Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war — both real fog and stage fog — in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked.
And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders.
–Yves
P.S. Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies:
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Handy Mnemonics The Public Domain Review
The power of shit aeon (RM)
Critical Revolutionaries by Terry Eagleton review – five critics who changed the way we read Guardian
The New York Times Book Review The Nation. For years, I read every word of every NYT book review. Now, I can’t tell you when the last time was I read any single review. Years ago, at least.
A Man in Transit The Nation. Review of a bio of Billy Wilder, one of my favorite directors. So many great films! And not just the best-known ones either – The Apartment, Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard. But also, One, Two, Three; Ace in the Hole; Kiss Me, Stupid. Across several genres. Shall I buy the book? Maybe, I’ll just watch one of his films instead. A comedy I think. I need a reason to laugh – and either Some Like it Hot with its many wonderful performances – Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe – or One, Two, Three, for Jimmy Cagney’s last film role (a comic one – not playing a gangster) – will leave me roaring. More anon.
ON THE GENUINE DELIGHTS OF HUGH LAURIE’S MURDER MYSTERY WHY DIDN’T THEY ASK EVANS? Crime Reads
Confessions of a DMV Vision Test Failure Oldster Magazine
French Bee Launches Los Angeles–Paris Flights From $321 Afar. A big bet on restoration of ‘normal’.
‘Rats of the sea’: backlash after Cornish fishers call for seal cull Guardian
Chinatown’s Dim Sum Parlors Are Facing an Unprecedented Labor Shortage Eater NY
These male spiders adopted an unusual strategy to survive sexual cannibalism Ars Technica
The Large Hadron Collider Rebooted and Immediately Broke a World Record Gizmodo
Investigation into acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology in children in England UK Health Security Agency
#COVID-19
Experts fear U.S. may default to annual Covid boosters without sufficient data Stat
CDC estimates 3 in 4 kids have had coronavirus infections AP
Kamala Harris, US vice-president, tests Covid positive: White House Hindustan Times
Foreign businesses in Chinese capital keep wary eye on Covid cases as fears of lockdown grow South China Morning Post
The responses!
The WH says the VP was asymptomatic but tested positive with both PCR and rapid antigen tests. This means she was asymptomatic but contagious. This is why we mask.
— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) April 26, 2022
New Not-So-Cold-War
Russia Warns of Nuclear War Risk as Ukraine Talks Go On Bloomberg
Live Updates: As Diplomacy Hopes Dim, U.S. Marshals Allies for Long-Term Military Aid to Ukraine NYT
***
Germany Expected to Announce Tank Deliveries to Ukraine Der Spiegel
Germany will deliver anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine Deutsche Welle
Shrinking U.S. Stinger missile supply faces re-stocking challenges Reuters
Raytheon chief warns of delays in replenishing Stinger missile stocks Politico
Russia Used a Hypersonic Missile. How Does It Work and What Is Its Threat? The Wire
***
Eurasian firms see Russia sanctions as big biz chance Asia Times
Russia to cut off gas supply to Poland The Hill
Ukraine war to cause biggest price shock in 50 years – World Bank BBC
***
Piecemeal’ Initative Says India as UN General Assembly Adopts Resolution on Veto Reform The Wire
***
Ukraine live news: Putin agrees to UN role in Mariupol evacuation Al Jazeera
In 2020, Ukraine’s government said its post-Soviet population fell ~30%, from 52 mln in 1991, to 37 mln in 2020.
Putin’s war driving out another 8 million. So between neoliberalism & war, Ukraine may suffer a 50% population collapse!https://t.co/2xQ6f6O5r9 pic.twitter.com/vgqgzsG9W5— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) April 26, 2022
Global military spending tops $2 trillion for the first time Responsible Statecraft
Our Famously Free Press
The “Gentlemen’s Agreement”: When TV News Won’t Identify Defense Lobbyists TK News. Matt Tabby
It was completely predictable — and indeed, many predicted — that the Only Real Victim™ of the doxing of @LibsofTikTok by @TaylorLorenz and @washingtonpost would be… Taylor Lorenz.
The outcome is always that this wealthy, powerful media figure who ruins lives is the victim. pic.twitter.com/UgnT6eFYSK
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 26, 2022
Class Warfare
THE 50-100 PAY GAPAmazon Employees’ Victory Is Inspiring Workers at Other Retailers. Could a Walmart Union Be Next? Capital & Main
MLK and Unions Counterpunch
The gig workers fighting back against the algorithms MIT Technology Review. Part three of a series on AI colonialism.
Union Square Subway Entrance a Smelly Mess Despite Ritzy Private Ownership The City
Do Billionaires Have Too Much Money? WSJ
***
Billionaires Like Elon Musk Don’t Know the First Thing About Democracy Jacobin
Billionaires Only Come To The Rescue In Movies And Comic Books Caitlin Johnstone
Old Blighty
Big Brother IS Watching You watch
Tech Giants Duped Into Giving Up Data Used to Sexually Extort Minors Bloomberg
Today’s Must-watch clip.
This was offensive, wrong & damaging as well?
“I read the Daily Mail, there was page after page of how evil I was, and I thought my God I wouldn’t want to live in the same street as this fella Corbyn, he’s obviously totally evil and bad news in every way. pic.twitter.com/qlzqJKjvSG— James Foster (@JamesEFoster) April 25, 2022
Biden Administration
Joe Biden agreed to pay Hunter’s legal bills tied to Chinese firm deal: email NY Post
Former eBay Executive Pleads Guilty to His Role in Cyberstalking Campaign Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office (BC)
The Supremes
House panel to explore impeachment, judicial ethics in wake of Ginni Thomas texts The Hill
Guernica
Guernica Was a Dress Rehearsal for the Nazi War That Followed Jacobin. yesterday was to 85th anniversary of the bombing of Guernica.
Supply Chain
Shanghai’s plan to reboot the supply chain will hit workers the hardest Ars Technica
How Scotland is leading the way in seaweed farming Guardian
Take Down Your Bird Feeders to Reduce Spread of Bird Flu: Experts WebMD (furzy)
Dorset ospreys produce egg for first time in 200 years Guardian
Climate Change
Broken Charging Stations Could Be Stalling the EV Movement Wired
Brazil
Brazil Court Deals Blow to Massive Amazon Gold Mine Project Common Dreams
Pakistan
A troubled start Dawn
India
Explained: How Indonesia’s palm oil export ban will impact your everyday life Firstpost
The surprising landscape of Indian Jewish food BBC
The Great Indian Poverty Debate, 2.0 Scroll
Your Silence in the Face of Enormous Societal Threat Is Deafening: Former Civil Servants to Modi The Wire
China?
Demographics push China-India-Russia triple entente Asia Times
China slashes African infrastructure loans but ICT funding holds firm South China Morning Post
BREAKING: Though I am now free, major human rights groups led by @Amnesty continue to demand an investigation into how a US human rights lawyer could be targeted and jailed by a private corporation.
This can never happen again. https://t.co/jFYxgdHO7x pic.twitter.com/G62ewGd5b9
— Steven Donziger (@SDonziger) April 25, 2022
Antidote du Jour (via)
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
171 comments
Comments are closed.
—CDC estimates 3 in 4 kids have had coronavirus infections AP—
3 in 4 is probably applicable to adults too. The bottleneck is the lack of access to lateral flow and PCR testing. IMO.
I (Pfizer 2x vax) had a minor vanilla cold last weekend, no fever— a 3 on a scale of 1 (healthy) to 10 (can’t leave bed).
Took a FlowFlex lateral flow test (free from USPS) for the heck of it as the USPS envelope that it came in hadn’t been touched since the winter. Positive.
Immediate took a 2nd test as I thought it had to be a false positive as the symptoms were so benign. Positive. Thought of getting a PCR test, but I need to show no symptoms to get an in-person PCR at the closest LabCorp.
Got a new shipment of lateral flow tests, free from the USPS website. Took one yesterday. Positive. Yup, I have/had covid.
Totally fine but for a very hoarse throat and chest coughs. Took Mucinex (glausafin?), 500% RDA zinc, 2000% RDA Vitamin C, 1000% RDA Vitamin D, and a regular multivitamin on top of that. Obviously have no idea if the vitamins helped…placebo effect rarely hurts
But for that free test, I would have never known
Can you report your results to the “appropriate public health agency,” to add a tiny data dot into the data mix we mopes ought to be able to rely in determining our “risk status”?
And prayers from here that you won’t experience any of the “benefits” of post-acute Covid…
When I got the first round i was provided a link to the V-Safe system through the CDC (which I reluctantly registered for).
V-Safe. The only Gov Covid response initiative I have been impressed with.
Multiple follow-ups on reactions; reminders of next shot; booster time; and several random follow-ups–including one two weeks ago regarding my general health and exposure.
Of course, I thought it a mandatory thing, but have since learned it was voluntary–given the amount of folks I’ve spoken with who are clueless as to what it is. My own kid (now 45 as of yesterday) included (you know how they are regarding parental mouth noises).
I would try that because as JT pointed out–Data needs to be collected at least.
I’ve been on vitamin D supplement since February 2020. Only heard advice to take it from one interview Fauci gave last year. (well, he said he took it) Many studies have show this it effective in reducing infection and hospitalization. From a recent roundup: https://health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlines/what-is-the-link-between-vitamin-d-levels-and-covid-19/2022/02
“Recent studies suggest that vitamin D deficiency is an independent risk for more severe disease regardless of age or weight. It is also possible that vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of getting infected with COVID-19, however that makes less immunological sense.”
