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.
Floating Human Foot at Yellowstone Is Grim Reminder of Hot Spring Dangers Agence France-Presse (Chuck L). Eeew.
“Never seen Jupiter like this’: James Webb telescope shows incredible view of planet Guardian (furzy)
Illuminated Cut Paper Landscapes Encapsulate Enchanting Worlds in Glass Vessels MyModernMet (David L)
Risk of volcano catastrophe ‘a roll of the dice’ ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
Do WTC Responders With Cognitive Impairment Show Signs of a New Form of Dementia? Stony Brook
AI Model Can Detect Parkinson’s From Breathing Patterns MIT News
Electrical Currents To the Brain Improve Memory for Older Adults, Study Finds The Verge
Why I Left Academia (Since You’re Wondering) Quilette (Anthony L). Important.
#COVID-19
Science/Medicine
Regular physical activity may lessen Covid risks, study finds Guardian (Dr. Kevin)
Note that there’s even more data suggesting that getting Covid also depletes T cells (Anthony Leonardi has been all over this, for instance). Nevertheless:
It looks like the theory of T cell damage from the jabs is being verified. 😞 pic.twitter.com/wtxjNYS9Ze
— Jinnia (@JinniaDivinia) August 21, 2022
Have not yet gotten Covid brain trust input, so take with a grain of salt:
“The potential for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to be the catalyst of this patient’s cutaneous manifestations of his immune system responses is also hypothesized.”
I’m afraid that secondary syphilis might be a vaccine-associated comorbidity.https://t.co/5TXG1ABmCy
— Hiroshi Yasuda (保田浩志) (@Yash25571056) August 20, 2022
Asia
When u arrive at a hotel in Shanghai these days ur given a document with every high and medium risk area in China on it. You are told to check the list and confirm with signature that you have not been to one of these places recently pic.twitter.com/fMN4jYUzTT
— Don Weinland (@donweinland) August 22, 2022
Exclusive: Covaxin’s Manufacturing Practices Remain ‘Unacceptable’ Says WHO The Wire (J-LS)
Climate/Environment
Why the US Army electrifies this water YouTube (Steve D)
One flood-ravaged Kentucky community is suing a coal company, saying its negligence made damage even worse NBC (furzy)
China?
Has China’s show of force over Taiwan revealed a well-coordinated military? South China Morning Post
India
Euro Falls Below Parity With the Dollar Reuters
Citi projects UK inflation to breach 18% in January as energy prices skyrocket CNBC
Ai Weiwei Unveils Thought-Provoking Cage Installation Commenting on Refugees in Europe My Modern Met (David L)
New Not-So-Cold War
A Deadly Glimpse of Russia’s Bombardment of Ukrainian troops Larry Johnson (Chuck L)
* * * Ukraine – Dugina Killer Identified – War Of Attrition Continues Moon of Alabama
From Politico’s European newsletter:
GAS PRICE JUMP: The sun may still be shining as Europeans soak up the final rays of the summer, but it looks like a long, tough winter ahead. Spot gas prices rose to a high of €292 per megawatt hour on Monday in intraday trading — a new record, as markets brace for gas shortages.
Details: The price surge was triggered by Russia’s state-owned Gazprom announcing it would stop supply through the Nord Stream pipeline — again — at the end of the month for three days of “maintenance.” But as our colleague America Hernandez reports, worries about gas supplies aren’t confined to the Russian-Germany pipe connection.
No-flow Norway: In Norway, gas export flows are down by about 34 million cubic meters per day, due to a series of gas field production outages this week. That’s roughly equal to all the gas currently flowing through Nord Stream. But Norway’s volumes are expected to ramp back up before the end of the month.
No respite: Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Monday that Europe could be facing “five to 10” difficult winters — an alarming reminder that there’s no quick fix to the energy crisis.
Another shocking day in European gas / power:
Dutch TTF nat gas jumps to €295 per MWh (that’s almost $500 per barrel of oil equivalent)
And record prices in the benchmark 1-year forward electricity market. France (chart) surges >€800 per MWh and Germany rises >€700 per MWh pic.twitter.com/I5NmmVyNy6
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) August 22, 2022
Neighbors warn Norway about dangerous solo show Energy Watch. More descriptive headline would be: “Sweden, Denmark and Finland plead with Norway not to cut electricity.”
Ukraine battles to avoid hyperinflation as war costs soar DW
* * * August inflection point (Live) w/Andrei Martyanov & Larry Johnson The Duran
Discussing Ukraine. Glenn Diesen interviews Scott Ritter and Alexander Mercouris YouTube. A bit long but informative, particularly opening section on Russian adaptation and logistics..
IHC to initiate contempt proceedings against Imran for controversial remarks regarding sessions judge Dawn ((J-LS)
Syraqistan
What if the US took a more nuanced view of Iran? Responsible Statecraft (resilc)
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Google labels parents as sex offenders for photos of own naked toddlers – NYT RT (Kevin W). See what you get with Google as your new overlord.
Assange
The CIA plan to kill or kidnap @WikiLeaks Publisher and Journalist Julian Assange in London | @CBSNews #FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/2gq6OpV3W6
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 19, 2022
Imperial Collapse Watch
Military families’ housing benefits lag as rents explode Associated Press
Giant slide closed down hours after opening because of major design error LADBible (David L)
1/6
Mike Pence Owes the Country an Explanation Atlantic (David L)
Trump Raid
Trump sues justice department over Mar-a-Lago search BBC (furzy). A lawyer in the readership thinks the 4th Amendment claims could stick (the warrant was arguably a verboten general warrant), but Trump has seldom had good representation in court.
Trump’s legal team asks for ‘special master’ to go through Mar-a-Lago evidence and determine if some should be returned CNN (Kevin W)
Gang of 8 wants to see Trump Mar-a-Lago search docs Politico
Other Trump
Trump’s attack on Elaine Chao revs up feud with McConnell The Hill
Copied voting systems files were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers Washington Post (furzy)
Cheney to launch anti-Trump organization after primary defeat Politico (furzy)
Cheney vows to fight other Republicans who embrace Trump’s election lie Guardian (furzy)
Democrats en déshabillé
Democrats angling to defeat Stefanik look to donors nationwide Times Union, Albany and Similar platforms, different strategies: Castelli, Putorti vie for Democratic nomination to challenge Stefanik Adirondack Daily Enterprise bob:
This is a primary race to run against Stefanik, a well known trump sycophant.
If you can believe any of this shit, the current favoirte* is a CIA agent.
*NY primary polls are not very predictive, they usually show what the DNC wants to happen. In very recent times “the leader” 2 days before the election ended up losing by over 10points.Now back to his resume- how would his former employer approach this situation? Bribe the locals and run some push pols.
The other frontrunner in the race is an Oxford grad.
Real men of the people.
And now fundraising!
CIA man launders money via election fund raising. I know, I know, how can anyone say where the laundering begins and the fund raising stops.
