Virginity vs. promiscuity: The philosophical problems with sex Big Think (Micael T)
The 32 Best Horror Movies to Keep You Up at Night and The 14 Best Non-Scary Halloween Movies Vanity Fair (furzy)
Oldest fossil human footprints in North America confirmed ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
Iran’s Narges Mohammadi wins Nobel Peace Prize BBC
HotSat-1: Novel UK spacecraft maps heat variations across Earth BBC (David L)
Nonlinearity: Could Ozempick cause a deflation in the price of food?
A mere 1% drop in demand can cause a significant overload. pic.twitter.com/ngwZCV8kfY— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) October 6, 2023
Cannabis doesn’t make you more creative — it makes you think you’re more creative ZMEScience (David L)
#COVID-19
After getting Covid multiple times, Drake becomes the latest artist to throw in the towel due to new chronic stomach illness as Covid shown to infect and destroy the stomach: pic.twitter.com/3utY8lyh5J
— Chris Turnbull (@EnemyInAState) October 6, 2023
Hello world! We are Boston COVID Action. We're excited to bring free, no-questions-asked respirator distro to Boston after months of planning. pic.twitter.com/AQ86JpndrJ
— Boston COVID Action (@BosCovidAction) October 6, 2023
Climate/Environment
Hyundai, Kia To Adopt Tesla EV-Charging Standard From 2024 In US Reuters
China?
Raimondo wants more and better tools to curb Huawei Asia Times
Would democracy make China wealthier?
Obviously, not. That’s why Americans keep wanting to spread that thing to China. 😆 https://t.co/0swvONBagA
— S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) October 6, 2023
Myanmar’s top court declines to hear Suu Kyi’s special appeals in abuse of power and bribery cases Ground
India
Wow, the biggest dam in the Indian state of Sikkim, generating 1,200 MW of power (roughly the same as the Hoover dam) and costing about $3bio to build, was pretty much completely washed away after just 10 minutes of flash floods. https://t.co/y3AFTWDC8k
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) October 4, 2023
South of the Border
Can Venezuela become an oil exporter to the U.S.? Modern Diplomacy (Micael T)
New Not-So-Cold War
U.S. House of Reps Meltdown Puts Ukraine’s Future in Jeopardy Simplicius the Thinker
Ukraine: Financing The War About Hegemony Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
Valdai International Discussion Club meeting President of Russia
The war in Ukraine is threatening to wash across the Black Sea Economist. A bit late to notice…
Ukraine’s Summer Offensive Has FAILED History Legends. Good overview, particularly for sending to those still in denial mode.
A reader comment on “Further to ‘Divine Intervention” that merits wide exposure Gilbert Doctorow (guurst). On Russian heavy bombs.
Ukraine completes investigation into killing of EuroMaidan protesters, indicts Yanukovych for murder Kyiv Independent (furzy)
Balkans
Unrest in Kosovo German Foreign Policy
Syraqistan
Here is what to know about the surprise attack on Israel. New York Times
Gaza militants enter Israel after rocket barrage BBC
Historic DISGRACE for Israeli govt Jacob Dreizen
Hamas has announced the launch of 'Operation Al-Aqsa Flood' against Israel, in response to the continuing provocations in Al-Aqsa.@sandragathmann explains why Al-Aqsa is significant in this episode from the #AJStartHere archive.
Full episode ➡️ https://t.co/NuTKo76mm7 pic.twitter.com/sFNWmgkECF
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 7, 2023
🇮🇱🇵🇸 In the West Bank and Palestine, the clergy have joined in: mosques are calling on the population to start a holy war and a new phase of intifada against Israel.
The stakes are rising: in previous years, such calls remained mostly online, not on the streets or, especially,… pic.twitter.com/ZR6EUzBNb6
— Rybar Force (@rybar_force) October 7, 2023
Netanyahu says Israel is at war after Hamas launches multi-front assault Financial Times
Revealing that someone felt it important enough to depict fast Israeli retaliation that they resorted to old footage:
Breaking News: Israel launched Operation Iron Swords Israel destroys third Gaza tower eliminated Palestinian Terrorists #Gaza #hamas #southernisrael pic.twitter.com/mmeTLlxju9
— The World (@humantheworld) October 7, 2023
This is potentially significant. Scott Ritter argued in one of his videos a couple of months ago that Israel lost in its own war games v. Hamas, that if Hezbollah joined, massively, and if Iran joined too, it would be wiped off the face of the earth. I can’t find the clip even though I thought I called that section out. But if Ritter had this right, Hezbollah clearing its throat would be seen as more significant in Tel Aviv and Washington than you’d otherwise assume:
Hezbollah has released a statement claiming that they are in Direct Contact with Hamas as well as other Palestinian Factions in the Gaza Strip and that they are Warning Israel to be Careful with what their next Actions.
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 7, 2023
Hezbollah has released a statement claiming that they are in Direct Contact with Hamas as well as other Palestinian Factions in the Gaza Strip and that they are Warning Israel to be Careful with what their next Actions.
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 7, 2023
Whether Israel prevails militarily in this most recent violence, its situation overall is unsustainable.
It must transition from a US forward operating base to a nation willing/able to live in peace/cooperation with its neighbors.
Riyadh/Tehran prove there's alternatives.
— Brian Berletic (@BrianJBerletic) October 7, 2023
Saudi Arabia Willing to Raise Oil Output to Help Secure Israel Deal Wall Street Journal (David L)
Hillary Clinton joins call for UN to criminalise gender apartheid Channel News Asia (furzy)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
ICE, CBP, Secret Service All Illegally Used Smartphone Location Data 404media
The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It New York Times. Paul R: “Matching named to online pics for police.” Moi: “Why I obsessively avoid being photographed.
How Google Alters Search Queries to Get at Your Wallet Wired via the Wayback Machine (David L). The original link now goes to a page where Wired said it pulled the story.
Imperial Collapse Watch
NATO is Done Col. Larry Wilkerson, Dialogue Works
The IMF and World Bank talk good governance, but walk with state-capturers CADTM (Micael T)
India to Receive Last Two Russian S-400 Units in 2024: How Is Russia Producing Them So Quickly? Military Watch
How Do We Survive the Constitution? New Yorker (furzy)
Biden
Biden blames the press for bad poll numbers RT (Kevin W)
Spoiler alert: Biden world is taking third-party threats seriously Politico
Hunter Biden Claims Immunity, Seeks Dismissal of Federal Gun Charges Sputnik (Kevin W)
Democrats en déshabillé
If we’re going to deprogram cult members, we should start with cult leaders.
I nominate the BlueAnon elder who programmed followers to believe in deranged Trump-Russia conspiracy theories and support an apocalyptic proxy war with Russia: https://t.co/laAn1maLhg
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) October 6, 2023
Have They Gone Mad? Matt Taibbi. Hillary makes right wing fever swamp depictions of Democrats/liberals as Bolsheviks look warranted.
GOP Clown Car
A Broken Congress Is What MAGA Always Wanted Daily Beast (furzy)
Red airwave: America’s conservative talk radio saturation Agence France-Presse (furzy). Yes, conservative does not exactly = GOP but the Venn diagram overlap is substantial. I mentioned back in the 2016 elections that many people misunderstood how influential radio was and how it was dominated by conservative talk shows. And let us not forget explicitly Christian stations!
Immigration
How Biden’s Promises to Reverse Trump’s Immigration Policies Crumbled New York Times (Kevin W)
Google Agrees To Reform Its Data Terms After German Antitrust Intervention Techcrunch
The Price-Fixing Economy Matt Stoller (Chuck L)
Huge US government borrowing adds to bond market pain Financial Times (Kevin W)
The Bottomless Swamp of Regulatory Capture Charles Hughes Smith (Micael T)
Inflation
Job growth is strong, wage growth continues to normalize Economic Policy Institute
Summers Says Fed’s Interest Rate Hikes Aren’t Working as in Past Bloomberg. Yours truly was far from alone in predicting that.
Rent. Online shopping. Meat. These are some markets affected by recent price-fixing conspiracies. Is inflation being driven by systemic price fixing across the economy via algorithm? Recent antitrust suits suggest it's a real factor.https://t.co/s84BCvXPor
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) October 6, 2023
AI
AI girlfriend encouraged man to attempt crossbow assassination of Queen The Register
The Bezzle
FTX Employees Discovered Alameda’s $65 Billion Backdoor Months Before Collapse The Block
FTX co-founder says Sam Bankman-Fried firm was ‘taking customers’ money’ for years Financial Times
Class Warfare
Striking Autoworkers Win Shock Victory Ken Klipperstein (Randy K)
Auto workers worry it takes less labor to build electric cars. Maybe not, some researchers say CNN. ma: “Hmmm………the companies want to use different workers though…i.e., those not under the UAW (or any) contract.”
Antidote du jour:
And a bonus:
MIND IF I PET YOU HORSY ? pic.twitter.com/jsS30gFgwZ
— Animal Press (@AnimalsAddicts) October 5, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
255 comments
Comments are closed.
Re Nobel Peace Prize
This article from Norway explains how the Peace Prize committee goes totally against what Nobel explained in his will how the prize should be awarded: I trust website translation tools can render it in English.
https://spartakus.no/2023/10/06/den-norske-forvaltningen-av-nobels-fredsvisjon-er-et-totalhavari/
In effect, this award is simply another anti-Iran attack by the western powers.
Sadly the price has been ra ra western hegemony for ages.
When Obomber was awarded the Nobel Prize we all knew how it’s all rigged. Coming soon…Cheney gets the Peace Prize.
If you really want to barf, consider that Kissinger was awarded one for the Vietnam peace treaty (alongside Le Duc Tho, who declined).
The name you are looking for is Noted War Criminal Henry Kissinger. (Tom Lehrer’s comment on satire dying upon said award is relevant)
Iran is one of the most progressive Muslim states in the world, just look at the higher education rates for women, right to divorce etc. If the West really cared about women’s rights they would be regime changing most of the Gulf Cooperation Council nations and would not have “frozen” the Afghan foreign exchange reserves – money needed to pay for basic foodstuffs and medicine with the greatest impact upon women (as with all US sanctions).
At the same time Hillary Clinton has no problem with the Israeli apartheid state, while also forgetting the role that the US played in destroying the highly progressive socialist government of Afghanistan. It was that destruction that lead to the warlord era and then the Taliban in Afghanistan. Pure Western feminist imperialism, imperialism grotesquely appropriating feminist concepts for the imperialist project. Just like “humanitarian intervention”.
“The 32 Best Horror Movies to Keep You Up at Night”
The 1973 film “Wicker man” was a horror film? Really? Speaking as a guy, the scene that remains fixed in my memory from that film was a naked Britt Ekland dancing in a room next to that of the frustrated, christian police officer played by Edward Woodward. The clip is on the net but you won’t see it on YouTube. The song that she sang – Willow’s Song – was certainly very haunting so here is a link to that song-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmYP1EAbXe4 (4:40 mins)
How in this day and age is a convicted child rapist’s work number one on any best list?
This is a rhetorical question.
Well I wouldn’t put it that high, but it and Chinatown are really really good movies, as in among the best ever made. Do you want to ban Lewis Carroll’s work? I realize he was not convicted, but there is a fair amount of evidence that his relationship with Alice Liddell doesn’t pass the smell test.There are some very creepy allegations about some of the great masters of painting and sculpture.
