Field of fresh cow pats welcomes first dung beetles to be rewilded in France The Guardian
Yacht’s Private Security Sparks Firefight After Mistaking Yemen’s Coast Guard for Pirates Jalopnik
WILDLIFE BIOLOGISTS ARE STUDYING WHY SOME RUFFED GROUSE LOSE THEIR FEAR OF HUMANS The Allegheny Front
Climate/Environment
How Tree Diversity Can Help Fight Climate Change SciTechDaily
Even Clouds Are Carrying Drug-Resistant Bacteria, New Study Finds Science Alert
Water
Flood Challenges on Mississippi River Progressive Farmer
Amid fracking boom, Pennsylvania faces toxic wastewater reckoning Grist
China’s Zhurong Mars Rover Finds Evidence of Water in Martian Sand Dunes SciTechDaily
#COVID-19
As the halls of the @WHCOVIDResponse HQ echo the final lonely pass of the push broom; as local PH depts yank the last hanging scraps of their COVID dashboards from the rafters, even Deborah Birx is like “wtf?” https://t.co/AcDRW6olnx
— Swaggering Toward Bethlehem (@SwagBethlehem) April 29, 2023
Moderna’s billionaire CEO draws criticism for earning nearly $400 million in stock options last year, and then getting a raise on top of it Business Insider
Pfizer, BioNTech propose EU pays half for each cancelled COVID dose, Financial Times reports Reuters
Old Blighty
Secret plans from British nuclear submarine found in a toilet Modern Diplomacy
Coronation: Public invited to swear allegiance to King Charles BBC
Only in Glasgow !
😹😹😹😹 pic.twitter.com/uewm5pqbTM— Wee Indy-Iza (@WeeIzabella) April 30, 2023
La belle France
May Day for Macron in pension protests The Times
Braving boos, Macron hopes ‘cathartic’ walkabouts will soothe pension anger Reuters. Usually goes well. See here and here.
France pledges ‘structural reforms’ after Fitch downgrade Deutsch Welle
India
SEBI asks SC for six more months to complete probe into Hindenburg report The Hindu
China?
Chinese military evolution tests US reshoring and ally-shoring in its Taiwan strategy Digitimes
LABOR RIGHTS AND THE U.S.-CHINA RELATIONSHIP: FROM NEOLIBERAL CONSENSUS TO IMPERIAL RIVALRY The Law and Political Economy Project
Can DPP’s Lai turn a paler shade of green to win Taiwanese presidency? South China Morning Post
New Not-So-Cold War
WEAPON OF POWER, MATRIX OF MANAGEMENT New Left Review. Well worth a read.
Russia’s Wagner mercenary force boss threatens Bakhmut withdrawal Al Jazeera
2/4 “More telling is that Xi did the conversation with a Russian translator. Got it? China supposedly couldn’t find a single Chinese linguist who spoke Ukrainian. Are you buying that? I’m not. China, a nation skilled at diplomacy…
— M. K. Bhadrakumar (@BhadraPunchline) April 30, 2023
***
Ukrainian Finance Minister calls for at least 18 billion euros from EU Al Mayadeen
Zelensky: Hungary acts as a pro-Russia, anti-NATO state Daily News Hungary
“Carlson’s firing will immediately relieve pressure on key Capitol Hill Ukraine supporters whom Carlson had criticized on air — and sometimes pressed behind the scenes to change their positions on the war.”
Congrats to all proxy warriors on the ouster of a key obstacle. https://t.co/yPng6BhkM7
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) May 1, 2023
***
The Big Dig: Germany reopens its mines in quest for mineral self-sufficiency FT
L’affaire Epstein
Epstein’s Private Calendar Reveals Prominent Names, Including CIA Chief, Goldman’s Top Lawyer Wall Street Journal
Syraqistan
Islamic State: ‘Suspected leader’ of IS group killed in Syria, says Turkey’s Erdogan Middle East Eye
B-a-a-a-a-d Banks
Big banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America asked for final bids on First Republic CNBC
Munger: “A lot of agony” in CRE loans The Real Deal
Biden Administration
Biden denies ‘bomb train’ permit to ship liquid gas through populated areas The Guardian
Sen. Ron Johnson says Antony Blinken ‘lied boldface’ to Congress about Hunter Biden New York Post
2024
Biden-von der Leyen 2024? Politico EU. Dream ticket.
