The Medieval Thieves Who Used Cats, Apes, and Turtles as Accomplices Atlas Obscura (Chuck L)
Sheep come to the rescue of Pompeii ruins Reuters (furzy)
Touchy feely: How human senses compare with those of other life forms Times Literary Supplement (Anthony L)
Breeding dogs to be cute and anthropomorphic is animal cruelty aeon (Anthony L)
Leonardo da Vinci’s forgotten experiments explored gravity as a form of acceleration PhysOrg (Chuck L)
Rare, pristine first edition of Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus up for sale ars technica (resilc)
Replacing Asteroid Belt With Rocky Planet Would ‘Break’ Solar System, Astronomers Find Sputnik (Kevin W)
Earth’s Life-Nourishing Water Came From Interstellar Space, Scientists Find Vice (furzy)
New atmospheric river storm pushes into California Associated Press. Kevin W: “California just can’t catch a break.”
#COVID-19
1) That paper is bullshit (“emulation”, 1:10 randomization, <1% absolute risk reduction). And the fact that a WHO advisor is acritically endorsing the authors conclusions is unequivocal sign of the decline of science. https://t.co/f1fvgtl47s
— Daniele Focosi, MD PhD MSc (@dfocosi) March 8, 2023
What the 'Swedish model' really suggests is that pandemic mitigation measures can be effectively deployed in a respectful, largely non-coercive way. Obviously, being a rich country with a decent welfare net, and having achieving high vaccination rates didn't hurt either.
3/— Prof Francois Balloux (@BallouxFrancois) March 7, 2023
Millions of NYC rats could have Covid-19 – study RT (Kevin W)
Climate/Environment
Oceans littered with 171 trillion plastic pieces BBC. Resilc: “Can I walk to Ireland now from Boston?”
La Nina, which worsens hurricanes and drought, is gone Associated Press (furzy)
As their sales continue to rise, SUVs’ global CO2 emissions are nearing 1 billion tonnes IEA (resilc)
China?
US intelligence report risks pushing ties to the edge of a cold war mode Global Times. Important. Alexander Mercouris (starting at 41:20) also discussed this article and the underlying statements it referenced, by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.
China’s grand plan for a world-beating digital future Asia Times (Kevin W)
I’d like to see the version with Japan and SKorea joining the US:
2/On March 6, 2023, the US had two Carrier Strike (CSG) and two Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG) stationed in the western Pacific. Another carrier was in the Med and two off the East Coast; and others in various state of repair/training. pic.twitter.com/X7dX0m7rTU
— Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴☠️ (@mercoglianos) March 7, 2023
Chinese Rocket that Delivered Military Spy Satellites Breaks Up Over Texas USNI News. Resilc: “Next the Chicoms acomin’ for our womenfolk, hide Yves hide.”
European Disunion
Why Germany is not attractive for foreign workers DW (resilc)
New Not-So-Cold War
EU plans joint navy patrols to combat Russian threat to infrastructure Financial Times. So the Nord Stream “guys in a boat” story worked so well that the officialdom is back to trying to insinuate Russia done it.
Ex-Russian president mocks Western media’s Nord Stream claims RT (Robin K)
Larry On Macron; Vera, Scott And Me, And… Andrei Martyanov. From a few days back. Chuck L notes:
Embedded within this post is a video of an interview of Scott Ritter by the Russian TV host Vera, with Andrei Martyanov translating. The 4 minutes or so beginning about 31:45 are must watch as Ritter explains the danger of the USA deploying Dark Eagle missiles in northern Europe. The gist: Nuclear war threat exceeds that of Cuban Missile crisis.
Satellite technology raises new issues for American military Washington Post. Resilc flags:
The Washington Post reports that White House and Pentagon officials have been scrambling to determine their official policies regarding armed conflicts in space. This panic comes in response to recent actions by the Ukrainian government, which reportedly used private satellites belonging to commercial enterprises to target and attack Russian invaders. If Russia should retaliate by targeting these (or similar) satellites in orbit around the planet, well, that open up a whole new can of worms when it comes to the rules of war. Maritime law is complex enough; now extrapolate that to the point where it’s not even terrestrial anymore, then factor in the involvement of non-governmental privateers, and things get exponentially more complicated.
Syraqistan
Iran is gearing up to attack Britain and the West Telegraph. Resilc: “Never ending war monger bs. Meanwhile harder to get a doctor or nurse in Research Triangle.”
Victory Is Defeat: Palestinian Children’s Art Exposes Israel’s Cultural Genocide Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
March of the unicorns: Israel’s tech sector rebels against Netanyahu ‘power grab’ Guardian. Resilc: “Anybody with a brain needs to leave and hand it over to the Rabin killers.”
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
WhatsApp would not remove end-to-end encryption for UK law, says chief Guardian (Kevin W)
End to End Cory Doctorow (Chuck L). On the principles for the internet.
Colorado Catholic group bought app data that tracked gay priests Washington Post (furzy)
Imperial Collapse Watch
In race to arm Ukraine, U.S. faces cracks in its manufacturing might Washington Post. Resilc: “There is no manufacturing might. We cannot make complete systems of anything without global components.”
Today's episode of: "People just freely admitting things you could only get out of me via torture"… https://t.co/t4M6byCsIl
— David Fishman (@pretentiouswhat) March 9, 2023
Black Hawk Downer POGO
They Work So Hard To Manufacture Our Consent Because They Absolutely Require It Caitlin Johnstone (Kevin W)
Murder of Anti-Vietnam War Monk Thomas Merton in 1968 Was a CIA Hit Linked with Assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, New Book Argues Covert Action (Chuck L)
Biden
Biden’s FY2024 budget request Speaking Security. See:
I regret to inform you that much like his FY2023 discretionary budget, two-thirds of Biden’s spending proposal for FY2024 is for programs related to military, law enforcement, or prisons
Mexican cartel ‘apologizes’ for deaths of 2 Americans RT (Kevin W)
GOP Clown Car
Lauren Boebert trashes sex-ed — then announces teen son is making her a “36-year-old grandmother” Salon
Christians clash as extremists move into Idaho – and ‘very frightened population’ moves out Raw Story (furzy)
At US border, tech issues plague new migrant applications BBC (resilc)
Norfolk Southern Chemical Bomb
NEW: We went down to East Palestine for a week to get residents’ side of the story after the Ohio rail disaster.
People told us they’re getting sick and their pets are dying, while Norfolk Southern is trying to cover it up.@heyjohnrussell reports. pic.twitter.com/LY7koUIpeL
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) March 9, 2023
Norfolk Southern train derails in Alabama WTAE. Has footage. Just before CEO testified to Congress.
Voices: Protecting the public from corporate harm Dayton Daily News (Carla R)
Our No Longer Free Press
All Hell Breaks Loose After Sylvia Garcia Demands Matt Taibbi Tell Her About His Sourcing YouTube. Comments as far as I read all appalled by Garcia’s conduct. I think he did well. Only someone like a seasoned litigator would have been able to push back, as opposed to simply not cede ground. For background: My Statement to Congress Matt Taibbi Racket News (Chuck L). Lambert also had this in yesterday’s Water Cooler.
This is a devastating email. Here is Stanford’s Virality project — which partners with multiple state agencies — recommending against “stories of true vaccine side effects” and “true posts that could fuel hesitancy.”
A conscious decision to emphasize narrative over truth. https://t.co/Q9fmSFl2yf— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 9, 2023
Background: Ray Moore was accused of assaulting three women, two of whom were underage at the time:
41. The far worse scandal was “Project Birmingham,” in which thousands of fake Russian Twitter accounts were created to follow Alabama Republican Roy Moore in his 2017 race for US Senate.
Newspapers reported Russia seemed to take an interest in the race, favoring Moore. pic.twitter.com/n46IDLlNFN
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 9, 2023
The federal government and the BND pay German journalists Anti-Spiegel. Micael T: “These hookers are really cheap: ‘each of the journalists received about 7,500 euros.””
Giving the middle finger is a ‘God-given right,’ says Quebec judge CTV News (resilc). A Canadian view of free speech.
Woke Watch
AI
Noam Chomsky: The False Promise of ChatGPT New York Times (BC, Robin K)
Artificial Intelligence Is Booming—So Is Its Carbon Footprint Bloomberg (David L)
The Bezzle
Coinbase sued in SF by man robbed of $96,000 SFGate (Craig C)
Pilot Shortages to Frustrate Airline Growth: Travelers Will Pay in Airfares OAG. Resilc: “More wars and a bigger airforce could fix this.”
Class Warfare
US Layoffs Jump to Mark the Worst Start to a Year Since 2009 Bloomberg
As credit card debt hits new high, households near ‘breaking point’ CNBC (resilc)
Why Poverty Persists in America New York Times. Resilc:
I turned 70 last November. My entire life was covered by some sort of war. Cold, ‘Nam, Middle East, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Ukiestan, Cold again. Sucking cash and brainpower out of domestic problems for all this time into endless warzzz tends to hollow out and impoverish a country. But what do I know, I went to PBJC with Burt Reynolds and Lt. Calley.”