Mackerel and sardines in cans, stock up when on offer…
Interesting,
I have also been taking Vitamin D supplement for the last two years, 50 microgram (2000 IU) per day. Just one tablet daily with my breakfast. I also have my Vitamin D levels tested every 6 months. My last result was 80 nmole/liter which is a healthy value. What really annoys me that in the UK very little attention has been given to the beneficial effects of Vitamin D on immunity to COVID-19 and immunity to viral infections in general.
A friend with cold symptoms tested positive by PCR, wife tested negative. This was in Burlington, VT. She called the local medical hotline to ask what to do, e.g., move out for a few weeks, and was told that if she was ever vaccinated, there is a 92% chance that she would’t become infected. (That is their story, and they are sticking to it.). She moved out, but Two days later symptoms began and she tested positive, so moved back home.
Be careful with the zinc. if you are taking high dose zinc supplements be sure to take copper as well. Too much zinc will deplete copper in your system. Also, go easier on D as there are side effects from overdoing D.
Good advice, also take vitamin D with vitamin K, help prevent unwanted low calcium levels.
Please stop this. It is almost impossible to overdo on Vit D.
20 mins of full body sun exposure near the equator = 20,000 IU. You’ll get a sunburn from that before a Vit D problem.
Same thing happened to me.
After the at-home showed positive for Covid, I did a drive-thru test with CVS, and that positive Covid test was reported to Illinois Dept of Public Health.
My home test was negative, but had classic COVID symptoms, sore throat, dry cough, fatigue, and most telling, loss of smell for about three days. So I would be among the millions of uncounted cases. Have gone through two bottles of cough syrup/expectorant which helps — I have heard some people say that the cough can last for a month. Triple vaxxed (last booster was in Dec), and I have been taking vitamin D for years, added K in the last year. Two and a half weeks later I’m still not feeling too good, some days better than others but have definitely improved from the first week. I’m 70. I’m hoping that this does not continue and become long COVID, as it won’t be a fun summer.
Anecdatum: I was tested positiv by PCR test this monday, but was as lucky as you, having, so far, only mild symptoms. But: the ct value was also tested, and mine was at 17, which means I am very infectious. So, suffering only a bit from the infection does not mean you are not acutely dangerous for other people.
J-L – if you need a laugh —
don’t forget Wilder’s The Fortune Cookie!
w/Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon
well-merited obit for the NYT book review,
which like the Times, “seems to have lost its sense of its audience’s intelligence” (Lorentzen)
I see I’m not the only avid reader who has been skipping it for years…
I’m very closely related to Jack Lemmon, as luck would have it.
If so, then stay away from American football games!
My nearest possibility would be a Fresno State Bulldogs contest, and here’s a funny ‘only in the CVBB’ factoid.
The other Bulldogs are always the home team…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresno_Bulldogs
Hey, that’s a basic part of ‘branding’ when running any enterprise, criminal or legal. (The ethical distinctions between the two “classes” I leave to serious students of philosophy.)
Establish a rapport with “the locals” to smooth the waters.
America, now holding the Title as “Most Heavily Incarcerated Population in the World,” naturally ‘encourages’ local initiative in the “informal business” scene. ‘Doing time’ could now be considered as a necessity for admittance to the ‘street business’ sphere.
Shades of Ancient times when local politicos made alliances with local gangs and ‘Rules Enforcement Organizations’ to further their ambitions.
So, what is the mascot of the ‘Defensibles?’ The lowly Marmot? The majestic bruin has alreadty been appropriated by the State of California. You’re “mountain folk,” what about the Sasquatch?
Stay safe!
i always thought he was a brilliant dramatic actor, but his comedic performances were what the crowds wanted.
Huh. I just said out loud to my partner the other day: Even when the Sunday Times got really bad, I usually found something worth reading in the Book Review, but not anymore.
So, it’s not just me then. It used to be a must-read and now it’s a never ever.
The Book Review used to be the first thing I read. I haven’t read an NYT book review in at least five years.
NYT Book Review was one reason I switched to the NY Review of Books and I find less and less of interest in that.
Amen to that. The NYRB has become mainstream, conservative boring. Not the same publication as a generation ago when it was new.
In general, I agree, but I do owe my discovery of Peter Brown to the NYRB. He is a wonderful descriptive writer on the life and art of Early Christianity and Late Antiquity, able to convey a sense of how the world appeared to those who lived in those times.
NYRB as a publisher puts out some really worthy books too
I seem to have missed The Fortune Cookie. Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll try to watch it soon – perhaps this evening or sometime tomorrow. What a pleasure to look forward to: seeing for the first time a Wilder film I didn’t know existed. And with JL and WM to boot. Heaven!
you will love it
Of course those old joint Rock Hudson and Doris Day films were worth watching too.
Pillow Talk
saw it again just a few months back, that song is an earbug!
charming flick tho
When Rosemarie passed on, her daughter sold much of her stuff on social media. I got four very nice wine glasses and a certificate of authenticity. Now when I serve wine, I can tell guests that they’re drinking from a glass that may have been used by Doris Day or one of Rosemarie’s many other celebrity friends.
Growing up on those movies (and the Dick Van Dyke Show) really had an impact on me. I still think things will turn out OK, and that male-female relationships will be comically fraught with silly misunderstandings.
Stalag 17 is one of the few WW2 films Wilder directed, and so unlike any other WW2 flick, it’s Hogans Heroes with really smart Nazis. William Holden was at the top of his game.
One, Two, Three is a Wilder film that seems to be on speed, as the highjinx never lets up, a funny height of the Cold War effort.
Another really good lesser-known Wilder film is A Foreign Affair, from 1948 – set in a ruined Berlin and featuring Marlene Dietrich and Jean Arthur, playing polar opposites, and John Lund. Got some good laughs from this one, can’t get enough of those these days!
“Russia to cut off gas supply to Poland”
I think that the realization that Russia’s demand to be paid in Rubles – leading to the creation of the PetroRuble – is final is freaking some countries out. Hungary and Austria have said that they will do so but it looks like Poland and Bulgaria balked. It may be that they volunteered to be the voluntary bunnies to see if they could force Russia to back down but Russia isn’t having a bar of it. Nor should they. Lousy deadbeat countries trying to get stuff for free. And they have essentially gotten gas from Russia for the month of April for free. But wait, there’s more.
When the Ukraine tried to balk at paying Russia for their gas or pretended that they had signed a contract to get it at a much cheaper rate, the Russian if I recall gave them the chop. So countries bordering the Ukraine piped gas to the Ukraine which they had gotten from, you guessed it, Russia even though they were not allowed to do that in the contracts that they had signed. Won’t work this time as Russia has already announced that any country that pipes gas to Poland and Bulgaria will have their allotment of gas to their countries reduced by the same amount. So for Poland and Bulgaria, the word is play stupid games, get stupid prizes.
The ISW war report shows a signifigant part of moldova occupied but no matching advances in south ukraine for two weeks if I recall. Odd.
ethnic Russians have been in Moldova since the Cold War and defacto independent as Transnistia since 1992. There are also ethnic Turkics there who practice oEastern Orthodox.
And Europe’s largest ammo dump with old Soviet stuff is 1km from the UA border
I assume (not checking the map) they consider Transnistria as occupied by Russians.
Interestingly enough, there’s been now 3 “terror” attacks and 1 UAV incidence in Transnistria in the last 24 hours. Many people are leaving the area. Tansnistrians and Russians blame Ukrainians, saying Ukrainians are after the 20,000 tons of Soviet era ammunition and weapons stored a bit over a mile away from Ukraine.
Moldova is blaming Transnistrians, although they can’t say why Transnistrians would be shooting at their own security forces and infrastructure.
Transnistria would provide a perfect base for Russian advance to Odessa, obviously. The problem here is that there are “only” 1,500 Russians military there, tasked with guarding the previously mentioned weapons storage. Very pro-Russian Transnistria has less than 5,000 strong army, which are needed to keep Moldova away.
Unfortunately for Moldova, if they decide to attack Transnistria it turns out that they are not in NATO so they may find that their military may get “degraded.” This whole thing sounds like a diversion to try to get Russia from not attacking Ukraine’s army in the east trapped in that cauldron. I would be curious to learn if this whole thing was the Ukraine’s idea or whether it was thought up in DC or London. But what could possibly go wrong having this war spread to surrounding countries? It worked in Vietnam, didn’t it?
‘ova’ on the end of Slavic words usually means feminine, so do men go by the name of ‘Mold’ there?
I asked my wife if she could name one city in Moldova if her life depended on it, she feigned depth but could come up with bupkis.
I’m told Bupkis has some lovely churches and museums
Is it close to butkis?
The legend is saying that Bogdan (originating from North Western Romanian area of Maramures), the first ruler of what became the principality of Moldova (which included present day republic of Moldova as well as the Romanian province of Moldova) was on a buffalo hunt with is favorite dog, Molda. Molda got lost and then found by a creek (don’t remember dead or alive) by the creek was named Moldova (with diminutive Moldovitza), and then the country was named Moldova. The hunted buffalo was put on the emblem of the newly minted country (was formed as a reaction to the Hungarian expansion in Transylvania, same as Wallachia; Romanians got their sh1t together when they saw their brethren across the Carpathians becoming non-entities. It took 600 years to get a unified polity of Romanians, and it is still not finished, with Rep of Moldova being apart).
