The Evolutionary Reasons We Are Drawn to Horror Movies and Haunted Houses Scientific American
Fruit, nectar, bugs and blood: How bat teeth and jaws evolved for a diverse dinnertime University of Washington
The Crawling Dead: 6 creatures that are actually real-life zombies ZME Science
Climate/Environment
CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE NEOLIBERAL IMAGINATION Law and Political Economy Project
Designing Climate Adaptations for People, Not Profit Atmos
The legal Atlantic fishery that still sparks violence The Narwhal
A NEW REPORT COMPILES YEARS OF DATA ABOUT THE HEALTH RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH FRACKING The Allegheny Front
Water
Dangerous invasive species are colonizing aquatic plastic debris Interesting Engineering
#COVID-19
Chronic absenteeism in schools doubles since before pandemic, dragging down test scores The Hill. Not only doesn’t mention long Covid or health impacts of Covid due to a lack of public health policy, but it blames limited protection measures and “overly cautious” parents for the absenteeism.
Syraqistan
Israel threatens to bomb hospital housing thousands of displaced, injured Gazans The Cradle
Israel-Palestine war: Gaza’s civil defence forced to leave hundreds of victims under rubble Middle East Eye
While Biden shamefully disputes death toll of the mass slaughter in Gaza, Israeli media is proudly displaying the tally as “terrorists we eliminated” https://t.co/rjznknEuvv
— Abby Martin (@AbbyMartin) October 29, 2023
Thousands of Palestinians who broke into UN food warehouses in the besieged Gaza Strip are ‘scared, frustrated and desperate’ after 3 weeks of war, says director of UN Palestinian refugee agency ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/DXYTFGmUSc
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 29, 2023
Like its allies in ISIS, #JSIL (the Jewish State in Israel and the Levant) is working to eradicate Christianity in the Middle East https://t.co/xzT68NpMav
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) October 29, 2023
RSF video investigation into the death of Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah in Lebanon: the journalists’ vehicle was explicitly targeted Reporters Without Borders
***
Israel pounds Gaza with U.S. “heavy” bunker-busting bombs. Erdogan speaks of a Cross vs Crescent war Gilbert Doctorow
World Plummets into Eschatological Frenzy: Unraveling the Implications Simplicius the Thinker
US sends forces to Jordan amid buildup in “defense of Israel” Electronic Intifada
Pure madness.
This is not for Hamas, they will go for Iran.
They just need to invent a reason, then they will have to get us to swallow it, to pay for it, to die for it. pic.twitter.com/juJw9hQdqu— Angelo Giuliano (@Angelo4justice3) October 29, 2023
Israel strikes in Lebanon after Hezbollah rocket barrage The Jerusalem Post
Canada urges its citizens in Lebanon to leave while they still can as Israel-Hamas war escalates CBC
***
US looks isolated after opposing UN resolution on Gaza truce The Guardian
India’s solidarity with Israel is untenable Indian Punchline
UN General Assembly resolution reflects strong call for Gaza ceasefire: Chinese ambassador to UN Global Times
Looks like the game plan is to use charges of antisemitism to discredit any Russia and China peace efforts:
As China Looks to Broker Gaza Peace, Antisemitism Surges Online New York Times
Pro-Palestine crowd storms Russia’s Dagestan to protest flight from Israel Al Jazeera
Dagestan Telegram channel that incited antisemitic mobs is linked to Ilya Ponomarev, Russian anti-Kremlin exile in Kyiv who has worked closely with Ukraine’s military-intel on destabilization ops in Russia (e.g., neo-Nazi Russian Volunteer Corps attacks)https://t.co/PRVrD91Ssc
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) October 29, 2023
***
I am finding it hard to put into words. It is not just the knowledge of deliberate mass death and atrocities being committed: it is the realisation that our goverments are brazenly, proudly, supporting it.
Switzerland cancelled funding for human right NGOs last week ffs.
2/— @jksteinberger.bsky.social (@JKSteinberger) October 29, 2023
India
China?
Is China Killing Its Fledgling Golden Geese? The Diplomat
China’s economy not all doom and gloom, say academics at FutureChina forum Straits Times
China’s Sept industrial profits extend gains helped by policy support Reuters
China Strike Map China Labor Bulletin
European Disunion
Orbán opposes the EU’s €50-billion support plan for Ukraine, while Fico raises corruption concerns Euronews
Revealed: EU’s plan to sex up the European Parliament Politico EU
Polish PM accuses EU of “unacceptable blackmail” over unblocking funds for new government Notes from Poland
New Not-So-Cold War
Moscow reveals details of Ukrainian attack on nuclear power plant RT
Mike Johnson: Aid for Israel, But Not Ukraine, Is a ‘Pressing, Urgent Need’ Rolling Stone
Apparently sanctions on Russian cash moving into Europe don’t actually work. That’s nice to know as I look at my energy bill. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/HTpU13or97
— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) October 29, 2023
South of the Border
Argentina Realigned New Left Review
B-a-a-a-a-d Banks
Bad loans are becoming a real problem for regional banks yahoo! Finance
Immigration
Hochul extends state of emergency over migrant crisis Washington Examiner
New York Asylum Office Rejects Valid Asylum Seekers Just to Save Time Documented
Our immigration policy is causing a child labor epidemic Victoria Advocate
2024
Biden’s Primary Challenges Are Much More Serious Than DC Insiders Think The Nation
Top Democrats plead with party: Stop looking for a Biden alternative CNN
Biden will be the nominee, but Newsom is the one actually running for president The Hill
You speak of wars as though you know them personally. You do not.
The day you do is the day you’ll realize you’ve been wrong on most issues, especially Ukraine.
Stop promoting something you don’t understand and start promoting how we can fix America first.
Endless wars cost… https://t.co/djM2DNc7mM
— General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) October 29, 2023
Trump
Jack Smith’s War on Free Speech: Attorney General Garland Should Rein in His Special Counsel Jonathan Turley
Healthcare
Abortion
Why a Texas Panhandle city hit pause on a proposed abortion “travel ban” — for now Texas Tribune
Police State Watch
San Diego Mayor, Police Chief Claim City’s Surveillance Oversight Law Is Just ‘Obstruction’ Techdirt
Our Famously Free Press
Why PBS Is Full Of… Andrei Martyanov
Gunz
Maine police were alerted weeks ago about shooter’s threats Associated Press
Groves of Academe
“Shit For Brains” – Leon Cooperman Chastises Students Protesting Israel, Cuts Columbia Funding The Deep Dive
Book Nook
The Emptiness Of Literature Written For The Market NOEMA
TECH GUY SAYS BOOKS WILL BE REPLACED BY AI-POWERED “THUNKS” Futurism
Guillotine Watch
What is Prenuvo? How an MRI became a luxury status symbol Fast Company
Class Warfare
Strikes hit U.S. and Europe as workers worry about job security Nikkei Asia
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
188 comments
Comments are closed.
>Polish PM accuses EU of “unacceptable blackmail” over unblocking funds for new government Notes from Poland
“So, the ‘rule of law’ was a narrative for suckers,” tweeted deputy justice minister Michał Woś. “D. Tusk has just de facto confirmed that the European Commission used political tools (blocking the KPO) to influence the election results of a sovereign state.”
Those “political tools” were spelled out in in John Perkin’s Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. And as the recent re-judication of the Aldo Moro case from the 1970’s would suggest, the U.S. CIA’s “secret team” has many deadly quivers in it’s arsenal. It’s no wonder that European politicians are supine, going along with the U.S./Israeli genocidal policies in the Gaza and pledging unconditional support for Biden/Bebi.
