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Links 7/3/2022

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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:

Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please don’t do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them.

* * *

The mystery of how dinosaurs had sex BBC

Research into oldest known burial field in the Netherlands sheds new light on traditional gender roles Phys.org (ctleee).

Fourth of July Pregame Festivities

Celebrating the day Bobby Lee’s Slave Power army got whipped by better generalship and better troops. A thread:

And under-celebrated: Grant taking Vicksburg on the same day.

Fourth of July checklist (1):

Fourth of July checklist (2): Coronavirus FAQ: Can I get COVID outdoors? (With printable poster on how to cut risks) NPR

Use and possession of fireworks are illegal on all land managed by the National Park Service National Park Service and Two firefighters were injured while suppressing one of the 10 fires started by Mount Rushmore fireworks in 2000 Wildfire Today. Prophylactics for conservative symbol manipulation — yes, they do it too — on fireworks at Mount Rushmore.

Climate

UN Warns of ‘Total Societal Collapse’ Due to Breaching of Planetary Boundaries Defend Democracy Press. Original.

Back to The Future? Cargo Giant Cargill Turns to Sails to Cut carbon Marine Link

A huge mass of used wet wipes has formed an ‘island’ that has changed the course of England’s second longest river, MP says Business Insider (KS).

Government exploiting fire fears to back old growth logging, say conservationists Columbia Insight

#COVID19

Where’s the herd immunity? Our research shows why Covid is still wreaking havoc Guardian. Original. “Rather than a wall of immunity arising from vaccinations and previous infections, we are seeing wave after wave of new cases and a rapidly growing burden of long-term disease.” Joe, Tony, Rochelle, good job.

Covid vaccines: how can immune imprinting help experts to rethink jabs? FT

IM Doc is not alone. A thread well worth reading:

This, too:

“Big sigh.” Indeed.

COVID-19 impact to life insurance and annuity companies Deloitte

China?

Xi Jinping’s meet-and-greet with Hong Kong’s elite set tongues wagging on pecking order of political big guns and second-generation tycoons South China Morning Post

In the United States, a monthly income of $3,000 is enough for a family of three. No wonder Chinese people want to go abroad. What China Reads. Hmm.

India

As Silicon Valley fantasizes about Web3, India leaps ahead on payments Fortune

Syraqistan

Taliban’s large gathering ends with calls for international recognition Channel News Asia

UK/EU

The Dutch Farmers’ Protest and the War on Food Off Guardian (JT McPhee).

New Not-So-Cold Cold War

Lysychansk falls:

Although fresh Kagan-emitted spin is better evidence than any video:

I’m agnostic on a Ukrainian “fighting retreat.” For starters, I’d need to see a corridor mapped that was outside Russian fire control. (OTOH, no videos has surfaced of Ukrainian POWs.)

Elements of the narrative now redeployed:

Advanced U.S. Arms Make a Mark in Ukraine War, Officials Say NYT. HIMARS. We seem to have trained whoever’s manning them, presumably the Ukrainians, with remarkable speed.

Conversation with American Mercenary, DPR POW: “Be Better Informed” INTERNATIONALIST 360°

* * *

Brussels pushes for tougher sanctions enforcement via EU-wide body FT

Is Using Nuclear Weapons Still Taboo? Foreign Policy

Chile’s new constitution finalised after turbulent process Al Jazeera

Miners, drug traffickers and loggers: Is Costa Rica’s Corcovado National Park on the verge of collapse? Monga Bay

Biden Administration

FBI opens sweeping probe of clergy sex abuse in New Orleans AP

Save Social Security From its ‘Saviors’ Stephanie Kelton, The Lens

You tell ’em, Mayo Pete:

We’re talking Presidential timber here, totally.

White House press corps demands end to Biden event restrictions NY Post. Their letter:

Roe’s demise is increasing interest in vasectomies — which Obamacare doesn’t cover: report Alternet. Thanks, Obama!

The Supremes

The Supreme Court Is the Final Word on Nothing Jamelle Bouie, NYT

Democrats Argue That Clarence Thomas Should Only Have 3/5 Of A Vote The Babylon Bee

2024

Scenario for election 2024, based on “Independent State Legislature Doctrine” in Moore v. Harper (to be decided in the October term:

Well worth a read. At least it’s a step-by-step theory of the case. I didn’t the Democrats had it in them.

The Case Against Donald Trump 2024 Townhall. Of all places.

Capitol Seizure

Column: Is the Trump lunge story true? Let’s see if his Secret Service sycophants tell us under oath it isn’t Los Angeles. Wait. I thought it was true?

Jan. 6 showed two identities of Secret Service: Gutsy heroes vs. Trump yes-men WaPo.

“Here you have the Service thrown into a day that was crazy Banana Republic stuff,” said Bill Gage, a former counterassault agent in the Secret Service who protected presidents George W. Bush and Obama. “My God. What would have happened if the agents had let Trump go to the Capitol?”

My God. What would have happened if the Provisional Government had let the Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace? What kind of a coup is this?

Ten things we’ve learned from the Jan. 6 hearings The Hill

Watergate Prosecutor Names ‘Best’ Criminal Charge For Trump, America HuffPo

Supply Chain

Bulging Warehouses, 28,000 Idle Containers Herald New Supply Woe Bloomberg

Rice fields dry up as Italy’s drought lingers on AP

Insects as food could help end hunger China Daily. Not just Davos Man.

Health Care

How Much Health Insurers Pay for Almost Everything Is About to Go Public KHN

The Bezzle

Chaos is a Ladder The Reformed Broker. And we all know what happened to Petyr Baelish. Well worth a read.

Crypto Took Wall Street on a Wild Ride. Now It’s Ending in Tears. Barron’s

Sports Desk

Golf In Scotland (In The Black & White Era): Q&A With Steve Finan The Quadrilateral. Commentary (NSFW; Furzy Mouse):

Guillotine Watch

Performance rating for America’s elites. Shot:

Wow, look at that weird dip around 2008. What was that all about? Chaser:

Shooting fish in a barrel:

Shhh…! Have you seen my secret room? FT

Why Did Medieval Cities Hire Street Musicians as First Responders? The Reformed Broker

Antidote du jour (TH):

Bonus antidote:

We may have run the bobcat before, but it pairs so nicely with this double bonus antidote:

I believe Duplantis is older than 17. But what a feat!

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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324 comments

  1. Sardonia

    With the Russians taking Lysychank and apparently encircling the remaining Hapless in a cauldron in Luhansk, seems fitting to dedicate a requiem to a common Ukrainian farmer, sent to the front lines – with apologies to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer:

    PLUCKY MAN

    He…had white horses
    And acres…by the score
    All which…needed tilling
    But they sent him…to the war.

    Ooo…what a Plucky Man…he was
    Ooo…what a Plucky Man…he was.

    A rolled-up…woolen blanket
    It made up…his bed
    And he watched…as the Azovs
    Murdered anyone…who fled.

    Ooo…what a Plucky Man…he was
    Ooo…what a Plucky Man…he was.

    He went…to the Donbas
    For the Empire…of Lies
    Conscripted…by Zelensky
    Mr. Kissinger…in disguise.

    Ooo…what a Plucky Man…he was
    Ooo…what a Plucky Man…he was.

    A Sarmat…had found him
    Left him scattered…’cross the land
    Mr. Blinken…had no comment
    Except “Victory…is at hand.”

    Ooo…what a Plucky Man…he was
    Ooo…what a Plucky Man…he was….

    1. Sardonia

      And linked below is the music, “Lucky Man” (if I add links to a long post, it always gets blocked, so I’ll try here). Ah, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer – the best concert I saw as a 16-year-old. I was amazed by their virtuosity, though the mescaline I took probably enhanced the experience:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcdZTmzTYFU

      2. Yves Smith

        I listened to ELP at the time but never live. They were my favorite band of my later teens (and of the debate team guys who were my best buddies then). So yes, props to you for seeing them perform.

      5. ChrisPacific

        If two dinosaurs have sex, but don’t leave fossil remains, did it really happen?

  3. SocalJimObjects

    One of the tweets that Lambert posted makes a reference to this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/perth-hospital-er-covid-19-outbreak-1.6508544?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar.

    Not a problem, because Australia is now throwing the doors wide open. Anyone with a valid visa (and yes all visa types are now available again) can enter Australia just like Pre Covid days. No vaccination required. Pre departure testing? What’s that? No quarantine. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-03/covid-border-rules-lifted-vaccination-status/101204570

    Happy days are finally here again.

    1. Ignacio

      As if vaccination would mean anything mind you. Better would be scans for fever and rapid tests in its case. And of course masks, masks, masks. Yet by your comment one can see how the vaccine discourse in entrenched in our minds.

      1. SocalJimObjects

        I am not vaccinated. I’ve lost plenty of weight though. My BMI went from 30+ to 24.9, and I take plenty of Vitamin C + D everyday.

        1. JTMcPhee

          Every little bit helps, I guess. But from what I glean, best you can hope for is not to die with each infection. One might think that the Rulers want it this way, disabling protest reactions by instilling an enervating sense of despair and futility…

          1. chuck roast

            The Rulers yet again demonstrating their particular genius…there goes aggregate demand.

        2. SocalJimObjects

          Before I forget, I should also mention I would wear a KN95 mask and a face shield when going out. Overkill? Maybe, but why not eh.

          2. Yves Smith

            Face shield not helpful unless you are a dentist or dental hygienist and have to worry about mouth splatter.

            But on second thought, face shield = Darth Vader v. Covid messaging and might scare people into staying further away.

            1. drumlin woodchuckles

              That’s why I suggested a Hannibal Lecter goalie mask type of face shield. To keep the Karens away.

              ” You want to see my smile? Really, Clarice? Would you like to see my teeth?
              Clarice? “

    2. The Rev Kev

      I have said before in comments how the death toll here in Oz was stuck at about 912 deaths for several months. And that the greater bulk of these deaths was mostly from one bad outbreak in Melbourne the previous year. But a year ago Scotty from Marketing, after returning from the G-7, decided to open up the country and let ‘er rip and finally go for herd immunity for the good of the economy. Well it looks like our elite are finally recognizing that herd immunity was only ever a chimera, our hospitals are slammed, and the current death toll is now *checks notes* 10,014 deaths as of today. Thanks corporate Australia. We couldn’t have done it without you-

      https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/australia/

      1. super extra

        Is there any talk of closing the borders again and implementing hard quarantine for all arrivals?

        1. The Rev Kev

          Nope. All I hear on the news is how they keep lifting restrictions like masks on international airliners, testing international arrivals, social distancing, etc. Funny thing is that right now we have a pretty nasty flu circulating through the country knocking people down left, right and center. So there are calls to have people to wear masks again but with no mention how it might be wise due to Coronavirus as well. So, like in other countries, our political leadership and medical establishment have really let us down big time.

          1. Tom Stone

            The Medical establishments of the West have just pissed on several thousand years of Medical ethics.

            The consequences will be long lasting and are already dire.

            1. Patricia Winter

              This ties in nicely with the “total societal collapse” the UN has warned about. Does killing off a huge number of citizens and leaving an even larger number with a long -lasting illness by abandoning any sensible measures in the face of rising case numbers count as “breaching planetary boundaries”? Or are those just boundaries of simple human decency?

          2. drumlin woodchuckles

            I didn’t think Australia was overpopulated enough to need Jackpot. Clearly your rulers and governators think Australia is overpopulated enough to need Jackpot. So they have brought you Jackpot by covid.

        2. Basil Pesto

          Absolutely no chance until there is a variant discernibly worse than Delta (I’m not sure Delta severity alone would be enough).

      2. Norm de plume

        Awesome percentage of family and friends with either flu (you’re right, it is a very bad one) or Covid. Every one of them vaccinated. We unvaxxed are fine.

        However I am in Wollongong looking after aged parents with Covid and a brother with a busted ankle and illness is currently a second order issue; our main worry is being submerged:

        Heavy falls may also hit parts of the Illawarra, inland from Wollongong, which have already seen more than 600mm of rain since Friday.

        That is almost half of Sydney’s average annual rainfall in just two days.

        https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101192228

        1. drumlin woodchuckles

          If someone had legacy-damage inside their body from prior rounds of covid, would the flu hit them even more worse than otherwise?

    3. Mikel

      “Covid is not the cause. It’s the loss of nursing staff over years!! 15 to 5 nurses working there. It cannot be sustained. Covid only highlights the lack of $$ by the province in funding reliable and safe health care…”

      A poster mentioned that in one of the threads.
      Covid has not helped matters.

      I guess in Australia they also have wrecking crews trying to undemine their funding for pyblic healthcare.

  4. Antifa

    NATO

    (melody borrowed from Suzanne by Leonard Cohen)

    NATO takes your money to make wars that have no ending
    They say they can’t protect you if your country won’t keep spending
    Buying weapons for the warehouses and soldiers for the borders
    And it promises you your safety if you follow all their orders
    And just when you want to tell them your economy is dead
    NATO buys your politicians
    And they let the White House answer that we all must push ahead

    And you want to feed your people and you want to keep them warm
    And they want to live in freedom
    But NATO says your country must rearm

    And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water
    When he led his twelve disciples and he led them not to slaughter
    But to peace among all nations, and to peace between all brothers
    And happiness to children, and honor unto mothers
    But NATO needs your taxes to fight China for Taipei
    And it isn’t any wonder if you wonder whose directions you’ll obey

    And you’d like to see some sanity before the next black swan
    But NATO has priority
    And NATO needs a fight over Taiwan

    In ninety days comes winter, and it looks like we’ll be freezing
    And inflation will be endless from our quantitative easing
    We’ll have ration cards for everything but NATO’s ammunition
    Ukraine will stay a meat grinder, a battle of attrition
    There’ll be heroes in the headlines, there’ll be no negotiation,
    As everything gets hollowed out till nothing holds its station
    While NATO claims the high ground

    And our planet’s getting hotter, that’s a fact that we all know
    And we ought to save our species
    But NATO says that China’s got to go

    5. timbers

      NATO or at least Liz Truss seems to think China is on the North Altantic. Maybe someone should tell Liz Truss who can’t find Russia on a map and doesn’t know where the Baltic and Black Seas are, that in fact that’s not so.

