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Links 6/7/2023

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Tourists put baby elk in their car and take it for a drive at Yellowstone National Park Boing Boing (resilc)

Man in Grizzly Bear Costume Scares Off Black Bear Laughing Squid

‘Ducking hell’ to disappear from Apple autocorrect BBC (furzy)

New Mexico woman finds cocaine on Sonic hot dog KOB (resilc)

Scientists Beam Space-Based Solar Power to Earth for First Time Gizmodo. Resilc: “This should be cost effective for Tesla cars, noooooooo problem.”

Climate/Environment

The Great Carbon Capture Scam American Conservative (resilc)

First Steps Agreed on Plastics Treaty After Breakthrough at Paris Talks Guardian

D-Day’s Historic Beaches Face a New Onslaught: Rising Seas New York Times (resilc)

Exclusive: Accounting for war – Ukraine’s climate fallout Reuters (resilc)

Not sure I like the tone even if accurate:

Canada fire map CIFFC (resilc)

China?

The capitalists are revolting over China Thomas Fazi. Important.

Blinken to visit China this month in sign of easing tensions Financial Times

UK to strip Chinese surveillance cameras from sensitive government sites Financial Times (furzy)

EU considers mandatory ban on using Huawei to build 5G Financial Times (furzy)

La belle France

French parliament speaker to block attempt to repeal pension reform law France24

Old Blighty

New Not-So-Cold War

Group of Eastern NATO Members Demand Alliance Give ‘Multi-Year- Defense Commitment to Ukraine Libertarian Institute (Kevin W). “How many divisions does the Pope have?”

* * *

BLINKEN’S BATTLE HYMN Seymour Hersh

* * *

No – Such Propaganda Delusions Will Not Win The War Moon of Alabama

Flooding in Kakhovka as a cover-up for the disastrous first days of the Ukrainian ‘counter-offensive’ Gilbert Doctorow (guurst)

Disaster Day in Ukraine: Kakhovka Dam Destroyed, Ukraine Suffers Heavy Defeat, Incl 8 Leopard Tanks Alexander Mercouris

* * *

U.S. knew about Ukrainian plot to bomb Nord Stream pipeline months before attack Washington Post (furzy).

US had intelligence of Ukrainian plan to attack Nord Stream project -Washington Post Reuters (resilc). Robin K notes: “Another run at establishing culpability for the Nordstream destruction. Ukrainians were planning to do it.”

U.S. Knew Ukraine Planned to Attack Russia’s Nord Stream Pipelines Rolling Stone (furzy). “Knew” and depicting Ukraine as a sole actor is such a nice distanced formulation. The Baltic is a NATO lake.

Die Explosion und die CIA Der Spiegel. Dierk B: “The German Spiegel published today more details on the alleged foreknowledge of the planned attack on the pipeline.”

* * *

Paul Krugman’s dishonest apologetics for Ukrainian fascism WSWS

Drone attack in Moscow may have targeted homes of Russian intelligence officials, U.S. officials say NBC (furzy)

Syraqistan

Iran hails ‘new era’ as embassy reopens in Saudi Arabia BBC (Kevin W)

Sudan’s civil war is being fuelled by digital propaganda campaigns Middle East Eye (resilc)

Saudi Arabia to spend billions on shock merger of PGA Tour and LIV Golf Financial Times. KLG:

Sportswashing at the very highest level. But this could get very interesting. Tiger Woods apparently was offered as much as $800M to jump from the PGA Tour to the Saudi-backed LIV Exhibition Tour, but remained loyal to the legacy tour. Other top golfers were offered $200M or thereabouts but remained with the PGAT for the same reasons. Someone owes Justin Thomas, Rory McElroy, Jordan Spieth, and Scottie Scheffler that $200M. Yes, golf is my biggest character flaw ;-) There are 3 Lefty golfers in the US, but I have not met the other 2 yet. I almost never pay attention to professional golf except for the Masters, US Open, and the British Open. Now, I’ll never pay attention to it again.

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

TSA Expands Controversial Facial Recognition Program CBS

The Coming Fight Over American Surveillance Foreign Affairs

The European Commission and WHO launch landmark digital health initiative to strengthen global health security WHO

Homeland Security Uses AI Tool to Analyze Social Media of U.S. Citizens and Refugees Vice. Resilc; “Remember to celebrate our liberty July 4th……..”

Imperial Collapse Watch

Surprise! Congress likely to hide defense spending in new Ukraine aid bill Responsible Statecraft (resilc)

Could We Actually End the CEO Defense Contractor Gravy Train? CounterPunch (resilc)

Which emerging markets are winners and losers from deglobalisation?Portfolio Adviser

2024

Mike Pence running for president 2024: Why? Slate (resilc)

Trump

Georgia probe of Trump broadens to activities in other states Washington Post (furzy)

GOP Clown Car

Conservatives stun GOP leaders with dramatic mutiny on House floor The Hill (Kevin W)

Son of late CIA director cautions against far-right extremism in the US Guardian

Protesters brawl as Southern California school district decides whether to recognize Pride Month Associated Press

Our No Longer Free Press

If the plan in getting Tucker off Fox was to deny him access to an audience in the runup to 2024, that isn’t working out so well:

Twitter amusingly juxtaposed these two tweets for me:

Twitter Files Extra: How the World’s “No-Kidding Decision Makers” Got Organized Andrew Lowenthal. Important.

Gunz

2 killed, 5 injured in shooting after high school graduation at Virginia Commonwealth University NBC (furzy)

AI

AI bots chatting up matches on dating apps? This won’t end well Guardian (resilc)

Healthcare Org With Over 100 Clinics Uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 To Write Medical Records The Register

The Bezzle

SEC Asks For Emergency Order To Freeze Binance US Assets Anywhere In the World CNBC

Crypto Billionaires’ Wealth Crushed by SEC After Big 2023 Bounce Bloomberg. They say it as if it’s a bad thing.

Price tag of Apple’s newly unveiled ‘Vision Pro’ headset draws mockery New York Post

Investing In America White House (furzy)

Poll: Only 16% of Americans Support the Government Issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency Cato Institute (BC)

Guillotine Watch

Merck sues US government to halt Medicare drug price negotiation Reuters (furzy)

Class Warfare

The Real Reasons Why Workers Are Producing Less New Republic (resilc)

Antidote du jour (Tracie H):

And a bonus (Chuck L):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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131 comments

  1. deedee

    John Thornton
    Captain Obvious reporting for duty with a rhetorical question: Well if Biden is CEO of America, who is the board? Because they seem to be calling the shots …

    1. The Rev Kev

      Who is the board? It might be the board of Citibank. Seriously. Remember when Obama was first elected back in 2008?

      ‘One month before the presidential election of 2008, the giant Wall Street bank Citigroup submitted to the Obama campaign a list of its preferred candidates for cabinet positions in an Obama administration. This list corresponds almost exactly to the eventual composition of Barack Obama’s cabinet.’

      https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/10/15/wiki-o15.html

      1. BlueMoose

        I’ve actually been wondering about Citibank recently. They seem to be strangely out of the news cycle for some time now. Keeping a low profile/lying low?