Speculation, but maybe the Russians saw a wider, global conflict emerging back in Feb of ’22.. Perhaps the reason they didn’t call for a mass mobilization and limited the military response to an SMO, was because an all out direct conflict with the U.S./West was immanent, that Russia would be better of in preserving her soldiers and ramping up military hardware production. I hope it doesn’t come to it, but it looks like global forces are in realignment.
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/10/27/notorious-secret-team-headed-by-cia-agent-theodore-shackley-was-involved-in-the-kidnapping-and-assassination-of-italian-premier-aldo-moro-italian-parliamentary-investigations-show/
The EU keeps trying to get away with arrogating to itself the role of a supra-national sovereign federal government, without the voters and parliaments of the individual member states ever having agreed to surrender their ultimate sovereignty and accord the Brussels bureaucracy that status.
The only thing stopping them go full fascist is the need to have a unanimous vote over major decisions. That is why the EU has been muttering a bit lately by having only a majority vote needed instead. To make it more democratic of course. The only problem is that to do this, they would need – wait for it – a unanimous vote of all their members. But it has never been more easy to join the EU as all you have to do is hate Russia-
Country: ‘Are you the European Economic Community?’
EU: ‘F*** off.’
Country: ‘What?’
EU: ‘European Economic Community. Pft. We’re the European Union. European Economic Community, cor!’
Country: ‘Can I join your Union?’
EU: ‘No, p*** off!’
Country: ‘C’mon. I hate the Russians as much as anybody.’
EU: ‘Are you sure?’
Country: ‘Oh, dead sure. I hate the Russians already.’
EU: ‘Listen, if you wanted to join the European Union you’d have to really hate the Russians.’
Country: ‘I do!’
EU: ‘Oh yeah, how much?’
Country: ‘A lot!’
EU: (pause) ‘Right. You’re in.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WboggjN_G-4 (1:41 mins)
“So, the ‘rule of law’ was a narrative for suckers,” tweeted deputy justice minister Michał Woś. “D. Tusk has just de facto confirmed that the European Commission used political tools (blocking the KPO) to influence the election results of a sovereign state.”
Um, duh. This sort of thing has been happening for a long time now, just they call it “Strengthening Democracy(tm)” or “Muh Rules-Based Order(R)” or something when the establishment does it.
When the establishment loses or something that the establishment doesn’t like happens, they call it “Russian interference”.
Wrong link for “Revealed: EU’s plan to sex up the European Parliament Politico EU”
Correct link here:
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-plan-sex-up-european-parliament-document-revealed/
Thanks. Fixed
It was heading in that direction with the spitzenkandidaten-system, where each parliamentary group presented their candidate for commission president. Unfortunately in 2019 the EPP (conservatives) party presented one candidate in the election and then the EPP governments in the Council decided to nominate von der Leyen instead. Now parliament could (and should) have used its power to say no and declared that until the Council had nominated the spitzenkandidaten and those had been voted down, the parliament would vote down anyone the Council nominated. They didn’t, and now we have a commission president that knows she can just ignore the parliament.
“Evolutionary Haunted Houses” really goes off the rails with its concluding and condescending ‘Scientific American’ advice:
«Instead of doomscrolling, … Watch a movie about an apocalypse, go to a haunted house, get in costume to go on a “zombie crawl,” or have a fun night at home chatting with your friends about how you’d survive the end of the world.»
Scary stuff!
Based on the following video, I think that people enjoy in a way being scared ever now and then-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xrRs7KN70Q (10:11 mins)
I’m old enough to remember when SA was worth reading and could take some effort to read.
Ditto. No “clickbait headlines” back then. No “dumbing down” to the lower grades levels. And you often read “Letters to the Editor” penned by leaders in their respective fields.
Continue employing the precautionary principle.
No escape to National Geographic. Gaah! Hmm, or NYT.
Likely back then those writing were subject educated, not graduates from dedicated journalism schools trained to pad articles with purple prose.
“Instead of doomscrolling…
…call your soulless ghoul of a congressional rep and tell the poor teenager who’s stuck answering phones that you’re tired of war-mongering recklessness and they need to stop it, immediately, and do hard things like negotiate peace deals.”
There, i fixed it!!!
“Dear Rep,
I know you are bought and paid for by various warmongering factions, but could you for once set that aside?…”
As you see, I have to first do some work on my tact.
My dear Representative Intern:
Between Ukraine, Gaza, and Climate Change, that a$$-kissing bo$$ of yours is gonna get us all killed (you included). There’s a mob gathering outside your offices as I write. You’d better get out before they get in.
Sincerely,
Bad loans are becoming a real problem. A key paragraph seems to dovetail it all together succinctly, a decline in property values coming with a rising interest rate environment. “Making things more challenging…” might be an understatement in particular when they start disclosing particular examples. It doesn’t mean or imply a full barrel of apples going bad, but a few key bulwark properties can tip the scale.
Otherwise everything is fine and copacetic in our fine and wonderful America. Carry on my wayward sons !!
> Carry on my wayward sons !!
there’ll be … a desert when you are done
How radioactive is my question.
Everyday it seems like TPTB are trying to turn the world into one big real life version of Cormac McCarthy’s “ The Road”
Personal risk assessment heading into 2024, I suggest going long the Apocalypse and the Jackpot, intertwined if you would. I am not going long for the cannibalism angle however. What a brutal film that was…just thoroughly a depressing outlook of a possible future.
‘Donner Party of 87, we are ready to (s)eat you…’
I see you resisted the temptation to say “not going long long pig” . . .
It is depressing to think of it all.
On Saturday I was at a farmer’s market in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont visiting my daughters booth before going to her farm to help out.
Wandering around we stopped at a booth where a lady is selling freeze dried products, soon discussing how she got into it and all. She had no problem staying she was a prepper ( not many bat an eyelash around here on that), stating that this is her retirement program in a year or two from the nursing profession. I remember thinking, Lady, you are likely ahead of the curve the way the world is going.
Everyone does the best they can for themselves, I’m just grateful to not be living in or around any major cities/metropolitan areas.
Read the book.
The prose description excels the visual.
Brutal yes.
Possible?
Probably.
Who knows?
One thing for sure, McCarthy knew how create worlds with words.
Day of the dead a coming . . .
Fwiw I found myself covering my eyes both when watching the movie AND when reading the book! (not hyperbole, I actually got so scared reading the book I did reflexively cover my eyes)
Money center banks, now regional banks. How soon until local banks get the nod. Or did they have a little more sense not to chase after all the free money fads?
In the news recently were notices of bank closures around the country, like the whimsically named Fifth Third. Okay, they
probablydo have a history, but people seeing the signs might wonder about a music shop, or a liquor store. Alan Greenspan, a nation turns its eyes to you to, well, to say that you were surprised again that the market forces didn’t work in practice as they did in theory.Another problematic news theme has been the rising interest payments and what will happen as those take over more of the national budget. Bad enough at the household level where real decisions have to be made.
Well, two things. Property values have actually gone up in my neighborhood with the rise in rates, due to scarcity of homes on the market. It’s my understanding this is a phenomenon in many places, because many are “stuck” in low interest mortgages. Second, Vanguard just emailed me with an offer for 4.7% APY on cash, FDIC insured to 1.25 million (I wish). I like that. Five percent, low fees, no worries. Bout time.
You can get 5.5% on 6 month UST’s…… Np need for insurance on those.
Yeah, but I don’t like investing in war bonds. I’m getting 5.2% from my credit union. I know they’re probably just turning around and buying UST’s for the basis point crumbs, but it’s hard for an old man to expatriate.
Well the comment on declining property came from a few paragraphs in the article, describing how a few key commercial properties were posing concerns and risk as reported in quarterly earnings. Residential is not evaluated on the same metrics as commercial, which if memory serves at all from the securities markets / commercial MBS work 15 years ago, CRE utilizes a Cap rate in the valuation of property. Key tenants not renewing? Office space demand lightening up, or say other key properties like hotels / mixed use can also likely combine for a few “muddled” assumptions on property values.
