Explaining GRB 221009A, the Greatest Cosmic Explosion Humanity Has Ever Seen JSTOR
James Webb telescope finds potential signature of life on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa Live Science
Watch the hammerhead shark get its hammer Science
Michael Lewis is wrong about the “profitability” of FTX US and FTX Trading Francine McKenna, The Dig
No Virginia, There Really Is No Such Thing as “the Fed” Credit Slips
Climate
With seagrass discovery, we may be one good solution closer to solving climate change Phys.org
Ongoing declines for the world’s amphibians in the face of emerging threats Nature
Hotshots working under an ‘unsustainable system’ Wildfire Today
#COVID19
Is COVID pandemic or endemic? A discussion with Boston University epidemiologist Dr. Eleanor Murray WSWS (NL). In the interview, “Eleanor” becomes “Ellie,” the name of the heroine in The Last of Us….
China?
Ex-chairman of China Everbright Group Li Xiaopeng expelled from Communist Party and post Channel News Asia
Will culture be China’s most important addition to Xi Jinping Thought? South China Morning Post
There Is No Consensus on American Decline in Beijing The Diplomat
India
10 reasons why India’s stance on Gaza is unsustainable Indian Punchline
Russia’s diesel export curbs can be a windfall for India Hellenic Shipping News
‘Extent of Falsehoods Astounding’: Farmers Launch Nationwide Protest Against Allegations in NewsClick FIR The Wire. FIR = “First Information Report (FIR) is a written document prepared by the police when they receive information about the commission of a cognizable offence.”
Africa
Africa emerges as container bright spot Splash 247
Syraqistan
The Blob speaks, or at least emits sound:
Why Hamas Attacked—and Why Israel Was Taken by Surprise (interview) Martin Indyk, Foreign Affairs. “There is always somewhere a weakest spot—” –Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Deacon’s Masterpiece: Or The Wonderful “One-Hoss-Shay” (worth reading in full).
The Hamas Attack Changes Everything Elliot Abrams, National Review
Surprise Palestinian Attack Spawns Fears of Wider Mideast War Council on Foreign Relations
Israel-Hamas conflict: Key questions for “long and difficult war” The Lowy Institute
* * * The Hamas Holocaust The Tablet
Uprising in Palestine New Left Review
Just another battle or the Palestinian war of liberation? Electronic Intifada (NL).
New York City sees pro-Palestine, pro-Israel rallies amid escalating tensions Anadaly Agency. For example:
NYPD has deployed a drone lol pic.twitter.com/TLVjrdhWAW
— Spooky Lolo 🎃 (@LolOverruled) October 8, 2023
Mrs. Jellybys in keffiyehs (and compare the Iraq War protests of 2003).
Attack on Israel divides California’s 3 leading candidates for Senate Politico. The deck: “Only one candidate expressed unequivocal support for Israel.” See also:
My statement on the ongoing violence in Palestine and Israel ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/NIt9G7aLMI
— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) October 8, 2023
We need more Senators who’ve lived out of their cars.
* * * Israel’s Massive Intelligence Failure Scott Ritter, Consortium News
‘The Guest’: the Palestinian mastermind behind deadly Israel incursion FT. Elevating, prior to demonizaing? From the New Yorker:
Footage has been released of senior Hamas leaders gathered together in a room, wearing suits, intently watching the images of war on a television screen, clearly content.
Frankly, I prefer a commmittee of faceless functionaries to a demon figure Anybody remember Tora Bora? The diagrams? (Not an ideal source, but accords with my memory; Google is, of course, useless.)
* * * US Moves Ford Carrier Strike Group To Eastern Mediterranean Naval Institute
Israel’s defense minister orders plans for possible evacuation of settlements near Lebanon Anadolu Agency
UN Security Council meets on Gaza-Israel, but fails to agree on statement Al Jazeera.
How Powerful Is Hezbollah? The Militia Trained By North Korea and Hardened By War Against Al Qaeda Military Watch
The End of a European World Order and the Search for a New International Order Valdai Discussion Club
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia Already Exploiting Israel Attacks to Bolster War in Ukraine: ISW Newsweek. In a crisis, things correlate.
Gen. Milley on Ukraine aid: “Dangerous situation” if Putin wins war Axios
* * * I was jailed by Ukraine for ‘collaborating with Russia’ for keeping my town’s lights on The Times
Ukraine’ Assassination Program Has Gotten So Out of Control that Some of Its Members Are Starting to Speak Out Covert Action Magazine
* * * In one example cited by the newspaper, an unnamed official urged journalists to “lift up the conversation a bit” and stop focusing too much on the day-to-day developments on the ground, lest they miss the “fuller picture.”…
The same official also reportedly tried to lower expectations in the briefing, saying that a Ukrainian victory would not necessarily mean the recapture of “every bit of territory by X date” – despite Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s insistence that this is the only acceptable scenario.
Ukrainian officials have been limiting journalists’ access to the front line, citing security reasons, the Post continued. Special officers are making sure that sensitive topics, such as Kiev’s losses, are kept quiet.
(Here is the original, to which RT does not link, confirming the quotes.) A fine example of “relative autonomy” in a hegemonic system; WaPo finds the “official” demands so stomach-churning that they make a story of them (preserving their own reputation for another day, and ultimately reinforcing their hegemonic role).
Digital Watch
If You Can Read This Headline, You Must Not Be on X Twitter. Dumb.
Humans can’t resist breaking AI with boobs and 9/11 memes TechCrunch
Feds Rein in Predictive Software That Limits Care for Medicare Advantage Patients Pharmacist Steve
Zeitgeist Watch
‘IDK what to do’: Thousands of teen boys are being extorted in sexting scams WaPo
New Again: Diana Vreeland Interview (DJG). Originally from 1980. A fun read, especially for declinists.
Varieties of Religious Experience
America’s nonreligious are a growing, diverse phenomenon. They really don’t like organized religion AP
Americans are leaving church behind. They’re giving up a lot more than faith. USA Today
The Once and Future Prayer Book and A Good Gift Received From His Hand The American Conservative
Healthcare
There’s a Pill That Helps People Quit Smoking. Why Isn’t It Sold in the U.S.? Slate
The gut microbiome: an important role in neurodegenerative diseases and their therapeutic advances Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. From the Abstract: “There are complex interactions between the gut and the brain. With increasing research on the relationship between gut microbiota and brain function, accumulated clinical and preclinical evidence suggests that gut microbiota is intimately involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). … [W]e summarize the changes in the gut microbiota in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and contribute to our understanding of the function of the gut microbiota in NDs and its possible involvement in the pathogenesis. We subsequently discuss therapeutic approaches targeting gut microbial abnormalities in these diseases, including antibiotics, diet, probiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT).”