      2. Jeremy Grimm

        Thank you for the link. There seem to be many interesting things to find out about Obama. The information you linked makes a nice addition to facts to toss out to die hard Obama supporters.

  2. Samuel Conner

    John Helmer’s latest piece, on the soon to expire “grain deal” extension, ends with speculation that Russia may be preparing to advance along the Black Sea coast.

    The thought occurs that flooding the lower Dniepr River would make such an advance much more difficult, which might permit Ukraine to transfer forces from that part of the front to places where they are urgently needed for offensive (or, soon, defensive) operations. It might be an additional, military, motive for Ukraine to have breached the Nova Kakhovka dam.

    1. Ignacio

      Another military motive (for the dam catastrophe) would be to postpone the counteroffensive indefinitely. They just didn`t want to do it when the pressure from the West was mounting.

    2. timbers

      Simplicus said similar (flooding lower Dniepr) but with opposite possibility – that Russia opened the damn because it wanted to box in UAF forces so some Russian forces in Kherson could move north about to then move West eventually towards Odessa. This was just one of many possibilities offered.

      At any rate it more and more seems UAF is spent and that it can only do attacks on civilians and try to hold territory. So Russia needs press ahead and take more key cities and continue to move West. She recently put in place more and better satellites and her ability to hit with missiles and drones is improved, which is maybe why she finally took out the GUR (so very long overdue). Hopefully she continues to hit more ammo depots and decision centers.

      1. Yves Smith Post author

        Russia would not want to harm Crimea, which this does. The reason Russia took the dam and environs was to assure the water supply to Crimea, which Ukraine cut off in 2015. It also does great enviromental damage to Kherson oblast, which is now per Russia, Russian territory.

        Simplicius weirdly ignores that Ukraine has been regularly shelling the dam and both the NYT and Washington Post separately reported on Ukraine plans to destroy it.

        1. timbers

          Oh, forgot the mention the nuclear plant. The possibility Russia took out the damn to weaken AUF presence near the plant…for obvious reasons it could be huge disaster. These are just possibilities.

      2. Skip Intro

        One of the sticking points of the grain deal, was apparently sale of ammonia via pipeline from Russia to Europe. The AFU or someone on the Ukrainian side has now taken that off the table with another bit of ‘scorched earth’ infrastructure destruction. Of course the grain deal may be mooted by the lack of irrigation water for Kherson and Zaporozhia fields, which relied on the draining reservoir. It may also be worth noting that Ukraine had been holding water in upstream reservoirs, but timed their release to increase the current flood.

        1. The Rev Kev

          According to the Ministry of Agricultural Policy of Ukraine, the Kakhovskaya dam disaster effectively left 94% of the irrigation systems in Kherson, 74% in Zaporozhye, and 30% in the Dnepropetrovsk regions without a water source. So much for Ukrainian agricultural production.

      3. anon in so cal

        An article posted yesterday on Automatic Earth convincingly discussed the several ways in which destroying the dam would harm Russia militarily.

      4. JTMcPhee

        Ukies may be “spent” ($ and £€ 100 billion and counting) but per Telegram channels it sure looks like the blasting and bleeding are still going on, some opine there’s another “fist” if 70000 “Western trained (sic)” troops ready to drive into the Rooshin lines toward Melitopol. It ain’t over til it’s over, and the Fokkers like Biden (too old for caring) and Blinken and Nuland (too evil and committed to care) demand running it to the bitter end, then on to the next step in the grand strategy of destroying Russia.

        Those Fokkers are playing a long game.

    3. Yves Smith Post author

      I have that post up and it went live before Links. I’m not keen about having discussion of it over here. Please take any further comments on it to the post proper.

    4. Wæsfjord

      That area is part of Novorussyia. As sure as night follows day, it will be reunited with the motherland.

  3. Henry Moon Pie

    Carbon capture scam–

    Nice to see the paleos are down on non-organic carbon capture, but how did they go from denial to to giving up entirely:

    Even if we stopped all emissions, what is already there would only dissipate or be absorbed over a period of centuries. Nonetheless, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has encouraged the CCS scam because most IPCC climate models require CCS to balance the carbon books.

    So really, it appears there’s just not much to be done.

    And they’re naive here:

    Whatever the method, ultimately the CO2 must be injected deep underground into geological formations for long-term storage and subsequently monitored to ensure containment.

    We’ve noted this before, but captured carbon has been used in tertiary oil recovery since the 70s. A network of pipelines are already being planned to take the CO2 from where it’s captured to older oil fields like the Permian to be injected into oil fields after water flood has been completed. Currently, CO2 from natural occurring “domes” is being used, but these domes have been in use for 40 years, and are significantly depleted by now. Captured CO2 is the planned replacement, and how better to move that along than claim it’s to save the environment when in fact it will just be used to pull more grease out of the ground?

  4. Jabura Basaidai

    yesterday’s links to a very real video of the cost of war upon humans made me think of Dalton Trumbo’s sole directing endeavor, Johnny Got His Gun – never forgot it – a friend’s son, 19, joined navy to be a medic, he had been an EMS worker – provided a similar gruesome video to my friend to show her son, hopefully to encourage not to join – she hasn’t spoken to me since sending that video – easy to cheer from the sidelines when the real cost is lost to them – quote from the movie, “I am the boss, this is champagne, have a good time.”

    1. nycTerrierist

      Read that book when I was in high school – couldn’t put it down –
      utterly chilling and unforgettable.

  5. Ignacio

    Ammonia is hellishly toxic. If this is confirmed Ukrainian action, come on, Ukrainians keep doing this really really rogue things.

    1. The Rev Kev

      I haven’t heard any estimates of how much ammonia got released though I did read an unconfirmed story that the wind blew ammonia to the Ukrainian’s lines causing casualties. Funny thing this. This is the second such environmental disaster suffered during this war – the NS2 pipeline gas releases being the first – and yet there is nothing but radio silence from groups like Greenpeace. Certainly nothing from Great Thunberg. You think that groups like Greenpeace would be demonstrating in public about such environmental hooliganism but you hear zip from them.

      1. ChrisFromGA

        This drives me bonkers. I find an odd parallel with the progressive Dems who like to talk a good game, but when it really gets down to brass tacks, as in their votes could actually bring about change, they abandon all their principles to support the status quo.

  6. hendricks

    Gotta love this cottage industry of saying “the mainstream isn’t covering this issue, and it’s complete propaganda arm mouthpiece of the neo-liberal state” and once they do finally cover one of the conspiracy theories about the Nord Stream pipeline, there’s no renegging on all the previous spurious theories, or questioning this new narrative that the blob is pushing.

    Obviously, the question with this whole narrative, if the US was involved, why would they throw Ukraine under the bus? And why wouldn’t Russia spin up an even more vindictive justification for why this was an act of war by NATO, if not US?

