Taters the cat stars in NASA’s first video sent by laser from deep space Associated Press, YouTube (furzy)
View from the golden circle. The orange glow below northern lights is current volcano eruption #iceland pic.twitter.com/xGG9PbSNea
— Greg Lukosek (@lukos86) December 19, 2023
Tiny biobots surprise their creators by healing wound FreeThink (Dr. Kevin)
Andrew Crumey – Red Planet & Brown Trout Literary Review. Anthony L: “Because it is awesome”
#COVID-19
Woman with long Covid, 55, applies to be EUTHANIZED in Canada as condition leaves her bed-ridden and bankrupt: ‘My life with this illness is nonexistent’ Daily Mail. :-( Includes a short video interview.
Wearing a surgical mask to stop covid is like wearing a paper seatbelt.
— tern (@1goodtern) December 20, 2023
Climate/Environment
Here’s how experts graded US climate progress in 2023 Grist
How Big Oil is Taking Us for a Fossil-Fuelized Ride Juan Cole
Canada Lays Out Plan To Phase Out Sales of Gas-Powered Cars, Trucks By 2035 CBC
Hurricane Larry Dropped Over 100,000 Microplastics Per Square Meter Per Day, Study Finds Wired
UK To Introduce Carbon Tax on Steel Imports from 2027 Guardian
China?
China opens fire on Lockheed for arming up Taiwan Asia Times
Vietnam and the limits of Communist friend-shoring Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph. Vikas Santi: “Their minds are pathetically zero-sum.”
Narendra Modi responds to assassination claims Financial Times
Timbuktu: Mali’s ancient city defies jihadist siege to stage a festival BBC (furzy)
European Disunion
EU countries, lawmakers agree major reform of asylum system DW
Macron in crisis after immigration showdown Politico
How migration is pushing Europe to the right Financial Times
Old Blighty
Ministry of Justice plan to destroy historical wills is ‘insane’, say experts Guardian (Paul R)
Gaza
This is beyond crazy, and hopefully can alert people to the indiscriminate nature of the killings that are occurring in Gaza.
In case you don't know, since the time of Jesus the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem guards two of the holiest sites in the world for Christians: the site… https://t.co/E2pn8a4Wks
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) December 17, 2023
The Humanitarian Nightmare in Gaza Daniel Larison
Chris Hedges: The Death of Israel Scheerpost (Li)
Netanyahu, America & the Road to War in Gaza Frontline
* * * The cost of US fighting Houthis in the Red Sea just went up Responsible Statescraft (Kevin W)
US Escalation in the Red Sea – A Lose/Lose Proposition Sputnik
* * * When Israeli president Isaac Herzog described the assault on Gaza as a war “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” he wasn’t really lying. He was telling the truth — just maybe not quite in the way that he meant it.
The demolition of Gaza is…
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) December 20, 2023
New Channel 12 report reveals footage of Israeli tanks shelling homes filled with Israeli noncombatants inside Kibbutz Beeri while hundreds of soldiers waited outside doing nothing
The video compliments testimony of tanks killing many Israelis on 10/7 pic.twitter.com/kexS2H7OSo
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) December 19, 2023
BLOOD MONEY: THE TOP TEN POLITICIANS TAKING THE MOST ISRAEL LOBBY CASH MintPress (Chuck L). Some surprises, like the absence of Lindsay Graham. Guess he doesn’t need more funding since he never met an opportunity for belligerence he didn’t like.
New Not-So-Cold War
GOP says no Christmas deal for Ukraine, border The Hill. As if this were a surprise. I have no idea why Schumer pushed McConnell and held the Senate over. It calls more attention to the weakness of the Biden Administration.
Zelensky Can’t Eschew Responsibility For Rising Public Anger At Ukraine’s Conscription Crisis Andrew Korybko
UK to sign naval ‘security pact’ with Ukraine – Telegraph RT (Kevin W). Good luck with that. Turkiye is not letting military vessels into the Black Sea.
Ukraine joins NATO’s Arctic projects against Russia Indian Punchline (Kevin W)
Give Russia’s Frozen Assets to Ukraine Now Anne Applebaum, Atlantic. Strikes me as revealing that The Atlantic could not find someone less rabid to argue this posiiton.
Imperial Collapse Watch
Behind the Shortage Keeping Cancer Patients From Chemo New York Times (Kevin W)
Trump
Trump Is Disqualified From 2024 Ballot, Colorado Court Says in Explosive Ruling New York Times. If the Supreme Court does not reverse this ruling, the US will find out what a real insurrection looks like. But it seems to me Trump could circumvent this ruling by getting a loyal R (Vivek?) to run and announce he will pledge his electors to Trump if he does not win the R nomination.
Trump Disqualified From 2024 Ballot by Colorado Supreme Court Rolling Stone
Senate Republicans recoil at Trump ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ remarks The Hill
Biden
Patrick Lawrence: Impeachment: Biden Under Formal Investigation ScheerPost (Chuck L)
Democrats en déshabillé
Democrat Representative Sheila Jackson Lee Stole School Teacher’s First Class Airline Ticket & Had Teacher Wiped From The System To Take Her Seat
“The airline passenger who says she was bumped from her seat to make room for a congresswoman is speaking exclusively to Inside… pic.twitter.com/zv4yz2TEwW
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) December 19, 2023
John Fetterman Exits the Progressive Coalition Ross Barkan (Userfriendly)
The Real Reason Why Clarence Thomas Started Accepting Gifts From Billionaires New Republic (furzy)
Regulators approve deal to pay for Georgia Power’s new nuclear reactors Associated Press (Kevin W)
L’affaire Jeffrey Epstein
AI
How to Prevent an AI Apocalypse Project Syndicate (David L)
Antitrust
Google agrees to pay $700m after antitrust settlement with consumers and US states Guardian
Google and Apple’s app stores are cash machines Financial Times
The FAA will convene a new panel to address air traffic controller fatigue following repeated close calls, sources say CNN. Kevin W: “I wonder if they will mention the ‘C’ word.”
Powell’s Pivot Sows Confusion Over When and How Fast Fed Will Cut Wall Street Journal
The Bezzle
Binance To Pay $2.7 Billion Fine To CFTC For Evading Federal Law CoinTelegraph
How GM’s $10-Billion Buyback May Ice Its EV Transition Institute for New Economic Thinking
Class Warfare
Gold Air Jordans Worth More Than $10,000 Found in a Donation Bin New York Times (furzy)
U.S. Bank fined $36 million for freezing unemployment debit cards during Covid-19 pandemic CNBC (Kevin W)
Have wages “really” increased since before the pandemic? Angry Bear
Antidote du jour (Tracie H):
A holiday bonus. Lars Syll wrote: “This live performance remains unequalled to this day.”
And a sort of bonus (guurst):
— Nature Is Scary (@Nature1sScary) September 3, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Comments are closed.
NULAND, BLINKEN, AND NOD
(melody borrowed from Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene Field as performed by the Doobie Brothers)
Nuland, Blinken and Nod politely welcomed Sullivan, too.
Neocons met in the full moon light, well out of anyone’s view.
As Sullivan pulled out his China plan, the one they’ve all admired,
While Nod laid down making creaking sounds, saying he was so tired.
And then Sullivan said, “Our wars are dead.” to Nuland, Blinken, and Nod.
I mean Ukraine and Palestine, Sullivan told the two;
For Nod had fallen sound asleep, a thing he’s prone to do.
So Vicki nudged him with her staff, which he didn’t take kindly to,
But Sullivan told him to stay awake, “This all has to come from you!”
And he turned the pages of the China plan for Nuland, Blinken, and Nod.
“After we wipe out the Houthi gang, our fleet can return to port.
Bibi wants us in Lebanon, which we cannot now support.
Taiwan at dawn is our battle plan, we’ll send Marines ashore.
Nod will read our scripts to the world to say what we fight for.”
And he said, ““I see we all agree,” to Nuland, Blinken, and Nod.
(musical interlude)
“This will require a bunch of bombs or a tactical warhead;
But we really have to win this thing cause our other wars are dead.
So somebody wake up President Nod, and never mind his tears;
It’s the only way we four can stay in power for four more years.”
And Sullivan danced in the full moon light with Nuland, Blinken, and Nod.
Excellent!