    6. Wukchumni

      A beaut!

      Good news ,rades!

      We’ve been at war so long, we’re eligible for a senior citizens discount on armaments…

    7. rob

      Nice poem,

      the curators to this site, could gather the good poems/lyrics found here for a “book of poetry”…thing.
      they really do reflect the day.

  5. LawnDart

    What good is winning a war, if you can’t come back home and enjoy a cold one?

    HOW THE WAR IS BEING WON ON THE BEER FRONT

    There is a right way and a wrong way to understand how the war against the West is being fought on the Russian home front.

    The wrong way is to read the Anglo-American media, their stay-behind correspondents in Moscow, and their aggregators in Washington, DC.

    The right way is to take a Russian beer. I mean, take the Russian beer business as an illustration of how the fightback is being fought – and how effectively.

    http://johnhelmer.net/how-the-war-is-being-won-on-the-beer-front/#more-68843

    1. caucus99percenter

      Machine translation?

      > a tracing paper from the German Reinheitsgebot law, which appeared in 1516 in Bavaria, according to which beer should have only three ingredients — hops, malt and water

      Having worked as a translator, I would have written “a carbon copy of the German Reinheitsgebot law” — but perhaps fewer and fewer people even understand the term “carbon copy,” now that typewriters are no longer part of everyday experience.

      1. The Rev Kev

        I wonder how many people realize that the “CC” in emails actually stands for ‘carbon copy’ and what is meant by that.

        1. flora

          Couple of images. Copying handwriting with carbon paper.

          https://en-academic.com/pictures/enwiki/75/Karbonkopia_2008.jpg

          Carbon paper between two sheets of paper in a typewriter.

          https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y81nm_AMnTE/UzoS-5g0IKI/AAAAAAAAH58/jbCyxNDtZOs/s1600/smith-corona-vintage-electric-typewriter.jpg

          An anecdote. Some many years ago when I was still hiring data entry people I would give them a typing test, the same short simple paragraph to type w/no time limit. I had them use a typewriter instead of a computer terminal. A typewriter would mark every keystroke giving me a good general idea how well they typed.

          One year two of the young people I interviewed knew how to use a typewriter. None knew what the carriage return was for or how to make the keys go to the next line. That was the last year I used a manual typewriter for the typing test. (Good thing I didn’t ask anyone to use a slide rule. ha )

          1. flora

            edit: “two of the young people I interviewed did not know how to use a typewriter….”

            (I’ve failed my own typing test. ha.)

              1. ex-PFC Chuck

                From the department of largely useless facts. Two significant people whom I’ve run across in my random readings of past decades owed the take offs of their careers to the fact they were proficient at shorthand. The first was Samuel Insull. To the vanishingly small extent he’s remembered at all today it is as the supposed poster person of the electric utility trust scandals of the 1920s. Writing 60+ years ago his biographer Forrest McDonald argues that was a bad rap and that the meme was promulgated by the Morgan interests on Wall Street who’d never forgiven him for decamping from his perch as the first CEO of the company that became General Electric to go to Chicago and build Commonwealth Edison Company without their financing. Insull’s influence on the industry was huge. He was like Steve Jobs in that he wasn’t a technologist himself but he had an uncanny instinct to envision the potentials of the innovations of others and turn them into profitable businesses. He recognized the rise of investor owned monopolistic utility companies would sooner or later arouse opposition so he was the first to propose, to the ire of his peers, such companies should be regulated on the basis of the rate of return on assets. That became the dominant business model in the USA for most of a century until Wall Street stuck its nose under the edge of the tent in the early 80s and upended it.
                The other person was Fulgencio Batista. Yes, the guy Castro overthrew in Cuba in 1959. When he enlisted in the Army as a young man he rose quickly because he knew shorthand, and by his early 30s was the Sergeant Major of the Cuban Army. As such he was the primary paper shuffler for the Army comandante. In 1933 he led the “Revolt of the Sergeants and effectively ran the country sometime from behind the scenes and sometimes formally except during a 12 year period beginning in 1940, until ousted by Castro.

          2. The Rev Kev

            Still got a Remington typewriter in its zip case that I had as a teenager though the ribbon may need replacing. Carbon paper was a hassle though as it could get messy. I expect that typewriter to long outlast me unlike the several computers that I have had.

      2. jrkrideau

        tracing paper —Machine translation?

        Probably, Helmer is Australian after all. :)

  6. timbers

    Kagan-emitted spin vs Reality over at Military Summary:

    1). Military Summary says Ukraine troops are increasingly fleeing instead of fighting, and this is one reason Russia took Lysychansk so quickly.

    2). Last big Ukraine stronghold is Kramatorsk, which even the Pentagon admits is the only remaining defensible position east of Dnieper. When if falls, Russia control goes almost immediately from 20% to about 50% of Ukraine. Military Summary says some believe Kramatorsk may flee, as did Lysychansk but this is speculation.

    3). I’ve read the 20% Ukraine that Russia controls accounts for about 80% of Ukraine GDP. Is this trus? If so…Congratulations, Europe. You could have granted Russia’s extremely reasonable and mild requests of security against NATO expansion and aggression. But instead and because you refused, it looks like you’ll be stuck holding the rotting smelly bag of an impoverished angry landlocked state full of Galacians. Well done, Europe.

    4). After listening to Military Summary, I was busy and Youtube proceeded to play related Western reports on Ukraine. No wonder American’s are misinformed. Heroic, militarily successful Ukrainians vs under supplied low technology Russians who by chance, good luck, and accidental blundering and not well explained other reasons, somehow keep getting the upper hand with outdated Soviet era weapons.

    1. Sardonia

      Regarding point #4 – I hear that Tokyo Rose and Baghdad Bob will be co-hosting a new show on CNN later this month.

      1. hk

        Will it be called the Reinhard Gehlen Show? (Background: US hired whole bunch of former German generals and staff officers to write their version of WW2 history, esp that on the Eastern Front. The recurring theme: the brave, well led (by the guys writing the stuff), and technically superior Germans usually won battles, but the backwards and incompetent Russians won the war bc of immense numbers and Hitler’s meddling. Gehlen, head of German military Intel on Russians, went farther than his colleagues as he turned over all his files, which he kept carefully hidden, to US and eventually became the head of West German Intel service. The accuracy of what he provided, though influential in shaping early US cold war strategy, is pretty questionable in retrospect.)

    2. Samuel Conner

      Thank you for the Military Summary summary. I don’t have patience to hear it every day. And there are weeds to pull.

    3. Samuel Conner

      > Heroic, militarily successful Ukrainians vs under supplied low technology Russians who by chance, good luck, and accidental blundering and not well explained other reasons, somehow keep getting the upper hand with outdated Soviet era weapons.

      In terms of “forces committed to the fight”, the Russians are outnumbered. It’s embarrassing to admit that they are better war-fighters than we are.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        The entire NATO strategy was assume a can opener. They didn’t forsee the Russians denying movement, Russia’s economic strength, Putin’s popularity or more accurately the West’s unpopularity, and then the Russians not racing to where many of the supplied weapons might have made a difference.

        The bulk of the trained Ukrainian army was forward deployed and taken out of the fight in the first five days except for terrorizing a few villages. They never expected the Russians to deploy air superiority.

        1. Louis Fyne

          take w/salt, according to UA POWs held by Russians, casualty rates (dead, seriously wounded) of their pre-war professional UA brigades = 80%+

      2. Ozz

        The west and NATO are funny. Even if we got involved and NATO helped. What do they think say 300,000 soldiers are going to do that 8.5 million Germans could not do in WWII? The US always forgets that little thing called home field advantage. You fight enemies in their country, Vietnam, iraq etc. All the planes in the world and millions of tons of bombs will not break their spirit. From what I have seen we’re not going to break the Russian spirit no matter how fancy the weapons. Remember all the high tech stuff will be used up or destroyed in 30-60 days then it’s all up to the soldiers and people on the ground. Russia has the home field advantage and like the vietnamese know they will take losses that the west is not willing to. It would be far better to wage peace, but that is something the US does not do. Any thoughts on if we will see an anti-war candidate in two years?

    4. JohnA

      The BBC copied and pasted a story from the Kyiv (sic) Independent about Russia supposedly stealing water from plucky Ukraine. The truth is that Russia restored the water supply to Crimea that Ukraine had blocked since 2014 in a fit of spite against a population they claim to belong to them. Yet another reason why the Crimeans will never accept being part of Ukraine again

      1. timbers

        I’ve read Kherson Oblast north of Crimea also lost water due to that, which runs through it to Crimea, negatively affecting farms and businesses. If I recall correctly, Russian troops went thru Kherson with the resistance of air and are probably quite welcome as restoring water was one of their first acts.

      2. digi_owl

        Specifically a canal that was built during the soviet era to provide the peninsula with fresh water.

    5. digi_owl

      About point 3, i’m starting to buy into Hudson’s claim that this is actually an economic war between EU and USA and EU is getting played massively.

      Germany in particular had gotten very close to Russia and China in recent years, and now it is all coming apart.

      I fear that in particular those that grew up after the smartphone became commonplace seem to treat USA and globalism as one and the same, thanks to the ever present trickle of social media prodding. I’m already seeing younger people preparing to take part in tomorrow’s celebration, even if they are not a US citizen nor has ever set foot there.

      1. timbers

        Must confess I expected Germany to stand its ground and tell USA to eff off. I was wrong despite any rational person can see it in German interest to move closer economically to Russian China. Now my best explanation is that Western leaders are all mostly incompetent and stu-pud. Which seems to be a recurring point at Duran. The Greens in particular seem to have serious mental lacking but maybe I noticed them on a bad day.

          1. Ignacio

            We should coin new ways to decipher political parties. Greenato Party, GP seems proper here.
            Green, but you know, for practical reasons keen on carbon and Leopard tanks. Common sense, no contradiction to see here.

            1. digi_owl

              I feel green parties are delusional, as they seem to think that everyone can just adopt a urban cosmopolitan lifestyle overnight and that should solve the environmental crisis.

            2. vao

              In Germany, they are already called the “Olivgrünen”, i.e. “olive green” — the colour of military fatigues (also like all the t-shirts Zelensky is wearing).

        2. Anthony G Stegman

          Germany can’t say No to the US. Germany is under US military occupation, and has been since 1945. In very few ways is Germany a sovereign nation. The same can be said for Japan.

          1. Yves Smith

            In my very limited time in Japan, when I was not at all interested in geopolitics and not looking for cues, it was nevertheless obvious that Japan was a military protectorate of the US.

          2. PlutoniumKun

            If Germany can’t say no, its news to the Germans. The US was trying to stop Germany building gas pipelines to the former Soviet Union since Reagans day, but Germany refused point blank.

            As for Japan, its a lot more complicated than that, the Japanese have always been very adept at using US occupation for its own end – see for example the Yoshida Doctrine, which at least one US historian has described as the continuation of WWII through economic means, although arguably the US crippled that policy in the 1980’s.

        1. digi_owl

          Thanks, i knew i had seen that list of yours before.

          Sometimes i wish that this place had functional comments search, and maybe a persistent forum adjacent to the posts.

          1. GramSci

            I searched Google at random for a Links comment by Michael Fiorillo on July 1 using this search:

            nakedcapitalism.com: fiorillo M-Ls, Trots, Maoists

            It came back as the #1 hit.

            Now, admittedly, I picked the string “fiorillo M-Ls, Trots, Maoists” because those are uncommon terms rarely found in close proximity. Finding something in the haystack is rarely this easy, but the point is that it can be done. The NSA does pay Google to hoover everything up.

        1. digi_owl

          Gets me thinking about some research i read about years ago.

          Some study or other had gone around interviewing Somali immigrants, asking them about their adherence to old customs. The finding was that those that maintained contact with their relatives back home were more inclined to maintain said customs, while those that didn’t more readily adopted the customs of where they were living.

          Similarly i have a vague memory of a claim that customs may leap generations. This because grandparents may pass them on to their grandchildren while spending time together.

          Do wonder if Hollywood and social media may produce similar effects, passing US customs onto the younger generations around the world.

          1. super extra

            I spent ~12 years or so working jobs that required me to fly to faraway places on short notice to fix computers running in places with strict access rules (and business logic that encouraged technical service hostages to ensure issue resolution). Something that became very obvious over that span of time was that most cities in the anglosphere were being gentrified and culturally smoothed over in the name of finance/real estate valuation games (think: the same types of food on the same types of pub menu with the same types of furniture and ephemera in every city you go). And this was happening in Europe too when I went there, though I got the impression a lot of the weird celebrations of US culture in Europe were 1) excuses to throw a party/make themed alcoholic drinks and/or 2) excuses for commercial promotions/sales.

            But then a friend who had grown up in Germany and then moved to the US pointed out that the US has cultural hegemony over the west, “everyone watches US tv shows”. So now I think it has more to do with everyone who streams Netflix etc outside of the states consuming our insane media and absorbing our stupid customs. (Halloween is the only good US holiday! Not becuase of the candy either! But it doesn’t need to be exported, everyone can have their own harvest and seasonal change holiday!)

            1. PlutoniumKun

              Strictly speaking, Hallowe’en is not an American holiday. Its an Irish/Scottish holiday the Celtic day of the dead), that was borrowed by the US and then rebounded back to Europe.

