To Stop Illegal Fishing, Send a Seabird Nautilus (Micael)
Electric vehicles catch aflame during Ian aftermath
Accuweather
Should We Really Be Messing with Asteroid Orbits? Nautilus
Water
Clashes as Thousands Protest French Agro-industry Water ‘Grab’ VOA
How Liquid Death Became Gen Z’s La Croix Bon Appetit
#COVID-19
Unadjuvanted intranasal spike vaccine elicits protective mucosal immunity against sarbecoviruses Science
Myanmar
Ukraine-type approach required for Myanmar’s military: UN expert Al Jazeera
Syraqistan
Head of Iran’s IRGC warns protesters: ‘Today is last day of riots’ Al Arabiya
‘US has no plans to withdraw from Syria or end sanctions’: Official
The Cradle
Old Blighty
NI election: Sinn Féin says talks to be held on Tuesday BBC
UK may be using NI protocol as leverage for finance concessions Irish Times
People are going spare about Prince Harry’s memoir. Just don’t ask them why Guardian (Furzy)
China?
How China is bypassing cargo chokepoints to speed up Africa trade SCMP
U.S. Withdrawing F-15C/D Fighters From 44 Year Deployment on China’s Doorstep: What Will Replace Them? Military Watch Magazine
A-10 Warthogs to brush up on maritime combat in Pacific deployment Military Times
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia suspends Ukraine grain deal after attack on Sevastopol naval base The Guardian
Grain corridor used as shield to attack Sevastopol – Nebenzya’s letter TASS
Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the United Kingdom’s involvement in a terrorist attack on Sevastopol Russian Foreign Ministry
Russia says U.S. lowering ‘nuclear threshold’ with newer bombs in Europe Reuters
General Armageddon Comes to Ukraine The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda
An old thread worth re-reading periodically:
Most fascinating thing about the Ukraine war is the sheer number of top strategic thinkers who warned for years that it was coming if we continued down the same path.
No-one listened to them and here we are.
Small compilation 🧵 of these warnings, from Kissinger to Mearsheimer.
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) March 1, 2022
***
Russia’s finance ministry cuts 2023 taxable oil expectations Reuters
The Southern Hemisphere Will Suffer Most From Europe’s Energy Crisis OilPrice
Italian inflation rate hits 11.9%, highest since 1984 Ansa
Germany dodges recession but inflation climbs to 11.6% Reuters
Biden Administration
How the GOP Could Win Its Long War Against Social Security The American Prospect
JOE BIDEN HAS ADVOCATED CUTTING SOCIAL SECURITY FOR 40 YEARS The Intercept
This guy is really good at campaigning, no question. https://t.co/gqJOb5eacW
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) October 30, 2022
Obama Wanted to Cut Social Security. Then Bernie Sanders Happened The Intercept
Democrats en déshabillé
Ilhan Omar has morphed into a real Democrat. She gave israel $3.8b in 2021, $40 billion this year to arms manufacturers (bc she’s super anti-war), withdrew a letter calling for diplomacy on the verge of nuclear war, and calls anyone who disagrees a “Russian propagandist”. Great! https://t.co/cQGASEB7Bp
— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) October 29, 2022
Obama Legacy
How does Barack Obama and Charles Barkley as part of a Phoenix Suns ownership group sound? Azcentral
Police State Watch
Pentagon’s US-Mexico border mission extends for another year Military Times
Homeland Security agents “scrambled” to Best Buy in 2020 to get laptops for new recruits with “barely any form of training,” meeting up in a “parking lot” to begin work creating spy files on Americans protesting George Floyd’s murder. pic.twitter.com/7RNICPHJBM
— dell cameron (@dellcam) October 27, 2022
Our No Longer Free Press
Saudi prince to retain stake in Twitter after Musk takeover Al-Monitor
ELON MUSK IS NOT A RENEGADE OUTSIDER – HE’S A MASSIVE PENTAGON CONTRACTOR Mint Press News
Guillotine Watch
Real Estate Industry Spends Big To Crush LA “Mansion Tax” The Lever
THREAD. This is a thread about a “crime wave” that you barely hear about in the daily national news or on local tv every night. A crime wave by corporate landlords. It’s important to understand what is happening, and also who benefits from the media not treating it as urgent.
— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) October 27, 2022
Class Warfare
Howard Schultz’s Comment to Pro-Union Starbucks Worker Was Threat, Labor Board Alleges Bloomberg
Starbucks bosses listened for six minutes, then walked out of union bargaining session People’s World
If the union gets a contract with concrete concessions, it will demonstrate the benefits of being in a union and likely prompt more unionizing within the company and at other companies. 2/
— Noam Scheiber (@noamscheiber) October 28, 2022
The Bezzle
Meta Will Continue Burning Billions Of Dollars Until Something Happens Defector
Zeitgeist Watch
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop touted the ‘benefits’ of putting a jade egg in your vagina. Now it must pay. The Washington Post (Furzy)
How Reality Got ‘Storified’ and What We Can Do About It New York Times (alynch)
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
171 comments
Comments are closed.
PUTIN THE MAGICIAN
(melody borrowed from Walk Like An Egyptian by The Bangles)
All the neocons in the West
They sing the same song, don’t you know
Lying through their teeth (oh way oh)
They ride their lies like a rodeo
All the bizarre tales that they tell
Their Narrative rules the internet
So juvenile (oh way oh)
They preach at us from the parapet
How they shout when they cry about
Way oh way oh, way oh way oh
Putin the Magician
Putin makes his moves in response
He dodges lies like a matador
They’re stuck in grooves (oh way oh)
They do the same things
Then do it more
Sanctions blowback hits Europe hard
None of it turned out the way they planned
Europe will die (oh way oh)
Supporting that Slav comedian
Putin now says the jig is up
Way oh way oh, way oh way oh
Putin the Magician
(musical interlude)
Wild deceit can’t beat Russia down
On the ground Russia has the knack
To win blow by blow (oh way oh)
Surovikin is their quarterback
If you wanna fight he’s the kind
Who ends the fight with his first attack
Artillery (oh way oh)
Pounds you to dust in your cul-de-sac
Asking Putin “Please!” — it’s too late
Don’t bother to call the Kremlin
You had your chance (oh way oh)
Now NATO gets an eviction
Neocons in the West all wail
Way oh way oh, way oh way oh
Putin the Magician
Putin the Magician
My credulous sister sent me this October 17 Politico interview of Fiona Hill by Maura Reynolds. I doubt it ever merited posting on NC; it is itself juvenile and TLDR, but as such it is perhaps a fitting chorus to this latest Antifa hit and Alex MacLeod’s takedown of Elon.
Fiona Hill: ‘Elon Musk is Transmitting a Message for Putin’
In the main line of argument Hill sets the stage observing that
Down page she then clinches her argument:
So smug is Ms Hill that only CIA assets like herself have the intelligence to know that Crimea is effectively a dry peninsula! (I pointed my sister to Yves’ comments on this topic on June 9, but I doubt my sister will read anything she doesn’t want to know.)
