The Secret to Beetles’ Unfathomable Diversity Scientific American
Crocodiles Seen Guiding Dog to Safety in India And Scientists Don’t Know Why Science Alert
Istanbul’s famed cats now have their own museum Anadolu Agency
Climate
September hottest on record by ‘extraordinary’ margin, says EU monitor France24
Ozone hole above Antarctica one of the largest on record: Scientists Anadolu Agency
Climate Change Risk and Opportunity for the General Insurance Actuary Actuaries Digital
China?
Australia concludes China decoupling ‘impossible’ after carrying out series of classified studies South China Morning Post. The imperial hegemon that can’t manufacture its own ammo won’t be happy about that.
How to Break China’s Hold on Batteries and Critical Minerals Foreign Policy
Syraqistan
Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque complex on fifth day of Sukkot Al Jazeera
European Disunion
French government dissolves far-right Catholic party Civitas Anadolu Agency
New Not-So-Cold War
Biden suggests he has a path around Congress to get more aid to Ukraine and plans major speech AP. West Wing brain.
* * * SITREP 10/4/23: The Beginning of a Long Fall for Ukraine Simplicius the Thinkers(s). “The way military support works is your logistics chains from many months ago are critical to the efforts of today. What would be essential to a hypothetical Ukrainian spring 2024 offensive would need to be heavy arms shipping now. The fact that there is nothing new of note being shipped means Ukraine’s near and medium term future look stark.”
Slovakia halts military aid to Ukraine after parliamentary elections Ukrainska Pravda. Tick, tick.
Will Ukraine’s effort go bankrupt gradually…then suddenly? Responsible Statecraft
Further to “”Divine Intervention””: Too good to be true? Gilbert Doctorow, Armageddon Newsletter
A Wartime Election in Ukraine? It’s a Political Hot Potato. NYT
* * * Ukraine war: Russia plans naval base on Black Sea coast of breakaway Georgia region, report says South China Morning Post
UK warns of Russia laying ‘sea mines’ to deter Black Sea cargo ships Al Jazeera
Germany to provide Ukraine with extra air defence to protect grain cargo – Bloomberg Ukrainska Pravda
Russia’s Crimean Red Line Has Been Erased Foreign Policy
Ukrainian special operation forces land in Crimea, battle with losses occurs – Defence Intelligence Ukrainska Pravda. Another stunt. Photo op, using jet skis.
* * * Russian Troops Cede Ground and Strike Back, Frustrating Ukraine’s Counteroffensive NYT. “Elastic defense.” Long-known, except to Times readers, of course.
Why Russia Exported Almost All the Tanks it Built Until 2022: Few New T-90s or T-14s Ordered Until Ukraine War Military Watch
South of the Border
Republican Funhouse
With Kevin McCarthy out, it is time for a bipartisan Speaker Brookings Institution. How about Oprah?
House GOP takes revenge on Democrats after McCarthy ousting The Hill
Shutdown fears loom over Wall Street after McCarthy ouster The Hill
After 50 Years, This Right-Wing Law Factory Is Crazier Than Ever Exposed by CMD. ALEC.
That’s The Truth? Aurelien, Trying to Understand the World
Antitrust
Amazon Used Secret ‘Project Nessie’ Algorithm to Raise Prices WSJ
Spook Country
US Intelligence Surprised by African Coup Spy Talk
How US Intelligence Agencies Hid Their Most Shameful Experiments Literary Hub
Healthcare
How Many Microbes Does It Take to Make You Sick? Quanta. The deck: “Exposure to a virus isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. The concept of “”infectious dose”” suggests ways to keep ourselves safer from harm.” Good concept to repeat, but not new. Paracelsus, c. 1500: “The dose makes the poison.” Although the relation is not linear! The conclusion:
Masking, increased ventilation and distancing reduces the number of microbes you’re exposed to. Vaccination increases the infectious dose. These are the pillars of protection against infection from pretty much every pathogen. Transmission dynamics are complex, but the interventions we can take to protect ourselves are comparatively simple.
So “public health” now has a pre-1500 understanding of infection. That’s an impressive regression!
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do — More Heartbreak from Corporate Decisions in Medicine NEJM. Adminstrators prefer fancy new buildings to patient care.
The Bezzle
Digital Watch
We know how to regulate new drugs and medical devices–but we’re about to let health care AI run amok Fortune
SoftBank’s Son Says Artificial General Intelligence Will Soon Surpass Humans WSJ. We can look toward pre-Confederate “positive good” theorists for the social and moral effects of owning slaves.
Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fashion
Fossil Fuels in Fashion: How Petroleum Ended Up in Our Jeans and Leggings Teen Vogue
Supply Chain
$67 Billion of Rare Minerals Is Buried Under One of the World’s Biggest Carbon Sinks WSJ. On peat, see NC here, here, and here. Rare minerals for, naturally, climate-friendly EVs.
Relocate, relocate, relocate Hellenic Shipping News. On “container imbalaces” and the changes to the geopolitical order for which they are a proxy.
Imperial Collapse Watch
The U.S. Has a New Set of Tools for Bullying the World NYT. E.g., SWIFT. Once again, Times readers are only learning about this now?
Why Is Target Closing Stores? Jeff-alytics
Mint Plaza Sleeping Pod Complex Dinged With Violations After City Inspection SFist
Class Warfare
Health care workers picket outside US hospitals in multiple states, kicking off 3-day strike AP
Why Almost Every Family Office Employee Is Getting a Fat Raise in 2023 Institutional Investor. On family offices, see NC here and here.