Ten simple rules for interpreting and evaluating a meta-analysis PLOS
Sports Desk
Portugal’s first ever win at the Rugby World Cup:
The moments that made history #RWC2023 | #FIJvPOR pic.twitter.com/fc5pMOCisU
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 8, 2023
Class Warfare
GM is shaping up to be the hardest hit by the UAW strike Insider
UAW workers will strike after rejecting deal with Mack Trucks CNN
Meatpacking Plant Closures Cut Deep for Small-Town Economies WSJ. No demonstrations for them…
They Quit Their Jobs. Their Ex-Employers Sued Them for Training Costs. NYT
The Plant Doctor: How to control those large lubber grasshoppers Orlando Sentinel. News you can use!
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Do you hear what I hear?
Said the Hamas wing to the little lamb
Do you see what I see?
(Do you see what I see?)
Way up in the sky, little lamb
Do you see what I see?
(Do you see what I see?)
A rocket, a rocket, dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite
Said the little lamb to the Gaza boy
Do you hear what I hear?
(Do you hear what I hear?)
Ringing through the sky, Gaza boy
Do you hear what I hear?
(Do you hear what I hear?)
An airstrike, an airstrike high above the trees
With an impact you will soon see
With an impact you will soon see
Said the Gaza boy to the David king
Do you know what I know? (Do you know what I know?)
In your Knesset warm, David king
Do you know what I know? (Do you know what I know?)
A child, a Gaza child expires before getting old
Let us bring him out of the fold
Let us bring him out of the fold
Said the David king to the people everywhere
Listen to what I say! (Listen to what I say!)
Pray for peace, people, everywhere
Listen to what I say! (Listen to what I say!)
The IDF, the IDF sweeping in the night
It will bring us goodness through might
It will bring us goodness through might
Do You Hear What I Hear?, performed by The Carpenters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LWQ0w-c55Q
Varieties of Religious Experience…. organized religion is not going quietly..its doubling down on the old intimidation tactics
https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-is-increasingly-putting-christians-first-amendment-rights-ahead-of-others-dignity-and-rights-to-equal-protection-210220
I know a number of people who attend the church of msnbc.
TDS is very much a religious phenomena.
Religion, like concrete, fills a void…
Spirituality, on the other hand, well, I’ve been reminded that it’s indigenous peoples day and I’m reminded of a tale from my youth that “injuns” would take the head of a slain deer, point it in a certain direction with some corn or something to eat. Which is this, spirituality or religion?
I never required invisible means of support, with Czechs being world class disbelievers in a deity.
My parents didn’t role play in any mystical bowing league, and I proudly can say i’ve never been in a church during service, and i’d like to keep the streak alive until I die.
I associate more as a pantheist, for unlike an agnostic or atheist who is against the idea of a God, i’m for an all encompassing God in everything on this good Earth, in that flower over there, in the unsuspecting shrubbery, in the canopy of many a tree, the ants busily convening underneath, the other living things, you and me.
Among many other things, I’m very thankful to my father when at a young age I asked what is god — he said “god is an idea”.
I disagree. The 303 Creative case saw the so-called “liberal” justices argue in favor of compelled speech. I can’t think of much that is more illiberal than that. My full argument is here.
On thing I will note is that too many left commentators on both 303 Creative and Masterwork case fail to understand the difference between refusing to sell an already made cake off the shelf or website template and compelling someone to create a cake or website that endorses something the creator opposes. It’s one thing if Ms. Smith in 303 refused to make websites for gay people (say a website for a gay mechanic’s auto repair business) versus refusing to make a website for a same sex wedding.
Add to that the absurd argument made by Justice Sotomayor that the less creativity is involved in making a creative work (the more it is a rote commodity) the more its expression is protected. That is, Sotomayor argues that if Ms. Smith from 303 Creative put the line “marriage is between one man and one woman” as a banner on all of her websites that this would be okay. That’s messed up. (And probably is not true since it could be disparate impact discrimination.
But again, my full argument is at the above link. I’ll send by saying I’ve lost all faith in the so-called “liberal” side of the Supreme Court.
“10 reasons why India’s stance on Gaza is unsustainable’
Bhadrakumar has neglected the most obvious reason for Modi doing this – Modi is trying to save his political a** with the west. Ever since Canada went on the attack about that murder in Canada itself, he has been under pressure about this, especially after the US backed Canada. The fiasco with that SS Nazi in the Canadian Parliament kinda short-circuited this whole effort but perhaps Modi is still trying to get in the west’s good books so that it does not crop up again. He has yet to understand that only vassal states are in those good books but he seems to think that he is smarter than everybody else. And so he is trying to have one leg in BRICS and the other leg in the Collective West and playing off both sides against each other.
I interpreted Modi’s response through a different lens — that of solidarity with another oppressor of local minorities.
There are 213 million Muslims living in India who won’t be happy with his stance. And it would be worse in Pakistan who also fully backed Israel. All I can say is that it is a good thing that actions don’t have consequences. Otherwise there would be trouble over this.
India has faced innumerable Islamist terror attacks funded and originating from Pakistan in just past 4 decades.
Much of it has targeted Hindu Temples, Festivals, Hospitals, Cafes and Schools.
Many of those terrorists when caught have been vocal about saying that they want “to kill the Kafirs”.
Pakistani Ministers talk about wanting to ethnically cleanse Hindus from their native homeland, India.
But, sure, You can interpret Prime Minister Modi’s response however you want, after all “freedom of speech/ thought” is generally assumed by the western/ western educated to mean “Freedom to ignore reality / Freedom to be Racist”.
.
/ first time responding to any comment here.
Worrying to see how many of these kinds of dog-whistling comments allowed on this website, post moderation!!
“Five, Israel’s reaction, which is already under way, is expected to be massive, unremitting and ruthless.”
That statement leans toward minimizing what has already been going on there for decades.
And what’s more important to India: their caste system or their alleged new role in the world?
Where’s the connection to the caste system here exactly?
Or is that something that is just randomly thrown out any time anyone criticizes India or any indian politician?
Had to look up what a ‘trance rave’ was, and Hamas surely had trance issues with the rave in Gaza-adjacent, and such raves happened at Burning Man not that I was aware of the difference in the thump-thump-thump ad nauseum beat, being more of a curiosity.
Both venues are similar, with some trees in Israel to kind of hide behind, but absolutely nothing on the playa @ Burning Man.
I was trying to wrap my mind around 1,000 Burners at a typical rave assembled @ a giant art car perhaps financed by a tech mogul as a backer-with seriously amped up (my buddy & I walked by them a few times and wow-the rush) speakers, zonked out on E all of the sudden being attacked by an ad hoc adversary on high & on the ground, with no place to run, no place to hide.