    1. Pat

      As for Russia remaining silent Just let me quote the old adage “ Never Interfere With an Enemy While He’s in the Process of Destroying Himself”.

      Ukraine has increasingly become a losing proposition, and American politicians and bureaucrats always look out for number one. Why not throw the increasing liability under the bus when cover story number one falls apart.

    2. Lex

      “…If the US was involved, why would they throw Ukraine under the bus?” Really? If the US isn’t going to proudly admit that it committed the act (an obvious act of terrorism, a massive environmental catastrophe and arguably and act of war against Germany) then there needs to be a scapegoat. The US tried “Russia did it!” but didn’t put much effort into it. Somebody’s going to have to take the fall for this and as the US starts to cut Zelensky loose as it does with failing proxies, Ukraine is a great patsy.

      Regardless, the current story from intelligence leaks is that US intelligence knew Ukrainians (without the knowledge of the Kiev government, supposedly) were planning this operation. But it doesn’t suggest that the US tried to stop it, which still leaves the US deeply involved.

      I question this new narrative / conspiracy theory because it took this long for US intelligence to come out and say that it knew about Ukrainian planning. Seems rather convenient for the current trajectory of the US-Ukraine relationship. I have no idea what the truth is, mostly because all the countries performing these investigations refuse to release any information. They won’t even inform Russia. Russia has “spun up” the justification through numerous formal statements including at the UN. Everyone ignores Russia, but since Russia doesn’t actually want to have a war with NATO or the US, justifying it isn’t helpful.

      1. anon in so cal

        As Caitlin Johnstone remarked,

        “When it’s been common knowledge for a year that Ukraine is crawling with CIA spooks helping Ukrainian forces carry out secret operations, you’re not exactly exculpating your agency by saying you knew about an attack from forces your agency has long been intimately involved with.”

  7. SocalJimObjects

    https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4911497. A Taiwanese volunteer shares his experiences fighting in the trenches of Ukraine, he spent $10000 buying his own gears but his platoon was annihilated “twice” with the unit suffering more than 50% casualties, and by his own admission he wasn’t even fighting in the deadliest zones. Another confirmation of the horrific losses inflicted on the Ukrainian side no doubt.

    A couple of extracts from the article:

    He wrote that many who wanted to experience the excitement of war had their “enthusiasm extinguished.” For those expecting a first-world military, he said “This is not a modern NATO army with strong logistics and support.”

    He stressed that the battlefield is not the place to achieve glory or become a hero, but rather is “only about hurting others and being hurt. In return, there is only endless pain and suffering.” The soldier argued that the odds of losing are a great deal more than what can be gained.

    The volunteer closed by saying, that war is only for people with high ideals and beliefs who are ready to dedicate themselves fully. For such individuals, “I only sincerely offer my respects and wish you good luck.”

  8. Pat

    Gotta laugh at Anne Applebaum’s tweet since the declarative part of her statement is a lie except too many idiots believe her. Because in Applebaum’s case even one person believing anything she has to say is too many.

    Unfortunately I have a feeling that Carlson being the reason Fox lost that judgment is going to replace “Martha Stewart went to prison for insider trading” as my top nails on a blackboard false “well known fact”.

    1. flora

      Ah yes. Mrs.Radosław Sikorski. He’s the Polish politician and EU MEP who sent the US a “Well done” message after the Nord Stream pipeline destruction. / ;)

    2. Yves Smith Post author

      Thank you for mentioning that. As a friend who actually watches Fox a bit said, Maria Bartiromo had vastly more air time attacking the validity of the elections than Tucker ever did. Tucker in addition nearly always relegated that topic to the second half of the show, and had guests be the mouthpieces for the skepticism, rather than taking it up (much) himself.

      Mind you, that does not exonerate him but yes, he was far from the worst offender at Fox.

    3. Wæsfjord

      Camn you believe that this woman got to write the Britannica entry on the Holodomor? She basically submitted a fiction piece. I hope someone with a strong stomach dissects all the lies of this war. Still, nobody will care in a year or two. It will be on to the next cool cause and mistakes were made and blah. Infuriating.

      1. Lex

        Ah yes, the genocide wherein the people most upset about what the USSR did weren’t even part of the USSR when the tragedy happened. Even wikipedia describes the worst effects of the famine being in Central and Eastern Ukraine. So if I have this right, mostly Galicians are very upset that Stalin killed so many Orthodox, Russian speaking “Ukrainians” in the Donbass. Perhaps because they strongly believe that it’s their right to persecute those people rather than Stalin.

        1. chuck roast

          It’s my understanding that many of the Ukrainians most affected by Stalin’s policies were land owners and managers. My guess is that the newly collectivized farms were peopled by the children and grandchildren of serfs. All the more reason for the mental instability of the Banerites.

          1. Daniil Adamov

            Huh? Practically all of Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian peasantry were the descendants of serfs. The kind of “land owners and managers” that remained by Stalin’s time were overwhelmingly the descendants of serfs. The policies affected peasants of all ethnicities and socio-economic strata – again, overwhelmingly the descendants of serfs in all cases – by screwing up village economies and rebinding peasants to the land (the central component of serfdom, by the way), resulting in a massive, well-attested artificial famine. It certainly wasn’t a genocide (meaning a deliberate extermination of an ethnic group), and neither was it limited to Ukraine. Some of the worst-affected areas were in what is now Russia and Kazakhstan.

            1. chuck roast

              ‘The kind of “land owners and managers” that remained by Stalin’s time were overwhelmingly the descendants of serfs.’ OK. So there was no class war.

              1. Daniil Adamov

                There certainly was – by the Soviet party bureaucracy, against the relatively affluent parts of peasantry, using poorer peasants as a weapon. The latter suffered in the bargain, though. The famine spared no class, and no one among the peasants – rich or poor – was exempt from collectivisation and the passport system.

                It is worth remembering that the Bolsheviks generally regarded peasants with hostility, rightly supposing that they were nearly universally attached to the idea of private property and hence opposed to socialism.

                1. skippy

                  I remind that the whole thing had roots, at the time, with Lamarckianism as a corner stone of policy in both the West and the East – at the time. This is not unlike our currant dramas with neoclassical econ and its synergies.

                  In juxtaposition to this observation I would offer this post by Lars – https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2023/06/07/revealed-preference-theory-much-fuss-about-nothing/

                  As such, so much of the policies trotted out over time have roots in something much, much, more fundamental and ignorance of it has a way of obscuring the underpinnings that inform the policy makers. Especially now after some decades most policy makers are just widgets and cogs manufactured by neoliberalism, dependent on ideology and not thought.

                2. Scylla

                  Well, I will just throw out what cemented my views on this event:
                  There were recurring famines in this region every 2, 3, 4 years, going back decades, if not centuries.
                  Now I am certain that Soviet reorganization caused hardships, but this was the final famine and the fact remains- The Soviets ended the cycle of famines.
                  The fact that they are attacked for this rather than celebrated just blows my (family blogging) mind.