Yeah, commercial. Woe to the office developer.
But, but, “There are no short-term measures to reduce Mexican migration, given the country’s relatively healthy economy and political stability,”
From Biden face lose-lose scenario article…
Suicide up, food prices doubling, energy costs through roof, lack of medicines, crumbling infrastructure, yup, the Bidenconomy, as he himself calls it, is doing just great.
Jessica Wildfire: Unlikable
> In college, a guy finally had the guts to walk right up and tell me exactly what he wanted.
Rang a bell.
To paraphrase Groucho Marx (the wisecrack has been attributed to others, but most can readily imagine Groucho saying it): ’empathy and understanding is the key to success; if you can fake that, you’ve got it made’.
Wildfire:
I was just doing it wrong. I was trying to date like a neurotypical person. I was trying to love like a neurotypical person. I was focusing on all the ways I couldn’t express my emotions or show someone I had feelings for them.
I was trying to fake it.
I’d been masking my entire life. I just didn’t have a name for it. I faked emotions I don’t feel. I did things that didn’t come natural. It didn’t matter how hard I tried.
The mask always slipped off.
So I stopped wearing it.
It feels good to take off your mask.
faking sincerity is also useful, I think
Thanks for the link. There’s a lot of wisdom in that piece.
Valuable article, suggest further distribution among relatives, friends and maybe a rando or two.
Screen Name is Neutrino for a reason or two.
If the name of the site wasn’t a big enough hint — “doomer” is meme shorthand for an outlook on life best described as recreational nihilism, or epicureanism if you’re feeling classical and slightly more positive about it, as the author of the article is.
To be somewhat blase about it, a broad swathe of Millennials grew up in a environment that could not hide its failings and concluded in a very post-modernist way that nothing mattered, especially in the way that it was explained (or merely presented) to them. Everything that exists “just because” is suspect in a way that goes beyond is-it-necessary to existential: sex, relationships, marriage, children, city living, careerism, capitalism, longstanding foreign policy commitments (“unsolicited opinions about Israel” is a very worn-out joke), and so on.
I have had to endure the new fad in autism…women are autistic but they do not show any classic signs instead they have histories of chronic abuse. Their inability to connect is based on their autistic behaviors not post traumatic disorders.
Women were typically diagnosed as borderline personalities in the late 90s early 00s (I’m showing my age) but now they are getting diagnosis as autistic.
A male, like me, with a similar history will get diagnosed as suffering from PTSD. My behaviors make sense in that context.
I also wonder how many of these autistic adults the consequence of cry it out techniques that socially isolate (abuse) babies, toddlers and young children.
If Prenuvo full body MRI scan is really only $2500 that’s less than my husband paid for his insurance covered medically necessary scan.
locally around here you can find independent clinics that will do an MRI for $500 –
Never pay the first bill. Ever. Wait, hassle them for a drop, whatever. But don’t pay.
All the most profitable insurers do this.
Pity poor Nikki Haley…in over her head. We’ve been trying forever wars since 2001, I think many Americans are looking around at our immediate and future prospects and going hey, just a second, where is my $600 that Joe Biden promised and what is all this funneling of “limitless” funds accomplishing in the Ukraine efforts. Maybe we the people want to assign an OIG / Inspector General to mark and monitor all those efforts, you know, almost like an accounting for what is spent. Just a thought.
With regard to walruses:
It was Lewis Carroll (not his real name) who wrote
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)
It was Queen Latifah (not her real name) who narrated the 2007 movie Arctic Tale. It’s really very interesting once you get over the fact that there is NO singing or dancing in this movie. At all. “Two narratives — the life cycle of a mother walrus and her calf, and the life of a polar bear and her cubs — are used to illustrate the harsh realities of existence in the Arctic.” Get the DVD, with its bonus features. You will never look at walruses the same way again. (The reality of polar bear life is pretty much what you think, though.)
It was The Walrus Foundation, a registered non-profit charitable foundation, which launched The Walrus magazine in September of 2003 with a straightforward mandate:
Nikki Haley graduated from the Albright School of Diplomacy:
step 1. send in other people’s kids to shoot up stuff, step 2. Mission Accomplished!
For a graduate of the Albright School of Diplomacy, Nikki seems to be not very bright nor even diplomatic. She should ask for her money back.
They give out those new quantum diplomas, appearing and disappearing at the same time.
Now who will forgive that ed debt? /s
Neither was Albright bright or diplomatic. Remember “We think it’s worth it”? On the other hand, she was honest.
I dunno, Imo she has been sufficiently trained to double down on the 500k kids not too high a cost theme… Gaza has at least a million…
I am hard pressed to think of a single time Nikki Haley has not been in the public eye foaming at the mouth about something. Her persona is so deranged and angst ridden that she would just be exhausting to have to see in the news every day.
I’ve never had a clue about what, if anything, she believes or wants.
Money, attention.
Haley is always wearing a price tag which makes her a lot more appealing to the establishment than the unpredictable Trump.
However so far voters don’t seem to feel the same.
Think about sex with Nikki.
No thanks.
Haley knows what people of influence and authority want to hear, and hopes that, by giving them what they want, she can groom herself for Bigger And Better Things.
See: Harris, K.
Also: Braverman, S.
IIRC any attempts over the past couple of years of accounting where money goes in Ukraine has been fully and successfully resisted numerous times both by Little z and cohorts in congress – how dare we wish to know!
You mean Nimrata Randhawa, that’s her real name.
Sounds like a Hindu God of Destruction. She’s the candidate most likely to turn your eyeballs and brain to steam in WWIII.
Whoa Leo, easy with the bigotry-light. ‘Namrata’ (or Nimrata) translates to meek or humble in most Indian languages, Randhawa is a Jat-Sikh surname. The Jats if my history serves me right were immigrants from Eastern Europe/Central Asia who bulldozed their way to the top of the caste hierarchy with their almost-Caucasian features and racist belligerence; a far cry from the dark skinned, shorter, poorer lower castes in East India that worship Kali, the Hindu god of creation, power and destruction.
Your US-born ‘Nikki’ is a Christian convert from Sikhism who married some fat white guy to gain acceptance and climb the political ladder in a country where some prejudices are still OK. In fact, It’s entirely bipartisan to sneer at anything smacking of a Hindu origin (Yoga excepted – white soccer moms rule). Nikki’s ancestors were of course Hindu and probably worshipped an aspect of Kali – albeit in the late 1600’s when yours were probably boarding the Mayflower. That’s how far removed from Hinduism she must be
I am a big fan of Yves and what this blog has become but sometimes you guys lack subtlety, nuance and objectivity when it comes to discussions about India or Hinduism or Modi for that matter…
The fascinating article about creatures in nature that are zombies in real life: illustrated with AI. Frankly, that was the most “unnatural” of the examples.
Indeed. I’ve been wondering for the past couple weeks whether President Cheney had somehow gotten back into office. “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Teheran.” Looks like the real men are finally in charge. Heaven help us.
Yep, and what “they” forgot, or never knew, was that there are “real men” in Teheran too.
Now, do these ‘Other'(TM) “real men” want to go to Tel Aviv?
They don’t have to acknowledge this. That’s because the “real men” in this instance won’t really go to Teheran until after the deplorables or the immigrants or the too stupid to be rich folk carve a road through those other “real men” and their minions for our “real men” to drive up to the center of Teheran waving in triumph. They’re probably wearing a too tight flight suit with a stuffed crotch that’s all them in their fantasies of this, too.
That’s a keeper image; a Neo-con Codpiece.
A keeper sobriquet.
Makes me wonder if perhaps we will all end up in a demi-monde?
Real pundit men? It isn’t at all clear that’s what the Bidenistas want.