In both venues, guns were verboten, with the rave in Israel requesting that attendees not be armed & dangerous.
A ‘trance rave’? As Eric Cartman would say, ‘It’s all a bunch of tree hugging hippie crap!’ Whose bright idea was it to hold it right next to an open-air prison? Maybe they can hold the next one in downtown Kiev.
Squinting from a certain perspective: neo-hippie wannabes who felt themselves adequately armed with hasbara and hubris?
I would not be surprised if a small percentage of attendees to the Israel rave also went to Burning Man, our camp did a 4 hour stint at greeters one morning, welcoming home approaching vehicles and the cargo behind the wheel. We give out maps and a handbook to every person in the vehicle as they get out of their rides of passage.
I’d say that visitors from overseas were about 20% of the component of the moment, with the funniest one being 5 Germans in an RV, all virgins and its good form if its your first burn to lay on your back in the dust & make alkali angels with your arms, followed by ringing a bell.
That all went according to Hoyle until they realized that they had locked themselves out of the RV with the engine running.
Yours truly knew where a ladder lay a hundred feet away, and with the upstairs window of the behemoth being open, the lithest of the lot shimmied her way through the portal in a reverse defenestration demonstration, with a twist.
Sounds like Piper Laurie slithering through the bars and ‘hacking’ the Fed. “Iron bars do not a bank make.”
Not something I listen to but trance is a very rapidly growing music format that lends itself to some very cheesy acts that use electronics to add more spatial dimensions to what are often fairly simply acoustical performances. The image stuck in my head is that of a solo guitarist wreathed in smoke from the stick of burning incense affixed to the head of his guitar.
You don’t really have to be good to perform trance music, just relentless. I tranced out at shows a few times in the ’90s (space jazz, different but similar) and it’s incredibly restful. You’re intensely aware of the performance but once it’s over, it’s over. I have no “concert” memories of those shows, just a recollection of the glow.
I expect most trance fans who are serious about music will end up listening to qawawali (they changed the spelling on me again!) or Indian spiritual music just like I went from novelty songs as a kid to triphop in later middle age.
Whirling dervishes, trancers from way back!
don’t forget the csárdás too – an alluring tempo that starts out slow then speeds up – had a wonderful Slovak girlfriend that would put record of a series of csárdás tunes on and dance the csárdás and try to teach me –
Sounds like a Fugue state. The Powers That Be would give a million Ukrainian right arms to learn the easy way to induce that at will.
Just emerging from my morning news fugue only to find I’m an hour late to Water Cooler!
Trance is a great genre of dance music. Given it was Israel, it was likely to be subgenre psytrance (psychedelic trance). Israel is a massive centre of psytrance fans. If you hit the modern hippie trail, you meet a lot of strung out Israeli ex-conscripts, doing serious drugs and listening to a lot of psytrance in Goa and Koh Phangnan.
Judging by the brief clips I could bear to watch of the rave assault, there was a lot of fluoro art, which is a very psytrance thing. The whole scene likes to take place with minimal lighting, just a lot of UV, and often outdoors in the trees. It is not club music: cool kiss don’t like it because the point us to get lost and sweaty. It is classic warehouse free party and open air rave music.
The music is best described as, er, squelchy and subsuming. It is quite slow for trance and eschews the pure driving, marching synth and bass sounds for “dirty” low sounds that are messed around with in spatial feel, as Mark Gisleson notes, and “squirrelly” high sounds, everything with reverb and fade and pitch and phase shifting. The rhythm is held in every part of the music, not in just a bass, and, while it is not truly polyrhythmic like African music, it is less rigidly “four to the floor” than techno.
The intention is to disorient and whirl the senses while keeping the movement going, going, going. It is music that spins you round rather than marches forward. It’s fuckin’ bangin’, frankly! Love it! Best dance music genre yet invented. Weirdly accessible to people who don’t like the tsk-tsk-tsk of techno, probably because it riffs off deeper roots of music as an entheogen.
If you want to try some quality Psytrance, try Intergalactic by Cosmosis.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6bxuELQWNcc
On the subject of war and music, the outpouring of Russian war videos has been sound tracked by Russian Phonk. I can’t say I care for much of it but it’s fascinating to meet a new cultural phenomenon and some of it is pretty wicked. Although my favourite Russian war videos soundtrack has been the one with the coda to Jesus Christ Superstar overlaid on a bombardment!
“use electronics to add more spatial dimensions”
Hence, the enhanced effects provided by ketamine and MDMA.
‘Footage has been released of senior Hamas leaders gathered together in a room, wearing suits, intently watching the images of war on a television screen, clearly content.’
Hamas also released a video showing their operational command center. Is it real? Who knows. But it is great PR work-
https://www.bitchute.com/video/KqCGwEje5JsB/ (1:04 mins)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-intelligence-official-says-israel-ignored-repeated-warnings-of-something-big/
A senior Egyptian official: “Egypt warned about the escalation of the situation, but unfortunately, these warnings were ignored by Israel .”
Either criminal negligence or a crime against humanity.
What’s “All right, you’ve covered your a– now” in Hebrew?
https://www.salon.com/2006/06/20/911pdb/
Does it have its own power generating capabilities?
I recall vividly the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah; I was serving on the White House staff.
Elliot Abrams, swamp creature extraordinaire!
A bloodless, administrative piece…, I mean the article not the man, any similarity is the result of random chance.
A *swamp* creature, yes!
For those of us who are familiar with some of the vicious and amoral policies with which Abrams has been intimately involved in the Middle East, Latin America, and elsewhere, there is a tendency to view him as a fascist thug. I certainly do. But reading this article is a reminder to me that Abrams, “Senior Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations” and alumni of multiple administrations, is a long-time member of the Blob Establishment. You could place him in the right-wing neocon faction of the Blob, perhaps, but permanent Blob member he is. He and Indyk might might differ a bit on tactics and rhetoric. But they are on the same team. That’s why he keeps turning up like a bad penny decade after decade. Swamp creatures never die. They just lay low in some think-tank or corporate position until time to reappear in another administration.
Abrams deceitfully states:
“No recent event in Gaza explains the timing — nor do recent visits to the Temple Mount by Israelis.”
Hmm, if only he had noticed what the Temple Mount contains – Al-Aqsa Mosque, where Jewish settlers have been viciously goading and injuring Palestinians recently, with some even demanding it be demolished to make way to rebuild a Jewish Temple there.
Indeed, Hamas calls their attack Operation al-Aqsa Storm.
Abrams is the epitomy of those foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see. Or perhaps one of the foolish and senseless people who seek to pull the wool over the eyes of people who do want to see.
