Australia farmer rediscovers locally extinct quoll in trap Miami Herald (furzy)
All the Pandas in American zoos are being taken back by China International Affairs (Micael T)
Small Californian Town Elects Dog as Ita Mayor for Third Time in a Row My Modern Met (David L)
On Pneumatic Tires Scope of Work (Randy K)
DARPA Hopes to Beam Power Across 200 Kilometers Spectrum IEEE (David L)
Choice modelling can tell us what people will do Terry Flynn
Ex-Secret Service Agent’s Account of JFK’s Assassination Could Cast Doubt on ‘Lone Gunman’ Theory Smithosonian (David L)
Up Mount Improbable Dublin Review of Books. Anthony L: “The Man Who Would Save MORALITY.”
The economics of thinness Economist (Dr. Kevin)
Flesh-Eating Bacteria Infections Are on the Rise in the U.S. Here’s How to Stay Safe Scientific American
More and more people are having ‘tweakments’. But what do we really know about the long-term effects? Guardian (Dr. Kevin)
#COVID-19
🧵 Why some vaccines stop transmission & others don’t:
Vaccines that stop transmission are often against viruses that replicate internally first and only then transmit (like measles). So if the vaccine stops internal replication, it stops transmission.
For COVID vaccines…
1/
— Michael Mina (@michaelmina_lab) November 27, 2021
Overhyping Vaccines Wasn’t Pro-Vaccine. It Was Pro-Stop-Worrying-About-COVID. Science-Based Medicine (John S)
Nobel Goes to Pair Who Worked on COVID Vaccines Newser (Dr. Kevin). As scientist GM put it:
There isn’t a single working mRNA vaccine right now.
How can you give a Nobel Prize for it?
Climate/Environment
Just how bad is climate change? It’s worse than you think, says Doomsday author TechWire (ma)
FCC issues first-of-its-kind space debris fine against Dish CNN (Kevin W)
The Climate Sleuth Uncovering Methane Leaks for the United Nations Bloomberg (ma)
Here comes the EV backlash Politico
Worried About Living in a Flood Zone? Try a House That Floats. New York Times (David L)
China?
So it turns out Taiwan is doing business with China in chip plants. So when will Washington begin sanctioning Taiwan?
Taipei doesn't want anything to do with Washington's ludicrous idea of another proxy war, this time with China:
Several Taiwanese technology companies are…
— The Sirius Report (@thesiriusreport) October 3, 2023
1/3
"The World Bank cut its 2024 forecast for China’s gross domestic product growth to 4.4% from 4.8%."A common discussion I've had with a few Chinese economists in recent weeks is about the GDP growth target Beijing…https://t.co/ncdDuoS0oO via @WSJ
— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) October 3, 2023
India
India tells Canada to withdraw dozens of diplomatic staff Financial Times. Lead story
Africa
Aftermath of Coup d’État in Africa: Unfolding Unforeseen Outcomes Modern Diplomacy (Micael T)
US imposes fresh round of sanctions over instability in Sudan Middle East Online
New Not-So-Cold War
CANADA AND THE NATO ALLIANCE HUNKER DOWN TO DEFEND RACE WAR AGAINST RUSSIA — THE NEW EVIDENCE John Helmer
Slovakia may join two other NATO countries at odds with Zelensky Responsible Statecraft
European Union foreign ministers meet in Ukraine to escalate war with Russia WSWS. Neglected to include this in today’s post. IMHO this is the analogues to the pronouncement that an official enjoys the complete confidence of the government…the tell that they are on the ropes and their days are likely numbered.
The Second Comeback of the “Populist” German Foreign Policy (Micael T)
War Fatigue Complicates West’s Aid to Ukraine Indian Punchline
People Are Dying For Inches In Ukraine, The “World’s Largest Arms Fair” Eastern Angle (Micael T)
The Average Age Of Ukraine’s Army Moon of Alabama. And Wallace calls for killing what is left of Ukraine’s young to save the Western rules-based order.
Sen. Lindsey Graham says “do you think I would leave Ukraine? I don’t believe that one bit” YouTube. Kevin W: “Graham says no money for the border without money for the Ukraine. And not just $24 billion but $60-70 billion.”
People from Russian-annexed regions returning to Kyiv-controlled territories Anadolu Agency
Fascism as triage Steve Waldman (UserFriendly)
University of Alberta's chancellor in the 1980s, Peter Savaryn, was a Ukrainian Waffen SS veteran. Savaryn cofounded UofA's Canadian Institute for Ukrainian Studies program, which set up endowments for several Waffen SS veterans including Hunka. #NaziGate https://t.co/gtpaWaBfEZ
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) October 1, 2023
Imperial Collapse Watch
Former Venezuelan Coup Plotter Hired By Florida College to Speak on ‘Defending Democracy’ Libertarian Institute. Kevin W: “Greedo becomes Florida man.”
Ports servicing RO-RO type ships with American military equipment Rybar. Micael T hoists:
The fact is that when the first large transfers of American equipment from the United States to Europe began in 2017, only five European ports were used for this: Bremerhaven (Germany), Vlissingen (Netherlands), Antwerp (Belgium), Zeebrugge (Belgium) and Alexandroupolis ( Greece).
Then the Pentagon decided that five ports were not enough and began to actively develop alternative routes for the sea transfer of equipment across the Atlantic (the personnel of the transported units always fly on airplanes)
As a result of many years of work in this direction, the Pentagon has now worked out the transfer of its units through 17 European seaports. To those five “pioneers” were added:
Thessaloniki (Greece), Esbjerg (Denmark), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Klaipeda (Lithuania), Riga (Latvia), Durres (Albania), Dunkirk (France), La Rochelle (France), Paldiski (Estonia) and Aarhus (Denmark) ), Gdansk (Poland), Gdynia (Poland)
Folly and Redemption: Thirty Years After Black Hawk Down American Conservative
Patrick Lawrence: The Undiscovered Country Scheerpost (Anthony L). From last week, still germane.