Let’s expand this beyond art works though. Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, had a relationship with one and fathered children he kept as slaves. Do we totally erase his Presidential term? Tear up the Declaration? Or do we make include it in the history?
To go back to art, sort of, Does erasing Gone With the Wind, book and movie get rid of white washing slavery’s toxic nature better than discussing or dissecting them to show how they do it.
I may sound somewhat confused here, but canceling things because the person who created them was not a very nice person is all mixed up with censorship for me. I truly believe that allowing NeoNazi holocaust deniers to march through Skokie was the right thing. Things that are buried or hidden fester, and good things die or grow slowly. Things need to be exposed to the light and discussion and counter opinions allowed to flourish. Acknowledging that deeply flawed people have created things of art does not mean approval of their actions, and it is possible to recognize both the flaws and the art. When we cancel things, or in most cases allow things to be cancelled, we are shutting down discourse. And considering what wouldn’t be allowed to be considered art, or acceptable political philosophy at various times in human history, the cancellation may not always be for the best.
It deserves a serious answer. Censorship is often what the powerful use to deny the inconvenient thoughts, feelings, words, and actions of others. Those icky thoughts, unpleasant ideas, and the true facts of the past both good and bad, often of crimes that they have committed. There are alway reasons for the damnation of memory
>>>And considering what wouldn’t be allowed to be considered art, or acceptable political philosophy at various times in human history, the cancellation may not always be for the best.
Almost everything of this sort has been cancelled, which means that if every serious attempt at cancelling was successful, there would be nothing left. No past. No philosophy. No religion. No art. No music. No nothing.
It’s possible to consider a work separate from a creator. There are plenty of people I revile from history, the Marquis de Sade being a great example. The man was evil, no question. Having read some of his works in the original French, I could not recommend them to anyone; rather, they should be avoided. Nevertheless I would begrudge no one who chooses to avail themselves of the knowledge contained therein, as there are some very, very uncomfortable truths revealed in his works. If only I could unread Justine, ou les malheurs de la vertu.
Sadly, it is far too easy for genius to go awry as the increasing splendor of the creation leads to presumptions of entitlement to things beyond those available to the masses who merely bask in the splendor of what was created. Film, music, sculpture, fashion, whatever. History is littered with the despoils of those who have pushed beyond what is typically considered proper and right. It’s also littered with some absolutely magnificent creations that speak to the gifts of humanity. A lot of times there’s overlap, and that’s probably not going to ever entirely go away.
Back in the day, when they had video rental stores, I watched ‘Wicker Man,’ thinking it was a pleasant flick about quaint English folk customs, like Morris Dances. I still get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think of the ending. I was aghast, but unable to look away.
Sure, the Christian policeman is a prig and a fool, but he dies trying to save a little girl and it’s the pagans who kill him, not the other way round. “The Wicker Man” is very far from the celebration of paganism it’s usually described as.
Back in the day, we viewed “The Wicker Man” as an explication of the essentially brutal and bloody nature of Terran human religion.
Take a look at Robert Graves deconstruction of the Jesus Myth in his book “King Jesus.”
“King Jesus”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Jesus_(novel)
It’s a wonderful movie. It took over a decent chunk of our podcast episode Prole Art Threat or Middle Class Revolt? Part Two – Who Killed the KLF? because that film describes a party in Jura where the KLF built and burned a wicker man and had maidens in wet diaphanous outfits and we took both to be a sign that they got ideas from their party from the film The Wicker Man which is a much better film than the KLF thing. It’s a fine film with wonderful location photography from various parts of my home country, one of Christopher Lee’s best performances, and great soundtrack. It’s almost a musical.
Nice to see a fan of The Fall here!
The Wicker Man was a major disappointment to me. It’s hardly a horror and the end is obvious from early on in the movie. Still it’s not as bad as Midsommer, which is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.
Loads of good horror movies missed out from this very conventional list.
Night of the Demon
Eyes Wide Shut
Nosferatu
Burning (Korea)
The Vanishing (Netherlands) the original – not the terrible remake
The Cursed (Good for a gothic horror)
Touch of Evil (a lot of horror elements in this movie)
Let the Right One In (Norway) Original again
The recent series Midnight Mass was one of the best horror series I’ve seen. Especially given it deals with vampires and the majority of vampire movies are terrible.
That Kanthan tweet. Such a glorious burn.
If China had adopted western-style democracy twenty years ago, then there would be still half a billion Chinese living in poverty today guaranteed.
On a side not, really starting to dislike that Vivek Ramaswamy as the more I see of him, the more he reminds me of a cheap hustler.
He is!
So HRC has completely lost it…
That depends on the definition of the word “it”.
Ha! You win the interwebs today.
It’s nearing the Halloween festival of ghouls and goblins. Her timing is impeccable. / ;)
https://www.rd.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/This-Is-What-People-Used-to-Carve-for-Halloween-Before-Pumpkins-332617865-AndreyUG-1024×683.jpg
tried different browsers and get nothing but this is message at all –
No such object: tmbi-rdu-static/2017/10/This-Is-What-People-Used-to-Carve-for-Halloween-Before-Pumpkins-332617865-AndreyUG-1024×683.jpg
It’s a picture of 3 carved jack-o-lanterns lit up at night. Regular jack-o-lanterns. Big triangle eyes and wide toothy smiles.
Seeing it on Firefox after a few seconds delay.
Firefox – Opera – Safari – all the same message –
No such object: tmbi-rdu-static/2017/10/This-Is-What-People-Used-to-Carve-for-Halloween-Before-Pumpkins-332617865-AndreyUG-1024×683.jpg
computer must be jinxed –
rd.com is running a Cloudflare protection system.
Cloudfare often objects to *MY* protection systems.
Lost what? She’s been pretty consistent since at least her 16 loss, pushing Russiagate every chance she got. This is just her new, improved, 24 campaign version of The Deplorables. Must live in a very secure bubble. Has anybody tried to tell her that this not only doesnt work, it fires up the opposition?
Hillary’s “super-predator” line was ridiculous and unhinged as well, but it certainly manifested in neighborhoods across the country for a couple of decades. With all due respect, in terms of authoritarian impulse, she is something of a rectal thermometer jutting from the vent of the western kakistocracy. We know this.
We are daily invited inside the skulls of Trump, Putin or any state enemy du jour, encouraged to engage in the most sophomoric and petulant sorts of psychoanalytic projection. Odd that no such invitation is ever extended as Hillary’s gibbering, festering cabbage cries out for help.
“she is something of a rectal thermometer jutting from the vent of the western kakistocracy.”
ROFLMAO! That line ain’t getting old ever. Thank you for the huge belly laugh this morning. Now to clean the coffee from my screen…
This is going into my quote file too. Too good not to repeat at every opporrtunity.
Given how much bile pours through the Internet these days, it is really difficult to come up with new, creative insults to those who deserve them. Congratulations!
“AI, give me a new metaphor for ‘canary in a coalmine’ but make it humorously nasty.”
Glenn Greenwald describes HRC as the Team D id, that normally silenced voice that speaks their dark desires out loud.
No, but I’m sure she’ll talk about that once the third book in her series “How I’ve Moved On” is published. Because she is totally, completely over it, and hasn’t kept her proposed acceptance speeches or anything like that.
So she doubles down on the MAGA peeps being a “basket of deplorables” and telling others as well, how they will “just learn to code”. Okay, Hellary, got it and thank you for your patently wise advice as always. \ sarc
I know, I know. I can work for NBC as a “journalist” and get paid six figures. After all it worked for Chelsea Clinton I wish to recall. Much like a Henry Kissinger, for example, the lacking of a sweet release of death is proving that evil can outlast good. Heck at least Diane Feinstein finally kicked that bucket. It’s a start, now I’m being way too cynical for a Saturday!
Yeah but to be fair, it’s never been easier for a white guy to marry an investment banker.
She was so bad at it NBC cut their losses after one year. Jenna has been making bank on her stint for over a decade. Oh and Chelsea’s investment whiz husband crashed and burned. If it weren’t for the Clinton Foundation and Columbia currying favor by letting her “teach”, she would have been looking for a retail job to support them.
Oh I forgot the couple of book deals she got, a couple with her mother. They fall so quickly down the memory hole you know they never made back their advance. Grift has been necessary for all the Clintons.
Personally I think we got glimpses of the real Hillary during both her runs for President, and her term at State. She just has lost the ability to hide it completely. Biden , I mean BIDEN!?!, is President. No one is approaching her to replace him on the ballot. The Ukraine is not going to fuel the Foundation’s coffers. And Trump has a good chance of winning again. This was not what she was entitled* to get.
* Unlike Social Security, this is an entitlement based on arrogance and delusion. And actually deserves the derision.
“Can Venezuela become an oil exporter to the U.S.? Modern Diplomacy (Micael T)”
Can become? I could have sworn they were, until USA cut them off after Chavez came to power.
And they have that nice heavy stuff, like the Russians we’re sanctioning now…
Apparently we thought diesel grew on trees.
MIT’s working on it. Drinking water from the sea. Wine from water. Diesel from trees. It won’t be long now.
What do you suppose they would accept in payment? Dollars?
They’ll insist on gold and entrust the British with it for safekeeping. /s
Toilet paper, way more useful.
“Narges Mohammadi: Iranian woman jailed for rights work wins Nobel Peace prize”
I hate how every institution from the Olympics, the OPCW, the IAEA and the Nobel Committee on has been weaponized to suit the Rules-Based Order. If the UN Security Council did not need a unanimous decision, it would have been weaponized as well. I would have thought that it would have gone to Alexei Navalny but as he ‘failed’ the west, maybe next years will go to Volodymyr Zelenskyy instead. You could argue that he has done nothing to merit a Nobel Peace Prize but neither had Obama when he got his.
The peace prize have been that way pretty much since Norway agreed to form NATO.
And the security council was weaponized back when USSR refused to take part, allowing the Korean war to happen under a UN banner.
Also Taiwan was deemed to be China at the time, so no opposing votes to US Imperialism at the time.
The Rev Kev: I think that you should take a look at Mohammadi’s career, as well as the career of Shirin Ebadi, her colleague, who also won the peace prize.
re: Boston COVID Action,
given the hints of immune dysregulation/deficiency that are being noticed by practitioners and researchers, the thought occurs that “ACT SAFE” would be an appropriate name for efforts like this.
But perhaps that’s a bit too on the nose.
In other Covid news, it appears Biobot has lost its CDC contract.
https://twitter.com/BiobotAnalytics/status/1710386842254934275
Oh sh!t!
What a waste!
This would be a great thing to crowdfund and see how results compared to new contractor Alphabet’s results.
Google gets it through its Verily subsidiary. We know Google never suppresses information, so this is certainly good news indeed!
I keep reading how the bond market is collapsing and that this is terrible. I understand that it’s bad for retirement accounts that are heavily weighted with bonds. Then I read there are more potential problems for banks, but that could also be due to inflation devaluing their assets. Looking for more explanations if anyone cares to lay it out. What are the likely scenarios going forward?