Hey it’s not yet Christmas Eve…look at that early goodie to be opened so soon. List of Epstein associates to be released…New Year’s Day…all those semi-anonymous “J Does” will be in high level discussions with their lawyers.
B. Gates….shelters away in his bunker somewhere I’m certain…Amongst other known associates of the since deceased Epstein.
i’ll believe it’s real when i see a link here verifying its existence and providing a list of names – too much power and influence on the side to suppress – while it is impossible to state categorically that Epstein was murdered by suicide rather than he actually killing himself, ya gotta say ‘come on man waddayathink’ – Epstein must of had video juice on all those that attended Lolita Island or any of his other properties of ill repute – would be nice to see the smile wiped of slick Billy C’s face – J’accuse certainly would be nice to see & hear of the influential & political predatory pedophiles Epstein courted –
“Trump Booted From Colorado’s 2024 Ballot in Stunning Ruling”
Gee, do they really want to go there? Suppose that the Republicans get out of their own way and come up with documented proof that Biden was received kickbacks from the Chinese via his son Hunter. There were accusations that Trump was on the Russian payroll when he was President but here there would be real proof on old Joe. Straight away impeachment goes into high gear and then it happens. The Texas Supreme Court rules that old Joe is ineligible from the State’s 2024 ballot and thus gets the boot as he is disqualified from holding the office of the President. Better pre-order that popcorn. There might be big demand for it next year.
Better pre-order a lot of things should events unfold…personal hygiene and toiletries among other items necessary for the long haul. Tangential, the Hill article details the Republican response to recent remarks by the former President at a campaign stop. They need a 10 foot pole to keep their acceptable distance from such commentary on immigration.
If I had the means I’d be vacating this country and that is based really on the consideration of either outcome from the 2024 election. Chaos.
Listening to T I have always thought he speaks in his own kind of poetic imagery, if you will, instead of standard political talk. Maybe the ‘poetic’ imagery is part of being a salesman. I didn’t immediately go to the ‘race’ interpretation of his statement, but to a different idea entirely.
an aside: Douglas Macgregor
All of these Governments in the West are going to be swept away, they are going to be replaced.
France, Germany and us.
They’re finished, they’re done.
Their populations have had it with them.
https://twitter.com/DougAMacgregor/status/1736951701414805540
Col. MacGregor is a first class military analyst and historian, but I don’t like or agree with his political views. He’s probably right that all these governments will be gone, but he’s a Trump supporter, and I don’t agree with his views of what will replace them.It’s still a long time to Election Day.
“…If the Supreme Court does not reverse this ruling, the US will find out what a real insurrection looks like.”
Like millions of self-employed people with no estate to seize refusing to file federal or state income taxes? Working for cash only, to and including absolute refusals to get business licenses, building permits, buy insurance? That kind of insurrection?
Well, cash will be outlawed and all that, so working for favors only sounds about right. Welcome to a caricature of Eastern Europe
Well we can follow the lead of one Hunter Biden when it gets around to filing those taxes!! HA HA and ( \ sarc )
They’ll deploy all those IRS agents to go after the low hanging fruit, so to speak, the ones who can’t finance lawyers and maintain intricate tax records in the Caymans. The plan to deploy new agents, freshly minted, after the billionaires is laughable in my opinion.
The ruling contains an automatic stay upon an appeal to SCOTUS.
While that is likely standard procedure in such cases, the fallout to the state of Colorado for their court action could prove costly.
He was tossed out in the winter of his 77th year
Putting him in a place he’d never been before
He left yesterday behind him, still courting born agains
You might say he found a key for re-entry to their amour
When he first came to politics his life was far away
On the road and hanging by a song
But the string’s already broken and he doesn’t really care
It keeps changing fast and it don’t last for long
But the Colorado Rocky Mountain deny
I’ve seen him ragin’ ire on the wi-fi
The fallout might be a re-election lullaby
Rocky Mountain deny (Colorado)
Rocky Mountain deny (deny in Colorado)
He climbed political mountains, he saw lesser knowns below
He saw everything as far as you can see
And they say that he got crazy once when he tried another run
And he lost the election but kept the memory
Now he basks in quiet solitude among the social media streams
Seeking attention in every step he makes
His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand
The serenity of a clear blue adversarial take
And the Colorado Rocky Mountain deny
I’ve seen him ragin’ ire on the wi-fi
Talk to the evangs and listen to their receptive reply
Rocky Mountain deny (deny in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain deny (deny in Colorado)
Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fear
Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend
While they try to tear his nomination down to bring in a couple more
More candidates, more scars upon the land
And the Colorado Rocky Mountain deny
I’ve seen him ragin’ ire on the wi-fi
I know he’d be a poorer man if he never had another try
Rocky Mountain deny
Colorado Rocky Mountain deny
I’ve seen him ragin’ ire on the wi-fi
Democrats watching things transpire and everybody’s high
Rocky Mountain deny (deny in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain deny (deny in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain deny (deny in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain deny (deny in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain deny (deny in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain deny (denied in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain High, by John Denver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOB4VdlkzO4
My stated projection when cornered has been that neither trump nor biden will be on the ballot, mostly so I wouldn’t need to talk about it, kind of a conversation stopper, followed by “so whats the weather tomorrow?”
Now it’s starting to happen IRL and chances are there is a more competent scoundrel waiting in the wings.
An excellent tactic for conversation, especially around those suffering from acute TDS. I may take up this line in argument, but I don’t believe it for a minute. As the last sitting Republican President, Donald Trump enjoys insuperable advantages in his quest for renomination, and just like William Howard Taft, he’s employing them all.
As for the Democrats, all talk of replacing Biden is foolhardy — partly for the same reasons, but even without the structural barriers to an outright challenge (much less “replacement”), the simple truth is that the Democrats have no available candidate to replace Gropey Joe. A friend yesterday asked me who I thought the Democrats would nominate this year, and I replied that 1) it could be anyone and 2) it won’t matter.
Civil War (2024) trailer (2:38) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZSXqJJFvDg
California AND Texas against the Union? Is this like a multiverse thing?
Pretend that a country that the United States didn’t like was imprisoning the opposition leader on any pretext, or keeping him off the ballot under color of law. We’d say that was something you’d see in a banana republic.
Well, we are that banana republic.
So rich that, even as we speak, the United States is demanding that Serbia do its elections over, since the United States’ preferred candidate didn’t win.
Anchurian Candidate
>Trump off CO ballot.
Matt Taibbi, in an email, points out that the ruling was based on a crime for which there has been no charge let alone conviction.
My own thought is that State control of elections is enshrined in the Constitution and the Supremes might not take up the case, but I could have that wrong. There was Florida in 2000, so?
Another thought was the election of 1860 where Lincoln was not on the ballot in 10 states in Dixie, but as it was a four way race, he prevailed in the otherwise odious Electoral College.
A crime for which there’s been no charge let alone a conviction.
Like Julian Assange.
– “If the Supreme Court does not reverse this ruling, the US will find out what a real insurrection looks like.”
This was the purpose of all the legal pseudo-scholarship several months ago – to do provide cover for this. Coastal PMC liberals living in their own bubbles really have no f**king idea how serious this is. This is obvious by the commentary, which is either gleefully celebratory or analytically detached. They’d better start getting real, and fast.
The Michigan court decided that it was a political matter and Trump could not be blocked from the ballot. I think that is correct. PMC types I have had exchanges with were overboard that he would wreck our Democracy and needed to be blocked from the ballot. As if that was a augmentation of democracy.
I also think about the Weimar communists who refused to work with the SPD.
That is a misreading of the ruling. They said he could not be kept off the primary ballot. That was a vote for party candidates which is a political matter. The judge basically said the case was premature until if and when Trump was a candidate for the general election.
Ahso, thank you! I was thinking of the primary ballot firstly, but not making the necessary distinction.
As long as the establishment candidate wins, Muh Democracy Is Saved!(R) The means are secondary. What matters is winning and the sweet sweet goodies that come with it..
I think qualification for federal office based on the US Constitution is pretty clearly a federal issue. Not the same as time place and manner of holding elections.
And now the rest of the story (thanks Paul Harvey):
The CO court stayed its own “decision” pending the anticipated appeal to the “supreme” court. From the decision:
According to Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse, this amounts to an indefinite stay as long as Trump appeals to the “supremes” as he most certainly will.