Biden might have already lost the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. Here’s why. Business Insider
All eyes on US VP Kamala Harris after Biden 2024 reelection bid Le Monde
By helping Kamala Harris, Biden can help himself to a second term Los Angeles Times
The perfect encapsulation of US politics:
A liberal TV personality on American’s favorite Democratic channel is enraged at the suggestion that the FBI is irremediably corrupted.
That argument came (as only it could) from a GOP candidate, who then had to explain FBI’s history: https://t.co/jCoGIWGpPO
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 1, 2023
Democrats en déshabillé
Feinstein has vowed to return to Washington, but what happens if she doesn’t? Los Angeles Times
AOC ‘not planning’ to challenge Kirsten Gillibrand for Senate seat in 2024 Washington Examiner
Imperial Collapse Watch
Abandoning the US, more scientists go to China Modern Diplomacy
Army projects 2 year delay getting new engine into UH-60 fleet Defense News
Healthcare
Pennsylvania set to ban supervised drug use sites, in setback for harm reduction STAT
Class Warfare
Some Private Companies Charge Hefty Fees to Help Veterans With Disability Claims MedPage Today
US unions: From a tool for workers to a pawn for politicians Al Mayadeen
For Supposed Free Marketeers, Capitalists Sure Do Love Manipulating Labor Markets Jacobin
Sports Desk
Ding Liren is the new World Chess Champion The Week in Chess
Tech
The World Wide Web turns 30 Deutsch Welle
Social Media Scatters Your Brain, and Then You Buy Stuff You Don’t Need Gizmodo
The Bezzle
Facebook’s Ad System Went Nuts and Ripped Off Customers Gizmodo
Bitcoin on Course for Longest Streak of Monthly Gains Since 2021 Bloomberg
SpaceX Rocket Struggled to Self-Destruct as It Spun Out of Control New York Times
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
78 comments
Comments are closed.
Re Kamala article in Le Monde
Really? You’re going there? Go on…
At this point Harris may be the best we can hope for over the next two years.
1) She does not have a death wish and may be able to back away from some of the most reckless policies of the Biden Administration.
2) Hillary Clinton would have a stroke.
Two potentially good outcomes!
Joke, right? Harris is in bed with the people who are imposing the death wish on the rest of us. You think that babbling suck up would produce some less terminal “policy?” Cmon man…
a case of damning by faint praise?
>Epstein’s Private Calendar Reveals Prominent Names, Including CIA Chief, Goldman’s Top Lawyer – Wall Street Journal
Mr. Chomsky told the Journal that at the time of his meetings “what was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to U.S. laws and norms, that yields a clean slate.”
Really? He had served his sentence. Technically that may be true, but I don’t have to go into the details of how his sentencing was less than ordinary than that meted out to anyone caught in a similar situation. Some “norms” Norm.
I think Whitney Webb’s book title says it all: One Nation Under Blackmail – Vol. 1: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein
The Supreme Court under scrutiny as reports of Chief Justice Robert’s wife receiving $10 million for dubious services and Clarence Thomas’s hobnobbing with billionaire, Bernie and AOC on Sunday talk shows propping up Biden’s war regime, trickling news of corruption and malfeasance of medical institutions and vax rollout, University/Education relationships with M/MIC complex, and on and on…all lead to the same sickening feeling that prompts friends/family to ask why I bother following the news. People that I know mainly ignore most of the details and only receive news by a process of osmosis that never really penetrates their consciousness. It’s all noise like the rustling of leaves, just move on with your own life and leave the sordid mess alone to work itself out, at least that seems to be the coping mechanism in play.
Some people are seriously unimpressed with Chomsky hanging around with Epstein and saying that it was none of people’s business if he did so-
https://twitter.com/DoctorFishbones/status/1652721075984187393
Of course this was the same guy that told people to vote for Biden to stop Trump and to save the environmental. How’s that working out?
>Two months later, Epstein planned to fly with Mr. Chomsky and his wife to have dinner with them and movie director Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, the documents show.
What amazing company for Mr. Chomsky.
Yeah, hanging around with a pedophile who had supposedly been “rehabbed” should really carry a stronger scent. I’d associate the scent of manure myself. And as to what people have a right to know, despite what the above professor had to say…ie, none of our beeswax. Well I want answers, I guess, not sure I’m entitled to answers.
Still befuddles me where all the supposed Epstein wealth derived from. Consulting contracts on risk analysis for the Rothschild bank, seriously, who is kidding who exactly.
Whitney Webb looked into Epstein’s $ and showed that some of it came from Ponzi Schemes and fraud and part from running a parallel system to Ollie North’s “Iran Contra” drugs for guns scheme.