                  And by the way- just a note to Yves and Lambert, I am going to change my handle and email. I have always stuck with this one because I know you all do not like inconsistency in this realm and I respect that, but I stopped using this handle everywhere else 5-10 years ago, and I cannot even get into the email I list here anymore. In the unlikely event anyone is- interested I am going to switch to a handle I have been using on other platforms for a few years at least, so that people know it is me- Arkady Bogdanov

    1. The Rev Kev

      I had to revise my opinion of Rowan Atkinson recently when I read an article he had written where he explained that though an earlier adopter of electrical vehicles, now had qualms about doing so. What brought me up short was where he said-

      ‘My first university degree was in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems.’ Saywhatnow?

      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/03/electric-vehicles-early-adopter-petrol-car-ev-environment-rowan-atkinson

      2. Carolinian

        I used to love Mr. Bean. In your link he says

        When I was a child, any car that was five years old was a bucket of rust and halfway through the gate of the scrapyard. Not any longer. You can now make a car for £15,000 that, with tender loving care, will last for 30 years. It’s sobering to think that if the first owners of new cars just kept them for five years, on average, instead of the current three, then car production and the CO2 emissions associated with it, would be vastly reduced. Yet we’d be enjoying the same mobility, just driving slightly older cars.

        Which is mostly true and should be borne in mind by those who think current ice cars are no good, unlike the old days. Obviously there is a practical and environmental objection to cars that run on thousands of tiny lithium batteries and I believe even the Tesla people saw their solution as a bridge to some better battery technology.

        Atkinson’s other suggestion may be the only truly effective approach to our transportation/environmental dilemma: drive less.

      1. chuck roast

        Ha! With a little practice my cat could do that…but he prolly couldn’t stop his tail from twitching.

    3. Henry Moon Pie

      Kind of undermines the whole Machine Model of the universe as Alan Watts called it.

    4. Lexx

      We’ve killed hundreds of squirrels and not one of their bodies was found in the ‘flying squirrel’ pose.

      More ‘yoga’ for that one, keeping flying muscles stretched and limber while supported by hard tile in safe environment; belly up is a luxury in the wild.

    5. pretzelattack

      i liked the way it used the prop. here lies the squirrel, crushed by falling broom. rip little one.

  11. Roger Blakely

    The Real Reasons Why Workers Are Producing Less New Republic (resilc)

    I just heard a blurb on news radio that Martha Stewart is telling me to get back to the office and work harder. The discontent in the investor class must be reaching critical levels.

    1. Kyle

      There are three classes in America: Working, Managerial, Ownership (investor)

      In the past, Ownership has used the Managerial class as a “wedge” between them and the Working class. Think about it – you bitch about your manager and how awful they make your life at work, but in reality, they are just working on edicts from Ownership. Managers become the “face” of ownership and have all the vitriol directed at them.

      This causes in-fighting between two groups that are not separated by much income wise while the third (ownership) laughs all day on their yachts.

      I think we are starting to see the working class and managerial class come together a bit in the past 3 years – WFH/Great Resignation has forced managers to allow for more autonym in the workplace, which has….dropped the tensions between the two groups.

      Ownership has taken notice and all of these edicts about RTO and such are meant to re-establish that hatred between workers/managers. Think about it – the managers will be the ones enforcing things like RTO and will also be the ones who are bitched about in the evening when the workers go home to their families.

      They are using a very old playbook and I think might not work this time, we shall see!

      /endrant

      1. hunkerdown

        It hasn’t dropped the tension between the two groups, at all. It’s just moved it into the political arena, where the PMC has an organ (and the working class hasn’t for a long time, if ever). Consider the total information domination that is deeply in their class interest and strongly against the working class interest (see the Max Headroom episode “Lessons”, or Stallman’s “The Right to Read”, for the future of epistemic freedom).

        Also, PMC do have a strong predilection for falsely portraying themselves as in mystical unity with the working class, but they’re about as trustworthy with a deal as the US foreign policy blob. They’re going to have to stop playing politico and do more than shadow-box upward if they want their credibility back.

  12. Alice X

    >Nordstream

    On May 5, the Nation ran a piece by James Bamford speculating that the Ukrainians did it using a drone, or drones. His piece went nowhere except into the dustbin, which is maybe where it belonged. There is no doubt in my mind that the ‘Murcans did it, one way or the other, but why send in divers when we are so gadget happy.

    1. digi_owl

      Because an ROV need to a surface ship to power it and control it, as radio signals do not do well in deep waters. And once you have a surface ship capable of carrying and operating an ROV, you also have one that can carry divers.

  13. Steve H.

    Richard Wolff: Second, how can such leaders’ behavior be explained when large American majorities acknowledge those declines as ongoing long-term trends? A Pew Research Center random poll taken among Americans between March 27 and April 2, 2023, asked what they expected the situation of the United States to be in 2050 compared with today. Some 66 percent expect the U.S. economy will be weaker. Seventy-one percent expect the United States will be less important in the world. Seventy-seven percent expect the United States will be more politically divided. Eighty-one percent expect the gap between rich and poor will grow. The people clearly sense what their leaders desperately deny. That difference haunts U.S. politics.

    Or to put it another way:

    Eighty-one percent expect the gap between leaders and the people will grow. The poor clearly sense what the rich desperately deny.

  14. Nikkikat

    Thanks for flying squirrel video. Funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. This guy was extremely clever.

  15. tevhatch

    U.S. knew about Ukrainian plot to bomb Nord Stream pipeline months before attack Washington Post (furzy).

    Independent Nord Stream expedition discovers clue missed by official investigators JEFFREY BRODSKY·JUNE 5, 2023

    The Grayzone participated in what appears to be the first independent expedition investigating the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines. Near one of the blast sites, we discovered a diving boot used by US Navy divers. How did Swedish investigators miss this?

    DNC: ‘Whoops, well, we have more than one way to disappear evidence. Just look at Russiagate.’

    2. lyman alpha blob

      Why do I suspect the Ukrainian plot is actually a US spook ordering Zelensky to ask Uncle Joe to send some Navy Seals in to blow the thing?

  16. griffen

    Golf tours merging is hardly a earth shattering story for the many who really don’t care or don’t follow the sports as business headlines. But this is earth shattering on a few levels. Key participants on the US professional tour were by most accounts, left in the dark. Rory, Tiger, major champions like Colin Morikawa. To say these guys are good is a supreme understatement. World class talent.

    The PGA tour will or could likely face a severe backlash as this might seem like business as usual but it’s more underhanded and perhaps even a little sinister. Golfers who stayed loyal were seeing fellow peers leaving for incredible, generational wealth pay packages. And the PGA executives pull this stunt, wait for it, not even a week after the pre-eminent golf champion Jack Nicklaus hosted his annual tournament known as the Memorial. Jack and wife Barbara have raised millions upon millions for local charities, and Jack is by all counts a fantastic human. Nice going, Mr. Commissioner Monahan, really nice job.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      Big money corrupts everything it touches. Shame on the PGA for taking the sellout route.