Is transnistria any great prize or is it like Ukraine for Russians? Its phycological. Seems like a diversion for both sides given the current stalemate.
Given Russias significant logistics advantage, I don’t understand why they haven’t blitzed the dombass yet to claim there strategic goals. I would have thought they wanted to get the boundary reset by early May, long before Ukraine sorts out their logistics
Transnistria is breakaway state from Moldova – during the dissolution of Soviet Union there a lot people in Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic that were afraid Moldova would be annexed by Romania and who did not want to become Romanians. A short was ensued.
Russian interest has been mainly as peacekeepers guarding the huge ammo dump from Soviet times (a lot of weapons and ammunition was hauled there when the Red Army withdrew from Warsaw Pact nations).
As for Donbass, the best Ukrainian troops have dug in for 8 years there. The Line of Contact consists of multiple rows of trenches, bunkers and minefields. The good old WW1 way of war. Until now, it’s been mostly LNR and DNR troops grinding their way into the fortifications with serious lack of heavy weapons, but now in the “phase 2” the Russian artillery and air force have joined in.
Meanwhile the Russians in the North are closing in on Slavyansk, and are about to cut off the northernmost Ukrainian positions in Severodonetsk- Lysitsanks area.
The claim is that they are false flag operations. Given the Russian (and presumably everyone else in the area) love for false flag operations, that acquisition would be a given. I think it would be fair to leave open the possibility of a double false flag operation.
It is reported that : Rustam Minnekayev, the deputy commander of Russia’s central military district, said gaining control over southern Ukraine would help Russia link up with Transnistria, which lies just across the border from the Black Sea port of Odesa.
If he did say this, someone should tell him to keep his mouth shut.
“If you want to lose a fight, talk about it first.” Richard K. Morgan. author. Altered Carbon
This broke late last week – Minnekaev made extended comments reported by both TASS and Kommersant, and then confirmed by Peskov (Putin’s press secretary), so this should be treated as an official policy statement. The precis of the comments is that the goal of Phase 2 offensives is to take the entirety of Ukraine’s south, from the Donbass to Transnistria, out of Ukraine and “integrate” it into “Russia’s space”, either via direct annexation or some sort of an independence-referendum scheme.
From a political standpoint, these comments were necessary to make for the following reasons:
– Clarify to the Russian population what exactly the stakes are for the next round of offensives. This is important from the standpoint of effectively managing public opinion, especially as the war seems to be turning into something of a long-term project. It also signals to the Russian economic elite and state-owned corp managers (oligarchs in all but name) what possible economic prizes are there to be had, which is also not unimportant as it is these groups that are the core support for Putin’s government.
– Clarify to Ukraine and the West that at this point Russia’s goal is now a complete dismantlement and at least a partial annexation of the country, which puts paid to any talk of a negotiated settlement. A side effect is that Ukraine is now forced to hold some troops back to defend the Odessa region instead of throwing everything it has into the Donbass battles.
– Clarify to the population in Ukraine’s southern regions that Russian troops are coming to stay, and will not withdraw to expose them to retribution as had happened around Kiev.
– Clarify to Moldova that it had better behave itself viz. Transnistria, because soon enough the Russian army will reach the area. This is what’s causing the intensification of activity around Transnistria now, as Moldova, the West and Ukraine have a limited amount of time to try and do anything.
Now, of course, from a purely military perspective one always wants to play one’s cards close to one’s vest. War, however, is an extension of both politics and economics, and oftentimes the “right” military decision is not the correct path to take once you consider all the factors.
—–
Specifically viz. Transnistria – there is always the possibility of the conflict widening, e.g. via a Moldovan attack, NATO intervention (through Moldova, reportedly Poland has been making noises in this regard), or a Ukrainian offensive. To date, however, a) Moldova has behaved relatively rationally; b) the US has managed to restrain any proposals that place NATO troops directly into the conflict zone; and c) Ukraine has not demonstrated the ability to mount large-scale offensive operations, partly due to Russian control of its airspace, partly due to logistical issues, and partly as so many units are already engaged.
Might any of this change tomorrow? Maybe. But it seems at least a bit unlikely, and in any case, I would expect the Russian General Staff to have some sort of a contingency plan if they quickly need to reinforce or relieve their Transnistria peacekeepers, and here again, controlling the airspace helps a metric megaton.
Or it could be a shake up to Ukrainians that if they don’t negotiate in seriousness and agree to a settlement soon, the price will be getting higher…
Occupied by which side would be an appropriate question.
Transnitria has had 1500 Russian troops guarding an old giant ammo dump for a long time. It’s just across the border from the Ukraine.
America and NATO have been moving troops and supplies into Romania for months now. The American Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment moved into Romania two months ago. Over 1000 troopers with equipment. There are unconfirmed reports of Romanian troops entering Moldova ‘out of uniform’ so as to supply plausible deniability.
Some academics have begun floating the idea of the “reunification” of Romania and Moldova. That would bring the border of NATO right up to the Ukraine on the entirety of the Ukraine’s western borders. A fairly well thought out consideration of the idea.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVHyO10y1v8
If someone bombs that ammo dump, where there is probably a lot of old Soviet era stuff, old but still usable I’ll assume, then the “organic” nature of the destruction would be bolstered.
As is a favourite expression in times of doubt and ignorance; this is a ‘fluid’ situation.
Stay safe.
Would you believe that British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey came out and said that it would really be a good idea if the Ukraine used UK-supplied weapons to attack targets inside Russia itself? I guess that he thinks that as there will be no repercussions to himself personally, then there will be no repercussions at all-
https://www.rt.com/russia/554557-uk-ukraine-strike-warning/
And now the Germans are going to send anti-aircraft self peopelled guns to the Ukraine. The NATO is ‘dipping it’s toes’ into this conflict more and more. The question now is when, not if, the Russian Alligator will nip off a NATO toe or two.
At this stage of the conflict, the SPAA is not going to be very useful, as they are unlikely to be supported by integrated air defences. So either they’ll be picked off from beyond gun/Stinger range, or they’ll ambush some low-flying helo and then have the wrath of all the Slavic pagan gods brought down on them. I am not suggesting that one cannot use these things at all, and maybe they’ll even score a few high-profile victories, but man-portable AA seems a lot more useful at this point as it can at least scatter and hide after an ambush.
Also, too, the cannons on the Gepards are Swiss Oerlikons, and Politico last night mentioned that the Swiss have not yet consented to selling Ukraine ammunition for said. Hilarity is simply bound to ensue here…
Those German AA guns are an empty gesture. They’re outdated and complicated, would take a year to train someone on, and Switzerland has said they’ll refuse to supply ammo for it, so it means literally nothing beyond PR.
So, could these units be “Bear Bait?” Send some over with German training crews and hope for the Russians to “bite?”
When the Ukrainian public finally wakes up to how badly they have been “played” by NATO and the West, what will be Zelinsky’s fate? If he really is ensconsed in Poland at present, it could be as much to protect himself from the Ukrainian public as the Russians.
The Evil Empire apparently has convened a meeting of War Leaders of 40 countries, “NATO plus?” https://empr.media/politics/a-historic-meeting-of-more-than-40-countries-on-military-aid-for-ukraine-has-started-at-the-ramstein-air-base/
The central topic being to advance the Brrzezinski Plan another notch. https://www.voltairenet.org/article30038.html
Some days, one has to feel mortally ashamed to have been born in the USA…
I still find it hard to believe all the military gear that Oz is shipping to the Ukrainians like they our best mates or something. Not only ‘Bushmasters’ but it has just been announced that we are shipping them half a dozen artillery pieces. Seriously, WTF?
One assumes it’s not the Ukrainian State Department doing the procurement of all that stuff that will apparently end up rotting on railway platforms in Moldova or Poland, now that Russia is de-electrifying Ukrainian railroads.
All that equipment. Do we have any idea who all the end users might be?
Am I seeing things or does this frantic activity on the part of US/NATO really look like a desperate attempt to prop up a failing enterprise?
I’m fascinated by the European position that they’re somehow entitled to gas from Russia and all of this is so unfair. Seems like they’re all terribly lucky that Putin is either a Class A humanist or a real stickler for law and contracts. I’m not sure there’s another nation/leader in the world that would have kept the gas flowing in this context. Granted, Russia’s made a lot of money this year from selling oil and gas to the nations that sanctioned it.
Yes, it was called ‘blackmail’ by a US news group, who barely reported the theft of Russia’s billions. The dial is up to 11, and has been crazy glued there.
This article in the WaPo,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/27/russia-gas-poland-bulgaria-eu-reactions/
Is notable in that for the first time in my memory of their Ukraine coverage, the comments are turning in numbers toward Russia and a kind of ‘what did you expect?’ attitude regarding sanctions.
I wish I hadn’t gone there. Still too many idiots trying to make Putin an evil overlord and ignoring the US’s nefarious response and lies.
The bots or AI may have caught up, but I will have to wait for sanity to prevail slightly more to do that again.
It’s even more fascinating. For years it was claimed EU is dependent on Putin’s gas and he could use it any day to blackmail governments, do color revolutions or whatever, by threatening to cut it. And now, when there is war and they are trying to sanction Russia to death, suddenly everyone is acting like he has no other option than continue to supply Europe at the terms EU dictates and as long as EU needs.
