Links 6/13/2023

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1. Terry Flynn June 13, 2023 at 7:25 am

   Nottingham used to hold the unattractive moniker “Shottingham” (yes, ironic for somewhere that prides ourselves on no guns) but that was largely during the 1990s when the most unfortunately named family (the “Gunn” family) effectively ran everything in North Nottingham. When finally brought to justice, the trials had to be held in another part of the country because jurors and juciciary safety could not be guaranteed. Coincidentally a lot of police retired then too.

   An internet wag said we’ve been promoted! To merely “Stabbingham”. Alas we’re all over the news for the wrong reasons again. Twitter-swamp is of course blaming immigration but as my late (policeman) grandfather said “we got all that nonsense out of our system years ago”. The East Midlands was one of the “test beds” for “Imperial immigration”. We had our riots long before they became “popular”.

   Alas, though it’s perilous to speculate heavily, eyewitnesses (see Channel 4 coverage) have got law enforcement casting their beady eyes over a new turf war between gangs (who happen not to be white – hence the twitter meltdown). The deindustrialisation under the Tories has certainly been in overdrive so as an anecdote I’ll merely note that these days I rarely see police vehicles singly. There are always 4 or 5 with unmarked ones behind (probably containing armed officers). Thankfully tasers only used today so we might get answers.

   I was en route to surgery for routine blood test – was rung and told not to bother – entire central “IT spine” of the NHS had crashed. I hesitate to say “just”…. But over the kind of incident that happens practically hourly in certain countries like us? Sheesh…. Just when you think your banana republic couldn’t get any “banana-y”
   1. Tom Stone June 13, 2023 at 10:34 am

      Don’t get comfortable with the idea that the UK has rid itself of guns, if a bunch of teenagers in Myanmar can set up a production line for 9MM submachine guns using 3D printers so can criminal gangs.
      Impro.Guns tracks the proliferation of craft made firearms and they have covered this recently.
      The FGC9Mk2 is a game changer, it’s a whole heck of a lot easier to get ahold of Ammo through theft or bribery than it is to acquire a firearm through traditional means.
      1. Terry Flynn June 13, 2023 at 2:02 pm

         Don’t get comfortable with the idea that the UK has rid itself of guns

         Apologies. I forget that my (lame and obvious) joking references to things concerning my home city require a textual alert. IF you have a reference that Nottm gangs are using 3D printers to produce guns we’d be very interested. Particularly since the alleged murderer used a knife and then a vehicle.

         There are as yet uncorroborated reports that he was known to the authorities as being violent and possibly mentally ill who (putting it bluntly) “got into the UK under the Tories’ watch thanks to their funding cuts” but GB News and the like conveniently omit that bit. If he was known but there weren’t resources to help/secure him then that is entirely the fault of those “FREEDOM loving rightwingers” who’ve been in power for decades here cutting services left right and centre.

         Plus psychiatrist colleagues in the UK would be interested in anyone who feels comfortable posting two paragraphs about making guns in response to a post that had virtually NOTHING to do with guns except a lame joke. Kinda raises red flags ya know……maybe reach out to someone? I’d hate to think what this guy would have done with a gun rather than just a knife and a van.
   2. Wæsfjord June 13, 2023 at 10:40 am

      Angel Merkel famously admitted that multicultralism didn’t work in Germany. Some cultures cannot be reconciled. An example of the gulf between black and white cultures can be gleaned from the following article (written by a black African man), about the culture of gang rape amongst black teenagers (black girls also take part in setting up other girls as victims). Don’t read it if you are easily distressed:

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/gang-rape-is-it-a-race-issue-1711381.html

      If we refuse to be honest about our societal problems, how can we solve them?
      1. Terry Flynn June 13, 2023 at 1:03 pm

         And I can reference the Bradford gang rape stuff. I can go into far murkier waters with anecdotes such as the (native) Swedish Professor from Gothenburg who, after 20 years, still was an “outsider” in Uppsala and was trying to console me after my attempts to learn Swedish and assimilate came to naught.

         It’s very easy to point to the easy cases based on skin colour to look good on an internet site. Personally, I pay more attention to the ones that go below the radar because the establishment of the country in question refuses to be honest about their own intrinsic problems with their “own” people.
         1. tevhatch June 13, 2023 at 3:11 pm

            Vermont… there is a good reason that kind of New England figured so much in H. P. Lovecraft. In 1970s Mobile, Alabama, which lived just like Savanah reads in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,… well in Mobile there was an expression that a real native was conceived under an Azalea Bush in Bienville Square on Joe Cain Day. That was apparently a little white lie story; the truth would be closer to being fathered by a person who committed rape and murder under an Azalea Bush in Bienville Square on Joe Cain Day, without straining their social standing.

            Harper Lee also catches a bit of this special privilege (private law) in her book Go Set A Watchman. The review in the link, particularly the 2nd half, does a good job of explaining the class dynamics where it’s not just about who has how much money now, but the history of capital in the relationships. Outsiders muddy the water, being ignorant of these histories and so much be excluded or shunned.
   3. some guy June 14, 2023 at 12:47 am

      One wonders whether it is time to begin thinking: ” Sheesh . . . Just when you think your collapsing Soviet Republic couldn’t get any more ” collapsing soviet-y”
2. upstater June 13, 2023 at 7:28 am

   Re. Why the U.S. Electric Grid Isn’t Ready for the Energy Transition

   This is an end run to override state regulators and local authorities for siting new lines and to exempt them from NEPA Environmental Impact Study requirements. Transmission lines running through a state can greatly affect power flows and stability, requiring significant mitigation investment, but the consumers do not benefit. Hence states are naturally conservative when permitting new transmission lines. New lines also go into the rate base, increasing local rates. Transmission lines cause habitat fragmentation and certainly impact wildlife, most notably raptors.

   Related is the gutting of NEPA requirements in the Biden-McCarthy debt limit deal. Comments from my brother, a wildlife and environmental professional for 50 years:

   The debt ceiling bill might have “saved” us from economic meltdown but several environmental sacrifices occurred that the public probably does understand or care about:

   1. complex project EISs must be done in two years. Some of these have in the past taken 4-5 years. Ambler mining road is an example. It would open up a 250-Mile section of the central Brooks Range with known significant impacts to caribou and fish.

   2. Less complex EISs must be done in one year. A refuge or park 25-year plan is an example. It took us three years to do one National Wildlife Refuge plan in 2007. A year would be a sloppy job.

   3. A developer can do their own EIS. Formerly they were mostly done by consulting firms contracted by the regulating Govt agency. USFWS was a cooperating agency in the Ambler Rd EIS. This will now all be short-cut, make the review and mitigation much less robust.

   4. Developers can sue if there are EIS delays.

   5. That EIS for the West Virginia fracked gas pipeline was approved and NEPA EIS exempted. This also happened with the Trans Alaska pipeline. Fortunately there were four years of EIS analyses that delayed fast permitting and construction. That forced better engineering, resulting in a project much more resilient to earthquakes, floods, and permafrost thaw. Had the oilies got to build it right away, it would have been an environmental mess.

   More crapification and regulatory capture.
   1. juno mas June 13, 2023 at 1:57 pm

      Yes, environmental review takes time and expertise. Especially if the project impinges on pristine natural resource.

      An EIS needs to be thorough. It is the court challenges to poorly done product that slows the process. And whom is to say what is a frivolous challenge? Either you protect the the public and the resource, or you don’t.
      1. chuck roast June 13, 2023 at 6:31 pm

         In my extensive experience as a reviewer and approval agent of Environmental Impact Statements, Environmental Assessments (EA) and Categorical Exclusions it was my opinion and after study, the opinion of my agency, that project changes by the proposing agency or project sponsor were the cause of the great majority of project delays…not the cause of the reviewing federal agency or department.