              1. super extra

                Most of the Irish I know have disavowed American Halloween as any child of theirs!

                How far do the Europeans take the American interpretation of it, though? Isn’t it really just an attempt to break certain candy and costume/party products into the European market? I guess it is extremely commercialized here now too – “jack-o-lantern christmas tree lights” – but I like it because it is one of the only holidays where people do costume parties. Most American holidays are about eating disgusting amounts of gross food with family or consumerism, I realize Halloween is no different but the costume parties and the kids’ rituals feel more festive than any of the others (to me!).

                1. PlutoniumKun

                  A lot of US practice has steeped in to Ireland and Scotland – using pumpkins instead of turnips, and the sexy dracula party thing (mind you, Dracula was an Irish invention too). By the late 19th Century Hallowe’en had become a mostly children’s festival in Ireland, with trick and treating and various party ideas – it has become mixed up with autumn festival traditions too (it marked the end of the berry season). It still has a weird teenaged twist here as its traditionally the first day for teenagers to get blind drunk in public. Two halloweens ago I went for an afternoon stroll with a Japanese friend along a well known informal party strip (seaside sand dunes ideal for campfires and other goings on) and she hasn’t stopped talking about it since. Lets just say there was some May fertility rituals added into the other partying.

            2. Mikel

              “…Something that became very obvious over that span of time was that most cities in the anglosphere were being gentrified and culturally smoothed over in the name of finance/real estate valuation games (think: the same types of food on the same types of pub menu with the same types of furniture and ephemera in every city you go)….”

              Yeah, the first clue that this “generificiation” (I prefer that term over “gentrification’ which implies a sophistication that is a fantasy) was happening globally were these things called “shopping malls.”
              Then here in the USA, the situation started popping up where they would build housing/apartment developments and shopping centers in the same color scheme and name the entire area after the shopping mall.

              “Progress”…..(excuse me while I throw up).

    6. Acacia

      And remember how HIMARS was going to be the game changer?

      There is some funny sh*t being reported over at the Saker about how these various wunderwaffe are being sold — including to the Russians (e.g., CAESAR fresh from France being bought by the Russians) —, and there has been some interest expressed in acquiring HIMARS, because the Ukies are apparently rather interested in making money instead of fighting.

    7. chuck roast

      I thought that I would anticipate them…

      Latest From The ISW
      Russian Forces Opposed Outside Kiev, October 30

      Ukrainian forces conducted a strategic withdrawal from Kiev, resulting in the Russian seizure of the city on October 28. Despite a serious degradation of Russian forces during the advance, the Russian Defense Ministry spun the occupation as a “victory”. VSU forces remain in firm control of 25% of Ukraine including the provisional capital of Lviv. There is minimal damage to the buildings and infrastructure of Kiev strongly indicating that Russian forces are experiencing a serious shortage of artillery and rocket munitions. The Ukrainian Resistance Center (URC) reports that strong opposition to occupying forces and administration continues in Ukrainian cities and towns behind the front lines. A car bomb reportedly exploded in Dinpro today with no reported injuries. The URC also reported that Russian occupation authorities are preparing an election for the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and not insisting on a proxy “people’s republic.”

      Ukrainian Internal Affairs Minister Vadym Denysenko noted that Territorial Defense Forces have received large numbers of M-1 and M-14 rifles from the US. This in addition to 80 Crusader tanks delivered recently by the British. A strong counter-offensive by Ukrainian ground forces is expected when the ground freezes. The VSU is currently preparing strongly fortified positions outside of Lviv in preparation for an expected assault by understrength Russian and Chechen battlegroups. The whereabouts of President Voldodymyr Zelenskyy remains unknown.

      1. RobertC

        Ukrainian Resistance Center … Vadym Denysenko … M-1 and M-14 rifles … and remains unknown

        Perfectly done, not over-seasoned. Thanks.

    1. The Rev Kev

      If you watch that video closely, you can see that he only had a very narrow “envelope” that he had to put himself into with sufficient momentum to make it all the way over. It is an amazing effort that.

    2. ex-PFC Chuck

      In 1954, when I started pole vaulting in the 9th grade, the world record for men was about 15 feet 8 ½ inches. When I took my last jump 7 years later as a senior in a small college the record was about 15’ 10. In that era most vaulters used thin-walled tubular poles made with a high quality steel. The company that made them was in Finland. A year or two later the record was broken by a man using a high flexure fiber glass pole and the technology race was on.

      Pole vaulting is a matter of the jumper converting the horizontal kinetic energy he or she generates gaining speed on the runway into near vertical kinetic energy with the help of the pole. When in mid-vault jumping with a steel pole it bend a little bit, forming an arc between the business end of the pole in the “box” and the vaulter’s lower hand. The angle of the arc is only a few degrees and its rise, or height is at most 3-4 inches. In effect the pole is one flap of a hinge, the pin of which is the end of the pole makes contact with the box. The significance of the energy stored in the steel pole as it bends and is available for recovery as the vault nears completion is small.

      High flexure poles fundamentally changed the mechanics of the event by turning the pole into a spring. From the video of Duplantis’ vault it appears the maximum deflection of the pole occurs at the point his foot begins to come between the pole and the camera. I’m guessing that the arc angle at that point is about 110 degrees and the height of the arc appears to be in excess of five feet! One can’t be sure, however, because the full length of the pole isn’t in the picture. As the pole straightens out, the several feet it propels the vaulter upward.

      It took a while for vaulters to figure out how best to manage the radically different poles, but they finally did and by 1968 or so the world record for men had advanced to somewhere north of 18 feet – an order of magnitude more than it had during the comparable period of my years vaulting. While surfing the ‘net writing this comment I learned that just last week Duplantis set a new world outdoor record for the vault of 6.16 meters, i.e. 20 feet 2 ½ inches.

      PS to Caucus99: I first saw that video at least 2-3 years ago so it could well have been shot when he was 17.

        1. ex-PFC Chuck

          The problem with bamboo poles is they sometimes splintered, occasionally with disastrous consequences for the vaulter. My HS athletic department still had one but it was seldom used because several years earlier a vaulter was impaled by one in a town a few dozen miles away.

          1. John Wright

            Many years ago (late 60’s) I remember talking with a co-worker who was the father of the PV record holder for the California Junior colleges (at that time).

            He related that his son had a fibreglass pole snap, go up through his shorts and out the top of his shirt, only scratching him.

            Close call…

      2. juno mas

        1968 was also the year that Dick Fosbury won the Olympic Gold in the High Jump with his “Fosbury Flop” . His innovative jumping style was, of course, preceeded by techno-innovation in the landing pit: from sand pit at grade to elevated soft-foam pads.

        1. ex-PFC Chuck

          PV pits in my day were piles of sawdust and/or wood shavings from a planer or joiner in a nearby carpentry shop. One town in southern MN where I vaulted had a sand pit. Not fun, even at the modest 9-10 foot heights I was jumping as a newbie.

  8. Chas

    The link to “Insects as food could help end hunger” didn’t work for me, but I’ll comment anyway based on the headline. I wonder if there will be enough insects around to keep the birds alive not to mention providing food for humans. Usually by this time of year I’ve had to wash my windshield at the gas station three or four times. This year I haven’t had to wash it once. Fewer insects means fewer birds and I’ve noticed not as many swallows around as usual.

    1. Samuel Conner

      Haven’t read the item either, but based on similar-titled articles in past, I think that the concept is to raise insects at industrial scale, as a more efficient way of converting plant inputs to animal protein than the current reliance on mammals.

      Between that and hybrid natural/governance disasters like COVID, which contribute a brake on population growth, it might work.

      There isn’t an html tag for “despairing resignation”.

      1. jrkrideau

        World’s largest cricket processing plant coming to London, Ont. Note that the company seems to be focusing on dog food as thier main market but other producers in various parts of the world are selling to the human market. The FAO has a fascinating report “Edible insects: future prospects for food and feed security” (2013) ISBN 978-92-5-107595-1 available on-line.

        Depending on what part of the world you are in, some insects are a food basic or an expensive delicacy. Just depends on what you are used to.

        Prussian leaders of the 18th century famously grew potatoes in a royal field patrolled by guards

        Fact check? This strategy is usually attributed to the French Antoine Parmentier who was doing this with the support of Louis XVI. Parmentier did become a potato freak while a Prussian prisoner of war I believe

      1. JBird4049

        VPNs help, but I have noticed that more websites are denying me services if I am shown by the VPN to be in an unapproved location, do not let them infest me with cookies or do not tell them my life story. Soon, I expect to be required to give them fingerprints, retinal prints, and DNA.

    3. Henry Moon Pie

      Raising insects for food is one of the options in “Surviving the Aftermath,” a video game about surviving the “aftermath.” When I was in high school, we used to go to the snack bar and pick up a Moon Pie after math.

    4. .human

      Many years ago when my nephew was a todler and offered a lobster for dinner, he exlaimed, “I’m not eating that big bug.”

      2. Yves Smith

        In Australia, a crustacean somewhere between a crawfish and lobster in size is called bug and some fancy foodie mag included it in its list of 10 best ingredients in the world. I had bug once. IMHO not enough different from lobster to earn all that praise.

      3. jrkrideau

        I detest PB&J so I am not buying them. Sautéd crickets are quite good but since I was catching them myself on the front lawn I never had enough for adventurist cooking.

        1. aletheia33

          not sure if this was meant, but something about this comment really cracked me up! thank you

    6. Kouros

      I like also how first we find that Netherlands wants to cut 1/3 of its livestock (chickens, pigs, cattle) and then towards the end we are prodded to eat insects…

      or freedom beef from the US, now that freedom gas molecules are freely sailing across the Atlantic and replacing authoritarian Russian gas.

      It seems to me that Americans really hate competition because it is clear they cannot compete.

  9. Eclair

    RE: Life expectancy graph, illustrating abysmal performance of USA vs the G7. As well as our ‘bending of the curve’ beginning in 2008.

    And, add to that the steadily widening gap between life expectancies by income in the USA. Yes, Virginia, the 1% can expect to enjoy their mega-carbon-producing lifestyles for more than ten years longer than the poor shlub who makes minimum wage.

    1. Stick'em

      A study on the issue found the rising death rate for this group is not due to the ailments that commonly kill so many Americans, like diabetes and heart disease, but rather by an epidemic of suicides, liver disease caused by alcohol abuse, and overdoses of heroin and prescription opioids.

      “No war, no catastrophe,” Chomsky says, caused the spiking mortality rate for this population. “Just the impact of policies over a generation that have left them, it seems, angry, without hope, frustrated, causing self-destructive behavior.”

      https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-noam-chomsky-white-mortality_n_56cf8618e4b0bf0dab31838f

      2. eg

        Oh, it’s a war alright — Buffett admitted as much a decade ago.

        And the results are an ongoing catastrophe for the well-being of America and millions of its people.

  10. ambrit

    Echoing the comment above about the Kagan Spin Machine propaganda exercise known as the Institute for the Study of War, I direct your attention to the Pyrotechnics Panegyric in the latest issue of Foreign Policy magazine. I sincerely hope that those issuing such blatant falsehoods do not believe their ‘product.’
    It looks like a trial balloon for the use by NATO of tactical nuclear weapons against the Russian and allied troops in the Ukraine. Several times, Putin is described as a political opportunist and latent warmonger. All the old lies about bombing civilians indiscriminately, “illegal” invasions, run down Russian troops, and a hapless, bumbling Russian leadership are trotted out.
    The unspoken thrust of the piece is clear to any who will read between the lines. The Russians are Evil, Stupid, and basically cowards and bullies. Everyone ‘knows’ that the best way to deal with ‘bullies’ is to call their bluff and go all out in the fighting. Tactical nukes would be perfect for such a purpose.
    If this is the thinking in the “Corridors of Power” in the West, then I am very worried. The charges against the Russians here would qualify as a classic case of “projection.” If so, then our “leaders” are delusional and will come ‘down to earth’ only when the mushroom clouds bloom above Western cities and military bases.
    Stay safe. Keep a low profile. Do not look at the flash.

    1. The Rev Kev

      The Russians could help solve that problem by informing Washington that they will regard any tactical nuke used as actually coming from the country that manufactured that nuke – and then take retaliatory steps as a direct consequence.

        1. rowlf

          Maybe the phrasing was off. Maybe try consensus centers.

          Jeez, we’re ruled by idiots. Who thought letting descendants of immigrants with grudges decide US foreign policy was a good idea? Can the US State Department set their hiring priorities to First Nations members only?

          Isolationism and Autarky: Live To See Another Day.

      2. jrkrideau

        As Kouros said they have issued such a warning several times plus for years the Russian Federation has been issuing more general warnings. Now if Washington isnot no stupid….

        Say your prayers for sanity in the Pentagon.

    2. Samuel Conner

      A feature of the R offensive is that the linear density of troops along the front is very low by the standards of past high-intensity conflicts. The Rs don’t need to mass large numbers of troops on narrow frontages to break through U defenses; they’re plowing the defenses with artillery before the ground forces move into contact — and the artillery doesn’t need to be massed in a small area since it can strike from range.

      I think that tactical nukes don’t make military sense in a low-density-of-combat forces environment like this. The harm they would inflict on the Rs can be achieved, I think, nearly as well with conventional weapons. They would simply be a provocation and invitation to escalation. I think that the military thinkers in US will oppose their use. If the political leaders insist on it, I imagine that a “Constitutional crisis” might ensue.

      1. Gawr Gura

        When has something not making sense ever stopped the Western elites? They function on their own ridiculous logic.