I’ve worked at Guantanamo for a decade, and I do not say this lightly: the United States continues to commit acts of torture here. Watch my full statement below 👇🏾 https://t.co/mJKlabVPqA
— Alka Pradhan⁷ (@PradhanAlka) October 1, 2023
Trump
John Kelly goes on the record to confirm several disturbing stories about Trump CNN (furzy)
When Trump wins, so does the media Matt Yglesias
GOP Clown Car
Gaetz Moves to Oust McCarthy, Threatening His Grip on the Speakership New York Times (Kevin W)
Supremes
The Supreme Court begins its new term October 2. Here are the cases to watch. Vox (furzy)
Consumer Agency Hated by Republicans Is in Fight of Its Life at Supreme Court Yahoo! (furzy)
Abortion
Idaho Wants to Jail Professors for Teaching About Abortion ACLU (furzy)
Inflation
Fed’s Powell gets an earful about inflation and interest rates from small businesses Yahoo! News Associated Press (Kevin W)
The Bezzle
Inside Sam Bankman-Fried’s Family Bubble New Yorker
From $26 Billion to Bust: Sam Bankman-Fried’s Astonishing Rise and Fall Bloomberg
How SBF’s fall keeps rattling Capitol Hill Politico
Federal Judge Gives Man 8-Year Sentence For Running Unlicensed Bitcoin Exchange Associated Press
Musk’s first year as Twitter’s Dear Leader is nigh The Register
Class Warfare
A Nobel Laureate Offers a Biting Critique of Economics Bloomberg
Tougher Return-to-Office Policies Are No Remedy for Half-Empty Buildings Wall Street Journal
There Will Be Blood. Review: End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites and the Path of Political Disintegration, by Peter Turchin Dublin Review of Books (Anthony L)
Antidote du jour:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
130 comments
Comments are closed.
Another Covid-18 denier?
COVID-19 nothing more than flu in every way: Turkish health minister
‘A mass vaccination campaign or closure-like measures will never be implemented,’ says Fahrettin Koca
A reminder of how we got where we are-
https://www.bitchute.com/video/3TdUYoiDQ8ZN/ (11:25 mins)
Whatever happened to follow the science?
the Definitive Article is Fascist.
We don’t like moving targets. It means we would have to follow along and change our minds when the facts change. Too hard. I prefer to keep the facts in line with my beliefs. (s/ really needed?)
The 3 October Links before 2 October Links—a temporal miracle of the International Date Line, I suppose.
Nobel Goes to Pair Who Worked on COVID Vaccines
Regarding GM comment. Can someone elaborate on why there are no working mRNA vaccines. Im not very informed on the subject.
When you get infected by a virus, the virus will multiply in your body. This may have two consequences: the large amount of virus makes you sick, and you may shed those viruses in one way or another and infect somebody else.
So a virus infection results in sickness and transmission (both in varying degrees).
If a vaccine avoids that you get sick, it is called ‘immunising’: you may get infected, but it doesn’t do any harm.
If a vaccine avoids that you transmit the virus, it is called ‘sterilising’: you may get infected, and perhaps get sick, but you won’t spread the infection any further.
The mRNA vaccines currently in the market are neither immunising nor sterilising, so they are not working.
But they do have secondary effects.
It would be more precise and accurate to say that “current mRNA covid vaccines are not perfect, but that they do reduce mobidity, mortality and transmission”.
That would be more precise, except in those cases where the vaccines may actually be causing adverse reactions like sudden growth of certain types of cancer. (Referring to links posted here by physicians in recent days on cases of cancer patients already under observation.)
Best Tweet photo of the recipients:
https://twitter.com/goddeketal/status/1708831582864236555
I think you are wrong. I don’t think they’ve proven that at all, especially given the crap data that has been used to justify these crap vaccines. And they have caused serious injury to many as well.
The mRNA vaccines were a grift for Big Pharma. And now we have a pandemic of the vaccinated… 3 1/2 years and 4, 5 or 6 jabs later.
End of story.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to set up two large groups of people. One would depend on the current mRNA Covid vaccines while the other would depend on N95 masks, Ivermectin, etc. Trouble is that with the first group that although you would have records of when they received their vaccinations, the current idea is to have that as an annual vaccination which to me is problematical in the extreme. With the second group, how could you control if they actually took all those precautions all the time? Do they take their masks off when family comes over for example? No easy answers here.
It sure would be nice to have a clean control group. In retrospect it seems they couldn’t have done any better in terms of sabotaging ever having one. We threw public health out the window, encourage widespread infection, intentionally avoid even collecting useful data, nevermind honestly disseminating it. So what are other countries doing that presumably have better data tracking from national health care systems? They have all but stopped the mrna shots except for the elderly.
Still worth doing, I think. And why not also those who mask + take the vaccine?
I think I’m in a whole other category, everyone around me getting COVID repeatedly while I’ve yet to catch it. Feels like science should be studying me and others like me to see wassup.
I have no observed data “on the ground” that any of these is the case.
Reduce transmission? – you seriously must be kidding at this point. I could never even dream to make that claim with a straight face at this point. Seriously, this is the kind of thing that is causing the damage to the reputation of medicine to be hyperdrived…..I am seeing just all kinds of vaxxed/boosted patients right now. I see one superspreader event after the other where it was “Vaxx Only” admission. Please stop with this kind of stuff. It is doing far more harm than good at this point.
Morbidity – I have always had doubts about this. Given the number of instant severe problems that many patients had with the vaccine – even in the early days. Blood clots, pulmonary emboli, autoimmune and neurological issues…. And now that it is becoming obvious that it is the multiply boosted and vaxxed that seem to be having much more problems with getting infected over and over again – multiple studies are now showing this, not just my experience…Again – if someone can please answer the question – If it seems that the multiply boosted are getting infected more often – and it seems that multiple infections increase the incidence of all kinds of problems – how are the vaccines helping? – I have not received a straight answer to that question from anyone in academic medicine since I started noticing the pattern about a year ago.
Extreme morbidity and mortality – hospitalizations, etc. —– in the first year of the pandemic, this may have been so. However, as with any mitigation scheme, one must keep track over the entire event – and one also must keep track of those being harmed by the mitigation procedure. We seem to have completely forgotten that as a profession. What I am seeing right now is NOT what I was seeing before – early on in the event. The overwhelming majority of patients who are being admitted right now are vaxxed/boosted. We are having a vaccine booster introduction right now, and I am seeing WAY more COVID positivity and fairly severe illness in the COVID boostered in just a few days than any other time. I think the claim of improvement in morbidity early on was justified. I am not seeing this now. And again – when I look back over the entire vaccine era – I have had 9 deaths from COVID. 3 of those happened before the vaccines. 6 after the vaccine was introduced. Of those 6, 2 were unvaxxed, 4 were vaxxed. I now have had 3 people whose death happened within days of the vaccine, in very unusual circumstances for an internist of 35 years. From things that are known to be problems with these vaccines. I have about 8 or 9 others that seem to have been really damaged by these same things but not dead. I have to think about these issues all the time as well.
When taken in its entirety – I am not certain that we can make the claim that this vaccine program has been a success. It is going to take the entirety of the raw data over the entire country/world to really ascertain this. But yet, the authorities are completely unwilling to do so. Can you explain to me why that is? What about releasing all raw data is so problematic? Especially for “The Scientists”?