I wonder if this is an artifact of how information is presented to the masses. In the back rooms, they know full well of Putin’s ability to yank the plug of course. They would have done it themselves were the situation reversed but they feel free to present the issue to us as if it comes as a total shock. It’s a profound lack of respect for our intelligence and perception.
Take the Twitter thing. One CNN host goes to great lengths to explain how Twitter can now, of a sudden, be weaponized to influence politics. As if it wasn’t already. As if CNN doesn’t do the same thing. As if this is somehow new. The memes mocking and reviling these professional liars are off the charts. People are aware of the disdain they are held in.
Also, these media outlets do have their true believers who will happily swallow bifurcated thinking of the rankest sort. So there is precedent. But I think they just think they can say whatever they want. It’s on both “sides”, I watched Ben Shapiro explain how although he is the most free-market-y guy around he was happy to see DeSantis drop an anvil on Disney. The bottom line: elites are seriously detached from the base. Good times.
Putin’s order gives state owned Gasprombank the power to discriminate. It directs unfriendly countries to open special accounts in the bank to pay for gas in euros which the bank converts to rubles to pay Gazprom. The bank has discretion to determine each country’s euro conversion rate and there is no mechanism to challenge abused discretion, ie, a determination that Poland’s and Bulgaria’s euros are valued at half of Germany’s.
I believe it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Gazprombank sells the euros in Moscow Exchange for rubles and uses those rubles to pay Gazprom. At least in principle it’s the markets deciding the value of the euros at any particular time.
I’m not qualified to say if anyone can keep their thumb on the scale in Moscow Exchange or not, but it would make sense that there’s less demand for euros at this situation (when spending them has been made difficult) and that even actors needing them and having a way to use them would try to buy them as cheaply as possible.
I heard several times that the conversion to rubles would be done on a Russian exchange, implying a public auction. Is that not right?
Re: Dorset ospreys produce egg for first time in 200 years
Birds are focus of conservation efforts after becoming extinct due to habitat loss and shooting
I used to give mainstream media the benefit of the doubt and believe headlines like ^ this were an honest mistake because, you know, liberal arts majors didn’t understand science or something.
Umm… Jurassic Park is fiction? Now I realize the controversy created gets clicks and views. It’s an intentional ploy that works along the same lines as when Trump says some really stupid thing and everyone just has to lookit to see wtf? is the explanation for this nonsense.
So I clicked on it (of course) and behold! they report “Today, these ospreys are still regularly shot for sport in southern Europe.”
Here’s the Osprey Cam so you can wait to see these extinct critters do the birds & the bees thing:
https://youtu.be/y4bN1JOlapQ
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
~ Alice
I think there is good old semi-illiteracy at work as well. I saw a CNN video a few weeks back whose titled informed me that a Ukie military truck was “hiding” in the woods. Not hidden, hiding. There was also the AP report from months back that noted that a “closing ceremony” had marked the end of the Olympics. It’s crapification turtles all the way down…
It was a “smart” truck. Elon sent them to the Ukies.
He should send them to the Rus if he wants to get them good, perhaps they will catch on fire or drive into an ammo dump at full tilt.
Showed this to my 8-year-old daughter. Her response to the headline was “That’s stupid, dad. Birds don’t live for 200 years.” She also thinks the Ospreys on the Cam look like Muppets.
Sasquatch is big business these days…
Goooooood Moooooooorning Fiatnam!
We were on a LRP in the Hao Mutz Indet highlands, nearly out of MRE’s & ammo but long on batteries for our PS5’s, priorities man.
We had gotten to know the old VC (venture capitalists) and their tactics in a F.I.R.E.fight-they counted on endless amounts of financial ammo, just keep it coming boys! was their rallying call on a QWERTY, but the new VC (Vladimir & Co.) was nothing like that, no invisible hand-fisted mouse clique calling the shots there.
We then realized how complacent the Unit had become since Bretton Woods, sure it’s still the world reserve currency for now, and it’s been trying to get in shape but has put on a lot of weight of the world on it’s shoulders.
“‘Piecemeal’ Initative Says India as UN General Assembly Adopts Resolution on Veto Reform”
‘India said though it supports any genuine initiative to achieve meaningful and comprehensive reform, the resolution “demands much more serious, in-depth, and inclusive deliberation”.’
This is a case of India not being stupid and being suckered into something where they will be left out on a limb. Does the UN Security Council need to be reformed? Probably. But what the west wants is to boot both China and Russia off and have candidates on it that will be more, uhhh. flexible with what they want. Probably the US/EU is promising India one of those seats but unless Russia and China agrees, no reform can happen without their agreeing. I wonder what would happen if Russia suggested that India be added to the Security Council as a new member? Does the permanent membership have to be only five members?
Gonzalo Lira has a new twitter account. Old account was frozen.
https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968
A Man in Transit The Nation. Review of a bio of Billy Wilder
Ace in the Hole
A fictional movie, or a documentary?
Why is vaxxed and boosted Covid-positive Kamala Harris taking Pfizer’s Paxlovid?
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/04/27/why-is-vaxxed-and-boosted-covid-positive-kamala-harris-taking-pfizers-paxlovid-1230802/
As a public service announcement, I have found proof positive that when you sit in a restaurant for a meal, that you are completely safe from this virus and can’t catch it-
https://twitter.com/uterfan/status/1519028687051571202
WTH?!!?
Aerosols are like smoke fumes. I can sit down all I want if there is a fire raging and I’m still going to inhale fumes.
The health care establishment can’t explain that basic concept to those who are going to latch on to that pictorial propaganda you found. But from the lack of masking in hospitals to the other lack of precaustions, a lot of them don’t understand it themselves.
They didn’t even make a stab at any kind of ventilation precautions that actually could make it safer.
Many of our vaxxed and boosted betters have been treated to Paxlovid, yet the question of why is never addressed.
Far be it from them to touch that grubby horse deworming stuff! That’s for the proles!
Joe Biden agreed to pay Hunter’s legal bills tied to Chinese firm deal: email NY Post
Wasn’t it just five years ago that poor, dedicated government-employee his entire life, Joe Biden couldn’t afford Beau’s chemotherapy treatments and his wonderfulness, Barack Obama, had to pick up the slack? Today he’s got a seaside mansion in Rehoboth and is picking up his other kid’s lawyer’s fees. It must be nice to be “The Big Guy”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/12/joe-biden-barack-obama-money-house-beau-family
10% for The Big Guy adds up over time.
Billionaires Only Come To The Rescue In Movies And Comic Books Caitlin Johnstone
Old Blighty
Many critics on the left are responding to the news by ringing alarm bells about a powerful oligarch controlling an influential social media platform, as though Twitter was anything besides oligarch-controlled before today and as though billionaires buying up media is some shocking new development. Some anti-imperialists have expressed tentative hope that this new development may lead to some rollback of the jarring escalations in censorship we’ve been seeing on the platform in defense of US empire narratives, due to the plutocrat’s comments on the importance of free speech.
….
You don’t get to be a billionaire, much less a billionaire with massively influential media ownership, unless you collaborate with existing power structures. Musk has certainly been collaborating with the oligarchic empire very nicely up until this point, and it’s a safe bet that his purchase would not be happening if the empire felt its narrative control machine was in any way threatened by it.
Believing Elon Musk is going to save Twitter is as naive as believing Joe Biden was going to save America. Arguing over which oligarchs should control the media is as silly and undignified as arguing over which oligarch-owned politicians should run the government.
Julius Ceasar apparently was such an oligarch cum tyrant: land redistribution to veterans to the detriment of the senatorial class, capping the interest rates to loans issued to client states and provinces. Excellent reasons for the old boys coup and assassination. And then they got Octavian, which was way less tolerant than Ceasar with his patrician class..
‘The power of shit’
Fascinating… I ordered her book. Still not willing to cross that line though. We mulch all our fall leaves and any of the neighbor’s that blow in on the wind and volunteer. Set out a weekly bucket of food scraps to become compost, for an extra $23 a month. Compost dog crap in a receptacle buried in the backyard, to the delight of the nearby hybrid maple. Use compost tea to fertilize the summer garden.
But I draw a line at human poo, now and thirty years ago, when they began introducing the option of added municipal sludge with compost purchased (by the yard) at the plant nurseries. That was in Washington state then; in Colorado I’ve never seen it on the menu.
‘Take down your birdfeeders to reduce spread of bird flu’
Harrumph! Having a birdfeeder at all in the yard should be as much about the bird’s safety as the human’s enjoyment to having them around. We have four feeders in summer (plus one suet in winter). One two perch, two four perch, one six perch, and the feeders are spread out to prevent squabbling. They have quick release bottoms for easy and frequent cleaning. The bird bath (most often used by male robins as an actual bath) is dumped, cleaned and refilled every other day. These habits are standard; birds are susceptible to several viruses that can be introduced at feeders.
We bird lovers have created dependencies among the local bird populations with our gifts of free seed. I’m not dropping my end of the bargain during nesting season! Will change the schedule to cleaning the bath every day though. The boys like to crap in the bath before flying up in to the trees to groom their feathers.