Lorna Finlayson · Diary: Everyone Hates Marking London Review of Books (Anthony L)
Robots are performing Hindu rituals – some devotees fear they’ll replace worshippers Study Finds (resilc)
Antidote du jour. Timotheus: “Hoopoe from Jirish Atrash, Jerusalem desert.”
And a bonus (guurst):
Having a stubborn child is really troublesome. https://t.co/LFnscqEgGh
— Moon of Alabama (@MoonofA) March 4, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
206 comments
Comments are closed.
New atmospheric river storm pushes into California Associated Press.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We flipped the switch yesterday from pastoral green and wildflowers everywhere under blue skies to present where its as if the rain wants to punish the dirt, its coming down so hard.
We just happen to be the main course for this Honolulu luau, a real hottie.
Local guestimates of what this storm can do are at 40,000 to 50,000 cfs on the Kaweah River and in the dire days of the drought last fall it got down to around 50 cfs to give you a little zenith versus nadir action.
There will be flood!
Well as for myself, I can’t wait to head back to Cali and pan for all the new river gold!
(Sorry, just turning lemons into lemonade.)
It’ll be 68 years since the flood of record here, and i’m a big fan of the ‘fourth turning’ principle where by the 4th generation, everybody forgets what happened once upon a time in 1955 and the potential of it repeating. We should be ok and have a grandstand seat for the proceedings, but if its bad, most of the homes and businesses along the river on Hwy 198 are in serious trouble, based on knowing where something liquid this way came.
Ol’ 55, by Eagles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–rAINTn2TE
We have short memories for such things, i’ll give you an example…
In the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge earthquake in LA, I noticed an interesting thing that went on for about 6 months after, in that on Sepulveda* near Westwood the traffic often snarls there, and drivers would not fill the gap underneath a overpass or whatever when traffic was backed up-which happened often, leaving this odd 100 foot yawning gap between cars.
They were Johnny on the spot after the fact, but not so much before.
I was living in Lake Tahoe the winter of 1985-86, and that was a big year for river gold seekers such as yourself, Mother Nature’s dredge.
If you want to go to one of the most out of the way Gold Rush towns you could do no better than Alleghany, Ca,
A dog chased my car, so I stopped and rolled down the window and told the cur, ‘Ok, you’ve got me, what now?’
I feel pretty sure it was the first car ever who had done this…
* A key giveaway word to ascertain if you are an Angeleno
We were awakened early by an alert call from Tulare Co health dept. It was in Spanish. I don’t know what that was about because that was superseded by our septic system overflowing. As soon as it was light enough to see the rain gauge it was full at six inches but it already had almost an inch in it before this storm.
The heavy thumping started at about 5:00 AM. We are 100 yards and up the bluff from the river but the big rocks are moving and the shaking is pretty constant. I am going to don my slicker and walk down to see how the bridge is looking but the last time we saw water this high was in 97 and the velocity at the bridge was about 35 MPH.
I can hear boulders hitting one another underwater-which sounds like thunder, 1/2 a mile away.
p.s.
Had the same thing happen to our septic, so I made a mercy run to Wal*Mart for portable toilet & wag bags.
Don’t want to belabor a sore point, but having lived through a number of septic tank outages (we live near a swamp, so high water table, but the town put in sewers at last) i am wondering if this was a foreseen consequence of the torrential weather.
We sailed through the big winters in 2017 & 2019 without a problem, as did everybody else.
This winter is a bit on the cruel side, lessons learned.
Holy crap!
03-10-2023 Springville, CA – Crazy flooding homes collapsing – drone – ground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RfuGEjrHbE
Stay safe!
That thumping sound is boulder/rock bouncing down the river. Those rocks slow the water velocity (trading friction for speed). The water velocity at that bridge is more likely half of what it appears. Bridge abutments designed for lesser storm flow will likely create a backwater condition (slowing the water velocity and raising water height)—creating flooding upstream of the bridge. Stay Safe!
See:https://worldrivers.net/2020/03/28/how-fast-are-rivers/
juno, the velocity of 30 MPH is 44 feet per second which is not too difficult to estimate. This particular bridge is a replacement of an earlier bridge that washed out in the 50’s or 60’s. At that time the army core dredged out the channel and installed a concrete bottom so the bridge could withstand flood conditions. The river is already narrowed before the bridge and I am estimating the velocity on the upstream side. We are in the mountains and the gradient is pretty steep. The boulders I am talking about aren’t bouncing. They are large and rolling, like ten tons. I know the density of granite and can do pi x r cubed.
Just got back in. Ran into the neighbors with shovels at the bridge. We channeled some water off. Then stood in the middle of the bridge looking at the thundering water. I made a joke about the last thing they all saw was a large sequoia trunk coming at the bridge like a freight train. At that moment something heavy, probably a boulder, hit the bridge support and we all scrambled the hell off.
Amazing how cranky women get when they can’t use the toilet.
Our river which is about 25 feet wide normally is now 100-125 feet wide and water is going wherever it damn well pleases.
I forgot to mention the spray mist over the river. Didn’t see it last time the water was this high because it was the middle of the night. It is like fog about 20 feet thick. The rain has slowed down but the weather report is calling for another three to five inches in the next 24 hrs.
It has been rather relentless, this rain.
Sheriff Boudreaux, the head honcho of Tulare Co has ordered evacuation of many parts of tiny town.
We’re looking at a repeat of the 1867 Dennison Peak avalanche that went down now-appropriately named Snowslide Canyon. But it could happen anywhere or all over the place in the backcountry.
All of the elements are there, an utterly ridiculous snowpack, warm temps (it is 31 degrees @ Farewell Gap) and rain, rain, rain.
Good thing nobody is up in Sequoia NP, NPS got everybody out of Lodgepole.
One hopes the farmland is non-polluted enough that if/when it soaks down to the aquifer, it won’t take a whole agriculture-sector-load of modern chemical pollutants down with it.
On the other hand, if significant water can soak down many feet deep in the sequoia zone, that should give the trees a few years of safety.
Mid day update:
Bridge across the river below us is out. Had water clear across the top earlier. My neighbors went to check it out and called me to come and pick them up because a mud slide had blocked their return. When I went to get them I saw the hill side above the road had sloughed off below a structure exposing the slab. Wouldn’t be surprised to see the structure in the road this afternoon.
Went across a foot bridge over the swollen creek to get a look at the river upstream from the road bridge. Saw that another foot bridge across a secondary channel was half gone and being buffeted by water 18 inches over one end. Then went up stream to look at the appropriation and saw the loose end of the 4 inch pipe that had been torn asunder by a landslide. A friend called to say her power was out. Another friend called to say his power was also out and that the transmission lines were the only thing holding up the power pole. He also said he started to go to work but when he drove across the bridge on Hwy 190 the water was licking the bottom of the bridge. So he turned around and went home. That bridge is now closed so Springville may be isolated but my internet is working and I am buying bank stocks. We have accumulated 2-1/4 inches in the last six hours so pretty steady since yesterday afternoon. Our temperature here is 48 degrees so that means snow only above 9000 ft. The big snow field feeding the north fork is at about 9500 so the worst may be yet to happen.
The snow seen in links looks super heavy and wet so it contains per sq ft a lot more water than cold dry snow. Kinda skews historical snow pack comparisons with outcomes.
Good time to be risk adverse.
It’s a pint sized Thwaites Glacier above us and similar to placing straws on a camel’s back, how much moisture in the guise of rain can it absorb before the gravity of the situation weighs heavily upon the outcome?
How’s the ark coming, Wuk?
Seriously, we’re thinking about you and hoping for the best.
The river about 1/3rd of a mile away sounds downright thunderous in malevolent movement which I can’t wait to see on a sunrise sojourn to the waters edge.
But at least some reservoirs might replenish. Would they? Floods but with some benefit possibly. And I am not talking only about dams but subterranean deposits.
Our 1962 reservoir has had forever to silt up i’d suppose, and as of the other day it had 56,000 acre feet in it with a max of 185,000.
These are the days that test dam masters abilities to correctly dump or keep, a balancing act.
The spillway has never been used, and directly below it is the foothills citrus growing area which looks like a goliath flat green table that goes on forever, on account of all citrus trees being topped equally.
One of the few places you can grow navel oranges…
Here in the Central Valley our preoccupation tends to be with limiting the storage to subterranean levels.
In big flood years we get a glimpse of the inland sea that once was.
Should be a very interesting weekend…
California by John Mayall from way back in 1969, I think.
Stayed at the Lazy J again last year, during the mid-June heat spells, and spent an afternoon sitting in the cool water amongst those boulders, as the water still moved with urgency that late in the year. The flood plain looked to be almost 1/4 mile wide, and had us wondering how often and how high.
We got three inches last night, and clear blue skies now. Stay safe and warm…
Its been quite a thrill ride walking among the ruins of what used to be the contour of boulders in the river, they were constantly banging against one another the whole time, a rearrangement by rain.
Re Iran is gearing up to attack Britain and the West.
Surely that headline should have included a 45-minute claim. Or even maybe a 30-minute claim as technology must have advanced since the Iraq war.
Thank you, John.
What will arrive first, Saddam Hussein’s missiles or HS2?