She fully documents just how vile and corrupt the system is and I had to put the book down for days at a time because I was so outraged and disgusted.
Same reading experience. Webb’s book is just like Johnstone’s “Queen of Chaos,” impossible to read in a few sittings. A single page can almost too much to process, I never completed a single chapter in one reading.
Chomsky’s been a kind ‘asset’ to the ruling class for quite a long time, in a way.
Let’s be clear, he gave us a great framework on understanding the power of media culture and how it was set up to be what it is. Manufacturing Consent is superb!
But, on the other hand, as good as he is on foreign policy a lot of the time, he still ends up ingesting some bits and pieces of US state-sponsored narratives. After all, he’s got a nice job at MIT!!!
Plus, for multiple decades now, he’s given us the same stale political advice: “vote democrat because republicans are evil and the world will end if they win”. Well, the evidence is in…voting democrat hasn’t helped and repubs haven’t ended the world. It’s almost as if they’re just two branches of the ruling class!?!?!? Chomsky hasn’t updated his mental framework on this front and should be faulted for that.
I don’t know if Chomsky has professed idealism, but he certainly denies materialism as a basis for his beliefs.
And yet he was chasing after money from Epstein because that is what you still have to do when you are in your nineties.
Sorry– what I meant was that he seems inclined to believe in fairy tales rather than accept that he doesn’t know.
IMO it’s the grandchildren thing…
Undoubtedly a precocious bunch of very special product, these progeny…
I think the same of kruggles…who among us doesn’t recognize these special snowflakes as future MoU, just trying to get by on their robotics degree, the biotech aspirant, the oh so precious MBA…why, it’s almost as if the deplorables are trying to steal their future…
The ejaculate of the ivory tower in which every sperm is sacred in the church of the ivy league…
Seriously doubt any of chomsky’s grandkids are crippled with student loan debt…
Chomsky-gate. Y’all beat me to it.
But hey look over there. Rightwing “fascists” lurk (according to Chomsky). When it comes to Manufacturing Consent it takes one to know one?
Of course he is in his nineties so the above a little unfair. We may need a mandatory retirement age for pundits. Kissinger can go first.
A clean slate? “norms” is doing some heavy lifting. Of course, the US has all kinds of extra potential crimes and punishments for felons.
I guess Chomsky missed the line about Caesar’s wife. Now we just have suspicions, but that is enough for the court of public opinion.
Tucker Carlson’s firing and the timing of WSJ publishing seems a little suspect now that I think about it little. Didn’t TC air an exposé of Trump’s Attorney General William Barr connection to Epstein? Was TC getting a little too close to the whole sordid substructure of American business/media/intellectuals/gov’t nexus?
Sordid hmmmmm. Murdochs hmmmmm.
We may need a shorter list of the prominent people who didn’t hang out with Epstein.
It has been noted that Tucker Carlson got the boot just before Biden announced his candidacy for President again. Can you imagine the show that Carlson would have done on that announcement? Lucky coincidence that for Biden then.
I missed that. What was the connection, exactly, between Barr and Epstein?
Didn’t that go viral?
Groan
I don’t know about Epstein and Barr, but according to sources, Barr used the cover name of Robert Johnson during the Mena, Arkansas contra training and money-laundering escapade. See both Whitney Webb and Terry Reed’s books mentioned below. Barr fixed many problems for vice-president Bush and was involved with Iran-contra. I don’t know if Epstein was involved with that.
If anybody hasn’t read Whitney Webb’s book yet please do so. It is far from painless and the book is definitely not perfect but I find it very hard to imagine a reader not finding it a valuable reading experience.
In the Cult of Chomsky the leader drinks his own dog food. : (
I second that endorsement. Whitney Webb’s book is very dense but it has extensive footnotes and will age well on your bookshelf as a refence volume. I read the two volumes and they in turn led me to Compromised by Terry Reed and Barry and the ‘Boys’ by Daniel Hopsicker. Both of those books were much less work to read and expensive but are available at the Internet Archive at Archive.org. They may be available through your library via an Inter-Library Loan, which is how I read the latter book. It is curious that the FBI has a copy of Barry and the ‘Boys’. I wonder if it is shelved in the DIY section.
I’ve seen Daniel Hopsicker interviewed on various podcast and have been meaning to read his book, thanks for reminding me.
If you were the state and you wanted to compromise Chomsky, there could be no better way to do it than send in an Epstein and create an “association”. Epstein would have been so immensely useful that way.