    3. Tom Stone

      The Biden Administration is,IMO, perfectly capable of initiating a Nuclear War.
      The level of Hubris,venality,delusion and incompetence being demonstrated by our elites is spectacular.
      The Steelhead and redwoods don’t deserve to be destroyed in Nuclear fire,let’s let climate change take care of that…
      It’s going to be interesting to see how the Feds react when a big chunk of a SW City goes up in flames about the time this wave or the next wave of Covid becomes too obvious to ignore.
      The whole Southwest and the whole of the Sierra’s are crispy dry and the rains don’t come until October, when they come.
      Here in Sonoma County1/3 of the Covid relief staff has been laid off,the County Fair is scheduled to open mid Month and I’m hearing about more cases every time I talk to someone, it’s between 15-20 cases now.
      Maybe we’ll get lucky…

    4. Socal Rhino

      Perhaps a reason Russia published a list of map coordinates for Western decision-making centers, including the Pentagon. I saw twitteratti mocking this (look, the Russians discovered maps) so message likely received.

    5. XXYY

      Stay safe. Keep a low profile. Do not look at the flash.

      I’m worried to say that for a few seconds this sounded like good advice.

  11. The Rev Kev

    “My God. What would have happened if the agents had let Trump go to the Capitol?”

    I can make a pretty good guess what would have happened. Upon arrival, Trump would have taken a good look at that mob moving towards the Capital Building, realized that any major brawl or worse penetration into that building would all be blamed on him personally. So he would have corralled that mob with a speech and gotten them to either back off, go to town and celebrate with a few brewskies, or he would have led them elsewhere and then called it a day. Trump may not be smart but he is as cunning as a s***-house rat and would never have let it get out of hand like it did. And that mob would have listened to him too.

    1. Samuel Conner

      > would never have let it get out of hand like it did

      IIRC, the invasion of the Capitol preceded DJT’s appeal to the protesters to “go home” by several hours. My interpretation is that he was perfectly happy with the way things worked out. Perhaps he hoped that the certification of the electors would be prevented.

    2. griffen

      Maybe he would have given a hearty bro-hug to his 2nd in command, having already thrown Vice President Pence to the proverbial wolves. \sarc

      Trump was just off the reservation with cray cray and I doubt he could walk back the crowd as they marched onward and upward. To this day what pisses me off the most is how the hell Pence deserved any of it, and I’m certainly sympathetic to those who dislike Pence.

      1. Samuel Conner

        The Pence/DJT relationship looked to me a great deal like an abusive relationship. Did P soldier on out of duty to the Republic, or was there a kind of codependency? Maybe future biographers will figure it out.

      1. Katniss Everdeen

        No freakin’ kidding.

        All three Democratic members of the state election board voted against certification of the Green Party while the body’s two Republicans voted in favor.

        The board said after the vote that it opted “not to recognize the Green Party as an official political party in North Carolina” due to “an ongoing investigation into evidence of fraud and other irregularities in the petition process used to seek ballot access for the party.”
        —
        Allegations that the Green Party committed fraud in the signature-collection process have come primarily from the Elias Law Group, a firm that serves as general counsel for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).

        The Carolina Journal reported Thursday that shortly after the Green Party submitted the signatures it had collected for ballot representation, “the Elias Law Group was able to get the names and addresses of those who signed through a public-records request.”

        “These Green Party supporters were then repeatedly called, texted, and visited at home by Democrat operatives and asked to sign forms to renounce their earlier signature of the petition,” the Journal noted.

        Plain as the nose on your face.

      2. marym

        Dems have a shameful and documented history of trying to keep the Green Party off the ballot. It’s pretty blunt and overt.

        What surprises me about 2020 – supposedly a multi-faceted scheme involving multiple points of vulnerability in multiple locations, impacting only the presidential votes, and undetected by cameras, procedural controls, or witnesses – is that anyone would think the Democrats have the brains and organizational skill to pull it off.

        And yet I think Republicans can pull off an equally complex scheme at all those vulnerable points in 2024, so who can say? They’re making it legal to do it openly though.

    4. flora

      The idea T “lunged for the steering wheel”, is, uh… unlikely. See limo photo.
      https://www.publishedreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Limo-Steering-Wheel.jpg

      There’ always a row of seats between potus seating and driver, there’s also a sound/bullet proof glass partition between driver and passengers with an intercom for communication. Glass partition can be raised or lowered. In an unruly scene I’d expect the partition to be raised.
      “Lunged for the steering wheel”? I doubt it.

        1. Michael Ismoe

          But Cassidy swore under oath that it was “The Beast”. Could she have misremembered her story?

          1. marym

            There’s been much twittering about whether people sometimes refer to whichever vehicle the president is using as the Beast.

    5. smashsc

      He would’ve grabbed a megaphone and done his best “Reagan in Berlin” imitation: “Madame Speaker, take down those barriers”.

        1. Mildred Montana

          You say above that Trump would have called it off if he’d been there. I couldn’t disagree more. He was perfectly fine with long-distance inciting, why would he change his mind when he had his supporters at his back and the enemy in his sights, so to speak?

          I think people misunderstand Trump, because his is so beyond the pale of normal behavior. What we rational people might do in a certain situation is probably not what Trump would do.

          Trump is a bully and therefore, almost by definition, not smart but also not cunning. He is a stupid man and his tactics have consisted and will continue to consist of brute force without guile, subtlety, or Machiavellian strategies.

          To quote the much-less-worse George W. Bush, he should not be “mis-underestimated”.

          1. Katniss Everdeen

            So you actually think he’d have “cunningly” grabbed an american flag as a “lethal weapon” and led the charge to find aoc, dragged her from her hidey hole like Saddam Hussein and burned her at the stake?

            Good lord.

          2. CarlH

            You think Trump is much worse than Bush? That is madness. Trump didn’t set an entire region of the world on fire, nor start and maintain a worldwide torture program. Just those two things make it no contest. Bush was infinitely worse than Trump.

            1. John Wright

              Thanks,

              I frequently speak with “Progressives” who state that Trump was worse than Bush.

              Bush’s foreign body count is in the 100’s of thousands, but apparently foreigners don’t matter.

              Bush did illegal surveillance on citizens and waged a war of choice (euphemism for “illegal”) on Iraq and justified torture.

              Then there is the number of Bush’s own citizens who died/were damaged pursuing his wars as more soldiers died (7057) than were citizens killed in 9-11 (2996)

              See “Costs of the 20-year war on terror: $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths”

              https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-09-01/costsofwar

              Bush is the “Babe Ruth” of bad presidents, while Trump is a very minor leaguer.

              The ongoing “rehabilitation” of George W. Bush is disheartening and discouraging..

              1. Anthony G Stegman

                I’ll go further. To-date Joe Biden is worse than Trump. Biden may well end up being worse than Bush Lite if he winds up triggering nuclear war with Russia and/or China.

            2. Mildred Montana

              >”You think Trump is much worse than Bush?”

              Okay, I should have said “less-worse” rather than “much-less-worse”. I concede that.

              As far as Bush’s wars go, I doubt things would have been different with any other president. After all, the USA has been in the business of war since its inception, and policy is often dictated by the Pentagon, not the president or Congress.

              But. Bush was never a threat to the USA, its constitution, or its institutions. Trump is.

              1. Amfortas the hippie

                not,perhaps, Bush2 the man, but the shadow apparatus behind him….they were the real threat to whatever remains of the Republic(not a whole lot)
                and they have not gone away.
                they’re in the bidetadmin, right now, driving what counts for “foreign policy”…mostly chestbeating and branchwaving and shoveling mountains of shit into the waters of our cumulative mind..
                see:Nuland

              2. flora

                Patriot Act (supposed to sunset but re-approved by O).

                John Yoo, Bush’s Deputy Assist AG, Torture Memos (memorandums) written for Bush’s DoJ overriding US law wrt torture.

                Dick Cheney. (needs no explanation) / ;)

              3. Anthony G Stegman

                Perhaps the USA institutions and Constitution need to be threatened. Perhaps they need to scrapped. That is becoming increasingly clear to me. It’s time for a Reset. Not the type envisioned by the World Economic Forum, but a reset nonetheless.

                1. drumlin woodchuckles

                  The Koch Brothers have their ALEC Libertarian Constitution all set and ready to go.

                  Be careful what you wish for.

              4. dave

                “Bush was never a threat to the USA, its constitution, or its institutions. Trump is.”

                I see this assertion here and there. People just throw it out there, Trump is a threat to our institutions and even to democracy itself, but they never are specific as to what exactly that means.

              5. drumlin woodchuckles

                Sure Bush was. And part of the reason the establishment hates Trump so much is that he obstructed further wars the establishment wanted to roll out.

                Well . . . . and his ostentatiously vulgar fashion sense. They hate him for that too. Author Tom Wolfe once referred to the fashion sense of ostentatiously counter-tasteful rich people as ” Hog-stomping Baroque”.

                If I ever get to New York City, I will budget at least a whole day to explore the Trump Tower and maybe other Icons of Trump Taste and Style. Marinate my brain in a bucket of Hog Stomping Baroque-ness.

              6. drumlin woodchuckles

                Bush created the vacuum which sucked Obama into office. And Obama created the new and improved vacuum which sucked Trump into office.

                I wonder who the Biden Vacuum will suck into office?

          3. JCC

            Yes.

            I think it’s important to remember that Trump received his crowd control training with the WWE (where he has been ensconced in the WWE Hall Of Fame)

          4. marym

            He probably expected to be greeted with cheers, the crowd parting to make way for him to [fill in fantasy: speechmaking, crown-donning…]. I don’t have a guess as to what he (or secret service) would have done if they were already rowdy and noisy and smashing stuff.

            I think there was an element of “and then the miracle occurs” at some point in each element of the election subversion scheme. Somehow, a court case, a call to a state election official, disruption or rejection in counting popular or electoral ballots – results in “the miracle” and Trump continues to be president and everyone else resumes their previous life.

    6. Stick'em

      re: “My God. What would have happened if the agents had let Trump go to the Capitol?”

      Pretty certain Steve Austin moonlights as Secret Service/Special Ops on his days off from the ring.

      So it’s very certain Austin would have laid the Stone Cold Stunner smackdown on Trump, had The Donald tried to go to the Capitol himself to further hype the crowd during his victory over Vince McMahon Joe Biden.

      https://www.wwe.com/videos/stone-cold-steve-austin-nails-donald-trump-with-the-stunner-wrestlemania-23

    7. Wukchumni

      I want to believe Hutch Cassidy & the Hearsay Kid as much as the next innocent bystander, but Trump is the most out of shape President we’ve had since Taft, not really capable of a lunge.

      1. Katniss Everdeen

        Dunno. Trump may be portly, but at least he doesn’t need a printed card reminding him that first he puts the left foot forward, then the right, and repeat until the destination is reached when the action called for is walking.

        1. caucus99percenter

          YOU order the aide to OPEN the briefcase with the nuclear codes, place it in front of YOU, and activate the COMMS LINK.

          YOU confirm to the Secretary of Defense that YOU are ordering a nuclear strike.

          …

        2. Wukchumni

          I guess the teetotalitarian leader could do a poll vault, influence things in Georgia.

    8. Katniss Everdeen

      “My God. What would have happened if the agents had let Trump go to the Capitol?”

      You see this framing everywhere. No one ever says what they think would have happened. It’s somehow supposed to be “obvious.”

      Trump would have looked presidential. The “insurrection” that the fbi worked so hard to incite would have been blunted if not thwarted. Trump would have been seen as putting his money where his mouth was. The democrats’ last ditch effort to make sure they’d never have to face Trump again would have been far harder if not impossible to milk pre-midterms. liz cheney would still be a republican.

      I’d “imagine” the thought of Trump’s getting the situation under control was terrifying to its choreographers since there was no grassy knoll or book depository available on such short notice.

  12. griffen

    The McKinsey tweet, well is not the current Secretary of Transportation a product of that world? I really learn a lot from Secretary Pete, this weekend on the tv news he is asking the airlines to stress test their scheduling. And he has done a bang up job, let’s all be even and fair to him. \sarc

    I would put McKinsey up in rarefied air with oh, Grover Norquist dispensing on tax strategy. Useful in specific circumstances, for certain, but overall full of themselves. Closing thought along this line. Private equity is always the smart money. Not always the case.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Wow. Things are moving fast. The Russians have already captured their next target of Bilohorivka so the Ukrainian forces must be collapsing in their retreat.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN-xYPNeJYY (4:57 mins)

      And once that cauldron is mopped up, it should release several Russian battalion tactical group for operations elsewhere. They must be panicking in Washington and Brussels right now.

      1. digi_owl

        Ugh, the last thing i want is for panic to set in when those that panic has access to a certain football…

      2. Lex

        Reports of fighting and even Ukrainian withdrawal from Seversk. If true, that’s bordering on full collapse of UAF. That was the retreat, regroup, defend point from Lisichansk.

  14. Louis Fyne

    —Is Using Nuclear Weapons Still Taboo? Foreign Policy—

    The 1983 gameplan for WW3 was that if the Russians ever got to far into Germany, the US would nuke the Russian army into submission.

    I doubt that was plausible then or now. Looking at the Russian army (and allied Donbas, Chechan, Cossack, etc.) deployments, the Russian army is too diffuse for tactical nuclear weapons to have any meaningful impact on battle outcomes, except get Brussels (NATO HQ) or Ramstein Air Base (main US base in Europe) nuked on the same day.

    1. jr

      Gotta love the language. “Taboo”. As if prohibitions against using nukes were some kind of superstition. More rational thinkers would at least conduct a cost/benefit analysis of possibly triggering a full scale nuclear exchange, I guess.

      1. caucus99percenter

        I know, right? As if the only moral check keeping humanity from annihilating itself is that darn Norms Fairy…

        > cost/benefit analysis of possibly triggering a full scale nuclear exchange

        “Death by spreadsheet,” like when Edward Tufte called NASA management practices “death by PowerPoint.”