Its a fascinating article, although not without its errors. If you are interested in the topic, this is a great paper on the history of the use of nightsoils in Japan. The reason ‘night soil’ was used in southern China and Japan and less so in Europe wasn’t a cultural thing, it was due simply due to animals being used less in the hotter climes. In northern climes more animals were used for meat and milk and labour, so there was rarely a shortage of good fertilizer. In many traditional areas in the northern hemisphere, human waste was usually just mixed in with animal waste. Also, it was usually not a good idea to use human waste with root or leavy vegetables (there’s a reason salads are not a traditional food in much of Asia). North America was always a bit of an outlier in that there was so much land available there was no real tradition of looking after the soil.
In the UK and parts of Europe, from the 19th Century onwards it was actually common to spread human sludge on land, not as fertilizer, but just to get rid of it. Large areas of agricultural land near the big inland cities are still ‘sewage sick’ from too much application (so much piled on that it never properly broke down into humus). The farmers were paid for ‘using’ the sludge and often made more money from this than cultivation. More recently, baked sewage cake (literally, its air dried), is often mixed in with low grade waste for creating landscaped areas and parklands.
Sludge is still quite widely used on farmland, but generally now its stabilized with lime for application. Modern sewage can be problematic because of all the other stuff flushed down toilets. I’ve seen photos from areas around London with farmland strewn with condoms and sanitary towels from carelessly spread sewage solids. Not very nice at all, to put mildly. And thats before we get to things like microplastics and organochlorines and so on.
A lot is climate dependent of course. In Himalayan regions, especially in Ladakh in northern India, long drop toilets are on the upper floor of houses – you literally poo through a hole in the floor to the ground floor.. The air is so dry and cold at altitude its pretty much freeze-dried by the time it hits the ground. It is very sterile and an excellent fertilizer for gardens. In those regions, animal poo is usually more useful for fuel. They chuck cow pats at the wall for storage and drying – they are just popped off during the winter for the cooking and heating stove. Its so sterile that nobody there bothers with cleaning their hands, they just break it up for fuel while cooking. I’ve seen tourists go pale at the sight of this, but there are very few human parasite issues above 3,000 metres.
…I believe lime is added to sewage sludge to knock down the odor, as well as condition the soil.
It’s avian flu. Unless the birds are socially distancing, your feeder could still be a transmission zone.
I’ve stopped filling ours because I don’t want to increase the risk of infecting our chickens. Generally speaking, wild foods should be increasingly abundant as spring progresses and there is less need to supplement the birds.
https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/bird-flu-2022-should-you-take-down-your-bird-feeders.html
https://larimer.extension.colostate.edu/avian-influenza
Withdrew feeders and cleaned them. They’ll remain inside until there’s an ‘all clear’.
I feel the same sense of futility as with any social distancing scenario; this is a neighborhood full of bird and squirrel feeders. At least mine are clean and the food is from Wild Birds Unlimited… ‘the good stuff’. No chickens at this end of town though.
take with salt….read a farmer’s blog, they lost their organic certification because their human poop fertilizer (something like milorganite) has PFAS in it and it showed up in their crops
This is how people get cholera. Cholera is aka “diarrhea until you die.” This is why we keep the fertilizer and the irrigation sources separate from the human piss and shit receptacles. This is why allowing people who work in fields picking cabbage or whatever breaks to go to a bathroom that isn’t the field is a standard practice in agriculture.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cholera
It isn’t rocket surgery…
In the best diary of any of the 49’ers, William Swain falls in with a group of 65 fellow 49’ers and 5 of them die of Cholera by the time they are half-way to Cali, due to bad sanitary habits.
Read all about it…
The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience, by JS Holliday
Gold rush indeed!
A million people got cholera in Yemen secondary to the war on poor people perpetrated recently by the Saudis/’Mericans:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7411249/
The bottom line is send the stuff to the waste treatment plant so they can zap it with UV light to kill the critters.
Same house as when I drew a line on sludge in my garden compost…. it was an afternoon in July, we were living out in a farmhouse we’d remodeled and moved into, and I was in a hurry to get to town. So I took a ‘shortcut’ just before Rainier up past a lake on a windy two-lane road, when I came up behind a heavily-laden tanker truck moving slowly. I had the windows down.
At first I was miffed because there were very few places to pass another vehicle on that road, so I nuzzled up close, peeking up the left side watching for one of those opportunities, and that’s when the gawd-awful stench flew in the windows like the proverbial ‘buzzard on a shitwagon and up my nostrils. I closed the windows and slowed down, then slowed down some more, and we’d only been doing 20 when I made the mistake of cuddling up to the tanker’s bumper. When I started gagging and feeling faint, I had to pull over. There was just no escaping the stink. The guys in the cab must have been killing themselves laughing while they watched in their rearview and side mirrors. Those jobs don’t pay well, but there are perks…
Ten minutes later I was back on the road and a few miles up I saw the truck had taken a road onto a ranch that took up most of that little valley. The owner raised hay on that land for his own cattle and he cut at least two times a year. The liquid manure was to feed the grass for the second cutting. He must have had some awful understanding neighbors because outdoor bbq’s would have been right out for days.
There was a creek that ran through that property and dumped into the lake, so whatever was in the fertilizer leeched into the water table (which was high in that area) eventually. The idea of similar use for human poo? Nope nope nope nope nope.
‘The power of shit’
On the micro level our household composts: vegetable matter from garden and groceries ends up in the garden,
Our shit doesn’t, and this is not wrong in the macro view.
The “metabolic rift” that Lina Zeldovich writes about in her essay (and presumably the book, which I have not read) is real, and is a rift that must indeed be closed. Looking at it more broadly than the essay does is worth the while.
The people-problem is that we do not poop near where we grow our food. A quick look at our pantry shows that our household has recently shipped and trucked carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium atoms from California, Florida, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, South Africa, Morocco and Israel to our home in the form of fruit, vegetables, canned goods, fish and meat, Closing those rifts by exporting our shit from city to these countrysides around the world is impractical.
Now for some atoms the rift does close relatively quickly. Plants pull carbon dioxide out of the air; we replenish it as we breathe out. The water cycle returns hydrogen. These can immediately be used by plants. Nitrogen is released as proteins degrade and also returns, but is not immediately usable. It must become part of a water soluble molecule – in nature through lightning or bacterial nitrogen fixing, in most agriculture today as artificial fertilizers.
Phosphorous and potassium, on the other hand, finally make their way down to the sea via toilet and river.
“Thanks to the fertiliser from their own bottoms, the Japanese converted their unfriendly rocky lands into flourishing fields,” says the essay. There’s a bit more to it than that, though. A diet high in fish ensures that nitrogen get back to fields in an available form, kelp concentrates potassium and when eaten and pooped closes the rift, fish bones close the rift on phosphorous. Here humans close the rift, moving the atoms from sea back to field.
The geologic-problem is that in the end every soluble atom goes down to the sea – and that rift is only closed over geologic time – hundreds of millions of years. Two processes interact: mountain weathering takes phosphorous and potassium downriver where they find homes in soils for some time before they finally reach the sea; in shallow seas phosphorous and and potassium compounds are concentrated in evaporative environments, turn to rock, and eventually rise to mountains again.
For now we are are not closing the rift sustainably, but speeding the geological processes by mining phosphorous and potassium compounds and shipping them, suitably processed, to our fields. Think of this as super-weathering that is not restricted to mountains
The greatest amount of phosphorous is mined in the US, although Morocco is thought to have the greatest reserves. Canada has the world’s largest potassium deposits, followed by a belt from Germany to Belarus and Russia.
These deposits will last for somewhere between 50 and 500 years at present rates of depletion. Beyond that we will have to more directly extract them from the sea and just as we ship food from fields to stomach to shit to sea, we will have ship these extracted atoms from sea to field – at least for as long as we grow our food in fields….
“Experts fear U.S. may default to annual Covid boosters without sufficient data”
Our County Executive in my very Blue DC suburb recently tweeted what amounted to a threat: if the booster numbers don’t go up we may need mandates, restrictions, or virtual learning.
“For years, I read every word of every NYT book review. Now, I can’t tell you when the last time was I read any single review. Years ago, at least.”
OMG, yes. I used to read more book reviews than books. When did Updike die?
I used to subscribe to the London Review of Books but it gradually got swallowed by the Putin is evil bug so I cancelled my subscription. Sad
I still subscribe to the LRB, it isn’t half bad, really. Stellar compared with something like the Guardian, even.
They do have their hang-ups, however. For example, absolutely anything having to do with Soviet history or post-Soviet Russia. Might as well skip those pieces roughly 90% of the time…
Re: Guernica: Facts from Sven Lindqvist’s fine book, “A History of Bombing:”
Chechaouen, Morocco, and Guernica, Spain both had about 6,000 people. Both were regional capitals, both holy cities, one to the Berbers and one to the Basques. Both were bombed by legionnaires – Guernica, in 1937, by the Luftwaffe, and Chechaouen, in 1925, by Americans of the Lafayette Escadrille. Neither town was a military target.
The Chechaouen bombing was planned and executed by American volunteers led by Colonel Charles Sweeney, who was bored after all the aerial excitement of the Great War. Sweeny said France was fighting for “the cause of the white man’s civilization, and all who have formed this squadron know enough of the world to appreciate what the white man’s civilization means.” Chechaouen was bombed to rubble with civilians shredded and seared by splinter bombs and incendiaries. The world yawned.