      Most professional golfers aren’t the type to take on political or humanitarian causes but don’t ever expect to hear a peep from one of them about Saudi human rights abuses.

      At this stage of his career, Tiger can’t realistically compete for majors with his health issues. Maybe he can channel his competitive drive to starting a new tour.

      1. jefemt

        Seems like the merger was announced a day after Opec announced a reduction of 1 Million bbls a day July 1, and then the same day as the anoouncemnt that the price is going up.

        Gotta cover those golfers lifestyles/ purses…

        Monopoly is a bored game of the Oligarchy.

      2. JohnA

        The professional cricketers union in England is said to be more right wing that their employers. I suspect that also applies to golfers.

        1. Michael Fiorillo

          My impression was that prior to the advent of televised golf and Arnold Palmer, “professional” golfers spent most of their time hustling dentists at country clubs (just as many founding NFL club owners were bookies)…

          1. griffen

            That’s a fairly accurate depiction, based on my yet to finish biography on Ben Hogan; albeit I don’t doubt the hustling aspect. When Hogan and his golf peer Byron Nelson were quite young the avenue was to become a club professional and then maybe spent the off months travelling distances across the country. A lot of events on the West Coast meant car pools and minding your pennies if you failed to cash a reasonable check.

            If my memory serves, Palmer was at the forefront of a new era when it came to being a “face” of the tour and a celebrity endorsement became an actual business proposition. Funnily, Jack Nicklaus is the son of a dentist.

      3. griffen

        I caught a few snippets of Rory at a press conference this morning, from the site of this week’s Canadian Open. Rory sounds oddly still in the camp with Monahan, but there are notes of betrayal and disappointment in how he worded a few responses.

        Like you said, follow the money. I expect there will be news in the coming weeks, and especially those golfers that walked, and took the bag of money while talking about family time or whatever, they can collectively grin and smirk a little more on the driving range. As for the relevant US professionals, Brooks Koepka I might still root for in the majors, probably not anyone else.

        I’d love to be a fly on the wall whenever Tiger speaks to Phil and his fake grin about it. I used to really pull for Mickelson, and heck just 2 years removed from winning an unlikely major.

        1. chuck roast

          Wait…Dmitry Orlov will probably not skate for the Boston Bruins next year because they can’t afford him. More importantly, he is a free agent. A damn shame that. He is a truly superior defenseman. But, no matter. There are free agents in all the sports…and they follow the money. Fans understand. We are a long way from Catfish Hunter who signed a five-year, $3.25M contract in 1974. Chump change. Without even adjusting for inflation.

          I know…you hang around a golf-club all your life and you’re not a caddy, you have difficulty speaking because of the silver spoon lodged in your pie hole. That’s the way it goes…and we can thank the great and courageous Curt Flood for breaking the plantation…even for the rich guys.

          1. griffen

            Funny snippet, odd data point…Catfish Hunter is from my part of the country in eastern North Carolina. So too, Gaylord Perry but they never taught me to throw a spitter on the farm ( I had no future in the majors with or without ). I’d have more in common with the Carl Spacklers on the golf course at any rate. Being a looper for the Dalai Lama, the flowing grace….striking.

    2. Will

      Not as singular an event, but the Saudis are making big moves to improve its domestic league and hopes to host the World Cup in 2030. The Saudi fund behind LV Golf recently bought 4 clubs in the domestic league and those clubs are in the process of acquiring big name stars for very big salaries to join CR7 who’s reportedly being paid €200m per year. Messi tops that list with a rumoured offer of €1 billion salary.

      Pushing its domestic league into the upper echelon may have even bigger sportwashing benefits than golf, etc., because international players will live there and give more opportunities for publishing positive media.

      Here’s one summary of recent events:

      https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jun/07/saudi-arabia-star-football-signings-effective-tool-benzema-ronaldo

  17. The Rev Kev

    “No – Such Propaganda Delusions Will Not Win The War”

    Check out the Russian clobber list in that article-

    ‘During the three days of combat operations in all directions Ukraine lost up to 3,715 men, 52 tanks and 207 armored combat vehicles, 134 trucks, 48 field artillery guns, as well as five aircraft, two helicopters and 53 drones.

    Russia’s losses were immeasurably smaller: “Altogether 71 servicemen of the combined group of forces were killed and 210 others wounded while repulsing the enemy offensive. Fifteen tanks, nine infantry fighting vehicles, two trucks and nine guns were taken out.’

    It should be mentioned that 8 of those 52 tanks destroyed were Leopard 2 tanks and 3 were French AMX-10RCs fighting vehicles which people have been calling tanks. Alexander Mercouris points out that the Leopard 1s have not been delivered yet so they had to be Leopard 2s. Regardless, that is a big chunk of the Ukrainian tank fleet gone in only 3 days. Losing 5 aircraft was a disaster as well and F-16s would have made no difference.

    No army can sustain losses at this rate and I am calling this as the Big Offensive that has been in the works for so long. People online have floated the possibility that the Russians may retrieve those Leopard 2 tanks and put one on display outside the German Embassy in the same way that the Germans have been putting wrecked Russian tanks outside the Russian Embassy and Consulates. The Ukrainians, despite what Antony Blinken says, are about out of options and desperate people do stupid things.

    1. tevhatch

      According to SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER, at least 3 of those Leopard (version 1/2 not clear) upon careful study of released gun camera footage are likely to be farm equipment. Take that as one will, it certainly doesn’t distract from the action being one cluster f***. I’d expect more terrorist activity as a result.

      1. Yves Smith Post author

        I looked at the various tweets and I see not a single one clearly taken from the MoD, as claimed.

        Mercouris, who is pretty fluent in Russian, yesterday (after this story was circulating) said no one had presented any evidence showing a Leopard 2 tank kill, which I took him to be saying indirectly he had not seen one from the MoD. He has said he always follows their daily clobber list, so I have to think he also would have watched the Shoigu presentation. And you would have expected a voice over from Shoigu if that had been part of his talk.

        Recall yesterday Nov 2022 footage of explosions at the dam were presented as current. I was fooled and put one of those tweets in my post, and Judge Napolitano presented the same clip that had nothing to do with the strikes yesterday as what actually did happen yesterday.

        1. Polar Socialist

          Here’s a Telegram posting from Russian MoD channel, “signed” by Shoigu from yesterday (6th), talking about Ukrainian casualties on the 5th.

          28 танков, в том числе 8 «Леопардов» и 3 колесных танка AMX-10

          Translation: “28 tanks, including 8 “Leopards” and 3 wheeled AMX-10″

          1. Yves Smith Post author

            Yes, that has been widely reported, including by Mercouris. But Shoigu including Leopards in their clobber list (they similarly specify their claims re artillery platforms taken out, like HIMARS, particular types of howitzers) does not even begin to prove the MoD published that video. If you can supply that, great, but nothing I have seen supports the idea that it is anything other than an unrelated image/clip being attributed to the MoD. Again, Mercouris said there was no visual evidence of a Leopard tank kill provided, so he was holding judgement on that in reserve. Given his habit of following MoD releases, you would think he would have seen an MoD image/video if it had been released.