With regard to Nobel prizes. We all must remember that the Medicine Prize went to the gentleman who pioneered frontal lobotomies. The Peace Prize went to Obama who spent the next 8 years bombing weddings with drones. Sometimes Nobel prizes go pear-shaped. It should truly be an award for those whose work has stood the test of time. I wonder what will be thought of this one awarded yesterday a generation from now.
Thank you, IM Doc, for reminding us what is really happening. In my small part of the world, covid deaths have been re-defined as being those who got covid and died from it in the hospital. I do not know how doctors can decide what has killed older folk who have many serious illnesses and could also have had covid, when covid is not acknowledged on its own. Our on-going health information is coupling the reportage of flu and covid although covid deaths are counted separately.
Our healthcare system seems to be getting tired of having covid around and it is trying to make us older people feel as though there is nothing to fear even though most of the deaths reported here are in our age group. Who is really concerned about the deaths by covid in old people today?
It’s very interesting, how public knowledge/awareness, in this era of perpetual connectivity, can be so polarized and uncertain about something so pedestrian, apparent and empirical as health.
Tweet science, deployed in a typical rearguard action.
It would be more precise and accurate to say that “based on random sampling PCR on US Navy vessels and NY maternity hospitals, at least 86% of the population was exposed to the virus well before the rollout of mRNA injections, majority being asymptomatic. The purveyors of the injections have stridently avoided objective safety testing and legitimate scientific inquiry from the beginning, whenever that was exactly.
So the adaptive immune response across a population of 8 billion primates is portrayed as helpless and inert, but the mandatory neoliberal injection project saves us all.
But hey, Nobel nucleotides! The scale of the project continues to impress.
Read IMDoc’s latest here, please.
I can’t speak for GM, but for me there are two ways this applies. The first was the very nature of mRNA shots. Even for the version of the virus when they were first approved were never true vaccines in that they were not sterilizing. Their most accurate promise was that if you got Covid it would be milder, failing to acknowledge at first that you still had a good chance of getting it. And that was only for a limited amount of time, and that window was shorter than first admitted and got even shorter with each booster. The second part is that more and more the current shot available is for a previous version and has little to no effectiveness against the predominant version. And none of that addresses the problems with the delivery system, and its possible detrimental effect on the immune and circulatory systems.
And the FDA and CDC have actively discouraged real data collection and investigation of the problems, failures and even real life effectiveness of the “vaccines” ignoring or changing the protocols that have been in place for decades prior to this. This means. that even as Pfizer and Moderna use smaller test groups, the public also have fewer ways of checking the record.
the mrna jab’s only [very] vaguely reasonable selling point was: the “vaccines are less risky than the virus”.
iow you had to prove to “the science”, who was and remains to be not looking, the vaccines unsafe, and the outcome worse than getting the disease. which you likely got anyway!
a very troubling design of test!
I’m going to remind readers that the vaccines were very nearly sterilizing for the first 6 months or so. Numbers fell dramatically, and modelers projected the end of the pandemic (i.e. extinction of the virus) around September 2021. If western governments could have deployed the vaccines on a global scale rapidly enough, this all might be in the rear-view mirror. Letting the virus run wild in less-developed countries in 2021 led to the variant mayhem we have now.
I do think the vaccines cause real side effects. The British NHS has a fairly remarkable dataset that anyone can review. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/deathsbyvaccinationstatusengland
It lists all-cause mortality by vaccine status, and it’s complicated. People up to date on their vaccinations tend to do better than unvaccinated, but not by a wide margin these days. People with old or incomplete vaccinations seem to do worse. I’d love to see some people with a medical / statistics background take look at this.
It is significant that the Nobel recipients were not involved with the development of the mRNA spike protein vaccines. Their work was in developing a mechanism for repressing the immune system response to allow cells to absorb mRNA. This mechanism was then utilized by Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer in their vaccines.
I won’t repeat my comment from yesterday on the NY Times’ article about this. But I think this was simply a way to award “The Nobel Prize” to the vaccines without actually giving it directly to Big Pharma. – i.e. it is a propaganda move. All of the rationale I’ve read refers to the Miracle of the Vaccines. I am not trying to diminish the work of the actual recipients, but that seems pretty apparent to me. But as I said yesterday, I’m probably too jaded to be objective.
Considering that prior to the emergency authorization of the Covid vaccines no MRNA based drug could make it past an obviously weak FDA, your assessment is probably correct.
no one is getting into the DAPRA project with Moderna concerning the Pathogen Protection Platform, which was to use the mrna to spur antibodies to send soldiers into an environment where the pathogen of interest was used as weapon. that was 2013, and DAPRA stopped.
why?
I think the award was a mistake. The Nobel Committee meant for Koriko and Weissman to receive the prize for economics.
It seems like the Nobel itself has become a mistake.
They jumped the shark with that lying sack of [family blog] Obama.
Stick a fork in it.
Oh, way before that.
1973. Cease fire in Vietnam. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho. The latter had the character to not accept it.
From that time onwards, the very concept of a “Nobel” has seemed grotesque to me. For a while, I differentiated those awarded in the “hard” sciences from the “peace” parody, but on reflecting further, over the years, one must assume the same lack of character by those voting for the former category.
Bernanke got a Nobel prize for pimping money all over the globe, what a joke!
The mrna vaxes typically boost your immune system’s ability to fight the virus, i.e. to fight the damage/diseases the virus can cause. They don’t appear to do much to prevent you from picking up the virus. And once you’ve picked it up, it can flourish in ways that don’t necessarily sicken you but do allow you to shed your new copies of the virus and they might reach other people.
I have a simplistic mental model to help me understand this. My nose and mouth have an inside and outside. My tongue and nose hairs are inside my body but not as inside of me as, say, my brain or kidneys. As we progress past the pharynx and down the wind pipe to the lungs we’re more inside than the tongue, maybe a bit like the inside of the gut where all those kind bacteria live, which, from the perspective of my circulating blood, is still kinda on the outside of my body. From there we go from the air in the lungs onto the lung tissue and (by some magic I don’t understand) into the circulating system. Beyond that there’s the blood-brain barrier too as maybe a final step in the journey from outside to inside.
If the virus can flourish and shed onto other people without getting deep into me then I can imagine how it can propagate through me without the my noticing anything much. This was one of the most striking and frightening features right at the onset of the pandemic.
Now, Iiuc, the mrna vaxes work by boosting the immune system’s response to specific genetic codes found in the virus. But this is the immune system that deploys itself from the circulating system, so it’s working from the inside out. How effective that is at preventing the virus from flourishing farther out in the periphery in my nose and sinuses? I don’t know(*) but I believe it’s limited.