He goes on to analyze the situation like this:
So, more lawfare narrative shaping–REAL court finds keeping Trump off primary ballot legitimate!!!–that can be flogged to within an inch of its life by an increasingly desperate msm and their democrat pets.
And now the rest of the story (thanks Paul Harvey):
The CO court stayed its own “decision” pending the anticipated appeal to the “supreme” court. From the decision:
According to Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse, this amounts to an indefinite stay as long as Trump appeals to the “supremes” as he most certainly will.
He goes on to analyze the situation like this:
So, more lawfare narrative shaping–REAL court finds keeping Trump off primary ballot legitimate!!!–that can be flogged to within an inch of its life by an increasingly desperate msm and their democrat pets.
Thank you! Good points.
It’s also worth noting that ballots will need to be printed well in advance of Jan. 5, 2024–they’re probably in the works now. Unless they plan to print two sets–one with Trump and one without–they’ll have to put his name on the run.
What could they do then, say that any votes for Trump won’t be counted or the machine will not record a vote for Trump even if one is cast?
Hard to see this as any more than a toothless lawfare stunt and hardly worth the overwrought effort.
Okay, the electoral college is odious. A miracle occurs and the constitution is amended. And the replacement is? national popular vote: As votes are distributed now that means the “blue archipelago” wins the presidency for the near future and maybe even the medium future in other words the cities are all that matters. Jiggering the electoral college so the winner of the national popular vote wins is at present no different than a national popular vote. What is the configuration that gives some weight to all areas of the country?
Another subject often part ofthis discussion: It’s unfair for every state to have two senators. Why? The Senate was supposed to represent the interests of the state which is why they were chosen by the state legislature. We changed that. Now a Senator is a super representative in a body with weird rules, which no one wants to change because you never know when you might want to pull a Tommy Tuberville or block a presidential appointment. It’s our house of Lords … at least so the Senators think …
It is a mess isn’t it? And it is made worse by party infighting and still worse by lobbying and much much worse by Citizens United legalization of bribery. (If ever you needed an example of why the Supreme Court is out of touch with reality look no further.) That really swung wide the doors for “political entrepreneurs.” In my nasty cynical way, I think of them as simple grifters. It’s not that there have not always been grifters in Congress, but that now I wonder who is not one. Unfair? Yes it is, but looking at the fact that the desires of “donors” are attended to while ideas with the support of super-majorities of the people raise nary a ripple? Make your own conclusion.
Anyway, you did not ask but, elections: (1) paper ballots hand marked then counted in public (2) no mail in ballots… get your butt to the polls (3) absentee balloting from necessity not convenience and a narrow definition of necessity (4) lots and lots of polling stations … sorry political apparatchiks you do not get to pick your voters (Do I hear a bleat that that would be expensive? I submit you only find it so is you doubt you will harvest those votes.) (5) Make voter registration easy (6) Fail to vote in (pick a number) consecutive elections, your name is stricken from the roll. (6) get computers out of the process. This would slow down counting and certifying. It is not as if the winners take office the next day. And I am quite aware that nothing proposed her is going to happen … I can dream can’t I?
The electoral college is clunky, but it has given us five presidents who had less than a plurality of the popular vote. Put aside Adams in 1824 as an artifact of the first stirring of democratic politics on the national level, Hayes as the result of blatant corruption in the wake of civil war, Harrison, an all but tied vote with corruption on both sides and we are left with Bush in 2000 when if Florida had not been pre-empted by the Supreme Court, it is entirely likely that Gore would have won and if not there would have been no reason to doubt the process. 2016 was different only in that Clinton won a clear majority of the popular vote because she carried the “blue archipelago” by huge margins while failing to give sufficient attention to important but often doubtful states. There was no corruption that changed the outcome. There was no more interference by outsiders in the election than is always the case. She lost. It was her fault. Accept it. Live with it. It was not that the electoral college did not do its job. Tantrums on the part of disappointed partisans is insufficient reason to whine about the system.
2020 was a close election electorally while a runaway in the popular vote. There are claims of massive fraud. Show me where and how. The closest states, the ones most contested, were controlled by Republicans but voted for Biden. Again, tantrums on the part of disappointed partisans is insufficient reason to whine about the system.
2024 looks to be another “interesting” election. Will the electoral college be at the center of it? If so, what are the alternatives? What will most satisfy all parties?
Thank you! Reviewing Federalist #68 and Anti-Federalist response.
“(6) get computers out of the process. This would slow down counting and certifying.”
…or maybe not. For national elections in Australia, voting happens pretty much as you propose – hand marked paper ballots, in-person voting and so on. The polls close at 6 pm, and a provisional overall result is usually available by about 10 pm. Occasionally, it’s a close call, relying on a recount during the following week.
My understanding is that the US problem is that on Nov election day you have many elections sharing a common ballot. That creates some fragmentation in voting locations, as a “precinct” or other lowest division must have the same elections for each voter. And of course totals from different precincts may need to be combined to create the total for any single election. There’s also the problem, from the time of adoption of Australian ballot, that many states mandated ability to vote straight party ticket. That kind of constrains how you design your system.
We don’t allow the states anywhere near our federal elections, which helps a lot, I guess…
(7) make election day a national holiday
(8) make voting compulsory by law with fines or other consequences if caught not voting
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/22-countries-voting-mandatory
This.
A court rules that a person who has never been charged, tried, or convicted, is guilty. I believe the expression “kangaroo court” applies here. IANAL but the subversion of due process for *completely* political ends is blatant. I suspect SCOTUS will sidestep the question you raised about state vs. federal jurisdiction, and simply quash this decision on due process grounds alone.
I’m also appalled at the political stupidity of these people — plaintiffs, court, lamestream media, general (Democrat) populace. They really think the public will just roll over and accept this? Trump needs no surrogate here, just an effective write-in campaign. I would not be surprised if there were plenty of nominal Democrats like myself who revolt over this, although I’m more far gone than most of them. I long ago realized that no elected official in America comes close to sharing my political values, and that I’ll never have the chance to vote for a meaningful candidate.
But I will have a golden opportunity next year to express my absolute hatred of Democrats, and I shall gladly stick a fork in them at the ballot box.
A pox on both their houses, I’ll vote for the Marxist or may Jill Stein, but never a duopoly denizen.
absolutely AX – if only Gus Hall & Angela Davis were running again – i miss Saul Wellman
“I’m also appalled at the political stupidity of these people — plaintiffs, court, lamestream media, general (Democrat) populace. They really think the public will just roll over and accept this? Trump needs no surrogate here, just an effective write-in campaign.”
IIRC, the Colorado decision also held that write-ins for the Naughty Candidate were not to be counted.
If the only way that the PMC can win is to make it illegal to vote for the opposition, then that is what they will do. If that means that we get an electoral result of 99.8% votes for Biden and 24% participation, then that is fine. The optics are bad, but the EC vote still counts just the same. “Muh Democracy Is Saved!(R)“
This was an obviously correct decision from the Colorado Supreme Court. The Fourteenth Amendment is actually pretty straightforward when it disqualifies oath-breaking insurrectionists from holding office again, unless the disability is removed by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress. For a Supreme Court that is enamored of originalism and textualism, this case is tailor-made for them. In Minnesota and Michigan, so far the courts have given the Republican Party carte blanche to nominate whomever they please. This strikes me as contrary to the state action doctrine contained in the so-called White Primary Cases. The appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court now references those cases and should enable a course correction in that State. If parties can’t bar Blacks from participating, as state actors they surely cannot ignore qualifications/disqualifications for political office contained in the Constitution. https://ir.law.fsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1625&context=lr Following the law and keeping Trump off the ballots will release tension from the political system, allow Biden to retire from the field and proclaim that he has fulfilled his historic mission of denying Trump a second term, and allow an open primary season for both parties. That would be a healthy development.
So barring the opposition leader from the ballot is “releasing tension”?
oath-breaking insurrectionists
When was the conviction for insurrection? I must have missed it.
And oath breaking?
Maybe in the 16th century or something…
and as above, releasing tension?
Really?