As for his advising people to vote Democrat to block Trump I wonder if, in light of recent developments and new information about what the Democrats are up to re: control of media/social media, he may now be of a different mind, which is allowed. Consider that those recent developments are a new way to manufacture consent, which he’ll take seriously.
He just gave a college speech where he said we are in danger from demagogues of the right.
I mean, this isn’t the 1920s or 30s. At the time many establishment figures thought Mussolini was a cool guy–not as many but Hitler too. The world has changed and yet it’s convenient for some to pretend it hasn’t. Those who do nothing but remember the past are condemning us to repeat it.
Some of us think all this talk about fascism is projection given the current “fashion liberal” attack on free speech.They wear their politics like they display their logos. The true history of the left is not brought to the fore.
That’s a whole other topic, though. He’s apparently very approachable and I wouldn’t mind sharing some of Taibbi and other’s pieces on the new CIC and saying hey Noam, you might want to look at this as it’s the new Manufacturing Consent. As a matter of fact, someone *should* be updating MC to reflect these new developments. I think this is far more important than what he thinks of Trump as Mussolini, and anyway whether he thinks Trump is Mussolini or Hitler doesn’t discredit anything else he has said, I would view each stance on its merits rather than trying to take some given thing less ideal and use it to paint or characterize his entire corpus or dismiss him altogether.
So a media outlet well known for pushing “The Narrative” of the political/military/industrial complex gets access to Epstein’s private calendar and publishes some of it. Independent journalism right there!
Or perhaps, following the One Nation Under Blackmail theme, there is someone needs reining in and so tying them to Epstein will at least fire a warning shot over their shoulder. And sure there will be collateral damage for others mentioned in this Calendar but who cares.
My question would be, who is this “leak” aimed at, really.
And the winner in the circle of the ring is…JPM Chase! That’s right folks, you read it; the big bad banking man known around the world, the Jamie Dimon of NYC, has emerged victorious. JPM gets the Regional Bank belt to add to their trophy case, acquiring First Republic in the overnight hours. Their trophy case also features the conquered bank CEO’s severed heads, which sounds grotesque but serves as a reminder to all underlings of Mr. Dimon.
Queue the bass line…another one bites the dust, and another one gone, another one bites the dust..hey the FDIC is gonna get you too…
Janet Yellen deserves a spot in the Clown-World Hall of Fame for making this moment possible.
Dimon is merely an opportunist infection. Yellen (among others) is the institutional terminal cancer.
cnbc talking heads are reading jamie dimon’s pronouncement that the american banking system is “rock solid” pretty much every quarter hour on the quarter hour.
What’s not being anywhere near as prominently trumpeted, is that an “exception” to the “rule” that no bank is allowed to have more than 10% of total banking system deposits had to be made to maintain this rock solidness.
This, on top of the “exceptions” provided for the SVB rescue where the fdic $250,000 guaranteed deposit “limit” was junked, as well as declaring a non-systemically important bank systemically important, but what do I know.
“Rock solid” would seem to be in the eye of the billionaire banker beholder.
Nah, man, it was at an ‘auction’ which was super-squeaky clean and no doubt, beyond all reproach.
On a separate note, is anyone finding it weird that they did this on a Monday? Maybe it’s because they pre-packaged this thing over the weekend?
Additionally, JPM is technically not allowed to absorb any more deposit-taking banks as they already exceed the 10% threshold of ALL US banking deposits. But what are rules for if not to be bent and broken to benefit the elites?
Some are saying it was “prepackaged” six weeks ago. From Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse:
Kinda reminds a person of the Minsk “agreements.”
>On a separate note, is anyone finding it weird that they did this on a Monday? Maybe it’s because they pre-packaged this thing over the weekend?
I believe that’s typically how it’s handled. At the time of the SVB collapse, it was pointed out how unusual it was for a bank to be seized on a Friday, because the FDIC would much rather handle it over the weekend. It spoke to how panicked our Tech Overlords were.
It’s a bit of an oldie that needs updating, but here goes:
Sheila walks warily into the bank, with the brim pulled way down low
Ain’t no sound but the sound of her feet, pizzas ordered to go
Are you ready? Are you ready for this?
Are you standing on the edge of your seat?
From the front doorway, examiners burst
To the sound of the beat, yeah
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another ones gone, another ones gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, just like they got WaMu, another one bites the dust!