Good question. What will never arrive is a transpennine link, still operating with inefficient and faulty old diesel locomotives.
Thank you, John.
What a mess, up there and here, a mile or so from HS2’s path.
I dined with a left of centre City economist on Wednesday evening. He likened the UK to a slow puncture and reckons the day of post imperial reckoning is about a decade away as there’s enough juice left in the system and Starmer’s cosmetic changes will delay matters a bit. He hopes to have retired to Ireland’s west coast by then.
Don’t laugh. The Iran Army Ground Forces number about 350,000 people while that for Britain for example is about 80,000 people. And I am willing to bet that the Iranians won’t run out of ammo after two or three days. All they have to do now is to work out how to move the Iranian army the 4,000 miles (6,440 kilometers) from Iran to the UK. After that, the UK is toast.
Operation Persian Gulf Lion?
Handy transport help from the People’s Liberation Zeppelin Force?
Dress them all up in civvies and fly them in commercial as a big Empire Day Remembrance Symposium group? (Pro tip: Carry on your ‘kinetic operations support tech’ as checked baggage will go astray. No fun invading a place when your “hardware” ends up in another hub.)
They will use flying carpets. Isn’t it a Persian invention?
Oh yes! The Iranians should name their next generation of unmanned drones the Carpet Class!
The jokes about ‘carpet bombing’ make themselves.
Just coincidence that this threat comes at the same time as this news report.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/10/middleeast/saudi-iran-resume-ties-intl/index.html
‘Saudi Arabia and Iran agree to restore ties in talks mediated by China’. As I’ve previously highlighted there’s a new détente in the Middle East between Saudi Arabia, Iran & Turkey. The speed at which the US as lost leverage after having invested so heavily in the Middle East over many decades shows how mind-boggling incompetent the State Dept has become. Too fixated on Russia to realize the family china has been stolen (by China ;-) ). Petro-yuan will replace the petro-dollar quicker than people think.
Oh, the mushroom clouds over London, we remember them fondly, Tony dearest…
Huh. Iran announces discovery of large lithium deposit and, just like that!, war drums in the US and UK start pounding.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-claims-to-have-discovered-one-of-the-worlds-largest-lithium-deposits/ar-AA18ik0q
Probably a coincidence. / ;)
“We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.” – Elon Musk referring to Bolivian lithium mines.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/amp/news/elon-musk-confesses-to-lithium-coup-in-bolivia-20200725-0010.html
Yep. I still remember when I oncest long ago rode a small Shetland pony on my grandparent’s fields, and rode the pony up to the fence line of another farmer’s field. The other farmer kept large draft horses, which he still used for his farming. Maybe they were Belgian or Percheron horses. I can’t remember. I only remember that when I rode that small pony up to the fence line of the neighboring farmer’s field, that 2 huge horses, with hooves the size of dinner plates and faces as large as the saddle on my pony, bent their faces over the fence line to greet my small Shetland pony.
No idea why I think this ancient story fits here, but I do think it fits.
Given that China has just brokered a deal for Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic relations then I suspect the next story could be that all three are ganging up on us, in cahoots with Putin, of course.
US sponsored deal between Saudi and Israel. China sponsored deal between Saudi and Iran. Saudis want to join BRICS+ and SCO. No contest?
MBS is trying to get some sort of safety net set up before the wells officially run dry?
Maybe it refers to this:
Iran and Saudi Arabia agree to resume ties in talks brokered by China
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-saudi-arabia-agree-resume-ties-re-open-embassies-iranian-state-media-2023-03-10/
China just made a giant step forward in the Middle East. Maybe the UK’s defense contracts to SA are in danger.
Zeynep Turfecki takedown of the Cochrane mask metastudy:
Here’s Why the Science Is Clear That Masks Work
Will the readers of Brett Stephens trope read this?
Pot meets kettle. US Congress member Boebert and her crazy pants notion about having a teenage son become a father as a net positive, well I am just a little less certain. Kids having kids is a little less of a positive in my humble opinion, but no one is actually interested in that opinion. I would have been terrible being a parent at 19 years old.
Good grief man, the daily craziness was a bit much for 2022 but thus far in 2023, the trend is ongoing.
Note that if Lauren Boebert’s a** was dirt poor, her fellow Republicans would rail against her as just being another example of white trailer park trash irresponsibly breeding welfare kids. I’m not saying her obsession with guns is due to her growing up in Rifle, Colorado but the thought is there-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Boebert
My brother did much the same, fumble (sexually intercoursed) some girl he met drunk at a party. He left his employment there and returned home and a year later my mom got a call informing her she was a granny. She was in her forties then.
He did ‘the right thing’ and married the baby mama and they had two more sons. Then one morning she packed up the kids into her car and headed back to her mom, divorced his ass and used the state to go after him for child support x 3. Thereafter he was of necessity a hard-working poorly-educated part time dad until each boy turned 18.
They each remarried someone else, she untied her tubes and had two more children, one of which was severely handicapped and the ex-wife hadn’t married up, so the child support mostly went to supporting her special needs child. The boys would arrive at dad’s house looking like hobos in desperate need of clothes and shoes.
My brother now in the early sixties is an angry man in a state of perpetual ‘victimhood’, blaming everyone for how is his life turned out, taking responsibility for none of his choices and my parents (both special education teachers) were his cheerleaders (enablers). Every time he made another boneheaded boner of a mistake, they were there offering him room and board and thousands of their hard earned dollars in support to get him back on his feet. Not out of special love for their only son, but because they were deeply worried his behavior was a reflection of them… and if he failed, they would never see their only grandchildren again. My mother was not nice to her ex-daughter-in-law; there was no ‘bond’ between them.
The Western Slope that Boebert represents is full of people like my brother and parents and she speaks their language of grievance loudly and often. She’ll be reelected; her hypocrisy will not be seen as a political liability but an asset.
I drove by Rifle a week ago and its as you describe, ironically sandwiched inbetween Aspen & Vail, the 2 most spendiest ski towns in the country.
Her congressional district is half the state, most of it rural. Note the median income. Were it not for the very rich the median would be much lower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado%27s_3rd_congressional_district
Of course putting someone in debt peonage, and forcing them to produce their own replacement, perpetuates the system of labor exploitation that rulers and bureaucrats have spent billions of human-years perfecting, and entrains that person in it. The question is whether we should allow persons who advocate for Calvinist authoritarianism to participate in society at all.
Wow, you scared me there for a minute, then I remembered we humans-as-we-are-today haven’t been around for billions of years, or even millions. It’s a much smaller number like three to four thousand as a ‘civilization’ defined as ‘urban’ and built around the ability to produce surplus food and store it. I don’t even want to think what would become of us with so-called representatives like Lauren Boebert in power over millions of years.
“I don’t even want to think what would become of us with so-called representatives like Lauren Boebert in power over millions of years.”
Think, another Younger Dryas event.
Life among the Morlocks and Eloi, possibly; or rather an updated state of life so depicted in the Mad Max Fury Road installment.
Do not rely on water, lest your thirst go for naught.
Billions of human·years approximates the time spent by bureaucracy and ruling classes, in whatever forms they have taken in the history of class societies, on their cumulative service in refining and adapting the process of labor exploitation over historical time.
As someone who deprecates “one true” answers to social questions, I’m reticent to say that freedom from religion and all that entails is The Only Way out of the problem, but the primary function of every religion-like institution is to generate problems that never needed to exist, and it’s much easier to remain untroubled by what doesn’t exist than what does.
I’ve long thought that, at least under present social arrangements, our biology is out of sync with our cognition/wisdom. By the time people are old enough to have acquired enough wisdom to be able to raise the next generation, they are past the age of child-bearing. The “present social arrangements” aspect of this is that grandparents no longer co-reside with their children and grandchildren, so that their wisdom is not readily accessible.
Perhaps “mid-30s” is too young for a grandparent to have acquired enough wisdom to be able to parent well.
I think the problem is more general. “Our society” is what’s out of sync. There was a time when children could glean wisdom from strangers or by doing, but the PMC can’t mediate that and keep it away from the undeserving poors, so they hit us with the Stranger Danger propaganda and micromanagent of childrearing instead. I consider living a much rounder source of life experience than authoritarian indoctrination in named problematics (aka “tradition”, a form of fiat information).
And there is the problem that the social order is presently extremely, overly complicated. Tainter and Start Wars had roughly the same answer to that: the tighter you grasp, the more star systems slip through your fingers. Collapse is a good answer IMO.
In this, the year of Our Ford 39, I often blame everything on the Interstate Highway System (IHS).
As opposed to those cultures who honor older people and worship their ancestors – ie not the west.
Good point that. Nuclear families just do not have the social depth in them and are in fact an artificial construct made only possible by modern society. You ever notice too that friendships across generations is not exactly encouraged? By that I mean that if you have a guy/gal having a friend with an older man/women, it is automatically assumed that it is a sexual thing?
Salon’s apparent idea (Boebert “trashes” sex-ed) that some pierced, tattooed, purple-haired “educator” using terms like “birthing person” could have prevented this teen pregnancy through his or her sex tutelage is not serious.