The Power of S#!t (cont.):
Woman who fell in Mt. Walker vault toilet while trying to retrieve phone rescued
After she disassembled the toilet seat, she used dog leashes to try to retrieve the phone and eventually used the leashes to tie herself off as she reached for it, he said. That effort failed and she fell, horrifyingly, into the vault, headfirst.
https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2022/04/21/firefighters-rescue-woman-who-fell-into-mt-walker-vault-toilet/7398734001/
Android or i-Phone user?
Biden SNAPPED at Kamala so harshly ‘even Republican senators were taken aback’ during meeting where the President was trying to persuade GOP members to back his $1trillion social spending plan, book claims Daily Mail
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I heard Joe made her veep, poor thing.
How easy is it to get rid of a Vice President who has proven herself an incompetent burden, can she be fired?
Maybe they can promote her out of the way. Oh, wait…
Could have made her a Supreme with all the toppings, as she fit into the parameters, but no.
Maybe she will just resign. Save us all a great deal of trouble.
I believe she has to be impeached. Rumour has it that her ‘peach’ is well worn and somewhat ‘corrupt.’ So, perhaps the better term would ne expeached.
Why would they get rid of her? She has no idea what’s going on, she will do as she’s told, seemingly only a little corrupt, and has zero management skills. She’s Black Biden.
Perhaps it is Biden who is the incompetent. The evidence is piling up.
Joe missed out on being the first 100 days FDR, so he’s setting for being a third rate WW2 FDR facsimile.
Bet on Biden, Harris, and Blinken to win today’s “Incompetence Trifecta.”
Dan Quayle got race change surgery?
I’ve been waiting well over a year for the competence to magically appear, with public acclaim to follow for her wise words and deeds done…
Bring it on.
Maybe she should smile more.
That would be an improvement over her giggling.
Competent?
Incompetent President fires incompetent Vice President, news at 11. Can we really pick the bigger incompetent?
Neither one should have made it to Senator much less the White House. That they did is one of the biggest pieces of evidence that our two party system, and legal funding methods of candidates, need to be nuked, buried and considered hazardous waste for the next thousand years.
Harris is the product of the San Francisco/Bay Area/Sacramento/old families/elites and not strickly speaking of the Democratic Party. That party is merely the tool. Biden, I don’t much about, but isn’t he the product of his state’s ruling class as well?
The parties come and the parties go, but the corrupt backstabbing, interconnected families remain the same. While the names might change, it seems, like with the old Roman Republic/Empire elites, they get to choose who gets to be in charge. It is much like how the ruling families of most of the Southern states especially Missouri and Georgia, IIRC, have remained unchanged from before the American Civil War. Sometimes even the family names do not change.
Sorry, but “competent women of colour” does not describe Harris. She literally slept her way to the top.
If I was a “competent woman of colour,” enen an only slightly competent one, I would be highly insulted to be mentioned in the same breath as Harris.
And yes, do help to raise the ‘standards’ of the NC Commenteriat by throwing random insults about.
Did you read the article? Have you been following her career? Have you seen her give a speech? The comments here are polite.
“Germany Expected to Announce Tank Deliveries to Ukraine”
About forty nations are sending military gear to the Ukraine, including tanks and artillery. So, are they sending things like spare parts, training, support, ammo, etc. as well? If Zelensky said that he needed IT support, I can see how it would go. A lot of countries would send old windows computers that have installed on them Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. At least the Ukraine would know that Windows Me and Windows Vista have never been used before. Other countries would send old Macintosh while still others would send Linux computers with a smattering of Unix based computers to boot. Only half would have power cords and none of them would have been updated since Y2K. Some would blow up when first turned on while spare parts would have to be sourced on eBay.
Are they sending manuals written in Ukrainian? Do enough Ukrainian translators to translate all those weapons manuals even exist? Even if they exist, the translators don’t have enough time. Translation takes time. Without how to use and repair manuals, most of this weaponry is useless. Nobody ever mentions this…
Fun fact*: Ukrainian made weapons for Ukrainian army tend come with Russian language manuals, that language being understood by practically everyone in Ukraine, while Ukrainian – not so much.
* according to Donbassian telegram channels, with pictures and all, but still should perhaps be taken as a “fact”.
Thus far it isn’t “tanks” the Germans are sending (nay, selling!!), but Flakpanzer Gepards, self-propelled anti-air guns with optional Stinger missile mounts. Close-up AA, in other words, for whatever use it can be of at this stage of the conflict. And they’ve been sitting in cold storage since 2010. And the guns are Swiss (Oerlikon), and Switzerland is yet to agree to sell to Ukraine ammunition for said, at least as of yesterday.
There is clear lobbying to send some Marders (IFVs, roughly equivalent to BMP-2 or BMP-3 but twice as heavy), Panzerhaubitze 2000 (155mm SP artillery), and Leopard 1A5’s (technically tanks, and not in the slightest absolutely useless junk heaps with 1980’s-era fire control systems and no armour to speak of). Based on the Gepard example, however, it sounds more to me like someone in Germany had the bright idea to sell any obsolete stuff they have sitting in a depot somewhere to Ukraine for cold, hard cash. Less to do with any meaningful help on the front lines, in other words. And not just in Germany, either.
Practically speaking, the very first problem for any vehicles one sends to Ukraine is logistics – i.e. fuel and ammo, which has to be shipped by trains, at least part of the way, and one imagines that the Russians are just going to sit there and watch. And then, of course, there is the fact that not only do you have to retrain Ukrainian crews (especially for the arty, as all the firing tables are different vs. the Soviet-era 152mm caliber), you also have to retrain Ukrainian mechanics to keep the stuff operational in the field. Again, this seems like a Band-Aid on an amputated limb, and more a means of making some cash flogging obsolete weapons stores than anything else. To me, at least.
The media’s habitual military and weapon illiteracy at times stops being merely irritating and starts to be potentially actively dangerous, because of how misleading to the public it is. Not every tracked military vehicle is a ‘tank’ (just like not every gun bigger than a pistol is a ‘machine gun’). Those mobile AA guns are as much tanks as an excavator is.
And yeah, the Leopard 1s is beyond ridiculous. So far the ‘noble NATO supply effort’ has been a way for countries to dump a bunch of outdated, superfluous gear that would have eventually been scrapped anyway. It’s like some epic exercise in virtue signaling.
On top of everything else (the gear being nigh useless, the logistics, the idea that Russia is even going to allow any of this heavy stuff to get near the fighting), there simply isn’t enough. Ukraine basically needs its entire vehicle pool instantly replaced. That’s thousands of vehicles. Even a hundred Czech tanks is a drop in the bucket.
And even if Ukraine could magically be instantly militarily restored to its pre-war state, how would that change anything? That Ukraine is the one that got degraded to this point. How would anything change? Russia would just blow it all up all over again.
This whole weapon transfer program smells like PPP under TARP. It is roundabout way of enriching Raytheon Lockheed, etc.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-27/minister-indicates-private-e-scooters-could-be-legalised-for-use-on-roads/
Remember the scooter parking wars/dramas in the USA pre-Covid?
Again, nothing seems to get LEARNED.
It’s been 404’d. (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-27/minister-indicates-private-e-scooters-could-be-legalised-for-use-on-roads/)
It is bad for me that my first thought is that someone got to Bloomberg news and not because it’s probably just simply an error? Or is it simply me being a healthy paranoiac?
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/21/cdc-strategy-masks-biden-administration-00026709
CDC strategy on masks could haunt the country
The Biden administration says it wants to help the millions of Americans suffering from long Covid. Critics say its approach is inconsistent with that goal.
I was surprised to see this in Politico.
Hopefully all the people reading that politico article will mask back up and start wearing Hannibal Lecter hockey goalie masks over their respirators so as to keep the various No Mask Karens at bay.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/fauci-backs-white-house-correspondents-dinner-covid-risk-rcna26212
Fauci backs out of White House correspondents’ dinner over Covid risk
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to attend the dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, the first time the event has been held since 2019.
But surely they’re all vaccinated and boosted?! Don’t call me Shirley
Biden SNAPPED at Kamala so harshly ‘even Republican senators were taken aback’ during meeting where the President was trying to persuade GOP members to back his $1trillion social spending plan, book claims” Daily Mail
“…Harris thought that there was something missing from the conversation,’ New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns wrote in their book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future.
She began turning the conversation toward Democratic priorities, including family and social spending, which were originally included in the larger Build Back Better bill.
She ‘began to make the case for a larger package than the one Republicans seemed to have in mind.’
‘Biden dismissed her comment immediately,’ the authors wrote, in so harsh a tone ‘that even the Republican senators were taken aback.’…”
The Democrats’ school of negotiation is to concede everything before negotitations. She forgot the memo and was quickly reminded the conversation was between the “good ole boys”. Biden probably went for drinks with them after and didn’t invite her.
That’s if you assume the story happened as written and brave Madame VP pushed for more for we peons in the face of hostile opposition from Republicans and even President Brandon! What bravery! What leadership! Swoon.
I don’t doubt for one second Brandon snapped at her publicly about something. We’ve seen how nasty he can be. It’s just the idea of poor old Kamala the fighter that doesn’t pass the smell test. I’ll admit I don’t know a thing about these writers, but color me skeptical that it had anything to do with her fighting the good fight.