Abrams: war and f*@ckery – lotta Big Money and Job Security for him and others of his ill-k.
“They just lay low in some think-tank or corporate position until time to reappear in another administration.” – like he did for his appearance at the Senate Foreign Relations sub-committee hearing on the Venezuelan “crisis” – saw the name in today’s Links and just cruised by – a worthless piece of scum one usually scrapes off their shoe after walking through a kennel – on par with Maddy Albright and her thinking the deaths of half a million Iraqi children were ‘worth it’ – a curse upon them both and their progeny – oh, let’s not forget Hellary too – they all live to haunt us –
If they are good at nothing else, the neocons are very good at bureaucratic games. When their patrons lose the elections, they find some sponsor to will endow a chair for them at some university or take up a visiting fellowship at a think tank while they write fulminating op eds and jockey their way back into the next administration.
The career of Victoria Nuland (Bush-era neocon who wormed her way into the Obama Administration, was booted by Trump and then re-emerged under Biden in order to sabotage diplomacy) or Elliot Abrams and John Bolton (Bush-era neocons who reappeared as toadies to Trump) are in each case, most instructive.
agree that it seems the modus operandi – would like to throw sand in those gears –
Is Covid making people stupider and affecting their perception of risk?
We know how Toxoplasmosis affects mice and rats, is their something similar happening with Covid?
Brandon has had it twice and so has Dr Jill, the same can likely be said about almost every Politician world wide.
> We know how Toxoplasmosis affects mice and rats, is their something similar happening with Covid?
I would not rule it out a priori; see my post in June 22:
So the recent “Planet of the Apes” movies contained some predictive programming?
> making people stupider and affecting their perception of risk?
I wonder whether there might be a “sunk cost” effect at work, too, in that people who have been infected (and perhaps who imagined, Great Barrington style, that this might actually be beneficial) may be reluctant to embrace evidence that their prior “virus-tolerant” stance has actually been endangering themselves.
From a lifetime of observation of self and others, I’ve concluded that it is really hard to change people’s minds; rational considerations are way down on the list of why people believe and do what they believe and do. People tend to do what they want to do, and devise justifications for that after the fact (or, in the case of beliefs, before the fact).
COVID-induced neurological sequelae cannot improve the situation, but I’m not confident that it would be dramatically better in the absence of those sequelae.
We could add the atomization of society as well. Being with others from a different class, party, or religion because of membership in a union, organization like the Shriners , or even a bowling league or bridge club exposes people to the other. You might not change your view, but the more kinds of people one is exposed to, the more moderate or reasonable your views are. One could call it the “hmm, that’s interesting effect” that one has when listening to someones more interesting ideas while drinking.
Restated, the craziness decreases. It is harder to hate and dismiss someone you have a regular beer with for twenty years even if he is on the other side, whatever that might be. It also makes a person less intolerant of themselves as well.
I worry about the effects of isolating people as in a quarantine. While I think it is necessary, the increased isolation cannot be good for sanity, communication, or clear thinking. Of course, if we actually did insured clean air via good ventilation in all public spaces, the necessity of quarantining would be lessened, mask wearing or not.
“It is harder to hate and dismiss someone you have a regular beer with for twenty years even if he is on the other side….” – and sometimes it can turn on a dime and head the other way JB, unfortunately – but it is good to keep on trying and mix with other folks outside the comfort zone – there’s an old salesman saying that ‘questions are the answer’ – by asking questions you may not look like you’re taking sides and provides opportunity to understand –
Something much simpler. Cocaine changes risk behaviour by making people over confident. Too many people in senior positions in Washington DC snort the stuff because its a habit that help them rise through the ranks (confidently baffle people with bullshit). As cocaine use has become more pervasive, policy has become more short-sighted and crappy.
is that crap still around? – thought it went out with disco and the Harvey Keitel pimp in “Taxi Driver” with long fingernail on his pinky to scoop –
>We need more Senators who’ve lived out of their cars.
Hear, hear!
Also needed are Senators who have worked in industry, who have spent years in manufacturing as well as those experienced in union leadership. That way, when some Senator says that the US should send one million 155mm artillery rounds to the Ukraine by Christmas, one of those new Senators could politely cough and say ‘Yeah, about that…’
“Also needed are Senators who have worked in industry, who have spent years in manufacturing as well as those experienced in union leadership.” aren’t those disqualifiers to run for any gov office? of course if those in manufacturing are CEO’s or CFO’s of a Fortune 500 then the qualification is superb –
That Politio article really depressed me, because it symbolized the hopeless state of the Democratic Party, and electoral politics in general, at this point in time. First there is the despicable Adam Schiff – I probably don’t have to say anything more on that subject to NC readers. Then there is Katie Porter. She makes some excellent speeches and sometimes champions worthwhile legislation on domestic issues. But her passing comment on Iran reminded be that when it comes to foreign policy she is just another warmonger, or warmonger-enabler. Finally, there is Barbara Lee. I will always honor her courageous Iraq vote, but I’m not sure she has done much in recent years. This may be unfair; I just going by what I see and what some of her constituents in California have said. Under current conditions, I’m not sure what she could have done even if she wanted to.
Then there’s Butler; perhaps she’ll swoop in and save the day. Has she made that decision yet?
I’d be happy if someone could cheer me up with some good news.
This whole war has totally pushed Zelensky off the front pages so there is that. :)
Ukraine cultists are insisting, on the basis of no discernable evidence, that the Hamas attack must have somehow been planned by Russia.
Then again, in their world, Russians in general and Putin in particular are personally and directly responsible for everything from Original Sin to toenail fungus.
So, Putin was the snake in the garden of Eden because he’s Satan?
Putin would have been the guy corrupting Lucifer into falling and becoming Satan in the first place.
Except that Satan of course still works for God, the actual source of all evil but that’s a different story.
>Then there’s Butler; perhaps she’ll swoop in and save the day. Has she made that decision yet?
Sadly, in my view, she may be likely to tow the party line.
Porter has pounded on some CEOs effectively and I like that, but on Palestine not encouraging.
As for Lee’s vote on the AUMF, it was not against a war, but against a blank check for Bush. That was good, but not quite the same thing. I was against any war.
Schiff is worse than worthless. Much worse.
can’t forget what happened to Bernie – it’s as if a chapter from the flick Invasion of the Body Snatchers with the evisceration of his ethics to kiss the Husk ring – ‘arrest those protestors’, they’re disturbing my reverie – and being the lone vote against the AUMF by Lee was a brave position –
No, we need to abolish the Senate and elect only by sortition. Aristocracy is inherently unreformable.
True, and the electoral college. It would require a constitutional amendment, which is how likely?