    2. The Rev Kev

      I met a guy who was a soldier with the British Army On The Rhine back in the early 80s and asked him what the most important part of his kit was. Without a pause, he said that it was his Calais to Dover ferry ticket.

    3. digi_owl

      Go back further and you find that lovely “toy” known as Davy Crockett.

      A man portable nuke with less firing range than blast radius.

      The issued soldier was expected to fire, dive flat, and pray.

      1. Mikel

        “The issued soldier was expected to fire, dive flat, and pray.”
        That’s right in line with that insanity they taught school childrenin the 50s & 60s about diving in ditches and under desks, in the event of a nuclear attack.

        Right in line with today’s governmental Covid precautions – “figure it out yourself despite the lies and misinformation that keeps on coming.”

        Wouldn’t want to upset the economic confidence fairy being guided by the invisible hand…..

        1. jr

          Those kids had a better plan than the people I’ve talked to about a nuclear war. They just don’t think it can happen. No one would do such a thing. And if it did happen, it would be somewhere else. I must admit I slightly relish informing them that there are nuclear armed Russian subs not too far off our coast and we would have around seven minutes in the event of an attack.

    4. hk

      I seriously doubt Washington DC and NYC would survive a stunt like that. (US leaders may be nuts enough to think Brussels (silly Europeans) or US military (full of deplorables) are expendable, alas, if they were the only likely targets)

  16. lyman alpha blob

    RE: Research into oldest known burial field in the Netherlands sheds new light on traditional gender roles

    So these social “scientists” just figured out that tools aren’t gender-specific, did they? Women used a hand axe! Who would have thunk it! They could have saved a lot of time and effort just watching my grandmother work a dairy farm while raising four kids.

    Hard to tell if they’re actually serious about this “discovery” or if they just want to jump on the hip polygenger idpol bandwagon to get a few extra clicks.

    2. jax

      Re: Research into oldest known burial field in Netherlands shed new light on traditional gender roles

      [Disclaimer: I’m a woman.] I’m in my mid-seventies and the version of ancient history and philosophy I was given was “great men, great battles.” The contributions of women were effectively erased, nowhere more effectively than within the Judeo-Christian mythology. Thus, the mythos of “man the hunter, woman the gatherer” has been so deeply implanted into the brain that it’s necessary for articles like this to counter the received wisdom. The concurrent mythos of Neolithic bands to tribes to chiefdoms to kingdoms, all headed by a bloodthirsty patriarch, needs to be destroyed as well. I’ve just finished a thought-provoking book by anthropologist David Graeber and archeologist David Wengrow titled ‘The Dawn of Everything, A new History of Humanity.” The book is based on the past 30 years of research in their fields in which grave goods play a considerable role. It is within their stories that we find women buried with battle axes or bows and arrows, demonstrating that some women at least were considered warriors. While this article is short on facts about the population group, it does appear that because the treasured objects were found in everyone’s grave, we “might” come to the conclusion that this society was relatively egalitarian. It’s important to know that this kind of social arrangement is not a blip in history, but a continuing experiment shaped by communal political decisions throughout the past 7,000 years, cumulating in the quasi egalitarian arrangements of some Native American civilizations prior to invasion, and so shocking to Europe that its philosophers had to come to terms with Native criticism of their social relations. In the new stories of the advent of civilizations women come back into view as hunters of small game, agrarian scientists, creators of textiles (often found in grave goods), and particularly as persons holding the myths of a given society. We begin to glimpse long epochs extending into thousands of years where men and women are creating social relations on relatively equal terms and that yes, tools were not gender-specific, nor roles such as warrior or chieftain. While I find this article short on specifics – density of population, for one – I’m glad it adds to the increasing evidence that human nature is not per se Hobbesian.

      1. Lex

        There’s a little section in one of Campbell’s in depth survey books where he argues that magic (and hence religion as we understood it) is all based on a male usurpation of female power. That females are imbued with magic would be obvious, inescapable really: they create life. So men, jealous of that magic, started in with the secret societies and magic rites and eventually managed to banish female magic. It’s overly simplistic and kind of the opposite of the standard history but at least allows for a perspective shift. I’m with Graeber and Wengrow generally that the whole of human history is a lot more cooperative than what we’re taught. Like maybe the females encouraged the boys to go build a fort in the woods for a super secret club. I also suspect that both hunting and gathering were shared by all, much more efficient than we’re led to believe, etc.

  17. The Rev Kev

    ‘Tonight, 68 White House journalists asked @PressSec to end the mysterious prescreening of reporters let into President Biden’s events, calling it ‘antithetical to the concept of a free press’

    Yet another case where Trump proved himself a better leader than Joe Biden. And that is a pretty low Limbo dance that. Back in 2017 in the first days of his Presidency, he opened up the press pool to all sorts of publications who were normally squeezed out by the main stream media. Apparently the DC press corps were really uncomfortable with sharing ‘their’ press room with people who did not know the rules of what they were supposed to report – or not. Talk about hilarity ensuing.

    1. Hendy

      But, doesn’t having a lesboc press secretary, even though incompetent and befuddled, make up for all that?

      The Biden regime is beginning to look, scratch that, is more like the court jesters, than the royal court.

      How do you say Let Them Eat Electric Cars in French?

      BTW, why can’t the U.K. just ban “flushable” wipes, or, make the manufacturers post money in an escrow account to clean up their mess?

  18. simjam

    Does anyone know who in the Biden Administration is in charge of foreign policy and who takes responsibility for actions taken? I have seen nothing for many months in the mainstream or alternative media on who is actually making final decisions. I suspect that it is Susan Rice but I have no evidence to support this.
    Does anyone have a clue?

    1. Bugs

      Nominally, it’s Blinken. In practice, it’s Nuland. In reality, it’s an open role.

      2. NotTimothyGeithner

        Don’t underestimate Biden. He’s long fancied himself a tough guy foreign policy realist who can spout nonsense like the problem in the Middle East is Europeans drew nonsensical political boundaries (except for Israel and some desert areas, the lines are the old Ottoman provinces) that he likely pulled from his high school days. Back in the mid-00’s, he advocated splitting Iraq into 3 countries because ethnics can never get along (the irony of a Catholic Senator from south of the mason Dixon line in the US spouting this never ceases to amaze me), but this wasn’t even the dumbest part. He wanted to turn southern Iraq into a shiite only state despite the region having a historic capital in Ur, Babylon, and Baghdad. Biden like most people has a political understanding that likely hasn’t evolved since high school.

        And he’s a failed domestic president. He needs to find foreign policy wins. And remember he’s very stupid.

        1. hk

          I don’t think “underestimating” Biden is the problem, but rather the likelihood that he fancies himself an expert and is too involved while preventing others from “getting in his way” and doing too good a job at it

      3. griffen

        Like, come on man. The adults are so very back in charge. I’d assume it’s Tony, who must stay busy when he’s not spouting nonsense at commencement speeches and paraphrasing Taylor Swift.

        Still thank the Rev for pointing out that wonderful material.

      4. Hendy

        https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/28/ukraine-latest-neocon-disaster

        Read this and you will understand. Russia’s just doing what we said we were doing in Syraquistanlibya

        “Kagan penned the article as a private citizen while his wife Victoria Nuland was the US Ambassador to NATO under George W. Bush, Jr. Nuland has been the neocon operative par excellence. In addition to serving as Bush’s Ambassador to NATO, Nuland was Barack Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs during 2013-17, where she participated in the overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, and now serves as Biden’s Undersecretary of State guiding US policy vis-à-vis the war in Ukraine.”

  19. caucus99percenter

    Dems arm Nazis when I vote blue
    There’s s’posed to be a difference between the two!
    Ukraine — running all ’round my brain

    Economy’s tankin’, things are insane
    Bosses an’ rich folks all yellin’ “Ukraine!”
    Ukraine — runnin’ all ’round my brain

    Late last night about a quarter past four
    Zerensky come knockin’ down my hotel room door
    Hawkin’ Ukraine — now it’s runnin’ all ’round my brain

    I was talking to my doctor down at the hospital
    He said, “Son, they say they’re the G-seven,
    But that’s impossible
    Ukraine — looks more like downfall, ’45”

    Losing touch with reality, as out of it as Joe
    One percent’s fine, ninety-nine percent’s dyin’… hate it but it’s so
    Ukraine — runnin’ all ’round my brain

    (cf. ♫ Cocaine, Jackson Browne blues version)

    1. griffen

      Nice. Jackson is playing on my vintage 2001 Bose cd player this morning (once upon gifted to Mom, now I have it). Might have to play that excellent album next.

  21. Mark Gisleson

    From the Thom Hartmann thread:

    12/ Wolf Blitzer announces that DeSantis has won the election, and millions of people pour into the streets to protest. They’re met with a hail of bullets as Republican-affiliated militias have been rehearsing for this exact moment.

    I find this one bit of speculation to be classic Neoliberal overprojection. Give this thread time to marinate and eventually we’ll learn that the militia bullets have been dipped in Holy Water to kill Democrat vampires.

    In truth, I wish the Republicans had this much ambition. It would be nice to think that someone thinks this country is worth fighting to save.

      1. Stick'em

        This is the meme these right wing websites juxtapose as the reason Carl Denkel is crying:

        https://www.vicetv.com/en_us/video/all-white-people-are-racist/599b5654344570014e07550c

        So the salient exemplar cherry picked to battle against Denkel’s “this is not the country he fought for” on 4th of July weekend is “all white people are racist.”

        Hoo boy… still waiting for Joe Biden to make good on his campaign promise to “unite the country,” aren’t we?

        1. Glen

          I went and listened to the veteran’s comments. In the clip I saw all he specifically said concerning how the country has changed is “they won’t have the fun I had, and they wont have the opportunities I had”, and I certainly cannot disagree with that, but I don’t see how that links to the ViceTV clip. You could just as easily point at this:

          Why We Are Still Living in Ronald Reagan’s America
          https://www.newsweek.com/2021/08/06/why-we-are-still-living-ronald-reagans-america-1613723.html

          I’m assuming his family might know better how he feels, but if it’s a comparison of America from when he entered service in WW2, well, that was FDR’s vision of America which is no longer the America that we live in.

      2. Hendy

        He and the others, should have stayed home in WWII.
        No Soviet Union,
        No Iron Curtain,
        No Korea,
        No Vietnam
        No Middle East,
        You’d have many more
        relatives and we’d live in a richer country.

        1. JBird4049

          This sounds like American hating for the sake of it. I am extremely happy to critique the very many war crimes and crimes against humanity of both the Americans and the Europeans. They have been the cause of great evil.

          However, before saying that the Americans should not have joined the Second World War, I would consider the extreme racism, jingoism, xenophobia, and genocidal methods both physical and cultural of the Germans, the Japanese, and their allies; it would be at the cost of no more Poles, Georgians, Ukrainians, Belorussians, Jews, Croats, Bosnians, Koreans and Chinese. That is a lot of murdering. Just look at both the prewar planning and the wartime atrocities. The Germans had some well developed plans. Heck, read about the Germany’s Wannsee Conference or the Japanese Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere along with the Rape of Nanking and Unit 731.

          Just because the Allies especially the Americans, British, and the French or the Soviets under Joseph Stalin, really screwed up post World War II, it does not mean that not fighting the Second World War was the right choice. Although one can make an extremely good argument for the United States to not go into the First World War, after the Treaty of Versailles, absent any serious changes in policy (or historical outcomes of several civil wars) from the United States, the British Empire, France, Germany, Japan, and just maybe Poland or Italy the Second World War was going to happen. As Ferdinand Foche said “This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.” Although he thought the treaty was too mild.

          Once the Nazis in Germany and the hardline militarists in Japan won the semi civil wars, the various genocides were probably going to happen. When the Japanese dragged the United States into the war, the various genocides either were ongoing or about to happen. Japanese did so because the United States was not going to give them more oil and scrap metal to keep invading China and its war with the Allies was a roll of the dice.

          So, which set of atrocities would be preferable?

          1. hk

            One needs to be very careful generalizing these things: WW2 alliances got to be very weird in Eastern Europe and even more so, in Asia. There is a huge variety in the way people remember Japan’s role in WW2 in Asia (this is as relevant in Asia as in Ukraine, specifically with regards Taiwan vs PRC.)

            1. JBird4049

              It would be easy to embarrass myself, I know. It is just the reflexive “America Bad!” annoys me. Although I guess that I reflexively responded myself.

          2. drumlin woodchuckles

            You are correct. World War One is the war that America should not have joined.

            And anyway, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, America declared War on Japan alone and only. If Hitler had not declared War on America to help his good ally Japan, it is doubtful that the American Congress would have declared War on Germany. So Hitler made the decision to bring American into the War in Europe.

            And if is reasonable to think that if Hitler Germany had won that war, they would have digested their conquest and built up their power and invaded America in due course at some future point.

    2. jr

      Hartmann has always struck me as being borderline hysterical. Here he is discussing America’s slide into fascism starting with Eisenhower as the last non-fascist Republican:

      https://youtu.be/vYgDyPWuRgA

      We are headed towards “Oligarchy and fascism.” The Democrats apparently played no role in all this. He is rarely critical of Team Blue and if he is, it’s always isolated instances. No broader conception of a systemic failure. Plus Russiagate. $hit-lib myopia.

      1. hk

        Paraphrasing Huey Long (prophetic remark): American fascism will be called anti-fascism.

    3. Kouros

      Something must be done to remind people that the US is, constitutionally, a (plutocratic?) Republic and not a Democracy…

    4. Oh

      I saw that Democrat neoliberal scum who masquerades as a populist Hartmann was in the links and I deliberately did not read his latest BS. He worship at the alter of Barack and Joe.

