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Dallas Seavey wins Iditarod, a record-breaking sixth championship in the sled dog race Associated Press (furzy)
Cats aren’t jerks. They’re just misunderstood. Washington Post (furzy). I disagree. Cats are jerks. My favorite cat Blake, when he was old and cranky and dying of cancer, more than once peed on or right next to my desk when I was there to make clear his displeasure that I had been away on a trip. It was clearly deliberate and not incontinence.
‘Larger Than Everest’ Comet Could Become Visible To Naked Eye This Month Guardian
#COVID-19
PMC COVID-19 Forecast, March 11, 2024
🧵1 of 3
🔹3.5 cumulative infections per person on average in the U.S. so far
🔹7.3 cumulative infections per person on average in the U.S. in four years, IF transmission continues according to the status quo of the linear trend
🔹Many… pic.twitter.com/6BY0BhihVb— Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA (@michael_hoerger) March 13, 2024
Most people try to avoid smoking around children. But @CDCgov and schools want plenty of covid around your child. pic.twitter.com/tupeatFdBK
— Scott Squires (@scott_squires) March 12, 2024
Climate/Environment
AWS $AMZN is buying a nuclear-powered data center in Pennsylvania for $650M, as it works to power its data centers with cleaner energy.
The Cumulus data center may be developed up to 960MW over the next few years.
— Beth Kindig (@Beth_Kindig) March 12, 2024
IKEA and Romania: “It’s as if they really hate nature” REDD-Monitor (Micael T)
Across the Nation, Lawmakers Aim To Ban Lab-Grown Meat Inside Climate News
China?
China says Philippines ignored South China Sea proposal as tensions rise BBC
Battle for the electric car market German Foreign Policy (Micael T)
China’s treatment of local debt ‘ulcer’ threatens growth target Financial Times
Old Blighty
The Panic Of the Ruling Class Craig Murray (Anthony L). George Galloway a significant focus.
While on that topic. I miss his hat:
George Galloway gives his Maiden speech as MP for Rochdale. #RochdaleRevival #Rochdale pic.twitter.com/yr53Qsxga0
— George Galloway MP (@georgegalloway) March 12, 2024
European Disunion
Water conflict danger in EU International Affairs. Micael T: “The future of the EU is bright I need to wear shades.”
WHY IS THE EUROPEAN UNION DESTROYING ITS OWN ECONOMY? Gaius Baltar
Gaza
Israel’s war on Gaza live: Nearly 100 people killed in last 24 hours Aljazeera
BREAKING:
LEAKED audio of Columbia University vice president Gerry Rosberg unable to respond when asked if Palestinians are human.
He stated that this question was “intimidating”.
Acknowledging that Palestinians are human is “intimidating rhetoric” to Columbia admin. pic.twitter.com/T1U2qrOQls— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) March 12, 2024
US Builds Gaza Port To Facilitate Mass ‘Voluntary’ Migration: Anadolu Agency The Cradle
BIDEN’S BIBI PROBLEM Seymour Hersh. Over-long personal retrospective and repeating the debunked rape hasbara. And it is not a Bibi problem; the Knessset is united behind the plan to remove Palestinians. But notice what a US party thinks are reasonable points for a deal. Hamas referrals to the International Criminal Court but not the IDF? I suppose that is victors’ justice. More for readers to pick over here.
The Debate Over Israel as ‘US Aircraft Carrier’ Consortium News (Anthony L)
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine’s Manpower Crisis: No Amount of Money or Aid Can Solve It Brian Berletic, YouTube. Suitable for sending to those not familiar with this issue.
Polish troops would never leave Ukraine – Putin RT
French Defense Reports Acknowledge Ukraine Is Done With Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
Mister Applebaum marches to war Asia Times (Kevin W)
MI6 strikes again: Navalny’s aide Volkov beaten up in Lithuania Gilbert Doctorow (guurst)
We now know why the only credible peace deal between Russia and Ukraine collapsed RT (Kevin W)
Syraqistan
Iran, Russia and China show off their ships in a joint naval drill in the Gulf of Oman Arab News
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Government Demands TikTok Stop Spying On Americans As That’s Their Job Babylon Bee (Chuck L)
Imperial Collapse Watch
This is an amazing nugget. This is Hubert Védrine, one of France's longest serving Foreign Minister and National Security Advisor (under both Mitterrand and Chirac).