         With that said, let me relate to you the story told to me by very well respected environmental lawyer in the DC community. In fact he once worked for the Council for Environmental Quality. These guys were all bright, capable and committed, and when they spoke, you listened because they knew NEPA. He has passed away now so I can tell his story.

         It came to pass sometime around the turn of the century that there was a severe outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Canada. As I recall him telling it, BSE was effecting horses as well as cattle. The public was only partially tuned into this at the time, and it was apparently the policy of the policy makers, both American and Canadian to keep this information on the down-low while the appropriate corporate, regulatory and importation officials got a handle on it…not a good idea to ingest meat from an infected animal, because then you kinda get BSE.

         He was then an environmental supervisor (GS-15) in the agency with the responsibility to NEPA review on this issue. He was told on a Friday to produce and EA by Monday morning. The EA (typically done when there is the presumption of a ‘no severe environmental impact’) was to encompass the entire issue of the importation of Canadian cows and horses. The EA was to conclude: that…neither BSE nor any other disease affected the livestock imported from Canada. He produced it.

         Weird. A confessional moment from my supervisor. He was a stand-up guy. A marine officer when it really meant something. I had the feeling that doing this broke his heart.
3. mrsyk June 13, 2023 at 7:47 am

   “Silvio Berlusconi’s death draws tributes, even from critics, in Italy and beyond” “Critics” is doing some work there. Care for a piece of candy?
   1. hemeantwell June 13, 2023 at 9:06 am

      Good, brief take on Berlusconi by David Broder at Jacobin
   2. hemeantwell June 13, 2023 at 12:33 pm

      And here’s a good article by Thomas Fazi — recently boosted here — at Unherd,
4. griffen June 13, 2023 at 7:53 am

   Article above, can a chatbot preach a good sermon. Following up on this thought, soon to arrive at a funeral home or a cremation service there will be a chatGPT option where the loved ones of the recently departed can choose or craft their very own service using AI. Good grief.

   What they can’t do is channel the human connection, which is much of the point of such services in my view. Especially when it’s the weekly or routine in-person church attendance, which was in decline prior to the Covid pandemic and anecdotally the decline seems to continue. I should check with my high school friend turned Lutheran pastor, if he’s comfortable with an AI infiltration. I mean this friend after competing an undergraduate, earned a master’s at Emory and later completed his doctorate. But sure, move forward with a Skynet delivery system for the Lutherans, the Episcopalians, and so on. Maybe this is a highly cynical take. I bet the Reid Hoffman’s of the business sphere approve.
   1. The Rev Kev June 13, 2023 at 8:01 am

      Just wait until they use ChatGPT in the confession booths-

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0YkPnwoYyE (2:49 mins)

      Coming to a church near you.
      1. digi_owl June 13, 2023 at 8:41 am

         Eliza seemed to be enough to get people to spill back in the day…
      2. John Anthony La Pietra June 16, 2023 at 6:58 am

         And don’t forget Moriarty’s confessor in “The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother”!
   2. Henry Moon Pie June 13, 2023 at 8:46 am

      Sounds like it was a “salad sermon” with lots of “let us:”

      At times, the AI-generated avatar inadvertently drew laughter as when it used platitudes and told the churchgoers with a deadpan expression that in order “to keep our faith, we must pray and go to church regularly.”

      So it was at a Lutheran church. Did the sermon properly distinguish Law and Gospel as required by the Book of Concord and explained by C. F. W. Walther?

      Walther is revered in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod not only as a scholar of Lutheran systematic theology but also as the savior of the denomination. The LCMS began as a band of pilgrims who left what they regarded as a theologically degenerate Germany to come to Missouri in the 1840s. They were led by Bishop Martin Stephan who had been ordained as a Lutheran pastor in Germany but had major differences with the church authorities there. They bought land south of St. Louis and were busy building their bishop a grand residence while they lived in tents. One Sunday, a young preacher without the aid of AI preached a real stemwinder of a sermon that apparently inspired several young, unmarried women in the congregation to visit him later that day to confess to affairs with Bishop Stephan. That led the community to meet, expel Martin Stephan and two of the young women who chose to stay with him

      That left the fledgling congregation without a bishop and a tie to the church of Peter according to Lutheran theology at the time. They were ready to return to Germany, but C. F. W. Walther, another young pastor in the group, delivered an argument for a congregational rather than episcopal form of church governance, the group bought it, and stayed in America.

      Walther’s book linked above, is the first English edition of what was a series of lectures delivered in German in the mid-19th century. Why so long to publish an English edition of such an important book? The Missouri Synod conventions were conducted in German because, according to Walther and other LCMS leaders, that was the only language in which theological discussions could be reliably conducted. That was until WW I and the Wilson administration’s war against German. The famous First Amendment case, Meyer vs. Nebraska, involves a Missouri Synod parochial schoolteacher prosecuted for teaching in German.
      1. digi_owl June 13, 2023 at 9:51 am

         Gets me thinking of a map a while back that show how many Americans that considered themselves to be of German ancestry…
      2. Mark Gisleson June 13, 2023 at 11:31 am

         Extremely lapsed ALC synod here. Did the Missouri synod morph into WELS or is that something else entirely? Seems as if the Lutheran church of the 1960s has been completely realigned and has all new names.
         1. Doug June 13, 2023 at 12:21 pm

            A different group, even more conservative. Since World War 2 there have been a series of consolidating mergers, breaking down the old national and ethnic divisions (mostly Scandinavian and German). Now there are essentially two Lutheran denominations, the larger and more moderate ELCA and the smaller LCMS. WELS is a distant third. Plus,there are some very small breakaway groups upset with the ELCA for accepting gay marriage and clergy.

            Lutheran churches (like other mainline Protestants) have been declining since around 1970. What’s interesting is that the conservative LCMS has been shrinking just as fast as the moderate-to-liberal ELCA. The decline isn’t (just) about ideology (speaking as a 40 yr about-to-retire ELCA clergy person.)
            1. Mark Gisleson June 13, 2023 at 1:12 pm

               Thinking my old church must be ELCA.

               Wish you hadn’t said you were clergy, now I want to call you Pastor Doug!
         2. Henry Moon Pie June 14, 2023 at 5:48 am

            It’s rarely appreciated just how diverse Lutherans are. There aren’t just Germans. There are Swedes and Norwegians and Finns. Even some Slovaks. There are Lutheran churches in the Baltics. Very diverse. ;)

            Most of the ethnic denominations ended up in the ELCA. Missouri and Wisconsin, along with the little Norwegian, are ideological denominations. They rejected the accepting of critical approaches to the Bible, and for a time, were “in fellowship” with each other, but eventually, their drive for purity broke up that little alliance, and they’re on their own.
         3. Doug June 14, 2023 at 12:41 pm

            There are even Lutherans in central Russia, descendants of Germans brought in by Catherine the Great (who was herself Lutheran before she converted to Orthodox).
5. Lexx June 13, 2023 at 8:10 am

   ‘Second Bonus’

   The hippo’s trust in the human is clear. Likewise, the caretaker casually dropping to his knees and placing the entirety of his crotch within inches of those heavily hinged jaws. No day at a zoo is ‘just another day at the office’.
   1. griffen June 13, 2023 at 8:43 am

      You have to respect what that large animal could do with those teeth.
      1. digi_owl June 13, 2023 at 10:40 am

         That is why it is dangerous, as people don’t.