Interest rates rise on UST yields and active bond prices commensurately fall. Linked to the time to maturity remaining on the outstanding UST debt security. Think of it this way. The interest rate rising causes values to decline, and the declining value is generally not favorable to bank financial risk management. The suggestion of financial risk management is to plan ahead for such scenarios in advance and not after the fact. The genius of Silicon Valley Bank, well they learned that in real time earlier this year.
Retirement accounts would be a different animal, but I’d apply a more simple logic. The decline in value of the fixed income portion, considering a typical 60 / 40 or 70 / 30 split where the second value of either fraction is the fixed income; wellie that is going to hurt, and more particular to those nearing retirement or just began retirement. Since as in retirement, planned or automatic withdrawal rates are occurring on a declining portfolio / retirement account. Keeping cash for a rainy day is a good bit of advice, I think.
The above is free and that’s about the value one could assign to my personal thoughts or opinions. I do think the US Treasury is facing a crucial stretch on the funding ( via Short Term bills, by example ) of the deficit, but that is a decidedly different discussion and probably worth a deep take. Absent coffee yet this morning, I won’t dive in.
I appreciate your explanation. It does seem to be a complicated situation. The US 10-year bond is at 4.795% as I type and any person can get 4.3% on a savings account now. It seems opting for the 4.3% where you can take your money out at any time without penalty is more attractive than the 10 year bond. Of course institutional investors might not follow this path as they have their own priorities/options/obligations.
4.3% ? Nah, you can do better than that on liquid accounts. Here are about 25 that yield at least 5.2%. Scroll down to “Checking/Savings/Money Market accounts. Click the reviews for all the details on each one. Great site:
https://www.depositaccounts.com/blog/bank-accounts-survey/
You are correct. Thanks, I usually use bankrate dot com for comparisons as it is easy to use.
Part of the problem for retirement age folks is most 401ks only offer bond ETFs or mutual fund that are guaranteed to lose money in a rising rate environment.
In a self-directed IRA, you can at least build your own bond portfolio, and hold every bond until maturity. There is never any risk of loss of principal on US treasuries if you hold until maturity. Well, unless the whole de-dollarization/debt default thing really comes to pass.
The bond funds are constantly replacing old bonds that mature with new ones, because:
A. They have to, they can’t “hold until maturity” and then distribute the principal back to investors because they have to keep trading, sort of like how a shark can’t stop swimming
B. They’re more concerned about the skim (management fees) and sucking wealth out of the middle class and diverting it to Wall St.
I have dumped most of my long-term bond funds from my retirement accounts and moved the funds to other investments. Not meant as investment advice, just relating my experience.
Isn’t the advantage of 10-year bonds that if you think that interest rates are near their peak, you can lock in that rate?
The reason there isn’t more freakout about this is that this problem was 100% created by fast and aggressive interest rate increases by the Fed and the Fed could just as easily cool things off by backtracking or buying longer-dated Treasuries. This differs greatly from the 2007-2008 crisis where the risks were in many many pockets and not so amenable to Fed action.
But having said that, I think there is way too much complacency about the Fed losing its nerve soon enough.
By which you mean complacency about the Fed continuing to tighten?
This is what I have been seeing some freakout about: that it is too similar to 2007/8. Thanks Yves for adding this perspective re the Fed’s role and the differences from 2007.
Or by the Fed loaning money to banks based on their bond face value holding rather than the market value.. which I’m pretty sure is going on after the SVB disaster, even though we no longer hear about it
Yes, critically I forgot to mention that banks can get relief, but not garden variety investors. But this was why the regulators started yelling at banks to dial down their hedge fund exposure. A hedgie could blow up on Treasury and other bond losses, and LTCM-style, put its creditors at risk.
So you’re claiming the problems from 2008 were actually fixed with QE and 0% rates for 15 years?
Straw manning like this earns you big time troll points. I said the problems in the Treasury markets are the DIRECT effect of Fed action and the Fed can go into reverse or take other actions to alleviate the problem. We wrote extensively how the authorities were clueless about where the risks lay in 2007-2008, and didn’t even go looking very hard. They knew CDS were a huge problem yet made no attempt to get their arms around it.
We proved in ECONNED, in what one professor of economics, derivatives expert and later hedge fund manager called the best piece of financial journalism he had ever seen that CDOs composed significantly but not entirely of CDS drove demand to the worst subprime mortgages in the later phase of the US housing bubble and created exposures 4-6X the value of mortgages. It took us nearly 2 years of constantly poking at CDOs to get three sources to come forward who could lay out the structures and sales process. This would have been easy for the Treasury or Fed yet I doubt they bothered to do this.
Similarly, we wrote at great length about the inadequacy of financial reform, the second, hidden massive bank bailout (a get out of liability nearly free card for close to pervasive failure to transfer mortgages properly to securities trusts, which due to the deliberate rigidity of the contracts, could not be fixed via waivers). And we also regularly criticized the distortions of protracted negative interest rates and how the Fed was being gutless over subjecting investors to gradual pain over many years to back out of them.
TL;DR: papering over a problem is not even remotely a good remedy.
Reminds me of 1979-1981, when the Fed blinked for a short while and then ramped rates way beyond what was expected. Of course, much less debt, housing bubbles etc, at that time. “Secrets of the Temple” is a great book about how the Fed utilized monetary theory as a smokescreen for its actions, and te power that it wields.
Some investment people I follow on X think the Fed will resort to yield curve control as the least bad option. That is, buying a variety of longer dated bonds to affect the long end of the curve directly.
The FED already did this during Bernanke’s time at the FED it was called “Operation Twist”.
So the FED will reprise Chubby Checker and reissue “Let’s Twist Again, like we did last Summer”
Bond holders have had a +40% haircut. Really ugly. Moreover, the Fed looks to continue raising rates. Not a pretty picture. Me? I keep opening new accounts and parking cash in HYSA because risk free is now slightly north of 5%. Means your principal doubles every 72/5.xx years. Not a bad deal.
Of course, on the flip side, once rate cuts stop (recognizable in advance by bond buyers piling in), then the Bill Gross of the world will be seen as a visionary once again for touting them to the moon.
Anyway, the bond market is the real story, as you astutely recognize.
Recent rise in 10 year rates in not the way to address the rate inversion!
The last (unneeded) $1.9 trillion “covid spending package”, and the fed printed (bought t bills) a couple trillion too much greenbacks.
T bills bought with wet ink greenbacks are deflateable!
‘AI girlfriend encouraged man to attempt crossbow assassination of the Queen’
I read the article wanting to know how anyone having a chat with a bot managed to get ‘crossbow’ and ‘Queen’ into a conversation, whether the sentence is harsher if you embarrass the Queen’s security detail, and why Chail didn’t just wait a few more months for her to die on her own.
Also most everyone is depressed or delusional at some point in their lives, it’s considered normal for short periods, so everyone could be susceptible to the ‘support’ of an AI chatbot. It’s a reflection of our own egos. Much like human-to-human relationships, we hear what we want to hear, see what we want to see.
“The war in Ukraine is threatening to wash across the Black Sea”
Yeah, that boat has long sailed. As the Ukrainians have turned the whole sea into a war zone with their sea-drones and attacks, this means that the only long term way to stop this for good is by Russia taking the rest of the Ukrainian coastline – which happen to be Russian-speaking regions. Putin said just this week that Odessa is a Russian city. The Ukraine is trying to open up a grain route that hugs the coast of Romania but what are those ships to do when the Russians keep on destroying the infrastructure at any of those ports. And of course there is another factor. Yesterday a Turkish ship struck a mine and was damaged using this route. Whether it was a Ukrainian or Russian mine is irrelevant. Those mines are there and cannot be ignored-
https://maritime-executive.com/article/turkish-cargo-ship-hits-mine-off-romania
I read this claim to mean “perception of Ukraine losing the war” was washing across the Black Sea.
This far the Russians have been remarkably tolerant of AWACS and other US war making tech in international airspace over said Sea.
Most of the E3’s AWACS operating in Baltics and Rumania are NATO owned (~43% US funded).
Also can be seen USN P-8’s who fall off ADS-B once “on station” supporting Ukraine ISR!
The US Global Hawks stop broadcast beacon a lot!
Tucker. On Rumble. ~48 minutes. (All caps in the show’s title. I’m not shouting. / ;) Follow the money.
TUCKER ON X : EPISODE 28 – CHRIS MORITZ – TRANS, INC. | TUCKER CARLSON
https://rumble.com/v3n6w6y-tucker-on-x-episode-28-chris-moritz-trans-inc.-tucker-carlson.html
Tucker, like O’Reilly before him, grew too big for his britches.
Or too big for MSM’s britches, like Edward R. Murrow (CBS) before him.
I wonder if the SEC is going after Musk right now hoping to somehow get Tucker kicked off the platform. If Musk sold twtr-X, for example…. Yes, the idea is a stretch, but crazier things have happened… and recently. / ;)
Given how quickly he drew views on X, I think an audience would follow him to Rumble (assuming Rumble isn’t suppressed). Or elsewhere.
The 32 Best Horror Movies to Keep You Up at Night
John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) is conspicuously absent from the list and widely considered one of the best horror films of all time.
Suspiria is considered one of the best examples of how Italian directors take a different approach to horror. For example, America’s Alien is drenched in blacks grays and every shade in between and generally drained of color to create a foreboding scene full of dread and uncertainty…and the feeling no matter what you do, you just can not SEE what is behind that next shadow or whatever, in a threatening situation. Many Italian directors went the opposite direction using bold vibrant even garish colors to overwhelm and attack your senses to point you feel something is off and not what it should be, but what?
‘John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) is conspicuously absent from the list’
Oh my. You are quite right. That film should absolutely be on that list and critics say that it still holds up well, even forty years after it was made. It certainly knew how to build up the suspense-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqFJobAgz0c (6:56 mins)
thought the original “The Thing” was pretty awesome and although only 3yrs old when it was released, watching it on TV as a kid late Friday night on Shock Theater was chilling – one that is missing too is “The Tingler”, with a classic Vincent Price role, theaters had vibrators attached to certain seats causing chaos – was an 11yr old in the theater for that one – still remember it to this day – a lot on the list are worthy – but not on it is another William Castle directed great horror flick, “House on Haunted Hill” – James Arness, who played the monster in “The Thing”, was also in another scary Shock Theater TV favorite about giants ants from nuclear testing in the desert called “Them!” released in 1954 – cheesy but effective –
For me, the sci-fi/horror films of the ’50s cannot be equaled. In part because the cruder and less graphic nature of the special effects renders them more uncanny, at least to my eye. But I’ll confess to my bias in favor of the ’50s in general.
The first version of The Thing was my introduction to horror movies. And one of the worst movies of all time. Carpenter restored the dignity of the original short story.
There have been many superior horror movies produced by American indies in the past 25 years – enough to relegate at least half of that list, and blow the pants off Hollywood’s tiresome Hallowe’en virtue horrors.
One of my favorites. Carpenter made some awesome movies.
But the first Thing was great in its own right. Howard Hawks. Limited budget.
I scrolled through the list but yeah that is a reach without that film. What a great cast ensemble. The more recent remake of The Thing is actually pretty decent as well. Remakes or reboots of a franchise film are really hard to get right; actually Nightmare on Elm Street, with Mara Rooney I think, is a pretty reasonable update. Speaking of original films, the ’70s classic films like Carrie or the Omen still hold a weird but special place in my mind for varied reasons.