It’s like the twighlight zone reading all of these narratives claiming there is some desire to prevent a wider conflict that’s already happening in so many ways.
There seems to be a really odd comprehension, or really uncomprehension, of the passage of time these days! I keep seeing the future tense being used for things that are actually ongoing. Really baffling.
It was obvious from the outset that Biden would seek a pretext to attack Iran.
Keep in mind that Iraq is no long the model. Libya and Yemen now provide the blueprint.
They would have to go through the Suez Canal first…
Re: US looks isolated after UN vote
This link worked for me: https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/28/gaza-israel-truce-un-resolution-us
Can’t keep this neolib-socialdemocrats gem from you.
Ex-prime minister of Sweden Stefan Löfven and ex-chairman of the union IF Metall weighs in on the strikes in Sweden in the Tesla factories and how he will personally contribute to solving the problem.
“”Of course, I go with Taxi Stockholm, which has a collective agreement. Now I contact them and say that they can send something other than Tesla, as long as that brand does not have a collective agreement. There may be many of us who do, regardless of which taxi company you use.”
If there is something that is characteristic of the Swedish workforce then it is their habit of taking a taxi exactly everywhere. From home to the kindergarden to work to lunch to kindergarden to school to home to dinner out to the cinemas to the forest to the gym, to the… everywhere and anywhere.
https://www-expressen-se.translate.goog/ekonomi/stefan-lofvens-harda-ord-om-tesla-unken-syn/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Curious where you came up with the idea the Swedes take taxis “exactly everywhere”, when taxis are used for 0,4% of all journeys:
https://www.trafa.se/vagtrafik/vad-vet-vi-om-taxi-7509/
I believe (hope) that a sarc tag was missed by Trees&Trunks.
The Swedish Social Democrats are big into virtue signalling and the above example might be yet another time when they signal their virtue.
Currently they are also signalling their virtue (and which class they represent) by shedding tears for the valuable employees who are about to lose their work-permits in Sweden as the salaries they receive will no longer be deemed sufficient. If the employees are so valuable then how come their salaries aren’t higher and sufficient for getting a work-permit?
Some believe that the leading Social Democrats in Sweden like to pay as little as possible for the services they receive thus showing how much their solidarity with the working people is worth.
Anyway, since Stefan Löfven left Sweden he became president of The Party of European Socialists (PES) which brings together the socialist, social democratic, labour and democratic parties from all over the European Union, the United Kingdom and Norway.
https://pes.eu/about-us/the-party/president/
Too bad he does not have any influence because then he might be asked to do something more than signal his good intentions for everything that is good…
It was sarcasm and meant to highlight the total disconnect between his transportation habits and the workers at Tesla as well as the highly symbolic nature of such a Tesla-taxi boycott. If those few who use taxi will boycott the Tesla taxis what would happen then? Taxi Stockholm has 1400 cars in total. Very few of those Teslas. Moreover, in 2023 13,000 Teslas were sold in Sweden. So if Taxi Stockholm holds up an order of 10 Teslas. They won’t care.
https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/tesla-model-y-sales-rose-607-yoy-in-september-in-sweden-becoming-the-best-selling-car#:~:text=In%20September%2C%20Tesla%20Model%20Y,has%20a%206.4%25%20market%20share.
Really nice link to the taxi analysis though Cheers!
There is more to this fool, Stefan Löven. He is a lobbyist and his customers are a secret. Moreover, the lobbying company he works for doesn’t have a collective agreement.
https://www-aftonbladet-se.translate.goog/kultur/a/0Q8AGJ/stefan-lofven-tesla-och-rud-pedersen-av-eric-rosen?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
professional lobbyists seem organized more akin to law firms.
Then again “knowledge workers” are loath to organize in general. I guess they see it as beneath them.
What form of transportation should he take? And if one is forced to take a taxi, what is the preferred car manufacturer and taxi company in Stockholm?
In my opinion this is a weak example of hypocrisy to focus on, unless you believe his comments were somehow in service of one of his lobbying clients. What type of client would be served by his position?
Tone deaf statement, but the strike is relevant.
Swedish unions can and has in the past expanded strikes as far as necessary when it comes to getting a collective agreement. Read recently that in the 90ies when Toys’R’Us got established in Sweden they tried to do the whole “we don’t do collective bargaining”-dance. Not only did they get a three month strike but the union called in other unions so by the end of the strike the waste collectors union made sure their trash wasn’t collected and the tellers union made sure their banking wasn’t processed. Toys’R’Us has sinced then had collective bargaining in Sweden.
As I understand it Tesla is very anti-union, so getting them to accept collective bargaining with a union is likely going to be a hard nut to crack, but it could have repercussions elsewhere.
That has to be at least the fifth article I have seen this week handwringing about my man Dean. He appears to have cornered a market on surrogates who are determined to raise his national profile. If it were not so crazy to think that the Democratic Party would deliberately Pied Piper themselves up a candidate, one might think that was what they are up to.
Tin foil hat time. There is a Team Blue group that reconginzes they need a sheepdog, but the other group wants to replace Biden with Mother at the DNC next summer. The criticisms of Biden apply to Mother too, so now they want everyone to “shut up.”
I think it is more than that. Phillips is saying the hidden truth out loud. Biden is not physically capable of being President. He might not be outright saying Biden’s brain isn’t firing on more than one synapse. The more he gets traction, and he will get traction because of the idiotic payback of putting SC first, because people already get that it is the truth. IOW it blows open the doors on something the Democrats thought they got locked away. And makes it part of the primaries which would destroy any plan for a last minute health crisis withdrawal right before or just after the convention with the preselected Newsome or Clinton (I think this is a pipe dream of the Clintonistas who don’t recognize that having already lost to Trump she is never getting the nomination again).
Talk of Biden still being alive (hat tip to Kamala Harris for noting that) obscures Biden’s real election problem which is he wasn’t supported in the primary by the future of the Democratic Party or the Permanent Democratic Majority. He has dumped on them at every opportunity while demanding loyalty.
In the same month he greenlit genocide, indebted students are getting collection notices. Even if Biden was hitting the campaign trail, these questions would follow him.
Local reporter: About the clean up efforts in East Palestine
Young Biden: Israel is the greatest investment we can make.
If he can’t cheat, he will just blather.
Never lived west of Hennepin Avenue when I lived in the Cities. Before he ran for Congress, I’d never heard of Dean Phillips. Was he at all active in the DFL before he ran?
I have no clue if he had any associations like that. I imagine that his sole experience with politics prior to running for Congress was at the Chamber of Commerce level. It just struck me the first time he hit my radar, back during the Ihlan Omar brouhaha, that he had all the qualities of a perfect “insurgent” DNC candidate. He was the go-to figurehead for the establishment attack on the progressive wing of the party, and that sort of served as a speech-at-the-convention that pols like Obama usually receive.
He is comparatively young, he is rich, he is the very paradigm of the party as it presently exists, he is obscure, he is deceptively pleasant to listen to and eminently disposable. He just reeks of plausible deniability. He is just perfect for slipping in the knife when it is time for Caesar to exit stage left.
Just my two cents, but I wouldn’t count him out.
Well said!
Also, too, check this out; it arrived in my in-box the day he announced.
https://mailchi.mp/09b48aece747/announcing-dean-24?e=f4efd0bf02
Slick, huh? He didn’t come up with that last week. That is very professional looking, and so anodyne as to preclude any messy questions about his hundred percent voting record with Biden, and how it is not all that has been proclaimed of it.
I can’t pin it down, but that’s an old DNC boilerplate format. I think it’s fairly vintage and was in use for quite a while. It goes back at least a dozen years if not more. Maybe from post-9/11 when everything went ‘white paper’ formal. Then the neolibz completed their takeover of the party and the brand had to be reinvented every two years because a stagnant party needs to look fresh.