She must have forgotten that Old Joe had promised that nothing would fundamentally change with his administration in office
It’s time for the wholesome family fun of Black Mountain Transmitter:
“Behold the Undead of Dracula”
https://youtu.be/WBdXWiLWT1E
“Raytheon chief warns of delays in replenishing Stinger missile stocks” Politico
“The CEO of Raytheon Technologies told investors Tuesday that the company won’t be able to ramp up production of Stinger missiles until 2023, due to a lack of parts and materials for the weapons that Western allies have rushed to Ukraine.
Thousands of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles have been pulled from stocks across Europe and the United States and sent to Ukraine, but as yet there is no solid plan to replenish the stocks for the countries that donated them…”
“…The Army’s top acquisition official, Doug Bush, said at a March 25 event that supply chain issues remain an issue for ramping up production for both Stinger and Javelin anti-armor missiles, which have also been used to devastating effect by Ukrainian forces in the war.
“We’re working through those issues right now,” Bush said. “Congress provided a large amount of money in the omnibus to help us replenish our stocks, which we greatly appreciate, and we are very close to being ready to inform Congress of our first moves in that direction.”
“..In order to get new missiles into production, Raytheon will have to redesign some of the electronics in the weapon, Hayes said. “That’s gonna take us a little bit of time….”
Nowhere does the article mention which country the parts are coming from that they can’t seem to get enough supply for. But basically, Congress has authorized a lot of defense spending because that helped in WWI & WWII and they conveniently went brain dead on the fact that the USA was a mind-boggling manufacuturing powerhouse during those times and post-war times.
NATO drawing down its air-defense inventories while courting a conventional war with Russia. And not able to quickly replenish depleted stocks.
What could go wrong?
To me, the most important part of that story – which I originally saw on Reuters, but whatever – is what’s semi-between the lines, namely that the US Army has a limited supply of man-portable AA (especially now that a bunch of Stingers went to Ukraine), all of which is decades-old technologically speaking, and isn’t expecting to get any new designs in until 2027.
I am going to restrain myself from launching into a diatribe about the Pentagon’s spending habits over the past couple of decades – shiny new and often useless toys, yes, basic stuff the Armed Forces would need on an everyday basis in a conflict, not so much – but this is just sooooooo Pentagon…
Why the reluctance? It only happened last when we invaded Iraq. I guess those dudes don’t believe that fighting (and winning) wars is something that (American) the military does.
I’m not sure what “winning” amounts to.
And this was a fight against a country we invaded in Desert Storm after it was depleted by its war with Iran, and we then kept poor via sanctions, had pretty much no domestic manufacturing, and had weapons inspectors surveying after that. So what kind of victory is it to beat a military pipsqueak?
I don’t think the American performance in either of the Iraq wars is even terribly impressive. Yes we won, because of course we did; we massively outstripped our opponent. But we did it so relatively easily in the first case because of the Iraqis making a bunch of poor decisions that were basically optimized to make them lose to the US. And in the second case our enemy to a very large extent simply didn’t stand and fight. And even then we advanced at a glacial pace.
And there was also a lot of luck in 2003. One of my takeaways from Generation Kill was that that Marine battalion was led by an idiot, gloryhound colonel who should have been fired long ago. At one point he managed to get his lightly armed reconnaissance troops to stumble right on top of an Iraqi armored unit that would have absolutely taken the Marines to pieces…if the Iraqis hadn’t already fled and left their tanks abandoned.
To me, that is the point. It is what I was poorly hinting at. What is considered winning by most Americans is not what is called winning by the people running the government or the military.
Victory for the ghouls running the military-industrial-complex (the police, intelligence agencies, medical, finance, education, really everything American including most nonprofits and religious organizations ) is in getting as much cash as they can steal. It is not successfully doing what an organization was originally created to do.
An awful lot of money was profitably hoovered by those who lost the wars while destroying multiple countries. It is the same with the people who got both Ukraine and Russia into a war. But that is a victory for the war profiteers, right?
Too bad we do not have Senator Truman and his committee right now. It is interesting how a member of the Pendergast Machine was more honest than many (most?) members of Congress.
I took this as telling procurement that they want to amend the fees schedule. Because they can.
ask nafta billy clinton if the parts are now made in china.
as long as the elites in this country never are made to pay for their “CRIMES”, we will get one nafta billy clinton after another.
Sorry to hear about the imminent demise of well crafted dim sum in New York, but there is room for hope. I’d heard similar stories about the dying art of hand-pulled noodles, and on my last (pre pandemic) visit to Las Vegas discovered two new restaurants that featured them. Both were packed with customers all day but worth the wait. I suspect quality Asian food will stop following patterns of immigration from Asian and begin to follow the internal diaspora of new generations.
BTW in NY the best Asian food has been found in Queens for some time.
I had the best Pho of my life at a place called “District Saigon” a few years back. It’s in Astoria:
http://www.districtsaigonnyc.com/
The Hill reports that a majority of polled voters would support an independent candidate over Biden or Trump:
https://youtu.be/0nC65Udo2qQ
Once again, the nones have it.
Well. “an independent candidate” is a different thing from any given actual independent candidate.
Please strip off history-identifying tags from links. For example, in the link for James Foster’s “must-watch clip,”:
https://twitter.com/JamesEFoster/status/1518643730953261056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
please strip off “?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” before including the link. Really, for nearly all links, please strip off the question mark and everything following.
Thanks
Covid anecdata: I am on day 10 having tested positive on day 3, 7, and 9. Fingers crossed for negative tomorrow. Quarantining at home. Did a dumb thing and ate with 4 friends sans mask in a private home. I had one JnJ shot last September. No boosters.
Mild symptoms all through: sore throat, chesty cough, progressed into sinus about day 5, got the runs the first day but only that day. No fever, O2 levels normal. Following FLCCC protocol except for IVM. Using nigella sativa but didn’t start until day 9. Each day a little better, but can’t seem to shake it. I am immunocompromised.
So from now on, no eating with friends. Sigh.
Have not seen much discussion of MMT here recently, maybe for not having the time to read all the posts, if so, my bad.
But now that Russia and China and maybe India and other Zone B nations have set up a counter-fiat currency system, based apparently on the REAL ECONOMIES of those nations, will the Petrodollar turn out to be as feckless and inflationary as Wuk has rattled on about for years? Sort of seems to me that the viability of MMT subsumes, in part, the notion that the real wealth of other nations defaced by globalism undergirded, at least in part, the “wealth” that MMT says has been available to the prioritizers in the legislature who “spend” that money that now flutters away in the form of Stinger missiles and 155-mm howitzers and Switchblades and Javelins wafting their fruitless way to Ukraine.
i wonder how much hard gold Wuk has actual physical custody and ownership of. Maybe has made a good play. And how much specie do the world’s fiat-currency squillionaires have squirreled away?
Bearing in mind that apparently there is no searchable cataloging of where all the gold reserves of the Great Powers actually lie — other than “in the vaults of the Bank of England and a few other vastly trusted and trustworthy entities…”
How is this all going to work out for us disabled mopes on fixed incomes denominated in terms of dollars, dollars which are on the way to being as hated a currency as ever has circulated on the planet? Maybe Stephanie Kelton has some wisdom to offer here?
Asking for a friend…
The problem with gold bullion is you can neither eat it or wear it. The most important commodities to survival are, of course, food and shelter (and a community you trust). MMT only works if others TRUST you and your government. If YOU trust your government then a gold substitute would be Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) The current 5-year offering returns 8.5% for the next 6 months. Since inflation is unlikely to abate in the next couple of years this may keep your “stash” somewhat protected from real value destruction. But again, you can’t eat it for nourishment.
So, diversify: a little gold, a little cash, some TIPS, and the ability to share in a community that grows local food. :)
You must be a lot better off financially than I and the vast majority of real-person Americans, especially fixed- and gig-income Americans,who can barely make ends meet each week, and have zero means to “diversify” into gold, cash, TIPS and the like. And if you have money in TIPS, I guess you trust the government not to just seize that money, or debase it out of existence, as they have done in various “civil forfeitures” and “sanctions” and “negative interest rates” and bank bail-INs, and other oligarch-feeding actions. And which they are doing or planning to do to supposed safety-net “obligations.”
I think MMT has clearly been applied, de facto, for generations, without respect to “trust,” given where the bulk of legislatively-created money has gone (burned up in inflating the hot-air balloons in the FIRE sector and in making war and war materiel, and as various idiotic “subsidies” to corporate persons and individuals with genteel-“legal”-bribery-generated “clout.”)
Seems that MMT relies on credible and credulous common understandings of the “reality” of petrodollars, the ones generated by the “There is authorized to be appropriated XX billion dollars” in federal appropriations legislation, that “spends” all that “money” into existence. I am still wondering what happens to the whole spinning edifice of FIRE and “obligations” like Social Security and pensions and Medicare and such-like, when there is no longer any sort of implicit notion that the notional total of dollar wealth rests on the activities of the larger world, as I believe to be incorporated into, and subjugated to, the imperial hegemonic structure. Zone B wealth suddenly is no longer part of the “real economy” that we Zone A types have taken for granted as creating some kind of “reality” behind the dollars dispensed by MMT legerdemain. If MMT money has to rely for its acceptance solely on the REAL economy of the US (and a possibly a few client nations still nailed to the US), it seems to me the total of “full faith and credit” that current practices assume to exist has suddenly shrunk to a relative pinpoint.