Little Damien…It’s all for you Damien. And who can forget…Carrie’s mother as portrayed by Piper Laurie.
Some of those old timey films were not slouches either in building up the suspense. Check this out from the 1954 film “Them”-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lur5-8v4T34 (2:40 mins)
didn’t see you had noted it when i commented – trying to remember others from the era of nuclear mutants –
As is usual the case with any listing or best of itemization, Rotten Tomatoes has a separate listing and it is pretty comprehensive (200 entries) over all. I still and will always submit that # 5 on the list is a hands down genius, piece of art by Ridley Scott. Simple plot, a short list of admirable yet flawed characters and one handy useful android / robot life firm. You don’t see the antagonist / terrorizing creature in full form until about the 40 to 45 minute mark. Spoiler alert. It don’t go well for the crew vs beast.
I’m moderately disappointed that the idea (I mean Scott’s) of prequels flamed out, before they finally come back around to the initial crash landing on planet / moon LV 426.
https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-horror-movies-of-all-time/
it is split that is acknowledged in the Critique’s Consensus – is it horror or SciFi, which i wondered a bit while reading this thread – if SciFi is included then how about “The Day The Earth Stood Still” or “Forbidden Planet” (which i’ve watched a few times) – and probably others
It’s hard for me to think of a movie that better captures our predicament than “Forbidden Planet.” Our hubris induces us to utilize technology well beyond our ability or wisdom to manage it. Our monsters are loosed, and destruction is the result.
Scott keeps making noises about filming a final, 3rd prequel. However, he’s constantly adding to his project in-box while running down his clock. I’m looking forward to Napoleon’s release w/ J. Phoenix to break my movie drought if Covid coooperates, although the subject needs a multi-season mini-series not 3 hr biopic. Kubrick gave up after all.
And why Hollywood remakes always seem to lack something.
will admit that did not see John Carpenter’s version of “The Thing” – i’ll check it out now, but premise is a bit different from the 1951 original with that title – the original “The Thing From Another World”, known as “The Thing” directed by Howard Hawks was no slouch either –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5dwbZKd64Y
One thing I like about the 1951 version was the dialogue. You saw that in the first few minutes of the film and it was so different how they do dialogue today.
One of the best scenes is a classic Hawks crane shot … no dialog, the crew just traces out the saucer shape dimly visible in the ice as the camera pulls up. Chilling visual, augmented by ice and wind.
A very well put together scene that-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfoxZhu0OGs (2:21 mins)
Jaburai Basaidi: …but premise is a bit different from the 1951 original with that title – the original “The Thing From Another World”, known as “The Thing” directed by Howard Hawks was no slouch either
Hawks’s THE THING was based on ‘Who Goes There?’ a 1938 novella by John W. Campbell, and both the story and Campbell — as writer and editor — are significant in the history of American science fiction.
Carpenter with his film went back and played it far closer to the original premise and logic of Campbell’s story than did Hawks’s movie. To the benefit of Carpenter’s film, which works as a thought experiment when it comes to the sheer alien-ness of the alien; besides being one of the great horror movies, it’s a really good SF film and there aren’t many of those.
Whereas the Hawks is in the end a 1950s monster movie period piece, more or less charming depending on your taste, but no more.
since not familiar with the novella will read before watching the Carpenter version – this all made think of another on the 200 list – and it had a remake too – the original 1956 release of “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” another Shock Theater ghoulish delight –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OouTay_7_hw
the 1978 version ain’t too shabby either with a great cast –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc_0dlmSq7I
A recent movie that will freak you out, far more so than the overrated “Get Out,” is “Vivarium.”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8368406/
Great movie. Johnathan Arris is so creepy in that one.
One of the scariest movies ever made is “Silverlake Life,” a documentary by a gay couple who filmed themselves dying of AIDS in the early 1990s.
It’s not for the faint of heart. It tells the truth about death in America, and in doing so is more terrifying and disturbing than anything I’ve seen in horror film.
“The Thing” should’ve been Top 10.
Of newer horror flicks post-2000, they could have added, “It Follows”, “28 Days Later” and “Pitch Black.”
It Follows – filled with subtext and anxiety about sex
28 Days Later – re-invigorated the zombie genre
Pitch Black – a sci-fi with action and horror and is surprisingly character driven
No comments on the Gaza attacks so far. Perhaps I’m not the only one feeling swamped by it. With their Al-Aqsa mosque assaults the Israeli right has been sloshing gasoline on the fire, and now Hamas has kicked the can over. It sounds like Hezbollah is threatening to make it a two front war, and with their store of much more sophisticated rockets then Hamas, they easily could, especially if they’ve acquired AA.
The ultra-Orthodox have been pressing to have the Al-Aqsa mosque site divided up into two halves. One for that mosque and the other part for the ultra-Orthodox so that they can have their animal sacrifices. And we all know how well the Israelis respect borders. This time feels different as the Israelis have been pushing too hard. A day or so ago I read that Israeli snipers have been targeting the ankles of Palestinians which is as bad as it sounds and it has been the army that has been protecting the settlers as they invade the Al-Aqsa mosque site. So with the writing on the wall, they are striking back in a way that cannot be ignored. Those guys that went into Israel itself know that they will probably die but it sounds like they no longer care as they have not much else to lose. The coming battles will probably kill off all thought of the Saudis allying themselves with Israel come to think of it so the Abram Accords is now a dead letter. I do note that India’s Modi has fully come on the side of Israel which won’t make him many friends in this part of the world. The only question is whether this dies down in a few days or whether it spreads further.
I saw someone jest that in one morning Hamas took back more area than Ukraine did on four months…
So far it’s just talk, but Hezbollah has announced that they will join the fray if Israel launches ground attack to Gaza. Israel defense minister has accused Iran of the attack and is threatening to retaliate. And US seems to have forgotten Ukraine completely and has promised to provide Israel with what ever is needed (except peace, of course).
Hamas must have been getting some training as I saw at least one Merkava tank being taken out by a bomb dropped from a drone. Somebody has been paying attention to the lessons of the Ukrainian war. Another Merkava was disabled on the border and the crew removed and I think that they were later executed. Maybe they received training from the Syrians who have been bombed by the Israelis on a near daily basis. Or maybe the Iranians who have had Israel launch attacks on their people inside Iran. Just what the world needed. Another war in the middle east.
You have some mind bending points there. Russia’s equivalent to the MIC has cranked up to make tens of thousands of pretty small drones a month that can even take out main battle tanks. And MSM reporting has been commenting that the Iron Dome seems to be failing – more tactics/jamming learned in Ukraine? This whole neocon inspired war in Ukraine is looking even more like the gift that just keeps on giving.
Plus I’m sampling the MSM, and two points stand out:
Everybody expects massive retaliation from Israel – everybody.
Everybody says this is a massive failure by Netanyahu.
It is said that the Star Wars movies were really a parallel for the US defeat in Vietnam by guerrilla warfare. With changes in technology that negate much of the advantages of traditional armed forces against smaller irregular forces (e.g. drones), and Iran and Hezbollah being major producers of such weapons, the outcome may be more like Star Wars.
Israel is becoming much more religiously extreme as the extremist populations out breed the more progressive population. Now we are even getting government representatives stating that spitting on Christians is a “Jewish custom”! Interestingly those very extremist populations are exempt from military service, and even working for a living in many cases, how long will progressive Israelis want to fight and die for the right of the Jewish equivalent of ISIS to claim their Jewish “Caliphate”. The very groups that are taking away the basic structures of democracy and separation of powers in Israel. Next, religious courts?
Israeli society may becoming much more brittle than it has previously been, with the younger generations of non-Israeli Jews becoming much less supportive of the religious supremacist state.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-10/israel-policies-divide-older-and-younger-jews-in-the-u-s#xj4y7vzkg
Unfortunately the great majority of secular Jews in Israel are Jewish supremacists, too. For instance, the “leftists” opposing the changes to the Supreme Court did not go so far as to support equal rights for Palestinians. This has been the case historically as well.
My recollection is there was a time when nearly as many Jews wanted a deal with Palestinians as wanted no deal. Not as many now.
I’ve heard ‘many’ (I know of examples, but have no idea of actual numbers) moderate Jews have emigrated, and changes Netanyahu is trying to impose will likely drive out more, to say nothing of this new conflict… and those leaving imo are the younger, productive tech savvy workers. Plus, the extremists that are left breed very well but, as you say, don’t produce much and even refuse to serve in the military.
US dollars won’t replace lost workers, imo present and future both look bleak.
peace is the rarest commodity around the world and been that way for quite some time –
also add the ‘Golden Rule’ – “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.”
although a Confucian saying, usually misattributed to the other lover of peace JC – either way nobody in politics seems to practice –
Once, during a GOP presidential-primary debate about foreign policy, Ron Paul quoted the Golden Rule whereupon part of the audience actually booed him and it (and thereby, JC as well) !
great Christian values displayed those GOP protectors of faith – bet they would probably throw rotten fruit if Ron Paul started spouting the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew – most folks that call themselves Christians are anything but –
A commenter over at MoA stated that Biden already diverted some $8M of “walking around money” earmarked for Ukraine to help Israel. Wish I had a better source, it is in the latest thread on the Gaza attacks.
I’m pretty sure this marks the end for Zelensky as far as both usefulness to the west, and personally. All that remains to be worked out are the details, will it be like Saddam, or Gaddafi, or will he make it out of there to that Miami condo?
or the villa in Egypt in his mother-in-law’s name
Zelensky has extensive ties to the Zionist/Israel community. As the Pandora Papers make clear, he was using offshore accounts in an attempt to hide payments from his top funder, Israeli oligarch Igor Kolomoisky.
https://twitter.com/Lowkey0nline/status/1500174625753513984
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pandora+papers+Igor+Kolomoysky&ia=web
Kolomoisky also funded the “neo-Nazi” Azov battalion and the Aidar battalion, among other nefarious entities. This is classic game theory, the creation of a scenario with the intent to achieve an end that will fall within a given range.
Zelensky isn’t being used by “the west.” He’s certainly welcome in Israel.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/zelenskys-parents-local-rabbi-they-dont-understand-why-he-wanted-to-be-president/
there was a link recently in NC about Z’s association with MI6 – think it was a Scott Ritter piece – wouldn’t surprise me
Not to worry SecDef Austin says we will send everything not already sent to Kiev!
This feels like a decisive war, whatever its outcome. I think Yves made the right points:
The dice have been thrown, and this is feeling like Algeria levels of anti-colonial war. I hope bystanders on both sides can keep safe, but I’m afraid this war is too bloody and too personal for that. Reaps of images and videos of settlers executed. I suppose it’s time to re-read Fanon’s On Violence.
I think that Bibi throwing the Isr. Supreme Court under the bus, and the old Ukr Waffen-SS soldier getting a standing ovation in Canada’s parliament, both events showed an unmistakable image to the rest of the world. I don’t know if that has any influence on the current situation, but it might be a ‘morale booster’ for the attacking side to think the world is starting to see what they’ve claimed to see for a long time. / my 2 cents
this political pot has been on slow-boil since May 1948 – no surprise
Totally agree.