Awe-inspiring science can have a positive effect on mental wellbeing, new research finds (press release) University of Warwick
Meet this year’s MacArthur ‘genius grant’ recipients, including a hula master and the poet laureate AP. And Linsey Marr, aerosol scientist!
Federal Officials Capture Rare Photos of a Jaguar Crossing the U.S.-Mexico Border Field and Stream
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote (via), as long as we’re doing sepia:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
137 comments
Comments are closed.
New Not-So-Cold War
Biden suggests he has a path around Congress to get more aid to Ukraine and plans major speech AP.
Easy – Issue Ukraine War Bonds. Fed buys them all by imputting a “1” into its computer followed by as many zeros as needed. Give procceds to Ukraine. The Fed as been doing to spend money to purchase securities. Surely it can this, a far important task. Also, take a 10% fee off the gross and distribute to favored elites just is happening with Congressionally authorized funding of Ukraine.
google search turned this up from axios…
The 2001 AUMF, which authorizes the U.S. to target perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, is viewed as a far more sweeping, blank-check resolution that has been cited for U.S. military activity all over the world. The 2001 AUMF is still in effect and there is no sign that it will be repealed by Congress in the near future.
so there’s that…
I’m giving the numbskull dems 3 weeks to figure out they should have backed mccarthy… Paraphrasing, better the craven sellout you know than the devious cretin you don’t…
I’m laughing but it’s not really funny…
If Trump becomes speaker, Democrats may lock themselves in their basements and not come out for 30 years like Blast from the Past
It’s how he rolls until the Supreme Court usually knocks it down. Joe is our wannabe dictator as soon as he figures out how to make it across the White House lawn.
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it would cost $20 billion to end homelessness in the United States.
https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-homelessness-in-america/
Any and every time homelessness is mentioned in any public meeting we attend, every time I chat with a homeless panhandler, I mention the $100,000,000,000 we taxpayers, at $900+, per average family’s taxes, has been allocated to Ukraine.
Made a bunch of cardboard signs and handed them to traffic island beggars:
“$100 Billion of your taxes for Ukraine~How about a buck for me?”
Well done.
Funny the lengtha Biden is willing to go to fund things that he actually cares about.
And Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) exacted some swift revenge — booting both Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) from their hideaway offices in the Capitol.
Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) told reporters Wednesday that Pelosi’s office space would be given to McCarthy.
~~~~~~~~~
…revenge is a diss best served cold
This of course confirms my worst fears, that in lieu of doing the right thing and retire from politics-the Billy Buckner of our era… My Kevin (since ’07) isn’t going anywhere as he now has the classiest digs in DC, bay-bee!
Not bearing the burden of being Speaker will allow him to spend more time renaming post offices, like the good old days.
Turns out that there are a lot more of those hideaways then you might think-
‘There are approximately 100 secret offices in the US Capitol complex, mainly used by senators as private spaces for confidential business or personal matters. They are called “hideaways” because they are unlisted in official directories and are marked only with a room number.’
https://www.rt.com/news/584045-congress-office-purge-speaker/
Maybe that is why those Congress people were really panicking on January 6th. They were worried that those protestors might stumble on those secret offices and reveal what they found inside. :)
Branding irons with corporate logos seared onto posteriors with muted cries of…
‘THANK you sir, may I have another!’
I bet if the donor class volunteers a sufficient amount, those in Congress can get a personal tattoo rendering of their benefactor(s).
As a resident of South Carolina, our own Lindsey Graham, circa 2020, received a large sum (in order) from the Adelsons, a VanderSloot and an Ellison. Casinos and a big tech guy like Larry (!) Can’t place the dude in the middle of that list aside from he’s a rich entrepeneurial type.
I’ve always been a fan of the idea of having Senators wear the logos of their corporate doners like you see on race car drivers. Maybe cut to the chase and have those Senators represent those corporations directly. Can you imagine such a Senate?
‘Order, order. The Senator from Pfizer will finish his speech so that we may hear from the Senator from Raytheon.’
That’s the world of “Rollerball.”
I can hear the fans chanting now: “Joe Bi den! Joe Bi den! Joe Bi den!”
We knew Biden as the Senator from MBNA.
Biden: The guy who made it almost impossible for people with student debt to declare bankruptcy
My first encounter with that epithet was Scoop Jackson, “the Senator from Boeing”. Surely there was precedent even then.
But Jackson at least indirectly represented the interest of Boeing workers in Seattle. The genius of the US Senate is that small state senators can collect bribes from Chicago and the Coasts and satisfy their few constituents with table scraps.
I thought they did stumble upon it. Didn’t somebody get like 20 years for putting his feet up on pelosi’s desk, and wasn’t her laptop stolen during the INSURRECTION, in an attempt to topple the greatest government ever invented and install the facsist reincarnation of Hitler to make america great again?
I’m pretty sure that’s what happened. They said so in the wapo.
Might find live hookers or dead boys. Roy Cohen please pick up the blue courtesy phone.
Wukchumni: Steny Hoyer still exists?
Weekend @ Steny’s was in pre-production until the writers strike put the kibosh to it.
Come on now. Let’s do a Wilbur Mills Memorial Fountain Skinny Dipping Party!
That plot writes itself!
You want the elevator pitch?