         Also the act of opening the mouth, used as a threat by them, can be confused with a yawn by us humans.
         1. chuck roast June 13, 2023 at 6:45 pm

            I wonder if he gets hazardous duty pay.
6. The Rev Kev June 13, 2023 at 8:15 am

   “UK hobbyist stuns math world with ‘amazing’ new shapes”

   An intriguing story this with the development of something new in science. And by an amateur at that. But then the lead scientist said ‘The answer fell out of the sky and into the hands of an amateur—and I mean that in the best possible way, a lover of the subject who explores it outside of professional practice’ which totally ignores the discovery’s innate talent and a lifetime of training. This is like the section from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” where the Deep Think computer was telling two philosopher’s how to personally profit from talking about Life, the Universe and Everything (the answer is 42 folks!) so one philosopher turned to the other and said ‘Bloody ‘ell! That’s what I call thinking! Here Vroomfondel, why do we never think of things like that?’ And the reply?

   ‘Dunno. Think our minds must be too highly trained Majikthise.’ Yeah, same with those scientists.

   https://www.clivebanks.co.uk/THHGTTG/THHGTTGradio4.htm
   1. hunkerdown June 13, 2023 at 8:42 am

      If you don’t want to be told what, when, and how to feel, don’t respect the religious ceremonies of the landed or their cosmological dramas such as “news”.
   2. Mildred Montana June 13, 2023 at 2:59 pm

      >‘The answer fell out of the sky…’

      Ah, serendipity, which happens in science far more often than most scientists are willing to admit. But less often than fans would prefer.

      Amateurs can and do make breakthroughs. This is an instance. However, the progress of discovery is still usually based on an accretion of knowledge gained over decades or centuries. Newton’s “shoulders of giants” cliche. We cannot and should not expect a callow high-school physics student to land on a Grand Unified Theory of the universe.
7. griffen June 13, 2023 at 8:19 am

   Robinhood’s crypto trading volume declined in May. Well that’s a damn shame, ain’t it. I recall in 2021 when this much hyped trading platform finally went public via an IPO. Hindsight isn’t always the best when it comes to investing, but at a minimum I am personally glad I avoided crypto currencies in any form and also avoided the mad rush to hop onto the Robinhood trading platform. Madness of crowds and all that.
   1. Mikel June 13, 2023 at 10:06 am

      Crypto AND stock trading volumes are down year over year.
      Options are still driving the action.
      More betting on price movement causing ups and downs than betting on the actual value of a company.
      1. hunkerdown June 13, 2023 at 10:27 am

         The capitalist value is appropriation. The value of a “company”, insofar as imaginary friends are things that exist, is what it can appropriate. Any myths to the contrary are disinformation.
8. DJG, Reality Czar June 13, 2023 at 8:22 am

   Patrick Lawrence, The Rape of Justice.

   Lawrence is hammering away at some things that Glenn Greenwald has also covered in his System Update shows of the last few days: Selective charges using an unconstitutional law.

   The ironies here. Trump, the peace candidate (!), now joins Emma Goldman(!). Who’da thunkit?

   These paragraphs may have to become our (yeah, I’m getting a tad too collective here) rubric for judging this case:

   Now we have a Miami grand jury handing up indictments on 37 charges related to the documents case. Of these, we must note, 31 counts come under the Espionage Act of 1917.

   Trump now keeps company with, among others, Eugene Debs, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden — others charged under the Espionage Act since the Wilson administration passed this unambiguously unconstitutional law to silence those critical of America’s entry into World War I a century and some ago.

   So here we are in scoundrel time…
   1. Ignacio June 13, 2023 at 10:39 am

      The establishment is breaking with any resemblance of political dignity. Example: Maddow saying that Trump could avoid avoid prosecution only if he quits from the Presidential race. They are at war not just with Russia but with the rest of the world and they use all weapons available. Examples of this are several in today’s links. For instance some countries needing US Government green-light to do business with other countries, which in turns sheds light on what about were those Trade Agreements the US was seeking to impose and Trump killed. This is beyond insane. It is crazy.
      1. Mildred Montana June 13, 2023 at 1:14 pm

         >”…Maddow saying that Trump could avoid prosecution only if he quits from the Presidential race.”

         A legal question here: In my very limited understanding of the US justice system I always thought that once charges were laid the defendant’s only choice was to plead guilty to the lesser in order to escape prosecution for the greater. The prosecutor obviously thinks he has a good case (otherwise he would not have filed charges) so on with the negotiating.

         Regarding Trump per Maddow, can the prosecutor/attorney-general/DOJ arbitrarily drop all charges in exchange for his not running for President? Seems improbable to me and I would love to hear them explain away that one.

         Two further points if the trial proceeds:
         1. Judge appears to be so tainted by her connections to Trump that she should recuse herself. Otherwise…?
         2. Jury trial. All it takes to blow everything up is one stubborn holdout.
         1. semper loquitur June 13, 2023 at 1:24 pm

            “1. Judge appears to be so tainted by her connections to Trump that she should recuse herself. Otherwise…?”

            This has to have been said before but it occurs to me that Trump packing in all those judges may have been a kind of insurance against exactly this situation….
         2. The Infamous Oregon Lawhobbit June 14, 2023 at 3:44 pm

            Plenty of ways short of plea or trial to make charges go away, even after filed. Prosecutor can always move for dismissal, after all.
   2. Tom Stone June 13, 2023 at 10:40 am

      Dude, it’s the ” Law of the Bungle” and Jack Smith is far and away the best standup comedian the Biden administration has produced.
      1. griffen June 13, 2023 at 12:14 pm

         I smell a GNR updated tune…”You’re in the Bungle, baby, you’re gonna die…In the Bungle, Welcome to the Bungle…It’s gonna bring you down, Huh”…
   3. Katniss Everdeen June 13, 2023 at 10:42 am

      Is there anyone who really thinks that Donald Trump or his assistant, Walt Nauta, actually committed “espionage?”

      Greenwald’s commentary was particularly apt in the Systems Update clip linked in Water Cooler yesterday (beginning at around 5:30.)

      He reads from a March 3, 2015 LA Times article describing david petraeus’ “crime and punishment.” As Greenwald notes, petraeus actually did hand over to his “biographer” the type of material “they are always warning about”– notebooks containing, among other things, names of covert agents that he kept “in a rucksack” somewhere–the dreaded SOURCES AND METHODS in an “unsecured location.”

      For this petraeus was allowed to plead to a single “misdemeanor.” The “justice” department sought no jail time, and petraeus went on to cement the lucrative partnership between KKR, the MIC and the taxpayer’s wallet, taking his considerable cut along the way.

      It’s glaringly obvious why outlets like the hill omit the petraeus case when ‘splaining how much “worse” Trump’s “crimes” are than anything that’s gone before.

      As accustomed to the relentless Trump persecution as we’ve all become, it would be easy to miss that the stakes this time are incredibly high. This is most likely the last chance for the deep state and the biden crime family to keep their heads from rolling. Trump can’t be permitted a second bite at the oval office apple.