These were choices made when Congress proposed the Fourteenth Amendment and the States ratified it. There is no requirement for a criminal conviction, and the policy choice was that barring people from office was not a criminal sanction. Instead, it was a removal of the honor or privilege of holding public office. The other idea behind Section Three was the concept of protecting democracy; people who violated their oath of office and then engaged in insurrection or rebellion could not be trusted to hold office again. They had already proven that an oath meant nothing. Taking an oath to support the Constitution either means something or it does not. Donald Trump is already spelling out for the country how he intends to disregard the Constitution if he takes the Office of President once again. As Maya Angelou put it, “when people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
You do realize the civil war was in the 19th century? And please explain how you have an “insurrection” with no weaponry at hand.
Also, since pretty much every president in my lifetime has used the Constitution to wipe their nether regions, clearly the oath has not meant a damn thing for quite some time.
But please, take your Angelou quote and vote for GenocideJoe, who has shown us all who he really is.
As much as I think this analysis about the value of Trump being lawfared from office is mistaken, I still agree that an oath should mean something.
If it was common that there were repercussions for violating one’s oath, then using the The Fourteenth Amendment on Trump would be fine. But there aren’t every any, yes? Since our entire political system is a sewer, I do not see that making Trump pay for his dishonesty is good thing, especially as it is being done as a political power play.
Indeed. Oaths should mean something, but since they clearly don’t, I don’t see how you prosecute one politician when the crimes of so many of his predecessors are much more serious and clear cut – illegal wars, assassinations, etc.
The crime Trump should go to the Hague for is OKing the killing of Soleimani, but all of DC was perfectly fine with that one.
Something something possessing more than one passport and something something representing the interests of foreign governments.
Toss in the weirdos that want the US to extract revenge because their families lost their summer homes in Eastern Europe generations ago.
I read an article by some solo journalist who was offered weapons while he was at the trump rally and after on the walk towards Congress.
Plus hands, feet etc are weapons enough, when used in a particular manner.
Republicans didn’t march on congress after the Trump rally to congregate peacefully. We saw what they did on live TV.
Were there provocateurs? possibly.
Did trump tell them to go to congress and “take back their country”? yes. we can quibble all about free speech and what he meant etc, doesn’t stop the fact that republicans then went into congress and tried to find congress people including Mike Pence and were heard saying that they wanted to kill him.
People might say “GenocideJoe” – though I don’t see congress doing anything and that include members of both parties, so it’s not an individual action. Not that Trump did anything to get the US out of all those wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and he sure did pump lots of arms into Ukraine – so GenocidalRump?
As far as states go, Republicans love to talk about state rights, well, elections are a state matter, so if Colorado wants to keep an insurrectionist, racist, neo-nazi “let’s create some concentration camps” Trump off their ballot; I’d assume Republicans would be first in line to say – “yes. State rights”!
So your next door neighbor burns down the house on the other side of him and gets away with it. Then he burns your house down. But it’s OK cus the law isn’t evenly enforced. Have I got that right?
I think it would be more comparable to both my next door neighbors promising not to use arson on my property, but on Sunday, the neighbor on the right torches the tool shed, the garage, the car, and the garden, while the neighbor on the left does my house on Monday. If the prosecutor didn’t press charges for Sunday, why should he press charges for Monday?
If the evidence against both of the suspected arsonists is equally good, they both should be prosecuted or not, and not have whether or not being in the same political party as the prosecutor is what counts.
I am looking for anyone to “win.” I am looking for justice to be done. Or is justice a strange, unimportant thing?
I am “not” looking for anyone to win. I am looking for justice to be done.
The Constitution is actually pretty straightforward on due process, and this argument is bogus. Cite the trial court judgement that rendered a conviction. Without that, you haven’t got a case.
Yes, quite straight forward. As the Supreme Court explained in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (2010), an “officer of the United States” is someone appointed by the President to aid him in his duties under Article II, Section 2. The term does not apply to elected officials, and certainly not to the President himself.
The CO court decision is in regards to a primary contest, which without reading CO law, I assume attempts to bind or name delegates to the 2024 Republican National Convention. I assume the convention can refuse to issue credentials/seat any CO delegates that weren’t selected or bound per RNC call for convention or subsequent convention rules adopted at the convention itself.
As far as the actual election, again don’t know CO law, but in my state at least the actual election is for recognized PARTY electors, or electors named by a petition candidate if not a recognized party candidate. Hence other than not placing Trump’s name on the ballot, not sure what my state law could do to enforce such a court decision. Of course Trump has about 0% chance in HI so it’s theoretical.
“Lincoln was not on the ballot in 10 states in Dixie”
I look forward to Trump bringing that up, by the way. Or at least his campaign. It writes itself.
Trump in Colorado – they must really want him to win the election.
This will rally the faithful, boost fundraising, and add to the fervor in the twitterverse.
Should be interesting to watch the polls Trump vs Hailey. I assume this increases Trumps lead.
They will never, ever bring a legal case against Neocon Nikki. She is the prefect replacement for “Glitch” McConnell. If she were President now, she would probably be telling the US Navy to start bombing Hezbollah as well as Yemen because what could possibly go wrong?
Hailey from Boeing. The MIC’s candidate.
Pretty powerful statement from Ramaswamy. I wonder if Nikki and the other Republican pretenders will follow his lead:
“This is what an *actual* attack on democracy looks like: in an un-American, unconstitutional, and *unprecedented* decision, a cabal of Democrat judges are barring Trump from the ballot in Colorado. Having tried every trick in the book to eliminate President Trump from running in this election, the bipartisan Establishment is now deploying a new tactic to bar him from ever holding office again: the 14th Amendment. I pledge to *withdraw* from the Colorado GOP primary unless Trump is also allowed to be on the state’s ballot, and I demand that Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley to do the same immediately – or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver which will have disastrous consequences for our country.”
https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1737260590798671982
CO used to be a swing state favoring Republicans, but has trended more Democrat in federal elections in recent cycles. I suspect this case will whittle away some of that more recent support.
“Timbuktu: Mali’s ancient city defies jihadist siege to stage a festival”
I wonder how many of the festival goers were actually jihadist fighters taking a break from the fighting. This is not unlikely as it sounds. During the Vietnam war lots of GIs would go to this well know beach there to relax and have some fun. And this beach was also used by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese as well for the same reasons.
China opens fire on Lockheed for arming up Taiwan Asia Times
Russia watched the West arm up Ukraine for 8 yrs. We know how that worked out. Is there a better course of action China might take before Taiwan is armed to the teeth and crawling with Western troops? I don’t know. But a total China imposed blockaid now – until all US troops and weapons exit Taiwan, is something to think about. It would be a most opportune time in terms confronting Washington when she is weak and stretched with her ever multiplying wars.
I just don’t see how confronting China in Taiwan has any outcome the State Department would like. They must have war gamed this. The results could not have been good. What is the goal?
What is the goal of any of these conflicts? We (the US) can’t seem to keep our noses out of things, and it seems we even like to stir things up. One has to wonder, at least this one does; when is someone is going to get fed up enough and give the bully on the block a good smack upside the grill?
Pardon my cynicism, but I don’t think our war loving idiots have a clue what they are doing, and in the process, they might just get us all killed.
You are just not cynical enough. It’s all about the money.
The MIC will stoke fear and sell everything it possible can to Taiwan, and if the US controlled political party wins, it’s going to be just like the American Mafia took over Taiwan. Milk it for all it’s worth, and when that’s done, bust the joint out:
Goodfellas Restaurant Scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPtjyqgZAUk
All in all, until Russian and/or Chinese troops cross the Rio Grande nothing will change. Wall Street will milk the world for profit, and then retreat behind the oceanic moats when the response becomes too loud.
To counter some of the bad news about Overshoot and our inability to respond like adults, here is a lovely exposition by a botanist on “weeds.” She lives around Assisi and engages in regenerative farming. After a summer deluge that washed away parts of a hillside, she tracks the pioneer plants as they cover the soil and begin the process of succession. Along the way, she describes how her Italian neighbors know and appreciate these plants and their many uses rather than inundating them with glyphosate.
Thank you, Henry Moon Pie. The unelected “garden committee” at the community garden stripped me of 1 of my 2 plots this Fall because I “did not remove the weed roots”. They are all yuppies on a power trip who have never farmed in their lives. For them, everything is supposed to be sterile and BH&G perfect.