Hey Wuk. I bet Kevin is going to share. He gets one. McHenry gets one. McHenry will need one after the rigors of steering the House through this tumultuous time until the Republicans pick the next Speaker they can kick out.
Not sure if it will be used to cry in their beers or laugh uproariously as the new guy tries to wrangle people, but either way they will need it. As Hillary showed in the Senate, post Office renaming is all for public consumption no need to hide it away.
Personally I would like to see Sean Penn made Speaker of the House. That would be a blast.
Well that would be interesting since Sean appears to have been Alec Baldwin’s role model in deportment instruction.
I saw a recent movie with Baldwin and he looked terrible. I always liked him in his later phase but are the bad boyz falling into Dorian Gray mode?
Sean could resurrect his Madonna closet trick* in one of those hidden offices. /s
*One reason mentioned for their decoupling was that he locked her in a closet.
Might as well have Pelosi back. Not much political difference?
More new Free Trade Agreements with Pelosi.
I thought that it was the Pelosis who were tops in the “Post Office Renaming Department.”
Good morning, ambrit. Hope all is well with you and yours.
Pelosis were tops at selling post offices, not so much with naming them.
I’m sure names were sold, too.
Actually, that was Feinstein via husband Dick Blum (both dead now). This 2015 article from The Intercept has the story.
https://theintercept.com/2015/05/05/watchdog-slams-company-part-owned-feinsteins-husband-abusing-huge-post-office-contract/
Oops. Thanks for the correction.
Me too! I just don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with all of the corruption nationwide.
Madame Pelosi is, if I remember correctly this time, Mz. Gelato of 1959. (I almost typed Mz. Giallo, a more accurate description, but, you know, that title really belongs to Hillary.)
Everything is going so so right now. Hoping for a Fall Revival. 40s at night next week.
You stay safe on the hill.
“Ukrainian special operation forces land in Crimea, battle with losses occurs – Defence Intelligence”
There is a little bit more to this story. One of those guys was wounded and captured and was being interrogated. He made out that he was only a private but the guy had the build of a brick s***house. He is now assisting the Russians with their inquiries. This article says that those guys in their strategic victory shouted ‘Crimea will be Ukrainian! Glory to Ukraine!’ but what they seem to have actually shouted was ‘Crimea will be Ukrainian or uninhabited.’–
‘This phrase was first said in 1992 by the leader of the Ukrainian Nazis, Korchinsky. Decades ago he called to destroy the Russian-speaking population of the peninsula. In 2014, the Nazi repeated his slogan which became popular throughout Ukraine. Today, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine officially published the Nazi claims, which the Western MSM attempted to hide from the public.’
And in a complete coincidence, there was a US RQ-4B UAV was spotted circling near the peninsula while this raid was being carried out.
And regarding this Crimea thingy the Very Serious People at the Foreign Policy (Casey Michel for name) go and say that because of stunts like this and others before, Crimea is no longer considered [by the Russians themselves] an inseparable part of Russia. If so, Russia would be launching nukes like crazy as a response, the ingenious writer affirms. Go figure.
Say again why the Russians allow these prick flights to continue? Since they have over-the-horizon missiles that could make them ugly wreckage on the sea floor? Or drop them in shallower water to collect the parts for study? Same should apply to the Orions and other manned spy holes.
Would USNATO then go full kill-the-planet, I wonder? How brave are the people with the launch codes?
One hopes the Russians have this in hand. Though gleaning bits from Telegram and other sources, it’s not clear that the Russians are as omnipotent as some think.
“The most persistent principles in the universe are accident and error…”
Ukraine desperately needs something that it can sell to its western sponsors as a “win” and Ukraine’s loyal MSM stenographers are happy to oblige.
When dancing on a beach is a ‘win’ then you’ve already lost.
Sleeping pod complex…reality is not far removed from a PK Dick work of fiction one supposes. Part of the way to initiating a new class of west coast or SF / Palo Alto tech workers on the “you’ll own nothing and be happy” rule of the road And speaking of the aforementioned author, on a recent trip and flight I began into the Man in the High Castle book. Interesting read thus far !
Coffin motels are a cyberpunk staple.
And i seem some variant of the theme was all the rage around the London Olympics. With news about some free standing capsules having been installed adjacent to the main servers so the IT staff could nap while on watch.
There was something about them being built in Japan in the late eighties or early nineties because there wasn’t enough housing in the booming cities, and it was all workers could afford iirc.
Those airport sleeping pods had access to showers. Ahh, the good old days.
Was some VC running a beta test on travelers as part of exploring the long-term pod people market?
The mention of Japan leads me to drop the below paragraph, which I found pretty striking in the aforementioned “Man in the High Castle” authored by PK Dick. Picking up on page 102, roughly summarizing the German Reichs Chancellor has died; in the book it’s Martin Bormann. Summary is per a speech outlining next steps, and possible replacement or apparent heirs within the Partei.
“…He feels that most high-placed Nazis are refusing to face facts vis-a-vis their economic plight. By doing so they accelerate the tendency toward greater tour de force adventures, less predictability, less stability in general. The cycle of manic enthusiasm, then fear…the point he got across was that all this tends to bring the most irresponsible and reckless aspirants to the top.” “…we must presume the worst, rather than the best, choice will be made. The sober and responsible will be defeated…”
To those not familiar with the direction of the novel, World War II ended quite differently and America was essentially divided into parts; being occupied by either German or by the Japanese.
You’re thinking of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, which begins with the protagonist staying in a Japanese “coffin hotel”.