He recounts a conversation with Madeleine Albright where she accused him of "betraying Lafayette" (the famous… pic.twitter.com/aoeWhE6zbj
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) March 13, 2024
Bloomberg: The death of the WTO now looks inevitable International Affairs (Micael T)
Guardian Essential poll: 38% of Australians agree with Paul Keating’s view on country’s position in Asia Guardian (Chuck L). As in a shift away from the US.
Biden
Biden wins Democrat nomination, Trump says opponent could die before election Sydney Morning Herald (Kevin W)
Robert Hur wins hearing over Biden, GOP The Hill
Working Class to Biden: Help! Les Leopold
Trump
Trump tried to move assets to Florida, NY officials complain in fraud-judgment filing Business Insider
Report: Trump Did Propose 10,000 National Guard Troops on January 6th Jonathan Turley
‘Unusual Provision’ in Chubb’s Donald Trump Bond Draws Scrutiny Newsweek (furzy)
2024
Capital Gains Hikes at Center of Biden’s Second-Term Tax Agenda Bloomberg (furzy)
No Labels asks Justice Department to investigate its opponents efforts Washington Post (furzy)
No Labels Moving Ahead With Its 2024 Spoiler Campaign Rolling Stone (furzy)
GOP Clown Car
Immigration
America’s Border Crisis Is Made-Up Eastern Angle (Micael T)
Overwrought but still bears watching:
BREAKING: Biden admin. officials testify they're preparing for a massive surge of Haitian migrants after thousands of inmates escaped the country's prisons
It's an invasion pic.twitter.com/uMyyu0N5G8
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 12, 2024
Gunz
Uvalde police chief to resign after report defended officers’ shooting response Washington Post (Kevin W)
AI
Hospitals struggle to vet AI-created clinical summaries STAT. Insane. This is worse than a mass installation of a beta version.
Boeing Falling Apart Airplanes
United Boeing 777 Gushes Fluid From Landing Gear Before Transpacific Flight Jalopnik (Kevin W)
Boeing Failed 37% of Audits by US Regulators, Report Reveals Sputnik
The Bezzle
” rel=”nofollow”>How do you predict the future? Ask Samotsvety. Vox (Paul R)
Binance Executives Were Arrested In Nigeria For Allegedly Destabilizing Its Currency Quartz. Um, no wonder: Nigeria hit by wave of food looting as economic crisis deepens Financial Times
Class Warfare
The Rise and Fall of Japan’s National Public Railway Labor Unions S(ubstack)-Bahn (Micael T)
Dollar General staff all quits at same time, citing ‘lack of appreciation’ KY3 (Kevin W)
Nearly 50% of US parents financially supporting adult children, study finds Guardian (Tom H)
Amazon Tells Warehouse Workers to Close Their Eyes and Think Happy Thoughts 404Media (Micael T)
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
198 comments
Comments are closed.
TRUMP OR BIDEN
(melody borrowed from Happy Together by The Turtles)
I cannot vote for you, it’s true
I’ve thought about it day and night
And seen the light
I must admit I’m thinking of
An ancient rite
Some tar and some feathers . . .
I see the both of you involved in crime
And yet you want a vote from me
Right down the line
I’d rather change the world, you see
So I’m inclined
To tar and some feathers . . .
I can’t see me voting for either of you to save my life
Lesser evil’s still too evil to do — I’d rather fight
Think of you all feathery
You promise us a paradise
Which will not be
Don’t doubt that we will follow through
You both will see
Some tar and some feathers . . .
I can’t see me voting for either of you to save my life
Lesser evil’s still too evil to do — I’d rather fight
Two of you and then there’s me
I’m tired of the sacrifice
That you’ve cost me
Methinks it’s time to start anew
And so you’ll see
Some tar and some feathers . . .
(musical interlude)
Lots of folks will come to see
They’ll share with you some good advice
And ribaldry
On Pennsylvania Avenue
With great esprit
Some tar and some feathers . . .
Some tar and some feathers . . .
A day we will treasure . . .
Hot tar and more feathers . . .
A populist measure . . .
Black tar and white feathers . . .
A pleasant endeavor . . .
More tar and more feathers . . .
Some tar and some feathers . . .