In today’s grossly hyper-sexualized environment, the only 17-year-old who doesn’t know how babies are made has to be in a permanent coma.
The trend of millenials like Boebert living in a perpetual state of immaturity while occupying positions of responsibility far better suited to adults is the real issue here. What kind of a reaction to the impending fatherhood of her underage son is, “You’re making me a 36-year-old granny?”
A narcissistic, adolescent one as far as I’m concerned. And what a surprise that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
I was tempted to end this comment with “Now get off my lawn” so I didn’t sound like such as old fogey, but, in this instance, an unrepentant old fogey is exactly what I am.
But how many 17-year-olds have the knowledge and the self-assurance to effectively and reliably avoid making babies in the course of nurturing their affections for one another? It varies by polity, naturally. Societies obsessed with their own reproduction tend to make such information and attitudes difficult or impossible to find or to act upon.
I would think the primary thrust (ha ha) of sex ed at this point should be birth control. That should include the extreme birth control method of abortion and why therefore why it is important to be prepared so you don’t have to turn that corner. It has always baffled me that there are no studies linking the damage to society wrought by unwanted children to knowledge and availability of birth control.
The available birth control solution for young Boebert was a condom. Lesson number one in Sex Ed.
Society needs to face the fact that children begin to be biologically sexually active at about 13, give or take. For most their sex-ed from their parents is “Don’t do it!” with no further explanation and certainly offering them no access to condoms or birth control pills. The results are easily predicted, child pregnancies and stunted understandings of sexuality and male-female emotional relationships.
Is this going to change? Not.
I figured the point was that a 17-year-old husband would have 20-30 years to make many, many white babies. “Replacement Theory” and whatnot.
>”…In today’s grossly hyper-sexualized environment…”
How do young, hormone-driven teens survive the onslaught of sexual images and innuendoes without damaging effects? Porn readily available on the internet, soft porn beginning to infest cable TV. What can possibly be the good in that?
I am vehemently opposed to the pre-mature sexualization of children. Call it theft of their childhood. Yet media companies seem not to care because…money? Call me an old fogey if you like, but I can’t see this ending well.
Reading about Lauren Boebert was giving me flashbacks: is she a reincarnation of Sarah Palin? ‘Gutsy’ good-looking young, well, youngish, woman, resident of an ex-frontier state, married to hunky guy, former oil field worker, slew of good-looking kids, a couple of whom become parents at 18. Messy personal lives: hints of domestic violence, skirting the ‘law.’ Well, it’s the gubmint, restricting my freedom to carry guns and run my own small business.
White. Natch. This biography resonates with that segment of the population currently being plagued by ‘deaths of despair.’ The white male, non-college grad segment, who have been seeing their hopes of a ‘better’ life for their kids, evaporate. And their own life expectancy tanking.
Gotta admit that opening a restaurant, in Rifle, CO, where the staff openly carry, is a brilliant marketing strategy (one sees franchise possibilities here: a Cracker Barrel with guns.)
Oh, and the Boeberts lost their home to foreclosure in 2010. Lots of that happening in Colorado during those post-financial crash years. Living in Denver at that time, we packed the perfunctory foreclosure hearings and disrupted them. One of our group shot himself as the sheriff’s deputies surrounded his foreclosed home in the mountains, preparing to drag him out by force. People remember those times.
Boebert and her litter is just another drain of stupid bipeds on the American taxpayer. How convenient that she’s a U.S. House ‘Rep.’
Shouldn’t he (or the woman, perhaps) be arrested for statutory rape?
EU plans joint navy patrols to combat Russian threat to infrastructure…
Two observations from within the Netherlands. One from ten days back; a national broadcast news item featuring the head of military intel and some government employees. They told us that Russian ships were actively pursuing information on the Dutch windmill-parks in de North Sea…
That one reminded me of the famous delusion that got Don Quichote in attack mode against some La Mancha windmills…
The second just a day old. The national news announcing that the Dutch government had given in to American demands to deny Chinese purchases from ASML. ASML will have to apply for a permit from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the case of a delivery to the Peoples Republic of China.
ASML is a quite exceptional tech asset over here. I bet the American PTB would welcome a business like that (probably under a fitting commercial brand in the States), as a side-accomplishment in the de-industrialization process of Germany…
Both observations give me the feeling there’s no end to the doubling-down over here.
Someone wrote yesterday on NC that the European countries are no vassals… I wonder. Maybe some, to a certain degree.
Great powers do not have nor tolerate allies. They will only accept vassal states.
This means that neither Russia nor China are great powers?
Both Russia and China refused to be vassal states which is why the collective west is trying to destroy them. As for Russia and China’s allies, let us just say that their relations can be ‘problematical.’ :)
Great power alliances (or, generally, alliances among equals) don’t work very well in general: after France surrendered in 1940, King George VI mentioned how happy he was, despite the strategic problems Britain faced, now that they no longer had to deal with the French any more. Beneath all the friendly talk, there’s doubtlessly a ton of tension among China, Russia, and India.
Its what’s called ‘grown up diplomacy’. Recognising you have things you can cooperate for mutual advantage whilst also recognising that you also have differences of opinions over other things.
The US increasingly does not do this. Its all or nothing, which generally means total subservience. Its a sign of growing weakness whatever the number of armaments.
The U.S. has been the only major power on two isolated continents for 200 years. We’ve never really had to negotiate with anyone for our national survival (Soviet Union possibly excepted). Europe on the other hand consists of a number of countries that are more or less equally powerful and more or less close by. For them diplomacy has always been a necessity.
True, and as long as they are facing increasingly erratic US dominating the “West” that cannot be reasoned with, they have a mutual interest in cooperation, even close cooperation. Just pointing out that it is premature to think that they will somehow carve out an alternative world order somehow any time soon, beyond opposing the West, given their manifold differences and the difficulties in resolving them that happen to take back seat for now.
They all have ‘concerns’ re each other. Russia always feared China wanted Siberia. But Russia feared nato’s east moves more, so they made border concessions to smooth their relationship with China. Similarly, China/India need to resolve their border disputes in the mountains to smooth their partnership in BRICS.
I thought Iran and saudi joining BRICS would push them to make peace, imo China/India will resolve their borders as we move into an east-west divide… I think indias preference to straddle the growing divide will be difficult.
Some in Global south might be waiting to see how Ukraine is resolved.
I think the relations between India and Russia are pretty much as good as they can be between two sovereign nations looking out for their own interest first and foremost.
The long friendship between the two, I believe, was the basis on which Primakov started to build the “strategic triangle” of India, Russia and China while visiting New Delhi in 1998, while the dust was still settling after The West had bombed Iraq.
The border dispute between India and China is to my mind more of a reflection of both of them wanting to be recognized as a major power in the Indo-Pacific Region and globally. Once that is settled – for example within new multipolar international arrangements – the border issue will very likely disappear.
The border dispute is over a territory that was a no man’s land forever. There was never a border there, even when the Brits were ruling over India.
It became imperious after 1947 and especially after PRC took over Tibet. But to say that one’s claims are more legitimate than the other’s, that would be false. Luckily nobody lives in those areas.
I suspect that some are in practical terms, as we have zip all capacity to fight a modern industrial war.
RE: Larry On Macron; Vera, Scott And Me, And… Andrei Martyanov. From a few days back. Chuck L notes:
Have already these missiles been deployed in Europe or has this just been an announcement? So far I just found an announcement in 2021 to deploy these in Germany.
I believe the first battery received equipment, but no missiles in 2021. It’s supposed to become “operational” this year, if they can make the missiles to work. Meaning it’s a testing battery located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacome, Washington.
Originally the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW, or Dark Eagle in US Army) was supposed to be Navy-Army joint project to be deployed on the Pacific to counter China, but due to it’s limited range it basically can be deployed only in Europe with any hope of being able to reach any potential enemies of USA.
Of course the unit price is also so high that there will not be enough batteries available to have much of an effect against any peer level military. A single missile will cost about the same as F-35. It’s definitely not meant for attrition warfare.
Thank you PS. OK, pricey but the escalating escalator climbs and climbs to heaven and beyond. Attrition is not in the cards if these are loaded with nukes. That’s what scares Ritter.
This article that appeared in The Sun last November asserts the first missiles were delivered to Germany in October. I haven’t watched the video since I submitted the link, but IIRC Ritter spoke as if they were.
Norfolk Southern, rail safety
625 brand new cars built to carry coiled steel have defective wheel sets that fail to hold proper gauge between the rails caused the Springfield Ohio wreck last week
AAR urges railroads to sideline new cars that may have caused NS derailment in Springfield, Ohio
Dashcam video of the instant the derailment occurred at a grade crossing. Wondering if the driver soiled their pants?
I guess we should be happy the 212 car train didn’t derail toxic chemicals…
That particular railroad CEO is just asking to get fired. Which is probably the best outcome for him, and for the railroad’s public image (yes as damaged as it’s been, can it get worse seems possible). You just can’t have this news, to be consistently featured on front pages and local news stations.
The video shows the train cars (what I saw) were literally coming off the rails.
He’ll get the platinum parachute so no worries for him.
“Defective wheel sets” — more evidence of how much American manufacturing has been eroded. It’s a joke but not a funny one.