I stayed in a grad school dorm room that was maybe only twice as big as that pod and paid a lot more than $700/month, and this was in the 00s.
I think the powers that be are much more worried by the low rent than any safety issues. High rent in the major cities is one of the best ways of enforcing generational income inequality in the US today. If you want to get your foot on the first rung of the ladder, some affluent relative better be helping you.
No rags-to-riches stories allowed in Blue America.
“Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque complex on fifth day of Sukkot”
Just to clarify, those ‘Talmudic rituals’ also include animal sacrifice and a guy was arrested a coupla days ago trying to get a goat in there for this ‘ceremony’. You wonder how many of those settlers practice animal sacrifice when at home. This article also mentioned the following-
‘Meanwhile, Israeli police on Wednesday arrested five people suspected of spitting towards Christians or churches in the Old City of Jerusalem and formed a special investigative team to deal with growing complaints of hostile gestures against Christians.’
But Ben Gvir – Israel’s national security minister – said in an interview said ‘that spitting at Christians was “not a criminal case” and that not everything “justifies an arrest”.’ Ben Gvir had previously defended the act of spitting on Christians as “an ancient Jewish custom”. Such is everyday life in the only Democracy in the Middle East-
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-spitting-christians-jerusalem-not-criminal-ben-gvir
Is there some health concern with all the expectoration? Some transmission of virii?
Spitting on someone is considered a misdemeanor assault punishable by fine and jail time in many jurisdictions here in the U.S.
Yep. I attended a jury selection a few years ago in which the crime was an inmate in the county jail having spit on a (female) deputy when he was in his cell. I volunteered that just because the victim was in law enforcement wasn’t a great reason to punish the guy further (he was already in jail and looked miserable in court). Needless to say I was quickly disqualified from serving jury duty. I found it interesting that the county would to go the expense of a jury trial over such an incident. Of course nowadays with COVID spitting on someone could have serious consequences.
The jails in America, probably anywhere else as well, are breeding grounds for infectious diseases. Think TB, HIV, now the Coronavirus 2019, and who knows what else.
Spitting on Christians is “an ancient Jewish custom”? Who knew? Why oh why do we only read about eating Christian babies–or is this more like the mythic ‘spitting on Vietnam vets’ yarn, which didn’t have to be true to piss people off, eventually.
I’ve never heard of any Jewish tradition of spitting on Christians (my dad’s side of the family is Jewish). But there is a tradition of killing a goat or lamb before some holidays, said creature then becoming the holiday dinner.
I tend to suspect that it is not an “ancient tradition” at all but a new one made up by some extremist Ultra-Orthodox settlers and the like. And going by a video I saw, they are training up their kids into it too-
https://twitter.com/nirhasson/status/1708833385819328700
> Climate Change Risk and Opportunity for the General Insurance Actuary Actuaries
>> Insurers can also play a role in matching risk-transfer solutions to alternative capital from investors with more risk appetite.
>> There are opportunities for general insurers to bring new products to market, such as the insuring of electric vehicles, customising the coverage for homes with solar panels, managing workers’ compensation risk across rising and declining industries, and many more.
>> insured wind or uninsured water
So, dump the high-risk customers to the hungry demon tranche, and split hairs across subsets for those who want their rates to stay low.
(My first reaction was, ruh-roh, the actuaries are dialing it in, the smartest professionals in the room are about to insert their probisci. But then I found out average acutary iq squores are only about 111, better than rocket scientists and brain surgeons. Then I realized, that doc with its hands in my brain is only running about 107. Ruh-roh.)
Back in the 70’s, acuary was a pretty good gig for math majors with paths to promotion into management . Several of my students back then became actuaries (one was the best student that year). Once computing got to be a mass thing, most math nerds became computer nerds and a lot of other opportunities opened up.
Re: Tragic Contagion Spreads…” on Vauld:
They suspended redemptions back in 2022, and have been trying to restructure ever since. The link is to a 2022 article. Is there another update?
55 days, 14 hours, 56 minutes and 13 seconds away, but i’m not anxious for my first SS check.
Went to the Social Security Administration office in the Big Smoke and i’d driven by it a gajillion times, and it was refreshing for a Federal building in that there was no metal detector, only an armed security guard seated at a desk who inquired as to whether you had any guns or knives with you as you came in.
Have an appointment for late in November and if my timing is good, might run into the possible shutdown.
Hopefully Speaker Jordan can cross that rubric on…
Gonna party gonna dance and live it up
I lived a long time to get the remits
Now I find that Congress doesn’t give two snits ?
I worked and I toiled
I dug deep into nickels and dimes
Heck it beats going into the mines
It’s my monthly check,Keep your mitts away
As Gollum once bemoaned to the filthy hobbits
It’s mine, my own, my precious
The above is a stream of consciousness without reason or apparent rhyme. A near future milestone worth celebrating. Where is the young calf and fresh wine?
“Biden suggests he has a path around Congress to get more aid to Ukraine and plans major speech”
I, for one, am very much looking forward to listening to this upcoming war speech of his. It should be a humdinger. Lambert may have to go digging for his yellow waders to go through this one and the justifications that Biden will be using to say how the US has to keep on giving tens of billions of dollar to the Zelensky regime to deter China or something. Thing is, if Biden had only been more generous with the aid to the stricken people in East Palestine and Maui it would have made things much easier for him. Instead he went cheap on them while being generous with the Ukrainians and that is never a good look.