Friends in San Rosario, by O. Henry
The west-bound train stopped at San Rosario on time at 8.20 A.M. A man with a thick black-leather wallet under his arm left the train and walked rapidly up the main street of the town. There were other passengers who also got off at San Rosario, but they either slouched limberly over to the railroad eating-house or the Silver Dollar saloon, or joined the groups of idlers about the station.
Indecision had no part in the movements of the man with the wallet. He was short in stature, but strongly built, with very light, closely- trimmed hair, smooth, determined face, and aggressive, gold-rimmed nose glasses. He was well dressed in the prevailing Eastern style. His air denoted a quiet but conscious reserve force, if not actual authority.
After walking a distance of three squares he came to the centre of the town’s business area. Here another street of importance crossed the main one, forming the hub of San Rosario’s life and commerce. Upon one corner stood the post-office. Upon another Rubensky’s Clothing Emporium. The other two diagonally opposing corners were occupied by the town’s two banks, the First National and the Stockmen’s National. Into the First National Bank of San Rosario the newcomer walked, never slowing his brisk step until he stood at the cashier’s window. The bank opened for business at nine, and the working force was already assembled, each member preparing his department for the day’s business. The cashier was examining the mail when he noticed the stranger standing at his window.
“Bank doesn’t open ’til nine,” he remarked curtly, but without feeling. He had had to make that statement so often to early birds since San Rosario adopted city banking hours.
“I am well aware of that,” said the other man, in cool, brittle tones. “Will you kindly receive my card?”
The cashier drew the small, spotless parallelogram inside the bars of his wicket, and read:
J.F.C Nettlewick National Bank Examiner
https://americanliterature.com/author/o-henry/short-story/friends-in-san-rosario
Thanks for that. I doubt that the modern bank examiner is as thorough as the fictional Nettlewick.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12032831/JPMorgan-buys-Republic-Bank.html
“JPMorgan takes control of First Republic’s $92 BILLION deposits but not company’s $100B corporate debt or preferred stock after buying bank”
1. Those banks who injected $30 billion into FRC will get it back. No surprise there.
2. The FDIC generously entered into a loss-sharing agreement with JPM on its acquired assets.
3. Said Jamie Dimon: “Our government invited us to step up and we did.” “Our”, “invited”, “step up”: At least four weasel words in a ten-word sentence. Impressive.
By the way the FDIC estimates its cost for the deal at $13 billion. Really? No, not really. The cost to the FDIC for SVB was $20 billion and it was a *smaller* bank.
Just had a not-so-conspiratorial thought. Since JPM now has control of that $30 billion is it possible, just maybe possible, that the ten other contributing banks agreed not to compete with JPM in the auction in exchange for getting their money back?
Nah, that couldn’t be. America is a free-enterprise country and a nation of laws. That kind of collusion would be severely punished. /sarc
New FDIC banner in my local bank:”FDIC guarantees your account to at least $250,000.”
Gutsy!
On the Mississippi River Floods, you know, the government still provides us with some of the best data platforms for this stuff. I present to you Riverwatch: Mississippi River Basin Forecasts
https://www.weather.gov/lmrfc/obsfcst_mississippi_riverwatch
I am getting ready to drive across the Mississippi so hoping this does not stall my trip.
But on the Guardian & Grist articles: We NEED to support independent, largely volunteer resources, like FrackTracker as they’re ignored by media, taken for granted by affluent, sheltered, urban “environmental activists” & dumped by academia; as fractivists, like Fetterman & The Squad NOW magically back wars with Russia to save fracking scores-of-thousands of leaky, quick to fail, impossible to plug methane & deadly ethane wells to save democracy, while unleashing the run-away AGW Kraken? Fracking brine pollution hit Marcellus farms in 2006. TXSharon, ProPublica & Pittsburgh Post Gazette did excellent journalism; Pitt, Cornell & Penn State did great research, UNTIL Ed Rendell of MSNBC & Hills’ Energy In Depth pals shut down all dissent, effective protest & bought up media & Koch installed libertarian sock-puppets in their place, after Obama’s 2009 G20 promotion of fracking, bitumen, bio-mass, clean coal, 60yr old reactors demonstrated, it wasn’t JUST Hillary, Joe, Kerry & Albright gavaging fracking fluid into Pennsylvania aquifers, streams, crops, livestock (& ~870K W/PA voters) it was “our” party’s schtick to sell what ENRON tagged “bridge fuels” on WTO (with Ukraine as a prime example). Biden hasn’t killed railbit, LNG bomb trains or that pipeline to Trenton. It’s a dwindling number of former Democrats, red-lined into sacrifice zones; farmers and land owners who just happen to be stuck between OUR leaders & their oilgarch puppeteers. Biden’s administration is ALL about picking war with whomever it takes, to rebuild their collapsed pyramid?
https://www.fractracker.org/2022/01/introducing-fractrackers-comprehensive-new-pennsylvania-map/
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/gibbstown-lng-terminal-catastrophe-waiting-happen
“Facebook’s Ad System Went Nuts and Ripped Off Customers”
‘Facebook’s advertising system went haywire starting around 2 am on Sunday morning, overcharging customers and wasting money on ads that didn’t work.’