Perhaps more likely than an amendment ratified by the States would be an Article V convention, but who knows what that would lead to?
I’ve read in recent years that we may be not that far from an Art. V convention called by state legislatures dominated by people who want to mandate federal budget balance (or surplus). I think it’s rather more likely that we’ll get permanent austerity than that we’ll get governance reforms that would lead to better representation of the interests of a larger proportion of the population.
Because the “reforms” that would come from such a rigged constitutional convention would unacceptable to most Americans, I am more fearful of a real civil war than I am by what the individual changes might be. In other words, those who got their austerity might find themselves headed towards the nearest wall, but such an outcome does no one any good.
People who talk about a new constitutional convention either don’t know that the first one was held to constrain the excess of democracy found in the state constitutions, which the articles of confederation did not limit. Or, they do know and that is what they mean to have happen again, against the advances made since the founding.
The Koch Brothers have their SmartALEC Constitution all teed up and ready to go. That’s the Consitution you would get from an Article Five convention.
Don’t believe it? Fool around and find out.
How do we survive the Constitution
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/how-do-we-survive-the-constitution
“A document of and for the people has become, for one half of the country, a structural support, and, for the other, an imperilled instrument of the marginalized. The choice seems clear. Return it to the people or scrap the whole damn thing.”
Thank you, I will read the piece. The constitution was written in secret by MEN who were concerned about the excess of democracy found in the state constitutions which the weak articles of confederation did not address. Though they ostensibly met to fix that document, they wrote an entirely new one instead.
The problem with a government by sortition is that the de facto upshot would be to strengthen the power of the government bureaucracy at the expense of the Congress.
Yeah, it has been my conundrum for quite some time, since “merit” is definitely not the criteria for hiring and advancing in present bureaucracies.
However, Work Satisfaction Surveys shed quite a lot of light in the quality of mid level and higher levels bureaucrats and could be used as a legalized tool to control said bureaucracy. ANd it would be “democratic”.
Also, the exit surveys from the government jobs are a gold mine for rooting out malfesance. I heard of people responsible for such surveys getting traumatized by what they were reading…
Goodhart’s Law states that “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”
You obviously don’t understand what I am proposing here Mr. Cat, and the profound implications of what I am suggesting?
The issue is not to produce measures for targets, but to maintain professionalism, and high ethical standards. The little worker bees don’t lie, especially not statistically.
The path of, let’s say, quasi equalitarianism is a hard one, a tiersome one, one of constant vigilance.
Civic mindedness needs to be cultivated:
“Far from being expected to demonstrate personal charisma or the ability to outdo rivals, those who aspired to a role on the Council of Tlaxcala did so in a spirit of self-deprecation—even shame—and were required to subordinate themselves to the people of the city. To ensure this was no mere show, each was subject to trials, starting with mandatory exposure to public abuse, regarded as the proper reward of ambition, and then—with one’s ego in tatters—a long period of seclusion, where the incumbent politician suffered ordeals of fasting, sleep deprivation, bloodletting, and a strict regime of moral instruction. The initiation ended with a “coming out” of the newly constituted public servant amid feasting and celebration. Clearly, taking up office in this indigenous democracy required personality traits very different from those we take for granted in modern electoral politics.”
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/democracy/hiding-plain-sight
Got a “senior flu shot” at a flu shot clinic for those 65 and older. Found out afterwards it was Flublok, a recombinant version. The other two for seniors are not recombinants: Fluad Adjuvanted and Fluzone High-Dose. All three are labeled Quadrivalent. Didn’t realize there was a recombinant version and don’t think I would have chosen it over the others.
I am signed up for an RSV shot later this month. After the flu shot experience I looked up the RSV shot. It is by Pfizer and is also a recombinant.
Medical experts please forgive my ignorance about recombinants, but are there risks from recombinants in general?
@ Maryland.
Since the flu vaccines don`t seem often to be very effective altho claimed to reduce risk of severe outcomes, I hope the following info might help!
There are serious studies showing that optimising vitamin D levels (which means trying to attain serum levels nearer to 50 ng than 30 ) reduce the risk of severe outcomes both for flu and Covid and probably other viruses (tho not so sure re studies).
The other totally ignored strategy is getting one of several live attenuated vaccines which have been shown in lots of studies to substantially reduce the risk of illness/severe outcomes from a variety of pathogens, apparently because they boost the innate immune system giving the recipient a better start against a panoply of pathogens – especially useful as the effect occurs rapidly ( whereas the adaptive immune response takes weeks)
My Italian partner in 2021 had a devastating operation, a total pancreasectomy and 3 months later developed a debilitating blood condition. In 2021 we both had an MMR vaccination (I had seen a convincing study about the effect of this vaccine in protecting from Covid, since then a second study confirming this effect appeared) then end 2022 we both had the Dipth/Pertussis triple shots. We both take 8000IU Vit D (vit C NAC etc etc).
As far as we know he never caught Covid (!!!) and I only caught it when I had to be maskless in a closed environment distracted by looking out for a seriously ill person. Because I spiked a fever I started on the famous product that can`t be named, temp down on 3rd day and no other consequences.
OK n = 2 in our case, but the evidence is strong that the effect described above is real.
Hope someone here can benefit from all this! Info. By the ways the flu vax works too but only if live-attenuated – see ref linked here (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101718118 ) PNAS 2021 Vol. 118 No. 21 e2101718118
One more tip: at the first sign of a scratchy throat gargle with cetyl pyridinium frequently until it backs off – which it does!!. I was massively exposed through caring duties/hospital visits etc and am fairly sure this staved off many attacks of who-knows what viruses.
a PS to my above @ Maryland comment. I couldn`t find any evidence of how long this innate system boost lasts, I doubt it lasts more than say a few months BUT some oncologists, who use this effect to keep some cancer patients in remission, have noted that (unlike, apparently the Covid mRNA vaccines which appear now to actually impair the immune response if you keep on giving boosters) you can keep on using these ie boost repeatedly if necessary to get the effect back if it wanes (maybe “only” anecdotal clinical experience, but interesting). I haven`t decided what to do over time re this, esp for my partner, but am keeping an eye open for further studies of info.
Thank you SKM for your thoughtful and detailed replies. It’s always complicated making health decisions. I am a cancer survivor and have been very much following the recent anecdata about Covid boosters associated with reactivating previously dormant cancer. I was hoping to get a Novavax booster, but can’t find any available. Perhaps I should forego that one too.
I’m a fan of CPC gargle and Vitamin D. I also use a nasal spray before going in public places.
Perhaps the RSV shot would not be a problem even though it was created via recombinant technology. I doubt I will get an additional flu shot, even the attenuated live one. I consistently mask and avoid public places, so hopefully that will cut down my chances of getting the flu. Still considering whether or not to get the RSV shot for the same reason.