      I share Ron Paul’s dread of what will happen next if this gambit fails as all the others have.
      1. Screwball June 13, 2023 at 11:06 am

         I read the Paul article too, and I also worry what these people might do next as well. We are being led by crazed power hungry grifters with no shame, morals, or ethics.
         1. ambrit June 13, 2023 at 11:43 am

            Link please. I do not read all of the articles every day.
            Also, this Trump Crusade “Free the Holy Hill!” is an out and out political prosecution. Now, I am not so naive as to imagine that this does not happen all the time. What is notable is the brazenness of it. When Elites drop the pretense of “respectability,” we know that the “Bad Times” are upon us. I expect the Authoritarian State to burgeon.
            1. Katniss Everdeen June 13, 2023 at 11:54 am

               http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2023/june/12/the-democrats-versus-trump-a-bad-horror-movie/
               1. Cristobal June 13, 2023 at 1:39 pm

                  From the Ron Paul piece:

                  Q. ¨Where else would you see the head of one political party arrest his main political opponent on cooked up charges? A banana republic!¨

                  A. Ukraine

                  Birds of a feather
                  1. Dalepues June 13, 2023 at 6:51 pm

                     Nicaragua.
                     1. Polar Socialist June 13, 2023 at 6:59 pm

                        Brazil.
                        1. John Anthony La Pietra June 16, 2023 at 12:03 pm

                           If there are bananas that grow in the Ukrainian climate and soil, I’d like a few cuttings to start growing some on Michigan!
            2. chuck roast June 13, 2023 at 7:03 pm

               They can’t arrest the guy for drunk driving because he is a teetotaler. So what’s left…self abuse (in the parochial sense)! Is that still a crime?
               1. John Anthony La Pietra June 16, 2023 at 12:01 pm

                  Income-tax evasion? To appear shortly as a major motion picture and novelization under the title “The Capone Precedent”, presumably. . . .
      2. flora June 13, 2023 at 11:46 am

         After the Durham report came out I can imagine the FBI thinks keeping T out of office again is an existential requirement for their continued existance, or at least for the FBI’s management to keep their jobs. / ;)
      3. marym June 13, 2023 at 12:32 pm

         The charges are: Willful retention of national defense information (Trump); several counts of obstruction and concealing (Trump and Nauta); and making false statements to the feds (Nauta).

         https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653.3.0.pdf
   4. Carolinian June 13, 2023 at 10:53 am

      The ghost of Woody Wilson has a lot of ‘splaining to do. He also liked the Klan.

      Racism aside Wilson could be the model for our R2P Dems. If i’s all about PR then you have to control the narrative.
      1. ambrit June 13, 2023 at 11:08 am

         Don’t forget that Wilson was the quintessential PMC. He was President of Princeton before becoming a professed Politico, about as PMC as it gets. He was also a Sothron, tried and true. He grew up during the American War Between the States and Reconstruction, in Georgia. He was also responsible for the implementation of official segregation in Government.
         He was the case where ‘Jim Crow’ wore the guise of “James Corvus.”
         1. spud June 13, 2023 at 11:02 pm

            don’t forget, he went to war for free trade.
9. mrsyk June 13, 2023 at 8:22 am

   “The Climate Crisis Will Be the Mother of All Financial Crises”. This article reads like a Janet Yellen’s laundry list of things to fix, all because of climate change.
   Honestly, I don’t think framing the global existential sh*tshow caused by human activity in economic terms is helpful. Seems to mask the urgency.
   1. John June 13, 2023 at 8:59 am

      Amen. And because the money men are profiting nicely …
      1. flora June 13, 2023 at 10:49 am

         Ed Dowd:

         Remember everything that’s about to happen lies at the feet of central bankers and politicians. Every other narrative is a distraction. It’s beyond everyone’s control.

         https://twitter.com/DowdEdward/status/1666484343018254337
   2. Ignacio June 13, 2023 at 10:44 am

      Indeed. Masks the urgency, misses the target, confuses the audience and it is totally outdated. It is an existential crisis not a financial one.

      We could say otherwise that the Financial world is one of the obstacles we need to overcome pronto if we want to fight climate change.
   3. Henry Moon Pie June 13, 2023 at 11:29 am

      It was economists who shut down the discussion we should have had when The Limits to Growth was published.

      Our host outed them very effectively. They’re really the billionaires’ high priests along the lines of this old, old story.
      1. ex-PFC Chuck June 13, 2023 at 2:44 pm

         Speaking of (neoclassical) economists and climate change Steve Keen is on the case and has been for some time.
      2. Glen June 13, 2023 at 3:05 pm

         Yes, completely agree, and also remember lectures in college on this very subject in ’82. We had a guest lecturer come up from Stanford (I was at UC Davis in the College of Engineering) where the discussion was the known limitations on the carrying capacity of the earth based on energy and food production. His predictions at the time were we would see peak oil production and peak world population about 40-50 years out. When asked what would follow that he responded with a variation on that Chinese curse, “well, you’re going to see some interesting times.”

         I don’t think us “engineering nerds” every really got the message that talking about this subject was taboo because to be a good engineer one has to stay somewhat grounded in reality, but we also have a tendency to stay focused on the work in front of us and assume someone else is working on that problem over there and it will get taken care of. Unfortunately, it never got fixed, but we did get close (NSFW! But funny, and very well sourced):

         The Time America Almost Stopped Climate Change | Climate Town
         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MondapIjAAM

         Yes, I just assumed sanity would prevail at some point, and we would deal with it like we did with CFCs all the way back in the 80’s. We actually had to get rid of the processes using CFCs (mostly cleaning/de-greasing) we were using in the USN since we were complying with NATO standards:

         Banning CFCs Helped Us Avoid an Even Worse Climate Catastrophe
         https://www.healthline.com/health-news/banning-cfcs-helped-us-avoid-an-even-worse-climate-catastrophe

         But I was wrong, sanity did not prevail. There was just way too much money and political power behind maintaining the status quo. I think it’s important that the younger generation knows all this. I think they get fed the “Who cudda knode”?” BS from the MSM, and the reality is we knew.
   4. some guy June 14, 2023 at 12:51 am

      If there is no food left anywhere to buy, it will hardly matter if there is no money left to buy it with . . .

      But maybe the sort of upper class rulers who think that money gives rise to food and that money is more nutritious and delicious than any mere food could ever be, tales of the “greatest ever financial crisis” might be tried to see if it moves them to action.
10. The Rev Kev June 13, 2023 at 8:37 am

    “UK Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer slanders Roger Waters, demands censorship”

    And Keir Starmer is exactly the sort of person who, as Prime Minister, will seek to have Roger Waters in court on some bogus charges as you see happening in other countries like Germany. Maybe UK high court judge Justice Jonathan Swift could be appointed here as Water’s trial judge as he did so well with the Julian Assange’s case. It would be ironic if Roger Waters went on tour in Russia and, while there, claimed amnesty on the grounds of political persecution at home. But it could happen. Kinda ironic this. I have a paper talking about the UK became a place of refuge for those in France who were being persecuted by the different regimes. And this was true for most of the 19th century. But now the UK may become a center of persecution itself.
    1. Colonel Smithers June 13, 2023 at 10:40 am

       Thank you, Rev, Flora and Mrsyk.

       Further to https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2023/06/11/labours-new-bankroller-is-israel-lobbyist-the-electronic-intifada/ and https://twitter.com/StevePowers_/status/1668213510247948288, this is the company that Starmer prefers to keep.

       He’ll behave in government. One bit of leverage over Starmer, not that he’s going to rock the boat, is a gay version of me too that, currently, affects two senior shadow cabinet members.
       1. chuck roast June 13, 2023 at 7:13 pm

          No offense to you Colonel, but to this colonial it is rather odd that after lo’ these many years of public school buggery, the English ruling class can’t just say, “Oh, who cares. Let’s just get on with it.”
    2. Carolinian June 13, 2023 at 10:57 am

       Meanwhile in Germany (which also wants to get Waters).

       https://consentfactory.org/2023/06/12/new-normal-germany-blues/
       1. flora June 13, 2023 at 11:57 am

          Joel Grey, Cabaret, “Money” utube, ~2 minutes.

          Cabaret | “Money” Musical Number | Warner Bros. Entertainment

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JDWJzKYfdc
11. flora June 13, 2023 at 8:38 am

    re: Keir Starmer

    Is that who picked up the phone to twtr to get them to delete a really good segement from Double Down News?

    …

    Our interview video with Roger Waters, which reached over 1.5 million people has been deleted.

    https://twitter.com/DoubleDownNews/status/1667557807078481922
12. mrsyk June 13, 2023 at 8:41 am

    “UK Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer slanders Roger Waters, demands censorship”. Aren’t “charges of anti-Semitism” getting a bit shopworn? This is a must read. From the lede: “Waters’ steadfast criticism of NATO’s war in Ukraine, defence of the Palestinians from Israeli state repression and support for the imprisoned anti-war journalist Julian Assange has earned him the ire of imperialist governments everywhere”.
    Disclaimer: I own every Pink Floyd LP.
    1. Ignacio June 13, 2023 at 11:19 am

       Three questions for UK residents

       Question 1: May Starmer think that doing so, he looks very much electable and lovable by the PMCaste?