Book of Daniel is in my thoughts & fears
I can see the anointed ones and the seventy five years
And I can see the four kingdoms and the little horn revised
Oh it looks like the Book of Daniel, must be a mushroom cloud in my eyes
They say Israel is pretty though I’ve never been
And the Book of Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams
He should know, he’s been there enough
Oh I dread the Book of Daniel, oh I dread him it much, oh
Book of Daniel you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the ancient scars that won’t heal?
Your eyes have died but you see more than I
Book of Daniel you’re a star of the end times auld lang syne
Book of Daniel you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the ancient scars that won’t heal?
Your eyes have died but you see more than I
Book of Daniel you’re a star of the end times auld lang syne
Book of Daniel is in my thoughts & fears
I can see the anointed ones and the seventy five years
And I can see the four kingdoms and the little horn revised
Oh God it looks like the Book of Daniel, must be a mushroom cloud in my eyes
Daniel, by Elton John
Border Song by Elton John already evokes Gaza & Palestine with zero changes:
Holy Moses, I have been removed
I have seen the spectre, he has been here too
Distant cousin from down the line
Brand of people who ain’t my kind
Holy Moses, I have been removed
Holy Moses, I have been deceived
Now the wind has changed direction, and I’ll have to leave
Won’t you please excuse my frankness
But it’s not my cup of tea
Holy Moses, I have been deceived
I’m going back to the border where my affairs
My affairs ain’t abused
I can’t take any more bad water
Been poisoned from my head down to my shoes, oh
Holy Moses, let us live in peace
Let us strive to find a way to make all hatred cease
There’s a man over there, what’s his color? I don’t care
He’s my brother, let us live in peace, oh
He’s my brother, let us live in peace, oh
He’s my brother, let us, let us live in peace
I think Bernie Taupin gets the credit for lyrics on the earlier Elton John stuff. This was on the first album, released in 1970. “Burn Down the Mission” from the second album is a good Taupin lyric:
Now everybody, bring your family down to the riverside.
Look to the east to see where the fat stock hide.
Behind four walls of stone the rich man sleeps.
It’s time we put the flame torch to their keep.
Burn down the mission,
If we’re gonna stay alive.
Watch the black smoke fly to heaven.
See the red flame light the sky.
May the gods and goddesses, the saints and bodhisattvas, defend us from the monotheists.
Simplicius and the article about World Plummets into Eschatological Swamp is worth your while. I am not much of a believer, but I take religion as a cultural shaper seriously. Simplicius shows why monotheism is a real problem. Jealous gods have to murder: As Stephen Greenblatt once pointed out, he gave up on the god of monotheism, because that god expected his sons, Isaac, Jesus, and Ishmael, to be sacrificed to him.
Now we see wars.
Culturally, it is also important to note the behavior of Vivek (“Strom Thurmond Lite”) Ramaswamy and Nikki (“Lester Maddox Again”) Haley. What you see is the result of a civilization based on color (varna) and the lingering effects of those in power (high caste) who assume that others must suffer for them.
As in another civilization based on varna (color), which has now produced Mike Johnson, of the Church of Selective Biblical Verses, and Mike Pence, of the Holy Church of Constipation. Again, others must suffer for the sake of their high positions. And the irony is that Pence grew up in an Irish-American family but found Irish Catholicism not to be repressive enough for whatever it is that is bothering him.
Whited sepulchers, all.
Um, I grew up with an Irish Catholic mom and went to a predominantly Irish Catholic school in my early years. I could introduce you to the nuns with rulers if you want to know “repressive”, to start.
Your either with Him [us, her, them, it], or against Him [us, her, them, it]. No room for polytheistic debate.
As Saint Clausewitz put it: “Pogrom is Synod by other means.”
“polytheistic debate”
Judaism was polytheism before it was monotheism. Some of Yahweh’s other pantheon members are discussed in the OT itself. I feel misled by this claim of mono. If complex systems can return to an earlier state, reversion to polytheism might improve morale.
Ugarit was definitely polytheistic. The sons of El (“god” in Semitic languages), Yam (“sea”), Mot (“death”) and Ba’al (“lord” or “husband”) fought it out every year, mirroring the weather cycle of the Levant.
Israel and most of the other Ancient Near Eastern nations were henotheistic, that is, each nation had its own god who looked out especially for its interests. YHWH didn’t do so well for the Hebrews, first seeing the northern kingdom fall to the Assyrians, whose god was Assur, then Jerusalem and the southern kingdom of Judah fall to the neo-Babylonians, whose god was Marduk. Think of the relationship between a god and its nation being like that between a quarterback and the team in the NFL.
The move to monotheism was made after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of YHWH’s temple. First, Second Isaiah (40-54) made the claim not onliy that YHWH was no loser god because Jerusalem fell but also that he was the only god. Ezra fleshed that out when he and his scribes put together the Torah and the histories that explained that YHWH had not failed Israel, but that Israel failed YHWH.
Monotheism, as Feuerbach pointed out long ago, is the ultimate case of projection. The one and only god turns out to be suspiciously very human: jealous, vengeful, angry at times and loving and caring at others. How unlike what Lao Tzu says about the Tao, something so beyond human comprehension that even truly naming it is impossible.
I agree that this Simplicius piece is well worth reading. That tweet by Ramaswamy alone is jolting, given that some of us considered him among the more “moderate” Republican pretenders (mainly because of Ukraine). I would only question the framing a bit, based on the following statements:
“The fact of the matter is, the American political elite are hardcore Zionists because many of them come from the Southern Baptist and evangelical strain of Christianity which preaches devotion to Israel on account of perceived Biblical rapport…”
“…It’s plain to see that a large portion of America’s political elite and intelligentsia do envision Israel as being central to the long awaited, culminating ‘Rapture’ event. They view their support of Israel as being absolutely necessary for their ascension and the salvation of their souls…”
I suppose this depends on who you are calling “the American political elite,” but by my definition few of them are actually true believers. Rather, they are more like the depiction of Erdogan here; they are *using* the true believers to mobilize constituents to support their geopolitical agenda. “Elites” have been doing this forever. Our own elites have been strategically manipulating both Christian and Muslim “fundamentalists” for a long time now to gain support and undermine our geopolitical “enemies,” whether they be Arab Nationalists, the Soviet Union, China, or others who dare to resist US/Western hegemony.
And before I am accused of denying some of these groups their own “agency,” let me quickly emphasize that this is *precisely* the issue; they *do* have their own agency, which is why they are never completely under elite “control.” They have their own agendas, and the arrogance and hubris of our ever-so-wily elites gets them bitten in the ass. And when you add End Times eschatology to the mix, that blowback promises to be quite a bitch indeed. I think that’s the dilemma that has some of the less psychopathic members of this administration shaking in their boots right now.
I don’t think Biden, Blinken, and Nod think that way. They swing both ways. Like Liz Cheney and Bernie Sanders. Sure they have their differences, but that’s just politics. The important thing is that they all agree on the one big thing: The problems are all somebody else’s fault, and war is the answer!
these takes are really bad because they take it for granted that these wars are about religion, when they never have been. religion merely gives them a pretext. it’s mostly about land and resources. All the Gazans could convert to Judaism tomorrow but it wouldn’t change a thing. if it wasn’t religion there would be another pretext. and polytheistic cultures would have just as much cause for war. i demand that you, servant of Baal, accept the supremacy of my chosen god, Marduk. there’s a more general turn to fascism (the forming of in- and out-groups) that drives war. Religion can provide one convenient fascio to organise into, but it’s too facile to suggest it is the root one.