            Recall the Ukraine side has regularly released images and videos and tried to attribute them to their supposed success, like showing dead tanks from Syria and saying they were current kills of Russian tanks, showing blown bridges from other conflicts and taking credit. Given that history, it is not crazy to think Ukraine trying to tar Russia with what they have done, Making Shit Up with bogus pix and videos.

        2. tevhatch

          https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/portmortem-analysis-on-kakhovka-dam/comment/17004461

          I had some time to dig around and found the link where he discusses the claims/counter claims. I didn’t bother to check them. I probably don’t have the eyesight now, and maybe never did, not having seem the images. I will note when his commentariat calls him out on questionable inferences, he’s willing to allow for a mistake. Alexander Mercouris has his legal training, it would be hard to find anyone who can speak with his care and precision. I just download the transcript, and sprint through it, but what you say concurs with what I remember reading.

          Regarding the dam, it very well may have been a stress or stress/maintenance accident. The Sayano-Shushenskaya power station accident is worth a study, I had the soul-searing experience of working with engineers from China Southern Grid, charged with turning the report the Russia graciously shared into local training material. Some of the images will never leave me.

      2. The Rev Kev

        I saw one black-and-white video clip of the destruction of a vehicle which could have been farm equipment when you half-shut your eyes but three suggests that either the Ukrainians were driving them into a battlefield to absorb some of the missiles or that the Russians ‘forgot’ that they had been left in those fields. I can confirm those 3 French tanks as there are videos that I have seen of them sitting abandoned but I would not be surprised to learn that the Ukrainians had orders to tow away any Leopard 2 Tank kills so as not to embarrass the Germans. It’s that sort of war.

        1. tevhatch

          Decoy use is highly probable, and if they were moving when hit, then the driver(s) must be some of those expendables ammo sump ethnics, as I’ve posited many of the Russian or Hungarian speaking untrained troops sent into Bakhmut likely were. After all, getting the Russians to kill the undesirables while expending ammo must be a double win for the Nazis.

          I’d expect a serious effort would be made to recover Leopard 2 or any other MBT, it’s seldom that they are ruined beyond repair and they are rare/costly. However, I’d be even more surprised to see they had the proper equipment to do it.

          I’d not be surprised if the French light-Tank/recon MWV crews fired off their ammo at a distance and then torched them rather than ride up on that thin skinned target. The British Tanks are much heavier, hardly fit for purpose. They would be impossible to recover on anything but the finest metaled road under combat conditions without a full engineering unit (not recorded as being supplied). They are probably parked in a warehouse somewhere with bluescreens in the background for making propaganda if anything good for the Nazis happens.

        2. Lex

          I’ve seen an explanation that the appearance on the video may be an artifact of recording the helmet visor display of the pilot/gunner in the helicopter along with video compression artifacts. That seems quite logical to me, but I don’t have enough technical knowledge to know enough to have a serious opinion. If the film was recent, there’s no reason to have harvesting equipment in fields (and it looks most like a harvester rather than a sprayer) since the Spring harvest would be over and the fall harvest is months out.

        3. skippy

          There is some video from late Feb, from some non rusted on sorts military equip mavens, about a possible 7+ kilometer BMT kill X2 by a T-80 variant with the elite naval mech unit. That would beat the record held by a leopard 2. In the video captured from the optics used too target the kill its nigh impossible to make out the target save a tiny silhouette at distance.

          Of note is the estimation of distances through flight time/speed, 20 sec, which in turn then hints at effective and maximum range of the anti tank round being used e.g. not its maximum range. Huge deal with engagement when considering stand off range and your opposite number can pluck you off before your even near you own maximum range to respond.

          Ex Dragon gunner with clean hits out to maximum range with it, scored a few cases of beer on them – smirk … So yeah the target was very small with its optics and then one has to cross hair the target and deal with the IR emitter on the missile as it tracks down range in you optics = hyper focused.

  18. LaRuse

    It’s sad to see my City listed under the Gunz category this morning, but here we are. It was a Richmond City high school graduation, not VCU as suggested by the headline. And Hugenot High School is one of the more affluent high schools in the City, not “inner city” at all. There were a lot of injuries besides just those hit by bullets – a little kid was hit by a car as people fled.
    That theater is one of the prettiest venues in Richmond – true early 20th Century decadant architechture. My husband and I married in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and were parishoners there for for the years we were Catholics, only two doors from the Altria/Landmark/Mosque theater, where the graduation took place.
    I am just sort of numb. My boss’s daughter will graduate today from high school in another venue only a couple of blocks from Monroe Park/Altria Theater. I haven’t asked him how he’s feeling venturing downtown into a large crowd where we can be certain that many people will be armed “just in case” but I have to believe he and his family will be very much on edge.
    There certainly will be the usual public pleas for the violence to stop and equally loud pleas for there to be ever more gunz in everyone’s back pockets and even more LEOs walking around every public gathering that occurs in Richmond. When my daughter graduates at the Seigle Center in 3 years, will we be handed body armor at the door? Armed escorts to and from the parking deck?
    It’s exhausting.

    2. Late Introvert

      At my daughter’s graduation there was no backpacks and the entrance was like airport security, with metal detectors.

  19. The Rev Kev

    “D-Day’s Historic Beaches Face a New Onslaught: Rising Seas”

    It’s sad that though when you go there, it does not really look like a battlefield unless you look for the remaining fortifications. But landscapes change over time and is not always about rising seas. As an example, during the US Civil War there was a helluva battle in a place called Island Number Ten in the Mississippi river. It involved up to 30,000 men and ended in a Union victory. The point is that if you wanted to go visit that place, you can’t as it is mostly gone. The river took it and other battlefields have suffered the same fate-

    https://www.historynet.com/happened-island-no-10/

    1. Ghost in the Machine

      I am genuinely confused about the recent spate of alien discussions. I really want to believe…I think. Because it represents a potential deus ex machina saving of our sorry human asses. Or our destruction maybe. So I am still somewhat ambivalent. But, even in 2023 it is still fuzzy pictures and hearsay. I need to see the goods at this point. To much reason for the military industrial complex to throw out diversions or to grub for more money.

      1. Michael McK

        Yes, more funds for space force needed. Also good to have something for the plebs to fear and unite against (under our benevolent leadership of course).

      3. Mildred Montana

        >Ghost in the Machine: “I really want to believe…”

        Well, as a UFO witness (along with thousands of others), I do. And this thing we all saw wasn’t some vague light shimmering in the distance. It was a mere half-mile away and in sight of many for at least five minutes. Then it disappeared in a second, straight up and gone, with only an all-pervasive “humming” sound to mark its departure.