Did all the parts that make/made up those defective wheel sets come from America? Or did any of them come from some other country? If so, which one?
Also, did the parts which were defective enough to make the whole wheel sets defective come from America? Or from some other country?
>Murder of Anti-Vietnam War Monk Thomas Merton in 1968 Was a CIA Hit Linked with Assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, New Book Argues Covert Action (Chuck L)
Very compelling. Another CIA hit, possibly, was Hunter Thompson. The funny thing is that when talking to a relative about Ukraine, he pointed to how Russian business men who ran afoul of “Putin” where falling out of tall buildings.
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/02/25/did-legendary-gonzo-journalist-hunter-thompson-frighten-those-in-the-deep-state-so-much-he-had-to-be-taken-out/
Thompson was ailing, alcoholic, and depressed. Good reasons all to end his own life (2005). But then there’s this:
“Rolling Stone published what Douglas Brinkley described as a suicide note written by Thompson to his wife, titled “Football Season Is Over.”” (from Wiki)
“Football Season Is Over.” His could be the first suicide in history attributed to the end of a sports season. No dumb spook with a gun to Thompson’s head could possibly have dictated that to him. Too original, eccentric, and highly personal, and something probably known only to himself.
There were also reliable reports that Dr. Gonzo suffered from an incurable disease, possibly stage 4 cancer. No way was he going into Hospice drooling in a wheelchair.
It may have been a euphemism, as his career started with covering sports news.
“Virginia middle school in notoriously woke district is branded RACIST by state’s AG, as he opens probe over invite to college prep club that excluded white and Asian students”
This is a good example of that post the other day of equality or equity. Equality says that it should be a matter of choosing students regardless of ‘race, color and national origin’. Equity is saying to tilt the table for Black, Hispanic, etc. students. Though the later is fashionable, it is against the US Constitution that aims for equal treatment for all – along with the Virginia Human Rights Act. The problem is that they did it in an official school setting. Of course if those staff that believed in equity wanted to spend their own time, money and effort to help those students outside the school setting on their own time, that would not be objectional at all but would be commendable and praiseworthy.
Hmmm, your last point is an interesting one. Maybe the real issue is that the gatekeepers want to be paid for their troubles.
Teachers do that (your last sentence) all the time. Not all teachers of course, but I’d say most. I did it for 35 years and when a teacher does this often, they get good at it. If you have good teachers, you don’t need counselors.
The thing that gets me is how breathtakingly stup!d the Woke can be. Did they not know that this was going to draw a harsh response? A legal challenge? Don’t they have lawyers to say “Whoa, this is a minefield?”
In a related “blowback” vein, they’ve banned public drag shows in Tennessee, as well as children being injected with cancer drugs and having their genitalia removed:
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3881688-tennessee-enacts-nations-first-law-restricting-drag-shows-bans-gender-affirming-care-for-youth/
This includes private clubs within 1000 feet of churches and schools, which in a smaller town would be a death sentence to such a business.
I’ve come across a number of videos of drag queens decrying “Drag Queen Story Hour”. They think sexualizing children is wrong and furthermore they knew there would be blowback. One pointed out that there is absolutely no reason to have a drag queen reading to children.
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh spoke with the governor a few days ago celebrating the bill. He said that he is just getting started. His embryonic political career is steadily building momentum.
I’d like to think that there are some things that go beyond “equality” or “justice” in abstract sense: people (on all sides, btw) should be considerate of how other people think and should have the common decency to not offend them, at least not in face. (This goes to the fundies as well as wokesters, plus extreme moralizers of all kinds).
I tend to think that the problem causing this is the deterioration of the broader “society” and overemphases on “in-groups.” “Extreme moralizers” typically want to show off zeal to their fellow “in-group” members (whose opinion they value far more than they should) by using strangers as props, by stepping on the latter publicly. Common decency, as long as it’s limited to strangers, loses out versus looking good to the “people who matter” (to the moralizers). This almost sounds like alleged initiation rituals to certain types of criminal gangs (at least the version that shows up in fiction)–say, kill someone as the pledge of loyalty.
>Why Poverty Persists in America New York Times. Resilc:
Concluding Sentences:
Living our daily lives in ways that express solidarity with the poor could mean we pay more; anti-exploitative investing could dampen our stock portfolios. By acknowledging those costs, we acknowledge our complicity. Unwinding ourselves from our neighbors’ deprivation and refusing to live as enemies of the poor will require us to pay a price. It’s the price of our restored humanity and renewed country.
That’s right it’s my fault that poverty exists. Not the overlords and war mongers sending billions to Ukraine and spending trillions on killing machines. Yes, leave it to the NYT to place the blame where it doesn’t exist.
I think Yanis Varoufakis’ explanation is much more cogent.
Even if everyone agreed that printing another trillion dollars to finance a basic income for the poor would boost neither inflation nor interest rates, the rich and powerful would still oppose it. After all, their most important interest is not to conserve economic potential, but to preserve the power of the few to compel the many.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/austerity-goal-to-compel-workers-low-wages-by-yanis-varoufakis-2021-05
Unsurprisingly, Jason Furman is on T*itter saying the data is bad and that poverty is actually waaaaay down. The chart he references, reprinted from the Columbia Center on Poverty and Social Policy, seems to show the % in poverty holding steady at about 15-16% from 1999-2013 or so (through two financial meltdowns) and then dropping precipitously to 7-8% in 2019. Well done, U.S.!!! Who knew?
Got the buddy deal on early purchaser Burning Man tix as my longtime backpacking partner is quite the poobah in the BM organization, which allowed another friend and I to get in and have parking for 1 vehicle for the princely sum of $1479.
Money won’t buy you anything but bags of ice once you’re on the playa, but it sure takes a few semollians when you’re on the outside looking in.
The theme this year: ‘Animalia’
Time to rain on the burning man. What a poser event IMO.
Jaded Burner or just somebody on the outside looking in who guesses what goes on?
There are 80,000 people and nothing to buy. It must be Hell On Earth!
‘More Perfect Union
@MorePerfectUS
NEW: We went down to East Palestine for a week to get residents’ side of the story after the Ohio rail disaster. People told us they’re getting sick and their pets are dying, while Norfolk Southern is trying to cover it up.’
So imagine this. The political running is on next year when Trump announces that his next fly-over State monster rally will be held in Columbiana, Ohio. Why there? Because it is only about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from East Palestine and looks to have much more room to hold a large rally (and would be much safer). Trump then has a bunch of sick people from that blighted town talking about their problems and their deteriorating health, how the railways have abandoned them, how the Democrats are stopping any help to go into their town and how Biden still has not gone to visit their town, would this have any sort of effect in the Presidential races?
My best guess is that Trump and his minions are trying to move the Overton Window to their advantage. By legitimizing granular anti-Democrat Party speech, Trump is speaking directly to the “deplorables” of America.
Just like in the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump is setting himself up as an “Outsider” candidate. If he can also portray himself as having been swindled and bamboozled by a “Deep State” during his first administration, he will have a strong weapon to use against any and all comers in 2024.
The fact that Biden has not gone to East Palestine is the coupe de grace for the Democrat Party in the Midwest. This sort of callous indifference is remembered by those victimized by it. I remember the phrase “Benign Neglect” being attributed to Nixon. It did not age well.
See: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/united-states-and-canada/us-history/benign-neglect
To be blunt about it; the Poor Whites of America’s ‘Flyover country’ are now the “New N—–s.” Which adds potency to the basic argument that: “It’s not Race, it’s Class.”
It was only the position of the next topic below that finally made me think of it, but if those Ohio residents wanted help from politicians, they clearly shouldn’t have named the town East Palestine. Most people in Washington are probably just confused because they’re not supposed to acknowledge that word at all.
I wear a Palestine flag lapel pin on my baseball hat and hope I get asked. The ultimate underdog of a nation. Kick Israel out of Palestine, was a slogan I recall from the 80’s.
Thank you, Yves, for the links, especially highlighting the removal of Palestinian art, yet another inglorious episode in the UK’s pandering* to Zionists.
Please see https://twitter.com/OwenPaintbrush/status/1629210363471310849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1629210363471310849%7Ctwgr%5E34a2e13a5e576cb6de12365a1e976a9a0d5e3c9e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.middleeasteye.net%2Fnews%2Flondon-hospital-gaza-children-artwork-removed-utterly-bizarre.
ITV has been spoken to after two women raved about cooking with Palestinian olive oil on a TV show recently.
Some years ago, our diocese was spoken to for allowing a Palestinian Catholic to sell religious carvings after mass.
*This pandering included, until covid, an annual summer reception in Parliament for Britons serving in the Israeli, er, um, Defence Force. There’s no such celebration for people serving king and country, but there is one for people who fight for another country. W.T.F!
So, going with today’s dog theme, the UK poohbahs are not just poodles to the Americans?
Of course the point of the linked article was that the reputational backlash did the Zionists a lot more harm than good.
From personal experience with American Zionists I can say with complete certainty that the present class of Zionists care not one whit for ‘reputation’ outside of their closed socio-political circles. The proof of this is that the Ultra Zionists are now in power in Israel.