Every time something like this kicks off, I think back to William T. Sherman, who said a few things that I find to be applicable to any conflict.
“This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end.”
“I think this is to be a long war-very long-much longer than any politician thinks.”
I forget which American politician said it, but as the American Civil War started, he said that he would be able to clean up all the blood by using his handkerchief. I heard another writer who said that he often thought about just how many or how large those handkerchiefs would have needed to be. Maybe I should go find out who said what, but it’s been twenty years.
However, both sides hotheads were convinced that the other side would just fold. Over a quarter million battlefield dead, more dead from diseases to a million total and all those injured, made crippled, or driven insane. Historically, the rule of thumb is for every fatality, there are two at least injured. Often it is closer to 1-3 or 1-4. That is a lot of shattered minds and bodies.
The Japanese, Americans, and British all thought that the other side would quickly give up during the Pacific War. So, being insanely optimistic before a war is normal. It is too bad as maybe there would be fewer of them.
Here’s one of several X threads on the conflict I’ve encountered this morning.
https://twitter.com/DaliaHatuqa/status/1710538277554462923
Scott Ritter has also been on the case.
Various parties immanentizing their own preferred eschatons.
Innocent bystanders may be impacted.
>Gaza militants enter Israel after rocket barrage BBC
My view: Palestinians attempt to reclaim stolen land.
Not sure, but I think the only internationally recognized Israeli borders are those of 1947, or so.
In reading the Wikipedia page United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine I find that there is much omitted.
After WWI with the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, rather than being granted independence, Palestine was made a protectorate of the UK. At that time Jewish people were estimated at 8% of the population. In November 1947, the colonial UN Partition Plan for Palestine proposed to give 55% of the land to the Zionists who were 33% of the population, though they held legal title to only 7% of the land. This despite the UN charter calling for self determination. There was no plebiscite to be held, perhaps for obvious reasons. The Zionists used the proposal as a template to militarily take the Palestinian land. First there were terror attacks on Arab communities which sought to defend themselves. Until the Zionists launched coordinated military actions. This is a clip from the book, I apologize for the length but there is no online source to link to, this is my own transcription. The Zionists stole the land plain and simple:
Thank you for this.
I think they need to do something and not leave Hamas hung out to dry, which is what usually happens. This is happening at the same time as news of some kind of Isreal/Saudi raproachment is in the news, which would strain the Iran/Saudi reconcilation. Interesting times.
BTW today is Putin’s birthday too.
For the last 10-12 years a sort of balance of terror has existed between Hezbollah and Israel. Each knows that the number of lives lost and the immense physical devastation, on each side, would make a non-existential war unthinkable.
Of course, in wartime rational calculations can be rendered meaningless.
The tweet by @humantheworld shows a building destroyed in 2021 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57205968).
I’d suggest viewing some videos with killed and kidnapped civilians to get a balanced picture of what is going on.
‘Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
Wow, the biggest dam in the Indian state of Sikkim, generating 1,200 MW of power (roughly the same as the Hoover dam) and costing about $3bio to build, was pretty much completely washed away after just 10 minutes of flash floods.’
That whole region got clobbered but hard and questions are going to be asked as to why a brand new dam failed so quickly-
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/10/6/deadly-floods-in-indias-himalayas-after-lake-bursts-through-major-dam
– ‘Hillary Clinton joins call for UN to criminalise gender apartheid’ – Channel News Asia (furzy)
Remember when the US backed the most vicious drug lords on the planet who used salafist doctrines as a cover for rape, torture, and terrorism against the modern, Westernizing regime in Afghanistan that was backed by the Soviets? How did these “allies” of ours view women? Remember how the Taliban gradually emerged as a response in the 90s to impose order on the chaos created by these vicious warring mafioso? And how we backed these vicious salafist drug lords *again* when we invaded Afghanistan in 2001? And all the innocent Afghans killed by our bombs and drones and special forces ops? Remember when we did the same thing against modernizing Islamic states in Libya and Syria?
Of course we don’t remember. No one read The Afghanistan Papers. But plenty of NY Times and New Yorker readers will lap this crap up, while expressing shock that deplorable Trump supporters can be so ignorant and manipulable.
It is nice to see that old age has not slowed down Gloria Steinem in playing her righteous divide-and-rule role for the PMC Establishment, though.
‘Gender’ is such a nebulous term these days… juxtaposed with ‘apartheid’ it immediately begs some questions, but applied to Afghanistan it becomes clear. Applied to the United States, it takes on a completely different character…
Re Big Think on sex
Probably true but how’s that working out? The article doesn’t really have any answers of its own but one might humbly suggest that Robin Williams was right. When the blood supply is all going “down there” it isn’t going up to headquarters. Maybe that’s why our increasingly irrational elites seem obsessed with gender.
A whole other issue is how sex is tangled up with inheritance law and customs.
Something that may well date back to when humans shifted from foraging to farming.
Indeed, even emotions as “a way of knowing”… what could go wrong?
Thanks for posting the actual clip of Hillary saying that Trump’s supporters need to be “de-programmed.” I’ve heard people dunk on her for saying this over the last week, but never listened to the actual clip. Before I heard it, my question was, Was she saying this in a joking way, or did she say it sincerely? (The same way that Trump’s offhand joke about the Russians finding Hillary’s lost emails–obviously delivered as a joke–was twisted by the media into something treasonous.) To me, she sounds sincere, like she truly believes this or something like it. I note that the interviewer laughs, but Hillary herself sounds like she means it.
As a joke, it’s tone deaf and poor. “Basket of deplorables” she undoubtedly thought was funny. “We came we saw he died” she apparently thought was hilarious, since she laughed at herself.
The sort of thing a person thinks is funny says something about that person.
Shorter Hillary [points to half of America]” “I’m not crazy. They’re crazy!”
And as white coats close in: “I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers [fakes Southern accent].”
https://www.racket.news/p/have-they-gone-mad
That last quote should be: “I have always depended on the helplessness of strangers, to kill them.”
The woman is a classic sociopath.
Well i’m sure she didn’t want people to go to grocery stores if they didn’t accept the gift from god in 2021. Lots of “democrats” we all on board with that. It was ok at that time on facebook of all places, to compare the unjabbed to plague rats. I’ve got photographic evidence. Everyone really needs to take a hard look at themselves before they start throwing stones.
The Guardian version of the story’s sub-headline gave it’s readers something to nod over with coffee and croissants “In an interview on CNN the former senator and secretary of state also called the ex-president ‘an authoritarian populist’“. I’m wondering what’s worse: an authoritarian populist or an authoritarian elitist?
The Hamas offensive is pretty staggering. It likely won’t produce long term gains but that probably doesn’t matter. The reputational destruction is massive and Israel’s response has been slow.
In the context of Israeli internal contradictions on a slow boil and what looks like poor relations between Biden and Bibi, everything is much worse. Add to that a dysfunctional imperial bureaucracy in DC that’s likely not capable of managing two acute crises simultaneously and some of the international statements already made and this has the potential to spin wildly out of control in a hurry. Especially if Israel can’t put a lid on the situation around Gaza quickly.
The Saudi statement is fairly bland, except that it openly blames Israel. Another indicator that MBS has at least mostly switched sides. Egypt’s statements aren’t much better for Israel, though it’s only warning that Hezbollah may join. Bibi is in an extremely difficult position. It’s likely that this galvanizes Israeli society in the short term, but no guarantees. In the medium and long term it deeply undermines the Israeli state. The recriminations will be ugly and long lasting.
And unfortunately Bibi feels the same way about negotiating with Palestinians as Zelensky feels about negotiating with the Russians. He allied himself with the ultra hard right to save his own skin and let them do what ever they wanted and so they did. And now the bill has come due and it is going to be an ugly one – for both sides.
He allied himself with the ultra hard right
Israel has weaker parties but still two sides. With the scale of Israel and changes from right wing immigration waves (where are the Jewish Republicans?; they moved to Israel), personalities matter. Bibi has always been hard right. This is more the older hard right who remembers Kibbutzes and persecution and the more recent hard right who remembers moving from Florida who just want to rough up brown people. There was the video of the guy from the Bronx stealing a Palestinian house. The Kibbutz types just haven’t had a reason to immigrate.
I think his corruption scandal and the weakness of Biden let him tolerate the more recent, aggressive settler actions which he would have pulled back on under Shrub or Obama. Trump was too much of a doofus or needed to reward evangelicals without upsetting domestic politics to recognize his Jerusalem kerfuffle.
Not that I didn’t give myself room for error, but my guess was Israel would either ethnically cleanse the Palestinian areas or tear itself apart with 20 years of Sharon stroking out because of the shifting demographics. I figured Sharon was the only guy who would keep the latter day settlers in line.
Actual research into which groups committed the Maidan shootings:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3619458
Hint: they like to seig heil.
Thank you. Understandably a far cry from that of Ukraine completes investigation into killing of EuroMaidan protesters, indicts Yanukovych for murder Kyiv Independent.
Ivan Katchanovski (2023-06)
The Maidan Massacre Trial and Investigation Revelations: Implications for the Ukraine-Russia War and Relations
https://t.co/7mA3dLqMTN
This study analyzes revelations from the trial and investigation in Ukraine concerning the mass killing that took place in Kyiv on 20 February 2014. This Maidan massacre of protesters and police led to the overthrow of the Yanukovych government and ultimately to the Russian annexation of Crimea, the civil war and Russian military interventions in Donbas, and the Ukraine-Russia and West-Russia conflicts which Russia escalated by illegally invading Ukraine in 2022. The absolute majority of wounded Maidan protesters, nearly 100 prosecution and defense witnesses, synchronized videos, and medical and ballistic examinations by government experts pointed unequivocally to the fact that the Maidan protesters were massacred by snipers located in Maidan-controlled buildings. To date, however, due to the political sensitivity of these findings and cover-up, no one has been convicted for this massacre. The article discusses the implications of these revelations for the Ukraine-Russia war and the future of Russian-Ukrainian relations.
I don’t think that you’re referring to Ron Desantis’ supporters, but they might hang with that crowd, given an opportunity.
Re: CNN article on EVs requiring similar amounts of labor… I would really need to see the data that they made that assessment on, but it conflicts with my experience in manufacturing and walking around these plants. It also conflicts with my knowledge of the “skate board” platform that most EVs are built on.
The electric motors can be built with mainly if not completely automated systems. The batteries can be assembled with mainly if not completely automated systems. The multiple connections for power, pressure, control, fuel, required for an ICE are unnecessary in an EV. The chassis can be assembled separately and essentially bolted on to the skateboard. QA/QC is easier too. If you’re not Tesla, and you understand you shouldn’t put stuff on the chassisthat can easily break, then you can streamline the assembly process further. So, even if I take those current study results at face value and accept that this generation of EVs requires similar labor inputs to ICE vehicles, the potential for automation and reduction in labor requirements for EVs is far greater than the largely mature assembly system for ICE. I think articles like this are written to give some cover for the manufacturer’s negotiations.