You have been through a lot and I wish you and your partner good health now and in the coming years. Taking care of our health has to be a top priority for us all as much as we can manage it.
I just read the study you linked to re Live Attenuated Vaccines. Very interesting. I may have to reconsider getting a LAV flu shot. Thanks for that link!
Just read the CDC does not recommend the LAV Flumist for those 50 years and up.
I really don’t care what the CDC says anymore. Cred <= 0.
fwiw – personally i’m through with covid vaccines – never got a flu or RSV ever, never caught either too – do get a tetanus regularly – i’m 74 with a bovine aortic valve, no mRNA for me – take fistful of supplements and have for 15 years, they include ones you mention and others – if i decide to get a covid vax it would be novavax and you can use this site to find one –
https://www.vaccines.gov/search/
(sorry, reposting this comment as it seemed to disappear into moderation and the PS, also in moderation won`t make sense without it)
@ Maryland. Since the flu vaccines don`t seem often to be very effective altho claimed to reduce risk of severe outcomes, I hope the following 2 really effective strategies might help you protect yourself.
There are serious studies showing that optimising vitamin D levels (which means trying to attain serum levels nearer to 50 ng than 30 ) reduce the risk of severe outcomes both for flu and Covid and probably other viruses (tho not so sure re studies).
The other totally ignored strategy is getting one of several live attenuated vaccines which have been shown in lots of studies to substantially reduce the risk of illness/severe outcomes from a variety of pathogens, apparently because they boost the innate immune system thus giving the recipient a better start against a panoply of pathogens – especially useful as the effect occurs rapidly (whereas the adaptive immune response takes weeks)
My Italian partner in 2021 had a devastating operation, a total pancreasectomy and 3 months later developed a debilitating blood condition. In late 2021 we both had an MMR vaccination (I had seen a convincing study about the effect of this vaccine in protecting from Covid, and since then a second study confirming this effect appeared) then end 2022 we both had the Dipth/Pertussis triple shots. We both take 8000 IU Vit D (vit C NAC etc etc).
As far as we know he never caught Covid and I only caught it when I had to be maskless in a closed environment distracted by looking out for a seriously ill person. Because I spiked a fever I started on the famous product that can`t be named, temp down on 3rd day and no other consequences.
OK n = 2 in our case, but the evidence is strong that the effect described above is real.
Hope someone here can benefit from all this info! By the way, the flu vax works too but only if live-attenuated – see ref linked here (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101718118 ) PNAS 2021 Vol. 118 No. 21 e2101718118
One more tip: at the first sign of a scratchy throat gargle with cetyl pyridinium frequently until it backs off, which it does! I was massively exposed through caring duties/hospital visits etc and am fairly sure this staved off many attacks of who-knows what virus
I have read that getting a flu shot every year is not a good idea, apparently it is better and more effective to get one every few years instead.
https://www.statnews.com/2015/11/11/flu-shots-reduce-effectiveness/
Just guessing, but perhaps the trance rave that Hamas murdered at was held near the border with Gaza because such raves in many countries are held in out of the way locations where folks can get away with more noise and more non-mainstream behavior. A location near the border with Gaza would be less desirable for other uses and thus effectively out of the way. Much as such activities concentrated in West Berlin as long as the division of Germany and the Berlin Wall made West Berlin effectively out of the way.
‘Rugby World Cup
@rugbyworldcup
The moments that made history’
That was a great pass made by that Portuguese player and followed by a neat conversion. Congratulations to Portugal. Final score 24 to 23. Whew! And the Fijians were very gracious in the post match interview.
We watched the whole match and it was a cracker. We didn’t know before the match that Portugal hadn’t had a win, but we had watched other matches this year with both teams, so were pretty sure this would be exciting… and it was!
As for the graciousness, I’ve always been impressed by the sportsmanship of rugby. I started watching when I moved to Ireland in the early noughties, and fell in love completely. That’s when I also first heard a common saying among fans: “Rugby is a thug’s game played by gentlemen, and football (soccer) is a gentlemen’s game played by thugs.”
The actions of the combat units of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad cannot, of course, be justified. They have acted in the same manner as the Azov’s did in the Donbass. Remember what the latter did to the population there and the prisoners in their torture chambers.
But, Israel cannot be idealized either. It was born through blood, lived through war and will continue to exist in conditions of permanent conflict. Israel isn’t an “outpost of Western civilization” or a “stronghold of democracy in the Middle East.” Israel is a thoroughly militarized corporatist state and the “51st state.”
All in all It’s a miserable situation.
I hopelessly hope that no one in the US or the EU etc. follows that famous quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
“My hands are of your color but I shame to wear a heart so white”
Nobody here should “wear a heart so white” so as to allow the thing spiralling into another horror show. Here, so many have some direct or indirect responsibility. What if for once we collectively try to do the right thing? Find a solution.
Israel massacres hundreds of Palestinians each and every year whether through bullets or their blockade. The Palestinians massacred hundreds of Israelis in only a day or two while it was possible. And both desecrate the dead of the other side. As you said, all in all it’s a miserable situation.
I am not excusing the use of human shields, but the difference being that the various Ukrainian Nazis use Ukrainian civilians, erstwhile comrades, as human shields.
I would suggest that the difference between the Azov Brigade killings of the people of the Donbass and the actions of Hamas is that the Azovs had state backing from the allied countries of NATO and targeting information from the OSCE. In that there is much to compare the Azovs with the state of Israel and their routine bombings of and shootings at the civilian population in the open air gulag of Gaza.
I keep hearing about how “there is no justification of Hamas’ actions”, but where was all of that official hand wringing for the decades when Israel was specifically targeting a largely unarmed and penned in civilian population in Gaza? Not to mention the organized ethnic cleansing on the West Bank.
Israel and its’ backers have ensured that the only methods of protest available to the Palestinians are asymmetric, so it is pretty rich to see them rending their garments when such methods are used.
No one is pure enough to judge the actions of oppressed peoples when they rise up against tyranny.
Tyranny creates the mob that destroys it. The harsher the tyrants, the more violent the response.
“Tyranny creates the mob that destroys it. The harsher the tyrants, the more violent the response.”
Pithy and succinct: well said!
Craig Murray:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/10/now-we-have-your-attention/
There have been decades of photos of dead Palestinian women and children, and kids being beaten, humilated and imprisoned by Israeli soldiers. The historic killing rate in this “conflict” has been fairly consistent at about 40:1.