I originally got this simplistic model of depth progression from outside to inside from my experience with colds as an endurance athlete: You can race with a head cold but you need to rest if it’s in the chest. I elaborated from that since SARS-CoV-2 is a cold virus with horrible new weapons attached.
(*) This specific uncertainty has I think been unethically developed and exploited.
On the subject of mRNA vaccines, there are several very interesting passages in KLG’s recent article here at NC, entitled “Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations” (09/27/2023). This passage, in particular, struck me:
I would be curious to hear KLG’s further thoughts about this “big assumption”.
Take note also that the term being bantied about, “mRNA” is not what is understood as Messenger RNA, it is actually “Modified RNA”. Quite the difference. Control the narrative and you control the answer.
Not KLG but I’ll give it a shot.
The assumption with mRNA vaccines is that the proteins produced in our cells will also be biologically inert.
No one “assumed” that. Just the opposite. The protein produced in response to the mRNA–the toxic spike protein in the case of the covid “vaccine”–was expressly intended to “stimulate” the immune system in preparation for exposure to the virus in the wild.
To do this, the synthetic, modified mRNA entered the patient’s cell and hijacked it’s protein synthesis mechanism to produce the toxic spike protein.
The definition of the word “inert” is “inactive; incapable of moving or acting.” In order for that “assumption” to be correct, the word “inert” would need to be redefined, as, in the case of the covid “vaccine,” the word “vaccine” eventually was.
“Idaho Wants to Jail Professors for Teaching About Abortion”
This is what the use of lawfare will get you. Fringe groups, unable to get what they want on the law books, creating funding laws to chip away at the Bill of Rights because they do not agree with what it means in practice. If this keeps up, I would not be surprised to see Tennessee re-activate the Butler Act once more-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butler_Act
I started following the Instagram for Mayor Max between Max II and Max III. If you like dogs and don’t mind the anthropomorphizing of them, it is an antidote. Max III, Meadow, Mitzy and Mikey are lovely golden retrievers and are presented in an unfailingly cheerful, loving and optimistic manner. Even as they chew up the deck or their beds or their ties.
I have no doubt that Mayor Max all versions have been good for Idyllwilde. If I were anywhere in the area I would probably try to go to one of their “appearances”. Hanging out in a parking lot with a couple of golden retrievers who never met a human they didn’t like sounds okay. And except for a jaunt to Downing Street to meet Larry, I can’t say that about any politician.
Reminds me of the story of Tama, the feline stationmaster who saved a railway line in Japan.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/29/tama-the-cat-3000-attend-elaborate-funeral-for-japans-feline-stationmaster
The cats lost?! What platform were they running on?
Platform wasn’t the problem, they had trouble organizing.
“Ex-Secret Service Agent’s Account of JFK’s Assassination Could Cast Doubt on ‘Lone Gunman’ Theory”
DUH?? REALLY?? – what a unique idea – now where are the rest of those files/reports mandated by Congress in 1992 that all government records surrounding Kennedy’s assassination “should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination.” – and then the archivist and White House agreed that full disclosure of these records would be postponed until Dec. 15, 2022 – If there is information that the archivist and agencies examines that does not need to be postponed, that will be released on Dec. 15, 2021 – as long as the alphabet agencies of intrigue have control we will probably never see complete and unredacted information about the assassination – just my 2¢ – and ain’t holding my breath on this one –
Well, Oliver Stone has some theories beyond the gays-killed-JFK presented in his movie that have to do with, uh, secretaries are very observant and would have seen things they didn’t see and also …. reasons or something?
LOL! Depicting Stone’s movie as holding “the gays-killed JFK” is about as obvious a smear directed at right-thinking liberals as there is.
That *Smithsonian Magazine*, of all sources, publishes this long article about this 88 year old former Secret Service agent who has changed his story many times and didn’t remember the “bullet” until very late in life as if *this* could be some sort of startling new revelation is also pretty funny.
That the only group who still believes the Warren Report seems to be our highly educated gate-keeping intellegentsia (and the people who read them) is not so funny.
I’m sure that as soon as they find President Kennedy’s missing brain, then a lot of the mystery will be cleared up. Should be any time now. After all, next month will be the *checks notes* 60th anniversary of his death-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_autopsy
got a deep dark chuckle from that one TRK – thx
Can’t wait for the expose on 9/11 scheduled to be released in 2061…
of course – why wait?
re: ” There isn’t a single working mRNA vaccine right now.
How can you give a Nobel Prize for it?”
See the 1949 prize winners.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1949/summary/
leucotomy = frontal lobotomy.
Why not give the current prize to the mRNA people? They made bazillions of dollars for Big Pharma. / ;)
Don’t forget that they also gave Obama a Nobel Prize when he hadn’t even done anything. What he did do was to give a war speech as his acceptance speech so there is that. He must get a good chuckle about the whole thing every time he sees it on his mantle piece.
Henry Kissinger, FFS.
To be fair, the peace prize is awarded by a Norwegian committee, and even they have since admitted that there is no procedure for withdrawing a prize, once awarded.
Sadly the Nobels have been increasingly politicised and skewered towards a very distinct west world/ anti-Russia bias.
GG last night discussed a wikileaks CIA memo he had written about ca 2008 when Euros support for the Afghan war was declining. Their view was that it was US right-wing project. The solution, elect Obama and he would rebrand it. Voila! There you have it folks, another rabbit out of the CIA hat. Oh, and that peace prize?
well AX that would fit right into a link from a previous NC – when he gave the banks a pass the bloom was off that rose for me – he had super majorities in both houses, could have cured health care and so much else – he is a stooge and was a willing pawn – and that’s polite and able to be said here –
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/10/01/a-company-family-the-untold-history-of-obama-and-the-cia/
Thank you, yes, I read that NC CAM piece. StatusquObama lost me when he bailed out the Big Telecoms with the FISA amendment, he wasn’t going to fight, but other more astute folks had clocked him earlier, some much earlier. Adolphe Read wrote him up in 1996!
It’s the Empire of Lies, don’t we know.
thanks AX – found this about Saint O
Adolph Reed was the first writer to see who Obama was. In 1996, Reed wrote about him in The Village Voice:
“In Chicago, for instance, we’ve gotten a foretaste of the new breed of foundation-hatched black communitarian voices; one of them, a smooth Harvard lawyer with impeccable do-good credentials and vacuous-to-repressive neoliberal politics, has won a state senate seat on a base mainly in the liberal foundation and development worlds. His fundamentally bootstrap line was softened by a patina of the rhetoric of authentic community, talk about meeting in kitchens, small-scale solutions to social problems, and the predictable elevation of process over program — the point where identity politics converges with old-fashioned middle-class reform in favoring form over substance. I suspect that his ilk is the wave of the future in U.S. black politics, as in Haiti and wherever else the International Monetary Fund has sway. So far the black activist response hasn’t been up to the challenge. We have to do better.”
geez, he’s taking about Jamal Bowman too – hope that moron gets charged with a false alarm –
i lived in Chicago for a while and his plan for his presidential library was not liked at all – destroying a beautiful park with an ugly piece of Brutal Architecture –
The artist’s rendering does look like one of those World War Two concrete structures. Maybe they are trying to tell us something about the future?