But thanks for the advice.
Yes, as I suspected, you knew the answer all along, JT. Food and shelter is true wealth.
The idea currency has been burned up in inflation is a monetarist talking point e.g. currency is not subject to the notions of supply and demand like a commodity is, not to mention QTM has been thoroughly refuted.
Petrodollars is an another example of this failed commodity fetish about fiat money, it has to have some antiquarian notion of being a physical token and not that which is in reality just a means of exchange to satisfy contracts. Kelton gives a fact based appraisal on the political choices some are confused with that aspect IMO.
Once again MMT is just a description of the currant monetary functions and how that relates to the framework by which policy debate can be had, contra the monetarist or now quasi monetarist framework.
Look it has never mattered not what currency humans use, when other various factors come into play to administrate it to their advantage since antiquity. So can some just desist with the money makes people bad shtick and move on …
Going by the use of Zone B, I presume you’re getting ideas from the Saker community? They have a very confused understanding of things. All currencies today are fiat. The petrodollar isn’t a thing; the dollar as GRC is dependent on the US running permanent trade deficits. What has happened though is that the US has made it clear that doing business in dollars is a bad idea since the US may simply take your money at any point out of political convenience. We’ve managed to damage the dollar in a way no outside party ever could.
Related, the way the Saker community talks about the petrodollar, it seems many of them effectively think the dollar is backed by oil. So they simultaneously think the US dollar is fake fiat funny money, and also that it’s based on a physical resource. Surely both can’t be true. The way they talk about a petro ruble only emphasizes that this is their thinking.
it looks like Wukchumni will be having new neighbors near him in the Back Of Beyond:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-04-27/california-los-angeles-san-francisco-population-decline?sfmc_id=1906820
I have new neighbors every few days, livin’ la vida AirBnB.
Appreciated the tenor and substance of the exchange between Senator Rand Paul and Secretary of State Blinken. Points to the divergence of views between a relatively small group concentrated in the executive branch and federal agencies in the DC Metro area, Wall Street mega-banks and shadow banks, and some C suites at transnational corporations who desire policy priority be given to US global hegemony and diminishment of global competitors through high military expenditures and military action as the default policy option, while ignoring related economic and social costs. Contrasts with those who would like to see resources channeled into infrastructure, public health, economic growth, addressing climate change, education and social spending initiatives, and peace. Seems to me the former group is ignoring the effects that their policies, globalization and financialization of the U.S.economy under neoliberalism have had on the relative standard of living of many Americans over the past forty years, historic levels of economic inequality in the U.S., together with social and economic losses sustained by the citizens of other countries as a result of policies. Related inability to engage in the conduct of diplomacy with adversaries presents heightened risks given nuclear arms.
Amen!
the feverish free traders will never ever let reality, trump ideology. and remember, the feverish have their sweaty fingers on the nuke buttons. that should put real fear into any american, or anyone in the world.
its all the deplorable fault, they did not learn how to code. whats that got to do with making a aspirin, or a missile part is beyond me, but that is their feverish beliefs!
Yesterday in the Seventy-Three Million People Lose Partial Access to Mobile Phone Networks in Nigeria For Not Having Digital ID I asserted the WB and IMF are funding the rollout of a “Western” Social Credit System
Today under the Big Brother IS Watching You watch category is the link Top financial regulator warns U.S. is developing a ‘Chinese-style’ payments industry ‘fueled by uncontrolled flows of consumer data’ Market Watch
I will extend yesterday’s assertion in the context of rapid climate change:
Like China, Nigeria, et al the SCSs will be introduced to provide the security and safety demanded by their citizenry. As Chopra observed “The United States is lurching toward a market structure where finance and commerce commingle, fueled by uncontrolled flows of consumer data,” this process has begun with non-real-time access to non-traditional data flows (eg, Clearview AI). It will continue with real-time government access to the consumer data flows. And then extended to provide the necessary real-time monitoring and control of consumer activities.
RE: Hypersonic missiles Link
So the US is concerned with how hypersonic nuclear-armed missiles will compromise national defense. Isn’t that the same argument Russia is making about the proximity of NATO missiles in Ukraine?
Yes, but NATO’s hypersonic nuclear-armed missiles are defensive hypersonic nuclear-armed missiles, so any possible issue with them is just… propaganda.
China?
I am looking forward to reading the often delayed report as UN rights team in China ahead of Xinjiang visit
The U.N. rights chief is also preparing a report on alleged abuses against Uyghurs which her office has been working on for more than three years.
Round up the usual suspects?
What a show … MIC gets endless wars based on lies and simultaneously creates a whole new terminological phraseology about it, kinetic weapons, collateral damage, terrorists, et al which is on par or challenges the PR/Marketing strategists for head shrinking the unwashed into primal monkey goo …
So who is going to prepare the report on all the alleged abuses of the West post WWII, so that point of views can disseminated and mentally masticated by the great swath of unwashed viewers of media branding, so idpol can be judged a triumph or needs more umph and then yet we need a UN team to elaborate on the suffering of the poor Uyghur situation …. smells like the past freedom fighters in Afghan tool kit.
I’ll put it in the terminology some are want too … in this game of word bingo for ideological reasons and not facts on the ground … how many Uyghurs and been ***murdered*** for just being in the wrong spot at the wrong time as those that suffered the agendas of Atlantic’s looking to get rich.
Australian Karen Crisis Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews suggested China’s announcement of a deal with the Solomon Islands was deliberately timed to undermine the Liberal Party’s re-election prospects.
Apparently China wants Scotty from Marketing?
I don’t think China cares anymore.
Yves Smith
April 28, 2022 at 1:54 pm
Please stop this. It is almost impossible to overdo on Vit D.
20 mins of full body sun exposure near the equator = 20,000 IU. You’ll get a sunburn from that before a Vit D problem.
No it is not impossible when supplements are being added which is very clearly what Anthony was referring to. That’s a highly irresponsible comment, and. potentially, an excruciating pain causing comment. Read up on just how painul kidney stones can be, Susan, as in ambulance needed and vomitting from the pain.
As someone who’s had an ambulance worthy kidney stone, I was informed by an Internal Medicine Doctor, who has practised for decades, and is also prone to kidney stones, they said to be very careful taking any Vitamin D Supplements.
You’ve been getting pretty increasingly repulsive in your name tossing and insulting, you should apologise to Anthony Stedman, but I doubt you will, your bullying and talking down your nose, is really quite something. Apparently unbeknownst to you, you don’t know everything, your actual knowledgeis exponentially less than what you clearly believe it to be, possibly because of your increasingly moderated captive unpaid intern, capitive cheerleaders.
May 22, 2022: What is vitamin D toxicity? Should I be worried about taking supplements? https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/vitamin-d-toxicity/faq-20058108
March 2018 Vitamin D, Hypercalciuria and Kidney Stones https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872784/
February 2018 Vitamin D Intake and the Risk of Incident Kidney Stones https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5241241/
Your citations do not prove your point. They in fact prove mine. So your aggressive comment is utterly out of line.
And you happen to have missed that I’ve had to chide Anthony D. Stegman for Making Shit Up earlier this month. Par for your level of care, you can’t even get his name right.
I’d take your doctor’s opinion more seriously if he was a specialist. Internal medicine doctors can treat small kidney stones, but the experts in this area are urologists and nephrologists.
I have actually researched this topic, contrary to your assertion. The absolute tops I have ever seen any alternative “practitioner”/publisher mention is 10,000 IU a day, and that is still way way way out of band in terms of what the overwhelming majority of advocates and dietary supplement fans take (just look at the D3 supplements sold and their recommendations per daily dose). The level that people take for Covid protection is in the range of 500 to 4000 IU a day. I cited the 20,000 IU a day as a reference point that there was nothing to worry about in the customary and even aggressive dose ranges.
Your screeching and abusive tone is based on misrepresenting the studies you cite.
The Feb 2017 paper has an extremely weak finding:
If you’ve spent time in med-land, “suggestion” is the weakest tea they brew. That’s an admission that their finding barely meets the threshold of being plausible.
Moreover, this is correlation, which does not prove causation.
The 2018 paper os a mere literature survey, not even a metastudy. And it was published in Nutrients, a nutrition publication, not a urology or nephrology publication. The fact that this paper appears in a publication that does not have expertise in the underlying subject matter makes it questionable. You would think a publication in one of those two fields would have picked it up if they though it had merit.
To be blunt, nutrition is a complete backwater in medicine and very weak on scientific underpinnings due to the inability to conduct proper long-term studies (you can’t get enough people to keep long-term food diaries; many will lie about how much they ate or snacking; people can change diets over time; people eat lots of different things, making it very difficult to parse out the impact of particular foods and supplements).
It says at the top that “historically” there has been low evidence of a connection between kidney stones and Vit D. The last sentence of the summary overstates their sort of finding:
Again, “it seems likely…are more at risk” is much more hedged than you appear to recognize.
Mayo does say there is evidence of toxicity….at 60,000 IU a day, way way way over the 20,000 IU I mentioned. Perhaps some MDs have recklessly prescribed that; some papers in the 2018 study mention Vit D prescriptions. But this is enormously over even high levels of consumption in dietary supplement land.
So your hectoring is not factually founded, demonstrates your knowledge of a topic where you profess superior insight is thin and based on a biased reading of the best evidence you can muster.