Religious fanatics, of any and all stripes, are a class unto themselves. They live in their Own Private Idaho.
I know this blog is not too relevant to esotericism (other than finance), but one idea I have come across is that the souls of the Nazis from the WW2 era have been reincarnated in Israel. Same outlook and actions from them, just at a 90 degree angle from the past group identity. These souls need to learn the lessons soon or their karma will continue to pile up.
Interesting. I see the horrors of the Holocaust haunting, and I mean that literally, the people of Israel. In the obfuscated realm of the collective consciousness, there is a Power that was created by that event. It works it’s evil through it’s pernicious influence over the minds of people, aided and abetted by opportunists such as Netanyahu.
You may be right about the US. I’m not sure about the UK. In this country there is a fundie religion connection to Israel. I’ve mentioned that a local ex mill village neighborhood had a house with a series of flags including the Confederate and the Israeli. I believe the UK has a far greater presence of people with Islamic beliefs and, perhaps, sensitivity toward same even as the upper class shows its allegiance.
Thank you, C.
The UK could be Athens to the US’ Rome, or so UK neo cons like Sir Richard Dearlove and Field Marshal Lord Guthrie reckon.
I doubt that reputational damage was done to Zionists. New new Labour equates opposition to unfettered markets and big busines to anti-semitism. Its supporters, resurgent, get an orgasm.
Pam Weintraub, Aeon, Breeding dogs to be cute (chronically ill and brainless).
Here in Chocolate City, I was walking to a show yesterday evening and came up behind a young woman marshaling some tiny dog (surely no more than two pounds / 1 kg) wearing a tutu. Yes, the dog.
Years ago, my mentor, who lives in Roma, came to Chicago for visit. She noticed the enormous numbers of dogs. Her diagnosis: Rampant pet ownership as a sign of loneliness.
When I lived in Chicago, in the Edgewater neighborhood, I took two or more walks a day: In a 30-minute walk, it was not unusual for me to see 30 dogs.
Here in Chocolate City, the density of population is too high to support the “30 dogs in a 30 minute walk” phenomenon. And contrary to U.S custom, Piedmontese dogs are trained to resemble their Piedmontese owners. They don’t approach strangers, don’t bark much, and don’t stick their noses up people’s crotches.
Yet I do seem to have a small, psycho dog across the courtyard: Which brings us back to Weintraub’s article:
An important observation: “Paradoxically, the appeal of cute small dogs may be their helplessness and disability. In a study published in PLoS one in 2017, Peter Sandøe at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and colleagues identified a strange phenomenon. People who acquire dogs like pugs that have intrinsic health problems may be making a deliberate choice based on the animal’s need. Dogs with poor health require greater levels of caregiving.”
The pet as a pastime of suffering to be “managed” by “caregiving.”
I am also persuaded that many of these dogs being bred to be conveniently small don’t just have anxiety, as Weintraub writes. Many are just plain stupid. They don’t have that glint of intelligence, curiosity, and doggy humor that one sees in border collies, Irish terriers, Italian Abbruzzese/Maremmese sheepdogs, Australian shepherds, Jack Russell terriers (a rather humorless breed, though).
As Weintraub notes, losing the wolf has meant losing the dog.
Some dog breeds got so bad that Queen Elizabeth had to withdraw her patronage of a major Society a decade or two ago. She didn’t want her name associated with them. Dog were bred whose growing brain will never fit into its skull for example. We use to breed German Shepherds but we bred the old classic style. A trend had started to breed a form of German Shepherd that had a roach back and used their power to make it a standard. It pleased some people’s fancy and made those breeders more wealth as they were setting the standard and people would buy their puppies from them but it caused all sorts of problems for those poor dogs-
https://www.handicappedpets.com/blog/german-shepherd-back-legs/
Cats are also being bred to have pushed-in faces. These cats can experience breathing difficulties such as elongated soft palate (the soft part of the roof of the mouth), which can block air going into the lungs, narrow trachea (windpipe), stenotic nares (very narrow, small nostrils which make breathing through the nose difficult), and everted laryngeal saccules (tissue in front of the vocal cords is pulled into the windpipe, blocking airflow to the lungs).
DJG, as we walk about our north Seattle neighborhood, there are dogs on every block. The past few weeks, I have noticed an influx of new puppies; all adorable, all frisky, all with little groups of admirers clustered around them. And, on walks around the local lake, a 3 mile circuit, the past few months we have encountered people pushing their dogs in baby strollers. And, one guy, carrying his cat in a rigid, transparent plastic snuggly front pack. With all those tech layoffs here, there has to be tons of people anxiety. Therapy pets?
And, our DIL, fosters dogs from the local shelter. She specializes in traumatized ones and has been dealing with a spate of abandoned and abused pit bulls. The ones that have to be walked late in the evening after all the other dogs, and people, and gone to bed.
Similarly to Pugs, some cats are also bred to be cute (or someone’s idea of cute, not mine). These cat breeds often have breathing difficulties. See: https://cats.com/flat-faced-cat-breeds
>They Work So Hard To Manufacture Our Consent Because They Absolutely Require It Caitlin Johnstone (Kevin W)
They don’t work so hard to manufacture our consent because it’s fun for them, they work so hard to manufacture our consent because they require our consent.
I’m not so sure that Caitlin is correct on this. I look at what is going on in France with literally millions of people protesting in the streets against reducing the age of retirement, the numerous wars that have been, are being, fought by the U.S. and I don’t think the Media generating “consent” is sufficient to explain what is happening. Maybe if the ruling elites just keep the necessary number of people confused and in a state of fear it will suffice to push whatever damn agenda they want.
They no longer try to manufacture consent, as back in the days of Chomsky’s book and documentary. They’re not stupid and are aware that their credibility is in tatters. They know that their lies don’t fly anymore.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/403166/americans-trust-media-remains-near-record-low.aspx
So now, through omission (and even censorship) of contrary views, they instead try to suppress truth. Manufacturing consent to suppression of truth. That’s how far we’ve come, er, fallen in thirty years.
I reckon that the non-reporting of important stories has been going on far longer than 30 years.
Because by now the west has no credible alternative to free market evangelist policies. This in contrast to the previous century, where there were a credible threat from the east of an alternative economic system.
Sorry to be picky, but I think you mean protesting against increasing the age of retirement?
Exactly. Manufacturing consent is no longer an objective for those that actually pull the levers. I would say that after 9/11, the PTB saw how with even halfed-assed sourced news was met with little sceptism during the run up to Iraq, they figured justification for resource-gathering expeditions were not really needed. And now, it’s like they’re just yanking our chains with the news that being disseminated and how’s it’s attributed to faceless spook sources. No, the days for seeking consent for anything are long past.
What does PTB mean?
“Powers That Be”
Because what are we to replace them with? Outside of maybe Cuba, communism as the scary alternative is no more. Thus we have a choice between neolib globalist A and neocon imperialist B.
Re dog cuteness as cruelty–it should be said that purebred dogs in general have a reputation for health problems and large wolf like dogs often wind up with back leg problems. A close friend worked years for a vet and could tell you all about it.
But then when it comes to cruelty our pampered pets don’t hold a candle to what we do to the rest of our fellow species. I agree with the article and particularly with regard to “teacup dogs” and other grotesqueries. But perhaps we shouldn’t be too harsh on the ill informed owners. Human loneliness is also cruelty. Perhaps one reason we bond with dogs is that they feel loneliness too.
It should be said some purebred breeds have a reputation for health problems.
Just because a dog is a mixed breed does not mean it has no inherited health problems such as epilepsy or hip dysplasia.
It is important to only buy from reputable breeders who have health tested their breeding stock.
https://ofa.org/chic-programs/
“Robots are performing Hindu rituals – some devotees fear they’ll replace worshippers”
That could seriously backfire that. I mean, is that really a good idea? Here is the story “The Battle” by Robert Sheckley that shows how that may play out. Enjoy-
https://lingualeo.com/en/jungle/the-battle-by-robert-sheckley-53189
USDA soil testing near East Palestine
The wheels are coming off the cart in Israel. Netanyahu can’t get Israeli pilots to fly him to Rome to meet Austin, so the mountain goes to Mohammed. However the mountain can’t get out of the airport due to protest, and Netanyahu has to sneak in. Genocidal rioters, antigovernmental rioters…. Netanyahu may like chaos, like most Fascist, but he may find himself getting tapped out this time. It will not be the first time an Israeli PM had a JFK. I know that USA wants to suck the EU dry, but the idea that they are going to let Netanyahu attack Iran and destroy the world’s access to oil…
Antidote: The hoopoe. A remarkable bird.
https://www.audubon.org/news/the-hoopoe-emissary-kings-secreter-stink
Wikipedia sez: “Hoopoes are distinctive birds and have made a cultural impact over much of their range. They were considered sacred in Ancient Egypt, and were “depicted on the walls of tombs and temples”.[citation needed] At the Old Kingdom, the hoopoe was used in the iconography as a symbolic code to indicate the child was the heir and successor of his father.[27] They achieved a similar standing in Minoan Crete.[21]”
Can’t wait until they arrive back in Poland. I love to watch them fishing in the sandy areas of my back yard.