I ask you. How could they possibly have known the difference?
If you think search engine results have gotten worse and worse, you’re right. This 6 minute utube of Tucker and the ironic outcome that the digital world, which was supposed to make information more available has done the reverse.
Tucker Carlson: Why You Shouldn’t Throw Away Your Hard Copy Books
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_5CwiF-o8U
They seek withdrawals here, they seek withdrawals there
His advances aren’t loud, but nevertheless a dare
It will make or break the bank so he’s got to put them to the test
‘Cause he’s a dedicated follower in a fashion
And when she does her little banking rounds
‘Round the iPhone of online town
Eagerly pursuing all the latest fads and trends
‘Cause she’s a dedicated follower in a fashion
Oh, yes, he is (oh, yes he is)
Oh, yes, he is (oh, yes he is)
He thinks that bank needs to be looked at
And when he pulls his filthy lucre right up tight
He feels a dedicated follower in a fashion
Oh, yes, she is (oh, yes she is)
Oh, yes, she is (oh, yes she is)
There’s one thing that she loves and that is custody
One week she’s in crypto, the next week she is in cash
‘Cause she’s a dedicated follower in a fashion
They seek withdrawals here, they seek withdrawals there
In the Silicon Valley Bank, Signature & First Republic lair
Everywhere the panicked army marches on
Each one a dedicated follower in a fashion
Oh, yes, he is (oh, yes he is)
Oh, yes, he is (oh, yes he is)
His world is built ’round interest rates and political parties
This profit-seeking individual always tries his best
‘Cause he’s a dedicated follower in a fashion
Oh, yes, she is (oh, yes she is)
Oh, yes, she is (oh, yes she is)
She flits from bank to bank, just like a butterfly
In matters of manna she is as fickle as can be
‘Cause she’s a dedicated follower in a fashion
He’s a dedicated follower in a fashion
She’s a dedicated follower in a fashion
Dedicated Follower of Fashion, by the Kinks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqDx9iXujOA
According to recent revelations from Jeffrey Epstein’s calendar, Epstein met with Noam Chomsky on multiple occasions in 2014 – 2015, as well as with Bill Burns, Biden’s CIA Director.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/cia-director-noam-chomsky-epstein-calendar-1234726393
a remarkable Rolling Stone article (I didn’t read the Journal piece due to paywall)
“First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.” [Chomsky wrote]
“what was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to U.S. laws and norms, that yields a clean slate.”
really?
One of Chomsky’s meetings with Epstein involved former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Chomsky said they discussed “Israel’s policies with regard to Palestinian issues and the international arena.”
that’s more than enough Noam. No more Chomsky for me, never again
“Feinstein has vowed to return to Washington, but what happens if she doesn’t?”
But I beg to differ. Of course she could return to Washington. All they would have to do is to go with Operation W.A.B.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt2g7kyY4QU (4:35 mins)
Radical idea here. Put in an age limit of say 75 year of age for the Senate. Those that are over that age in the present Senate will be allowed to retain their Seats. In only a few years this problem will go away all by itself. Of course you could do the same for the President, Vice-President and the Justices of the Supreme Court. Yes, I know that this will be the end of the Gerontocracy but we all have to make sacrifices.
For baffling reasons, the Treasury footed the bill so DC rats could genuflect before the corpse of John McCain like he was Lenin. It’s probably DiFi’s last lucid thought. That could be her.
It’s not age as much as it’s mental health in particular. Justice Brennan served well into his 80s with vigor and a keen mind, Justice Douglas not so much. People say ‘oh so-and-so’ is too old because they’re afraid to tackle the real issue, imo, which is a decline in mental competence in some people as they age. No one wants to be accused to fomented a Soviet style trial for mental health. One hopes people who are fading out will have good advice and support and the willingness to put down the rigors of office they can’t deal with anymore. But if they do not or will not, then the question of “what now” is left unasked.
