inside the Beltway, for God’s sake. It seems . . . inconsistent.
Zelensky is an amateur. Back in 2015 Netanyahu ‘got 28 standing ovations in 47 minutes – there was hardly time for the audience to sit down between them.’
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31690235
Taking a knee for BLM was no problem for your Congress as they are so use doing so.
On farmers walks for hand strength, it’s a better exercise done one hand at a time. The same weight in both hands counter balances so despite being heavier is easier.
Oldest, cruelest newbie backpacking trick is to clandestinely place a 5 pound rock in the bottom of their pack before a trip. oh…so mean
I prefer a pair of lightweight hiking poles in each hand when taking a hike.
It transfers some of what would be a lower body workout in entirety without them to the upper body by merely the process of holding the poles, hands going up & down like a couple of pistons as the pole tips barely touch the ground on either end.
The link for “sitting at desk exercises” seems to be missing.
Thank you.
Apologies. Opened axios and accessed links
May I ask a simple question? Why is Ukraine so dead broke? I was looking up GDP per capita and GNI per capita on the world bank site and compared with Poland, Belarus, Moldova, Albania, Hungary, and Czech Republic. Ukraine squeezed in just above Albania. Here’s the chart:
GDP Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Moldova, Albania, Hungary, Czech Republic
and here is GNI (Gross National Income per capita) for most of the same players:
GNI per capita – Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, Belarus, Albania
Where is all the grain and mineral money going? And when you got dead broke people with gunz, trouble burns bright on the horizon…
Looted.
Think of the EU and NATO as private equity for failing states.
The Ukraine is so poor because it has been expertly looted.
Corruption.
See Libya for another example of a reasonably healthy and prosperous nation turned into a neoliberal wet dream.
Isn’t Zed’s name in the Panama Papers?
In the Swiss bank leak. See https://www.icij.org/investigations/swiss-leaks/explore-swiss-leaks-data/
You might want to watch Oliver Stone’s “Ukraine Revealed” to get the answer to where all the money went.
In the book Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands written in 2016 it said that 100 people owned 85% of the wealth. A complete corrupt oligarchy if ever there was one. All the grain and mineral and gas money is going to just a few people. For example Yulia Tymoshenko a billionaire known as the gas queen for her money made from gas trading before she become Prime Minister. As Acacia says above it got looted. Any political appointments only reinforced oligarchical clan wealth and power.
There seem to be a lot of anti-Maidan people in Ukraine hoping the current crisis ends with de-oligarchisation too.
As said in other responses, it has been looted well and proper.
EU also forced Ukraine to disentangle it’s economy from Russia, which basically destroyed what was left of it. Most of the Ukrainians in 1991 voted against dissolving Soviet Union, because they knew the country needed the union to survive. Most the Ukrainians wanted economic relations with EU and Russia in 2014, because they knew country needed both to survive. Most Ukrainians voted for Zelensky in 2019, because he promised to end the civil war, improve relations with Russia and fight oligarchy, because that’s what was needed for the country to survive.
I don’t think the Ukraine we know will survive.
Will it divide into a Russiakraine and a Galiciakraine?
Maybe all the Banderazovis will leave Russiakraine and move to Galiciakraine and turn Galiciakraine into the Banderazovistan of their dreams.
“Mini-Banderastan”
Here is a short video of Lex Fridman interviewing Gary Nolan about metal samples purportedly left behind by a UFO in Brazil in the 1970’s. They were recovered by fishermen who claimed they were dropped or extruded or broken off of a flying craft:
https://youtu.be/EBsUIj_UBBE
Apparently one sample’s isotopes were normal but the other samples were strikingly different from what is found naturally occurring in our solar system. They were definitely engineered. Nolan hastens to add that none of this approaches conclusive evidence and that it was possible to create such isotopic signatures for several tens of thousands of dollars in the ‘70’s but the question then becomes why? If it was a hoax, someone blew a lot of bank in the vanishingly small hope that someone would take the time to run them through some extremely sensitive equipment that might not have existed yet on the word of some guys casting nets in the middle of nowhere.
It sounds like Ye Aliens have similar problems to ours. The low bidders for the saucer contract got the job.
From Diana Johnstone, a good review of where we are now and how we got here wrt the “new cold war”.
For Washington, War Never Ends
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/16/diana-johnstone-for-washington-war-never-ends/
“Welcome back, my friends
to the war that never ends.
We’re so glad you could attend!
Come inside! Come inside!
Come inside, the show’s about to start
guaranteed to blow your head apart.”
Seeing how most all of the doohickeys and geegaws we buy are made in China, and they seem real serious about prevention of Covid spreading if the winter Olympics were any indication, how will they handle the latest outbreaks other than to shut everything down as they’ve done before?
I get the feeling we ain’t seen anything yet in terms of raptured consumer goods that aren’t on shelves, it’s akin to 3 of the four horsemen of the retail apocalypse, we’ve got sword, famine and plague represented
Oh, they are currently going whole hog, getting out ahead of the issue as best they can. They’re setting up field hospitals in Jilin and have at least partially shut down Shenzhen–including all “non-essential” businesses so pretty much all factories.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/16/pers-m16.html
You know how the common refrain from scientists in Greenland goes along the lines of ‘we didn’t expect the glacial melt to be so quick…’
It’s a similar assessment on the Colorado River, now at historic lows and a crummy snowpack this winter along it’s various tributaries.
https://apnews.com/article/lake-powell-drought-hydropower-colorado-river-619790b577eabc81cfa2d9b9b6ca2fe1
“We clearly weren’t sufficiently prepared for the need to move this quickly,”
This phrase literally sums up the human condition. I’m applying for refugee status in fabled Kadath. Fu(k these chimps.