None of this ever caused more than a raised eyebrow and a mild tut-tut from the western “liberal” Establishment. I can’t recall camera crews ever pursuing any zionist politicians down the street demanding that they use the word “condemn” of the latest Israeli atrocity.
The paroxysm of hatred in the political and media class, unleashed by a single day of the boot being on the other foot is instructive. It is particularly instructive in their near complete unanimity – what percentage of the discussion on broadcast TV or radio have you heard this last 48 hours given over to Palestinian or pro-Palestinian voices?
Yet it is very plain from social media that the public is by no means as unanimous in their support of Israel as are the political and media class.
But then the public are not bought and paid for.
Not unlike their first colonization of same lands… Chosen people get a blank check from Almighty…
Israeli settlers are without exception willingly and for the most part enthusiastically complicit with oppression, landtheft, ethnic cleansing and genocide and have been for decades.
They are the moral equivalent of Azov supporters, not of random civilians in the Donbass.
A nest of vipers …
Personally, I’m a bit shocked by the bloodthirst I’m seeing everywhere online. I know I should have learned better from the war in Ukraine, but still; people are openly calling for the genocide of all Palestinians. Liberals truly have become indistinguishable from the most murderous reactionaries, and frankly what scares me the most is the glaring inconsistency in their own worldview. This is a level of disavowal that I have seen few times, and only in people who are neurotic in the extreme.
Here is something to think about. This bloodthirst that you are seeing. How much effort would be needed to have those very same people you are reading online to get them convinced that the poor and the homeless should also be treated the same? All it would take would be for a coupla gangs to raid some wealthy suburb to steal, kill and kidnap the people there.
Holy smokes that’s it! We dress up as Neo-Cons and then go shoot up a Taylor Swift concert…Empire Falls!
The US is still the US, but some of its meant to stifle dissent and act before the Arab street forces governments to respond. Modi has likely killed his ambitions of a Middle East trade corridor, not taking into account the internal issues he has. How long can Macron make Israel an issue before things heat up?
With much of the world shrugging at the G7, the time limit is short to keep international goodwill, and the Likudniks are going to react.
With reports of Orthodox Israelis spitting on Christians, Tel Aviv’s hold on the more troublesome part of the population is over. I think they believe Israel exists outside the largess of the US instead of ultimately being guarantors of the end node of the pilgrim path. If a critical mass of Israelis have forgotten this, watch out.
The Israelis just blew up the 3rd oldest church in the world.
https://twitter.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1711424532228010180
Look on the bright side, the fourth oldest church in the world just got a promotion!
That link is dead. Perhaps not true?
From what I have been finding, it’s false, but what does it say that I did not doubt it at first?
I’m feeling it. Starting to feel hatred towards liberals and their hypocrisy.
So I’m doubling down on some form of Bhuddism to try to keep my head straight but it’s getting hard.
Madness is an infectious disease. Masking doesn’t help. Isolation makes it worse.
I’ve despised liberals for their duplicity since at least 2010. Welcome!
As others have pointed out, what you are observing is the bloodlust and hatred they wish to set loose on the “other” here at home but aren’t allowed.
When it finally kicks off in the U.S., the actions of both sides in the contested areas of this country will be identical or worse to those seen in the mideast currently and the physical embodiment of what you are reading online.
In the space of a fortnight, a couple of heretofore thought impregnable fortresses were taken down, with Vegas casinos being hacked and held ransom, while attacks caught the Israelis unaware with a host of hostages taken and held ransom.
if those apparatuses were considered state of the art as far as security goes, makes you wonder about everything else.
A lot of those casinos hire a lot of ex-IDF people. So the events may not be independent signals of decline….
“Attack on Israel divides California’s 3 leading candidates for Senate”
I can understand their hesitancy. Suppose they declare their total and full support to Israel. But then Israel starts to do a general starvation and massacre of the people in Gaza to the revulsion of the world. Then suddenly in California people remember which candidates backed Israel totally. But some people are slaves to Israel. I once heard Chuck Schumer say that so long as there are two bricks leaning against each other in America, that Israel will still have total American support. And you know that I am not making this up.
Are you kidding? Israel could feed Palestinian toddlers alive to piranhas and the US government and its loyal MSM would duly pronounce this measured and justified, because the toddlers were “pre-terrorists” or something.
But let one Israeli settler stub his precious toe because the Palestinian family he was “replacing” didn’t get the chance to sweep up debris properly before they were led off to the piranha tank and it will be A Tragedy.
the thought occurs that a starvation blockade of Gaza would require the cooperation of Egypt. It’s not clear to me that such cooperation would be forthcoming.
It might be harder that you think for Egypt to counter the starvation blockade of Gaza.
I know, Wikipedia, but still…
So, will Hamas ‘breach’ the Egyptian border wall, or fence, and start truck convoys?
Israel had better be careful here. The underground support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is apparently still strong. Any Israeli actions that impinge on Egyptian territory will incite pushback. This will probably consist mainly of air power. If Egypt even covertly accepts Israeli ‘closure’ of the Egyptian/Gaza border, civil unrest in Egypt is assured.
Hamas has clearly gamed this out. No matter what, even the destruction of Gaza entire, Hamas wins.
The place to watch now is the West Bank.
In other news, a few items overshadowed by Israel-Palestine:
Left and Green parties were routed and right-wing populists ascendant in Sunday elections, both in Luxembourg and in two German states (Bavaria and Hesse).
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/08/luxembourg-election-delivers-likely-return-to-power-for-centre-right
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/08/conservatives-hold-ground-in-german-state-elections-in-setback-for-scholz
If Germany is going to outlaw the AfD, they had better get a move on before the main stream parties lose any more seats.
The German political class will do whatever it takes to please Master.
The SDP, FDP, and CDU will now gang up and ban the AfD PDQ.
That’s fine; they’re neoliberals with a Calvinist-authoritarian cultural tint, nothing more than the Master’s other hand, and of no value whatsoever. These tussles of cosmic intrigue are merely hand-washing under the guise of grappling.
Here was the version from Politico last night:
https://www.politico.eu/article/far-right-surge-upends-german-state-elections/
I thought this was fun:
“The German economy has been stuck in an extended rut, precipitated in part by the surge in energy prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A sharp rise in the number of asylum seekers entering Germany this year and a growing shortage of affordable housing has also fueled voter dissatisfaction.”
Strange how there is no agency there, but then there is this:
“The increased performance of the AfD can only worry every democrat in this country,” Ricarda Lang, a co-leader of the Greens, said on public television. “I would like to see us move away from finger-pointing and for every democratic party to now consider what we can do to make [the election results] look different again in the future.”
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-242-what-is-wrong-in-germany
Adam Tooze frantically ignores the elephant in the room.
Frantic is right, he is all over the place.