I took a look and, boy howdy! Can we say Neo-Fascist Architecture boys and girls?
See: https://metropolismag.com/projects/obama-library-renderings-update/
My first thought was that it looked like a German WW-2 Flak Tower.
G style Flak Tower Willemsborg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flak_tower#/media/File:Willemsborg_Torre_Flak_VI_nou.jpg
Then I thought of something closer to Die Homeland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safeguard_Program#/media/File:SRMSC_MSR_HAER_ND-9-B.jpg
I’m just sorry that it doesn’t have some decorative motifs, like this:
Obamanite Morlock Architecture?: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/791155859531855723/
Anyway, this is classic End of Empire.
oh! – my! – god! – can’t believe what you found – glad i wasn’t drinking anything, would have blown it out my nose – the last one was a true classic and i’m sure the designers sadly missed that design – would have been perfect – kudos to your ramble through architecture history – excellent!
Please stop lying about “Obama’s Supermajority.” He only had 60 Senators from July 7, 2009, after Minnesota certified Al Franken, to August, 2009, when Senator Kennedy died, and from September, 2009, to February 4, 2010, when Scott Brown was sworn in. And of those 60 Senators, one was Weepin’ Joe Lieberman, who hated the Democrats (although he sometimes voted with them).
ETA I despise Obama.
Whenever someone points out a totally inappropriate Nobel, that’s the one that I think about.
“Turns out I’m really good at killing people” said while discussing drone strikes. And don’t forget Libya.
flora you made me remember it was the rapier wit of the wicked smart Dorothy Parker of ‘Algonquin Round Table’ fame who stated, “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me, than a pre-frontal lobotomy” – thought it was Tom Waits who may have slurred it within one of his songs but it was Randy Hanzlick M.D. a real life doctor, and this composition “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me (than a frontal lobotomy)” – enjoy and chuckle this morning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr-kn0JG5p4&t=21s
have always had an affinity with Tom Waits, thoroughly enjoy his songs – he mentions in these short clips his agreement with Ms Parker & Dr Hanzlick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr1afoSEzhY
“Inside Sam Bankman-Fried’s Family Bubble”
The warning signs were all there that this guy was a crook. It says ‘He shared a stage with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.’ If that is not a big, red flashing warning sign of financial shenanigans then I do not know what is. Also – and here I am showing my prejudices – he is from a Stanford background. However, if the Democrats stay in power after next November then I would expect most of those charges to go away leaving minor ones like littering or the like. We are seeing it already with Hunter Biden. And the reason is that he was in deep with the Democrats in laundering money for them via the Ukraine. And as the Republicans were also involved, neither party will want their laundry here hung out in public. So both parties will make a deal and SBF will only do minor time.
…..and SBF will only do minor time. Perhaps. SBF won’t be of much use once the family fortune has been looted. After that, he might be of more value being made an example of.
It depends on how well he “secured” his “insurance policy.” If not well secured, he might go the way of Epstein.
We are in the Late Empire phase when ‘political opponents’ turn up dead while in custody.
For the flight home last night, I picked up Michael Lewis’s “Going Infinite.”
Not finished yet, but what has caught my eye most about SBF’s story thus far is his work at Jane Street.
Especially around page 68, there is a part about a research project he led about ways to get election information faster and how to profit from it in the stock market.
In general, it seems SBF was somewhat of a late comer to crypto and market making gaming was really his forte.
Re: The Donald
“A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’”
It’s very hard not to love Donald when he drops such based truth bombs. He’s right: in a country that only recognizes the value of the profit motive, doing anything else besides hustling is futile imbecility. As Jackie Cogan put it so memorably:
‘My friend, Jefferson’s an American saint because he wrote the words, “All men are created equal.” Words he clearly didn’t believe, since he allowed his own children to live in slavery. He was a rich wine snob who was sick of paying taxes to the Brits. So yeah, he wrote some lovely words and aroused the rabble, and they went out and died for those words, while he sat back and drank his wine and fücked his slave girl. This guy wants to tell me we’re living in a community. Don’t make me laugh. I’m living in America, and in America, you’re on your own. America’s not a country. It’s just a business. Now fucking pay me.’
Perhaps you quotee should cite a country that isn’t “just a business.” Certainly not England which treated its poor like slaves without actually owning them and whose king Jefferson condemned for “bringing slavery to America.”
Glib cynicism doesn’t get you very far. The cynicism may be justified but the glib not so much. Jefferson was a more complicated person than the cartoon version.
Aside from that it was a great moment in that movie IMHO.
Well, a point could be made that anyone who is so ideologically bankrupt, or intellectually lazy to volunteer to participate in a corrupt empire’s illegal and unnecessary wars, are chumps, not heroes. The best thing we can all do is to encourage our children to not allow themselves to be used as cannon fodder by inept ideologues for advancing neoconservative fantasies of global domination. They are not “protecting our freedoms,” they’re serving global corporate oligarchy.
Somewhere in Kansas…. The first shoe has dropped. Embattled police chief abruptly resigns Marion Record.
(From the town meeting, Mayfield is the Mayor) “I’m not answering any of your questions,” Mayfield said. “I don’t owe you an explanation about anything.”
“You are such a chickensh*t,” Ryan Newell shot back.
Heh heh.
To me, this has been one of the most significant stories of the year. Authoritarianism vs a free and independent press being played out in a small town in the heartland. Today, the defenders of press freedom get a rare victory, admittedly optical but sweet none the less.
Thanks for the link.
Good morning flora.
And as my husband keeps saying, “Can you believe they still have a newspaper in Marion, Kansas!” In our town, the Kansas City Star pretty much bit the dust years ago.
And it has 5 reporters. My old hometown newspaper, with probably twice the Marion circulation, is down to 2 part-timers. We subscribe to what’s left of the KC Star. The Star’s editorial staff numbers 67 and should probably be about 3 times that. And it’s printed in Des Moines, of all places.
All of which confirms my conviction that the private sector is no longer competent (if it ever was) across a wide range of basic functions to produce benign outcomes, journalism being a prime example.