One person’s weed is another person’s treasure. I had ground cover popping up in my garden which for years I only knew as a mildly annoying and unnamed weed. Then I went to the farmer’s market and one vendor had a whole basket of the same stuff from my garden and it was labeled ‘purslane’ and apparently it was quite edible. I told him he could come harvest all the purslane he wanted from my house for free. I since found out it’s from the same family of plants as the more decorative portulaca, which makes total sense when you look at them side by side. When the revolution comes, those yuppies might wish they had some of those ‘weeds’ back.
Also, one of my favorite memories of my grandmother was her going out in the summer to pick dandelion greens to cook up for dinner.
lyman alpha blob: I’m surprised that you didn’t know purslane. Purslane is a staple in Greece, Turkey, and Italy, where one can make a tart and refreshing salad from it.
Dandelion greens are still sold regularly here in Italy. Unfortunately, when I was still in the U S of A, they were something of a delicacy and hard to find. Except in an indy grocery owned by a Greek in a neighborhood adjacent to mine (Edgewater) in Chicago.
Unfortunately indeed, in Chicago, purslane is abundant growing from cracks in the sidewalk. But then, there are dogs freely marking it. I refrained from picking. Likewise with goosefoots, those tall plants with blue-green leaves. Too many dogs around.
I never did run across it in Greece, but I’m not much of a vegetarian and I avoided the horta – could have been some in there. Much more of a paidakia with a side of horiatiki guy.
Thanks, Henry Moon Pie, for the excellent article by Zia Gallina, “Aunt Hen.”
In Italy, people eat many more kinds of greens than are served in Anglo-America. There is a long tradition, still maintained, of gathering weeds to eat at the right times of the year.
The article is worth reading simply because Zia Gallina gives several “recipes” in her description. “Fry it up with garlic and dress with olive oil…” Which is very much the way many greens show off their lively flavors. Although some are better in soups.
Here is a quote that is also a banquet: “The wild ground covers: chickweed, purslane, the plantains, lamb’s quarters, clovers and margeritas (above), shepherd’s purse, goosefoot, red pigweed, wild arugula… the list of wild edibles is endless—create a blanket into which I plant my vegetables, herbs, shrubs, brambles and saplings.”
I note that Zia Gallina also is trying to cultivate nettles, ortiche. I have a special relation to nettles because my grandmother’s surname was Ortica. They make a wonderful springtime soup. And on top of pizza–nettles of the gods.
For a very systematic treatment of weeds as well as of mushrooms, I highly recommend the book of cookery, Honey from a Weed, by Patience Gray. It was recognized as a classic almost upon its publication back in about 1980.
Gray is also good on the mysteries of the names of fish as well as on how to cook many other things that farmers and the poor gathered to sustain themselves. Weeds only became weeds when lawns became lawns, I suppose. Before then, they were dinner.
I still remember my (northern Russian, Gorkiy/Nizhniy Novgorod->Sverdlovsk/Yekaterinburg) grandmother’s nettle soup. It was a baffling concept to me as a child whose experience with nettles was thoroughly negative up to then, but it turned out quite well. She lived in the outskirts of the city, near a massive forest that has only been pushed back a little since, and often ventured out for mushrooms and berries. I think there must have been other plants as well but I cannot recall so clearly now.
Daniil Adamov: From what I recall, one picks the nettles as sprouts (much like fiddleheads in eastern North America, which can’t be picked thereafter). Somehow the incipient pricks dissolve in the cooking. These are things that “everyone” used to know and are now getting lost.
I bet that she also picked sorrel, no?
After checking the translation: yes, I’m almost certain that she did! Though, sorrel/schavel’ at least is well-known here. It goes in green shchi and sometimes borsch.
We eat nettle soup every spring. It’s delicious and so good for you. Nettle pizza is wonderful as well, and must be made early in the season before the leaves become too bitter. Nettle tea is good too.
I harvest a few grocery sacks of nettles every spring. I par steam them and freeze to eat all year as spinach. In lentles.last night and creamy soup tonight from the freezer.
They lose the sting when dried or cooked.
But only harvest them before they flower or they can irritate the urinary tract.
“Aunt Hen” and a grandma named “Nettle.” I love it. I’d like to advise Aunt Hen that once started, those nettles can be hard to contain. I have a little patch (next to some Florentine fennel and sage. It spreads by runners and seed. I cut off the seed pods fairly reliably, and chop off the runners every spring, and that’s contained it pretty well. I’ll see if I can talk my spouse into some of the recipes you mentioned.
I hoped you’d enjoy this.
In Korea, what are called are called Spring Herbs are also what many non-organic gardeners call weeds, are eaten (especially in Spring!). You can also buy a small book about which wild plants you can eat and when they are in season very cheaply.
UK to sign naval ‘security pact’ with Ukraine – Telegraph RT (Kevin W). Good luck with that. Turkiye is not letting military vessels into the Black Sea.
Sounds perfect, what could be better than making a security pact symbolizing your support that you could never practically be called upon to implement in the real world?
Turkiye will be given its orders in no uncertain terms.
Good luck with that. Last I heard Turkey has both a larger army and a larger navy than does the UK. Turkey would also have the home court advantage, and Britain has experienced what it is like to go up against them in the Dardanelles before. It wasn’t pretty.
I said nothing about an invasion or similar.
That will not be necessary.
How else would they force their navy up the Bosphorus? By treaty, Turkey controls those straits. You cannot force your way through them without provoking a war, and as mentioned by Flora, NATO would be risking losing its’ single largest force were they to try.
Turkey is already wobbly wrt its’ allegiances, and then there is the entire issue of Ukraine likely not even having access to the Black Sea in the near future. Britain or the US trying to force the issue would only serve to clarify something that common sense would dictate should remain ambiguous.
If our neocons, incredibly stupid people, have proven to be intelligent enough to stay away from something like that for the past two years they are not going to try it now that the writing is on the wall.
You convince Turkiye that its financial and economic interests would be served by complying, that’s how.
That is the reason that much of the world grudgingly supports Ukraine – this is not because they like the United States, nor is it because they fear imminent American invasion if they don’t toe the line, but because they fear other consequences for non-compliance.
Yet on the sidelines there is the BRICS consortium. The old, unchallenged, Western World economic “there is no alternative” claim for financial wealth and worldly financial inclusion isn’t as powerful as it once was. imo. And it gives me no pleasure to say this. In fact, I’m dismayed. I am dismayed. What the heck happened?
Well, look at the consequences of compliance ravaging EU at the moment. If the trend continues, soon USA will be alone defending the “rules based order”.
Maybe Erdogan is has read his Bismarck: “Political genius consists of hearing the distant hoofbeat of the horses of history and then leaping to catch the passing horseman by the coattails”. He might just be kind of guy who likes power more than money.
Turkey is a NATO member. Would this be the end of NATO? The EU seems to be coming apart, too. Brussels lording it over Hungary and Slovakia isn’t a good look.
None of this is a good look, but it doesn’t matter as long as the hegemon gets his way.
Sneaky, those Canadians. Their plan to shift to 100% EV sales by 2035 is brilliant. In reality what they will do is end cars sales and extend the life and value of used EVs. They have no plan for where the electricity will come from to make such a shift (tar sands to power?) and who will build the charging network.
Sneaky? More like superficial, ignorant, virtue signaling, and utterly authoritarian. When fascism came to Canada, it had the pretty face of Emperor Justin I, simpering and smug, on its crest.
Fascism in Canada? Hmmm, nope, don’t think so.
The Great Invisible Hand will do it all. Like the blue hair said in bible class when I read Numbers’ “test for an unfaithful wife,” (Numbers 5:11-29)
Ontario has a major excess of electricity that they sell cheap to the US, as does Quebec that with its massive hydro can easily ramp up wind power. B.C. also has lots of hydro. Canada is one of the few nations that could straight-forwardly move to new renewables + hydro + nuclear (big also in Ontario). Please do some actual research before making such spurious claims.
Netanyahu, America & the Road to War in Gaza
“This video is unavailable.” Everywhere. At least for me (in Canada).
Is PBS being censored, then?
I have it in Detroit. I’ll watch to check their slant, until I can’t.
Two minutes in and oh brother.
Right. Frontline used to be good.
And overseas being blocked could because PBS wants you to have a local station “partner” in order to stream.