Wilson served while completely incapacitated.
Adding, Wilson was only in his mid-60’s.
Visa vi Wagner warning it is low on ammunition
I think said something a long time ago here about it is very difficult to tell who is winning an attritional war. WW1 being the classic case where it really looked like the Germans were winning in early 1918.
In WW1 both sides had serious shell shortages ~1915, and nobody surrendered. Weird, or at least unexpected, decisions can have an unanticipated impact.
Tungsten hit an all time high price in WW1, and now China controls nearly the entire market in the metal, an important part of making munitions.
Could there be another reason shells are few and far between, its the wolfram, jack!
So commodities-based countries have an edge on financials-based countries. Who knew? Russia too could throw a spanner in the aerospace industry alone by banning the export of titanium. Boeing and Airbus would love that.
Yes, they would. They could lay off their entire workforce for supply chain problems, and continue demanding the government continue paying them becaise too big to fail/jail.
More telling is that Xi did the conversation with a Russian translator. Got it? China supposedly couldn’t find a single Chinese linguist who spoke Ukrainian.
Ummmm. Zelensky only speaks Russian. If the Chinese found a Ukrainian translator, Zelensky would need one too. Twitter is useless.
Guess again:
“Mr. Zelensky generally speaks Ukrainian in public — his country’s official language — but he is a native Russian speaker, and he has repeatedly switched into Russian in the video addresses that he posts to social media, seeking to encourage Mr. Putin’s critics inside Russia. But Sunday’s interview marked the first time since the war began that Mr. Zelensky had spoken at length with Russian journalists, in their language.”
NYT
“Yacht’s Private Security Sparks Firefight After Mistaking Yemen’s Coast Guard for Pirates”
Why is a private yacht sailing into the coastal waters of what is still a war zone? A Guardian article says-
“The yacht penetrated territorial waters and sailed in them without raising the flag of the yacht’s country, as well as refused to respond and stop in clear violation of international maritime law,” the Yemeni Coast Guard said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/28/guards-on-famous-yacht-mistakenly-shoot-at-yemeni-coast-guard
When caught, they shot up a coast guard vessel and did a runner. They didn’t even answer their radio before they were intercepted. Something really seems kinda off about this whole story. Were they running contraband? Picking up somebody from Yemen that needed to leave?
Looking for a pipeline to blow up?
Brings to mind an old two part episode of ‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent
1) A tourist yacht cruising the coast of Somalia opens fire on an unarmed boat, killing a sheikh and his wife. The incident sets in play an international grab for power, an illegal arms deal and a hunt for terrorists. Captain Ross finds himself at the tragic center of the conflict, galvanizing the assistance of Major Case detectives Goren, Eames and Nichols.
2) With an illegal arms deal and a hunt for Somali terrorists hanging in the balance, Detectives Goren, Eames, Nichols and newcomer Stevens combine resources. The heart of their investigation aims to bring to justice the murderer of Captain Ross. This is part 2 of the season premiere.
Memorable for the appearance of Jeff Goldblum (who’s always a hoot) and the assassination of Captain Daniel Ross – oops, spoiler. Season 9 Ep. 1 and 2 airdate 2010 if interested.
Turley says “walls closing” in on Hunter.
Will they also close in on our extremely dubious Attorney General? Perhaps, given recent attacks on Supreme Court ethics, Garlands’s merely showing why he should have gotten the nod–would have fit right in.
https://jonathanturley.org/2023/05/01/hunters-collapsing-world-why-a-criminal-plea-could-now-be-the-best-option-for-the-bidens/
Happy Albert Parsons day! (aka May Day)
May such as he come again!
The link Abandoning the US, more scientists go to China Modern Diplomacy is a sort of follow up to NC post Russia and China Are Sending Biden a Message: Don’t Judge Us or Try to Change us. Those Days Are Over which mentions Charles Lieber’s case from March 21, 2021.
Explainer: who is Charles Lieber and why does his case matter for US research?
One, all this time he was forbidden to work or teach; talk about an own goal on crippling USA technology lead. There is something seriously wrong with the thinking in the Halls of (Fading) Power.
Two, That’s expedited sentencing, for a power figure in nano-chemistry. Now imagine some poor shmuck without that kind of pull held for sentencing.
“Zelensky: Hungary acts as a pro-Russia, anti-NATO state”
This could all be solved between Zelensky and Hungary with one simple call. Zelensky could ring Orban up and say in his gravel-like voice-
‘So Mr. Orban. You have ten billion dollars that you can give me? I would like to buy nice places in Budapest. Lovely city. May move there when war over.’