So, the NYT top headline this morning was Israel Hits Hundreds of Targets in Gaza, before they changed it to something a little more benign., like, Israel’s Air and Ground Forces Put More Pressure on Gaza. Targets. As though lobbing thousands of missles into a concentration camp with thousands and thousands of children is a precision strike operation. But maybe an editor was listening to Queen on his or her earbuds on the way in this morning and decided to change it to that “pressure” line.
But what really gets me is their non coverage of the Grand Central protest on Friday. I mean, Grand Central, furcryingoutloud! It’s a short walk from the NYT building. No doubt many of the paper’s employees use it to commute. Well, eventually they did report on it,but maybe they felt the pressure to do so, after everyone else did.
But just call me Shit for Brains for pointing this out.
I suggest a softening of the language, and here’s one for the NYT
Deaths is such a downer of a word, ‘Discounted Bodies’ could sound as if they are on a diet, ambiguity is your friend.
“farm buyers”?
farm renters /s
LOL! Perfect euphemism in the mouths of late-stage capitalists.
N.B. “To buy the farm” is a North American English colloquial synonym for “to die”.
WWI Soldier’s Widows had a farm purchased for them to make up for a loss of their husband by the War Department.
Saw another example of how the media spins things tonight. So several ex-Prime Ministers here in Oz wrote a letter which in essence condemned Hamas while talking about the Jewish communities and Palestinian communities. But on the news they talked about “Israeli-Australians” and “Palestinian communities”. See the difference? They are saying that there are no Palestinian-Australians and only Palestinian communities. I should mention that one ex-prime Minister refused to sign that letter and that was Paul Keating who does not suffer fools gladly. He said that he saw no point signing a statement drafted by The Zionist Federation of Australia-
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12687229/Ex-Australian-Prime-Ministers-sign-letter-slamming-Hamas-one-conspicuous-absence.html
Lead piece on the front page of today’s FT shows a bunch of Gaza rubble backed by another bunch of seriously damaged low-rise buildings. In the middle of the rubble there is a huge explosion of what looks like white phosphorus…when do they fire up the nukes?
Related to the withdrawal of funding to universities because of comments made about Israel by members of university communities: Gabor Mate discussed his thoughts on the Israel/Palestine conflict a couple of days ago. This may have already been posted and I missed it, but the link is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHDBw-wx6w0
US state universities will be better without that funding, assuming of course that the state resumes funding them. State university administrators? Not so much. The private universities will always be Hitlerjugendgaerten.
“Revealed: EU’s plan to sex up the European Parliament”
Ursulla in a bikini perhaps? Look, if they know that the sessions are boring, it is by design. They don’t want it to be controversial or interesting. That is why they hate it when Clary Daly or Mike Wallace steps up to give a speech. It shows what failures they are. The European Parliament would rather be irrelevant and pointless, so long as they get their salaries and their goody bags. The whole institution has been completely captured and even Hercules would not be confident in cleaning out these Augean Stables.
I see what you did there:
“Sulla played an important role in the long political struggle between the optimates and populares factions at Rome. He was a leader of the optimates, which sought to maintain senatorial supremacy against the populist reforms advocated by the populares, headed by Marius.”*
Very clever.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulla#References
Wait, there’s more: Ur-Sulla
ur- —> proto-, primitive, original
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ur-#English
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GeniusBonus
This really is the best commentariat. Even the badinage is layered.
“World Plummets into Eschatological Frenzy: Unraveling the Implications” Simplicius the Thinker
Any time I hear time “chosen ones” BS any where in the world, I think: Cult. Then watch my back and watch my pocketbook.
Goooooooood Moooooorning Fiatnam!
Comeuppance see me sometime, Mother Nature chortled at the Unit which was oblivious to her advances, looking to profit off a 2-front war…
…udderly Krupp’d
Am I the only one who saw Wilford Brimley in the Antidote?
Hmmm. Maybe its because I just watched Remo Williams…
I saw John Bolton liberally foaming from both sides of his mouth.
He only does that when he is talking.
That’s a good one, thanks for mentioning. Was watching “The Thing’ over the weekend, which included Brimley in a key role as a part of science fiction gone awry. In Wilford’s defense….wildly swinging around an axe at the telecommunication equipment seems quite rationale when you think of our US leaders and military officials wanting to “chop down” our stated enemies. Just the fictional version of the film seems more coherent and cohesive to the broader plot.
“Orbán opposes the EU’s €50-billion support plan for Ukraine, while Fico raises corruption concerns”
A major sticking point for Orban refusing to green-light the release of that money is the actions of the Ukrainians themselves. They put Budapest’s OTP Bank on its list of “international sponsors of war” which the Hungarians were seriously unhappy about. Now for €50-billion, you would think that the Ukrainians would relent and take that bank off that list as it is no biggie. Think again. They did a ‘temporary suspension’ of that bank from the list and that was it. Obviously as soon as they get that money they will put that bank on that list again so the Hungarians are standing firm and are saying that the Ukrainians have to take that bank off that list and agree not to put it back again. And that is where we are after I do not know how many months. Guess they don’t need that €50-billion so bad after all.
Kiev will cave if need be. They need the money before the next US funding package hits.
Doubtful.
What is doubtful? You think that the puppet will suddenly get a mind of its own.
I suspect that, when the smoke clears and the history is written, yes, we may find out that we enabled a psychopath regime with that little monster as the leader. If anyone should be convicted for war crimes, it’s Zelensky. His recent edict that the meat grinder advance 500 meters a day is proof of that. The fellows at the Duran told me he wants to draft women, and, as Mercurous pointed out, even the Nazis didn’t do that as the Red army advanced. I just don’t think our neocons are THAT evil to make him go this far.
read about this somewhere today or yesterday, can’t find where i read about it – don’t think it was NC – did a search – the USA has a large secret military installation in Israel that was first denied – here’s a few links – certainly not surprised, and y’all probably already aware and i’m late to the info –
probably saw this Intercept article – seeing the Angelo Guiliano tweet reminded me
https://theintercept.com/2023/10/27/secret-military-base-israel-gaza-site-512/
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/10/28/713562/US-secretly-expands-classified-military-base-occupied-territories
https://newsrnd.com/news/2023-10-30-secret-base-in-the-israeli-desert–us-is-probably-expanding-%22site-512%22.rkxiPIQ6G6.html
and the brown blob in the middle is the location of the airbase 20 miles from Gaza
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2021-03-23/ty-article/israel-army-secret-bases-online-map/0000017f-db6a-df9c-a17f-ff7a4af70000
I wonder how many US soldiers will be going into Gaza dressed as Israeli soldiers so that they can learn about urban warfare. The US military has been saying for a while that the future of warfare is in big urban centers so this would be a good way to learn about how to do it. After all, they have been doing the same in the Ukraine.
Goys Я US?
RK – there was video i saw a couple(few?) years back purported to be by the DOJ or State Dep that addressed the coming urban warfare – have spent hours trying to find it and cannot find it anymore and kicking myself for not saving it – raised the hair up on my neck
It was crazy talk and I think that there was an article linked here on NC once abut this subject. They were talking about going into a place like Mexico City (population nearly 9 million) as if was just another way of fighting battles. In such an environment, whole battalions could disappear never to be seen again.
and i agree that US troops entering Gaza as IDF a probable possibility –
My brother spent 10+ years traipsing about the Middle East with the Air Force. He got out in 2009.
He said that it’s an open secret within the military that there are US bases concealed in Israel within Israeli military bases. Hiding in plain sight and all that.
This information is 15 years out of date now, but I would have to imagine that this secret presence has only increased over that time given that the MIC only knows how to grow in size.
Reading today’s horror story list of links I once again recognized that a small bunch of people with far too much money and the politicians and administrators they purchase cause far too many of the world’s problems. Simplistic I know. But it did make me think of a use AI for the first time. Train AI to invest by having it follow day traders. Then find a way to put that AI in charge of the portfolios of the Fortune 500 and the next 500 on the list. Just as with almost everything AI it will take what it has learned and make it worse. The thousand should be bankrupt or close to it within a year.