Toward closing, Ms. Hill delivers a history lesson on the centennial periodicity of world war:
This obviously wasn’t a Fetterman-like “Goodnight, everybody”, but her own ‘professional’ and febrile understanding of history. (I deploy single quotes to mark double-speak.)
It is harder still to exculpate Reynolds and Politico, who advise us upfront that ‘This conversation has been edited for length and clarity’. Truth, not so much.
Whenever people try to tell me that Crimea is part of Ukraine, I ask how come the Crimean War in 1853-56 was between Russia and England/France?
You could also tell them that Crimea was given to Ukraine by the Evil Commie Empire totally against the will of Crimeans. And ask if they’rer Evil Commie since they don’t want to undo the injustice ? Do they wish the Soviet Union to return?
Just wait until Russia tells the US that they have found a discrepancy in the Purchase of Alaska documents.
I’m going to bet that Hill has only the vaguest knowledge of Crimean history, but more importantly, lacks the curiosity to learn more. On the never ending see saw of stupid/evil a case can be made for stupid being far more operative than I’d prefer. Evil at least provides for rational action and recognition of constraints. Stupid is dangerous, combined with inclinations towards evil it is a level of terrifying suitable for the present moment.
The amount of intellectual respect I’ve lost for people I know in the last 9 months is depressing. I don’t need agreement but I demand an informed opinion.
‘… World War I was fought as a Great Power conflict to eject Germany from Belgium and France.’
Not quite. That’s a very Anglo-Saxon view of a World War.
Still, Belgium’s neutrality and independence were guaranteed by treaty by Great Britain because of Belgium’s vital importance as a buffer state, based on the strategic concept that Great Britain’s national security began in the Low Countries (not at the Cliffs of Dover) and therefore Britain could not allow any Continental great power to dominate that region.
Hmm. I wonder how this might be relevant to the current tragedy in Ukraine?
Excellent. Just watched the Bangles video last night.
Yes, excellent!
As someone living on Social Security, I found Obama’s rhetoric galvanizing. If only the man wasn’t a complete hypocrite.
He fooled us once. Never again. Anyone who is aligned with Obama and his clique is not fit for public office.
Much as I am somewhat ashamed to say this, my sympathies in the Pelosi attack lie wholly with the perpetrator. It reads like an old style Anarchist attack on the political power structure.
If there are cuts in the Social Safety Net programs, Mr. Buffet’s “Class War” will have entered an anti-concrete benefits phase of contention. T
If the ruling elites make it plain that they want some of us dead, what more is there to fear? Then it will be time for uncivil disobedience.
Unless, of course, those ‘Reality Challenged’ neo-cons give us all our own personal ‘Glow In The Dark Zelensky Action Figure.’
Stay safe, if that’s still possible.
The look on Tony Evers’ face in that video is perfect. He’s a bit of an old school milquetoast Madison Democrat, and I think that kind of blowhard talk sounded like pure Chicago BS to him. Which it is.
Brandon was Obama’s sidekick for 8 years and he wasn’t and still isn’t fit for public office. He belongs to be in a cell. The intercept article calls Brandon a centrist. Bull! The Democrats who work to derail benefits for the common man are right wing extremists. People need to wake up. If they vote for a Democrat, they’re voting for a Republican.
“People need to wake up. If they vote for a Democrat, they’re voting for a Republican.”
And both amount to voting against your own interests unless you’re a big corporate donor or military contractor. We have one party, The Business Party, already bought and paid for whether we vote or not.
Voting is a sham. Anybody, like Sanders or Perot, who tries to reform the mess is obliterated.
Hey wait a minute…
you mean all those blue folks I spoke with many years ago who told me to stop watching FOX when I told them O wants to cut SS, who splain’d to me we got 90 year old ladies getting huge SS checks they don’t deserve and can’t even spend and are living high on the hog getting all that free socialized govmit Medicare too so of course we should support Obama cutting SS…
Now it’s all the other way around? Here’s an idea – let’s cut O’s retirement and take away his free healthcare and make him and his family sign up under the ACA if he wants healthcare.
BTW I may end up agreeing with “my sympathies in the Pelosi attack lie wholly with the perpetrator. It reads like an old style Anarchist attack on the political power structure.”
Voting doesn’t change government policy. Protests don’t change government policy. Venues of speech are heavily censored against common sense policy alternatives while pro corporate pro establishment favored policies and voices are moved to the front of the line.
So people are going to thrash around looking for something to give. Sooner or later the damn is gonna break.
“who splain’d to me we got 90 year old ladies getting huge SS checks they don’t deserve and can’t even spend and are living high on the hog getting all that free socialized govmit Medicare”
Maybe it’s the tattered slivers of the ragged remnants of my youthful illusion of the Democrats being the party of the people but when I encounter these kinds of notions coming from Blue-flavored voters I still do a tiny double take. I know full well what the Democratic leadership is about. It’s just the cognitive dissonance of hearing someone who defines themselves as being not Red-flavored, not Conservative, earnestly spouting Right-wing talking points that gives me pause.
A few years back, I was driving a barstool at my “spot” and struck up a conversation with one of the bar’s $hit-lib regulars. This woman fancied herself politically astute. I should have known better.
The conversation came to Medicare For All. She laughed and smugly cracked “Yeah, how are we going to pay for all that?” My blood pressure spiked.
Well, we can, say, lose the F-35 Joint Strike Money Sink for starters, I replied. And all the other military pork that the Democrats have happily approved for decades untold. In lock-step with the Republicans.
She adopted a look of wary concern and said “Why are you always so angry?”
Huh, if you’re not angry you’re not paying attention IMHO.
For her, it was the typical $hit-lib power play wherein any display of emotion, other than sanctioned emotions like TDS, are taboo. Remember, words are “violence”. In her twisted world, I practically pulled out a knife…
you just have to remember that Obama called his own voters “the mob with pitchforks”
It looks like they just turned into a mob instead. I am not a political scientist, but I’m beginning to think that Brandon might be in some hot water.
Yesterday’s Michigan Rally for Victory: NSFW warning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4BlKGaEQGg&ab_channel=TheAngelaStantonKingShow
Looks like the old Obama magic has faded. Good. People are seeing him for who he is. Maybe he is wondering if someday the mob with pitchforks will come for him.
Pretty sure that a fake edit.
Try to keep it real here, people.
There’s enough bullshit everywhere else.
Agree. Content of random tweets and youtubes usually needs some additional verification.
“Obama interrupted by protester during Michigan rally: ‘Come on’
Former President Barack Obama tells interrupter, ‘You’ll have a chance to talk sometime later’
…
The crowd reacted negatively to the outburst, booing the heckler before chanting, “Obama” to drown out the back-and-forth.”
https://www.foxnews.com/hpolitics/obama-interrupted-protester-michigan-rally-come-on
(includes video clip)
Pelosi’s attack was another power imbalance. Labor relations are where it’s at.