Abortion
U.S. judge questions Idaho abortion ban challenged by Biden administration Reuters (furzy)
Gunz
Parkland gunman’s brain irretrievably broken, jury hears BBC (furzy)
That mysterious New Jersey deli once owned by a publicly traded company is closed, regulatory filing shows CNBC (Kevin W)
Ford Confirms Layoffs, Says It Is Cutting About 3,000 Jobs Wall Street Journal
Elon Musk Subpoenas Former Twitter CEO in Legal Battle Over $44B Deal CNET
Tesla’s ‘full self-driving’ controversy now features homemade mannequins and tests on real kids CNN (Dr. Kevin)
Home Sellers Are Slashing Prices in Pandemic Boomtowns Bloomberg
Seven Philosophies Better Than Longtermism Intercept
Class Warfare
Criminal barristers in England and Wales vote to go on all-out strike BBC (Kevin W)
Workers at UK’s biggest container port Felixstowe due to begin 8-day strike Reuters
Paywatch: Top Lifeguards are Making a Killing Statista (Dr. Kevin)
Struggling Taxi Drivers See Congestion Pricing as Fee That Breaks Their Backs The City
Americans’ Pay Floor for Accepting a New Job Rises to $73,000 Bloomberg
Bullshit. Canceling all student debt would improve the lives of 45 million Americans. Wanna pay for it? Tax the damn Wall Street speculators who made you obscenely rich, Larry, the same guys you helped bail out. And by doing that we could also make public colleges tuition free. https://t.co/6soOqJlq8O
— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) August 22, 2022
Antidote du jour. Tracie H:
Dove and black-breasted Phoenix red rooster palling around together beside the Kern River. You may not be able to use this one. It’s difficult to get a good photo of a white bird and a black bird, especially when back-lit, that does them both justice, and I’m not sure I did either of them justice—I was just eager to get a picture of them together.
And a bonus (Cliff H). A fan movie of sorts:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
143 comments
Comments are closed.
“Regular physical activity may lessen Covid risks, study finds”
I recall that IM Doc has been giving advice along these lines for who knows how long now-
‘Therefore – Get out in the sun. Get less fat. Exercise hard. Sweat. Sleep well. De-stress. Laugh and smile with your family. Get your A1c and blood pressure down. Play with abandon. The people I see doing all these things are the ones who do not end up sick not only from COVID but so many other things that life throws at us.’
On that note, consider the number of “lifestyle” illnesses that these days are attributed to the lower classes where before it was more common among those with wealth and power.
It is curious how this inverted pretty much longside the introduction of factory and office work.
Except for the exercise hard bit, that sounds like Burning Man!
I’m geeked up and nearly ready to go, and my brother in law’s brother is a last minute addition to our camp of around 33, and he was a guitarist on the Beach Boys for about a dozen years, so there will be fun, fun, fun until the power for the Stratocaster goes away.
I’d like to claim i’ve been in training for the Tour de Burn, but maybe i’ve rode a few hundred feet in the past decade on my trusty spoked steed, but it’s like riding a bike, right?
There’ll be 53,243 on pedals @ night, and 21,757 who wished they brought a bike.
The currently most popular bicycle in my locale is an e-bike. With the motive power of an elite Tour de France rider, many kids now become cycling couch potatoes at 13. They don’t even bother to turn the pedals to “assist” the battery.
I saw lots of e bikes on the Tirolean cycleways last week too. Even the guy in the rental shop thought there were too many!
I am ok when an aero cyclist races past me; the person is just fit and getting the most out of cycling. But being passed by someone on one of these e bikes always irks me.
Until they do (and you get) comprehensive nutritional testing I do not care to hear any more about COVID and people dying and the risk, etc, on and on.
Your immune systems is made weaker by the virus because it depletes nutrients. People are getting diabetes after COVID because of this process. Immunologists just make it all too complicated when in fact it is very simple.
> Your immune systems is made weaker by the virus because it depletes nutrients
Needs a link.
Story about the surprise unattached foot at Yellowstone. It is advised to be careful in our national parks, but Darwin award candidates are everywhere you turn aren’t they. I mean heck, even at your local swimming hole anything might float in the water. Probably safe for work?
https://youtu.be/QpmECKEHSQs
I wouldn’t mind betting that this was a result of a selfie gone wrong. This happens so often that there are compilations of this on YouTube. Just put in the search term ‘selfies deadly’ into the search box to see what I mean.
My inner detective wants more information before concluding there’s no foul play. The article didn’t say it wasn’t possible to use the pools to dispose of bodies, just that there was no ‘evidence’ of a crime being committed.
DOODIE!
We got nothing on Yellowstone hot springs temps, but the real hawtie in Cali is Sespe hot springs, where the agua muy caliente comes out of the side of a hill @ 190 degrees, and 109 is about my baking point, so you have to find your spot to hang many hundreds of yards down from the source water, and just a degree or 2 can be a world of difference.
For whatever reason, I find that Asians can endure higher heat than Caucasians, i’m talking temps like 112-114, yowza!
There’s also a herd of around 35 desert bighorn sheep that hang out @ Sespe and we watched them plunge down steep hillsides and linger long around the hot springs only 20-30 feet away from us.
Follow Wonderhussy and my longtime backpacking partner to the promised land…
Backcountry Hot Springs Winter Backpacking Adventure Part 1 of 2: Sespe Hot Springs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa1_TeBU40o&t=19s
Lived in South Korea for about 3 1/2 years and would occasionally visit one of the bath houses with local friends. It included a soak in a pool with the temp at about 45 C (113 F). The secret is to stay as still as possible.
So you don’t like to deal with a customer service person who does not sound like a White American? Well, thank your lady luck because there’s now a startup that will solve that problem!!! https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/sanas-startup-creates-american-voice-17382771.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight
We truly live in interesting times.
No way!
Some tech industry goblins saw the White Voice scene from (the excellent movie) Sorry to Bother You and thought, “hey… there’s money in that satire!”
“White Voice” sounds like either a horrid Nazi rock-and-roll band or a play on “White Noise,” take your pick.
I was thinking white nationalist newspaper.
A little bit off topic, but I swear I saw a little blurb last week that said Russia had forward deployed over 300 aircraft and 300 helicopters to airbases in Belarus and Belgorod, and this was before the assassination. So the CIA may actually not be full of poop right now when they warn of a massive air attack.
Was this in the same news outlets that had Putin dying of cancer, going insane, or losing the war in week 2?
Not saying it isn’t true, but most of the sources we see most commonly would likely be spouting bs, and if it is the military likely wouldn’t be leaking and those outside it that might have a real clue about Russian military movements are the outlets being sidelined as much as possible by TPTB.
A story like this is more likely designed to keep the masses afraid and angry at Russia, rather than reporting reality.
Air attack pointless if no ground force. Russian military doctrine greatly prefers missiles and artillery as bombs to planes, particularly now since between satellites and drones, there’s much less need to use pilots to find targets.
This could be a threat display but seems like overkill if so.
I’m guessing the 300 aircraft included transports? Russia deploys exceptionally heavily equipped airborne forces, up to and including parachute-dropped light tanks (tankettes?). If the heavy Russian ground forces are, as rumored, about to undertake something big in the south, then the obvious initial role (According to me anyway.) for the airborne units would be to stand ready to strike into the flanks and rear of any attempted NATO intervention, and Belarus and Belgorod would be where you’d expect them to stand by.