I recently moved out of a small town of 15,000 people (more if you count the college students) and the local paper there is on life support, with a just a small handful of reporters (and terrible editing). It is owned by a company that buys up these little town papers, but I don’t know how they make a profit… Craigslist has decimated ad revenue. They do publish a very entertaining police blotter though.
Thanks for the update. I’m fascinated by this weird case in the absolute dead center of the USA. Such corruption and rot, but there are still good people who fight back. Gideon Cody has been replaced by Zach Hudlin. Gotta love these names.
I must add that all the articles I’ve read on the Marion County Record have been clearly written and well edited. The NYT might take notice.
But that woman is still dead.
>Just how bad is climate change? It’s worse than you think, says Doomsday author [Marshall Brain]
Oh brother, on and on about how bad it really is, and so it really is. I’m already feeling a terminal doomer aghastitude, so I guess another few tons of distress won’t make things so much worse for me. But before finishing up, the author links to another piece:
We have destroyed our ecosystem – now we await the collapse of civilization
Here he imagines a super intelligent AI arriving to set things right. But what if that AI decides that the simplest solution to the problem is to just eliminate the humans?
Then he links to another conjured scenario:
What would space aliens do with planet earth?
This is similar to the previous AI scenario but where aliens arrive to save humanity. He doesn’t discuss them saving the rest of life on earth. Maybe implicit is that they might come to same conclusion that humanity is a lost cause so best to get rid of it.
We walk around with this cognitive dissonance, on the one hand acknowledging that we are headed over a climate/resource/ecological cliff, and then worrying about the economy going into a recession. As doomers might say: there won’t be any economy.
Indeed. The author literally complaining about cognitive dissonance and displaying it in the same breath. Normally, I would enjoy the irony but the stakes seem rather high for that.
Brain’s AI conceit is apt right now, and fits in the long tradition of using fantasy (and, later, science fiction) to present ideas about what to do now in the real world. So does the Sleeborans story. I’m not sure that a writer is obligated to examine every possibility (the AI or aliens destroying humanity because it is easier than saving it). Every writer uses the parts that they need to tell the story.
He does a pretty good job of listing actions that could be attempted in an “if I ruled the World” scenario. Some of them are a pretty heavy lift, and I doubt that Brain thinks that he could guarantee the salvation of the world, even if all his recommendations were executed. I would note that he doesn’t explicitly talk about degrowth, or ending all control by finance, which would both be necessary, but he sure is on the right page.
I take it that the part about cognitive dissonance is not specifically about Brain’s article, but about how all of us approach the prospect of universal doom. Brain puts out dark humor, sarcasm, etc., but it’s hard to see cognitive dissonance.
>I take it that the part about cognitive dissonance is not specifically about Brain’s article, but about how all of us approach the prospect of universal doom.
Yes, I wasn’t even thinking of the article.
—
A visit by aliens is not at all likely, but super intelligent AI is, and I somehow doubt that once it would reach self awareness it would have empathy as a central component. I just have a hunch we are going to be too clever by half.
What we have now isnt AI, it’s language scraping algorithms that can fool us into thinking they are ‘thinking’.
And all the shock horror about “AI” running amok in the not too distant future is villains creating a cover story for when AI is doing what it has been designed to do, which is to take our money, our wages, our homes etc.
“AI” will be the hidey hole for all the greedy, slimy, companies that give no service and create ‘hotel of California’ apps etc. “Computer said no”, on steroids.
No US oligarch is going to fund the development of anything that is going to take away their power or money. Period. And that is where the money is coming from for all of this “AI”, from Google and Microsoft and Meta and the rest. They are developing “AI” to consolidate their power over every aspect of our life.
We will have nothing and be happy. The perfect marriage will be between “AI” and big Pharma.
Today’s Antidote du jour. A Bichon Frisé perhaps?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bichon_Fris%C3%A9
Supposedly a Maltese.
Snugglesome!
Wireless transmission of power has been researched for decades:
large.stanford.edu/courses/2011…
Just don’t get in it’s path!
Just as soon as those nuclear fusion reactors come online, then they will be able to transmit all that power wirelessly using that new technology. Just you see.
To paraphrase the Geto Boys:
And if you’re waiting on that sucka, you’ll be a waiting family blogga!
“Flesh-Eating Bacteria Infections Are on the Rise in the U.S. Here’s How to Stay Safe Scientific American”
The plagues are getting biblical. Stay safe, folks.
The fear-stoking is also of biblical proportions.
The link “Choice modelling can tell us what people will do – Terry Flynn” goes to a non-existent page.
Re: Office wars, empty downtowns
The endgame strategy is revealed at the end of that WSJ article (thanks, archive.ph)
Ah, the Chamber of Commerce, our good friends from back in the TARP days. I wonder what form the bailout will take?
“Incentives” traditionally take the form of giant tax abatements. But it is hard to compete with zero. As in, dump your expensive downtown digs and go full remote, and pay nothing for office space. No property tax, no insurance, no bill for coffee service and cleaning the bathrooms. Nada, zip, zilch.
All the tax abatements in the world won’t do any good there.
The next step is to literally pay corporations to keep an office presence downtown, as in it moves from an expense to income on the balance sheet.
Don’t put it past them! The shame of these cretins knows no bounds. And leading the charge, as always, will be those who most loudly espouse “free markets” and condemn “job-killing regulations.”
Even beore Covid,exorbitant rents and leases were already assisting in putting many out of business.
And the CRE was a ticking timebomb. It has always been one of the shoes waiting to drop from the 2008 financial crisis. CRE was a part of all of those shenanigans…Covid just called their bluff.
Everybody keeps pretending something was actually “fixed” after the last financial crisis.
Let’s not forget the chaos and crime in downtowns. A dead body was found at the boys private school on the front lawn. The school is easily walking distance from downtown. The public school across the street looks like a riot could break out pretty much any time. Police cars are there frequently many times. Then we have people trying to break into cars on campus.
We still have an open campus, but they have increased security presence and policies. No police officers all day at school yet, but you have to check in at the front gate. It’s still a friendly check, in the guise of asking if you need any help getting to where you need to be.
The flattening of American society. The things we take for granted are disappearing, and our lives will increasingly resemble the rabble across the street, as they inevitably reach for the pearls we purchased with their insecurity. We shall likely respond disproportionately and violently, in total ignorance of our contribution to the state of affairs, and unironically demand decency from the ones who are starving.
“All the Pandas in American zoos are being taken back by China”
One has to think that the Chinese are worried that if big trouble brew up between China and the US, that the US would hold those Pandas hostage. I know that sounds ridiculous but when you consider the caliber of people as part of Washington’s leadership and how the US is going around the world to arrest Russians so that that they can be extradited back to the US, they may have reason to be cautious. I could very well see someone like Lindsay Graham demanding that any Pandas left in the US be impounded to teach China a lesson or something and using some excuse that it is all for the safety of those Pandas. Bottom line? China has zero trust in the US and it’s intentions.