So, 60 minutes in (of 85) and there is worthwhile information, BUT, without other key sources, one would be left with the impression that the Israelis were sitting there minding their own business, as they had done for four thousand years and the Palestinians just wandered in off the desert to threaten them. Not once is it said that Israel was founded on land stolen from the Palestinians in 1948. Without that knowledge one cannot understand the present. I’ll watch the last 25 minutes.
Can’t watch it here in Oz. It says ‘Video unavailable’
Try a VPN set to the US. Works for me.
I am having to use a VPN more often and then around sift to different countries just to see what I have, forget finding what I want. It is becoming not an option anymore.
remember, TOR is an option as well.
The ‘sort of bonus’ is a metaphor? The snake appears to have been more beligerent than will pay off in the long run.
I suspect this is a prank. The serpent pictured is of Titanaboa proportions. The general opinion is that this is a publicity stunt.
Yeah, that snake looked rather fake to me. I’m no herpetologist, but I don’t think pythons or anacondas or whatever it is get quite that large.
That “snake” is 45 to 50 feet long. Good prank.
Snakes on a pane!
One of my all time favorites, when I was just a wee lass and ah dinnae ken about much:
Snakes On A Plane Early Auditions (DCLugi Parody circa 2006)
It’s an installation at a park in Zhejiang. if they’d showed the head in the video you’d see how fake it looks.
“If the Supreme Court does not reverse this ruling, the US will find out what a real insurrection looks like.” Sounds like a threat, but the majority of citizens (remember he lost the popular vote by millions, twice) will squash any such threat easily, like stomping on a palmetto bug. Meal Team Six is a joke. Outnumbered, outflanked, and out financed. We will not be ruled by a minority dictatorship. Oh and anyone who thinks that snake is real is an idiot, but that’s par for the course here.
‘We will not be ruled by a minority dictatorship.’
According to a Princeton University study that was done about a decade ago, it’s a little bit late for that-
https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba
Even former president Jimmy Carter says-
‘It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election’s over. … The incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody’s who’s already in Congress has a lot more to sell to an avid contributor than somebody who’s just a challenger.’
https://theintercept.com/2015/07/30/jimmy-carter-u-s-oligarchy-unlimited-political-bribery/
And thank you for naming the true dictatorship, the one that mostly doesn’t care who and what America has voted for, they just buy the candidates. And make them do what they were paid for regardless of what is best for our country.
Buying them is so much more efficient. None of that messy political stuff. (And its cheaper.)
“Oh and anyone who thinks that snake is real is an idiot, but that’s par for the course here.”
You must not get out much, your interpersonal skills are severely atrophied.
Oh, and isn’t the method used in your comment called “guilt by association?” Because the ‘snake’ video is obviously fake, you assert that it’s very presence in the Links feature is proof of the “stupidity” of the entire site and it’s readers. Ever hear of sarcasm, or, as I called it in a comment above, a prank?
You have to ‘up your game,’ simple name calling doesn’t cut it here.
If you want honesty, we have no idea what the majority of Americans would choose. Yes, Trump lost the count of those that voted twice, but almost forty percent of eligible voters did not pick either one. And when you add in those numbers more people didn’t vote for Clinton or Biden than those that did. That is important because the people now deciding to support lawfare and genocide are also the minority. And yes, they are no more interested in the best interests of this country than the Republicans and Trump.
As for recognizing facts and their implications, well I am pretty sure that the Naked Capitalism community have called it far more than the groups you are supporting. It may take years for it to become undeniable, but they are rarely wrong.
I trust you will find your happiness on the Internet. Elsewhere.
We will not be ruled by a minority dictatorship
Who’s ruling us now?
Doesn’t scamazon alone hire 2000 lobbyists to defend itself from democracy?
Sir I regret to inform you but you have been diagnosed with Trump Derangement Syndrome and I fear it is terminal.
We can offer palliative care, but only on condition of wearing a cute pink hat!
Who’s we? You got a mouse in your pocket?
‘Caitlin Johnstone
@caitoz
When Israeli president Isaac Herzog described the assault on Gaza as a war “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” he wasn’t really lying. He was telling the truth — just maybe not quite in the way that he meant it.’
When Caitlin gets going, she really gets going and to tell you the truth, there is a lot to think about in that long rant of hers. A very long time ago, Ghandi was once asked: ‘What do you think of Western civilization?’ He replied ‘I think it would be a good idea.’ I took it as a bon mot at the time but over the past few years, I am beginning to realize that it was in fact a pretty sharp observation.
“Zelensky Can’t Eschew Responsibility For Rising Public Anger At Ukraine’s Conscription Crisis”
He is talking about 500,000 men and women to be grabbed off the streets and sent off to the front. Training optional. It won’t change the military calculation but will only delay the inevitable – at an enormous cost to the Ukrainian people. But some people think that this is a great idea. Ben Hodges, former commander of US Army forces stationed in Europe, is one and reckons that the Ukraine should be more like Nazi Germany in WW2 with more and more home production. He also says ‘Ukraine has got to fix their recruiting system and get these fit, able-bodied men and women into uniform’–
https://www.rt.com/news/589355-ukraine-nazi-germany-hodges/
Now here is the thing. Even Nazi Germany did not recruit women to be in active fighting units. About 500,000 women and girls did serve in the Wehrmachthelferin which were the auxiliaries and which replaced men so that they could go to active fighting units. But people like Zelensky and Hodges want women to go die on the front for some sick reason. You are, if I may be blunt, talking about the seed corn for that nation. Let me knows how that works out-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmachthelferin
I am trying to think of where he will find 500,000 recruits. My back of the envelope estimate/guess is that the population within Kievian controlled territories is at best 17 or 18 million people and from what I have read it probably is older and heavily female. If he really tries to recruit from that pool, he is going to gut essential services and probably end up with a mob of incredibly resentful “recruits”.
After that, where is he going to train them, Texas? He cannot do it in Ukraine; Russia would just blow up any training area. He, really, is delusional.
How many women in the United States serve in the various auxiliaries, worked in war plants, and did countless other things they probably would never have done were it not for the war? My mother, a registered nurse, gave injections to people in their homes at the direction of the only doctor in a stretch of 30 miles. She was not licensed in New York that I know of. That was a small thing but it helped when medical care was in short supply.
Nursing is an odd profession. Much the same burden as a full on doctor, but nowhere close to the same authority.
I spoke yesterday with a Pole, who attended a party with a bunch of Ukrainians.
One had just gotten out of Lvov, he had three underage children so he was allowed to leave the country, but is terrified for the fate of his children. His oldest son is 17.
He and other Ukrainians tell of bribes to military commissars to get out of being conscripted, while those who cannot pay are dragged off and certified as front-line capable, even if they have had amputations or multiple strokes. Clinics in Lvov are opening new branches, working night and day to process medical disabilities just as fast as the bribes can come in, however. As much as $15,000 per case. Doctors and commissars are getting obscenely rich.
Meanwhile, there is no shortage of war invalids and funerals are held non-stop.
Every Ukrainian I know complained of corruption before, but now the flood of free western money and no accountability has driven corruption to new heights. And anyone who dares question the official narrative can expect a visit from the secret police. Before, Galicians were de facto exempt from the worst conscription. No more.
The most interesting part was the contrast between Ukrainians who recently left Ukraine haven’t been back in a while insist against all the evidence that Victory Is At Hand. They still recite all the propaganda, that There Is No Corruption In Ukraine, that These Nazis Are Good Nazis, that Everyone Is United, etc.. Of course, Anyone Who Questions The Narrative Is A Traitor, even if they were in Lvov this month.
Those Ukrainians who just broke out tell a very different story. That made for an interesting party.
Incidentally, I told said Pole thst none of this was any secret to anyone who bothered to look and I had said so on multiple occasions in the past.
She thought it was just the Russian propaganda I always read. Silly mrówka!
I believe there are already women on the front lines for Ukraine. The Russians found one whole emplacement of (dead) women soldiers when they were advancing into an area that their artillery had hit. And one woman soldier supposedly surrendered to the Russians, saying not to shoot because she was pregnant. It’s been speculated that some of these were women who volunteered after hearing their soldier husbands had been killed in action. Thousands of heart-wrenching tragedies like these are well-hidden from most of the Western public, all caused by the vanity and self-importance of Biden, Nuland, Blinken and their comrades.
Women can soak up Russian munitions as well as men. If they can do that, then they have served their purpose, as far as Kiev and Brussels and Washington are concerned.