Three words:
Guns for drugs.
Bring Colonel North out of retirement to run the program.
This right after he announced another round of student loan forgiveness. Pretty sure that one will get dinged the fastest, probably right in time to kill off the last support he has from those struggling with their loans.
The Democrats pretending to be responsible by dinging things with tangible benefits for workers as they spend oodles on a country that even our complacent press cannot continue to hide is fascist, losing and entitled shows that delusion runs deep in both the Democrats and the PMC. They forget that they cannot win the Presidency and the majority of state elections without people they wouldn’t hang out with. (And their actions over the last three years has been letting a whole lot of people that there is no way Team Dem wants to have a beer with them.)
PBS went on and on last night about how people need to pay up, it’s critical for this, that or another reason…but nary a peep about the resulting cash grab by wall street…who will wind up with assets boosted by all that money.
The reporter did a little class war jab re “I didn’t get that deal with my loan!” referring to the 1 year grace period I think, couldn’t get past my distaste for prop-or-not-aganda
so didn’t devote much attention…
journalism should tell both sides of the story, not just “unprovoked attack on wall st carried out by undeserving students threatens the economy! We must mobilize!”
Hey pal, these Ukrainian are good folk unlike those deplorable peeps in East Palestine or wherever it was I sent Mayo Pete to look all official and get photo ops. You must want the evil country to win don’t you. \ Sarc
Funds for thee, and no $600 for myself or for thee ( if you were an American that is ). No Defense Contractor Left Behind. At some near juncture, maybe Americans will start getting serious answers on just where all the funds are going ( just not from Biden, or Blinken, of course ).
“The fate of the fatherland rests on arming up Rhineland…..”
Oops off by about 87 years.
Playing the liebensraum game.
“Australia concludes China decoupling ‘impossible’ after carrying out series of classified studies South China Morning Post.”
I mean, even the most cursory look at geography would have told as much, not to mention economics. Not that it’s going to stop them from trying, anyway. See: the whole of the EU and Russia.
I could imagine the Neocons in Washington DC demanding that Australia cut off all trade to China like they are trying to do with the Europeans. I can imagine how that conversation would go-
DC: ‘We demand that you cut off all trade with China or else.’
Oz: ‘If we do that, we will be bankrupt.’
DC: ‘That’s OK. Our corporations will come in and snap up what they want on the cheap like in Germany right now.’
Oz: ‘It also means that we not be able to but all those nuke subs, F-35s, those 100 Abrams tanks, those Tomahawk missiles, those HIMARS missiles or any of that other gear that you want to sell us.’
DC: ‘Ummm – nevermind.’
Wall St: ‘Perhaps we can help…‘
Don’t forget the Blackhawk helicopters, Rev. Apparently we have an early retirement programme for the home-built Airbus Taipans that keep falling out of the sky.
(Note to China: please don’t threaten us until we’re ready to respond.)
What are they going to do with those tanks???
‘Tragic Contagion’ Spreads: Major Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Trading After $198 Million In Customer Withdrawals
Date of the article says Jul 5, 2022
Hmm, seems that border wall isn’t so bad when they build it
https://dailyprogress.com/news/nation-world/government-politics/biden-administration-waives-26-federal-laws-to-allow-border-wall-construction-in-south-texas/article_6b5481e2-0f56-5bad-bf81-165658abfbb1.html
When Trump does it it’s bad, m’kay? But when Biden does it, it’s OK. This might be a sign how between now and next November, he will go all in about protecting the borders. Personally I think that it is a case of too little, too late.
Numerous NYers (and it looks like some Chicagoans, would agree. I haven’t heard anything recently from Massachusetts, but possibly there as well.
If they had found a way to send billions of dollars to the various areas border governors are shipping “migrants” they might have been able to contain some discontent. But they didn’t. It actually made it to that the border crisis was not contained to the border and could not be ignored.
AOC being pressed into service for the cause? Posing by the razor wire to build her portfolio and border cred? What is not performative or just revolting in the political class?
At some point, there is likely to be a crime or two committed by one or more military-aged male refugees. Those crimes probably won’t get much coverage by the Post, even with any bussing to DC.
Well no, AOC is busy just now.
She was asked on national TV why she bought a Tesla (non-union). She said : “oh, I bought it during the pandemic”
(You may recall we were barred from buying union-made cars during the pandemic…)
Now she is going to trade it in for union made electric car. So one wag imagined her at the dealer:
AOC–I want to trade this car in
Dealer–Something wrong with it?
AOC–yes, it’s virtue signaler stopped working
They are using funds appropriated in 2019, which presumably Trump got from Mexico so it’s all good.
Nothing to see here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/proclamation-termination-of-emergency-with-respect-to-southern-border-of-united-states-and-redirection-of-funds-diverted-to-border-wall-construction/
It shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall. I am also directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to construct a southern border wall.
And this is the border wall that liberal Democrats, under Trump, shutdown the federal government over. Democrats are truly scum. Virtue signaling is their coin. Outcomes aren’t relevant in this.
Meanwhile, “ordinary” prosecutors alvin bragg and leticia james, and “special” prosecutor jack smith have petitioned judges tanya chutkan and arthur engoron for an emergency gag order on Donald Trump, claiming that his right to say, “I told you so” is neither absolute nor constitutionally guaranteed, but may be a racially motivated hate crime.