The is widespread skepticism about this report. Looks to be new Ukraine grifting messaging for more weapons.
NATO is not intervening. First, the decision to deploy is made on a nation by nation level. Second, in case you missed it, NATO has emptied its closets to send weapons to Ukraine. Third, Ukraine has the best and biggest NATO-equivalent army and look how Russia is inflicting massive casualties on it, despite Ukraine having spend 8 years building massive fortified defenses all over Donbass. Fourth, Russia has become even more battle-hardened and savvy as a direct outcome of this conflict. Fifth, any NATO-member attack on Russia = war with Russia. Russia will cut off all gas and food and fertilizer exports.
Right. It seems the Russians have found a formula for winning this war based on munitions and slow advances that minimise their casualties versus the enemy, whilst keeping the home population on side. No need for mass manned pilot bombing campaigns nor for blitzkriegs. Why change now? Why follow NATO doctrine when your own seems better for the circumstances?
Not turning the gas off, as you suggest, is very remarkable when one stands back from it. In a similar situation as Russia is in, the US / west would no doubt have bombed every Ukrainian city to rubble and cut off all supplies from countries such as Germany, dubbing them an “axis of evil”.
Russia has really been incredibly soft. I guess part of this may be a desire to keep the Global South on side by highlighting moral superiority and maybe even a hope (increasingly remote unfortunately) that one day Europe will wake up and disband the circular firing squad it has created at the US’s behest.
I’m guessing our (Russian) bosses just genuinely don’t want to decouple economically from the West, if only out of intellectual and economic inertia. More is the pity. It would hurt now, but in the long run it may be for the best.
They probably understand geopolitics better than the current European leaders. No matter what the future brings, Russia and EU will remain neighbors for as long as they exists. And what comes after them, will still be neighbors.
So burning all bridges just means there’s more to rebuild when the detente eventually comes. One must leave some paths for the EUropeans to come and show respect instead of lecturing and dictating and start restoration of relations.
I agree.
Ultimately, the Russian leaders seem to be rational patriots.
They are struggling, I suspect, with the fact that so called democratically elected western leaders behave fanatically in line with ideology rather than rationally for their countries.
Or, of course, the European leaders may have been corrupted as individuals by the financial soft power of the US.
> Russia had forward deployed over 300 aircraft and 300 helicopters to airbases in Belarus and Belgorod
Russia’s air force has 3,683 aircraft. So to a crude approximation that’s 300 + 300 / 3683 = 16.3% of their air force either to protect Kaliningrad or invade Ukraine from the North.* Neither makes any sense to me, even leaving aside questions of doctrine.
Also, CIA warning of a massive air attack needs a link.
NOTE * Or invade the Baltics, I suppose. I think it makes more sense to finish the main meal before starting dessert (assuming that even to be on the menu, which I doubt).
In the article about Irish political corruption, the author suggests that corruption in Ireland doesn’t register on corruption surveys because it involves not exchanges of money, which digital enforcement has made more difficult, but exchanges of implied assurances of future favors (consulting jobs, exemption from prosecution, good press, etc.).
This theory interestingly overlaps with research about commercial exchange in societies before the invention of money. They do not typically seem to barter goods. Rather, everyone understands that a gift or favor done at one time will some day be reciprocated in some way (a gift of sheep might one day lead to assistance repelling an invasion or a marriage offer, as circumstances require). So, with money no longer available as a means of exchange, Irish politicians have reverted to pre-modern economic systems — but they’re still selling public office for personal gain.
> It’s difficult to get a good photo of a white bird and a black bird, especially when back-lit
The detail on the rooster means the dove is washed out, but the back-lighting means the brightest area in the picture still draws the eye to the dove, and then to the dove’s eye. The picture has movement.
Nice analysis!
> The picture has movement
My eye goes straight to the rooster’s red comb, then left up the highlight on the dove’s back.
Perhaps my eyes don’t work correctly!
Liz Cheney did not lose. She got trounced, and lost badly. But she receives a victory lap. Heck the ABC News edition this past Sunday of “This Week” she was talking with Karl every time I looked up. Her father holds a high place for his time in the White House. Still hard to believe his pacemaker is still going strong. His portrait is very high on the wall of shame.
The Great Task. I have suggestions for the inbox. The Truthy Tellers Tour. Maybe not my best effort. Or, it’s a New Day (for New Bull$shit).
Pacemaker? He had a heart transplant in 2012.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/cardiology/hearttransplantation/31814
Color me grateful too. A country this exceptional just can’t have enough old creeps and ghouls.
I had forgotten about the transplant. He’s got a lot more in common with the Tin Man than I realized.
The movie Vice is narrated by Cheney’s unfortunate organ donor.
What are votes supposed to represent?
This is a political market, only the money matters.
Until we figure out how to stop it, electoral failure will only make her richer until she becomes the policy representative of whatever Oligarch bids the most for her communications services.
She must be watching the demise of cnn with dismay. That network would have been perfect for her brand of “communications services.”
Votes are supposed to represent an endorsement of the current regime in which two totalitarian ideologies with ambitions of godhood demonstrate the sacred objects and narratives as they are withdrawn from each Party’s holy of holies and hold them up to be valued in order to subordinate and entrain people in the imperial regime(n(t)). It is through liberal disinformation that we treat ceremonies of total church embracing total state as if they were tools to determine collective action.
Yeah, but that’s really hard to say!
Easier to just look at results.
Fair cop. “Sermon contest followed by a potlatch” is a compressed version that most Americans would understand. I don’t know whether that’s intelligible elsewhere in the Anglosphere.
That’s a funny one. In America, you have two choices….the lesser of two evils, as it is.
You can vote for Team Pepsi or Team Coke — either way you’ll get neoliberal cola.
Home Sellers Are Slashing Prices in Pandemic Boomtowns Bloomberg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Housing Bubble part deux was an amazing feat in that 2nd tier cities in the west were afforded full value status or close to it, as if somebody wanted to make sure there was only a little difference in price between a home in Burbank and one in Boise, not the widened price gulf between the same cities you would have seen in Housing Bubble numero uno, good job bubbleteers!
That’s not to say that some coastal bubbles weren’t also explosive, look @ San Diego where i’m furiously pecking away on the QWERTY @ present.
It has virtually no groundwater resources, is last man Charlie as far as imported water is concerned in a drought that has legs, and just about every house is worth a million bucks.
There’s 2 ways to go as far as I can see, you keep goosing the value of used homes up or you let things collapse, and my sister’s house that she paid $174k for in 1998 and is worth 8x that now, slides back down to reality.
The latter way produces a lot of hurt, whereas if the bubble continues-home moaners feel smart, even if there are increasingly now fewer younger buyers, daunted by the prospect of a $8k monthly payment for the next 30 years.
Excuse me for saying so but if home prices are going down, would that not mean that all those temporarily embarrassed millionaires home owners might find themselves panicking? And that as a consequence, you might find more homes being turned into Airbnbs?