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
🎵🎵 brilliant!
Just great.
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am in awe!
Antifa doesn’t miss
I’m laughing because I suddenly pictured Trump and Biden mini-heads circling just above me eating themselves. Why? Because of that song in “Get Him To The Greek.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGSDc-eCHJE/
What I’m referring to is at the end, but a lot of the jokes in the clip bring back a chuckle.
One of NC Songbook’s best!
Excellent!
“Guardian Essential poll: 38% of Australians agree with Paul Keating’s view on country’s position in Asia”
In his time Paul Keating was a controversial Treasurer and Prime Minister and was not the most likable of people. Did not like him at the time. But even back in the 80s he was saying that Australia’s future lay in Asia and not elsewhere and it was such a common sense statement that I easily agreed with it. And thirty years later he still maintains that it is in Oz’s best interests to do so. But then he was was replaced by people like John Howard who, after 9/11, saw Oz’s future to be America’s Deputy in the Pacific which to most people twenty years ago sounded moronic. But since then our foreign policy has been outsourced to DC so now we are being turned into a base to fight China, our armed forces are being reconfigured to fight the Chinese, we are being turned into an arms manufacturing center and all the rest of the circus. Keating is not one to suffer fools lightly and not only does he clash with our conservatives but also his former (Labour) party which has turned into conservative-lite. Turns out that he is not so bad after all. That 38% figure would be higher but we keep on being subjected to China bad propaganda which a lot of people still swallow-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Keating
“(Labour) party which has turned into conservative-lite.”
Same thing all over the “western” world apparently, the war generation faded and the end of the cold war flung the doors wide open for neoliberalism.
Here is Juice Media explaining where the present Labour party is at-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHB0vDhdM3c (3:37 mins) – swearing alert.
They’re always pure gold in their videos.
They’ve branched out into doing ones about the British establishment.
They cover all sorts of countries and topics. Always good for a slap up the side of the head as a reminder about what is really happening-
https://www.youtube.com/user/thejuicemedia/videos
I wonder if there is an American or UK equivalent to their channel.
Side note about the Green Parties (of whatever nation you like). A lot of people are naively putting their faith in this so-called “Third Party Option”. Well, if German’s Greens are anything to go buy, get used to Depleted Uranium in your baked goods 5 or 6 years out. In Ireland, headlines are about the boycott by ALL irish musicians of some music festival in Texas which is heavily funded by the US Mil. Only one Irish pol went. My wife asked me to guess which. I should have. It was the deputy leader of the Irish Greens, govt. Minister Martin. She has no problem with Gaza, apparently. God help us, and god help anyone who thinks that shower is any better than the Labour Scabs of the various ‘Western’ Nations.
It’s a real horror show. Don’t want to know what the world will look like in 10 years, but guess I’ve got no choice.
That would be the SXSW or “South by Southwest” festival. Strange, I always assumed its subculture was cutting-edge alternative / “progressive” and well-informed.
For many years I was a member of the German Greens — it seems that in both Europe and the U.S., the MIC / the Blob has pulled off a Borg-like assimilation of what used to be called the counterculture, right under everyone’s nose.
My UK constituency is one of the most marginal in the country. The current Tory MP will almost certainly lose at the next election…..and likely by a huge margin.
Therefore I don’t have to vote Labour – whose candidate is a very capable local councillor but whose lack of understanding of money makes him a big fat “nope” where I am concerned.
I think everyone should vote – even if spoiling their ballot to show “none”. Thus I did my homework on all the parties likely to field candidates here. The Green Party manifesto is a complete mess. It’s as if 200 people who hate the main parties got into a room and the Green Party just put every single person’s views into a document. The result is a complete nonsense that has MMT in there but also a bunch of stuff implying they’re OK with currencies not issued by the national govt (crypto etc). So I will vote but likely scrawl across my ballot paper “you’re all ****holes”
What if everybody just wrote in the same alt. candidate not on the list?
Unfortunately (unlike the USA) the returning officers in charge of the counts do not have to note what is written on a ballot paper that does not clearly indicate a preference for one of the printed candidates.
In other words if you don’t choose someone on the ballot your ballot is noted as “spoiled”.
But if half of all registered voters spoiled their ballots it would surely show that our country is a failed state.
It is easy being counterculture when money is abundant.