And if there was any doubt about that, the fact that McKinsey did the study should tell you a lot. I’m not sure how many others on NC have dealt with that shop, but in my experience, these are almost uniformly consultants who are chosen to be an old person’s idea of a smart, young, person. Suit jackets, tight jeans, pointy shoes, and an attitude that only a PhD in esoteric topics can provide. I have yet to meet one that has significant experience in anything that they offer opinions about. Many use the consultancy as a stepping stone to something else. They get in and get out quick. You’d almost feel sorry for them because they need to try to beg and borrow information from people who know what they’re talking about so that they can make impossible deadlines on studies for clients. But then, you have to remember the total lack of ethics in their staff and the astronomical fees they charge. McKinsey would author a study that suggests 9 women could possibly make one baby in a month, if the money was right. I hold on to my wallet and double check all the footnotes every time I hear McKinsey is involved in a project.
Supposedly the engine constitutes half the cost of an ICE car. Meanwhile the thousands of batteries may account for more than the cost of an EV but they are made in automated battery plants. BMW will be building one here. At the moment the high value engines come from Europe.
So labor needs at the also local assembly plant may not change all that much Perhaps for Detroit too? Doubtless their engines are also made at specialized factories. My car was made in Mississippi but the engine in Mexico I think.
Parts of Mississippi are Mexico now. (First hand observation.)
Maybe been that way for awhile – “Hot Tamales” by Robert Johnson, recorded in the 1930s :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehtcjrH7cs&ab_channel=TravelerIntoTheBlue
Ford is build Blue Oval City between Memphis and Jackson Tennessee. A lot of big wig Ford executives have been around. One said to a friend of friend that if Blue Oval City fails, Ford fails. Seems a lot has been better on EVs.
” Seems a lot has been better on EVs.” Which is a shame since a general rule of thumb in any large, complex situation is that the more options available, the better the eventual outcomes. As one limits the ‘options’ available, the chance of total failure increases. See evolution as the classic example.
At some point Tesla went super heavy on robotics for it’s final assembly plant in Fremont for the Model 3 assembly line. Musk decided he knew better than the big three automotive giants. My company was also trying to implement robotic final assembly lines, and had some great in company experts, and lots of very good engineers from Detroit too. They all looked at what Musk was trying to pull off, and pretty much had a good laugh while saying “that isn’t going to work!”, and it didn’t:
Tesla’s Big Problem: Excessive Automation
https://www.iqsdirectory.com/resources/teslas-big-problem-excessive-automation/
Tesla’s Factory Woes Reveals Why You Shouldn’t Automate Everything
https://medium.com/intuitionmachine/teslas-factory-failures-reveals-why-you-shouldn-t-automate-everything-16c54e7f9f16
Robots are really good at some things, but humans are really good at other things that robots find almost impossible to do, and it pays to listen to the experts on how to use automation when designing a production line. The other thing is that having a factory full of robots means you also need a maintenance department full of very highly trained and skilled techs to keep them running. And the other thing never mentioned much is that depending on the factory environment, and the position tolerances required to perform the work, robots do wear out, and in some instances, can wear out really fast. So now, you see this:
Why Amazon warehouses and Tesla auto plants will not go 100% robot any time soon
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/why-amazon-warehouses-tesla-auto-plants-will-not-go-100percent-robot.html
Of course, as mentioned in previous comments, this is when having managers that say what upper management wants to hear despite things like REALITY, results in a very dysfunctional factory. (Sorta what we hear happened to Elon.)
You need to design for the kind of assembly process you want to use. My understanding of Tesla is you’ve got bleeding edge software and sensors and controls installed in subpar vehicle packages with questionable quality and no consideration for design or maintenance. What we need is to marry the knowledge of Big 3 manufacturers to some of Tesla’s approach and then we’ll get a better EV.
Also worth mentioning here, given the proliferation of companies trying to make EVs, not sure I’d trust a company other than Ford, Toyota, etc. to be around long enough to handle repairs and maintenance and warranties. Rivian is really cool. Not sure I can trust the enough to spend 80k$ on a truck.
Yes, totally agree with your comments here, and above. I think Tesla was trying to use the robots to do fine positioning and installation of major sub-assemblies where the big 3 would use the robot, or a zero g holding fixture to get the assembly close, and have the human guide the assembly onto the mounting studs, spin on the fasteners, and make all subsystem connections.
My company was stuck with older designs, not really well set up for automation which could not be fundamentally changed without spending hundreds of millions. Lots of unavoidable and precise hand touch labor, so it becomes very difficult to use robotics and make a valid business case.
But I completely agree that ICE is higher tolerance so higher cost. An all electric drive train are much more applicable for automated assembly (and much, much lower maintenance costs once in service). It would be nice (but unexpected) to see automotive drive towards some standards that made battery maintenance and replacement much more doable in the service side of things.
I assume we’ll get there, but those standards may come out of China. Because, like you, I like the EV tech (Tesla’s battery management is clearly way better than the rest) , but forcing people to drop $80K is a non-starter. I’ll end up waiting for a good grocery getter, seats 4, chugs around locally, four door or small wagon for $10K. I don’t need or want all the “smarts” Tesla wants to make me buy, but it looks like America automotive is once again giving up on the small car/small cost market since it is the most difficult end of the market to build for and make a profit.
It looks like Israel intends to launch a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Two points worth noting:
Egypt warned Israel that such an action would bring an attack from Hezbollah, and there are reports of Hezbollah units moving towards the border along with one killed by Israel already.
An actual operation inside Gaza will be extraordinarily difficult. And it will be incredibly bloody. I’m not sure the IDF is actually up for it. The tactics that will be necessary are sure to involve mass civilian casualties and that comes with significant risk for Israel. It is a huge gamble for Bibi and Israel.
What if Hamas has a coupla hundred drones spread around the place? That can make a big difference.
Already footage of a drone dropping a charge on a Merkava. And Russian channels commenting on the behavior of Israeli swat teams “clearing” an area. I’m sure the IDF will learn and adapt quickly, but it could be a painful learning curve. Reports from the Israeli side that four helicopters have been hit and lost. (Reported as Strela use by Hamas.) The diversion of military supplies from Ukraine to the black market may end up playing a role here.
Hamas captured a base next to Gaza, perhaps two, so they got a lot of gear. Vids on Twitter of F-16s being hauled away to prevent Hamas from getting them.
‘Hamas captured a base next to Gaza’
You weren’t kidding. This is all going to cost the Israeli economy billions-
https://www.bitchute.com/video/s0OaRhu0TTGM/ (4:43 mins)
Helicopters being shot down: https://twitter.com/jemimakhan09/status/1710722539897397658
Retraction… apparently this is fake footage, from a video game.
I’m guessing ARMA III
In the situation that Hamas has been dealing with over the last years, dispersal of “assets” is a given.
What I am seriously worried about is that Israel might use some of its nuclear “assets” against Gaza and the Lebanese border region. The present day leadership in the State of Israel, not necessarily the populace of Israel, presents as about as bloody minded and fanatic a group as one could find anywhere.
Israel has form in this field.
The Samson Option: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option
Israel also has a big headache as it looks like Hamas have taken 100s of civilians as hostages.
This was my first thought this morning.
I would guess ( although this is certainly not my area ) that they have learned after multiple repeated situations that Israel will bomb their Gazan cities into dust.
What happens if those cities and areas in Gaza are stuffed to the gills with Israeli civilians with guns to their heads? And they even have at a minimum one big military honcho who, if the pictures are correct, was dragged out of his home in his underwear?
This sounds like it could be very bloody.
The other thing in the back of my mind is the hundreds of thousands of young Muslim fighting age men who have now been allowed to immigrate all over Europe into enclaves in all the major cities….What happens if something sets all of those people off?
I am not meaning at all to be sexist – but the multiple videos I have seen now of women Israeli soldiers being desecrated and beaten makes me wonder about ever having women in the armed services anywhere. THIS ISSUE was the talk of the old veterans at the table next to me in the diner this AM.
Another topic of discussion as the images were coming over the TV among the elderly veterans was the absolute ease it appears the Gazans did all of this. Their comment was that this could absolutely be our own future here in the USA given how the military standards have fallen.
I am just a civilian on the outside looking in. I have no expertise in this situation other than what I read and see. However, I have a very bad feeling about all of this.
Israel has confirmed he’s brigadier general Nimrod Aloni. And TG/X channels claim he’s not just a regular honcho, but the commander of the Israeli anti-terrorist forces in the south – which might a) explain the slow reaction by IDF b) makes this either extremely lucky coincidence or extremely well planned and executed operation.
“I am not meaning at all to be sexist – but the multiple videos I have seen now of women Israeli soldiers being desecrated and beaten makes me wonder about ever having women in the armed services anywhere.”
This has long been a problem, and not just for women soldiers.
An old high school teacher in a midwestern US high school used to give the seniors a talk each year about his experiences, growing up in Italy during WWII.
One thing he was at pains to stress was that “you girls – you girls stay away from any soldiers. If they come, then you go.” Those were his exact words.
He said that the worst for robbery and rapine were the British, especially units from British India. Germans would leave civilians alone as long as they followed orders but were brutal with reprisals if they did not. Americans were mostly friendly and decent, and that is why he made up his mind to emigrate to this country.
But he said that even the best behaved soldiers might act differently if they knew that their officers weren’t around to keep order.
It has been said that the purpose of officers is not to protect their soldiers from the enemy but to protect the enemy from their soldiers.
Re WW2 Germans, a friend of my dad who was in occupied Norway told my dad the same thing — they would leave you alone if you didn’t cause trouble, be really tough with anybody who did.
Israelis also rape Palestinian women. No good guys in war.
I think we’re all on the learning curve on this one, but with regards to your comment about our future in the USA, I’m afraid that you are “on the front lines”, and in a position to provide extremely valuable observations and commentary to us all.
Obviously, long ago you made the decision that your fellow citizens are important and need to be protected. For that, all I can offer from here, now, is the all too trite “thank you for your service”. But, I’m afraid that you and your occupation going forward is going to be ever more “on the front lines”. And like you, I am afraid that what I witness today in Gaza and Israel could indeed come to America. It is one of my biggest fears for our future.
Witness today, being discussed in this very blog the comments from Hillary. She wants to “de-program” people? What in the world does that even mean? I can somehow imagine her and Larry Summers getting together and devising some crazy scheme that ends up creating hundreds of Gaza Strips right here in America. Why? Our country has been here before, and we know what to do. Turning our country into even more of a neo-liberal h#llhole is not the answer.
And it’s a safe bet that the Orthodox settlers who provoked this won’t be in that army.
There are tweets saying Israeli reservists are refusing to fight, that it would be a suicide operation. Impossible to verify but credible at least on a small scale, and potentially bigger than that.
Likely a feint just as forces were all redeployed to the north when knowing Al-Aqsa Mosque would be stormed and trigger a Hamas response. Israel needs to escalate things quickly with Palestinians, and consequently Iran, before US presidential election (and deteriorating economy) paralyses any support or US gets dragged into a hotter war with Russia. And then there’s the simmering political civil war which gets worse over time and the smartest & hardest working Israelis emigrate.
An omen?
If these are crow drones, and if the footage was shot by Palestinians !? it approaches genius.
Of course they’re drones. Birds aren’t real. https://birdsarentreal.com/
/s
The fact that in one of the two scenes the crows keep bits of fabric in their beaks make me think they are collecting material for building nests.
Nesting season for crows begins around late March, early April in that part of the world, me thinks. At this time they roam around in huge flocks – in hereabout often with jackdaws, but I don’t know if they have jackdaws in the Levant.