How many Airbnbs do we need? They may try. Gig work is out there. The question is how many are running on home equity loans. I feel like reverse mortgages have been bleeding people for a decade now. Maybe not in your neck of the woods, but I feel like the Airbnb market is well saturated.
Actually, San Diego has the most dependable water circumstance of any large city in the Southwest-albeit, at a price that many in water rich areas would find dear.
https://news.yahoo.com/san-diego-secured-water-supply-130200555.html
That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, SD getting on board the SS Colorado @ the height of H20 resources a score ago and riding it down to the bottom.
The desalination plant is a good thing and i’d like to see many more of them, but the part about being water secure til 2045 is a howler, how could they keep 23 years of storage?
You can’t drink contracts if there’s no water.
Retirements wrapped up in down sizing from overpriced homes and high rents and other inflationary asoects is going to come to a head. Moving to the second tier cities with covid felt like kicking the can a bit. I think we are hitting the wall.
So, I just don’t get people paying the big bucks for a “home” that may not have running water in a few years.
Does anyone even consider that possibility, or is the whole situation being overstated for the rest of the country with no direct knowledge of what’s actually going on?
‘Lake Mead’ is one of my searches, and increasingly in a race to the bottom the news is all about the 5th body (or 6th, etc.) found so far-could it have been the funeral proceedings of a long ago Mafia hit!?
This is a similar look what we found tale from a Sierra reservoir about gone tilt. The real story in both locales is the frightening lack of water, but that’s not news we want to read.
https://www.bakersfield.com/news/what-secrets-are-revealed-when-water-level-drops-at-isabella-lake/article_902095d2-2271-11ed-a916-877119cb463e.html
Its really out of sight-out of mind for much of the population in Cali as far as where their water sources are, far far away.
I can sense no real action going on in San Diego for instance, as far as getting the public to save water, as the builders are pounding away for there are still vast hillsides to be subdivided and million $ garage mahals to be erected.
An interesting article that. I wonder if that film maker – Chuck Barbee – thought of how Movie Street, a street in old Kernville where hundreds of Westerns and TV shows were shot, could be a source of footage of what parts of that place looked like in the past.
“A Deadly Glimpse of Russia’s Bombardment of Ukrainian troops”
For those whose browsers wont play the videos, here is another copy of that first one. The explosions never seem to stop so there must have been an ammo dump there too-
https://www.bitchute.com/video/4ZPJfFdewY8J/ (2:28 mins)
Where they were talking about the TOS-1A heavy flamethrower system, the Russians used it recently to destroy the Ukrainian stronghold at Pisky outside Donetsk city and from where the Ukrainians were using artillery against that city-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6pJLNvp-B8 (2:08 mins)
On the news that night, it mentioned that the Russians had captured a village and it took a second to realize that they were talking about Pisky.
The drone videos showed Russian drones (probably pretty cheap relative to their targets) taking out manned systems like tanks and armored personnel carriers. The variety of drone types and sheer numbers seems to be on a new level in this war. This seems to be the future of war. Our military must now reckon with the fact that drone-intensive warfare (for target spotting and as guided projectiles) may determine who has vital air and ground superiority. And it may make many of our own expensive manned systems (aircraft, tanks and ships) obsolete.
Interestingly, the latest much-touted (by our media) Ukraine military aid package includes 15 reconnaissance drones. According to Alex Mercouris (yesterday) this compares to 1500 Russian recon drones in Ukraine. Also, we are providing 16 105mm howitzers, a rather obsolete type. This is orders of magnitude less than the numbers of more powerful artillery fielded by Russia. What are our leaders thinking?
I found it ironic that Russia may be acquiring drones from Iran, who apparently became quite good at producing them since coming into possession of an American drone and reverse engineering it back in 2011.
>Ukraine – Dugina Killer Identified – War Of Attrition Continues Moon of Alabama
Living in a Kafkian/Orwellian world where the U.S. Congress is seeking to designate Russia a State Sponsor of Terrorism while supporting Ukraine who is bombing non-combatants and is threatening a Nuclear power plant. If ever there was a case of Freudian projection…
You can watch videos of the woman bomber, feminist delight!, crossing the border, opening her car door, plus id documents etc at rt.com
I find that online site to be a welcome alternative to western propaganda. Plus, no ads and long documentaries in any language you want.
Further to that, we have the inimitable Linda Thomas Greenfield spouting hypocrisy at the UN:
“We can strengthen sovereign equality and human flourishing, deter threats to peace and security, and work toward a more equal and more just world. But success requires good faith. It means not just quoting the UN Charter, but actually abiding by its principles in practice.
And it requires us to hold Member States accountable – vigorously and consistently – when they violate the Charter and the principles it stands for.”
And
“The greatest mistakes of the 20th century came from the age of empires, when countries and people were not free to make their own sovereign determinations about their societies, economies, partnerships, and alliances. We cannot make those mistakes again.”
But this was the real kicker:
“Before Russia’s unprovoked invasion, the United States, Ukraine, and its neighbors, as well as other member states, undertook intensive diplomatic efforts to dissuade Russia from choosing a path of force and violence. We convened dialogues at high levels across a range of international venues – including in this Council – to voice concerns about the security situation, and to discuss potential measures to revitalize Europe’s security architecture. Russia, however, rejected dialogue, discarded established views of sovereign equality, discarded the concept of indivisibility of security, and launched a horrific war.”
I’m so old I can remember all of seven or eight months ago when Minsk II broke down to general derision at the UN and they ignored the new European defense treaties proffered by Russia. Yeah, that was some pretty intense diplomacy on their part. I really do not know how such as Linda Thomas Greenfield can show their faces…anywhere.
https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-by-ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-at-a-un-security-council-briefing-on-international-peace-and-security/
But… we have always been at war with Eastasia.
Here at MiniTru, it is not what is, but what we say it is that is true.
It is informative to realize that everything I learned about the Soviet Union, Weimar Germany, and 1984 is becoming more congruent with today’s society. Scary as heck, but informative.
I just wished that I realized earlier that those high school and college classes I took decades ago really were relevant to us today.
Who knew Derrida was a theorist of statecraft?
William Deresiewicz. Why I left academia.
We have seen columns / essays like this before. Yet I was especially curious because I thought that Deresiewicz still taught. So I had a fact of his life wrong.
He’s always a good writer–insightful, a stylist.
So there is his observation / diagnosis. All too true:
Indeed. After all that, one ends up with public figures like Pete Buttigieg, Ted Cruz, and Victoria “Cookies for War” Nuland. And a whole lotta boring first novels written as tenure books by novelists (it’s now a profession) who are never heard from again and who only know Sappho as an emanation from the tenure-ambitious mind of someone in the department of queer studies.
I think that’s a very interesting article. And I’m not sure the situation was any different several decades ago. I know someone who tried to climb the professorship greasy pole and, while we lost touch, I don’t think she in the end succeeded.