A billionaire, married to the most powerful woman in the world, habitually drinks, remember his DUI video?, brings home a sex worker and something goes wrong with “his friend.”
Damn those 9-11 audios let the cat out of the bag.
If I were married to that woman I too would probably drink and “bring home friends”
Someone can just walk right up to the Speaker of the House’s home and break in with a hammer.
Who knew?
If people find out it’s so easy will it turn into that scene from Flying High?
You know the one with the woman is having hysterics in her seat and the queue forming to sort her out.
Ah, ambrit. Occasionally I feel a twinge of sympathy for the Bourbons, the Romanovs, Charles !. If only they had listened, been more aware, worked to lift their ‘subjects’ from poverty, hadn’t flaunted their riches in the face of the peasants who wanted bread. And a roof over their heads.
“Much as I am somewhat ashamed to say this, my sympathies in the Pelosi attack lie wholly with the perpetrator. ”
Don’t feel ashamed. I was wondering if he got the ice cream.
It is not just Republicans that have been trying to cut Social Security for years, but the largely neoliberal Democrats starting from Clinton and onward have been after it for decades.
My guess is that when the Democrats lose both houses in the midterms, the Republicans will see their chance and start destroying benefits and the Democrats will do nothing, saying they need to keep their powder dry, and then fundraise off of the issue in the “off season”. Or, it will pass with broad bipartisan support and then the Democrats will say that there is nothing they could have done because the mean and nasty Republicans were twisting their arms.
My guess is that that unionizing and the right to strike is next on the chopping block in an effort to defang the increase in labor organizing efforts.
Perhaps pitchforks are morphing into hammers?
I had an argument with my wife about the attack because I also compared it with the anarchist movement in Czarist Russia in 1800s, when the rule of law and the force of the state apparatus was all geared in protecting the status quo. The same nowadays. Given that the whole system is defending plutocracy, how can one use the law as a means of defense? Thus, as in the times past, people will end up resorting to violence: the fabled pitchforks….
To stop [whatever], send in a [robot dog, via drone!]:
https://twitter.com/josbtrigga/status/1586458519901175808
Pretty cool about the seabirds to track illegal fishing. Perhaps they can do the same with rats in order to track down health code violations.
Hah! I have read that some of the Asian fishing fleets are so big, their combined lights can be seen from space at night.
When the Pacific fish stocks collapse, there will be mass starvation in some countries in the region.
Malthus’ theory in action.
While flying over them at night, as I did fairly regularly for a few years, one can easily think that you’re over a vast suburban area– the sea is lit. When I first saw it, I immediately thought, “Man, this is f—ed.”
Gaaa!!!! Correct link for “drone-deployed armed robo-dog”:
https://twitter.com/LiaWong__/status/1577209925255561216/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1577209925255561216¤tTweetUser=LiaWong__
Elon Musk is a useful idiot for the deep state
https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/meet-the-new-bosssame-as-the-old
If the article proves true, how very 2022 for a headline to read that a former POTUS is joining an investor group to purchase the Phoenix Suns. Letting that one sink in for a minute. Maybe there is a little smoke happening there but nothing tangible, as these professional US franchises are just rarely placed up for a sale. Such as if an owner dies, or the owner is proved to be a flaming a*hole of an individual ( and that is why the Suns are for sale, as it turns out ).
In an upside-down world scenario, he can perhpas appoint Larry Summers as the Suns’ Treasurer so Larry finally gets the role he has long desired. It’s just not for the US Treasury.
Maybe Barry wants to put himself in a position that if there is ever another threatened basketball player strike, he can kill it much quicker this time.
After reading up on his potential involvement, I then clicked on the tweet with the embedded video. I’ll just say that I don’t vilify Obama for being a Democrat and our 44th President, but rather the lies and those impacted by his lies during his administration. Let alone the increasing consolidation in key US industries largely picked up apace after the GFC in 2008 / 2009.
Yeah he can get people fired up. Vomit.
And they say trump is a carnival barker…
Can I get a glass of water up here?
There’s a sucker born every minute…
Pro sports teams are majorly bubbly, to give you an idea of value, the LA Rams sold for $19 million 50 years ago and now would be worth $4 billion, that’s about 200x the value way back when.
And besides, who really watches the NBA these days?
Well, the rich ain’t dumb, and they know who butters their bread: That is, governments municipal, state, and federal which provide their sports teams with lavish subsidies and tax breaks in the mistaken belief that a professional sports team is an economic boon to a city.
It ain’t. A sports team merely diverts money from other sectors of the local economy. Outside of the tourist dollars it might attract, it creates very little net gain to the local economy. Sports teams are a racket, a way of shaking down governments, and that’s why the rich like to own them.
————
Speaking of the huge increase in the value of the LA Rams in 50 years, I thought I’d compare it with a famous work by Picasso, his 1932 portrait “Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)” which sold for $103 million in 2021. Previous to that it sold for $7 million in 1997. That’s 1400X in a mere 25 years!
Maybe those rich smarties are missing the boat.
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-expensive-artworks-sold-2021
Sorry, forget the second half of my comment. It might be of interest to some but my math is all screwy.
It probably fetched $25k in the 1960’s i’d guess.
$25k to $103 million is an astounding 4,000x it’s value 60 years ago.
I have it on good authority that Jerry Jones has returned a reasonable sum on his original purchase price circa 1989 of the Cowboys. And Jones for all his faults, actually created a pleasing new stadium which opened in 2008 or 2009. Still entertaining to think and recall, as a former resident of Plano in the DFW metro, the winter storm which also coincided with the Super Bowl in 2011 hosted there. Plow your own streets if you really must.
I’m told people watch the NBA, but that is just hearsay.
“EU names condition for unblocking Russia’s assets”
Ever since the EU seized their share of Russian assets several months ago, they have been sweating on finding a legal way to keep the money for themselves. Well there is no law and seizing those assets in the first place was kinda dodgy. But what is really at stake is people like ven der Leyen wanting to get their hands on some of that money for themselves through contracts, consultancies, NGOs, etc. So here is the EU trying to square this legal round circle. Russia is to participate in Ukraine’s economic recovery and they will get their money back – by spending it on the Ukraine. And it was the EU Justice Minister that said this which tells you a lot about EU justice. I think that the Russian Federation should make a counteroffer. They should say OK, we will spend those assets on some of the most heavily damaged Oblasts in the Ukraine so we will spend it on Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts. Since you say that they are actually Ukrainian, that won’t be a problem for you then. So we cool?
What are they actually trying to seize? I had thought these reserves were mostly Eurobonds, that is, debt paying close to zero interest whose denominated currency value is down 22% this year. The Eurozone has had to issue way more debt this year than they otherwise would and certainly several multiples of the ‘reserves’ stolen from Russia and assorted Russian billionaires and companies.