Blood Money: great research by the folks at Mint Press on the top recipients of Israeli lobbying cash, but the article misses the real numbers. The two political parties are the primary recipients of political donations, I don’t understand why this is such a difficult thing for people to understand. Thanks to Citizens United, anyone can give unlimited amounts of money to the political parties anonymously. Focusing on individual politicians is a distraction. I speak of these things as having experienced them first hand while serving as an Education Consultant to the California Legislature. The two parties rule everything because they’re the ones with the most money. You defy the party and you will be politically ruined.
Pittsburgh…..UPMC begins mandatory masking today 12/20/23
So Genocide Fetterman then? And that Democratic leadership is cruising towards its “at long last have you no decency?” moment as is Israel itself. Saying that the Republicans are just as bad on this issue doesn’t let Dems off the hook. After all the whole thrust of the Israel Lobby is supposed to be about genocide–“never again”–and there’s little doubt that American Jews and the lobby that many of them support are overwhelmingly pro Democrat.
Power defeats itself because for the power mentality “too much is never enough.” This could be happening in real time.
“Powell’s Pivot Sows Confusion Over When and How Fast Fed Will Cut” Wall Street Journal
These headlines are strange to me.
Powell did not announce any pivot.
There are some speculative projections outside the meetings and then these speculative narratives.
Powell did not announce any pivot This struck me as well. I don’t remember reading about a “pivot”. Some wishful thinking from the PE crowd maybe.
The latest column by Barbara Spinelli, daughter of one of the “founding fathers” of European integration, but a power and powerful writer in her own right.
http://barbara-spinelli.it/2023/12/20/ue-meloni-e-il-favore-delle-tenebre/
This is where I am politically, down to her every “il” and “la.” Italy has to get out from under Nato and the heavyhandedness of the U S of A.
There are others who live in Italy who comment here at Naked Capitalism. So I am passing this along.
Others interested in a “Naked Capitalism” voice from Europe may be able to the read the Italian. There is no translation, purtroppo.
I read this in the outside caffe of a bakery/pastry shop on Via Cavour (natch) here in the Chocolate City. Bracing. Cool weather. Spinelli. And three “torcet” (torcetti).
Nice morning refreshment, DJG! Thanks for alerting me to Spinelli. Finally someone with a high profile in Italy taking issue with the US’s ignorant arrogance. I always learn something new from your posts, even though I’ve been trying to pay attention since moving here to Pavarotti’s turf over a decade ago. Gotta start reading Il Fatto …
BillC: Parma / Modena? I can’t blame you being una tanticchia distracted by the wonderful food culture of Emilia (plus Romagna).
I have been reading Fatto Quotidiano daily since Project Ukraine broke out into war eighteen months ago. I had been reading La Stampa regularly, but editorial director Massimo Giannini and columnist Anna Zafesova churned out propaganda of the lowest kind. So I buy La Stampa on Fridays for TorinoSette, which is the local “what’s doing” section.
Fatto Quotidiano is edited almost like a magazine. There are usually about eight pages upfront that are news, but the remaining twelve pages tend to be articles and analysis. So the back half of each daily paper ages well if you have to let them pile up. Also, FQ has cultivated a stable of truly intriguing writers. Barbara Spinelli is great–but others like Daniela Ranieri, Alessandro Orsini, Elena Basile, and Alessandro Robecchi are not slouches at all.
Hello again, DJG! I’m in Modena, my wife’s hometown. Thanks for the details on FQ. Guess I need to beat a path to my neighborhood edicola. A (relatively) large-circulation newspaper that doesn’t repeat the usual mass media propaganda is a rare jewel.
“This is where I am politically, down to her every “il” and “la.” Italy has to get out from under Nato and the heavyhandedness of the U S of A.”
Good luck with that.
Meloni could feed refugee toddlers alive to piranhas and the political class would not raise so much as a peep, so long as the likely alternative questioned American hegemony in general and the War On Russia in particular.
“Give Russia’s Frozen Assets to Ukraine Now”
This is the trouble with Neocons like Anne Applebaum. They have no idea how the real world works but think that they can create their own realities. So when it turns out that the whole, combined, complete west cannot supply but a fraction for what is needed by the Ukrainians they do not know what to do. Well, maybe to double down. They always do that. There is a reason why the major financial payers are fighting this whole idea of stealing Russia’s funds, not only in the US but also the EU. It is frankly stupid and even the Allies in WW2 did not, as far as I know, resort to steal Nazi Germany’s funds in the course of the war. It was a step too far. So suppose that this actually happened in the US and the EU. They steal that money, send it to Zelensky minus their “commission” and sit back and pat themselves on the back as Mission Accomplished. The next thing you know, you will hear a massive whooshing noise as all the countries in the world start to pull all their money out. Trust has been broken and nobody knows whose money will be stolen next. Here is a possible future scenario. So maybe there will be a financial crisis in the US. Maybe the US will take all the foreign money invested in the US and use it to buy US Treasuries to shore up the economy. Tell me that this could never happen.
It has begun. Perhaps it is not exactly russian state assets but…
https://www.tagesschau.de/newsticker/liveblog-ukraine-mittwoch-314.html#Gelder
machine translation:
10:55 am
Russian assets to be confiscated
The German authorities want to confiscate 720 million euros in assets from a Russian bank. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe, so-called independent confiscation proceedings have been initiated for the assets located in Frankfurt am Main.
The reason for the planned confiscation is an attempted violation of the sanctions against Russia. The bank had attempted to withdraw the money to Russia. According to the information provided, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office applied to the Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court to open the proceedings on July 7. Accordingly, the Russian bank was placed on the European Union’s sanctions list in June 2022. This is associated with a ban on having assets at European financial and credit institutions.
Shortly after being added to the list, managers at the Russian bank attempted to withdraw the more than 720 million euros from Frankfurt. However, the bank there did not execute the electronic transfer order. The independent confiscation proceedings were requested because no specific person can currently be prosecuted or convicted for the offense.
Nobody in Lockheed Martin will care, as long as the check still clears.
Damn straight! Zelensky and his oligarch buddies can put those mega yachts to good use after their foreign aid grift goes south. Do they come stocked with hookers and blow? Asking for a friend.
Re: US Escalation in Gaza – a Lose Lose Proposition: I think it is impossible for the Houthis to know which ships are Israel bound, or owned, for that matter. Doesn’t matter, anyway. Any general uncertainty about safety will see more and more ships avoiding the area. I think today the Greek government advised Greek ships to avoid the Red Sea. That is a lot of ships.
I predict the Suez Canal may be closed by Christmas, except for Chinese flag ships (Evergreen, OOCL and COSCO) and maybe Russian ships. Unless a specific ship owner or operator has a specific agreement with the Houthis for safe passage, that passage won’t happen. It might not happen even with such an agreement due to the fog of war, chance for mistakes in targeting, etc.
This whole fiasco is a boon to the Belt and Road Initiative as well, the overland routes from Asia to Europe that China and others have spent billions establishing. When the choice is between going around Africa and adding another 7-14 days to the trip or going over land in a week’s time, the faster route is likely to win even at a higher cost. This happened in the US when the double stack trains began to run nearly 40 years ago.
The thing about the longer around-Africa route is that shipping lines offer services, regular schedules with a guarantee of weekly service, ie if a COSCO ship lands somewhere another ship of the same line will land a week later. So, depending on the length of the trade route and ports visited, you may need five, six, seven ships in a “string”. If you book with COSCO and miss one ship you know the cargo will be on the next ship a week later,
All those routes running through the Red Sea and Suez Asia to Europe or Asia to the Eastern US are built with string of vessels, maybe as many as 10 in a string for the longest routes Now you add another 4000 miles or so to the trip and this means you have to add at least one more ship to the string, maybe even two. That is a huge cost. That cost will cut into the price advantage of all-water as opposed to overland shipment.
I would argue that, whether intended or not, this Houthi crisis or situation could be seen as the best way to stand up the Belt and Road system there could be.
Non Chinese shippers having to go around Africa. Or paying to send their containers over land using the Belt and Road system (good for China and interior countries). At the same time, Chinese lines continuing to use the Suez as they are protected from Houthi attacks.
So when all this shakes out, Belt and Road is up and real, and Chinese lines are getting more and more cargo because they, at least, can keep running the Red Sea.