What he keeps getting at in the article and what I think may be true is that the “business model” itself is the problem–that the humanities are completely different from the sciences and trying to make “specialization” the brass ring is inappropriate. Specialization in science is necessary even as some great scientists–E.O. Wilson–tried to broaden their reach with a bit social commentary. However here’s arguing that specialization and “theories” are the opposite of what the humanities are about since life itself is the true subject. As the article says this is where the colleges should make the students and not the professors the primary focus. Boot all those humanities “specialists” with their dubious if original theories and turn those departments over to the teaching assistants? Why not? Of course this wouldn’t have helped my long ago friend except to save her all that greasy pole time.
> As the article says this is where the colleges should make the students and not the professors the primary focus.
Administrators are the primary focus of the colleges, not professors. The administrators would replace all the professors with precarious adjuncts, if they could.
I’m sure what you say is true now, but don’t think it was true during my college time when higher education was a lot less expensive. Nevertheless they were still competing on the basis of prestige and the publish or perish model existed then too. I’m not attacking professors or even specialization in the humanities but am trying to give a boost to generalists and suggesting, as does the article I think, that a better balance is needed. Some of my English professors did talk about things other than literature and funnily enough those are the parts I remember most.
I also may be struggling a bit with my point, which is not uncommon.
“Tesla’s ‘full self-driving’ controversy now features homemade mannequins and tests on real kids CNN (Dr. Kevin)”
In the end Tesla has their priorities ass backwards. From other videos i have seen, they seem to spend considerable computing power and time trying to ID the exact nature of the object in front of the car, when the priority should be to tell if the object in front of the car is getting closer or not.
That Tesla ID software seems to be, ahem, a work in progress-
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tpOg87AQvbo
Yep, i have seen numerous variants of that over the years.
Confusing a low moon with a yellow traffic light, a open truck carrying traffic lights getting confused for active lights, but the best one was a emergency breaking test someone did where the system spent ages thinking a BBQ in the middel of the road was a bloody office chair!
Why even bother is what i am asking.
Is Tesla worried that the system will have to make a “trolley” decision at some point?
Crap like this is why i have no love for US tech these days. They behave like the proverbial priests debating the number of angels on a pinhead.
I don’t think it can be that simple. Before that, you have to decide whether the blobs in the camera images represent an object or not.
On winding roads it can look like you’re heading straight into parked cars or houses until the road curves away. So even just detecting objects in front of you isn’t enough. I guess if the system has a map it could tell the difference but I think I’d rather just drive myself.
re: James Webb telescope images of Jupiter. From the NASA JWT blog: “non-professional astronomers known as citizen scientists often dive into the public data archive to retrieve and process images.
Judy Schmidt of Modesto California, a longtime image processor in the citizen science community, processed these new views of Jupiter. For the image that includes the tiny satellites, she collaborated with Ricardo Hueso, a co-investigator on these observations, who studies planetary atmospheres at the University of the Basque Country in Spain.”
This news really got my day off to a great start – not just the JWT’s fantastic imagery and the technological achievement – but also the citizen science angle. How cool that passionate, driven volunteers share their talents and expertise. Uplifting stuff. Three cheers for citizen scientists!
It made my day, too. I have the JWST site bookmarked. Jupiter is even more beautiful with the rings. Simply awesome!
https://t.me/readovkaworld/3041
Some more nasty shelling of civilians in Donetsk. Whilst Russia seems to be doing it very best to avoid civilian casualties the Ukrainians continue to kill their own people.
The Zelensky regime is truly loathsome.
Meanwhile, because Ukrainians forces are still unable to find any Russian forces to attack, are having to use their NATO-supplied 155mm caliber artillery to shell Donetsk city and kill civilians instead-
https://www.rt.com/russia/561360-donetsk-building-shelled-strike/
“China’s show of force over Taiwan a chance to test military coordination but results unclear: analysts”
A theory has been suggested that one of the main reasons why Washington was getting Nancy to go to Taiwan and to push the Chinese was to see how they would use their military in reaction to this and try to understand their capabilities. To try to get a handle on what they might do in case a war breaks out between China and the US navy.
That suggests far too much coordination between state department, congress and Pentagon. The same groups where one was calling for a no fly zone until another reminded them of the nuclear risk.
Agree. The idea that there is any kind of strategic plan happening between the Executive Branch, the DoD and Congress is ridiculous. Its a bunch of amateur actors doing improvisation sessions in what they believe is a rehearsal for a new season of West Wing–similar to Ender’s Game, no one is going to tell them its real until they manage to exterminate the human race.
Re: vaccine-induced immune deficiency claim
Is the control group for that claim unvaccinated people *without* a covid infection? Because it’s a very different story if somehow covid vaccination causes more side effects than natural covid infection, which we already know ravages immune systems.
(The study from the Fox clip wasn’t linked so I can’t read it before I have to get my kid to school, sorry)
I think it’s this one.
Innate immune suppression by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccinations: The role of G-quadruplexes, exosomes, and MicroRNAs
It’s totally speculative insofar as it speculates that the proven immunosuppressive effects of the COVID virus might also be caused by the vaccine but the only evidence they present is vaccine adverse events reports. The problem with that approach should be obvious – in a country as neurotic as the United States – where CIA agents believe themselves to be physically damaged by science fiction sound wave weapons and police officers collapse after merely touching a surface contaminated with fentanyl – this kind of uncontrolled self-reported data is totally unscientific.
Same playbook as the autism story – Lancet publsihed and the folks who did the work are all “Wait, what?! This is equal parts wrong and making claims about things we didn’t study.”
Time will tell if someone had a monetary angle.
The problem with side effects is that these can be indeed as bad as an infection or even worse in some particular cases. These may not be many, more probably a few, but this few are being damaged for almost nothing given that current vaccines barely protect against current variants. So far most of these cases have been ignored, unreported and/or not studied. You, for instance, would like to know if the frequency of some very bad reactions correlate with some genetic factors.
The risk/benefit ratio of mRNA vaccines is too high now compared with the same ratio a year ago. Their only utility now is to raise titres of neutralizing antibodies but the raise against current variants is faint and short lived. There is no longer need to stimulate cellular responses when almost everyone has seen vaccines, the virus or both.
Unless I’ve missed some developments I believe this is incorrect in two senses:
1) In the sense that we are not properly able to assess the benefits. The key unassessed benefit being that of greeting future attacks by the virus with an immune system that has developed competent immune memory for at least whatever strain the vaccine is built around. The failure to develop competent immune memory after infection, or to develop it only very slowly, at unknown cost in terms of future immunological resilience has consistently been the least-discussed of the issues I wish were being discussed more widely.
The lack of competent immune memory subsequent to natural infection could be a big part of the situation we find ourselves in right now, it certainly was earlier in the pandemic. And priming of immune memory via mRNA vaccines might be the best hope most of our children have of making it to adulthood with sound minds and bodies.
2) In the sense that we are not properly able to assess the risks. The calculable risks due to infection are only the short-term ones, and even leaving Long Covid out of the picture, in the current environment the risks arising from cumulative infection make the long-term risks the ones that matter. The risks due to the vaccines certainly should be readily calculable, but that calculation is in fact severly confounded, for instance, by the early failure to account for asymptomatic infection and non-seroconversion.