I know that the EU alone has grabbed about $13.83 billion of Russia’s money. I think that this money was kept outside Russia in order to settle trade transactions and the like so it would probably be in a ‘liquid’ form. Some of the articles that I have seen over the past few months show that the EU is actually “lusting” over this money but can’t grab it as their own law courts would declare it illegal. Nearly a year has gone by and they still can’t work out how to legally grab it – with some of it going to their own personal pockets of course.
Kind of dodgy. I imagine the perception of Euros seizing assets of private individuals isn’t going to sit well especially in light of Borrell taking off the mask with his jungle-garden line. Neoliberals love to make countries safe for “investors” (a catchall term) normally, but this
I imagine every behind the scenes conversation goes like this:
Former colonial ceo/government leader: what guarantees…
Eurocrat: we are the White…the Light…give us resources now…I mean rules based order.
Not that I mind seizing the yachts, but when it’s left to whims of who gets taxed, that is piracy, not taxation. My guess is these conversations are being held, and Europe is trying to not look like crooks. Everyone saw what happened to the Libyan sovereign wealth fund. It certainly didn’t go to rebuilding Libya.
The EU is like a bunch of pirates and has been for years now. You mentioned Libya. Libya had about 143 tons of gold and an equal amount of silver in secure storage. After that country fell, it was all flown out of the country – destination unknown. Same with the Ukraine. The day after the Maiden, the Ukraine’s gold was loaded aboard a transport and flown out of the country. There was even a film of it being loaded aboard that transport. Aaargghhh!!
It’s just “Civil Asset Forfeiture” gone Global.
Perfectly normal for well organized Banditti.
They’ve just been reading a lot of Patrick O’Brian and pining for the olden days
It’s a bit like the trucker’s protest and Trudeau, just on a larger scale. No one is immune. There is no herd immunity.
My thought exactly.
If we are really talking central bank forex reserves, the EUR denominated part would be invested in German, French and other liquid government bills and bonds. Most likely a good chunk would be in USD.
Polling US elections are difficult. Predicting the Collapse of Nuland and Blinker is premature. A long lunch, of fish and bubbly reminds of a way to frame the next Tarantino Movie.
Biden/Harris/HalfwitforeverDCSC
Polling US elections are difficult. Predicting the Collapse of Nieland und Blinker is premature.
A long lunch of fish and bubbly reminds of a way to frame the next Tarantino Movie.
“How Liquid Death Became Gen Z’s La Croix”
Can you imagine in about twenty years time when the teenage kids of all those Liquid Death enthusiasts – especially the ones idiotic enough to get themselves tattooed – find all that stuff on the net about what their parents did when they were younger for those drinks? I wonder what the slang term for ‘lame’ will be in about the year 2040?
Topo Chico don’t need no ‘suicide by sparkling water’ sobriquet, but their logo does come with Aztec hawtie showing side boobs, so there’s that.
https://www.redbubble.com/i/poster/aztec-princess-Topo-Chico-agua-mineral-worn-and-washed-logo-sparkling-mineral-water-by-carlosvela1123/95582513.LVTDI
Just going offline now Wuk but saw something today that would be nice in your neck of the woods-
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/ygmwva/automatic_fire_extinguishing_system_in_kayabuki/
We have a pretty good system in our cabin community with fire hydrants and about 100 feet of professional hose and nozzle for just about every cabin near the road if a fire broke out within the community. If a fire was racing up the hill from the East Fork of the Kaweah it wouldn’t do us much good, better to get the hell outta dodge.
Of course it wouldn’t do us any good now, as the water system has been purged of 30,000 gallons in anticipation of the big chill coming, and those few still up in the higher climes are living on stored water and foldup toilets that use WAG bags.
Liquid death is lame now. Haven’t read so much marketing guff in a long time.
Re: Meta spending billions
On what exactly? Nobody even tries to explain were the money is going. It sounds like a Pentagon project.
They’ve been trying to turn Mark into a real human being, and the Metaverse is just the latest attempt. It provides a safe space for an AI like Mark to interact with real human beings.
Please don’t be so negative: I think the programmers at Meta deserve kudos for making The Zuck appear as human and realistic as he does.
A perennial favorite:
Grill Talk with Mark Zuckerberg
by umami
https://youtu.be/M930FDIaSLA
p.s. The article’s embedded clip of Jim Cramer saying that Meta is “almost” a rogue company smells like Bill Black’s control-fraud concept. Is it just that easy to drain money out of companies now?
Cramer has been on a crusade demanding Silicon Valley “fire some people.” More generally, he has advocated for the Fed to tighten things up until people are afraid to quit their jobs. He’s a big believer in punishing uppity labor right now. Nobody should be hiring as far as he’s concerned.
These anti-labor rants are interspersed with his warmongering against both Russia and China.
Cramer reminds me of Soupy Sales, a malevolent version.
He never Meta stock he couldn’t hype…
I shudder to think of the facility containing the vat where Cramer was grown. He strikes me as being, well, just the caricature you see on the screen. Does he have hobbies? Nutritional requirements?
I was a big fan of soupy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-OGy3Kh7yM
green pieces of paper
I saw a clip a day or two ago where Cramer was apologizing for steering people Zuck’s way but I still think that this guy is just a carnival barker.
Hope.
Our biggest hope for free speech is a rogue billionaire government contractor.
Our biggest hope for continued social security are folks who have already tried to cut benefits but often campaign on them.
Our biggest hope to stop nuclear war is a political machine that has ignored warnings from everyone from Chomsky to Kissinger over decades.
Our biggest hope to stop covid are the same vaccines that only sort of work for 3-6 months even when there is a potentially sterilizing platform out there.
I’m tired.
“A-10 Warthogs to brush up on maritime combat in Pacific deployment”
I have said in the past how the A-10 is a great plane, even though the Air Force keeps on trying to kill them and get rid of them altogether. But tonight I just realized something about them. They are really only a plane to be used when the US Air Force has either achieved air superiority or else their opponent does not have an Air Force like in Afghanistan. And these days that is no longer true. If it was the US would have established a No Fly Zone over the Ukraine. So how will these A-10s fare in the Pacific if a war breaks out and suddenly the sky is full of Chinese Chengdu J-20s? If this ever happened, the natural comparison would be to the German Luftwaffe Ju-87 Stuka and what happened when they were deployed over England during the Battle of Britain-
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/heres-why-luftwaffe-lost-20-of-its-ju-87-stuka-dive-bombers-during-the-battle-of-britain-even-though-they-were-escorted-by-fighters/
A similar but more serious problem exists for aircraft carriers. They are sitting ducks for hypersonic missiles, hence now obsolete against a peer.
Per Yves, it is assumed that the US would use nukes if a peer took out an aircraft carrier.
From what I understand the Chinese hypersonic missles are LoS and land based.
The US Navy is dominant on the open ocean. China may/will control the strait but it can not project power. It’s not even a guarantee that the Chinese Navy can get past Taiwan.