        I laugh when the MIC uses UFOs as a “diversionary” tactic or as an excuse to “grub for money”. Because that’s all it’s doing. It has no interest in finding the real explanation as shown by its eagerness to present them to the public as a national security risk.

        National security risk! LOL! If their intentions were malign, they could have turned Earth (including the MIC) into a smoking cinder years ago. And as far as a risk to military aircraft goes, I suggest that those aircraft pose more of a risk to the UFOs than they do to them. Top Gunners and Black Hawk pilots are not unknown to crash, sometimes into each other.

        No reports on the other hand of UFOs crashing (I am dismissing Roswell as a rural legend). They seem to mastered the skill of aeronautics, something the MIC could better spend its time and money on.

    2. Henry Moon Pie

      I’m surprised at the claimed quantity of crashed vehicles. They’re capable of interstellar travel but have a lot of crashes on Earth? Who builds their spacecraft? Tesla?

  21. The Rev Kev

    “Scientists Successfully Transmit Space-Based Solar Power to Earth for the First Time’

    I, for one, certainly hope that they iron all the bugs out of it first and that our corporate overlords don’t rush it into production lest there be unforeseen consequences-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK0s7zfdDOc (2:04 mins)

      1. Roland

        The idea of beaming energy to Earth, and what could happen if the beam deviates, was the premise of one of Isaac Asimov’s classic robot stories, “Reason,” published in Astounding in 1941.

    2. tevhatch

      Sabine Hossenfelder covered this topic in one of her YouTube podcast videos, I don’t have time to search for it now. I’d put this scheme right up with solar roads in the scam area until some new phenomena in physics is discovered.

      1. Charger01

        Sim city 2000 predicted this, and the problem with projecting energy as a beam back to earth.

    3. Henry Moon Pie

      This is like bargaining stage. To avoid acknowledging the necessity of radically reducing energy consumption, we’re going to be offered all kinds of magical tech solutions in which we can hope. “Will this one work at scale?” is like “If I become a good person, God, will you cure my cancer?”

  22. Robert Hahl

    Exclusive: Accounting for war – Ukraine’s climate fallout Reuters (resilc)

    This says, dubiously, that the extra emissions amount to adding another Belgium, without going into the issue of particulates, or the likely net effects; hotter or colder? My theory is colder. For instance after the 1991 Gulf war, in which Iraq set fire to hundreds of oil wells, the summer of 1992 was cold.

    “The average temperature for the three month (June-August 1992) summer period
    in Detroit was 67.0 which was 3.1 below the normal of 70.1 degrees. This made the
    Summer of 1992 the second coldest on record back to 1870.”
    https://www.weather.gov/dtx/talessum

    I have heard that the weather after WW2 was unusually cold for four years thereafter.

  23. nippersdad

    “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win.”

    That was fast. Only a few weeks into Kennedy’s campaign and they are already on to laughing and fighting with him.

    Controversy!

    “Democrats would be foolish to mock or belittle RFK Jr. Every time we make fun of those who hold fringe positions, we lose,” said Michael Ceraso,…. “The Democratic Party acting smug never works.”

    So they choose the smug route

    “He’s in the wrong party to attract votes centering on COVID conspiracy theories, vaccine phobia and Putin adoration,” Kessler said. “There’s plenty of room at the inn for those views in the Republican Party. He should go there.”

    and

    “He’s cobbled together a small and weakly-held coalition of anti-vaxxers, disillusioned Democrats and people who remember his daddy’s name,” said Sawyer Hackett, …..“His message is largely incoherent, and he lacks the political heft to make any discernible impact in the race beyond being a gnat the Biden campaign is trying to ignore,” he said.

    I have to say, I was very disappointed about the whole Israel thing, but I am loving how he is taking the fight to the Dems by pointing out that it was the Soviet system that chose its’ leadership behind closed doors. That reference to the DNC lawsuit has got to hurt, and I hope he uses it to best advantage.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4037218-rfk-jr-s-rising-profile-sparks-democratic-jitters/

    1. John Steinbach

      Historical Materialism is a London-based Marxist theoretical journal. Jack Davies is attacking the theorizing behind “Settler State Studies”, which describes settler states a being about dispossession of Indigenous in order to facilitate “primitive accumulation”, which, in turn fuels capitalism/imperialism. In other words, Settler Colonialism is immoral, unethical and exploitative.

      Davies argues that Capitalism itself is immoral, unethical & exploitative and that studies of settler colonialism should reflect that larger reality. Some very obtuse argumentation & verbal superfluity, and massive footnoting. Could easily be seen as an apology for settler colonialism, but the author near the end makes it clear that this is not his intention.

      1. Dave

        What I found interesting about it was its critique of a certain academic trend, beginning in the 1990s, of explaining contemporary capitalist predations as extensions of a “logic” of 19th century settler colonialism.

        You might think, “this is just inside-academia baseball — who cares?” But the truth is, these theories are being taught in schools and do shape the broader public discourse. I can say from first-hand experience that college students are learning that neoliberalism is just 19th century settler colonialism in a different key. The question this article raises (in, to my mind, a lively, not so obtuse, way) is whether that is a good argument or not.

  25. The Rev Kev

    “New Mexico woman finds cocaine on Sonic hot dog”

    Good thing that she didn’t throw it into a garbage bin. Otherwise a wandering bear might have found it.

  26. NewReader

    Declining productivity–“businesses have little incentive to invest in capital because they can always hire another worker on the cheap.”

    7 million of them pouring in thanks to The Bi d envenido.
    (“Welcome!” for non Spanish speakers).

    Our two daughters wanted to work over the summer. Planned ahead and applied at the local bakery we love. Owner mentioned that only bilingual people were hired because a critical mass of the workers only spoke Spanish. This in a town that is 95% White and 4% Asian.

    Next up, perhaps they can hire undoccompanied minors to really increase profits and productivity? We spend our money in a different bakery now.

  27. nippersdad

    Re: Blinken’s battle hymn.

    That speech was truly a work of art. The parts that I saw were dumbfounding, and then I actually read it.

    “President Biden told President Putin that we were prepared to discuss our mutual security concerns – a message that I reaffirmed repeatedly – including in person, with Foreign Minister Lavrov. We offered written proposals to reduce tensions. Together with our allies and partners, we used every forum to try to prevent war, from the NATO-Russia Council to the OSCE, from the UN to our direct channels.”

    Anyone following along when Russia presented its’ draft treaties to both NATO and the US knows that was complete BS. And the speech gets worse. I am just amazed that one never hears laughs from the audience when he gets up to speak…….