       Question 2: But regarding polling calculus doesn’t he risks loosing popular support? Or is it that he doesn’t care while Tories become rotten?

       Question 3: Might it be that he doesn’t really want to reach number 10 Downing St?
       1. FergusD June 13, 2023 at 5:53 pm

          1. Maybe he does but I think he is more likely an MI5 plant to destroy the Labour Party. He seems to have no political skills or passion, except to destroy the Labour left.

          2. Yes but indeed he may think the Tories are so toxic they are unelectable so who cares what working class Labour voters think. This may not work out though.

          3. Possibly. His task, which he accepted from the spooks was, to destroy the Labour Party not become PM. He may, however, be PM with a hung parliament (quite likely) in which case he doesn’t have to do anything because ….

          I’m only half joking about Starmer being run by spooks. Unlike yer traditional Labour right winger he has no history in the LP, no link to trade unions etc. He had a meteoric rise in the LP and won the leadership by lying that he implement Corbyn’s programme ( which was t really all that left wing).
13. digi_owl June 13, 2023 at 8:44 am

    “The West seems to think Russia not reacting immediately to provocations is a sign of weakness, as opposed to discipline.”

    I find myself reminded of some kung fu movie or other, with the master telling the student about the tiger and the dragon. They were both powerful, but the difference was that the tiger reacts while the dragon acts.

    All in all, USA behaves like a tiger while Russia and China has shown themselves to be dragons.
    1. The Rev Kev June 13, 2023 at 8:57 am

       I have wondered if the Russians are up to something else with those “red lines.” We have seen how Russia has been fighting this war with an eye kept open for how the rest of the world views it. So when Russia states a red line and the west gleefully jumps over it, the west sees that as a win. But in the rest of the countries of the world, they will see the Russians state a red line that may seem reasonable. But then they will see the Collective West go ahead and break it on purpose. And this makes them wonder about their own national red lines and how the west would treat them. And this leads to more alienation of the west. Just a theory mind.
       1. SES June 14, 2023 at 2:15 am

          You are spot on.
    2. flora June 13, 2023 at 9:13 am

       What’s the saying? “Americans play poker, Russians play chess.” ?
       1. The Rev Kev June 13, 2023 at 9:24 am

          There was a Russian joke a coupla years ago that said ‘Negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a pigeon. The pigeon knocks over all the pieces, ***** on the board and then struts around like it won the game.’
          1. John June 13, 2023 at 9:42 am

             How did I ever fall for his soaring rhetoric? I have an answer. The rhetoric soared as does anything filled with hot air, or composed by a Chat bot.
             1. ambrit June 13, 2023 at 11:50 am

                Ah ha! A business plan; ChatPOL. It data mines your social media files to ‘tell’ you what it thinks you want to hear. Meanwhile, faceless boffins behind the scenes formulate ideologically driven “policies.” What’s not to like? You “Win-win”, until you “Lose-lose.”
                Then the ‘National Salvation’ algorithm kicks in: doors, bank accounts, private records, personal freedoms.
          2. Screwball June 13, 2023 at 10:04 am

             That’s a perfect description of swindler O. I’m gobsmacked so many still worship the creep.
             1. digi_owl June 13, 2023 at 10:33 am

                Hope, change, black man in the white house, progress!!! /s

                Basically USA has recreated an aristocracy centered around stock market portfolios, with the PMC acting as the retinue of old.
                1. Mildred Montana June 13, 2023 at 11:49 am

                   Actually, it has created a plutocracy, which is different from an aristocracy. In aristocracies of olde, those who dealt in commerce could never aspire to a good seat at the king’s banquet table or expect an approving glance from the queen. Those in “trade” were lessers and they knew it. The two classes were distinct and literally separate.

                   Today in America the princes of business share power with the aristocrats of government and are regularly invited to partake in the feast (hence plutocracy), while members of the PMC class (modern-day courtiers) circle the table bowing, scraping, and cringing, picking up what scraps they can and hoping eventually to be exalted to it.
             2. Oh June 13, 2023 at 8:06 pm

                Elmer O Gantry.
          3. hk June 13, 2023 at 10:44 am

             And Obama is supposed to be the smart reasonable one in Western politics….
             1. digi_owl June 13, 2023 at 10:50 am

                Mostly because he was not Dubya bush, much like Biden is not Trump.

                For some bloody reason, Europe has convinced itself that the democrats are on the same page as the center-left of Europe. But the truth is that even at their best they are still more center-.right.

                Then again the traditional labor parties of Europe has slowly been crawling rightward as the university educated (grand)children of their founders have taken over.
                1. playon June 13, 2023 at 1:14 pm

                   That seems to be the Democrats’ strategy – following a terrible Republican president with one who is slightly less terrible in comparison, while the country continues to move further and further to the right.
       2. Ignacio June 13, 2023 at 11:58 am

          Though this time the US is playing with a pair of fives and all the watchers know it is a bluff.
    3. Louis Fyne June 13, 2023 at 1:00 pm

       Russia has fully mobilized its military and is ramping its military-industrial production to literal WW3-light levels.

       And I imagine China is furiously taking notes on every level (military-industrial-diplomatic) about Russian successes and failures.

       …while the US can’t even be self-sufficient in tube socks.

       One side(s) is ready for the “final countdown” / “Thucydides moment” while the other is blundering into its biggest geopolitical calamity ever.

       hopefully Ramstein Airbase or Kaliningrad aren’t left in a smoldering radioactive mess after this is all done.
       1. ilsm June 13, 2023 at 1:35 pm

          no war game from my late 80’s early 90’s time in the service ever stopped before total exchange once one side or the other in central europe began losing.

          the rumor was ‘3 days…..’

          how the usa can risk this is awe inspiring!
14. digi_owl June 13, 2023 at 8:48 am

    That Alexandra Pelosi video.

    It is one thing to quip about USA using wars to distract from domestic troubles, it is quite another to hear someone in the corridors of power state it as an outright goal.

    I just hope the nation can sort itself out without blowing up the rest of the planet in the process.
    1. Pat June 13, 2023 at 9:57 am

       The cockiness of our elite cannot be overstated. I am thankful for it.
       But think about it. This is a woman who has been surrounded by political power her entire existence. Her mother and her grandfather have been major players. They are people who know that the public must never get to see behind the curtain. Any “glimpses” they get must be carefully crafted. And in a video age, Alexandra is also very familiar with video, social media and that cameras are everywhere. Still we get this video, because in her arrogance she doesn’t think it applies to her.

       It may not be fast enough, but it is nice that there really is a slow erosion of so much of the bull of the last years, AND how much of it is from insiders shooting off their own feet.
15. BillS June 13, 2023 at 8:49 am

    Re Berlusconi: The slimy bastard brought the disaster of Thatcherism to Italy, always referring to some nebulous Communist threat. He did one thing well: looking out for Silvio. To hell with the rest! I hesitate to say that he destroyed the Italian Left, because Prodi, d’Alema, Letta, etc. managed that on their own.