That time we almost acted on climate change:
https://youtu.be/MondapIjAAM
NSFW!
I’m worried that ‘they’ might send we deplorables off to the Plateau of Leng. Now that’s a border that needs a strong wall.
Are we racing towards something like Wm. Hope Hodgeson’s “The Night Land?”
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Land
This might be of interest to some NC readers regarding the theater blast in Mariupol:
“More than a day after the airstrike, there were no reports of deaths.”
That’s in a story from that font of Russian propaganda — the AP.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-kyiv-europe-world-news-303fbd14ea7d3f131abc9b3d5739123f
The turn-around time for debunking atrocity stories is getting shorter. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store.
Yes – perhaps there will be a story tomorrow showing that 745 people suffocated in the basement at the theater. Perhaps. It does start to look suspiciously as if there may have been NO casualties, as certainly if there were, the news would be shouted from the rooftops. At the same time, there has been zero – I mean zero – coverage of the strike in Donetsk, allegedly a cluster bomb, that killed at least 20 people, despite a long graphic on the scene video by an American resident and clearly something that struck from a Unkrainian attack, as Donetsk is controlled by the Russian side…..There is a lot of BS right now. Remember that maternity hospital that was bombed, initially claiming 21 dead? Later there were reports the place had been abandoned….
It’s unbelievable but the Ukrainian govt is using graphic photos from the Donetsk cluster bomb on their own twitter accounts for their own purposes. As if it was that Russians that did it.
https://twitter.com/LindseySnell/status/1504547560547135502?cxt=HHwWnMC94Z2CneEpAAAA
“The NYT Now Admits the Biden Laptop — Falsely Called “Russian Disinformation” — is Authentic”
Putin isn’t even half as bad as Obama
@DoctorFishbones
If you were surprised by how Big Tech and Big Media conspired to suppress news about Hunter Biden’s laptop, let me tell you about the time the Democratic Party conspired to prevent Bernie from getting the Presidential nomination twice.’
https://twitter.com/DoctorFishbones/status/1504564448568225793
Erin go broke…
About the only coins i’m aware of with the month & year of minting, and one of the few made from cannons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_money
“They [family blogging] lie right to your face.”
Why the surprise, feigned, or otherwise? Deception and hypocrisy is quietly celebrated, by all successful confidence artists, as the very centerpiece and apex of human interpersonal relations and it is passively accepted as a ‘business as usual’ game that ‘clever’ people love to play. Every grifter that aspires to be a “winner” needs a steady stable of designated and reliable suckers that are willingly open to being defrauded, used, and abused. Multiple examples exist, from simple to complex, and are freely available, the following is merely one of many variations on the same theme:
“. . . . Delhi wants to keep its key trading partner on board despite Western attempts to isolate Moscow through sanctions.”
The efficacy of sanctions, beyond immiserating local populations, are questionable. That observation based upon the (long running) experiment itself is historically valid, even as, the implementation of sanctions (’as soft power’) are viewed as one means of facilitating ‘regime change’, that is, the US “sanctioned the Venezuelan oil industry in a bid to push him (Maduro) from power.” Because, “the US does not recognise him (Maduro) as president and has indicted him as a drug trafficker with a $15mn price on his head.”
Noting carefully that, sanctions and their pretexts are infinitely malleable depending upon, for example, ‘energy security’ and “geostrategic justification(s) for a much-needed policy shift”. And above and beyond everything else, as Orwell has observed, expediency demands that one has to always be able “. . . to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, . . . ” Doublethink and the self interest of the present moment (as opposed to the long term spillovers and unintended consequences of imprudent policy implementation) is always the order of the day for the managerial class (elected or otherwise) as it never goes out of fashion, apparently.
“US retreats on Venezuela oil talks after Maduro meeting criticism”
https://www.ft.com/content/503e557e-947c-4993-8016-69b2135f4432
I hope Hillary Clinton has read this since Gravity is her #1 enemy after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Ashish Jha is the pleasant voice of the corporate-state medical establishment that is devoted to increasing corporate profits not saving American lives. Yes, he is a connected professional who is a most excellent presenter of propaganda that mRNA vaccines are safe and effective and which blames the unvaccinated for almost a million American deaths; yet intentionally avoids implementing comprehensive public health mitigations that China and Taiwan are doing successfully because it costs money and resources.
The war propaganda generated in these initial stages of WWIII are horrific and universal. After the image of the young pregnant woman photographed being carried out of the bombed out Mariupol Maternity Hospital was shown on corporate media, it has been reported that the mother and child are dead, that she is an internet influencer in a neo-Nazi false flag operation, or that the baby was born alive in the city’s rubble. What is the truth is unknown. The Biden Administration is wagging the dog for the 2022 mid-terms and the western elite are once again united against Russia for a while longer.
After the FED yesterday announced a program of targeted interest rates to combat inflation, the Dow Jones climbed today. In the past interest rate increases were used to cool down wage inflation by decreasing the number of jobs. Increasing interest rates does nothing to fix just-in-time logistics that has failed due the pandemic or replace the embargoed Russian raw commodities that are the real causes of the current and looming global shortages plus it ignores profiteering that is a cause of the inflation. This appears to be a case that the insiders don’t believe the propaganda aimed at American consumers but instead understand that the FED will once again support too big to fail corporations with infusions of digital money. No corporate CEO will be jailed for profiteering or other crimes against the American people.
These are a rainbow of swans that current U.S. government is too corrupt and incompetent to address. The catastrophic fall of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union was assisted by the big-lie propaganda used by both regimes. When the inevitable collapse of the Western Empire occurs, it is starting to look like a big bang not a whimper.