Attorney general merrick garland doesn’t know anything about any of this but will get back to somebody at sometime in the future.
sar. CAS. M.
Thank you for the jeans-oil article. I stopped buying Levi’s a long time ago after they started putting “stretch” into them and they no longer lasted. They’d blow out a lot faster, and were not the heavier fabric like they used to be. I have always done a lot of outside work and needed heavier, proper jeans(like they used to be). They chased after marked-up fast fashion instead of utility and quality. Why pay ridiculous prices for a brand name that doesn’t last?
We’d get 2 new pairs of 501 button fly Levi’s every year and in my family, we got into them and sat in a hot bath for 20 minutes in order to form fit them, as per mom.
The material used back then-while not Kevlar, was so thick compared to the dare I say Hand-i-Wipe like consistency of modern dungarees.
501s used to cost under ten bucks. Now there is a huge price difference to numerous old competitors like Wrangler or Lee. Think of that as a type of 3:1 exchange rate, and nobody cares about the fashion aspect when clearing brush or doing other chores.
Do people still refer to chores, or is that also out of fashion?
Chores? The ‘right sort’ of “people” have “people” to do all that for them.
I personally remember Farah slacks as school pants. Plus white, long sleeve, button down collar shirts. I drew the line at bow ties though.
Hey, if they didn’t go for the cash we might not have that shining light of the Democratic Party, Dan Goldman, representing a section of NYC in Congress. And he wouldn’t be one of the wealthiest members either.
Tin linings, people, tin linings.
Totally right with your thickness comment, Wuk. The difference was so noticeable. I’ll probably never buy another pair of Levi’s again. Lost all confidence in the company, their product, and their decision making.
I use wranglers for work. Thicker and doubled over though and knees.
This is something I never understand about American businesses. I get expanding product reach. I don’t get ditching your core product to do it. Nothing stopped Levi Strauss from keeping say the 501s for work clothes but producing a line or two with stretch and/or lighter denim in a variety of cuts for home and garden.
I’d be curious to trace the sales growth of say Carharrt compared to developments at Levi Strauss.
fwiw, one can still find 100% cotton jeans at the Gap, just have to check tag for materials.
understood, most styles are ‘blends’.
Oh, a Gap anecdote: for a number of years, working as a carpenter, I wore nothing but Gap jeans. Back in the ’90s I think they sold new, unmarked down, for about $50. I discovered a secret though. Every time I went into the mall I went straight to The Gap. I went straight to the clearance rack and spun that sucker around. If I could find the jeans in my size they were usually $10 a pair. Last season’s style, who cares? I’d buy them all (usually 1-3 pairs). Awesome.
Then, someone got smart and started the outlet malls. My source dried up. After that those same jeans sold for about $29 at The Gap outlet store. Wasn’t such a bitchin’ deal anymore. Bummer.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Mj1N9rfFE
Star Trek did it best. Besides greed, there is a religious devotion to greed. The worship of Jack Welch was a sign greed had morphed into religion. Rationale thought isn’t part of it.
Sometimes family businesses (and a few focused ones. Can Nintendo keep doing it? They basically only hire people from Seattle and one prefecture) keep going because they kind of have enough family members who get the value of brand, but the choice between steady gains and reliable jeans and major capital gains where you can afford to buy all the jeans so you want is an easy one for an individual.
Then there is the sacrament of hiring McKinsey. Wow, you mean cut staff. Brilliant!
About 15 years ago, or something, when I discovered that 501s were no longer the jeans I had worn most of my life, I remember reading somewhere that Levi Strauss & Co had sold to a company over seas the looms on which they wove the old sturdy jeans. That company was essentially producing 501s, maybe with an updated cut, I imagine, and selling them for $200 a pop. Levis are, in there basic fabric, simply not the Levis that I grew up with that predated me by 100 years, or so.
Husband switched to Wranglers years ago. He’s one of those ‘tweener sizes that Wrangler recognizes (but Levis doesn’t) and they have a wee bit of stretch in the waist and knees where he needs it. Also they’re still pretty cheap and online they go on sale regularly enough. He’s active outside, so I asked him how long they last and he said about three years before the thinness in the fabric at the knees or crotch started to show up… doesn’t prevent him from wearing them inside the house though. So maybe another year before they get tossed and of course, there’s always mending.
So this headline greeted me when I checked the BBC this morning:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67015137
The mockery will write itself. CNN hasn’t covered it all at this point, probably struggling for a spin that doesn’t invite the mockery.
Meanwhile, the laughable mayor of NYC is on a whirlwind Latin America junket to inform all and sundry that “we’re at capacity”, in hopes that this will dissuade someone. Waiting breathlessly for Rachel to be over one with grief on air.
Hizzonner is on a fact-finding mission. He is getting ahead of the exposure of the widespread cultural appropriation that permeates those bodegas. No pupusas for him. ;)
Priceless, but I’m not sure our politics is even mockery-capable anymore. It’s getting harder and harder to distinguish CNN or NY Times headlines from those of The Onion.
That picture was pretty striking as well.
He keeps it up and Adams could become the poster boy for publicity campaigns to stop instant run off elections being adopted.
– ‘U.S. Academic Steve Ellner: ‘Venezuela needs more checks and balances to fight corruption and abuse of power’ – MR Online
This is a strangely misleading headline for what is actually a good article. The headline sounds more like it came from the NY Times than Monthly Review (or its original source, the Orinoco Tribune). Even labeling Ellner as a “US Academic” would tend to scare me off under normal conditions. I just wanted to invite people to read the article and/or watch the video and not judge it by its very unrepresentative title.