All because the West refuses to meet the Houthi (and the rest of the world) demand that the Gaza operation be paused, and stopped.
Many thanks for your knowledgeable insight into such things!
Thanks from me as well. Here’s an article from The Maritime Executive, Maersk Diverts 20 Ships From Red Sea. Quote:
Asian carriers are also among the companies announcing that they were altering their sailing plans, with announcements coming from Evergreen, HMM, Yang Ming, and Wan Hai. Taiwan-based Evergreen writes in its customer advisory, “Given the fierce escalation of the war situation in recent days, Evergreen will temporarily suspend Israel import and export service due to rising risk and safety considerations with immediate effect until further notice.”
Notice the language, “temporarily suspend Israel import and export service”, same as OOCL, and most likely a national policy.
Apparently scheduled arrivals at Israeli ports were published online but now they aren’t. I also read that the strait being attacked is one half Yemen territorial water and zero international waters so some of Austin’s claims are bogus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bab-el-Mandeb
Also the Suez was closed for years after the 6 day war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_of_the_Suez_Canal_(1967%E2%80%931975)
Some are suggesting that fresh ceasefire noises from UK and France are because the current diversions will be very punishing for them.
I don’t believe there is such a thing as “international waters”, rather territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone and “high seas”. But what is at issue here is right of “transit passage” through an international strait as specified in UNCLOS Section 2 Transit Passage. US has not ratified UNCLOS, but there are legal opinions that the provisions other than as regards the seabed authority have the status of customary international law.
Do note that “transit passage” and “innocent passage” are different things.
“All because the West refuses to meet the Houthi (and the rest of the world) demand…”
An excellent explanation and analysis. I am grateful.
Take a look at Marinetraffic.com as an example of a service tracking oceanic traffic in real time.
This by having a multitude of AIS receivers dotted around the globe. AIS are a radio transmitter that broadcast ship location, speed and heading, this to help in avoiding collisions (the various incidents of the US navy, as well as the Norwegian navy some years back, was related to military vessels not being required to have such a transmitter turned on).
There is also a destination field being transmitted, but as one can see by checking the various ships the actual content is left to the captain’s discretion. Several ships in the Red Sea sport a “armed guard onboard” message rather than a destination.
With all that, anyone with a laptop can find a ship with a Israeli port as destination and feed the latest movement data into the targeting computer for the artillery.
The press release from the Latin Patriarch reeks of insularity, powerlessness, and utter cluelessness. A page-long handwringing monologue about the deaths of two women, because they happen to be Christian, in the midst of a genocide against Palestinians. And coming only a few days before Christmas! /s
Not a word on the depravity and amorality of Israel. No anger, no threats — this press release advertises to the world that the Latin Patriarch is powerless, puny, and irrelevant before the IDF. Gee, I wonder what Genocide Joe thinks now…
Interesting: I did not know this, but the position was vacant between 2016 and 2020 and was eventually filled by an Italian–it was a big deal that the post was filled by Arab (Palestinian and Jordanian) bishops since 1980s. So there was no Palestinian or even an Arab Latin Catholic bishop acceptable to the Israelis, then?
I’m disappointed by Pope Francis more and more
Not because they happen to be Christian. The place is walled-in, like a fortress. The entrance to the compound is a massive thick door. The windows to the church stucture are narrow slats and because of the high walls, can only be seen from higher elevations, surrounding buildings, therefore from very close by. There is a charity caring for 54 disabled adults. There are a few hundred sheltering within. The IDF took out their solar panels and fuel tanks, ensuring they won’t have power or heat. The two women killed by IDF snipers are unmistakably older, one distinctly elderly, and were crossing the inner courtyard to get to the toilets.
There must be a reason the releases have been going into detail. If the IDF are doing this to clear non-combatants, what must they be doing to regular Gazans. The setup and structure of the place make clear the deliberate nature of the killings. This was a war crime. If the group sheltered here don’t make it, even more of a war crime.
The IDF orders must be to kill everyone, with no restrictions whatsoever.
Affirm Expands to Self-Checkout at Walmart Stores
The health of the working class continues to improve!
Fun times.
China Quietly Rebuilds Secretive Base for Nuclear Tests
After lots of talk about tunnels and whatever, we finally get to this. Maybe, just maybe, China sees the need to deter possible aggression from the United States. I can’t imagine why?
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/59365
July 2023
Projected Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2023 to 2032
The Congressional Budget Office updates its projections of the 10-year costs of U.S. nuclear forces every two years. This report contains CBO’s projections for the 2023–2032 period.
If carried out, the plans for nuclear forces delineated in the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) and the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) fiscal year 2023 budget requests, submitted in April 2022, would cost a total of $756 billion over the 2023–2032 period, or an average of just over $75 billion a year, CBO estimates.
That total includes $305 billion for operation and sustainment of current and future nuclear forces and other supporting activities; $247 billion for modernization of strategic and tactical nuclear delivery systems and the weapons they carry; $108 billion for modernization of facilities and equipment for the nuclear weapons laboratory complex and for modernization of command, control, communications, and early-warning systems; and $96 billion for potential cost growth in excess of projected budgeted amounts.
About two-thirds of those costs would be incurred by DoD, mainly for ballistic missile submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles. DOE’s costs would be primarily for nuclear weapons laboratories and supporting activities….
Beginning in December 2001, President Bush began to arbitrarily cancel arms control agreements with Russia. Arms treaties continued to be canceled by the US, and additionally the US began and has been building its nuclear arms capacity:
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/international/bush-pulls-out-of-abm-treaty-putin-calls-move-a-mistake.html
December 13, 2001
Bush Pulls Out of ABM Treaty; Putin Calls Move a Mistake
By TERENCE NEILAN
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/opinion/tearing-up-the-abm-treaty.html
December 13, 2001
Tearing Up the ABM Treaty
Interesting times indeed and it’s going to get crazier by the Month until something snaps.
I keep thinking about the fact public figures have to see people’s smiles and press the flesh, guaranteeing repeated Covid infections…and there’s the sneaking suspicion that Covid might have similarities to Toxoplasmosis.
Increasing the tolerance for risk on the part of those infected could confer significant reproductive advantages to a Virus…
Given the speculation about real reason for Zelensky’s trip to US, a tactical nuke false flag in Ukraine blaming Russia could provide cover for Israel to use tactical nukes in Southern Lebanon. A double tap in quick succession won’t give time for the Russia false flag to be questioned within main stream audiences while at same time the shock and anger focused on Russia would provide cover and blunt criticism of, anger with, Israel. Lebanon may have been a given and false flag in Ukraine an attempt to extract some kind of win from the fiasco with an upside (hope) of stopping Russia’s expected winter offensive in its tracks.
Narrative out of Israel is of the ‘end of days’ kind. This opens up extreme possibilities for which there is no concern about consequences.
That video clip about the attack on Be’ri is amazing. A battalion’s worth of Israeli soldiers on the outskirts of that town and they just sat there. None of the officers thought to find out who had seniority but just waited around with their little contingents. Who did they think they were? The Uvalde Police Department? Scott Ritter nailed it right. They are just conscripts who do not want to die and so find themselves outmatched by the more professional Hamas soldiers. Those conscripts do just fine against civilians but once they come up against professional fighters it all falls apart. So how does the IDF think that they are going to take Gaza city alone with it’s network of tunnels? Contract it out to the Wagner group? Israel will have to call a truce sooner or later before their strategic situation really stalls out.
Interesting that after Sunday’s lively immigration discussion that there are no comments on the three linked pieces on the topic. Especially enlightening was the Pink Paper’s desperate pearl-clutching about the European migrant crisis, and how the dire circumstances in which would-be immigrants find themselves, has incited a “populist” turn to the “right” against neoliberal globalist labor arbitrage.
“Populism” is bad why in a “democracy?”
Indeed. Populism can mean “working for the people” or “pandering to the people” (obviously the ambiguity of two meanings is often exploited)). Representative democracy theoretically implies the former and almost invariably involves the latter in practice. Attacks on “populism” are ridiculous whether you look at them from one perspective or the other, unless one is also willing to attack the idea of democracy – which most “anti-populists” are not, since one of their favourite rhetorical poses is that of “defenders of democracy”, if necessary from the demos itself.