As far as I know the Chinese version is that they have concerns about the conditions and care in US zoos. There was at least one “unexpected death”, e.g.
===
Since at least 2019, Memphis Zoo has faced concerns from visitors and panda fans that Ya Ya looked thin and discolored. Concerns for her health were intensified after her male counterpart, Le Le, died in February 2023 just months before the pair were scheduled to return to China.
===
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/29/asia/china-us-ya-ya-panda-returns-beijing-zoo-intl-hnk/index.html
It’s Lindsey if that matters. And Graham rants because he knows his shtick will always find an eager audience in DC. Clean him out with the rest of the swamp.
Haley has been warmongering too with the result that after the last debate she dropped from 7 percent to 5 and Trump at 63. SC is modernizing. Some of our politicians though are dinosaurs.
Politicos are always “dinosaurs.” They have pandered to the Terran human “hind brain,” also known as the ‘Lizard Brain’ since the dawn of “Civilization,” and always done well by themselves thereof.
Whenever I find a politician who appeals to the Terran human ‘mammal brain,’ I rejoice.
Stay safe. Keep masking.
Could be we all have lizard brains–at least the fetal versions of us. I’ve read that your typical dog has the same IQ as a two year old human.
But that’s no excuse for Lindsey who is just an a**hole.
The big clues for me that “Mz. Lindsey” is a classic Neo-liberal a–hole is that:
A-He does not ask for permission, and
B-He gives no excuses.
Even my ‘Inner Cynic’ is forced to ask; Does the American Socio-political system really filter for sociopaths? If so, then this is a literal war to the death.
UN authorizes Kenyan-led military intervention in Haiti
Looks like we may have a new butchery in out hands. Fingers crossed it won’t be as awful as the previous one, but that’s unlikely.
There is only going to be about 1,000 of them which is not much of a force considering what they may be facing. They won’t know the ground, they won’t understand the people and they won’t have an appreciation for what has been happening in this country for the past few decades. If things go south for them, they may have to hold up in their base like the French are doing in Niger right now. And if they are going to conduct “targeted operations”, then that might imply raids to capture some of the local crime lords. Anybody remember what happened when the US tried to pull the same stunt in Mogadishu back in ’93? Just to make it more fun, in Haiti they speak Haitian Creole and French while in Kenya their national languages are Swahili and English. How is that going to work out?
Flying lead doesn’t care what language you speak, as it kills you.
Those 1000 Kenyan troops will soon be 2000 troops, and then 3000 troops.
Remember that the Kenyans have lived next to a classic case of Warlordism (Somalia,) for decades now. They if anyone will know how to deal with that phenomenon.
First, establish a base.
Second, survey the local ‘actors’ and make alliances. (What camp will the NGOs fall into?)
Third, go out and ‘confront’ the miscreants.
Fourth, as pushback increases, call in more troops.
In this the operative command will be: “Kill anything that moves and let the survivors sort things out.”
It’s the Logic of Empire. A story as old as the hills.
I think the first order of business will be to build a giant concentration camp using El Salvador as the model.
Alka Pradhan’s tweet, with videos, is painful to watch. But necessary. The US government tortures people.
But those 30 aging unfortunates still held in Guantanamo (and that’s where? … Oh, on the island of Cuba? ) have long been forgotten by those Government officials, who are now involved with their latest crazed plans to dismantle the nation of Russia and foment war with China. More of the living in a nightmare scenario. Although compared with what could come down the pike, our current lives will seem like a golden dream.
re: There Will Be Blood: book review.
Very good read. Thanks for the link. Somewhat related, imo, is Tucker’s interview with Victor Davis Hansen, a small-‘c’ conservative. I think if you listen to this as put aside the left/right, liberal/conservative focus and listen to what is said about ‘changing rules to win’, ‘the rise of an elite anti-elite outsider’, the push back from the ruling elite against any changes that will upset their control and increasing wealth; the conversation sounds like a specific current discussion demonstrating the ideas in the book review, imo. Anyway, here’s the link to Tucker’s latest twtr-X episode.
Ep. 27 Donald Trump appeared in court today, but it wasn’t a legal proceeding. It was a grotesque parody of the system our ancestors created. Victor Davis Hanson explains.
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1708986264588791862
DRB: “elite overproduction.” Boy that’s the truth. In his latest rant Kunstler cites the concept of the “midwits’–a social class above average in intelligence and certainly education but still not smart enough to actually know what they are doing. Think Hillary. Her Yale degree allows her to snob about the “deplorables” while also being clueless re Putin. All that Bill Clinton soft soap about his oh so smart and wonkish wife clearly went to her head. Meanwhile Bill’s preferred romantic partners seemed to be just the opposite.
The US plutocracy described in the book is hard at work trying to curb “elite overproduction.”
With distractions, revolutionary urges can be stalled while education systems are attacked and crapified.
Out here on the coast I’ve been more aware of the activities of the males around me than usual. Or really any gender-based activity.
There was the small herd of elk who chose to hang out in our campground for the few days we were there, about 15 females, two pairs of youngsters, and a buck we could hear once in a while but never saw. No one wanted to spook them, so we spent more time locked inside our campers taking photos from the windows. Never knew what the buck was up to, but it wasn’t nibbling on the flowering shrubbery with his herd of does. Being elusive keeps him alive a little longer.
It’s the beginning of crabbing season and salmon is ongoing. Lots of loud fishermen congregating outside their campers with their alcohol-laced coffee cups having ‘strategy/bullshit sessions’ before dispursing for the day to kill something and bring it home. The tales of the day to be retold ’round a campfire that night… and more alcohol. We gathered there were large salmon being pulled out of Winchester Bay. The mouth of every bay we passed was dotted with lots of little boats, sitting low in the water with too many fishermen
(Where were their wives? Good question… they were there. Didn’t see much of them.)
There was the guy back in the meat department who seemed to be hovering over the meat and fussing with the packages. The last time I saw a guy do that he was casing the area, then he snatched up two steaks, shoved them into the front of his sweats and beat feet for the door. The current fusser was an off-duty butcher out of uniform who walked over to us and offered to help us with our meat selection. That store is employee-owned like most of the small grocery stores out here. The butcher had more skin in the game, our meat choice mattered to him and his advice was excellent. The steaks were tender and delicious.