I was thinking of the Russian hypersonic missiles, which seem able to sink all of them simuliniously. Dan Ellsburg’s book Doomsday says that in the 1960’s, the US plan was to nuke both China and Russia in the event of war with either one. I assume that idea still goes, and that the peers know it,
The Russians have recently tested in combat an upgrade of the Ka-52M that has an active protection system on it, like the Trophy system for tanks. Basically a fancy automated shotgun that shoots down incoming missiles. Ive been sayin that that’s what they need to do with the A-10 for like a decade now.
The original mission the A-10 was designed for was doing CAS along the FEBA, and it was expected to be contested airspace, but then again were talking about the Pentagon chasing its Fulda Gap fantasy. In other words, the A-10 would have become a rare bird after a couple of days.
To deal with the J-20s perhaps they can deploy independent, clandestine squads of marines on all the islands in the pacific, and when they hear a jet go by, they all break out small mirrors and wiggle them around in the sunlight, this could then dazzle or even potentialy blind the Chinese pilots and allow the A-10 to continue on their mission.
Replace ‘A-10’ with ‘F-anything’ or ‘B-whatever’ and note how much remains true. The utility of expensive super-capable systems has always been open to question, but the threat environments in the vicinities of forces of (what we wish were) peer nations are becoming so intense that one must needs be able to lose lots of whatever one means to send into them. This has been true since, I don’t know, 1966?
And where the Chinese are concerned that ‘vicinity’ seems likely to expand rapidly. They appear to be working the long range early warning and ocean surveillance problems very hard, among other things fielding some very intriguing long-range drones.
“Most fascinating thing about the Ukraine war is the sheer number of top strategic thinkers who warned for years that it was coming if we continued down the same path.”
I remember the moment I first heard that US/NATO intended to include Ukraine in the alliance. That was 2007. I felt numb from shock, just momentarily. A flashing, cold chill in my gut. A mental image of something violent and catastrophic passed through my mind.
Of course Russia was always prepared to wage war to prevent a great power rival from turning Ukraine into a military stronghold. How anyone be so stupid as to expect otherwise.
I too was struck by that quote, but…
The most fascinating thing is the self-induced blindness of soi-disant experts who think those warnings were ignored, rather than used as a road map.
Unless a hot war in Europe was in fact the plan?
In any case, thank you, Conor, for the timely link to this thread. Several of these I’d heard of, but not all, and their import is really amplified when quoted back to back like this.
Actually, I wish I’d seen this before, as just the other night I had a conversation with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while, and was dismayed to find firmly him convinced that (1) Russia’s invasion was unprovoked and unjustified, because (2) Ukraine’s intention to join NATO wasn’t in any way a threat to Russia (‘cuz Finland, somehow), and (3) Putin’s “plan” was to expand the territory of Russia by grabbing Ukraine and probably more, and (4) there are no Nazis in Ukraine, because real Nazis are of course against Jews, etc. I tried to offer counterarguments, but it was one of those heart-sinking moments when somebody for whom you have respect suddenly starts replaying the crazy Western narrative.
“… one of those heart-sinking moments when somebody for whom you have respect suddenly starts replaying the crazy Western narrative.”
“Heart-sinking” is right. I’ve had a number of these interactions over the last several years. At some point you suddenly realize that the person you are talking to sees *you* as someone who’s lost it – as one of those “I lost my dad to Fox News” cases at which I used to nod sympathetically. And the worst seem to be those who are the most highly educated and “informed.” It is truly like living in the Twilight Zone these days,
It is indeed. Despair creeps in and THAT is not helpful. To see how easily a huge percent of the population can fall prey to manipulation of the lamest sort. And where it really hurts is when this is with family and close friends who you thought surely must know better.
Not know as in ” know the truth” but know as in ” question the narrative”/
But reality wins out in the end. If people can’t afford to pay the rent, buy enough food, are unemployed, etc., they aren’t gonna give a **** about Ukraine.
Walter Kirn:
The bright side is that after you do the scan the Olive Garden menu appears
https://twitter.com/walterkirn/status/1586553312907665408
Right now, there is some jerk saying to himself that we should be doing that here – and making money off of it. A coupla weeks ago I stumbled over a tweet saying that people in Silicon Valley have been watching all the old scifi films about dystopian societies for years now so that they can make it come true and make a ton of money from it.
Yours truly,
THX-1138
Hi THX,
You’ll appreciate this. Your fellow digiteratti have been hard at work. / ;)
US citizens were given secret Covid “decree violation” scores
Mass surveillance during the first months of the US lockdowns.
https://reclaimthenet.org/us-analytics-firm-covid-19-decree-violation-scores/
This is why I hardly ever take my mobile with me when I leave the house.
The fictional Weyland-Yutani is just drooling at the opportunities that will present themselves in such a future. Think of setting up all those shake and bake colonies on distant planets.
Note to future self, LV-426 is best avoided.
re: class war. Between the “Virtuals and the Physicals.” (I like that framing.)
Can Sunak end the new class war?
https://unherd.com/2022/10/can-sunak-end-the-new-class-war/?
Excellent article. And no, Sunak is far too much of a Virtual.
Very good comments on the article as well. I think its correct that AI etc is much more of a threat to Virtuals than Physicals in the medium term. But maybe not to the ‘elite’ Virtuals who aim to rule us all in perpetuity.
The article’s discussion on the conflicts within the classes makes me think of the Twitter employee open letter to Musk (after mass layoffs were being discussed).
I found this quick link that lists the demands in the letter from the Twitter “virtuals” – for those that may not remember or haven’t read:
https://www.teslarati.com/twitter-employees-demands-elon-musk/
“…In the open letter, the employees list what they “demand of the current and future leadership.” Twitter employees listed the four demands and what the demands mean to them.
“Respect: We demand leadership to respect the platform and the workers who maintain it by committing to preserving the current headcount.”
“Safety: We demand that leadership does not discriminate against workers on the basis of their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs. We also demand safety for workers on visas, who will be forced to leave the country they work in if they are laid off.”
“Protection: We demand Elon Musk explicitly commit to preserve our benefits, those both listed in the merger agreement and not (e.g. remote work). We demand leadership to establish and ensure fair severance policies for all workers before and after any change in ownership.”
“Dignity: We demand transparent, prompt and thoughtful communication around our working conditions. We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires.”
Wow…sounds like demands that a lot of “physical” workers have made throughout history – before they were told to go “learn to code.”
I guess the “virtuals” should already know how serious big finance is about their quarterly profit margins.
But will it lead to finding common ground with the “physicals?” Good questions raised by the Unherd article and important points made.
A healthy number of Twitter employees have already been scooped up by their “virtuals” counterparts at other companies. Interesting in itself with Wall Street crying for reduced head count in the tech world to increase quarterly profit margins.
https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-workers-depart-for-meta-google-amid-elon-musk-takeover-2022-10/
Is there a push and pull going on between Wall Street and tech?