Thank you for the annotation.
Aurelien writes about truth. Here is from the end of his article.
An NC reader or two might wonder about hidden agendas of current and former agency heads. Those agendas have been an evergreen topic for decades.
” … no government can force its staff to tell deliberate lies, for example. ”
And so, few do. Instead they selectively promote those who tell lies. Whistleblowers who expose government lies are prosecuted for espionage. Good liars tend also to be accomplished at hiding their personal agendas.
“that’s how democratic political systems work”…ha ha…”hope that they would have enough independence to refuse to endorse things that were clearly not true: no government can force its staff to tell deliberate lies, for example.”
This exceptional doozy from “depleted-uranium-no-big-deal-dave”, right?
Sincerely, to swallow this stuff, one would have to have been asleep for the last 3 decades–minimum, or embedded in the sundry state bureaucracies that select for preening liars.
Flailing on tee-ball is a strong predictor for one’s performance in slo-pitch.
“Russia plans naval base on Black Sea coast of breakaway Georgia region: report’
This might be a smart idea on the part of the Russians. It diversifies their naval assets in the Black Sea, it helps the economy of their ally Abkhazai, but when you look at a map, it sets up a military presence that is close to Armenia, Turkiye, Georgia and to the other break-away Republic of South Ossetia to protect them as well. With trouble brewing in this part of the world due to Armenia’s leader, it is probably a wise decision.
I can easily make that case. Assuming slavery was being done in a “modern” way, there would be regulations to protect the well-being of slaves. No more beatings. You would instead call the cops and they would beat your slaves for you. They would NEVER shoot your slaves because cops don’t shoot property, just people. With just that one caveat, I could see a lot of folks volunteering for slavery just for the harm protection.
Unlike homeless Americans, slaves know they have a place to sleep at night with a roof and a bed and a blanket. Slaves also must be fed and receive at least cursory medical care. None of these things are guaranteed to minimum wage workers even if they work two jobs.
Slaves know their children will be cared for and valued, just like any other piece of property. Were they only regular people, their children would be at constant risk.
Slaves are free from having to participate in mindless consumerism.
Slaves do not have to watch the news or worry about other countries. That’s master’s job.
Slaves always have a job, are never unemployed.
I could go on. This is a simple list of benefits. With very little work I could do up a brochure that would have you wanting to “know more.”
>>>I could go on. This is a simple list of benefits. With very little work I could do up a brochure that would have you wanting to “know more.”
Hmm. What I remember is that the early nineteenth century was when Victorian type slums arrive in the United States. These slums were worse than any slums or ghettos that America has today. Those proponents of the “positive good” of owning human beings sometimes seemed to believe in it. They used the slums as part of the argument. And really, if you were living in hell (I am not exaggerating here), it is likely that being offered to be owned by the “better” slave owners, you would probably be very tempted. Especially if you or yours were starving. It is easy to find descriptions of the London slums around the 1880s. I would look them up.
If I was cynical enough, I would think that some our elites want this reality, again, especially after some of the recent comments from some of them. It is really f*** up that today sound more and more like the 1800s. It was far worse then than today, but they seem to really trying to bring it back.
I just want to emphasize that people who say such thing as “slavery is a positive good” sometimes believed in terrible things; they use often terrible reality as a tool to support there views and goals even when they are the ones creating the reality as the northern bankers, merchants, and shippers working with the Slavocracy were doing.
Mentioned in my previous comment, the owners of the land and buildings of those slums both British and American were members of the same class, often the very same individuals. They worked closely with the slavers. Yet, they honestly blamed their victims for their condition.
Do not turn people into cardboard figures to fight in your mind as the victimizers do to their victims. To fight back, to get reform, true reform, you need understand, and for that, you must give back the humanity that everyone has.
Painful and difficult as that can be.
Biden suggests he has a path around Congress to get
more aid to Ukraine and plans major speechuniversal health care.LOL, no.
What a world to imagine, though.
Akela Lacy at the Intercept
Laphonza Butler’s EMILY’s List Spends Millions on Kamala Harris While Laying Off Grassroots Staff
The controversy is that with Butler’s past as labor leader one would expect something else. But the same can be said about her advising Uber, though it hasn’t been said, to my knowledge, what her advice was. The Emily’s List budget deficits apparently stemmed from the lavish spending for the campaign of Kamala Harris. With her dubious record she certainly needs support, so there is that.
Butler is just another rising Democrat operative. My 2¢.
I was just surprised Butler had been planning to spend that kind of coin from Emily’s List funds (tens of millions in 2024 says the article) to support Kamala going forward–like, why does Kamala need support? I thought Joe said he was keeping her on the ticket?
10% for the Big Guy
Wow. I just saw this tweet posted yesterday by Max Blumenthal, labeled “Enough silence. The criminal schemes of Ben “Bait-and-Switch” Norton must be known.”
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1709655692750033035
I know many NC readers, and certainly myself, were dismayed by Norton’s acrimonious split with the Grayzone folks a few years back. Blumenthal really lets loose here. I’m not sure if there was a specific trigger for this.
“As he arrives in a new country to benefit from the goodwill of his hosts, citizens must be warned that a criminal mind is lurking in their midst.”
Maybe Norton has been trading on the Grayzone name down in Nicaragua and Blumenthal does not want to be tarred by that brush?