So, when I hear Turchin’s theories, I think he means ‘excess elite’ male wannabes, for who there are not enough spots, further pressured by the number of women and minorities and well-educated immigrants competing for those same high-paying careers… who sincerely believe that if they can’t claw and scratch their way into the top 10%, their lives will be ones of failure and disappointment. But competitively-speaking, not very different from the lower classes who aren’t waiting for an institution to make room for them, create jobs befitting their ‘stations’. Laced through the review is that word – entitlement – that will lead us to revolution if expectations aren’t met? What will we really be fighting over? It won’t be does and fishes.
“Dangerous Immiseration” is the phrase that caught my eye. (DRB)
My own take is that ‘dangerous-immiseration’ occurs when the wielders of power become paranoid that some partial construct of their legitimacy is under threat or that their sense of loss of entitlement is not being assuaged.
Pip-pip!
Victor Davis Hanson was a grotesque warmonger very happy to “change the rules to win,” as long as his side won, back in GWB days. Not someone that I care to trust on anything no matter what he says now since he seems to be a crass partisan on top of a crazy warmonger (when his side is warmongering.).
More “end-times” news:
https://www.politico.eu/article/why-dengue-in-europe-could-spell-disaster-for-the-rest-of-the-world/
I understand this is not the main point of the article, but isn’t dengue kind of more serious?
The article doesn’t seem to mention that if you get Dengue once with serious symptoms, something happens to the immune system such that if you get it a second time, it can be fatal.
Ivermectin has been used against Dengue – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33124646/
– ‘Former Venezuelan Coup Plotter Hired By Florida College to Speak on ‘Defending Democracy’ – Libertarian Institute.
– “Guaido’s title at FIU is senior leadership fellow at the Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom. The center says it aims to promote “economic and individual freedom and human prosperity.””
It’s striking that this critical article is put out by the *Libertarian Institute*. It’s getting harder to distinguish friends and enemies these days, especially on matters of national security and foreign policy.
“India tells Canada to withdraw dozens of diplomatic staff”
Boy, that escalated quickly-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFeVfwDvTyM (10 secs)
This from and ABC news story about the India Canada dust up:
“There is a priority among the allies to bolster ties with India as a counterweight to Beijing’s rising power and assertiveness.”
Hmmmm. The US and the West in general ships its manufacturing base to China, beginning 30+ years ago. The West has mostly de-industrialized – finding cheaper labor and no unions offshore. China is a rising industrial power. Now the West is worried about China’s rise? The West created the rise. Can our big-thinkers in govt manage to think more than 2 steps ahead? Can they think about something other that the stock market and how their stock portfolios are doing? /oy
Our Kevin, who art in Humordor heaven, hallowed be thy game. Thy Kingdom come undone.
Thy will be done on earth, if the Freedom Caucus gets their way.
Give us this day our daily bread by allying with the Donkey Show.
As if Gaetz will forgive your trespasses, how dare Kev trespass against us!
And lead us not into temptation of funding Ukraine, but deliver us from evil of the Red Scare.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever, that is unless he gets voted out.
Amen.
Holodomor Zelensky, killing more Ukranians than anyone since Stalin.
Looks to me like Putin’s army is doing the actual killing.
I believe Rosgvardiya, the only part of Russian security apparatus directly under president, has already been pulled out of the combat duty. So the looks are apparently deceiving you.
This story appears to be flying beneath the radar, but the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has just announced that they will de-peg the Ukrainian hyrvnia from the US dollar:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/nbu-abandons-fixed-exchange-rate/ar-AA1hC5wT
The spin is that this is being done because the NBU has high levels of international reserves due to the massive influx of money from Western governments which gives them the latitude to take this move.
Thanks for the link. The story doesn’t quite add up, imo, but this is Ukr they’re talking about.
RE: Overhyping Vaccines Wasn’t Pro-Vaccine. It Was Pro-Stop-Worrying-About-COVID.
This article was written by Jonathan Howard, the author of “We Want Them Infected: How the failed quest for herd immunity led doctors to embrace the anti-vaccine movement and blinded Americans to the threat of COVID.”
Here is an excerpt:
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/we-want-them-infected/
Tuesday afternoon
I’m just beginning to see
Now I’m on my way out
It doesn’t matter to me
Chasing the vote count
Something calls to me
The vote drawing me near
I’ve got to find out why
Those gentle voices I hear
Explain it all with a sigh
I’m looking at myself reflections of my mind
It’s just the kind of day to leave the Speakership behind
So gently swaying through the Freedom Caucus with a shove
If you’ll just come with me you’ll see the beauty of
Tuesday afternoon
Tuesday afternoon
Tuesday afternoon
I’m just beginning to see
Now I’m on my way out
It doesn’t matter to me
Chasing the vote count
Something calls to me
The vote drawing me near
I’ve got to find out why
Those gentle voices I hear
Explain it all with a sigh
Tuesday Afternoon, by the Moody Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xvb9Udzc6M
re: European Union foreign ministers meet in Ukraine to escalate war with Russia –
“IMHO this is the analogue to the pronouncement that an official enjoys the complete confidence of the government…the tell that they are on the ropes and their days are likely numbered. ”
Who are the “they” who are on the ropes in this sentence? The government? Maybe the analogues? Or our newly corrupted non-binary grammar? I can’t tell.
Sorry, I have fallen into the habit of using “they” so as not to say “he”.
So “the tell that he is on the ropes and his days are likely numbered
Easy there…the TechWire climate doomer link from today is really unhinged, they go off about AI at the end and it gets really strange.
Not what I would normally expect around here
Great Helmer today. In 1941 Michael Powell made The 49th Parallel about secret Nazi submariners in Canada. It’s a good movie and preview of coming actions by …the British! At least according to Helmer’s reporting.
The West’s great hatred of Russia is a puzzlement. The US/UK governments and Ukrainians think the place is till run by Stalin. Many Jewish advocates seem to feel it is still run by the Tsar. The Romanovs were big time anti-Semites but the last of them were wiped out in a damp rural basement despite the musings of another movie called Anastasia.
Nah, the hate started back when everyone and their dog in the Church still followed the Orthodox liturgy, until this polygamous, Frankish newbie Charles (some say Great) decided that a different liturgy would be nice, and his predecessors refused to help Rome against pillaging German tribes unless Pope would accept the Frankish liturgy and split the church.
Because it was really hard being a Holy “Roman” Emperor, when the actual Roman empire was still alive and well in Constantinople (and many parts of Italy) while you’re thrown is in Aachen which looks like an outhouse of either Rome or Constantinople.
At Commondreams:
In Historic Vote, Kevin McCarthy Ousted as House Speaker
………… read more
Could giving a nobel prize to a pair of scientist for work on the covid vaccine that doesn’t work be an example not of laundering reputations but of laundering a pharmaceutical bezzle?