Unfortunately I’m sure some one is working on this to replace funds managers who work for the lower 90% of American wealth instead. So it is better to kill it all with fire, but it was weird to even find one moment of that might be useful for it.
Hasn’t A.I.-like proprietary software already been the “brains” behind stock-market HFT (high-frequency trading) for a long time already?
Possibly, but that would be in a very limited and short term parameter. Somehow I don’t think it has been put in charge of anyone’s entire investment strategy, including such things as buying short, or moving entirely into commodities.
Re: Argentina Realigned
I find it curious that the ‘New Left Review’ does not comment on the effect BRICS admission might have had on Massa’s strong October showing and November prospects. Even VOA acknowledges it was a (troubling, for VOA) factor.
US sends forces to Jordan amid buildup in “defense of Israel”
who the F#@$ are they kidding and why is Jordan allowing it? – once in they’ll never leave – see Syria –
didn’t i read in NC yesterday or the day before about Queen Rania of Jordan accusing western leaders of a “glaring double standard” and she took a lot of heat for it – seems a double standard to allow the US to send forces into her country –
The Queen is speaking truth to power on behalf of the huge number of displaced Palestinians living in Jordan. Those same Jordanian-Palestinians almost toppled the throne of her husband’s father back in 1970.
Read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September#:~:text=Black%20September%20(Arabic%3A%20%D8%A3%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%88%D9%84%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%AF,led%20by%20chairman%20Yasser%20Arafat.
Now imagine if the present King of Jordan approves of Palestinian fighters from Jordan entering the West Bank to fight the Ultra Settlers there. Israel is already using air power against the Palestinians in the West Bank.
See, (unsure about the source, but this is what comes up on google,): https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/palestine-israel/2023/10/22/israel-strikes-west-bank-using-f-16-fighter-jets-marking-unprecedented-escalation/#:~:text=For%20the%20first%20time%20since,Palestinian%20official%20told%20The%20National.
Now Erdowan of Turkey is talking up a new jihad.
See: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/10/30/turkish-president-erdogan-champions-the-palestinian-cause-fiercely-attacks-israel_6213559_4.html
“Things” are going to the District of Colombia in a handbasket quick.
some dispute about Jordan allowing US use of airbase –
“An official source within the General Command of the Jordanian Armed Forces – Arab Army refuted the claims circulating on social media platforms regarding the use of Royal Jordanian Air Force bases for American aircraft supplying the Israeli Occupation army with equipment and ammunition for Gaza bombing operations.”
– it doesn’t seem to deny the use of the bases just what they are used for –
https://en.royanews.tv/news/45880/2023-10-29
thinking more about, “US sends forces to Jordan amid buildup in “defense of Israel”” may just be psychological propaganda that has been planted – y’all know the spooks are involved deeply in this mess –
I’m sure that Jordan has assurances that the US will not attack Gaza from Jordan, or supply Israel from Jordan. Left unspoken is the likelihood that the US will defend Israel from Jordan, as in shooting down missiles aimed at Israel from elsewhere in the Middle East. From Yemen, for example.
Jordan won’t be given any real choice.
still a colonial era – shape up-shut up-stand aside
I’m curious how much additional vulnerability the deployment adds to the US: half the Jordanians are actually displaced Palestinians. If the US involvement gets any more open, they will not remain idle and I doubt Jordanian authorities will try hard, if at all, to restrain them.
How well armed are those displaced Palestinians? Have their conditions changed markedly since Black September?
I am sure that the average frustrated Jordanian wanted the US presence gone, and that before October 7. Neither the government of Jordan nor the US military care.
I’m surprised the Donkey Show isn’t using the old school way of calling it Transjordan, you know LBQT (Lebanon Bahrain Qatar Transjordan) rights and all.
Does Queen Rania have a habit of speaking out? She may be lucky to evade the fate of the duchess in the poem by Robert Browning:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43768/my-last-duchess
“This grew; I gave commands; / Then
all smilestalk of double standards stopped altogether.”The king of Jordan is a huge US military fan. I recall from a while back how he sponsored the creation of a special forces training center in his country, on the pretext that it would become necessary in the future. Things over there have not always gone smoothly.
Israel Pounds Gaza With Heavy U.S. ‘Bunker Buster’ Bombs
I was going to say Doctorow doesn’t specify if known whether they’re the new GBU57 getting a live test run, or the older GBU28s, but it hardly matters: In either case, now Lockheed and Northrup ‘need’ more money to replace them and even ‘enhance’ the stockpiles. Heckuva job, everyone!
The regional weapons system bribery was wrong when it began in reaction to ’73, and wronger when in the late 90s it began to happen more often than not by Presidential and Pentagon fiat, without up/down Congressional votes.
I think we’ll need 15 years of solid war in order to bolster the industry.
That’s how long we left interest rates at zero in order to fill our corporate coffers.
Some of the profits will fall to the workforce thereby increasing their capacity (so long as the don’t ask for much, it’s a tough world) to fund critical corporate operations in health industry, insurance industry, automotive industry, housing industry, and most importantly the finance industry whose ever benevolent hand will husband the forces of the state and form a bulwark against the enemies of all that is good and proper.
‘Abby Martin
@AbbyMartin
While Biden shamefully disputes death toll of the mass slaughter in Gaza, Israeli media is proudly displaying the tally as “terrorists we eliminated”’
Nice to see that Abby Martin is still on the job. She did an interview with ordinary Israelis on the streets about five years ago and I see that things have only gotten worse since-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFoxL3sOAio (23:13 mins)
I remember these interviews well, and I’ve been thinking about them in recent days. I think the degree of casual ethnic hatred and dehumanization even shook the very knowledgeable Abby Martin back then. In the US we were raised on the David and Goliath story of Israel’s founding. The “haters” were all on the other side. To see such statements so blatantly expressed creates a lot of cognitive dissonance for us. More stories about Hamas baby-killers please!
Fun fact: Palestinian Christians are very proud to claim that they are descended from the very first Christians, some going so far as to claim that their ancestors include the shepherds who were among the first people to see Jesus Christ other than Mary and Joseph. Now, the irony is that this would make them members of the tribe of Dawoud, or David. So the David vs. Goliath myth takes on a new meaning thinking about this story.
Interesting point. Unfortunately, history aside, Biblical prophecy for both Jewish and Christian Zionists seems to indicate that these Palestinian Christians will have to go. As Netanyahu recently pointed out, God’s commands regarding the “Amaleks” is harsh, but it’s pretty clear. On the bright side, for the Christian Zionists the Jews will eventually have to go as well, after preparing the way for the *actual* Chosen People. So there’s that.
She had an interview with Raina Khaleh the other day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF7qndyvmEE
Quite interesting, and sad.
“Our immigration policy is causing a child labor epidemic” Victoria Advocate
Child labor is enough of “a thing” to have its own subheader on NC.
$4.01k update
I feel lucky to have gotten in on the ground floor of my Bitcoin investment in the supermarket Coinstar terminal, now headed to $35k, perhaps to the universe & beyond in the future, the sky not being the limit.
No FOMO of the mouth here on mirage money, i’m a player.
UFC* 86
Ukraine versus Israel
2 countries go into the octagon, er House of Representatives, only 1 gets continual monetary support, guess who?
199.99 New Shekels PPV
159.99 New Shekels PPV HD
*Ultimate Funding Contest
“THUNKS” reminds me of Neal Stephenson’s A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, from The Diamond Age cyberpunk/nanotech sci-fi published in 1990’s. The Primer is an AI powered interactive book, designed to help a child survive, be creative, and thrive. One of the lessons brings to mind to Rushkoff’s Program or Be Programmed). Other lessons include basic literacy, self-care, self defense, etc.