  22. Mikel

    “UN Warns of ‘Total Societal Collapse’ Due to Breaching of Planetary Boundaries Defend” Democracy Press

    “…Global Catastrophic Risk (GCR) events are defined as those leading to more than 10 million fatalities or greater than $10 trillion in damages…”

    This would have to happen within a short time frame to make an impression.
    So what’s the time frame for millions of deaths to occur in order to leave an impression on death cult economy worshippers?
    #let ‘er rip #opiod crisis #bang-bang, pow-pow #we don’t need no stinking clean water

  23. super extra

    > Re: Chaos is a Ladder The Reformed Broker

    This IS worth reading, including for a fantastic bit on how crazy the online makes people. An abbreviated quote:

    Twitter is a toxic environment for impressionable investors. The people taking the biggest losses today are among the most extremely online people in our society. Stay out of rabbit holes. Most of them do not contain a treasure chest at the bottom. … When you ask “How could an otherwise normal middle aged man who works a 40 hour week and raises a family end up on the steps of the Capitol building swinging a hockey stick at police officers?” the answer is The Internet.

    100% agree and believe this. NC commenting is about the extent of my participation in the online. Computers were in the 486 era when I was an impressionable adolescent and by the time social media came around I was already sort of jaded about online stuff, so I’ve never really gotten into any of the social medias. It is actually very easy to see how it has scrambled the brains of those who have made it a part of their life for years, if you don’t use it. I dipped a toe in for a year during the initial phase of the pandemic becuase I was so bored – just twitter – and it was shocking how much time it wasted. I’d rather play Breath of the Wild again for my time wasting, thanks

    1. jr

      “NC commenting is about the extent of my participation in the online.”

      NC has spoiled me a bit in that whenever I feel compelled to comment on Youtube, I forget the signal to noise ratio is off the charts. Even the measured responses are generally dull and devoid of compelling content. When I do comment, I keep it brief. On more than one occasion I’ve considered opening a Twitter account but then I’ll remember it’s a dopamine/rage trigger on meth and I don’t need that.

      1. Late Introvert

        The fact that any idiot can reply, and all of them do so quickly and without remorse is an immediate repellant. I’m talking about the Tweeter. I manage a YooTube channel at work and only approved comments are allowed there as well. I like contrary opinions just fine, but idiots not so much.

  24. The Rev Kev

    ‘one of the most disturbing demographic data trends you’ve ever seen.
    the united states—pre-pandemic, mind you—vastly underperforming the g7 in life expectancy’

    As Lambert would say, everything is going to plan.

    1. caucus99percenter

      Policymaking at the top was already “flattening the curve” before it was cool?

  25. Data Prepper

    Regarding the Cargill sailing cargo ship,
    Years ago, I had thought to write to Richard Branson, since he liked sailing, to suggest a sailing ship experiment for his travel enterprise. With satellite connection, high-end PMC could work from said ship for the weeks it would take to cross the Atlantic. That would be a better virtue signal than, well, anything else offered they’ve done. I never did it, though. Nice to see the Cargill experiment.

    1. Eric F

      Yes, it’s a nice thought, but the picture attached to the article is an obvious photoshop mockup.
      They didn’t even bother to put the masts on the centerline of the ship.

      But consider the size of those sails. How can they possibly furl those things in the inevitable gale?
      I doubt it could capsize such a massive vessel, but wind could certainly rip those things off the deck.
      Also, how much help will realistically sized sails be on a vessel displacing many thousands of tons of water?

      I’ll believe it when I see it in real life.

      1. Glen

        I remember seeing one in port with the sails furled very similar to this:

        Engineering : Japan’s sail assisted merchant ship (1983)
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U250mCuxPPw

        I think it was a Japanese bulk lumber carrier in port to pick up logs. I cannot remember the exact date but would place it as sometime in the 90’s. I should have took some pictures as these were extremely rare birds to see back then, and long gone by now.

  26. The Rev Kev

    “The Dutch Farmers’ Protest and the War on Food”

    We are right now heading for world food shortages and problems are already hitting Europe. So Rutte’s government want you to know that they know exactly what to do. Cut food production. This makes no sense but then I remembered that this is being done by the same people that organized sanctions on Russia which is going to lead Europe into a cold, dark poverty-stricken winter. Looks like the saying ‘You will own nothing, and be happy’ actually means ‘You will own nothing, and be hungry.’

    Still, there may be an underlying method to this madness. The article said ‘In real terms, this ultimately means reducing the number of pigs, chickens and cows by about thirty per cent.’ Of course the common denominator is that they are all meat products. So is this part of a larger effort to reduce meat consumption by people? I would be not surprised. So is this a push to make people adopt environmentally-friendly meat-free diets?

    As that other article on bugs says ‘Animal protein derived from cows, chicken and pig takes up 80 percent of the entire world’s farmland, despite only making up less than one-fifth of calories consumed globally. By freeing up livestock space, huge expanses of land across the world could be returned to native ecosystems, supporting a spectrum of biodiversity as nature intended.’ See? Same animals. So could somebody pass the grasshoppers, mealworms and crickets?

    1. caucus99percenter

      It does look as if, according to the elites’ plans, in the future only 1% — or 0.01% or, by orders of magnitude, an even tinier fraction — of humanity will be permitted to live the way well-situated people in developed countries do today.

      Everyone else will not only eat insects, they’ll — we’ll — be expected to live like insects too. In high-density urban “hives,” controlled by psycho-social messaging (marketing, entertainment) serving the same function as pheromonal signals in actual insect colonies.

      “You’ll own nothing and be happy.” Meat and other animal ag products are for the elites, not for you, silly. Now go forth, worker bee or termite, and sacrifice your own welfare for higher-caste politicians and celebrities who manage to surround themselves with a cloud of the proper self-promoting secretions.

      1. JBird4049

        The excuse given for cutting back is pollution. Chickens, sheep and cattle are highly polluting, when done using modern factory farming, but so is modern farming. I am sure that the European governments could find good ways to reduce pollution without cutting the food supply especially. It might take several years, but better that then hunger. What makes doing cutbacks necessary right now?

        In almost every government in history that I have read about efforts were always made to stop hunger, or famine at least, and those that did not succeed lost the ruling dynasty or ruling class. I am sure that there some exceptions, but not many. The British government of the 19th century would be among the few that deliberately under relieved starving populations outside of war with Ireland and India. It was profitable for the wealthy elites for this to happen.

        I guess, if I was being paranoid, that the European elites have some hidden reasons. Perhaps, the elites believe that the various militaries or their private armies will save their collective posteriors once this goes through?

      2. Nikkikat

        And while Billy boy Gates takes over our food supply, Bezos is taking all our homes. Things are grimmer by the day.

        1. Oh

          And Elon Musk is suckling on the Federal Government teat.

          Billy boy needs to STFU. He’s past his ‘use by’ date.

        2. Denzel

          Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland are making massive new profits off overcharging Americans and Europeans for food, thanks to Biden’s sanctions against Russian and Ukraine’s 1/3 of world supply being cut off.

          U.S. oil and Liquid Natural Gas companies are making massive profits off of the American peonple and the Europeans, thanks to Biden’s sanctions against Russian oil and gas.

          American weapons makers are making massive profits off of Biden’s proxy war on Russia in Ukraine.

          American corporations are trying to destroy Europe’s ability to power its industry thanks to Joe Biden’s and the neocon’s sanctions, therefore return America to a position of industrial predominance, bummer about no factories hardly left.

          Any more questions why this war is happening?, and why biological life on earth is threatened by nuclear war?
          Slava Apocolypse!

    3. Michael McK

      No need to farm insects, we all just need to eat a largely plant based diet.
      Not totally plant based though because a functional food system would include some animals integrated into many small (by US mega-farm standards) farms. It is more efficient that way. No raising crops for feed lots but a some pigs or chickens and small dairies integrated into farms turning crop residues into fertilizer and high quality food.
      Of course that means we need more farmers but I sure everyone can come up with a few occupations far to many retrainable people hold.

    4. Ranger Rick

      I was reminded of demographic doom the other day at my local grocer. A case of onions was promoting a foundation to encourage more young farmers to take up the trade, and it noted that the average age of a farmer in the US is 58. That took me aback, since the last time I checked that number was 53, but that was years ago. Things must be getting pretty grim.

      1. Anthony G Stegman

        The average age of a farmer may be misleading. Many farmers continue to work into their 70s and even 80s. The heavy labor associated with farming is long gone. It’s not clear to me why so many oldsters continue to work the farm. Why don’t they retire? Do they fear they will die soon thereafter?

          1. caucus99percenter

            Worse, their kids and grandkids are circling in the background like vultures, waiting for Gramps to die … so that all the acres of rich fertile soil he devoted his life to preserving, nurturing, and cultivating can be sold off … to a real estate developer to create a new urban-sprawl subdivision … making them rich enough to be able to live off the proceeds and never have to get their hands dirty working again.

            1. drumlin woodchuckles

              If urbanites and suburbanites want gramps’s kids and grandkids to want to maintain the acres of rich soil as a working farm the way gramps made it, then urbanites and suburbanites are going to have to be willing to pay enough for food that gramps’s kids and grandkids can make an okay living farming the farm.

              Those urbanites and suburbanites who don’t want to pay a “living wage” price for food so that gramps’s kids and grandkids can make a ” living wage” income from doing the work to produce food on the farm . . . don’t deserve to have food. And in a few decades they will get what they deserve, which is no more food.

    5. Kouros

      US Agribusiness at work? Now that the biggest exporter of gas to Europe has been dealt with, food is to be taken of the table as well…

      Maybe Michael Hudson and his Superimperialism is right after all..

        1. The Rev Kev

          At the end of WW2 there was starvation going on in the Netherlands because of the war situation. So it looks like Rutte and the Neoliberals will be bringing back those times again.

    6. drumlin woodchuckles

      We don’t eat meat for the calories. We eat it for protein, specific fats of membrane-building hormone-building relevance, etc. So “calories” is a false measure here.

      A distinction should be drawn, drawn and drawn again between petrochemical CAFO shitmeat and pasture-and-range cancer-juice-free shinola meat. I suspect the meat to be reduced in Holland is all petrochemical CAFO shitmeat. Or am I wrong?

      Of course the desire to suppress animal pastoralism all over the world is driven by Davos Man’s desire to herd every class underling into the rising urban slums and take their land for eco-playgrounds for the Davos Class. That is what “rewilding” is all about.

      ” Get those nomads out of here. They stink up my view.”

  27. Wukchumni

    Gooooooood Moooooooorning Fiatnam!

    We had to destroy the economy in order to save it, was the marching orders from on high and who were we to disagree with the brass upstairs @ Disneyland Far East in Humordor?

    Sure, we were all number-one-GI’s as far as the economists were concerned, but a Zippo Raid left a clean slate and a fresh start for villagers in suburbia. Broken widows came with the territory.

    …we didn’t think once or hesitate twice

    1. The Rev Kev

      Riffing of an old saying from the Vietnam era ‘It wasn’t much of an economy, but it was the only one that we had.’

  29. orlbucfan

    Thanks for the read on Costa Rica. Eco-tourism is major, major economics down there. So, not a good PR look. My hubster has 2 pals who are long-time permanent residents. The country is having all kinds of problems with international hackers fouling up their communication systems. Beautiful country and good people. I hope they can put the lid on the cyber crooks.

  30. spud

    the lunge testimony reminds me of a reo speedwagon song, “heard from a friend who, heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend you were lunging for the steering wheel.

  31. The Rev Kev

    ‘It’s Gettysburg-Eve – so you know what that means: if you don’t care for Civil War history, if you’re a proponent that Vicksburg was strategically more important than Gettysburg (you’re right), or if you are a normal human, you should probably mute me until July 4’

    Must be time soon to play some appropriate music here-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICnL_B39_bc (4:05 mins)

  32. Wukchumni

    Use and possession of fireworks are illegal on all land managed by the National Park Service National Park Service and Two firefighters were injured while suppressing one of the 10 fires started by Mount Rushmore fireworks in 2000 Wildfire Today. Prophylactics for conservative symbol manipulation — yes, they do it too — on fireworks at Mount Rushmore.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    When I was a kid, loved loved loved fireworks, couldn’t get enough of them, in particular the not so safe and sane kind not sold at any fireworks stand in SoCal, my eureka moment coming @ the local Texaco gas station which had a couple of pinball machines when I was barely a teenager, and some really old guy around 19 came in and asked my fellow wizards and I if we’d be interested in purchasing some, and our eyes lit up like so many roman candles as we walked out in the nearby parking lot to his circa 1971 Celica with a trunk full of everything you could desire and cheap cheap cheap!

    I bought 144 count bricks of packs of 16 firecrackers for $7 and even less for 144 count bottle rockets, it was as close to nirvana as one could get in a pyro fashion. Bottle rocket wars were my favorite and yeah you could poke somebody’s eye out, but luckily it never happened.

    It was also really the start of my entrepreneurial daze in that I became a firecracker pusher @ Mesa Robles junior high, selling those packs of firecrackers for a Quarter, and if you do the math that works out to about $35 a brick, or 500% profit for those of you scoring @ home.

    I had gone through around 5 bricks and was rightly proud of my accomplishment, when a week before graduating a fellow student approached me in class and told me if I didn’t give him a bunch of packs, he’d rat me out to the vice principal who was in charge of discipline, and I agreed to his terms and then shortly thereafter made a beeline for my locker and 24 left, 14 right and 32 left later i’d opened it up and who was standing right behind me, but the vice principal with what could only be described as a cheshire grin, he’d found the miscreant in charge of gunpowder mischief, a Dude Fawkes of sorts.