The risks and benefits of the mRNA vaccines appear to be far closer to variolation than anything I ever imagined might be necessary in my lifetime, but Covid’s well within parameters for a trajectory that will produce casualties on a par with smallpox pandemics of the past.
Regarding 1) “you cannot assess the benefits”. I might not be able to quantify not having real data, numbers of infected by vacc/infection status but we have seen “breakthrough” infections escalate to the roof with the new variants regardless vac status indicating much lower benefit. Isn’t this enough? Every infection I saw since this winter was on vaccinated people with or without boosters. I really don’t understand your dissertation on “competent memory” what this means is a mystery to me.
2) The risks of vaccination are several and most of them have to do with the cellular responses elicited by vaccines or infections triggering inflammatory reactions here and there. Studies in Israel, for instance reported myocarditis as a risk that increased with boosters. Even the CDC admitted long ago that COVID boosters may risk more serious side effects – CDC . It is the case that the spike protein in vaccines elicit cellular immune responses which, compared with many other antigens used in vaccines, are, let’s say, weird. The probability of these happening just increases with every new booster. Few studies have found increased adverse effects after boosting, for instance, in Japan. This findings haven’t been widely searched or reported while policies were just promoting boosters as the solution (in many cases simply because the vaccine doses where there frozen, bought at high cost, and where to be destroyed if not).
I find the claims that they found the assassin unpersuasive. This looks like the same sort of BS our police pull when they are under pressure to come up with quick results. She not only brought along her daughter, but possibly her cat (?). Her (granted) ex-husband may have connections to Donetsk separatists. Which is not to say it is a false flag, but the culprit seems unlikely.
Electronics are very tricky to puzzle out. Particularly when they are blown to pieces. You can easily get something with 3 different triggers (say a timer, a pressure sensor, and a signal override). Again, there is the rush to put out information.
But (assuming the entire account is not a fable, and the speed of the response militates against that), two questions : why was she in Russia, and why three licence plates?
The fact that she had direct connections with Azov and found herself living in the same apartment complex as her target must surely be a coincidence then. As well as her warp speed exit to Estonia and hair colour change immediately after the bombing. May I ask then what you would accept as definitive proof that it was a Ukrainian op?
Of course as she is in Estonia, the Estonians could detain her and supervise an interrogation by a Russian representative in an Estonian secured facility. The trouble is that if there was a solid case against her based on the proof provided, Estonia might have to transfer her back to Russia as a terrorist because of international treaties. Think that the Estonians would? :)
Estonia collaborate with Russia? Cold day in hell, mate…
A large bribe can do wonders in Estonia.
A gas for terrorists exchange? One megawatt hour for every terrorist they can round up may start to look good pretty soon.
After the terrorist murder in the Moscow, I suspect the British Mercs will be facing a similar fate to Costas Georgiou and Andrew McKenzie.
I suspect Dugin lived in fancy digs, and likely over the pay grade of a Ukraine cop, particularly since she would have had to rent a furnished apartment.
It’s a nice neighborhood. IIRC, Putin’s personal residence is not too far. She spent a lot of money in a short period of time, but apparently not paid well enough to destroy the car. Putting it up for sale with the exit plates on it was a weird move.
I’d be more willing to entertain false flag theories if the Ukrainian government and propaganda (they’re the same) response had not been floating initially. Denying it now doesn’t cut it. And her Mariupol relatives are giving interviews.
Devil’s advocate, but the first two points (proximity and Azov links) might be a direct reason for her later actions. There’s obviously reason to suspect her and neither side has been especially concerned about following the letter of the law. If you were in the area with your child and you realized you were a likely suspect, would you hang around and trust to the fairness and impartiality of the Russian justice system?
Not saying you’re wrong, just that it falls short of sufficient evidence.
There is also a non-zero probability that it was an FSB operation. Anyone old enough to remember the Chechen bombings? See this
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/22/1118052620/tax-credit-electric-cars-vehicles-tesla-gm-inflation-reduction-act-climate
I was not aware that ‘complicated’ was a synonym for useless.
“Currently, no electric vehicle on the market will qualify for the full tax credit when battery requirements take effect in 2023, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.”
“It will be difficult, if not impossible, for buyers to qualify for the full $7,500 tax credit as automakers rethink their operations to meet the various requirements.”
This is good for America and will save the average American in a future state save money, cutting costs and make energy more efficient. Because we said so. The clause about the rare earths / rare minerals and battery components is just ridiculous by half.
Democrats, too funny with their access to this, that or the other.
The key to a successful career as a D politician to to LOOK LIKE you want to do things and, on exceedingly rare and desperate occasions, LOOK LIKE you are actually doing things.
This falls into the second category.
“Nothing will fundamentally change.”
Well, the USA needs a domestic battery supply base or slowly fall well behind China.
Battery tech is a value creator. To let China control it will not be positive for the US economy.
What needs to happen (and could happen) is for a complementary battery minerals mining and processing law to be passed that:
1. Accelerates permissions for infrastructure build out
2. Provides zero cost finance and some grants to get required investment flowing
3. Protects the environment (don’t laugh, it can be done and there are real world examples out there).
If no mining/materials bill, then the EV credit is performance theater. Earlier in his administration, Biden took certain actions to describe these minerals as strategic. Now is the time for follow up.
Should get GOP support because they like mines in their districts and most of them are located in the western and southeastern states.
Mining can be done safely and cleanly. Accidents are always a possibility, but I’ve spent some decent time in very modern mines with very serious commitments to safety and the environment. All it takes is prioritizing it. Like how every couple of years I measure the vibration of the surface during blasting to provide data on whether blasting might impact fish reproduction in the nearby river for mine.
Family blogging Larry Sanders, ARGGGHHHH.
Best…H
Liz didn’t fall far from the tree. Despicable as she is, the group coming off like suckers and idiots are anybody who donates to her, her side shoe, or anything that furthers her political ambitions. She’ll come away much richer than she started and the country will be worse for having her in it. Sadly most of the marks she will be raking it in from are people who claim to be against everything she has stood for EXCEPT for her conversion to Trump Evil. *
*Notes the exception of those Democrats IM Doc knows who changed parties to raise the vote counts for her opponents. I have to thank them.
FWIW Larry Johnson says she became a 40 millionaire while a rep. Always about the money?
Gang of Eight ====> Reliable contra-indicator
Translation: Let us take a look at how we
mightwill be implicated.The Gang gave their admin dude a slap on the wrist for the handling of classified docs to avoid facing greater scrutiny for leaks, they have gone from, uh, respected senior politicians to Prevaricating Unctuous Slimeballs. Welcome to DC.
Re: “Democrats angling to defeat Stefanik look to donors nationwide” – Times Union, Albany and “Similar platforms, different strategies: Castelli, Putorti vie for Democratic nomination to challenge Stefanik”- Adirondack Daily Enterprise
I’ve been seeing a lot of TV ads from both candidates. The Adirondack DE article is more accurate. The Times Union makes it sound like both candidates are playing to the “NPR” crowd with a similar strategy. But while Putorti does emphasize abortion rights and gun control, Castelli’s ads highlight his CIA background and service in Afghanistan and Iraq. He emphasizes that he is a “moderate.” When he entered the race he was immediately endorsed by the Democratic party establishment. He’s getting large donor money. He is the epitome of a “CIA Democrat.”