While the lessons are generated by AI, the The Diamond Age supposes that the interactivity gets better results when performed by a human actor, as opposed to being performed by an AI.
‘“Shit For Brains” – Leon Cooperman Chastises Students Protesting Israel, Cuts Columbia Funding’
A reminder that billionaires don’t support colleges and universities out of respect and admiration for the academic achievements … brains!… of the students, but rather themselves.
Hillary the Hut sighting:
https://t.me/terroralarm/14771
“Hillary the Hut.” Loved that.
I am seeing a lot of this theme that “people just do not understand the terrorist mindset.” Usually it is being used by the very people who created the terrorist groups in question in the first place.
Thanks Hillary! Now tell us who created the Mujahadeen, AQ, ISIS and Hamas and how they have benefitted your narratives at our expense.
She is a truly disgusting human being. What exactly does she think Israel would do during any ceasefire – tell the US to stop sending billions for weaponry because they’ll now only accept candies and flowers to shower on the children of Gaza?
And to think for one brief moment thirty odd years ago when she ran her healthcare program up the flagpole as 1st lady, I actually thought she might have people’s best interests in mind.
I can only hope the old adage that “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad” is accurate, because it’s mission accomplished with the insanity part already.
She knows exactly what they would do because they did it just after her stint as SoS, with the battle of Debaltsevo in Ukraine. I have always wondered at Merkel taking responsibility for the farce of the Minsk Accords that arose from that debacle, and it would not surprise me a bit to find that Clinton was behind the ruse. It was certainly devised by those in her coterie.
Newt Gingrich being my congressman at the time of the Hillary care thing was more a case of battling corporate plans for me, but prior to that I had bought into the idea that she was just a smart woman battling The Man. It was very tribal for me, and I hated Gingrich more than anything at the time. I, too, always cringe when I remember how much credit I gave her when she was first lady. I think a lot of us were fooled by those two.
I am deeply embarrassed that I voted once for Bill, once for Hilary and once for Barry. I am not in least embarrassed by my primary votes for John Edwards and Bernie Sanders (despite the last three years disappointments) or any of my third party votes for President.
“Fool me once shame on you, won’t get fooled again,” with thanks to George W. Bush.
You are not alone. Twice for Bill and once for the empty suit, 0.
After Bill I was almost totally off the Democratic party and could not bring myself to vote for Gore. I only voted for 0 the first time because we had this beautiful young girl knock on our door on his behalf, and I told her I would vote for him. I had my doubts, but she was so impassioned about it. Any good will I had toward that guy did not outlast his change in economic appointments between his election and his inauguration.
Nader, McKinney/Edwards/Kucinich and Stein/Sanders were the only possible choices for me. I voted for Stein twice, and I have never been happier to tell the people knocking on my door all about it (I am not going to get caught again). For some strange reason they are never quite as enthused.
I voted for Barry the first time, in order to vote most effectively against 4 or 8 years of Senator Bomb-Bomb-Iran and then 8 years of President Caribou Barbie after that.
I could be embarrassed over having believed any of the hope and change stuff on top of that. He did give many tells to the contrary for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. But some of those with eyes to see and ears to hear might still have voted against Senator McCain and Governor Palin.
Those were precisely the days that I was putting air in my tires!
Will the next serious terrorist attack in the USA come from Jihadi’s enraged at the mass murder taking place in Gaza or fron Nazi’s enraged by the USA stabbing Ukraine in the back?
HAMAScertainly appears to have picked up quite a few AT system’s at Kiev’s flea market…
Alastair Crooke and Judge Napolitano this morning.
Alastair Crooke: The Deterrence Paradigm has Failed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohj-wHm9ICk
The great irony is that Netanyahu promoted Hammas rise in Gaza as the counter to the PLO.
Lenin in the sealed train heading to St Petersburg…..
♫ Pardon me, boys — is this the Petrogradski choo-choo?
“Track Number Nine, Number Nine, Number Nine,”
And the French Socialist journalist in St. Petersburg who divulged the details of the anti-Lenin plot to suborn the Finnish Guard. (According to Somerset Maugham, who was there at the time.)
Really enjoyed watching this tv series which lasted but a season in 1979, and well worth your time. Anthony Andrews is oh so very young.
Danger UXB
https://archive.org/details/DangerUXB
Have all the episodes on VHS. It is still a stunning series, all the better for being pretty true to fact. I doubt I have the fortitude to defuse a mine.
BBC has been superlative in fictional portrayals of the British experience in WW2 — “Piece of Cake” also comes to mind
Judge dismisses candidate’s lawsuit to keep Trump off New Hampshire primary ballot
Snip: “MANCHESTER, N.H. —A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a lesser-known presidential candidate that sought to remove former President Donald Trump’s name from the 2024 New Hampshire primary ballot.
John Anthony Castro has filed 27 federal lawsuits across the country, including in New Hampshire, challenging Trump’s eligibility to run under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
“John Anthony Castro has filed 27 federal lawsuits across the country, including in New Hampshire, challenging Trump’s eligibility to run under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
Actually, Trump is running under the provisions of the First Amendment.
#COVIDAbsenteeism
Occasional repost of the BLS “Employed – With a job, not at work, Own illness” (via bls.gov)
Here are the #’s (in thousands) for the month of September since 2013:
2013 874
2014 931
2015 889
2016 996
2017 805
2018 884
2019 893
2020 1258
2021 1532
2022 1237
2023 1179
We’re experiencing around a quarter-million increase in work absenteeism due to illness.
Not denying Covid…..see also as the workforce ages, there is also people w/chronic injuries.
see my mail man’s knees which are all of of whack from his career.
anecdote, not data
I have a relative who was a mail carrier and just had a knee replaced; other knee to be done later.
I know, the plural of anecdote isn’t data either…
I got ya … sorry, I did not mean to infer that the additional (2023) illness-absenteeism was all COVID-related. What I’m pointing out is that we’ve clearly added a step (function) above the pre-pandemic baseline of around 900K monthly absences. We can infer from the core pandemic ascent years (’20, ’21, ’22) that the increases were driven by COVID. This year – where the numbers got close to previous baseline in June and July – I think what we’re seeing in the increase from the pre-pandemic baseline today is a mixture of COVID and sequelae effects. In a world where we’re doing better at collecting data, we’d maybe be safe with anonymizing details, like what disease or ailment, but privacy is a challenge we ought to respect. The travails of older workers sits squarely in the baseline in my estimation. However, we can perhaps ask ourselves if we are seeing more age-related ‘wear’ in the pandemic era, and further if such is really down to ‘age’ alone, or are we possibly dealing with COVID sequelae?
The European Parliament is ignored because it is meaningless.
It lacks the right of initiative, the ability to draft bills, and it lacks the ability to amend bills.
As such, it is little more than a welfare program for over-privileged politicians.
Has anyone commented on the choice of shirt that Netanyahoo chose for his Amalek address? Unsettling. Whether purposeful or not. Any precedent?
More on what happen to Bandcamp from The Lever:
The Corporate Takeover Of Music (Lessons From Bandcamp)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsdp0QcjNfc
It’s all about financialization.
It’s a little disingenuous to compare this to the LHC, a bit like comparing a portable solar panel to a nuclear power plant. Yes, they both produce electricity – but that’s about the only thing in common.
That said, this does seem cool! They claim their device kicked electrons up by 12 keV (kiloelectronvolts), from 28 to 40. For comparison a medical x-ray machine shoots photons at ~15-30keV. But the LHC accelerates protons up to 10s of TeV, or 10s of millions of keV.
That’s how it struck me, too. A bit like comparing a kazoo to the Wanamaker pipe organ.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker_Organ