    He confiscated my goods and I got paddled good and hard and he phoned my mom and told her in no uncertain terms that although I would graduate from junior high, no way-no how was I going to be able to participate in the all important graduation ceremony, but luckily mom interceded on my behalf and I can still hear the Mesa Robles choir singing ‘Climb Every Mountain’ which I took to be my calling as it turned out.

    Sound of Music – Climb Every Mountain

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKuqySkqhHw

    1. caucus99percenter

      > got paddled good and hard

      Ha ha, does that bring back memories. At my intermediate school in late 1950’s Honolulu, Mr. K——’s title was “Counselor” but indeed his main tool was a wooden paddle. The boys’ phys ed teachers were similarly armed.

      Mr. K—— even conceded once, when I, despondent, had wandered into his office hoping for some “counseling,” that in reality his job would have more accurately been described as “disciplinarian.”

      Someone had to keep the mokes in line… (see #2)

      https://matadornetwork.com/read/10-untranslatable-hawaiian-pidgin-terms/

      1. super extra

        I was in a long term relationship with a guy who’d grown up in Hawaii (“Not a local” he was quick to explain) from a young enough age that he spoke a lot of pidgin. I think my favorite pidgin word was paniolo, used on maui for cowboys, also their music, which is like country music with ukeleles and slack guitar.

        1. caucus99percenter

          An endangered species.

          https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/arts-culture/2018-11-13/another-hawaiian-endangered-species-paniolo

          Hawai‘i’s history with cattle started in 1793, when Captain George Vancouver gave King Kamehameha six cows and a bull. With a kapu* protecting them, wild cattle became a nuisance by 1850, so the kapu was lifted and Spanish vaqueros were brought in to manage the animals. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports a new Honolulu Theatre for Youth play explores the story of Hawaiian cowboys.

          * Kapu is a Hawaiian word of which “taboo” is the Tongan cognate, the latter having been introduced into the English language by Captain James Cook.

  33. Mikel

    “In the United States, a monthly income of $3,000 is enough for a family of three. No wonder Chinese people want to go abroad.” What China Reads.

    WTH? If any of you were skeptical just looking at the headline, I almost threw everything from one side of the room to the other when I saw this part:

    “In the case of the bottom of a three-person family in Los Angeles, the family earns $3,000 a month and the wife does not work and takes care of her children….”

    So they are starting off this BS fantasy in LA (!!) with a one income family.

    “Room one is rented at a monthly rate of $950, miscellaneous electricity such as utilities, water, garbage, all free of charge, $35 for gas, $40 for telephones and $45 for the Internet.

    Food, which now costs about US$ 450 per month to a family of three,…”

    So they have just put a 3 person family in a studio apartment in the ghetto or an actual one room in a boarding house or motel. Believe me…in LA for $950 they are literally talking one room and not much in the way of private kitchen or bathroom.
    The phone cost price sounds like one land line in the room that they all share.

    “Medical care, which is covered by the company’s full health insurance, is subject to payment of only a few dozen dollars per visit, depending on the company’s medical benefits….”

    They are really just making BS up now. There are all kinds of caveats to BS health insurance.

    “Taxes, due to a three-person monthly income of US$ 3,000, belong to low-income families and receive various benefits, which are almost non-taxable per month.”

    Ok. So this fantasy is obviously talking about take home pay of $3,000 a month. You would need to make more than $36,000 a year because this BS fantasy doesn’t allow that taxes and health inurance come out of the check BEFORE PEOPLE GET THEIR CHECK. The alleged benefits and tax breaks MIGHT come after filing taxes once a year. Until then they do not have $3,000 in take home pay.

    Now that it’s been established that more than $36,000 a year needs to be made to get $3000 in take home pay, what kind of job would that be? Most that come to mind makes me think some college debt has been incurred. Other than that crazy article has some weird ideas about the availability of over $50,000 year jobs that require no college education and just how many there are.

    But then it goes on to add weirdness to this imaginary family’s budget.

    ‘Other expenses, such as clothing, such as daily supplies, would be small and $500 per month would be sufficient, especially clothing, and $10 for a T-shirt would be fine…”

    They aren’t going to have $500 plus a month lying around for incidentals because after one or two months they are going to say $500 extra is worth it for more space that includes our own bathroom and kitchen.

    This is really the kind of stupid crap they are telling people overseas as if they can’t look it all up online????

    1. JCC

      You forgot to mention the recently released stat that the average car payment today is $700.00 a month. Living in LA without a car (or anywhere else in the US for that matter) is very difficult.

      1. Ricky

        The entire family is probably on Medi-Cal, whether citizens, or illegals with one citizen child. Food pantries provide all that a family could need if different members are in lines at different times.
        Clothing is free at giveaways, as are all things like appliances, furniture etc. Just look at Craigslist free giveaways, see for yourself:

        https://losangeles.craigslist.org/search/zip?query=furniture

        Cars can be shared and there is public transit across L.A. Poor Americans need to compete with these folks for low wage jobs, bottom of the barrel housing, and unless paid in cash, are subject to withholding.

        Craigslist free section has more things free, or really cheap than one could ever need except for energy and some services. Other things covered by the California taxpayer. Look there before buying anything new and or give away or sell what you don’t need for cash.

        1. JBird4049

          I know some of this is sarcasm, but food pantries provide all the food needed? Not even if you could visit one everyday, which is impossible because they only happen around here once a week. Plus they get annoyed with anyone from the “wrong” area visits. Soup kitchens are often available for a meal every day.

          As someone who has been on SNAP and has used pantries, I can say that, if you are very fortunate and pinch money until it screams, you might make until the end of the month. Just do not tell a growing child or a teenager, or anyone who does heavy labor or even a strenuous service job to not be hungry all the time.

          And if you make enough money for even a studio, you probably do not qualify for SNAP, which is insane, but they will not adequately adjust income limits for California’s cost of living. Of course, now I can make rent so goodbye $279 a month. I should not complain as I am not living in my car and I have space for my books, but really, whenever someone starts pontificating on all the so-called help or start blaming mental illness, laziness or drug addiction as the main or even all the causes of homelessness, I just want to slap some sense into their fool head.

    2. hk

      Well, there were those stories about Canadians giving out generous COVID checks (turned out to be rather more complicated), Newsom crowing (that ppl who who were not potential recipients) about all the relief CA was giving out for a whole year before checks started going out with tons of fine print that excluded large numbers of seemingly obvious eligible people, and lots of fantasies about US COVID relief that I read in int’l press. The bottom line: people everywhere mentally paint the other lawn much greener than their own and all sorts of hucksters take advantage of this tendency.

  34. IM Doc

    The Buttigieg tweet……

    More evidence to me the Dems are doing all they can to tank this election on purpose.

    How discordant it is to hear the Sec of Transportation sound more like a travel agent or gate clerk than someone who has the ability to do at least something about this airline mess.

    My sister has been stuck in Atlanta since Friday afternoon. I sent her this tweet. Never heard her cuss like that in my life.

    1. griffen

      The replies in the thread are too priceless. At a minimum, he is getting the right amount of feedback to this nonsense. I really don’t want to fly anytime soon.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        The Pete defense brigade is hysterical. Their defense amounts to no one complains about Rick Steve offering travel tips.

        1. flora

          I’d vote for Rick Steve before I’d vote for Mayo. Steve knows what he’s talking about in his subject. / ;)

    2. NotTimothyGeithner

      Pete was the mayor of a town in a county with a board of supervisors. He’s a McKinsey brat, and beyond suggesting cost cutting, they largely seem to “network”.

      In the case of Pete, his real strength is telling old people how great they are. In era of “okay boomer”, Pete is one of the few “young” people willing to tell Biden how great he is.

    3. Wukchumni

      Peter piped up & picked a peck of pickled passengers postponed,
      A peck of passengers in a pickle Peter Piper picked;
      If Peter piped up & picked a peck of passengers in a pickle,
      Where’s the peck of passengers in a pickle Peter Piper picked?

    4. drumlin woodchuckles

      That is an interesting thought. The Democrats know what is coming and so they are working to throw this election while pretending to try winning it so as to let the Republicans own the further decline. The Democrats have a dream that we will someday come crawling back to them and beg them to rescue us. Maybe we will, maybe we won’t.

      Since Hilllary wants to be the Captain so badly, let her be the Captain. She might be the one Democrat who could keep all the rats on board the ship as it goes down. We don’t want the rats to survive.

  36. Jason Boxman

    As I live under the Great Barrington Democrats regime, I’m wondering what difference Trumping winning in 2024 even makes. Roe has fallen, the go-to for why to vote “blue no matter who”. Liberal Democrats seem to be unable to rouse themselves over this. Biden has killed more Americans than Trump at this point, and we’re pursing his strategy of “no pandemic” anyway. Biden got schools open, as his first priority, which is what Trump wanted anyway.

    I’m struggling to understand what the 13th dimension reason is to vote team blue this time?

    Ponies?

    1. griffen

      And to pile on the Biden administration, we are still owed $600. Heck, at least Nero could play a fiddle.

  37. griffen

    Great video clip today about the making of a new sport by Robin Williams. Seen it before but it is still funny to this day! And sadly for those of us who play, or attempt it, largely a true depiction.

    The related link about the history of the photography of the Opens past was pretty interesting. I had failed realize how closely located to one another that Carnoustie and St. Andrews were, St Andrews being the bestowed upon birthplace of the game. Interesting fact about Nicklaus being honored this year.

    1. JohnA

      The coast of Scotland is the perfect place for golf. In areas that are pretty much useless for anything else apart from maybe farming sheep. A huge contrast to golf courses in e.g. Spain and the Algarve, where huge amounts of precious water, fertiliser and weedkillers are required to keep the courses lush and green to keep attracting golfing tourists despite the disastrous environmental consequences.

    2. paul

      Musselburgh Links, The Old Golf Course in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland, is generally accepted as being one of the oldest golf courses in the world.[1][2]

      Musselburgh Links is a publicly owned course, administered by East Lothian Council. Two golf clubs, Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club and Musselburgh Links Ladies Golf Club, are based at the course. The course has nine holes, and is a par 34.

      Annual season ticket: Adult (26-59 yrs): £206.50

    3. paul

      A dundonian I bumped into scathingly referred to carnoustie as ‘carn-snooty’, so it’s sociologically as well as geographically linked to st andrews.

      1. Wukchumni

        I assume you’re talking about the one in Rancho Palos Verdes where he played ‘patriot games’ with the Coastal Commission…

        RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. — Business magnate Donald Trump is fighting — not over an investment — but to keep the Stars and Stripes flying from a 70-foot flagpole at his Southland Trump National Golf Course.

        CBS Los Angeles reports that the American flag has been the focus of a standoff between Trump and state officials, who say the business investor has not taken the proper legal steps to keep the flag flying.

        The California Coastal Commission claims that Trump has not filed the necessary coastal permits to fly the flag in its current location. The commission also says he has not paid a required $10,000 fee.

        https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-fights-to-keep-large-american-flag-flying-at-his-california-golf-course/

  38. Jason Boxman

    NY Times discovers “elastomeric masks”: A Clunky Mask May be the Answer to Airborne Disease and N95 Waste

    I bought mine a few weeks ago. And notice the Times headline writer wants you to know first and foremost that it is “clunky”. Not life-saving. Or durable. Or reusable, with replaceable filters. These people are nuts.

    In the early 1990s, long before P.P.E., N95 and asymptomatic transmission became household terms, federal health officials issued guidelines for how medical workers should protect themselves from tuberculosis during a resurgence of the highly infectious respiratory disease.

    Their recommendation, elastomeric respirators, an industrial-grade face mask familiar to car painters and construction workers, would in the decades that followed become the gold standard for infection-control specialists focused on the dangers of airborne pathogens.

    …

    Three years into the pandemic, elastomeric respirators remain a rarity at American health care facilities. The C.D.C. has done little to promote the masks, and all but a handful of the dozen or so domestic companies that rushed to manufacture them over the past two years have stopped making the masks or have folded because demand never took off.

    Based on comments here, it seems proper masking is increasing a rarity has hospitals. That’s terrifying in itself. Oddly at the beginning of the pandemic, the goal was to save health care providers. Now often they won’t save themselves… I don’t get this. This country is gripped by lunacy.

    1. antidlc

      The other day someone mentioned the GVS SPR643 ELIPSE P100 Elastomeric Half Mask Respirator

      https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095YC3ZD5/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1

      It looks like it comes in a size S/M and M/L. Does anyone have any info on sizing info? I am not finding anything, but my mind is a little fried right now.

      Also, do the airlines have an issue with passengers wearing these? I thought Yves mentioned she wore one on a flight, but I could have sworn I saw a video somewhere about a passenger who was asked to remove a respirator. Anyone have any issues wearing them on a flight?

      1. Jason Boxman

        The sizing graphic on their site was unhelpful. I finally just ordered a small/medium based on some Amazon reviewers. Fits fine. Worst case I’d buy the other and try again. You can’t return these. Another recommendation is to find a place that sells this stuff and try in store.

      2. mistah charley, ph.d.

        I ordered one from Amazon today. One of the little pictures at the left of the main illustration is a sizing chart – it seems like spouse and self will both take S/M but I have ordered one and will try it when it gets here.

        If I recall correctly the poster who mentioned it said they had all the stuff with them about how since it does not have an exhaust valve it’s suitable for healthcare worker use – exhalations as well as inhalations are filtered.

        I am going to NIH next month to enter a clinical trial – speaking with the enrollment nurse I was told that I would have to wear a surgical mask inside the hospital – I asked if it would be OK to wear it on top of an N95 mask – she said that would be OK.

        2. Lex

          It has an exhalation valve. I’ve never seen a half-face without one. General rule of thumb is to always go a touch smaller than necessary for a good fit.

    2. drumlin woodchuckles

      ” These people are nuts” ? No. These people are working their hardest to default-spread covid by burying the information they can no longer suppress totally under a media-sewage slide of media-ridicule.