    To paraphrase the closing paragraph of Hunter S Thompson’s Nixon eulogy:

    He has poisoned our water forever. Berlusconi will be remembered as a classic case of a smart man shitting in his own nest. But he also shit in our nests, and that was the crime that history will burn on his memory like a brand. By disgracing and degrading the Italian body politic and by tossed out of Palazzo Chigi like a diseased cur, Silvio Berlusconi destroyed the hopes of a once prosperous Italy.
    1. lou strong June 13, 2023 at 9:03 am

       Re Berlusconi: The slimy bastard brought the disaster of Thatcherism to Italy,

       Not at all.
       Berlusconi pretended to bring “Thatcherism ” to Italy.
       Prodi & C.actually implemented “Thatcherism “, under the brand of Europeanism, and with the equal and opposite technique of raising votes against the threat of evil Berlusconi.
       1. BillS June 13, 2023 at 9:22 am

          Yes, Prodi, et al. implemented Thatcherism, but it was Berlusco – the oligarch pretending to be populist- who got the ball rolling. Much like the Dems in the USA and Labour in the UK, the Italian “left” adopted wholesale the Thatcherite TINA philosophy put forward by the post-Christian Democrat right, of which Berlusconi was a part. The “left” and the “right” used each other to advance personal interests – as they do to this day.
          1. DJG, Reality Czar June 13, 2023 at 9:49 am

             BillS: ‘The “left” and the “right” used each other to advance personal interests – as they do to this day.’

             Which is why I refer to the much-ballyhooed Elly Schlein as un personaggio gattopardesco.

             It is also not an accident that she is American on her father’s side. Too often, Italians take americanizzazione as a sign of modernity, when it is a sign of Italian decline.
             1. BillS June 13, 2023 at 11:38 am

                Elly Schlein – US Demo(rat party “talpa” who worked with Obomber’s campaign and has Ukrainian ancestry. I am sure she is in regular contact with her US embassy “handlers”. Non mi stupisce più niente in questo mondo assurdo.
    2. .Tom June 13, 2023 at 12:41 pm

       What I want to see is the videos Italians have been sharing of themselves doing dances of joy on hearing of his death. I assume they have been sharing them.
       1. playon June 13, 2023 at 2:45 pm

          Here’s one https://twitter.com/criticofpolecon/status/1668347126009454606
       2. BillS June 13, 2023 at 2:50 pm

          There’s this.
          The search engines don’t give up much, as they suppress almost all negative web pages. Maybe US searches will yield more.

          Then there is the indomitable Marco Travaglio
16. Aurelien June 13, 2023 at 8:58 am

    I continue to be surprised by all these MSM assurances that the West “will not accept” this or that outcome in Ukraine, since there is now very little, and probably less each day, that the West can do to affect what happens. I suspect what is meant is that the West will not be able to bring itself to accept this or that outcome, and that it will refuse to recognise reality for as long as it can, perhaps incidentally doing some damage along the way through its myopia. The example that comes to mind is the time it took for the West to recognise that the effective government of China was in Beijing and not Taipei, and I suspect we are headed for something rather similar here, except the realities of international politics, and even more economics, will force reality on the West quite quickly.
    1. John June 13, 2023 at 9:39 am

       The West may not be able to accept the outcome in Ukraine, but it will be well able to rationalize its defeat as a victory of a sort. The West is good at words … you know sound and fury signifying very little.
       1. Will June 13, 2023 at 10:23 am

          re spinning defeat into victory and the battle for small villages mentioned in links

          An interesting theory from a former Swedish military officer that Ukraine’s renewed interest in taking that area is an attempt at a narrative victory.

          https://twitter.com/MikaelValterss1/status/1668550002031878145?cxt=HHwWgoCzkd7Y8KcuAAAA

          Initial attacks there were seen by some as merely diversionary to the main attack to its west. But with the failure so far to cut off the land bridge to Crimea, taking the lightly defended Vremivka salient is achievable. Due to poor roads it’s difficult to resupply so the main Russian defensive lines are well to the rear. Also means Russia is likely to give up land to avoid outsized losses.

          Can already see online claims that Ukraine has taken more territory in a week than Russia took after months of fighting in Bahkmut.

          Having said all that, the Ukrainians seem to be going about it very poorly.

          https://twitter.com/MikaelValterss1/status/1668369722369351682?cxt=HHwWhIC9_YnbnqcuAAAA
       2. Ignacio June 13, 2023 at 11:32 am

          The West turning Quixotic you mean? Time to re-read it? I worry about the fate of us, the “Sancho Panza” of this play.
          1. Wukchumni June 13, 2023 at 11:35 am

             America has always tilted towards win mills, er the MIC.
    2. Kouros June 13, 2023 at 1:57 pm

       As Lavrov stated some years ago, it will take 25-30 years for things to settle (hopefully not the radioactive dust)….
17. The Rev Kev June 13, 2023 at 9:11 am

    “Zelensky Backstabbed His Polish Patrons By Making A Power Play For Their Grain Market ”

    This article raises the suspicion that Zelensky and his inner circle are profiting off all those grain sales and so as this grain was being blocked, decided to put the boot into the Poles. I can well believe that. If nothing else, this will confirm to all those EU states to never allow the Ukraine into the EU. Apart from the fact that the Ukraine will flood the market with agricultural products which will destroy the markets in different countries, this sort of malicious behaviour shows the consequence of having that country in the EU. And it only takes one veto to deny the Ukraine entry.
    1. digi_owl June 13, 2023 at 9:48 am

       Ukraine would likely be parked in the same half way state as was mentioned for the Balkan nations the other day. Not quite a full member, so no real say in Brussels, but still under their thumb and adopting new neo/ordo-lib enforcing directives regularly.
    2. some guy June 14, 2023 at 12:55 am

       If enough Ukrainian farmland is depopulated enough and/or polluted enough to stop growing food for years or decades into the future, this should not be a problem for EUrope.

       (Why would Russia necessarily want to ‘steal’ all the best farmland in Ukraine? If Russia can shut it all down and keep it all shut down, the value of Russia’s own farmland and farm production goes up by default).
18. The Rev Kev June 13, 2023 at 9:52 am

    “Ukraine SitRep: Destruction Of Its Third Army – Issues To Negotiate’

    Good news everyone. The Pentagon has announced another $325 million worth of equipment which will include Stryker & Bradley armoured vehicles that ‘can replace those damaged and destroyed in the Ukrainian counteroffensive currently underway.’ So the message to the Ukrainians is to keep on fighting, keep on going, no matter the losses. Their sacrifices will be appreciated. And there is a report too that the Russians have already retrieved a coupla Leopard 2s tanks and Bradleys for technical analysis – before being put on display at their military museum. Unless of course they park one in front of the German Embassy like the Germans have done with wrecked Russian tanks parked outside the Russian Embassy. Meanwhile a video has emerged of a Ukrainian Leopard 2 in action. Do you see what I see?

    https://twitter.com/ian_matveev/status/1668164269290971138 (17 secs)
    1. digi_owl June 13, 2023 at 10:00 am

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkenkreuz ?
       1. The Rev Kev June 13, 2023 at 10:05 am

          They just can’t help themselves. Nothing like the sight of German tanks bearing the Balkenkreuz fighting the Russians in the Ukraine – just like in WW2.

          Was reading earlier today that Russian soldiers in digging their trenches have been finding Russian & German soldier’s bones and weapons from WW2 which has been striking home with them.
          1. digi_owl June 13, 2023 at 10:27 am

             Yeah, that is the grim irony of it all.

             Take for example the famous Battle of Kursk:

             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kursk

             If you look at the south end of that map of the front line you see some very familiar locations marked.

             Also note that Moscow is just beyond the north edge of the same map.
19. Mikel June 13, 2023 at 9:53 am

    “I applied to McDonald’s and other fast food jobs but chatbots made it impossible” Business Insider

    The whole bit about registering an “applicant profile” is also why alot of job posts are just data mining…by the site, the company, or both.