I was struck by a comment on reddit – on a site popular with tech and finance workers – when thinking about this dynamic. May be overgeneralized, but touches on some points worth thinking about:
“Big tech has been an ivy league daycare for the past 10 years. Everyone who couldn’t cut it in Wall Street jumped ship and tried to get into some sort of management/product/marketing role at Google or Facebook to play politics and jockey for headcount to insulate themselves from getting fired. There are some smart engineers there but they end up going down one of 2 paths. They either get lazy and content on the paycheck or they stay long enough to build their skill set and start their own business. Most big tech companies are just as bloated as boomer companies. It’s just 20somethings instead of boomers holding on for a pension…”
Anyway, I thought of these things when I read the last part of Harrington’s Unherd article:
“…To exercise such leverage, working-class Physicals will need to find allies among dissident segments of the elite, all of whom will (like Cobden) have their own motivations for the bargain….”
Moving from Twitter to Meta (the #2 destination for ex-Twits, #1 being the Googster, natch) … could be out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Thanks for the link to the thought provoking article.
“Another possibility is a more thoroughgoing push to turn what’s left of working-class Physicals into the “useless class“ some predict will emerge if AI and automation replace human-powered jobs. This would represent the final Virtual victory: for without even the option to withdraw their labour, it’s hard to see on what basis such a group could compel elites to consider their political interests.”
The article got me to wondering to what degree physical work can be rendered unnecessary. Even a highly mechanized system of production would require a work force with the hands-on knowledge to fabricate and maintain the machines that make the machines that make the machines that make the needed stuff. And as the number of those Physicals deemed “useless” by the Virtuals grows, so might their political power and their ability to inflict physical consequences on the virtual elites, should the latter attempt to deprive them of an adequate share in the benefits of mechanized production.
The Eloi (Virtuals) and their offspring will make tasty eating for the Morlocks …
For my own part, Mary Harrington’s coining “virtuals and physicals” clicked almost instantly (whereas “nowheres and somewheres” never had the same immediacy for me – perhaps because I’m a “somewhere” who actually lives in the “nowhere” ie in a foreign land).
I guess it’s just a personal thing, but for me it cast an immediate, illuminating, light on something that has puzzled me deeply – and many others too, to judge from comments on “nonconformist” internet blogs (NC for instance). That feeling was reinforced by commenter Julian Farrows’ insight:-
“I would also assert that one of the underlying differences between Physicals and Virtual is their credulity. I’ve noticed that people who spend most of their time online tend to skew toward climate fear, non-binary gender theory, critical race theory etc. I believe that this is because they have not experienced much of life outside their bedrooms or offices and so only breathe in the rarefied air of academic theorizing and social media sensationalism. Due to the online bullying and mobbing, they are also scared of ‘getting into trouble’ for saying the ‘wrong’ things and tend to be extremely conformist”.
The enigma I’m referring to is the spectacle of a very great number (the vast majority of those who express any opinion at all) in every country of the “collective west” braying in unison their uncritical and unreserved support for something (actually a mythical entity) they call “Ukraine”, in absolute contradiction of the well-documented facts concerning the historical record and the actual behaviour of the protagonists involved – that of the United States above all. People for instance who profess to seriously believe that the Russians would shell themselves (in Donetsk city, or the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant) or blow-up their own pipeline.
I won’t go into any of that: it’s all on the public record for anyone to access if they want to. All the comments I’ve seen agree in expressing sheer incredulity at the way in which many long-time friends – as well as relatives – educated and thoughtful people with whom they supposed themselves to share a common outlook about the world in general, have morphed into brainwashed robots mouthing official propaganda as purveyed to them by a captive corporate media and via the internet. The political class in its entirety in all the nations of the collective west (excepting Hungary), across the entire political spectrum except the extreme left and – oddly – the libertarian right, entertains only one single position, compounded of rabid russophobia and drooling adulation of the abominable Kiev regime.
Might this remarkable phenomenon – I wonder – be explained (if it can be explained at all) by Harrington’s “virtuals and physicals” dichotomy, together with Julian Farrows’ insight quoted above? I can’t see any other explanation for why seemingly rational and intelligent people can be caused to turn overnight into ventriloquist’s dummies.
It seems now that every conflict, whether in social media or in politics, is war, not a difference
of opinion or of policy, but outright war. How did this word infiltrate every conversation?
From The American Prospect article:
“But the Republican Party has been waging war on Social Security since its inception. This war, sometimes open and sometimes covert, may soon end in victory.”
The liberal Dems’ reasoning seems to be that since the political right “has been waging war” for years now (let’s say since the Reagan administration) at a certain point liberals had some sort of collective reckoning that it was time for “zero tolerance” and necessary to pull out all the stops and go totally ballistic, with harassment, bullying, canceling, censorship, bans, shadow bans, demands to have people fired, Twitter mobs, deplatforming, demonetizing, more surveillance, Antifa-style vandalism, arson, etc. etc.
In short: “this means WAR!” And here we are.
i’ll be eligible in about 9 years.
ive expected for about 20 years that they’d finally kill the program(and medicare) right around the time i’m hitting that age.
note: for this and numerous other reasons(none derived from faux newts), you’ll never see an american flag flying over my place.
“People are going spare about Prince Harry’s memoir. Just don’t ask them why”
Wait, wait – I know why. Because people see them now for what they are – a bunch of hustlers seeking to make their wealth off their former lives. And a long series of tell-all interviews, articles and now this latest book really underline who and what they really are. The last time they were in the UK, Meghan wanted a private interview with the Queen which was refused. The Queen may have been in her 90s but recognized that Meghan wanted material for a new interview and would just make up stories about what the Queen actually said to her.
Very wise and perceptive. Once the Queen was no longer around to contradict her, Meghan could have treated that private conversation like a store of mysterious secret revelations from Our Lady of Fatima or Nostradamus or somebody — dribbling out some new tabloid-worthy, gossip-cum-prophecy bombshell whenever Meghan and Harry’s financial well of celebrity and notoriety threatened to run dry.
In some ways the Sussexes are an illustration of major breaking points in our world.
Lazy but fame seeking with little real regard for institutions, history or other humans, they sought to take all the rewards of their position without any of the responsibilities. They understood the strains about royalty enough to attack them but were narcissistic enough not to understand the restraints applied to them. With little of real value to offer they weaponized public opinion to advance their agenda, which largely was just money, power and adulation for themselves. And in the process if some foundation stones and frames are destroyed or weakened so be it.
Change a few words here and there and it could describe so many of our leaders – political, intellectual, social. Sadly far too many do it better than the Sussexes, and with much more destruction in their wake. It isn’t just the news that is full of manure and burying us in cow Patties these days.
It’s The Way We Live Now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_We_Live_Now
Plus ca change … David Suchet of Poirot fame did a brilliant tv adaptation 20 years ago.
The UK monarchy are also a bunch of hustlers. That’s where Harry got it from.
I was just watching CNN. Apparently they had a trial and the Pelosi attacker (am waiting to see if he ever stayed at Mar-a-Lago) has been found guilty and it was a violent political attack and everyone stop asking questions asap.
The Pelosis have a pair of refrigerators worth as much as a Tesla and they couldn’t spring for a Ring doorbell?