      Let us earnestly hope they all get the Long Covid they work so hard to spread to every single one of the rest of us.

      Let us earnestly hope that they all live to be a hundred years old with a condition that feels like Lupus plus Chronic Fatigue Syndrome plus Long Lyme Disease all at once together, for decades of their lives.

  40. Wukchumni

    Well-a-well-a, I just got into Nathan’s today
    To see how many hot dogs I could put away
    With Joey Chestnut running up the score
    I applied myself, in Coney Island town
    When I finally did sit down
    I find myself in more indigestion than before

    They said we couldn’t do no wrong
    No other love for tube steaks could be so strong
    They served hot dogs from the chafing dish bottom drawer
    I played my part, and forsook my kidneys
    Despite my bulging old blue dungarees
    And I’ll never be able to wear them anymore

    Now my hunger’s gone, I don’t know what to do
    I lost my urge and walked right out the door
    And if I ever again find inspiration, I know one thing for sure
    I’m going to never eat more than four

    I ended up eating seventeen
    A little on the light side these days, it seems
    But they said a bowel movement was well worth waiting for
    I took their word, I took it all
    Beneath the sign that said eat more
    Joey ended up eating four score
    Ah, oh!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOLTwt-bqoU

  41. .human

    Back to The Future? Cargo Giant Cargill Turns to Sails to Cut Carbon

    I knew I’d seen this technology before. It took me a while to find a link: Turbosail.

    Good, old Jacques Cousteau from decades ago.

  42. Wukchumni

    …meanwhile in My Kevin (since ’07) town

    Worrying for the security of your catalytic converter is bad enough, but lately there’s added reason to be concerned about leaving your car unattended: thieves punching holes in fuel tanks to steal gasoline.

    Statistics gathered by the Bakersfield Police Department show a 187 percent, year-over-year increase in the number of gasoline thefts in the city from January through June, to 43 reported incidents, roughly coinciding with a jump in fuel prices.

    Though not a new crime by any means, the surge has caught the notice of auto mechanics who see the frustration vehicle owners experience when they realize someone has stolen their gas and left behind an expensive repair or replacement job.

    “It’s a nightmare,” said Rob Northam, who, as manager-owner at Eye Street Automotive in Bakersfield, has worked on six perforated fuel tanks in the last three weeks. “It’s getting worse.”

    https://www.bakersfield.com/news/not-just-catalytic-converters-thieves-punching-more-holes-in-gas-tanks/article_09229052-f9a0-11ec-9385-f7d774b344c7.html

    1. caucus99percenter

      The whole idea that you could leave your car out in the open unattended was based on the premise of having a “high-trust” culture or society. People will disagree about the causes, but it should be self-evident that over the decades there has been significant decay in the direction of a “low-trust” society where nothing involving honesty, safety, or security can be taken for granted.

      Shoplifting? Retail nuisance / minor cost of doing business => now a phenomenon on a grand scale, boosted by, boasted about, and fenced through the Web and social media. Mail theft? From federal crime => “porch piracy” as popular street sport. “Be home by dinnertime” => so-called helicopter parenting / supervised activities only. Hitchhiking? Historical artifact of the past.

      2. Felix_47

        Combined with a cut in IRS funding and a political leader who was accepted to Annapolis but turned it down.

    1. Tom Stone

      How many women who have miscarriages are going to be prosecuted under these laws?
      Being rewarded financially for sadism cloaked in morality is very attractive to some people.
      Say you just got pregnant and due to all the news about Roe vs Wade you decided to read up on the issue, including the laws in your State.
      And you have a miscarriage.
      Or God forbid you get pregnant,attend a pro choice rally even though you fully intend to carry your baby to term because it is a RIGHT Dammit.
      And you have a miscarriage.
      There’s money to be made and helpless people to abuse.
      Private hospital rooms for the rich,wire coat hangers for the poor.

      2. Eclair

        Just learned yesterday of distant family member, who just accepted a position in a state outlawing abortion. Fortunately, the job location is near the borders of a state where abortion is legal, and will probably remain so. The wife is child-bearing age, has agreed to move, only on the condition that their legal residence is in the legalized abortion state. They have the options; other young women will not.

  44. flora

    re: Sharkawy thread.

    It’s a good thread. I don’t disagree. However, there’s a big hole, something missing in this statement and so many like it: no mention whatever of early treatment with off patent drugs like vit I, no mention of vit. D, no mention of recovery protocols from doctors who are finding good results with their approaches – which the NIH ignores in favor of the most profitable drugs which apparently don’t work very well, imo. (‘Ignore’ is a polite word.) Is this caused by ignorance or willful blindness or fear of losing his job? (I’d guess the last one.)

    1. Basil Pesto

      He actually did mention treatment with off patent drugs: he mentions the use of steroids as lifesaving treatment for patients*. I understand that, like Ivermectin, these are cheap generics like dexamethasone.

      At this point, given the immense burden on hospitals and the waned-to-near-uselessness efficacy of vaccines, I find it hard to believe that Ivermectin use wouldn’t be widespread even just by word of mouth if it was genuinely thought to have a beneficent effect such as it could lessen that burden (again, given that they’re already using a cheap generic in the form of dexamethasone. I believe fluvoxamine is also a relatively less controversial off-label generic amongst doctors even in spite of similar reluctance to unambiguously approve it for Covid by the FDA), or more widespread throughout the world, where uptake remains fairly limited – I do hope the late 2021 phenomenon of drive-by NC commenters trying to claim Ivermectin as responsible for India and Japan’s low case rates, and attendant cries of “but the Indian Bar Association!!/Tokyo Medical Association!!” are a thing of the past.

      I don’t think he’d worry about losing his job for speaking favourably about Vitamin D – Fauci mentioned that he takes some daily after all (and has just been having a rough case of C19 and a rebound). I do the same, but in hope rather than expectation (I’d take ivm too if it was as easy to access but I’m not sufficiently convinced of its efficacy to bother trying to track any down on the internet or take the veterinary preparation). Sharkawy probably just doesn’t believe in Vitamin D’s utility enough to think it worth discussing in that thread where he has bigger fish to fry.

      * one possible problem with this down the line: steroids were used to treat SARS1 patients during the 2002-03 outbreak and it’s thought that some of them suffered bone damage years later as a result.

      1. IM Doc

        There are multiple states where the use of ivermectin is likely to result in licensing problems. There will be no surge of its usage. The “trials” used to discredit it are among the most flimsy I have ever seen in my career. They are called show trials. Purposely designed to discredit whatever drug is under the microscope. This has been a tactic used for ages and they have honed it beautifully to deceive everyone.

        Interestingly, I have many patients demanding it. And it seems to at least help many patients. Seems much better than Paxlovid. I also use fluvoxamine and steroids/ NSAIDS in a combo. I have often used this very successfully after Paxlovid failure or rebound which is becoming ever more common. Again, the safety profile is overwhelming positive for all these agents.

        Vitamin D is not an acute agent. It should be used by everyone daily IMO though until this situation is resolved.

        The fact that no work has been done on any of these agents in a meaningful fashion so we can have e confidence in what we are doing is a crime against humanity.

        1. Jason Boxman

          The propaganda is nonetheless effective, and I haven’t been sure what to believe, but I finally got my hands on some IVM after reading of its usefulness in your posts. I hope I never need to use it, but better safe than sorry. I also ordered some Enovid from IsraeliPharm today; They claim only 1% of orders are impounded by US customers, so I’m hoping it makes it through okay.

          This is what “you’re on your own” means in the United States. This is a suicide pact I never agree to and was born into.

          Stay safe out there!

        2. Basil Pesto

          There are multiple states where the use of ivermectin is likely to result in licensing problems.

          Ah yes, fair point. Did you ever hear more about the PRINCIPLE trial? (iirc that’s the one that was discontinued due to purported lack of ivm supply)

          1. JBird4049

            Please pardon my ignorance, but I am confused. Licensing issues on what and why?

  45. RobertC

    Imperial Collapse Watch

    I didn’t appreciate the significance of this event until I read TheHill article (see my 2 July post, currently in Moderation) Chinese state airlines to buy almost 300 Airbus jets

    BEIJING/SYDNEY, July 1 (Reuters) – China’s “Big Three” state airlines pledged on Friday to buy a total of almost 300 Airbus jets, the biggest order by Chinese carriers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and a breakthrough for Europe as Boeing remains partially frozen out of China.

    In apparently coordinated announcements, Air China and China Southern Airlines said they would each buy 96 A320neo-family jets worth $12.2 billion at list prices. China Eastern Airlines said it would buy 100 airplanes of the same type, worth $12.8 billion.

    [The A320neo is the plane Boeing raced to counter with the 737 MAX.]

    [96+96+100 = 292 A320neo $12.2B +$12.2B + $12.8B = a huge improvement in France’s trade balance]

    Airlines typically receive substantial discounts to list prices and China Eastern said these were larger than usual. [The big money is the 25-year service contracts.]

    …Industry sources said Beijing broadly balances jet purchases between Europe and the United States over time, with such large deals typically held in reserve for state visits.

    [BRICS 2022 held 23-24 June
    G7 48th held 25-26 June
    NATO 2020 Summit held 28-30 June]

    …Boeing reacted sharply to the announcement, unusually crediting “constructive dialogue” between European governments and Beijing for the blockbuster order and urging the U.S. and Chinese governments to engage in productive discussions. [1]

    …So far this year, Boeing has delivered only one commercial jet to China against 47 for Airbus. It has about 150 airplanes waiting to be delivered to China, according to some estimates.

    …The deal is subject to Chinese government approvals.

    [1] This may prove difficult with France and the US being NATO members. From the NATO 2022 Strategic Concept

    13. The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values. The PRC employs a broad range of political, economic and military tools to increase its global footprint and project power, while remaining opaque about its strategy, intentions and military build-up. The PRC’s malicious hybrid and cyber operations and its confrontational rhetoric and disinformation target Allies and harm Alliance security. The PRC seeks to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, and strategic materials and supply chains. It uses its economic leverage to create strategic dependencies and enhance its influence. It strives to subvert the rules-based international order, including in the space, cyber and maritime domains. The deepening strategic partnership between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to our values and interests.

    14. We remain open to constructive engagement with the PRC, including to build reciprocal transparency, with a view to safeguarding the Alliance’s security interests. We will work together responsibly, as Allies, to address the systemic challenges posed by the PRC to Euro-Atlantic security and ensure NATO’s enduring ability to guarantee the defence and security of Allies. We will boost our shared awareness, enhance our resilience and preparedness, and protect against the PRC’s coercive tactics and efforts to divide the Alliance. We will stand up for our shared values and the rules-based international order, including freedom of navigation.

    1. Alezic

      These evil chineses and their refusal to buy that american made piece of crap called the 737 Max. I am not even sure if the Max as been recertified in China. Probably another evil trick by those communist if it hasn’t been, the FAA gave the ok after all and why should we trust them?

      But the article is right they should buy 1 crap airplane for 1 good one so that Boeing can buy more of their own stock, not like they need to invest in the company. Washington as their back and thus so as the billionaire rags around the world to explain away why nobody are buying their airplane even if they have to make up stories out of whole cloth.

      I think I read a story that say Airbus was too close to the chinese military recently as well. Fact free again obviously. I am sure this not coordinated at all by nobody, all organic totally independent journalism.

  46. jr

    On a practical note:

    A few months back there was a discussion about toilets spraying filthy water droplets when flushed. I spent a few days in horror but then lit upon a solution. I put my bath mat over it when I flush.

    Thank you, no, you are all too kind.

    1. Anthony G Stegman

      Why not just lower the toilet lid before flushing? Your bath mat must be pretty nasty after a few days.

      1. jr

        Penetrating. The air goes out around the lid. And a dirty mat is patently preferable to towels, toothbrushes, combs…

    1. Alice X

      It is known as the common tailorbird and this one is probably the male doing the sewing, amazing just the same.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Only about 3-4% of Japan’s oil is from Russia so they don’t have much of a dog in this fight and they have been winding down contracts for Russian oil as well. The Japanese could provide the insurance for those ships carrying Russian oil as they did the same for ships carrying Iranian oil but I doubt that they will. Energy may get more expensive in Japan before long as they are also winding down Russian coal. Don’t know about gas though.

      1. drumlin woodchuckles

        I will have to listen to this when I get access to one of the workplace computers with a speaker.

        The public library computers do have a headphone jack. What are some good brands of high-sonic-quality headphones which would make the music sound good up to the full potential of what the computer sends to the headphones?

  55. C.O.

    Just found a bit more on the USA Today story withdrawal at Project Censored:

    https://www.projectcensored.org/from-fake-news-to-junk-news-gabriela-miranda-is-the-symptom-not-the-problem/
    From Fake News to Junk News: Gabriela Miranda is the Symptom, Not the Problem – Nolan Higdon

    A paragraph that especially caught my eye:

    “The audit of Miranda’s consent reveals that in corporate legacy news media, those interested in career advancement must produce junk food news even if they have to make it up. Plenty of young people in the industry recognize this reality. After leaving college in 2021, Miranda spent just over a year producing false content as a journalist at The Gainesville Times and USA Today. Miranda is not an outlier. “

    1. caucus99percenter

      The new “Miranda warning” that should be required on mainstream-narrative, corporate legacy news media: “Disclaimer: caveat lector. Contents of this article may be untrue and a complete fabrication, in whole or in part.”

  56. drumlin woodchuckles

    I note that the antidote-photograph sometimes changes from day to day. Right now the photograph is of a wood warbler.

    I will guess that it is species Mourning Warbler. If it is not that, it at least just has to be one of its fellow members of genus Oporornis. But I think it is a Mourning Warbler specifically.

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