    In other areas, not just fast food service, the only way to actually get the job is if there is some point of human contact during the application. Somebody that works at the company needs to grab your resume from automation hell.
    It’s been true for over 10 years.
20. Jason Boxman June 13, 2023 at 10:00 am

    So the Tom’s Hardware on Google’s search is a must read brutal takedown of how much more garbage Google is about to become:

    Whether you click the expand button or not, SGE’s related links are not presented as citations, but recommendations for further reading. If I start singing “Thriller” then tell you that it’s an original song I wrote, it doesn’t matter if I also say “you might want to listen to a guy named Micheal Jackson because he also makes some nice songs like this.” That’s still plagiarism and, even if it were not, we’d have a problem.

    Plagiarism is a moral and academic term, not a legal one, and simply giving credit is not a defense against copyright infringement. You can’t run a business selling pirated Blu-ray discs and then, when busted, say “it’s all good, because I listed George Lucas as the director of Star Wars rather than substituting my own name in the credits.”

    That’s been my take as well; This has been maybe the greatest heist of intellectual property in history, and it’s all rolled up in large language models, so no one really knows where it came from. What an unfortunate coincidence, eh? Google’s use is the most blatantly immoral so far. But it’s all shades of gray.
21. Mikel June 13, 2023 at 10:01 am

    “What’s Killing Productivity? Some Think It’s the Banks” Wall Street Journal

    Because the property ponzi is one of the only games left in nations that outsource too much.
22. mrsyk June 13, 2023 at 10:06 am

    “NYC Will Charge Drivers Going Downtown”. This link takes you to a page on the MTA website titled “Central Business District Tolling Program”, not to CNN. I feel like this is a good action conceptually. This world needs less cars on the road. Yes, it’s a poorly written policy that favors the wealthy, is anyone surprised?. There is means testing of course so Dems can sleep easy. Check out these bullet points:
    1. The Act says the CBD Tolling Program must:

    Charge passenger vehicles only once each day for entering or remaining in the Central Business District
    Change the toll rates at set times or days; this is called variable tolling
    Allow residents of the CBD making less than $60,000 to get a New York State tax credit for CBD tolls paid
    Not toll qualifying authorized emergency vehicles and qualifying vehicles transporting people with disabilities

    $60,000? heh heh.
    Qualifying vehicles transporting people with disabilities? How’d that get in there?
    These two carveouts are the very definition of virtue signaling.
    1. hunkerdown June 13, 2023 at 10:48 am

       It’s insurance signaling. Non-emergency medical transport is more common than many people think, and often paid by insurers on a time and expenses basis. This way, there is one less travel expense that insurers have to audit for “overemployment”.
       1. mrsyk June 13, 2023 at 11:14 am

          Of course. I should have sussed that out
    2. SFRefugee June 13, 2023 at 1:54 pm

       West Coast version of traffic bans, transit friendly public policy in action:

       Market Street, San Francisco’s main street and artery is off limits to cars in favor of bicycles and transit. That along with the effects of the political tumors in city hall, street crime, bums and other aspects of multi-cultural vibrancy, just reached culmination in Westfield, a recently build luxury mall housing Norstrom’s, handing the keys to the lenders. Also, almost TEN PERCENT of the city’s hotel capacity, the Hilton and Parc 55 hotels, have also just done so.

       There are serious proposals to charge tolls to cars entering the entire northeast cuadrant of the city, everything east of Van Ness and north of Market Street.

       https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/westfield-giving-san-francisco-mall-18148102.php
23. The Rev Kev June 13, 2023 at 10:32 am

    “The World Food Program suspends food aid for 8,000 families in Gaza, citing lack of funds”

    To connect this story, I have just read that the Palestinian President has just arrived in China. Think that he will ask for food shipments to Gaza so that they are no longer on the ‘Israeli diet’? More to the point, you think that the Israelis would dare stop such shipments and alienate China – with American influence in the Middle East on the wane?

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/13/palestinian-president-mahmoud-abbas-arrives-in-beijing
24. semper loquitur June 13, 2023 at 10:54 am

    Apologies if this is a repeat but I thought it was important:

    Feds want a slam-dunk in Trump’s Florida case. Think again.

    POLITICO 06/10/2023

    Federal jurors in the state have a long history of acquitting elected officials accused of wrongdoing by the feds. In south Florida, several local mayors in unrelated, separate trials had previously been acquitted on federal charges. Just last month, a federal jury in Tallahassee acquitted Democratic former gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum of lying to the FBI and deadlocked on other charges. Federal prosecutors eventually sought to dismiss the indictment against Gillum.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/10/trump-indictment-case-florida-00101378
    1. ThirtyOne June 13, 2023 at 1:30 pm

       Seems to be a Southern thing:
       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Edwards#John_Volz_indictment_and_trials

       famous quote:
       Up with skirts, down with pants!’ – Edwin Edwards
       1. ambrit June 14, 2023 at 11:07 am

          “Fast Eddie” was the ‘real thing.’ He was an old fashioned Politico. Unlike the outright crooks in office today, Edwards understood the ‘Golden Rule’ of politics: In order to take some gold, you need to give some, to the people.
          We knew a fellow who ‘bought’ an expungement for a State level felony from Fast Eddie’s brother, who handled all of the Governor’s less savoury enterprises. The going rate for that back then was three grand. Sid needed the expungement so as to qualify for some sort of State business license.
          File under “All Politics is Local” the observation that working public servants learn that one needs first serve the people before serving oneself.
25. The Rev Kev June 13, 2023 at 10:57 am

    “I applied to McDonald’s and other fast food jobs but chatbots made it impossible”

    The worse thing about those chatbots as shown here is that they are Beta-version chatbots. They are not the finished version but they are being used by people who are unwittingly being used as lab rats – for free. Kinda like with Tesla car software. Of course no thought is given they they are dealing with people’s lives here. People who need jobs to make rent, to feed themselves and maybe their kids.
    1. Late Introvert June 13, 2023 at 10:44 pm

       But… the Financial Slimes and Wall St. Pose have many articles about how nobody wants to work anymore.
26. Wukchumni June 13, 2023 at 11:18 am

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/13/multiple-injuries-reported-in-denver-shooting
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    …meanwhile back in the Home of the Grave

    Ever notice that never ever in these mass shooting sprees is made mention in the press of the use of a ‘ghost gun’ by the hand cannonist-which would be newsworthy in itself, not that the 9 lives who were perforated in the melee don’t matter, and just how many would’ve been the subject of high velocity angst if the Nuggets had lost?
    1. marieann June 13, 2023 at 1:24 pm

       What I have noticed about the latest US daily shooting is I only get the news about it from Aljazeera or RT sites.

       I am in Canada and I don’t follow US news but I used to hear about it on the CBC radio or on their website.
       I guess it is no longer a big deal…except for the actual victims
    2. rowlf June 13, 2023 at 10:49 pm

       Most ghost guns are not reliable due to manufacturing tolerances and TFMs putting them together.