Neither would likely beat Stefanik in this heavily Republican district. But Castelli’s campaign reflects the national Democratic Party’s model for the future: the Enlightened Intelligence Officer (to save us from the deplorables threat).
Good article about the NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) in The New Republic. I hope this story gains more traction.
https://newrepublic.com/article/167499/new-apostolic-reformation-mastriano-christian
“Ai Weiwei Unveils Thought-Provoking Cage Installation Commenting on Refugees in Europe My Modern Met (David L)”
This sculpture is a perfect reflection of our era. An inane stack of modern building materials, its metaphoric content so clearly telegraphed that a 5-year old could understand it with no intellectual remove or prior knowledge of art or aesthetics.
One only needs to read the Why I Left Academia article. Myself and my white p-word taught a semester as an adjunct at a public ivy and now I know what living under the Stasi was like. I avoid academia like the cops.
Ai Weiwei has a very subtle and mischevious sense of humour. When under house arrest and permanent surveillance in China he produced a series of beautifully rendered sculptures of CCTV cameras. When he moved to the west he proved equally adept at trolling his wealthy supporters in London and Berlin and the US. His art almost never means what it seems to mean superficially.
“What if the US took a more nuanced view of Iran?”
It always strikes me as strange that professional publications like Responsible Statecraft will talk about 1979 and how Iran hates the US but they never want to really talk about 1953 when the CIA had a popular government overthrown which lead to a quarter of a century of rule by the vicious regime of the Shah. Unless you take note of that, everything from 1979 is only telling half the story and seems to place most of the fault on the Iranians. There is a deal to be had with Iran but the problem is that no nation now expects the US to keep a deal that they have themselves negotiated.
A regime backed by USA to the point that they sold F-14s to them, planes the present day Iran still keep in working order somehow.
It will be deeply ironic if we one day see the F-35 get popped out of the sky by Pentagon’s 80s glamour jet.
The USA always takes the short term wins and doubles down on a losing hand. You can bet on it.
While we’re at it, “What if I were a plum?” The one’s as likely as the other.
Has Larry Summers ever been given the NC “Sociopath of the Day” award?
Not as far as I know. He certainly would be a worthy contender in a crowded field.
If he were given the award though, NC chaos would ensue. All of the losers would claim his selection was rigged.
Larry has the view of many in the uppper crust…
“We stole that money fair and square, why give it back?”
For some this thinking is the peak of cognitive dissonance…
Retroactively, he really deserves some kind of Sociopath Lifetime Achievement Award.
#KingCrapaud
There’s even an existing photo op! Time magazine, the Committee to Save the World.
RE: Student Loan Forgiveness Tweets
Approaching this as either “forgive” all student loans or none just creates an unactionable impasse. By design I think.
Had this discussion the other night with friends who vehemently oppose “forgiveness.” Their reason? aoc wants her $17,000 loan forgiven while she drives around in her Tesla. Drop the mic as far as they’re concerned.
I’d start the financial enema by telling anyone who’s paid back everything, or more than everything they borrowed that they’re “paid in full,” and reduce the interest rate for those remaining to the same 0% banks and business have been paying for the last….what…20 years. Let’s see how the situation looks then.
I’d also insist that these “schools” have some of that famous “skin in the game.” Maybe the same 80/20 split as Medicare. Taking part of the financial responsibility for their “product” might cool some of that love that these institutions have for the failing students with a blank check, hanging around for 6 years getting “a degree,” living in the concierge “dorms,” and destroying their financial lives before they’ve even taken Compounding Interest 101.
To forgive or not to forgive is a stupid, pointless discussion designed as nothing more than another one of those perpetually unresolved political stump speech “issues.”
Most borrowers would be overjoyed to have the terms of student loans to be the same terms as a mortgage, especially since student loans are the safest loan there is. The terms of student loans are ridiculously predatory.
A better Larry Summers quote would be:
“I think the best way to relieve student debt would be to allow it to be discharged in bankruptcy. I’d support this reform. It would also penalize other private creditors, unlike government debt relief that would in part subsidize them.”
Although Larry Summers is not very popular in these parts, he does correctly make the point that loan forgiveness encourages higher tuition and more borrowing, kicking the can down the road rather than addressing the many problems with U.S. higher education.
a student loan also encourages higher tuition and more borrowing
Larry is a shyster.
Larry may be a despicable, crafty, unscrupulous Harvey Weinstein lookalike, but he’s also not stupid and is well aware of how the economy actually works (unlike a lot of more purely academic economists). Don’t reject his ideas blindly just because you loathe him. With the government’s generous loan programs, universities have been able to steadily raise tuition without having to worry about whether their students even graduate. Similarly, occasional student debt cancellations will likely induce additional borrowing by students hoping they, too, get lucky.
Similarly, occasional student debt cancellations will likely induce additional borrowing
ok,scroll back to 2008…
if we forgive fraudulent mortgages it will induce people to take out more loans
sure the fraudulent mortgages are bad, but …but…but…think of the poor banksters! Have you no compassion?
and as i noted above, we done stole that money and you want it back?
The reality is the loans don’t work, they pump prices but don’t deliver on outcomes.
Not only should they be forgiven, the practice should come to an end. I realize this will leave a giant pile of smashed rice bowls. The most creative will create something new from the shards. Uni prices and superstar faculty costs must come down, but is there not a vast supply of newly unindebted educated and eager intellectuals waiting to make their career? Larry Summers is a shyster.
https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/its-all-over-now-baby-blue/
The schools can’t put skin in the game. Most of them are fundamentally broke. Huge debts in universities, generally as high or higher than their foundation/endowments. (Excepting a few like Michigan, Stanford, Ivies, etc.) They can’t get off the hamster wheel of student loans providing the collateral for their facility budget borrowing. Covid was a panic moment for universities if the students stop coming for even a semester or two, everything falls apart and they’ll need a bailout to pay back Wall Street.
“Ukraine battles to avoid hyperinflation as war costs soar”
Heard mention of this the other day in a video but the Ukraine is going to get crushed regardless of the outcome of the war. There is a danger of hyperinflation of course but look at what the Ukraine will have to deal with when the war is over. By then the areas where about 80% of the Ukraine’s GDP has been responsible will then by under Russian control. How will they generate the tax basis to run their country? They will also be a landlocked nation and will lose all access to the sea which will hurt them badly. The revenue that they receive from the gas lines passing through their country will also decrease as those gas shipments will be shipped east by the Russians over time. And how many of those Ukrainians that fled out of the country will return to such a train-wreck of a country?
So you are not only talking about those people in terms of lost workers but also the children that they have or will have that would have been future citizens and workers. And I am not even talking about all those Ukrainians killed and wounded. The west is already looking for an off-ramp and no new weapons are being promised to the Ukrainians and supplies are tapering off as well. Any efforts to reconstruct will be undone by either the local oligarchs or the endemic corruption. And wouldn’t you know it, last month the Ukraine’s Parliamentarians gave themselves a 70% pay rise because so much US/EU money has been flowing into the joint. Unfortunately the destiny of the Ukraine is to be the basket-case of Europe. And my prediction is that nobody will want to know about the Ukraine by this time next year.