If it turns out to be a Palestinian psyops operation, it would verge on sheer genius.
– ‘A Broken Congress Is What MAGA Always Wanted’ – Daily Beast (furzy)
There are a lot of coffee-spitting laughs in today’s Links, what with Hillary, the Nobel “Peace” Prize, and all. But I’d like to recommend (along with furzy) this article as well for its pure entertainment value (maybe “Put down coffee before reading” should be a Links category). Every paragraph is good; here’s one almost at random:
“Joe Biden has actually focused on governance and produced more legislative accomplishments (prior to the arrival of the current band of nitwits who hold a slim majority in the House) than any other president in six decades.”
Six decades! Since Kennedy. Quite the praise.
David Rothkopf, the author, has a revealing Wikipedia bio. Here is part of the middle section:
“In 1993, he joined the Clinton administration as Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Policy and Development. Rothkopf later served as Acting U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, directing the 2,400 employees of the International Trade Administration including the U.S. Commercial Service, the International Economic Policy Bureau, the Bureau of Import Administration, and the Bureau of Trade Development…”
“He left government service and became managing director of Kissinger Associates, the international advisory firm founded and chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger…”
“In 1999, he co-founded and served as chairman and CEO of Intellibridge Corporation, a provider of international analysis and open-source intelligence for the U.S. national security community and selected investors, financial organizations and other corporations…”
Now he writes for Daily Beast. Makes perfect sense.
In tracing the history of the anti-government MAGA Republicans, he starts with Reagan and then jumps directly to Gaetz and Trump. For some reason he leaves out the “era of big government is over” Clinton administration.
By the way, remind me again how many Republicans and how many Democrats voted to defrock McCarthy?
So we finally get a pot study on creativity and they test it on employees in their workplace?
Employee 1: Yeah, you heard they’re going to let some of us get high and then test us?
Employee 2: Dude, flunk this test big time or they’ll flag you as an “experienced drug user.”
Drunks think they’re tough.
People high on cocaine think they’re smart.
Pot smokers think it makes them more creative.
If I had to choose, my real-life experience leads me to prefer hanging with people who might be a bit deluded about their creativity, as opposed to more aggressive or arrogant.
YMMV
These things are true in general but:
Most trained soldiers going into battle wouldn’t mind a drink or two first. There is no such thing as false courage: a drunken coward runs just as fast as a sober one.
People who work with their brains can and do use stimulants to achieve an edge. People not as smart as they think they are can use up a lot of drugs before they figure that maybe it’s just them. Cocaine does lie to you but smart users see through those lies and then make up better lies to tell themselves.
I have never met a professional creative who hadn’t tried recreational drugs or alcohol. The good ideas when you’re high are often excellent and worth developing. Developing a good idea takes skills most people don’t have. Creativity also doesn’t respect cubicle walls, many problems are solved after hours because a creative’s brain doesn’t know what a timeclock is.
None of this means that drugs or booze are good for you, but if they didn’t sometimes help there wouldn’t be so many people relying on them. Does successfully relaxing after work so you can get a good night’s sleep count towards improved creativity, smarts or surviving a fist fight? I think so but scientists gotta nerd and the nerds didn’t step back far enough on this one.
You see what I see.
Thank you for taking it further, it does deserve closer examination.
Brings Housman to mind;
“And malt does more than Milton can to justify God’s ways to man.”
The Ukrainian troops, maybe to a greater extent than US or Wehrmacht soldiers, or the ISIS or many African warriors, are reported to be loaded up with stimulants and opioids.
Is it courage if you’re plotzed?
They only need to follow the trajectory of the Beatles for their answer on whether pot (and other stuff!) helps creativity. Here’s George: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwXCDls6kYc
I thought the piece on cannabis and creativity was a complete nothing-burger – it says that people are not more creative when using it, but that they are also not any less creative. Then mentions that people are happier when they use it. If that is so, then what’s the problem – too many happy workers?
Am I imaging it, or is Hillary Clinton suddenly vocal and visible? My immediate thought: What is she running for? My answer: President. How is that possible? We have a president who has declared for re-election. We do. But he may develop health problems, need to spend more time with his family, be eased aside because … finish the sentence anyway you choose. Hillary would never run for second place so either Harris bows to the inevitable or decides a return to private life is just what she needs. Enough scenario sketches. Is she actually offering herself as the alternative to Biden?
Hillary has only given away Socks!
I think Hillary needs to be deprogrammed.
During her self-titled annual awards ceremony at Georgetown University on Thursday, Hillary Clinton said that the biggest obstacle to peace and security around the world is “men starting wars.”
This is the same woman who chortled with delight when she found out Muammar Gaddafi had been buggered with a knife by a mob in the aftermath of the NATO’s destruction of Libya, a war she was instrumental in provoking.
Honestly, you can’t make this “family blogging” up
Krystal, Breaking Points, utube, ~8 minutes. Latest.
ROCKETS, HOSTAGES: Israel SHOCKED By Hamas Attack | Breaking Points
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsVyXTZ3DUU
I am so unsurprised. Whatever the past is, the current Israeli government is a racist, apartheid regime staffed by closeted génocidaires, who bring shame to the dead. They use the physical genocides and pogroms of the past, as well as current existing antisemitism, to justify their sins.
I believe that some will read this comment and call me an anti-semite. Thirty years ago, I would not have believed that I would honestly would write the previous paragraph, but then I would not have believed either that both the American and European governments would make excuses for members of the original SS or of current and past Ukrainian neo-Nazis; while it might sound old-fashioned, I do wonder what those members of my family who fought the Wehrmacht and saw the camps would have said?
Honestly, if anyone wants to call me a racist, a bigot, or a hater, have at it, especially as I am near absolute supporter of free speech. I am also losing my ability to care anymore as well as the constant denigration of saying what is plain as day or nearly so, and the constant use of the Big Lie as well. I think I will say what I can see with my lying eyes instead of always being accepting or quite of the lies and actions of others.
Personally, I am still, somehow, ashamed and embarrassed on what is being done in the name of democracy, safety, or freedom, but I am slowly losing my ability to be shocked by what the authorities and their supporters say; I wish I still had that ability. Silly of me, I know, but I truly wish I had that capacity still. Blast it.
Amnesty International & T’Belem already officially declared Israel as an apartheid state, with all that it entails….
The disconnect with what me know but what we see does get too much sometimes. Here in Oz some States are making it illegal to give a Nazi salute – at the same time our government is shipping out masses of military gear to an actual Nazi regime. And an artist that painted a wall mural of a Russian and Ukrainian soldier hugging in a plea for peace was shamed on social media and was forced to apologize. The TV news coverage is nothing short of vile propaganda and the less said the better.
In Links a day or so ago there was a video of this old boy giving testimony of the atrocities that he saw done by the Nazis as a boy and I was raised on this sort of stuff through all the docos that were on TV in the 60s and 70s. They wanted people to remember back then. Now. Actual Nazis are heroes and we are expected to admire them and to fund them. Well family-blog those Nazis and family-blog all those people trying to tell us that Nazis are an oppressed minority and that the situation with the Nazis in WW2 was ‘complicated.’
Robert F Kennedy just lost me. I’m tired of his Israeli support.
Looks like a shot across the bow to me — they warned him privately, now publicly. Now we can watch for a smear campaign against Cornel West.
The Politico article usefully named the Dem’s oppo shop: American Bridges. Those must be the bridges they throw people off after they put the political cement overshoes on them.
A smear campaign against a black man? Maybe moving the first primary to Carolina wasn’t such a good idea after all.
“The Price-Fixing Economy”Matt Stoller
“…Being cheated is not only frustrating, it’s also scary, because it can recur without warning and cause unexpected costs. Being cheated thus imposes a real extra cost beyond the amount someone has to pay, which is to say, increasing uncertainty about future prices.
So this is another part of the answer about why sentiments on the economy are negative despite evidence of less inflation and more jobs. Pollsters are asking about inflation by framing it in terms that economists understand, which is to say the level or the rate of increase. But ordinary people not only want to pay good prices, they also want to feel like they are being treated fairly. If people feel increasingly cheated, and the only questions they are asked by pollsters are whether the economy is good or whether inflation is up, they will give an answer that reflects their anger and fear of being taken advantage of, and not reflect the ‘objective’ statistics policymakers expect…”
Indeed. It all operates differently at the tranactional level. I mentioned something abou that the other day.
As for the agri cartel pricing and this:
“…RealPage discourages bargaining with renters and has even recommended that landlords in some cases accept a lower occupancy rate in order…”
As much as this is the effect of concentrated markets, it has to be noticed that it also the effect of concentrated wealth in fewer and fewer hands. Resorting to this kind of pricing becomes one of the only ways to show increasing profit margins, especially by a quarterly metric. As the wealth concentrates, smaller and smaller percentages of a population are being relied upon to prop up profits.
Paint is $50 a gallon.
Last year, a gallon of decent contractor-grade interior latex paint was 54.99. Yesterday, I paid 79.99 (plus tax) for a gallon of high grade gloss enamel for my front door, which takes the full blast of western sun when the leaves are off the trees. This is feasible because my labor is free. (We won’t talk about the price of a man-lift to get to the high gables because we’re getting too old to schlep the big ladder around…)
Eighty dollars for a can of house paint? That is nuts.
If the Israel/Hamas battle were happening a few years ago, I’d think it would end up like all the previous ones: 20 Arab dead for every IDF soldier, more immiseration of the native population, and even more idiotic bloviating by America’s political class and prominent Zionists. But today I’m not so sure. There are new alliances in the region, Saudi Arabia/Iran, Saudi Arabia’s changes in Yemen, etc. And the U.S. is weak right now, with the conflict in Ukraine and the rise of BRICs… At this moment, I don’t see the U.S. as able to provide much help to Israel, besides some ideological indignation. I’ll be interested to see some commentary and analysis on this one.
> Gaza
Unlikely to be an intelligence failure. Israeli forces unusually deployed most of their forces to the north and then this trigger https://www.newarab.com/news/over-800-israeli-settlers-storm-al-aqsa-compound-sukkot
Israel realises that US is running out of money (and key resources) having blown a shitload on Ukraine and needs to bring ME issue (i.e. Iran) to a head before there’s nothing left on the table. On top Israel’s own smouldering power keg of political ‘civil war’ as ultra-orthodox gain increasing voting power with much larger families.
Krugman pushing ‘long transitory’. Yeah nah, just wait until oil hits $200 with nothing in the SPR and trade flows get disrupted. Low inflation of last 20 years has been the ‘peace’ dividend from low risk globalisation from the ending of the previous Cold War. This Cold War is against resources (Russia) and manufacturing (China) powerhouses and comes with a more extreme climate off the back of a global pandemic.
Even if Israel deliberately provoked this, in no way this means it will work out the way they imagined it to do.
It rarely does when these “machiavellian masterminds” try to pull their chess moves.
Israeli is politically cornered. Ultra-orthodox now in political drivers seat while its settlers continually waging a war again Palestinians. At some point establishment had to play a losing hand the best they can. Israel will end up losing its best and brightest either way, through war or emigration. And the
shirkersUltra-orthodox prefer the former.Do you really need think that the Israeli “establishment” ever had any thought about the Palestinians, about improving their plight, relieving their suffering, or even recognizing them as human beings? The guilt for the injustices inflicted on the Palestinians belongs to all Israel. They have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Israel could have accepted the two state solution that was agreed upon in Oslo thirty years ago, but they did not.