       I can see the appeal of ghost guns to Native Americans but other than that they are awkward or a liability for everyone else.
27. werther June 13, 2023 at 11:26 am

    Saw Larry Johnson and Mercouris, read the sitrep and Statecraft on ‘red lines’. Lots about what Russia might want. Also a probably very accurate description of what the West thinks is a negociation: a discussion between 31 NATO states resulting in idle demands. What the Russian government might think isn’t even considered. “We’re NATO”, if not “- Bruxelles”, so its decided…
    Meanwhile, some of the Dutch F35’s roar over my place, their pilots making their flying-hours. Didn’t see or hear our airforce for years, but yes, there is something left. Trying to cheer up my mind with some irony. But it gets harder.
    Some over here think that NATO will be in the lead. Those Russian subs? No worries, there are always British or American subs near their tail. They’ll bottom the Russkies at first call…
    The national newsroom? To my surprise they announced now that it was the Ukies that blew up Nordstream. It was a Dutch intelligence service that picked up the rumour months before the event and informed the American counterparts… The take away: the Americans had warned the Ukies “don’t do it”. How far does the idiocracy of it all go?
    1. Amfortas the hippie June 13, 2023 at 12:35 pm

       idiocy has the potential to be almost bottomless, i’m afraid.

       as for military aircraft:
       i live on the eastern edge of the West Texas Training Area…so not terriblu unusual to see military aircraft of all kinds…altho it might be as long as a couple of years between sightings.
       usually when there’s another round of itching for war on the part of our betters…i get a heads up by observing the escalating activity overhead.
       true under Cheney/Bush2, Obama, and Trump(altho to a lesser extent).
       last 6 months have been that kind of time.
       mostly helicopters and fighter jets.
       sunday, though, i saw something new:
       very loud, very low-flying helis…looked like pavelows, but i’m no expert, and i only managed to see them from behind…and on a cable hanging below them was what looked like hummvees.
       training for something or other…combat exfiltration would be my guess.
       based on this and other such activity i’ve seen…and heard…of late, i reckon the USA will enter the war at some point.
       unless this is about invading Mexico, or something.
       1. Mark Gisleson June 13, 2023 at 1:37 pm

          At this point Democrats in Congress are weighing their chances of survival if they bolt and start cooperating with Republicans to help take Biden down. A new “squad” could emerge overnight and a grateful nation would turn its eyes to them for moral leadership and fashion guidance.

          At least that’s what some shadowly blob is whispering into a few shell like ears of late. Someone is going to come forward on a white horse to save us from both Biden and Trump. The horse being a compromise between a white elephant and a white ass.

          Ukraine will be Biden’s fault, everything else gets dumped on Trump. If necessary, there will be whispers about the crazy military actions Biden had in the works.

          The world will go on and we won’t have time to dwell on the past because hard times will be upon us and we will have to band together to make the difficult choices while steadfastly facing up to the unavoidable sacrifices.

          [last ¶ © ChatGPINFTAlphabot]
          1. mrsyk June 13, 2023 at 2:31 pm

             I’m having doubts that the 2024 election will take place at all. I’m leaning towards a last minute “postponement” due to (fill in the blank with your favorite existential crisis). Last minute because the profits of the election business won’t be jeopardized.
       2. digi_owl June 13, 2023 at 6:13 pm

          Curious, the MH-53 was retired back in 2008 and replaced by the flying insanity that is the V-22.
28. .Tom June 13, 2023 at 12:29 pm

    What’s the scoop on Sturgeon? She was arrested, questioned about SNP finances, and released?

    Is it normal in Scotland that investigators arrest people to question them?
    1. Bill Malcolm June 13, 2023 at 1:45 pm

       Apparently so, according to a couple of articles I read. They can arrest someone and question them for 12 hours. If after 12 hours of questioning by Detective Sergeant Plod MacRory and his ace team of pushers, shovers and insinuators, the person has to be released if formal charges are not laid. As in any dystopia, the police can repeat this performance endlessly as a form of legal harassment. Welcome to Scotland!

       https://ca.news.yahoo.com/why-nicola-sturgeon-arrested-timeline-100257901.html

       Mind you, I have no idea if the arrested but not yet accused can have a lawyer present to represent them during questioning, or if the time-honoured standard of keeping one’s mouth shut to avoid saying anything at all that could be later used in court still applies or is allowed. I’m not a fan of Sturgeon myself, but this law seems set up to practise witch-hunting legally. Anyone could be affected on a mere whim, it seems to me. Lovely place to visit is Scotland, been many times — just remember to keep your nose clean and enjoy the malt whisky. No e in Scottish whisky, so don’t fall into that legal trap by getting it wrong! :) Using the Irish / American spelling gets them really, really annoyed.
       1. ambrit June 14, 2023 at 11:11 am

          “Using the Irish / American spelling gets them really, really annoyed.”
          Scots can read? Horrors!
29. Amfortas the hippie June 13, 2023 at 12:58 pm

    oh, and for the animals doin weird thangs file:
    https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1668212357976436736?cxt=HHwWgMDR8aGT16YuAAAA

    apparently , deer are known to eat roadkill on occasion…something i didn’t know, after spending almost all of my 53 years in the wilds.
    1. BeliTsari June 13, 2023 at 3:29 pm

       See, Pat Robertson dies & everybody gets all uppity?
30. Tom Stone June 13, 2023 at 1:07 pm

    Cattle and horses will also eat small animals when they get a chance, living in the wild ain’t easy.
    1. semper loquitur June 13, 2023 at 1:16 pm

       deer eating a bird

       Birds were flying in and running into the head of this young buck in our front yard. I was watching through the window, and I did’nt know why the birds were attacking him. Then, I saw the little bird on the ground. The other birds had only been trying to distract the deer. I own the rights to this video. RIP Michael, my amazing husband. I miss your laugh! 12/06/60 – 08/10/18

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQOQdBLHrLk
31. Wukchumni June 13, 2023 at 1:08 pm

    I heard the economy posed bottomless @ the White House…
32. semper loquitur June 13, 2023 at 1:13 pm

    Whom is the Diversity, Inclusion & Equity Industry Actually Helping?

    Quillette 6/12/2023

    Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to Atlantic writer Conor Friedersdorf about his recent article, The DEI Industry Needs to Check Its Privilege.

    https://youtu.be/6h6gja5ECBQ
33. Tom Stone June 13, 2023 at 1:22 pm

    The Biden Administration has become this provocative for a reason, to provoke a violent response that will justify the “Domestic Terrorism Bill” that Brandon has wanted for decades and I’d give odds it will have a provision for asset forfeiture.
    When a government pisses away every shred of legitimacy ( The Mandate of Heaven) all they have left is force.
    They really believe that between total information awareness and a militarized police that they can control chaos.
    Which is astoundingly arrogant and stupid.
34. griffen June 13, 2023 at 1:59 pm

    Sports commentary, on where or into which sports will the Saudi Arabia / PIF turn towards next to spread their prodigious, lavish wealth. The article covers a few interesting tidbit, naturally Formula One racing was discussed quite prominently. European Premier league teams also featured. When they are hosting events in the kingdom, they pay supremely well; per the article the WWE $50 million per event staged in the country. That is a lot of lucre to pay for what is presumably well planned and choreographed theater. Ric Flair might even say “Woo” to that kind of paycheck.

    Ultimately they get to the cream of the professional leagues in the US, NFL chief among those. Would really raise a stink to have that investment fund, the PIF again, to take over a previously moribund franchise or a team living their days in a stinker of decrepit stadium. In a bizzaro world future, however it would be a hilarious idea to consider, if Jerry Jones ever decided to sell out his beloved Cowboys for something well north of what the Washington Commanders have recently sold for. Jerry loves himself a deal, if nothing else. Sorry Stephen Jones, you don’t get the keys after all!
35. Kouros June 13, 2023 at 2:05 pm

    NC has not missed the issue with the Canadian guy resigning. I even posted on it two days ago, with some overview linked from Peter Lee. As Peter Lee and Paul Keating would say: it is spies (5 Eyes) all the way down: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/06/links-6-11-2023.html#comment-3895897
    1. tevhatch June 13, 2023 at 2:48 pm

       Yes indeed:

       https://www.thecanadafiles.com/articles/canadian-government-foreign-interference-paranoia-ends-universal-free-speech-myth

       It’s spies and money all the way …. down to K-street in Washington. The young anti-imperialist at Canada Files give me some hope, dim as it is.
36. tevhatch June 13, 2023 at 3:21 pm

    Canadian government ‘foreign interference’ paranoia ends universal free speech myth
37. Willow June 13, 2023 at 6:58 pm

    Trump indictment: DEMs ensuring Trump is the Republican nominee, setting up a bait & switch of Biden getting the DEM nomination and then dropping out & being replaced by HRC. Setting up a rerun of 2016 (and DEMs getting burnt again).

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