(with apologies to Alex Christoforou)
Nice Tuatara!
https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/reptiles-and-frogs/tuatara/
My Kevin (since ’07) and another Congressman introduced this bill in 2022 and it went nowhere, so DiFi took up the cause in the Senate and it was never heard from again, that is until Kev figured if it took 15 tries to get elected Speaker, 3rd time’s the charm?
https://www.speaker.gov/speaker-mccarthy-bipartisan-members-introduce-the-save-our-sequoias-act/
Michael Tracey vs. Robert Barnes
This past weekend Michael Tracey was posting on Twitter that RFK Jr. supported the Russiagate narrative (can we call it hoax now, or may political pysops?) as well as highlighting his previous support for HRC and DNC. He also suggested that RFK Jr.’s voice was an impediment to people listening and thereby accepting his views. Barnes took issue and it was an interesting exchange. I’m glad this is happening now. The opposition research will be very busy digging up dirt and it’s better that it comes out now. Personally, I think Barnes put MT’s Tweets in proper perspective on a recent “Viva and Barnes” Rumble podcast.
The “Left” has no one left. I just hope RFK Jr. stops with the “my good friend Biden” and considers running as a 3’d party after DNC derails his bid.
I read some internet chatter today that given the recent public appearance of Michelle Obama with Bruce Springsteen – it is a signal she is the chosen one. She would win easily and St. O would get his 3rd (4th) term. Part of their thinking was the Susan Rice resignation in order to help her. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit. The PMC class would love it, as well as all the big money people pulling the money strings.
I know she has said she is not interested, but Biden is living proof the president is only the puppet at the end of the money strings.
Plausible.
The no one the left has left includes RFK Jr.
I’ve been following Tracey’s attack on RFK Jr. Wow. He’s really going to town. Sounds like I need to read Barnes’ response. Tracey’s charges are powerful (unlike the usual liberal BS), but as you suggest it is easy to take comments out of context in a Twitter attack. Tracey has also been scathing about what he sees as the revival of the liberal “Camelot Myth” among the “Kennedy cult” (even though RFK Jr. is anything but a darling of liberals these days). I do agree that Kennedy’s hagiographic allusions to his uncle and father are off-putting. People are more realistic (and cynical) today. Stick with the truth. Yet Tracey, whose work I follow and usually respect, seems to draw his views of JFK from Seymour Hersh’s 1990s book. As someone who has read and often defended Hersh for decades, let me say that his book on Kennedy is a total smear job, fed by one of the most notorious CIA disinformation specialists around, that demonstrably distorts the actions and foreign policy preferences of the Kennedy brothers. As I have said before, Hersh is only as good as his sources, and in this case they had a definite agenda (at least the ones that didn’t just make shit up for money). That Tracey buys Hersh’s hatchet job demonstrates considerable ignorance rather than an apparent attempt to be nonpartisan, “realist” or “objective.” Fortunately, by now I have learned that *none* of my academic or journalistic heroes are without flaws or striking blind spots.
All that said, I do want to get a better read on RFK Jr. Caveat Emptor
My Google news feed came up with another one of those ‘I was shooting a day in the life video and got laidoff by Amazon’, tiktoc vids. What is interesting about this one, from the woman who was laid off:
“I got promoted twice last year, I had an amazing review just a month ago,” she said.
Then…..
“Part of me is glad to be out of this extremely toxic environment”
That about sums it up. No one really enjoys working for this large corps. even when you “succeed” within them. And all these C-Suite beasts collecting millions a year in pay and options can’t understand quiet quitting.
>May Day for Macron in pension protests-The Times
Twitter has be ablaze today with video clips of protest on the streets of many cities through-out France. Same clips as before, storm trooper-outfitted police with shields and batons cracking heads of citizens who have taken to the streets by the hundreds of thousands, peacefully (for the most part) protesting a vile Regime headed by the most unpopular President in France’s history. But no one really cares in the U.S., Europe and Australia, if it is not being covered by Regime Media it doesn’t matter much…
So much for all the effort in trying to divide the Middle East:
‘The growing rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran after years of mistrust was visible on Monday as Saudi Arabia helped evacuate Iranian citizens fleeing the war in Sudan.’
https://www.reuters.com/world/saudi-iran-rapprochement-visible-sudan-evacuation-effort-2023-05-01/