Smell test – Not passing.
move along folks, nothing to see here…
The Legend Of John Henry’s Hammer, by Johnny Cash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppa__7ZLAU8
Has anyone yet to step up to remind the good folks that Mr. P is always hammered?
https://www.countyofnapa.org/DocumentCenter/View/26263/Paul-Pelosi-Convicted-Press-Release-08232022–PDF
A funkier version —
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnkt1lx34ss&ab_channel=BusterBrown-Topic
Yes. As many have already noted, the rumor mill is running wild. I won’t pay attention to any of it, but I will invoke the media test: if news coverage goes silent I’ll assume something fishy was involved. A real intruder attack would be covered in depth, given the victim and the media’s insatiable lust for celebrity drama.
I’m leaning towards this being an event that had the potential to be personally embarrassing being used for political gain
Time will tell…
That narrative was immediate as well. Within a few hours of this breaking news my Facbook page (the usual people who eat, sleep, and breath the DNC) was filled with blame on the right/GOP. Imagine that.
It is amusing reading the articles just to pick out the spin, and spin words. It must be easy for a journalist (cough, cough) to write whatever BS they want knowing the reader will be reading through their hate filled prism to validate their bias. TV is the same thing. These people will believe anything in this tribal world.
These kind of stories are like watching a train wreck. You have to look, and read, while hoping, just once, the truth would actually come out. Nope, maybe next time.
This from Larry Johnson who is typically pretty interesting on Ukraine but is otherwise right fruit. According to him, the attacker, who is clearly mentally unbalanced, is “…your quintessential San Fran lefty weirdo.” Maybe this will all lead to an updated Gotterdammerung. And maybe I’ll fire up a spliff and write it myself.
Having lived in Berkeley for years in a previous life, the perp strikes me as a very familiar sort of Telegraph avenue freak. It’s a real stretch and seems quasi-delusional to try and connect him with the right/GOP.
You might be surprised how vulnerable “Safe” neighborhoods can be
People get smug and lazy and someone bold who has a little luck and a claw hammer can walk right into many “Nice” homes with barely a pause locked door or not.
But most of them are not the second in line for the Presidency and should have had their home’s security vetted by several federal agencies (more than once). Not to mention that Mr Pelosi has been the subject of various lawsuits over the years so he has enemies of his own.
There is no way there isn’t more to this story.
About those security cameras…..
Well, we thought they would tell the tale in the Epstein saga. Nope. What about all the body cams on cops? Nope. Hasn’t done much here either. Funny how this all works.
Guessing the Santa Monica Observer is a crank outlet.
Is that legit? I’m getting a browser warning and can’t see anything.
Not sure if it is legit publication. That page seems to have disappeared.
COVID-19
Conor is a little light on the COVID-19 this morning. I offer Friday’s Indie SAGE on YouTube.
Official SAGE is the UK’s scientific advisory group for COVID-19. Indie SAGE is the unofficial, shadow (Labour Party) version of the scientific advisory group for COVID-19.
This week featured a radiologist explaining the unique pattern of damage to the lungs. Also featured was a cardiologist discussing recent research into how SARS-CoV-2 attacks the lining of blood vessels and generates tiny blood clots. These tiny blood clots can travel to the heart to cause heart attacks and to the brain to cause strokes. These tiny blood clots can also accumulate in the blood vessels and block blood flow to organs.
No, COVID-19 is not just like a cold.
The ‘mod squad’ has had to modify things to be accepted in Humordor, where war pork is the other white meat.
You must remember this
A script is just a script
A lie is just a lie
The same old politics apply
As time goes by
And when the grifters schmooze
There’ll be more IOUs
On that you can rely
Directing what the future brings
As time goes by
Cokehead Zelensky cries, ‘Fight ’em to the last!’
Rochelle Walensky says, ‘Put away your mask.’
Joe’s tough talk is empty — man, his brain is trashed
Which White House aides deny.
It’s still the same old narrative
And donor-class imperative
A case of ‘let ’em die’
The world will always fall for grifters
As time goes by
Nice!
RE: Thousands rally in Prague against pro-Western government
“The organizers of the “Czech Republic first” protest — a nod to former US President Donald Trump’s nationalist slogan…”
Who knew there were so many Trump-loving Czechs? I mean, who else could have possibly suggested the use of the word “first”?
I swear, this attempt by the neoliberals to link any opposition to their policies as somehow constituting Trump support or “white Supremacism” is looking more and more desperate by the day.
CNN’s recent Tulsi loves Trump frenzy is quite amusing. I wonder what polls are saying about third-party candidates?
I wonder what they say of trump-tulsi 2024. Imo she’s running for that
Gosh. Neo Liberal Americans really do think that the entire world revolves around the U.S.. Or else they think that other Americans can be persuaded that it does.
Ukraine-type approach required for Myanmar’s military: UN expert Al Jazeera
Sanctions and stuff for the Myanmar military, because “types of Russian weapons” are being used in Myanmar. Instead of NATO/Western weapons, I presume? I don’t get it––how can one sanction a military except for not supplying more weapons/logistics? In any case, here’s the Russian response:
“After Andrews [UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar] briefed the UN General Assembly Human Rights Committee earlier on Wednesday, Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Gennady Kuzmin questioned the rapporteur’s report, saying it was ‘often not corroborated by facts’.”
New day, new location, same ratty 3-ring binder playbook.
Should We Really Be Messing with Asteroid Orbits? Nautilus
…nearly a month after NASA messed with an asteroid’s orbit. Gotta hand it to the headline maker, for it just about encapsulates the human thought process concerning all endeavors ever endeavored.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-dart-mission-impact-changed-asteroid-s-motion-in-space
One really has to hope the Solar System doesn’t respond irascibly, along the lines of, “They have called the wrath of Deep Heaven down upon their heads,” as C.S. Lewis might put it.
Or in more contemporary vernacular, “Eff around and find out.”
Human thought process seems a bit overreaching. Some of us humans think this was a long overdue and important first step. Press thought process I’ll give you. The article’s structure followed every other chicken little sky is falling article ever, just with the blanks filled in with asteroids, orbits and OMG, what if a ‘bad actor’ decided to turn this into a weapon. It’s all so predictable.
(and if you are conversant in orbital mechanics, energy, and common sense, completely absurd)
Reminds me of the “butterfly effect”. The concept, not the cheesy movie.
re: How Reality got Stupified and What We can Do About It.
Wait, you mean that reality is more than just narrative? You can’t eat a construct? We all have a story to tell but some of us have lawyers and money and the power of the state behind us? That when everyone gets to make up the definition of words, the “truth” becomes the province of the powerful?
Fear not. I have a suggestion for the bright lights at the NYTs regarding doing something about it. Take the postmodernist section of your personal library from the philosophy section, perhaps it IS the philosophy section, and move it to the comedy section…
And fire Tom Friedman and give his column to Glenn Greenwald.
All I ever read were the obits anyway.
MOA not opening for me.