    But, anyway, the full speech can be found here:

    https://ru.usembassy.gov/secretary-blinken-russias-strategic-failure-and-ukraines-secure-future/

    1. pjay

      Hersh’s sudden reappearance, beginning in dramatic fashion with his Nord Stream article, seems to signal a definite schism within the National Security Establishment. This post compliments yesterday’s Foreign Affairs article (‘An Unwinnable War’) in its reflection of a realist orientation and suggestions toward some sort of cease-fire, perhaps with a DMZ and “international peace-keepers.” Hersh seems to be serving as the mouthpiece for the anti-neocon realists in the intelligence community; his criticism of the Biden neocons like Blinken has been scathing. As usual, the CIA mostly escapes culpability by the “just following the President’s orders” line, and I had to laugh at Hersh’s example of Holbrooke and Bosnia. But anything that might contribute to reducing the neocon insanity, if not cutting this cancer out completely, is a positive thing.

      1. nippersdad

        “This post compliments yesterday’s Foreign Affairs article (‘An Unwinnable War’) in its reflection of a realist orientation and suggestions toward some sort of cease-fire, perhaps with a DMZ and “international peace-keepers.”

        While I certainly agree that there must be some kind of schism going on, the Texiera leaks tend to show that, I felt like the Foreign Policy article was more representative of the backstop neocon position for when it all comes down around their ears. They are giving nothing away, there. That article was notable for containing all of the same talking points that we have been hearing for over a year now, and it is damning that they start their discussion AFTER Ukraine pulled out of the negotiations process in April of last year.

        True realists, IOW, would not subject themselves to the assumptions that rein in their policy prospective. Parts of that article read as farce that could only have come from a Blinken or Nuland with their backs against the wall. Far from Hersh playing their mouthpiece, I think the originators of that article are the ones that Hersh has been advocating against.

        It is simply not realistic to expect Russia to endure the same kind of situation, plus a DMZ, that they felt the need to overcome through military force after the Minsk Agreements fell through. They have no faith in our diplomacy (rightly so), they have no need to mind our feelings and they have the ability to take this fight all the way to the Polish and Romanian border. If they want a DMZ they will find it in NATO territory, and that is what that article signally fails to point out.

        True realists would be rereading those draft treaties again, and taking their cues from them. But, yes, let them fail at that as well. I am sure that is what Russia is waiting for. The best description of how this war will end was described by Ritter over a year ago; it is going to end like the Pacific theater in WWII, with a Russian gunship in Odessa harbor and an unconditional surrender. That is the true realist viewpoint, and it is one that will be humiliating for those neocons at Foreign Policy magazine for not having been considered at all.

        1. pjay

          You could be right. I was using “realist” pretty loosely here, referring mainly to some of the solutions being offered. I also agree that these proposals are not actually *realistic*, in that Russia would never – and should not be expected to – agree to such proposals. That said, I think the Foreign Affairs article does represent a split between those who may have been gung-ho early on but are now considering ways to cut our losses (thus all the usual bulls**t propaganda before proposing some kind of ceasefire), and the more fanatical neocons who are still willing to fight to the last Ukrainian.

          You are right these are not true “realists” like a Mearsheimer. I’m not quite sure where Hersh’s sources fall on the ideological spectrum.

            1. nippersdad

              That is a great article. I can only assume that they thought no one would continue to read past their talking points about how damaged the Russian military is. Edit that out and it reads very well.

          2. nippersdad

            I saw something the other day about Sullivan’s cold reception in Vienna by the Chinese foreign minister which gave the impression that he left with a flea in his ear. Basically, China told him to just deal with reality. If that is indeed the case, this might be the neocon faction you are speaking of.

            There are just so many mixed signals going around these days, and the election is coming up. I saw this brutal Trump campaign video* that included Biden’s pull out from Afghanistan, and if the Ukraine denouement is no better then he is going to have wall to wall coverage of it that no one would envy him for.

            They need to do something very soon, but they just don’t appear to be bright enough to miss the escape horizon they are presently aiming for.

            * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IOk4VyWC5U

  28. Tom Stone

    I’m beginning to encounter more aggressive TDS and have seen my first “Biden 2024” bumper stickers and I’ve been considering how to respond.
    With the TDS it seems simple,
    “If Trump had been reelected we wouldn’t have a $15 Minimum wage, a whole generation of Americans would still be crippled with Student Loan debt and Roe Vs Wade might never have been codified”.
    If they object I’ll angrily ask them why they are spewing Russian Propaganda and demand to know why they are calling “Our” President a liar.
    For the Biden supporters I’ll ask what they are doing to support “Our President’s” most important Domestic Policies, the ones he’s been talking about non stop since 1973.
    1) Ending Social Security.
    2) Ending Medicare.
    3) and a Domestic Terrorism bill that would criminalize criticizing the Government.
    It’s always helpful to clarify any political discussion and we should all do what we can…

  29. semper loquitur

    COVID Field Report: “None so blind…”

    I had to go into the office briefly this morning. Upon arrival, I ran into three of the bright and plucky kids I work with. I made a point to mention Covixyl to them, explained it’s benefits, and showed them the logo. I noted that this was an important new product.

    One smiled and asked me if it it’s safe to use it a lot. Another laughed kindly and said I looked like I was giving a public presentation. The third noted that I take more precautions against COVID than anyone she knows.

    Then they all promptly forgot the information. No discussion. No questions. You could practically hear my words fall out of their brains. So it goes.

  30. pjay

    – ‘Son of late CIA director cautions against far-right extremism in the US’ – Guardian

    Well, if liberal Democrats can rehabilitate Bush and Cheney, I guess the once “lefty” Guardian can rehabilitate Richard Helms! Very touching tribute to our defeat of “right-wing extremism”.

    I was wondering if there would be *any* reference to Helms’ shady past. There was – in paragraph 17 (of 19). Here it is:

    “Richard Helms’s career was not without scandal. One episode saw him plead no contest to two misdemeanor counts of failing to “fully, completely and accurately testify” before a Senate committee in 1973 over his CIA subordinates’ covert attempts to block Salvador Allende from becoming president of Chile. Though he insisted that he did not mean to withhold anything from the Senate, he was fined $2,000.”

    “Nonetheless, Dennis said he imagines his father “just rotates in his grave” in Arlington National Cemetery most times that Trump speaks.”

    Yeah, a few misdemeanors here and there, but nothing like the Demon Fascist Trump!

    For anyone who knows anything about Helms… words fail me anymore.

  31. Matthew G. Saroff

    It seems that every few weeks, the CIA leaks a new theory over the Nord Stream in an attempt to direct attention away from Langley.

    I still believe Sy Hersh.

  33. Willow

    For those without a business continuity plan in place for the eventual war in Europe life is going to get very very difficult. It won’t be just Poland & Baltic States. UK’s obsession with defeating Russia has gotten to the point where it’s willing to take risks well above its capability. Question is whether France, Italy or Germany will join?

    And I wouldn’t exclude the possibility that Poland would engage even stronger in this context on a national basis and be followed by the Baltic states, maybe including the possibility of troops on the ground. “I think the Poles would seriously consider going in and assemble a coalition of the willing if Ukraine doesn’t get anything in Vilnius.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/07/nato-members-may-send-troops-to-ukraine-warns-former-alliance-chief

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