Yes, Hoopoe like rocky environment (Egypt) and are powerful strider. That’s why the one in the Antidote has its wings closed. It’s bounding about.
Peter Matthiessen describes his encounters with the hoopoe in the Himalayas in his book The Snow Leopard.
In al-Attar’s The Conference of the Birds, the hoopoe is the leader of the birds in the quest for the Simurgh. Prominent in Sufi tradition.
‘Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴☠️
@mercoglianos
1/Yesterday I tweeted on the Tyranny of Distance across the Pacific, comparing 1942 to 2023.
Today, what would happen should China decide to invade Taiwan?’
Good thing that the Chinese don’t have any submarines that in a war could sink any US transport ship crossing those thousands of kilometers. Think that any commercial ships will let themselves be leased to go into an active war zone? But the logistical problems in that tweet thread are formidable by themselves alone.
And then there is the problem of the Chinese Navy and their shipyards-
https://twitter.com/DanCollins2011/status/1628419580832931840
Sal Mercogliano has been running a very good channel on shipping for a couple years now. This distance and logistics thread is accurate and again confirms that the US’s greatest strength, geographically, which is being protected by oceans on the east and west, is its greatest weakness when it comes to power protection, which are long lines of supply and materials delivery. In some ways (leaving aside nuclear missiles) the US is nearly invulnerable to invasion, but the same can be said for China from the U.S., or Russia, by the way.
Yet here we are, it seems, pounding the drums for fights with Russia and China and now, it seems, Mexico as well. What are we thinking?
“What are we thinking?”
Maybe: we best give this war business a shot now while we still have a chance than later when it’s too late.
Basically the state department is behaving as if USA still has the manufacturing capacity it had during the world wars, while Pentagon is very much aware that pretty much everything from the MOLLE on up is coming out of some factory in Shenzhen.
Also, i think the blob has become overly accustomed to using foreign adventures as a way for distracting the US public from domestic issues.
Fun fact from the USGS:
“The Central Valley is a large structural trough filled with sediments of Jurassic to Holocene age, as much as 3 miles deep in the San Joaquin Valley, and as much as 6 miles deep in the Sacramento Valley.”
For comparison, where I am we’re 15 feet above sea level, while the depth of the Challenger Deep is roughly 7 miles.
Do be very careful and keep a weather eye open.
We were at 9′ MSL when we lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Then “A Certain Malign Weather Phenomenon” came to visit and we suddenly, (as in, literally an hour from onset to high tide,) found ourselves at -15′ NSL-T (New Sea Level – Temporary.)
Keep a Bug Out Bag handy.
Perhaps right underneath you are Sequoia trees from 100,000 years ago…
https://sonnysredwoods.org/history/HistoryBuff.cfm.html
Wow, that’s a spooky image. It reminds me of the sunken forests of Lake Washington, next to Seattle. Those are believed to have resulted from massive earthquakes.
So, I don’t know if the situation is “serious,” but the talking heads on cnbc are freakin’ out this morning about the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank.
Using the words “bank,” “run,” and “contagion” in the same sentence is generally not considered a good economic sign, I guess.
https://www.axios.com/2023/03/10/silicon-valley-bank-run-svb-stock
SVB invests its depositors’ money like near-zero interest rates will last forever. (kindling)
Fed raises interest rates almost 5 percentage points in a year. (spark)
Bank fails. (Fire)
Old time readers of the “Calculated Risk” weblog (to which I will enduringly be grateful as it was its ‘blogroll that led me to NC) may feel a bit of deja vu with the return of “Bank Failure Friday”.
Same path for me. Once Tanta passed, NC became my mainstay.
Indeed. Pace, Tanta.
Me too. I loved Tanta and am glad to see CR still has her In Memoriam spot, with tributes and, most important, her articles. Still valuable after all these years.
And I treasure my Tanta sweatshirts.
Bill is very good. Tanta was luminous.
It may have been the same for me…
Likewise I’m sure…
Yes. I followed the same path. Seems like a long time ago.
End of free money for banks. Wolf has written good article on this on Wolfstreet.
Share prices of all banks down today.
For some reason this event makes me think of Japanese keiretsus.
>Matt Taibbi before Congress
Glenn Greenwald did a segment on this last night on his System Update. The Dems were woeful.
Garland Nixion talks about the corruption ring that Matt Taibbi threw a spanner into. Insulting a politician isn’t much of a thing, exposing their corruption isn’t well liked, but threatening to shut down the money flows is existential. (DEMS AND GOP FIGHT OVER DISINFORMATION – NEOLIBERAL FASCISM SCREAMS)
The Dems on the Twtr committee were ridiculously unprepared, embarrassingly unprepared.
That let the Reps make easy points.
Thanks for the link. (Links). The corruption of the media is bi-partisan. See this Jimmy Dore, utube, clip about another current media dust-up.
Chuck Schumer DEMANDS Fox News Silence Tucker Carlson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRlPBl3o2GU
And not just Chuck, also Mitch and Mitt other GOP Sens.
The problem with selecting idiots who will follow marching orders to hold public office is that they are not good at defending their line. Fortunately it’s not a big problem for a large slice of the oligarchy. First they usually control both benches, and then it’s easy and cheap enough to replace a bungler with another dull wit to keep the sleaze rolling.
Their demands may have worked. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I read somewhere, after the Schumer tirade about Carlson and the Jan 6th footage, he didn’t show any more clips on his show. Why (If true, I don’t watch)?
I feel for Taibbi. Judging by his appearance on loudmouth Bill Maher’s show a couple of years ago, he’s clearly not built for the face-to-face confrontations that the subjects of his work want to provoke. Bold journalist, retiring personality – must cause him a lot of stress.
If you knew about his public antics in Russia, then retiring personality would seem odd. I’d say he’s not fluid with the spoken word, but he has very thick skin.
Hard to give a thoughtful answer to a questioner demanding a “yes or no” answer to a multi-pronged got’cha question. / ;
Wow that is some real wacky theater. Name your sources (okay if you don’t we all know it’s Mr. Musk) and please sit still for your public reckoning at the hands of we almighty in Congress. \sarc
Taibbi seems to behave pretty well thus far, in the disparate clips I have watched. As gets often repeated, this is really a stupid timeline we are living in.
Being totally serious here, I think it is great. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. After watching that Democratic clown show yesterday, the covers are off and they displayed to the whole world that they will eat their young to defend, what ever it is they defend nowadays, but it sure ain’t the constitution.
Both of those guys are liberal left and were just attacked mercilessly by the Democrats, by the most ridiculous of rationale. Let see, one was sore they got paid for publishing it. Another tried to say it wasn’t true because there was no evidence presented that the Trump did this (for real!), another tried to say the government never actually told Twitter what to do, they decided themselves, another, who is legitimately not a voting member of Congress, called them “so called journalists”, while Tiabbi pointed out two journalist awards and 4 books on the NYT best seller list.
You can say what you want about Musk the businessman, but my hat is off to him for blowing this up. It was absolutely brilliant.
I am in agreement on the disinfectant aspect. When I consider who walks the halls of Congress, I will be remembering a few of these performances and not in a good light. I’m quite familiar with Taibbi, having followed his articles starting at RS during the financial crisis and his ability to entertain with descriptive terms while explaining, to a degree, the financial engineered structures that made a few rich and the chumps poor.
I didn’t watch the hearings because my blood pressure won’t allow it, but I did see a clip of some lady who didn’t know what Substack was. This is what my PMC friends picked up on.
They already hate Musk about as much as Trump, and Matt Taibbi is not far behind. So now, as Taibbi said so accurately on Joe Rogan, Substack (and him) are now the “Hitler of the month.”
Anything on Substack is to be hated, said one person. Another said he texted 3 different people who didn’t know what it is – and these are highly educated people, he added. These are the same people who tell me the government didn’t have a hand in censoring Twitter – that is all BS don’t you know?
Anyone who sheds bad light on their hero’s are the enemy, or Hitler of the month. Attack the messenger, attack the source, don’t read Substack because anything bad about the democrats is a lie. Their Twitter feed (ironically) is set to any and everything anti-Trump, GOP, Taibbi, Musk, Fox, etc. But give them some Mayo Pete, or some Kamala, Lincoln Project, Bill Kristol, and Joe’s the greatest president since FDR, yada, yada, yada. And of course more war.
They are truly proud of their ignorance.
Since the rise of Bill Clinton on the national scene in 1992 the Democratic establishment has been successfully pulling off the most audacious scam in USA political history. And the scamees are the Party’s own base. The only ones that caught on were those personally mugged by the reality of it when their jobs went over the borders south and west. Many of them are now Trumpsters. The PMCs, many of whom are the offspring of folks who were able to send them to college because of the prosperity engendered by the New Deal, still think the Dems are a Rooseveltian party, when in fact the establishment abhors just about everything he stood for. But they still have the blue-no-matter-who PMCs believing the opposite.
re: Since the rise of Bill Clinton on the national scene in 1992
Don’t they know B Clinton was 30 years ago? 30 years ago. Three decades ago. Your friends like many of my friends are woefully out of date.