Yes, they recently did something like move to a new server or some such, and about a week ago they mentioned there may be glitches. One of my favorite reads. Peace!
I do my reading on an iPad. For me, Brave with the ad blocker active couldn’t pass MOA’s Cloudflare security check, but Safari without an ad blocker got in OK.
Cloudflare almost killed our persistent world online game years ago. After we pulled their plug, since the service was in its infancy, we managed to get a note back from the founder–a venomous, knee jerk defensive, aggressive response. A case where the cure was worse than the malady.
re: Energy Antics
So I got an email last week congratulating me on lowering my electricity usage by 18% last month! It’s good to know discipline can pay off! The bill, however, is significantly higher than last months….
If Social Security is ultimately whacked, it isn’t just Wall Street that stands to benefit. This would be a large one time infusion of cash to everyone that works for a living, that can then be hovered up by capitalists. What a feast!
That’s a really interesting point. I never thought of Social Security as protecting the money. It’s also another angle on tax cuts. More money in your pocket doesn’t mean jack if all my bills go up. The rich get more back too but they can protect it.
First time I considered it; But I thought, well, then everyone has to save for their own retirement… but wait, most people are too destitute to do so. So what now? They’re going to give that money to Wall Street? Probably not, they’re going to spend it as they see fit, on bills, retiring debt, or new purchases. But how much really will start flowing into whatever retirement accounts replace Social Security? Not all, and probably not most, of that ‘freed up’ money…
We might get to see how this unfolds, even. If Republicans regain the House, and can hold the debt ceiling hostage, what might Biden agree to?
End Times are certainly interesting times, but not really in a good way.
Aaron Mate hosts The Jimmy Dore Show featuring Scott Ritter discussing Bill Browder’s utter lack of understanding of the stakes involved when he calls for a “decapitating” strike against Russia:
https://youtu.be/c2PguE6WaaM
Sometimes Browder acts like, I don’t know, a wanted man?
re: the Obominable Snowjob
Setting aside that Obomber is totally full of $hit and his record proves it, there is another layer to this. I love how he righteously lists off all of the bodily and stress-related suffering of the parents and grandparents of the dupes in the crowd as if that in itself demanded no examination. Working for a living in the US means a broken body and exhausted mind. Why is it that?
Mate with Ritter via Dore on a brief history of nukes in Europe:
https://youtu.be/oNhkbUrovY0
For those who are interested in these kinds of things, it seems that Lula da Silva won the presidential election in Brasil. By 2 million votes, or about 1.6%.
And more news to come.
I don’t think the USA govt. took a particular shine to either candidate.
IIRC, one is crooked, crazy, and extremely rightwing and the other is one of those evil socialists. I am not surprised by the disinterest.
Snark alert.
Hmmm consumer. You say “evil socialist” as if there is any other kind. Care to come downtown with us and explain yourself?
…evil Debbs you taunt
Well, like all right thinking people, I am a dues paying member of the milk toast DSA. You know, that Democratic Socialist Party that refuses to do anything political and makes Lula da Silva look like a Trotskyist.
Strangely, they actually do stuff that help the poor unlike the Democratic Party. Now, if they could only be an active political party instead of a social club that does good.
But most of the Democratic members in the Bay Area also treat the their party as a club with all the cool kids. Upper middle class white twits with college degrees with membership in the Audubon Society and worship at the altar of Obama.
It’s even cooler, and harks back to some great moments in the history of American cartooning, if you spell it “milquetoast”…
https://www.qwant.com/?t=images&q=caspar+milquetoast+the+timid+soul
Nice cartoons. Thanks.
Just discovered a real treat via Jack White’s Third Man Records site. Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros: Live in Colorado Vol. 2. Love what he’s doing with classics here. Album on Youtube.
Could this be true?
‘Kim Dotcom
@KimDotcom
How do the Russians know that the UK blew up the North Stream pipelines in partnership with the US?
Because @trussliz
used her iPhone to send a message to @SecBlinken
saying “It’s done” a minute after the pipeline blew up and before anybody else knew?
iCloud admin access rocks!’
https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1586737543974121472
Truss, but verify.
At least we know that this Tweet is true-
‘Shukri Abdirahman
@ShuForCongress
Two times in the last six months Paul Pelosi has been found at a crime scene and both times he was hammered…’
https://twitter.com/ShuForCongress/status/1586248666322702336
My God. That is almost so crazy it has to be true.
But I think this is another case of we’ll never know until something like WikiLeaks drops it. The bit I found interesting from the BBC and Daily Mail links you get to if you click through is the almost off hand discussion of the news blackout about it so that Ms. Truss wouldn’t be challenged on her way to the Premiership. We know that happens here. Makes you wonder what else they’re blacking out?
First, I think I would be too careless myself, if miraculously, I was in a high level position. However, sending such a tweet in the clear and not even using commercially available encryption goes past careless and into suicidal stupidity.
Secondly, I am sure that we will find out what is being hidden in about a century. ;-)
Remember when Obama was first elected President and he insisted on using his favourite Blackberry (yeah, it was that long ago) in spite of all the warnings about security? So they had to take his Blackberry and harden it up something chronic so that he could still use it. People in power are like little kids-
‘You can’t tell me what to do. Nobody tells me no!’
Eerily similar to how the Russian general Samsonov lost the Battle of Tannenberg by sending orders over the air on early radio in clear with no encryption. The Germans destroyed the Russian Second Army. It was a major victory for Germany in WW-1.
At least Samsonov had the decency to shoot himself after it became clear what had happened. Don’t expect Mz. Truss to ‘fall on her sword’ over this. She, indeed the Tories in general today, seem to not know what honour and character are any more.
Yep… and that’s a quality they’ve got in spades.
The UK’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been accused of multiple security breaches but PM Sunak has re-appointed her anyway after she had been forced to resign-
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/26/suella-braverman-return-after-security-breach-defended-by-james-cleverly
Joe Rogan. Midterms. I think this is an important take on what’s happening.
Joe Rogan: The Massive Red Wave Coming For MidTerms In Response To Crazy “Woke” Culture!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMNX0no4aWIoutube.com/watch?v=eMNX0no4aWI
“People aren’t talking about it.” I saw this happen at work when the majority of employees stopped talking openly in the hallways, at the watercoole about general work stuff, and about new management which was not trusted for good reasons, and the new management didn’t last long there after. I remember new management at some point realizing “things are too quiet, what are people thinking, why aren’t people talking to me?” Yeah, like that. imo.
Like something out of a 1950s western-
Cowboy One: ‘It’s quiet.’
Cowboy Two: ‘Yeah….too quiet.’
I would vote for the MAGA loony tunes if I thought they could be relied upon to impeach Joe Biden and force his successor to back away from Ukraine. Unfortunately, loony tunes are loony tunes and crooked democrats are crooked democrats. No idea what you are getting regardless of which way you vote.
Now this is a move that I’d really like to see get made-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3rQ3328Tok (56 secs)
Happy Halloween!