Thanks for that. I did wonder what had occurred.
“Awe-inspiring science can have a positive effect on mental wellbeing, new research finds”
They are not wrong here when they say ‘how people use science as a source of spirituality and its connection with their sense of wellbeing.’ Every once in a while I will come across a story about a piece of solid science being done and sometimes in its elegancy, you find yourself come alive and breathing deeper as you go into the details. Is it spiritual? Can’t see. But it does tap into something that is deep inside.
Remember “The Tao of Physics” from way back when? Sub-molecular science and astrophysics are equally suggestive of The Oneness of All Things, dude. They really are. And the search for Oneness needs all the help it can get.
Re that Target story–the article contains numerous disclaimers that the data is flaky but proceeds to write an article about it anyway. Without a doubt the store closures by Target and Walmart are making some kind of political statement, and not just a financial one, but that doesn’t make the political point irrelevant or somehow bogus. If the local governments in these cities allow shoplifter open season as a matter of policy then retailers might be justified in expressing their resentment.
So perhaps that should be the subject and not playing with statistics.
Here’s a non-paywalled alternative to the WSJ article on the “Ring of Fire” mining development in the peatlands of northern Ontario: Explainer: Everything you need to know about the push to mine Ontario’s Ring of Fire. (It’s from a year ago, but the facts on the ground haven’t changed much.)
Thanks for that. Won’t Doug Ford ever go away?
He is a walking fiasco.
“That’s The Truth?” Aurelien
Who is living and who is dying is straightforward.
‘How many microbes does it take to make you sick?’
I’d flip that headline on it’s head… how many microbes does it take to keep another microbe from making itself at home in the human body? Would ‘normal’ be enough or ‘grossly normal’ as defined by medicine today?
I knew a male ENT who thought having tufts of hair growing out of your nostrils was perfectly healthy and like most physicians gave not one fig about whether it was attractive or even sanitary-looking. Likewise, ear hair. Even post-menopausal, that’s not much protection for women… chin hairs don’t count!… although it does cut down on being harrassed at the bars.
Re: Australian learned helplessness with China
I wonder what they deemed impossible to live without. Certainly it isn’t Chinese money for their coal exports: China hasn’t been buying coal from them since 2020. My guess it’s some combination of medicine and manufactured goods unavailable in Australia.
Maybe also Chinese property investors? A decade ago I saw several times several emerge from a Sydney airport taxi, enter building still under construction, and emerge 20 mins later for a quick cell call back to home base to seal the deal. Single family homes along the whole block in suburban Lane Cove disappeared over 18 months to be replaced by 5-6 floor condos that were bought but mostly stayed dark for years.
What the heck is going on with the Cornel Green campaign? From People’s Party to Green Party to Independent? Not sure how much of this was driven by Peter Daou, but it’s not a great look.
Cornel West*
From what I have seen, both in interviews and in the press, it sounds like he was having problems navigating intra-Green politics. Not surprising as I have seen many descriptions of them being a circular firing squad.
The big issue is ballot access, which the Greens have, mostly. As an independent he will be scrambling for access which the Republicrats make as difficult as possible.
Did I totally miss something of late, or is this really NEWS: Tulsi is willing to run with Trump:
Exciting, I find!
I’m still waiting for any kind of serious journalistic coverage of this woman. We get short articles to make sure everyone knows about her childhood cult connections but never the long piece delving into that more closely which would almost certainly be very interesting.
Or maybe those long pieces were written and then scrapped because in long form Gabbard has a compelling and intriguing story? I’m pretty sure I should either be terrified of her or in love with her, I just don’t know which.
I’m pretty sure I should either be terrified of her or in love with her, I just don’t know which.
Ha! I know exactly what you mean.
I’m not sure what serious journalistic coverage entails, but I recall the alternative media (thinking of Honolulu Weekly) had some reporting on her and family (her Father is a state senator here). Maybe also Honolulu Civil Beat which seems to be an online successor.
I thought Tulsi was smarter than that. Everyone who works for Trump ends up being exploited and then discarded and besmirched one way or another.
Yes, totally. I saw that interview and I suspected she is keeping her options open, that’s all.
To the hypothetical if Trump asked her to run with him she said ‘That is a conversation I would want to have…’ and then gave what she would want, which are impossible things for a vice president to have. Especially with the Orange Man, such as complete relevance. I think that was a politician’s non-answer answer.
I wouldnt say it is a non-answer answer, cause it is still consequential: After saying she would run with Trump, under whatever conditions, she is forever burned for about half of America.
She was burned for over half of that half because of who she is, and what she has said long before that. There is a reason why she appears where she does and that is because she was cancelled long before saying she would enter negotiations with Trump if approached.
CN today:
German Banker & British Lord Who Wrote ‘Capitalist Magna Carta’
This documents the development of the ISDS (Investor State Dispute Settlement) legal mechanism in the fifties to protect the Capitalist colonizers from potential losses when their colonies broke away and maybe would nationalize foreign holdings, etc. While I’ve long known the basic outline it is very informative to know more of the nuts and bolts. Of course ISDS clauses have become standard fare in trade agreements so it is not just former colonies but every country that enters into these perverse agreements that is in peril.
On September 27 Chris Hedges interviewed Matt Kennard:
‘Silent Coup’—How corporations rule the world w/Matt Kennard | The Chris Hedges Report
Apologies if this has been noted previously.
Thanks for sharing. That book is now at the top of my list!