And how many of those Ukro-Nazis are going to wind up here in the US, to further poison our politics? Look no further than Florida, where capital-flight right wingers from Latin America are infecting what was once a swing state?
On the other hand, #McResistance imbeciles in NYC will be soon be able to get their borscht at Veselka made by actual Azov Nazis… now there’s pedigree for you!
I hear that Canada is already struggling with that issue, and why that pump is stuck in limbo.
If Azov ended up in Az it’d be an easy transition abbreviation wise and it wouldn’t really change the politics in the crass-test-dummy state, would it?
Oh, darn. Now I have to add Ukrainian to my list of languages to learn.
if the human race is to survive, there can be no free trade. the author i have read many times, sometimes i agree, sometimes not, but she can be very good. why not come out and name whats causing this, instead she quibbles.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/achieving-self-funding-local-sovereignty-global-food-systems-collapse/5786180
“Corporations have become bigger than ancient countries, steamrolling over Life like invading armies.… Long supply chains are making food, machines and energy insecure. So much transport, needing so much oil, just to bring carrots and soap from cheap labour places. Third World people are realizing the money driven system is the extension of Colonialism; exploitation of their work and land by those who control money and weapons.…
These few then drive public policy towards more centralization, more scientific determinism, more technocratic “solutions,” more standardization, more war, more ideology.…
If large corporations and banks are the problem, then the solution is small and local.… The path to decentralization is already being forged in a million initiatives everywhere.
The solution is small and local, including growing food locally. But how to fund local food co-ops without pricey loans from big banks?”
Regarding the Webb telescope, wasn’t there a posting a few weeks ago that said the telescope had been damaged and this would limit its capabilities?
A few microscopic meteorite dings, no effect, it has big mirrors.
Giant slide closed down hours after opening because of major design error LADBible (David L)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whoops!
In my childhood year right up until adulthood, you’d see big slides made out of fiberglass all over in LA, until the threat of lawsuits did away with fun such as this, or diving boards in pools or slides-no-no-no!
You’d put wax paper under your gunny sack to go a little faster and down you went and did it again, until maybe you wanted to play pinball or some of the rather primitive electronic games of the era in the adjacent arcade-pinball was totally cooler. There was a miniature golf course with 9 holes and a most challenging windmill par 3 among other obstacle courses, Fore!
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/23/us/politics/food-insecurity-biden-stimulus.html
Oh, you mean liberal Democrats allowed these benefits to expire, and have presided over a huge increase in child poverty as a result?
Risk of volcano catastrophe ‘a roll of the dice’ ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
Dear Volcanologists,
We’re kinda busy right now. So please take a number, have a seat, and enjoy a magazine until we call you. Thank you for your patience.
–Management
https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/08/could-trump-talk-himself-into-an-indictment/
Allow me some speculation here.
I have never believed that the Biden Justice Department wanted to charge former president Trump with criminal offenses over his retention of records from his presidency. There are many reasons for this, but significantly, the difficulty of proving a crime at trial is not one of them. Proving illegality on the facts as we understand them would be a lay-up.
==========================================
So I think Andrew McCarthy is usually dispassionate and equinanimous in his analysis. But I think he glosses over 2 important points in this instance. First, I think in fact an objective review of Russiagate proves that the FBI and DoJ are not full of honorable and law abiding public servants. I think not only with regard to Trump, but in many cases. Second, but more importantly, just what are these “classified” documents? Does Trump have manuals on how to build nuclear weapons, or a listing of all double agent in Russia or Iran? I think what is classified are “sources” and these are likely to be consultants and employees of firms that worked for the democratic party or go betweens that provided so much of the “information” that was the basis of the Russiagate investigation. Saying that Trump did something bad but we can’t be specific just doesn’t cut it. And the usual disclaimer – I can’t stand Trump.
> I think what is classified are “sources” and these are likely to be consultants and employees of firms that worked for the democratic party or go betweens that provided so much of the “information” that was the basis of the Russiagate investigation.
That is my working theory as well. That the same people who were running RussiaGate are running this, using plays from a playbook that seems at this point very familiar, gives this view added force. Personnel is policy!
Energy Watch Norway.
It’s behind a paywall so I can’t read it. Found a Norwegian site that covers the same story (I assume) where the countries affected wail about the free market and fears that other countries might consider doing the same.
I started to watch the debate last Thursday night but gave up after five minute. Eight politicians with their meticulously rehearsed talking points, starting off with the Prime Minister blaming the the electricity crisis on lack of water in the reservoirs. Wrong. The Oil and Energy Minister had made the same point a couple of weeks ago and added “Nobody could have foreseen it.” Wrong again.
Yeah, this is a story long in the making and one that can hardly be properly summarized in a blog’s comment section.
A long story in the making is correct. It started in 1988-1989 with Report Number 7, developed by Einar Hope and his research group. The Report advocated for a market based system. A year later Norway adopted the Report´s recommendations and in Norway electricity went from being a public good to another market commodity.
Here’s the leader of Motvind, Eivind Salen, take on it. Motvind is an environmental organisation dedicated to stopping Norway being turned into a wind park.
The brilliant idea of selling power where it’s most expensive
https://www.norwegianamerican.com/on-the-edge/
People may remember reading how Danish women have been posting videos of themselves dancing on social media in show of support for Finland’s partying Prime Minister Sanna Marin as part of a show “Solidarity with Sanna” campaign-
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-23/finnish-prime-minister-dancing-solidarity-with-sanna-marin/101359748
Well, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin had to apologize after a photograph surfaced showing two topless female social media influencers kissing at her official residence in Helsinki-
https://www.rt.com/news/561387-sanna-marin-topless-photo/
Your move Danish women. The problem is not that she is into the party scene as really, who cares? The problem is that she is stupid enough to let herself be filmed in compromising situation, even though she is the Prime Minister of Finland. Not everything has to be posted to social media.
Exactly. In the UK we have had examples of corporate dinners making it into the media. Eg pictures of large numbers of executives in a nice venue allegedly living it up.
Of course, if said executives are in a business with public sector contracts or subsidies or whatever then cue outrage. “These guys are enjoying a £200 dinner in one night while earning £x millions from the government”. It’s an easy shot for the media; albeit circumscribed by the reality that sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander too!
Typically, when the “source” was traced back it was not a “mole” but one of the said executives had quite merrily posted pictures all over Instagram or whatever. I have no idea why people think that doing so is a good idea.
Linked In in my experience is particularly full of such images of global conferences and so forth. Does this really impress clients / customers?
> Well, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin had to apologize after a photograph surfaced showing two topless female social media influencers kissing at her official residence in Helsinki-
Isiah 22:13: “And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.” If this logic is playing out at the elite level, even in Finland, that’s pretty disturbing.
Finns are so stoic most of the time that wne they kick loose they really kick loose. ;)