“What does not help serious democratic debate is a mood of generalized malaise about the German model. This goes hand in hand with a revisionist take on the Merkel era. It is tied to fears about deindustrialization and the EV revolution. It is linked also to worries about China. Mixed in with this cocktail are worries about inflation, the cost of living and the decline of the German middle-class or Mittelschicht.”
And then he goes on to expound upon his own “revisionist take on the Merkel era” when he acknowledges that her gig economy has rendered the people into a precariat. And given their sudden deindustrialization, where does he think the money is going to come from for his grand vision of reinvestment into the public sector?
One has to wonder how anyone can take someone seriously when they don’t even make sense within their own reality.
Almost two thousand words telling us what’s wrong with the German economy and he cannot bring himself to even mention the words “Ukraine” or “Russia” (much less “Nordstream”, “United States” or “America”), even in dismissal.
Tooze must know that he’s talking nonsense, since he turned off the comments for this article. Well, I also know that he knows he’s talking rubbish, which is why I was sure to bring this malarkey up here.
I think we are going to start seeing a lot of that; the memory holing of anything to do with Russia. It is just too easy to point out that the problems of the West are entirely due to the actions of its’ ruling classes.
If all you do is decry the symptoms then one never needs to acknowledge the disease, itself. The pharmaceutical industry has weaponized that idea for decades now, and it has been very
lucrativesuccessful for them.He turned off the comments quite a while ago, not only for this article… His friends at The Economist likely told him to not expose himself to any potential debate, and this way he will appear more authoritative…
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
He has a nice vacation home in the Carraibes…
NYPD has deployed a drone lol pic.twitter.com/TLVjrdhWAW
— Spooky Lolo 🎃 (@LolOverruled) October 8, 2023
Noticing the mask wearing in the crowd. That’s why the mask wearing to prevent disease spread is shunned. With hat, scarf, or hoodie and sunglasses, wouldn’t it make facial recognition more difficult?
“Hotshots working under an ‘unsustainable system’’
They do realize that those men and women can quit, don’t they? And that only a few are actual prisoners. I say pay those people what they are worth. If you only pay peanuts, you are only going to get monkeys.
Back when I was in college I remember friends trying to get hotshot jobs. The job was grueling when deployed, but well paid.
Of course, that was forty years ago when there was a much shorter, less intense fire seasons, but it was certainly a solid middle class, buy a house, support a family job.
The labor supply has only lasted this long because those jobs appeal to some people.
I’m no hotshot, but work the IC on large fires as support staff. Even in the IC it’s a grind with 16-20 hr days for 2 weeks straight being the norm when we take over an incident. But I do love it. The money yes, but also the sense of purpose, commitment, and comraderie of being part of a team with a common purpose. I assume this is even more true on the hotshot crews.
A few years ago our cabin community in Mineral King got a state grant to cut down formerly upstanding members of the community around the periphery, in largely trees that had perished on account of bark beetles in the midst of the 2012-16 drought.
The winning bidder for the job was a team of 6 ex-Hotshots in their 30’s who had formed a company to do this sort of work, and in the end they cut down about 1,300 dead trees in a few weeks time, over 200 trees per feller.
When on the front lines of fire, being quick to the cut is of utmost import and i’d watch and listen to these lumberjacks and they’re ok, doing their work, and it might take 15 minutes to lay prone a 5 foot wide Lodgepole from face cut to initial back cut, whack whack a wedge goes in, more back cut, another wedge inserted, final back cut and ¡Timber!, just where they wanted it to go, 15 minutes of swamping later, still attached limbs are amputated leaving the fallen member to look like an oversized Lincoln Log in some Goliath’s garden.
To say they had mad skills would be an understatement…
Hotshots on the line are worth more to me than any pro athlete, but paid like paupers.
re: Is COVID pandemic or endemic? A discussion with Boston University epidemiologist Dr. Eleanor Murray
This is why so many articles and interviews do not mention long COVID.
They can’t go there.
“Google is, of course, useless.”
I have become convinced that, where “Real History (TM)” is concerned, Google is useless by design.
He who controls the Past controls the Future.
Try Yanex. (ra.ru) It’s – gasp – Russian but usually yields good results.
Glenn Greenwald’s last Friday System Update. Rumble.
From Waco to Today, Retracing the 30-Year Domestic War on Civil Liberties That Launched Gore Vidal’s Political Transformation | SYSTEM UPDATE #157
https://rumble.com/v3ngj9r-live-show-system-update-157.html
Hill’s latest commentary about half of the country’s voters didn’t come out of nowhere.
I assume the suit-wearing Hamas leadership was safely ensconced in Hamas headquarters in Doha, unlike the innocent Gazan civilians whom they claim to represent and whom they have put in harm’s way.
Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been in harm’s way for decades.
Pretty much the only reason they support Hamas.
They’ve been in harm’s way for half a century, and it wasn’t hamas leaders that put them there.
Martin Indyk…the proverbial bad penny. Here is an LRB sponsored debate that is a bit dated, but you will recognize some of the participants. Indyk must have foregone his rabies shot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJoq5y5ofnE
“The End of a European World Order and the Search for a New International Order” Valdai Discussion Club
The relentless drive for an international currency.
> Israel’s Massive Intelligence Failure
Another Pearl Harbor.. Egypt Intelligence gave Israel a heads up two weeks prior.
If Israel attacks Syria, which just recently joined the Arab League, in retaliation for Hezbollah entering the war then whole Middle East goes up plus real risk of Türkiye joining (Türkiye blow up US oil wells in Syria in retaliation for the shooting down of Türkiye’s drone). And then there is the question about what Russia will do..
Now things are getting fucking scary with likelihood of WW3.
RE Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers….
I’ve always found that a shoe or brick is expedient for dispatching adults which are always solitary. The adults do spit a ‘tobacco’ so fair warning. And they can’t fly ,but do flare out their useless wings when disturbed.
In the spring, the juveniles congregate together and are black with a single hazard/safety orange dorsal stripe. They are usually in groups no more than ten and fairly slow. I just pick them up and feed them to my carnivorous plants or step on them.
Although I haven’t seen them in my yard for three years and I think it’s because I’ve upped my bird feeding/habitat game. I think my avian visitors are keeping them at bay. Everyone wins. :) Well except for the grasshoppers…
I found some images of diagrams of Tora Bora cave complex. Are any of those diagrams as good as the ones Lambert Strether remembers but can’t find with Google? If they are, I would be happy to say how I found them if I am asked. If they are not, and especially if they are no better than what Google would find, then how I found them does not matter.
Anyway, here is the link.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrFDtsIiSRl.AcEjSRXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Nj?p=tora+bora+cave+diagrams+image&fr=sfp