The best plans collapse when they meet the enemy…
I concur. February, 2022, on a much smaller scale, I think.
Hey, what happens if Biden has to make a choice – support to Israel or support to the Ukraine? The way the money is drying up and the weapons have about run out may mean he cannot do both. It is one or the other with the clock ticking.
Depends on who’s really running the show. TINA really really hates Putin & is out for revenge..
He will support Bibi. Is this the excuse needed to put Uke on back burner?
My money’s on Washington trying to do both, and both crashing and burning at about the same time. This is Nemesis coming to give Hubris its comeuppance.
The “smart” move to end all of this would be for someone to nuke Jerusalem hard. Then the Abrahamic diaspora can tell tales of ‘The Glowing Wall’ for generations to come.
Part of the Ukraine war fever is it was finally a chance for Americans who soaked up cable news to feel like good guys for once. The Apartheid State moniker and the nature of the Evangelical Right’s embrace of Israel isn’t going to distract as much as Team Blue might like.
Just saying, drawing down SPR to such low levels has diminished US (threat) power over ME oil producers. Now, increasing ME political volatility feeds directly into oil price greatly benefitting SA and Gulf States (& Iran) which means they won’t be in any hurry to mediate peace between Israel & the Palestinians. Short-sightedness in US foreign & economic policy space is mind-blowing (maybe because of too much blow?).
Noah Smith’s tears are delicious …
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/youre-not-going-to-like-what-comes
Noah Smith is an intelligent and observant man, but he lacks commonsense and finds it difficult to look beyond the publicly acceptable statistics.
Being fair, I also have insufficient commonsense, but I have had reality beating me over the head for several decades. I can always drive around the San Francisco Bay Area, and then compare my memories with the present, especially of the City of San Francisco. Statistics tend to lose out to seeing, hearing, and smelling something different. This and that multi-decade headache are clarifying.
You’re not going to like what comes after Pax Americana? Gee, I wonder if they were asking in the 1940s ‘You’re not going to like what comes after Pax Britannica.’ The worse thing about Pax Americana is that those in DC were operating on the principle of “winner take all”. No give but all take. If Pax Americana had operated on the principle of equitable solutions, then there would have not been that much impetus to get away from it. But for Global Majority countries, Pax Americana meant having your country remain deliberately underdeveloped with an elite looting their country backed by a US trained military and security apparatus. What a waste.
Does this include the United States in those deliberately undeveloped countries?
From the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition-
‘Exploitation begins at home’
It really began with Post Civil War Reconstruction in 1865. The North American Deep South was, and still pretty much is Americas “Third World.”
Is it just me – or has anyone else noticed that we have received more direct Israel-Gaza coverage on the MSM ( all day long video, gory details, breathless commentary, etc) than we have received this whole 18 months or so of the Ukraine War?
Is it not interesting how we seem to be able to get long video high definition video shots and commentary from the direct front lines in Israel, but most of what we get from Ukraine is about the same quality as UFO videos?
This is what I am talking about events in my office as a physician with COVID – “odd”.
‘most of what we get from Ukraine is about the same quality as UFO videos’
That is because most of the information that the news media gets from the Ukraine comes from the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine whereas the media reporting on Israel are basically embedded journalists. Neither will give you the real picture of what is going on.
As someone with deep connections with the Jewry from my mothers marriage to my step father in the 60s and almost married a L.A. West Lake girl … all I can say is Israel to them was a romantic notion that fulfills the narrative supplied by its religious texts = too think one is better than others as the original people created by the creator of all …
Various levels to all that and in some cases is just a communal thing that supports networks for getting more out of life/business. I loved my Jewish step grandfather too death, amazing man, Dr/ on call trauma surgeon that cut his teeth in the Air force in WWII, pillar of the community and gave to all his time and effort, first wife died of MS and then married a German Lutheran of that day and her two kids that made the family 4 kids after.
So now that is – out there – I will say the establishment of the nation of Israel was always going to end up like this one day. You can not have one rich English guy pushing the political system to establish a state out of whole cloth and then have the peoples from antiquity reenact all the past drama without it one day coming to a head. This is complicated by the breach of contract or treaty by the new comers from all most day one, mostly driven by a small but powerful group with a future outcome that did not include the Palestinians.
This is all made more complicated by support from this religious group, that has wealth but, lives in foreign nations, helps fund it, and with that wealth also engages in political outcomes on a national level with personal risk at no concern.
The so called atrocities will be shared by both sides on a biblical level, one only needs a cursory level of knowledge about the old testament to see how this all rolls for both sides. Biggest difference this time around is the Palestinians are fighting for survival and after so long being treated as sub humans will be very tough and single bloody minded about at e.g. antiquarian pay back and its better to lose and take as many as you can with you sort of thing. Hence such a full scale and comprehensive attack with maximum confusion and force thrown at the mission.
As you note this will be interesting to see how it effects the Ukrainian situation. Stay Tuned thingy …
The various progroms and then the Holocaust created a lot of severely traumatized survivors who often had lost everything including their families. This does not excuse what the Haganah and others like them did, but I think some understanding is needed.
The Zionist plans for the Middle East well predate WWII. They were being hatched as far back as the mid 1800’s or earlier and were openly discussed in Zionist meetings and councils throughout this period.
Theodor Herzl, widely considered the founder of modern political Zionism, described Madagascar as a possible land of emigration in his 1902 novel Altneuland, perhaps due to the earlier writings of Paul de LaGarde. The so-called Madagascar Plan was later proposed by Poland and considered by Germany, though it was ultimately rejected as unworkable by the World Zionist Congress.
This is the same World Zionist Congress that Herzl had established in 1897 and which held their inaugural Congress in Basel, Switzerland that same year. On the second day of the First Zionist Congress the Basel Program declared that:
“Zionism seeks to establish a home in Palestine for the Jewish people, secured under public law.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Zionist_Congress
If you read a bit further in the above Wikipedia page you will see that “secured under public law” was only added to avoid publicly antagonizing anyone. The Zionist plan for Palestine was going to move forward no matter what.
How?
At this same World Zionist Congress, Herzl declared, “With a few exceptions that do not figure at all, the entire press of the world is in our hands.”
In 1896 Herzl wrote “The Jewish State” in which he declared, “When we sink we become a revolutionary proletariat, the subordinate officers of all revolutionary parties; at the same time, when we rise, there rises our terrible power of the purse.”
While theorizing about what vast portions of other peoples’ lands might best suit “the Jews” Herzl had also imagined Patagonia. Again writing in his “The Jewish State” (1896) Herzl wondered, “Which shall we choose, Palestine or Argentine? Argentina is, by its nature, one of the richest countries on earth, with an immense territory, scarce population and moderate climate. The Argentine Republic would have the greatest interest to cede to us a part of its territory.”
In his capacity as President of the World Jewish Congress Nahum Goldmann declared in 1947 that, “The Jews might have had Uganda, Madagascar, and other places for the establishment of a Jewish Fatherland, but they wanted absolutely nothing except Palestine, not because the Dead Sea water by evaporation can produce five trillion dollars of metalloids and powdered metals; not because the subsoil of Palestine contains twenty times more petroleum than all the combined reserves of the two Americas; but because Palestine is the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, because Palestine constitutes the veritable center of world political power, the strategic center for world control.”
https://www.azquotes.com/author/30895-Nahum_Goldmann
declared in 1947
The date of this quote and whether Nahum Goldmann stated it in his capacity as president of the organization he helped found is unclear. He was not president in 1947.
Goldmann headed the First Preparatory World Jewish Conference, which led to the World Jewish Congress being established in 1936, At this inaugural event in Geneva in August 1932 Wikipedia reports that Goldmann “defined the purpose of the World Jewish Congress as follows:
“It is to establish the permanent address of the Jewish people; amidst the fragmentation and atomization of Jewish life and of the Jewish community; it is to establish a real, legitimate, collective representation of Jewry which will be entitled to speak in the name of the 16 million Jews to the nations and governments of the world, as well as to the Jews themselves.”
In searching for more context for his “The Jews might have had…” quote I noticed this JTA piece which reports on Nahum Goldmann essentially blaming the entirety of world Jewry for not doing more to prevent WWII:
https://www.jta.org/archive/goldmann-accuses-jewish-allied-leaders-of-failures-on-holocaust
You know more than I do, but do not forget the various pogroms including the waves of them pre World War One in Eastern Europe. They were a convenient distraction for the Russian Empire dealing with political unrest. This strengthened the nascent Zionist Movement. The waves of Jews that came to Palestine in the 1940s had not mostly not been Zionists, certainly not to where they would have supported the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. However, they were survivors of a genocide of almost all the Jewish communities in all of Europe. They did not have a home anywhere. I don’t think that they were quite sane anymore at least emotionally, and who could blame them for that?
The truly terrifying thing about current events is that the US military/foreign policy has been controlled for the last couple of decades by a different set of religious extremists, one whose worldview is based on the literal interpretation of the last book of the New Testament. Everything is proceeding according to plan…
>>>…one whose worldview is based on the literal interpretation of the last book of the New Testament.
These American religious extremists have had this project going on since at least the 1980s. So, forty years? It is nothing new.
I swear it was customary for major broadcasters to have a crew in Israel back before the net and smartphones, same as having one in USA, Russia and China.
Pretty sure that back in the day that all major broadcasters had desks in many of the world’s capitols, including Israel. But over recent decades they shut down those desks and fired those highly experienced reporters to cut costs to improve their bottom line.
Though i swear some of the experienced reporters that remained has become quite flaky with age.
>>>Though i swear some of the experienced reporters that remained has become quite flaky with age.
This is what you get when the survivors sell their reputations, perhaps even their souls, to stay in their well paying gigs. As with most the ruling classes and their servants, which modern reporters generally are.
Instead of the Fourth Estate, we have undercover operatives of George Orwell’s 1984‘s Mintrue, aka the Ministry of Truth, aka the Ministry of Propaganda.
Another Bidenomics sighting:
How the Costs of Car Ownership Add Up
I don’t know how much more Bidenomics Americans can take?
“I don’t know how much more Bidenomics Americans can take?” That would depend on whether we are talking about “Exceptional” Americans or “Deplorable” Americans. [The difference between the two classes is usually expressed in the ‘Credit Score.’]
But with Bidenomics moving more and more people into the deplorable category, that exceptional credit score area is increasingly rarified. But then about the only thing top Dems are worse at then diplomacy is any math that doesn’t include a cut for them.
…and then there are the growing number of workers for whom their personal vehicle is their housing.
I am so very grateful to Yves & Co for this place, where we can still talk about what our lying eyes keep telling us. My nearest and dearest, PMC all, absolutely do not want to hear about it (hence my handle).
And i have seen some product promos recently that try to make vehicle living something wonderful, just by picking one’s parking spot…
They apparently missed the increased insurance costs that people are reporting. Meaning that 16% is low.
Gav would make for an iffy minder…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/07/california-governor-vetoes-bill-to-decriminalize-natural-psychedelic-drugs