And since then and moving good working class jobs off shore and trading good working class and Main Stream America economics for …what? For enriching the oligarchs’ wealth? / Oy
US politics, reduced to a chariot race…
Without the “sunlight,” the Democrats would not have engaged in this sort of theatrics. There are a lot of Democratic partisans, who buy the mainstream narrative, who eat this sort of stuff up. That the spectacle looks ludicrous to us doesn’t mean everyone shares the same view.
This was an email to me from Matt Taibbi:
Indeed. I also received the same ‘to subscribers’ email titled “The Democrats Have Lost the Plot.”
adding from Taibbi’s email his included Forbes magazine video opening of the hearings:
‘Ranking Member Plaskett, I’m Not A So-Called Journalist’: Matt Taibbi Discusses The Twitter Files
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEeaVOzqwAY
and from farther down his email:
The irony is that what Goldman was doing, confusing accusations with proof — as Thomas Jefferson said, the phenomenon of people whose “suspicions may be evidence” — was the entire reason for the hearing. Michael and I were trying to describe a system that wants to bypass proof and proceed to punishment, a radical idea that this new breed of Democrat embraces. I think they justify this using the Sam Harris argument, that in pursuit of suppressing Trump, anything is justified. But by removing or disrespecting the rights to which Americans are accustomed, you make opposition movements like Trump’s, you don’t stop them.
There is some irony in how much that lines up with the Star Wars timeline…
Because them politicians are used to the new cadre of “journalists” that now fill the ranks of the gray lady etc. Who are trained to write purple prose and copypaste press releases unquestioned, and show the deepest of deference to the Democrats.
As I read the headline “Mexican cartel apologizes for deaths of 2 Americans”, I have to say I was quite surprised to not find it linked to The Onion…
I didn’t read the article, but the headline gives the impression Washington is keeping diplomatic channels open.
These days, I am surprised to not find everything linked to The Onion.
Why? Bad for biz to have the USMC descend on them thanks to some over eager peons offing some medical tourists.
This is no different from seeing the Yakuza helping out after an earthquake.
“Robots are performing Hindu rituals – some devotees fear they’ll replace worshippers”
When robots become flagellants, lets talk…
Re: Merton. I can only read the phenomenally well foot-noted book “JFK and the Unspeakable” by James Douglass in small sessions. The author’s research and conclusions are rock solid. Douglass’ first footnote is to a work of Merton’s.
The book is a long read and not hopeful in its premise.
Wow! They know the amount to 3 sig figs!
https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/dear-conservatives-i-am-sorry
I believed a farrago of lies. And, as a result of these lies, and my credulity — and the credulity of people similarly situated to me – many conservatives’ reputations are being tarnished, on false bases.
The proximate cause of this letter of apology is the airing, two nights ago, of excepts from tens of thousands of hours of security camera footage from the United States Capitol taken on Jan 6, 2021. The footage was released by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson
…..
There is no way for anyone thoughtful, even if he or she is a lifelong Democrat, not to notice that Sen Chuck Schumer did not say to the world that the footage that Mr Carlson aired was not real. Rather, he warned that it was “shameful” for Fox to allow us to see it. The Guardian characterized Mr Carlson’s and Fox News’ sin, weirdly, as “Over-Use” of Jan 6 footage. Isn’t the press supposed to want full transparency for all public interest events?*
…..
Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate minority leader, did not say the video on Fox News was fake or doctored. He said, rather, that it was “a mistake” to depart from the views of the events held by the chief of the Capitol Police. This is a statement from McConnell about orthodoxy — not a statement about a specific truth or untruth.
….
You don’t have to agree with Carlson’s interpretation of the videos, to notice the latest hypocrisy by the Left. My acquaintance and personal hero Daniel Ellsberg was rightly lionized by the Left for having illegally leaked the Pentagon Papers. The New York Times was rightly applauded for having run this leaked material in 1971.
I do not see how Mr Carlson’s airing of video material of national significance that the current government would prefer to keep hidden, or Fox News’ support for its disclosure to the public, is any different from that famous case of disclosure of inside information of public importance.
=============================================
I don’t really follow Wolf and know if she is “really” on the left or not. But that is the problem – which tribe’s narrative makes what you say truthful instead of what you say that makes you truthful.
And what is interesting, and more important, is how often do Schumer and McConnell agree and on what?
* not any more
She’s not on the left at all. Do you have her confused with Naomi Klein?
You’ve got this all wrong FD. It is now “malinformation”. It is bad for you, they are doing you a favor not letting you be exposed to it. What could possibly go wrong?
When Schumer and McConnell agrees, most likely they are doing it TO the American people, not FOR.
Millions of NYC rats could have Covid-19 – study RT (Kevin W)
Maybe they’ll try to vax them like they are proposing to do with cattle…
vaxxing them won’t stop transmission, but might reduce the number who present themselves at local hospitals for emergency care. Getta keep flattening that curve.
How can it be legal for Department’s under the governance of the Executive Branch and funded by Congress to fund fake foreign propaganda against a candidate running for the US Senate? This is clearly unconstitutional. Understand the the USAG won’t touch it, because he has the same boss, but there has to be a Republican attorney somewhere that wants to take this on.
In the related news department, I like to amuse myself by checking the stock charts of the major us corps looking for the SMO impacts on them… usually I do the standard MIC but today I thought why not check exxon… I like to go to max duration but 5 yrs works good, too…
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/XOM/
34 to 109…thats some serious biden boom action there.
Who knew the dems were so good for corporate profits?
Now if only they can get wages down while keeping the rent too high…
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ceraweek-exxon-says-it-is-reevaluating-europe-strategy-after-windfall-taxes-2023-03-07/
“I think you may be very simply to describe it as carrots versus sticks,” Woods said. “We certainly step back and re evaluate what we are doing in Europe”.
Exxon is increasing investments in the U.S., where the Inflation Reduction Act helped the company launch a new business to help third parties to decarbonize.
yes folks, the IRA was a energy sector gravy train….oh, and now that you europes are over a barrel (pardon the pun)…
(No longer Royal Dutch) Shell has similarly been reporting their best earning ever since the SMO sanctions kicked off.
Dogs of war: Here’s why the Ukraine conflict could be about to spread to another European country
What lies behind concerns in Moldova, and the breakaway region of Transnistria?
“Ukraine has a special interest in the territory, because launching a military action there could be doubly beneficial for Kiev. It would embarrass Moscow, which only has 1,500 peacekeepers stationed and no way to currently reinforce them, and would also allow Kiev potential access to a huge arms dump. The facility at Kolbasna – with a reported 22,000 tons of weaponry – is one of the largest in Europe, and it’s located only 2km from the Ukrainian border.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/572409-moldova-is-getting-ready-for-war/
From what I’ve picked up on the Net – so not guaranteed – this stuff is ex-Soviet and thus 30+ years old while the safe shelf-life of such stuff is only 20 years. Touching it now could very well leave you with nothing but a large hole in the ground, which is why it’s still there.
“powder” in shell casings and silk bags for large caliber tubes gets “hotter” with age.
that suggests using old ammunition your ranging computers will be off, with rounds going long…..
if there are guns and the tubes not covered in anti rusting grease……
Zelensky and his cronies are trying to cover up a major corruption scandal in Ukraine – what role is the US playing?
The purge in Kiev was expected to culminate with the defense minister’s resignation.Why didn’t it happen?
“Last month’s shockwave of resignations among top Ukrainian officials, caused by numerous corruption scandals, ended as quickly as it began. At the start of February, it seemed that Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov would become the ultimate victim of the purge. His imminent departure was openly discussed in the Ukrainian parliament and hints were even dropped by the President’s office.
His possible resignation was also discussed in leading international media. However, just two weeks later, the threat hanging over Reznikov disappeared when the politician met with Western leaders and plainly stated that he had no intention of leaving office.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/571470-ukrainian-corruption-scandal-again/
‘Unscrupulous’: Man sues Coinbase in San Francisco after scammers take $96,000
He’s not wrong, though. No financial institution (if Coinbase is indeed that) should allow SMS based 2FA. It’s hopelessly insecure. For example:
Can We Stop Pretending SMS Is Secure Now?
So it’s horrid when I see some banks forcing people into it and away from email-based codes, which are plenty secure if you’re using 2FA for your email account. (Looking at you, Chase Bank.)
Fantasy land!
Why Russia Has Such a Strong Grip on Europe’s Nuclear Power
So, no, then, you won’t get a nuclear plant. Asking Westinghouse to build your plant is a slow moving debacle. They can’t do it. They don’t know how. I guess TIA.
Westinghouse is providing fuel (some of it MOX? can’t read article), which they can do competently. But yes, they certainly can’t build nuclear reactors anymore at any price even after “practicing” in Bulgaria, Poland, and Ukraine.
Regarding satellites: 1) 50% of all active satellites right now are Starlink. 2) blowing up satellites could lead to Kessler Syndrome (look it up), basically so much orbiting junk that it becomes impossible to launch ANY satellites and not have it clobbered.
I didn’t realize Taibbi used any confidential sources for the Twitter files. I.e. I thought Musk released the data to Taibbi after taking over Twitter. I may have missed something though.