The poll’s headline should be ‘18% of Australians think Israel’s actions in Gaza are just’.
…our foreign policy has been outsourced to DC so now we are being turned into a base to fight China…
…and even little old Hobart (or ‘Slowbart’ as we Northerners like to call it) is on the list as a possible US base for fighting China:
Supposed democratic representation:
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1767386428236075152
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
Stunning illustration of the extreme disconnect between Australian policy makers and the people they’re supposed to “democratically” represent.
https://theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/12/guardian-essential-poll-38-of-australians-agree-with-paul-keatings-views-on-countrys-position-in-asia *
Only 1 in 5 Australians (20%) agree that Australia should continue its current foreign policy of being “primarily an ally of the US”.
In opposition 2 in 5 (38%) agree with former PM’s Paul Keating position that Australia must find security “in” and not “from” Asia, that Australia should be “an independent middle power with influence in the Asia-Pacific region”.
Lastly one quarter (25%) said Australia should “do its best not to engage in world affairs”.
You could run the same sort of survey in most Western liberal democracies and you’d undoubtedly discover extremely similar results: the people fundamentally reject their countries’ approach to foreign affairs, they massively abhor imperialism.
Which obviously raises deep questions about the nature of democracy in these countries. They more and more look like democracies in name only, and maybe with some “democratic” procedural veneer like voting (although rarely offering an actual choice), but making a mockery of the very spirit of it.
* Guardian Essential poll: 38% of Australians agree with Paul Keating’s views on country’s position…
11:05 PM · Mar 11, 2024
My guess at a working link for “How do you predict the future? Ask Samotsvety”:
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/2/13/24070864/samotsvety-forecasting-superforecasters-tetlock
Thanks, fixing…
Re: Galloway and the hat.
He wears it to hide an unsightly scar from a physical attack by an Israel supporter in 2014.
Nice line by Craig Murray in his piece on Galloway: “I know George too well to mistake him for Jesus Christ, but he has been on the right side against appalling wars which the entire political class has cheer-led.”
There’s a line of thinking, exemplified by British historian/churchman N.T. Wright, that sees Jesus’ public ministry, and particularly his prophetic warnings and calls to national repentance, as a kind of peace advocacy against the trend of the day, which was toward war with the Roman occupiers.
Perhaps peace advocacy is a way in which GG resembles Jesus.
“How blessed are the peacemakers, …”
“Why can’t the Palestinians just protest peacefully?”
says the supporters of a ‘nation’ that will kill at the drop of a hat.
“Cats aren’t jerks. They’re just misunderstood.”
Gawd, even with cats the Washington Post are delusional. Anybody who has had a cat knows that they can be jerks. And here are the receipts-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXR-CBVDw2E (6:18 mins)
Oh, man, I can tell you stories about a certain cat I’m living with. Thing is, he’s so cute and fluffy, nobody can see the devil inside.
In modern history cats have proven one essential fact – that the Earth is round. If the Earth was flat like the Flat Earth Societies maintain, then cats would have pushed everything off the edge long ago.
LOL Rev. My Emmylou was such an angel except for the times she pushed things off my shelf at 3 am. When I had roommates with cats, there was the dawn scrum of screeching and chasing, but I don’t blame her for that, she ran in a bad crowd.
This message brought to you by the cat lobby
They do provide entertainment, to which anyone with a laser pointer can attest.
Who has a cat named Zugzwang?
I think cats at times just get fed up with their dumb human “staffers” and have to resort to direct action to remind them who’s boss. One of my all-time favorite NC Antidotes was of a cat perched at the end of a table by a window with a smashed house plant down below.. its expression was unmistakable – “Yeah I did that. What did you expect? This is MY perch!!”
For what its worth, the hair’m here has much deft negotiating between glasses, cups and whatnot their careless slaves leave on the table between and betwixt them, can’t think of any time they’ve knocked something over, so there’s that.
I feel guilty being away from my masters, especially if you do it in cat years, which means one of theirs is 6 of ours, so if i’m gone for a week, is it really 40 days and 40 nights, eeek~
We now know why the only credible peace deal between Russia and Ukraine collapsed RT (Kevin W)
The main point of this should not be that peace was still possible at this point, because it was not. The West would have seen to that w/o fail. Nuland would simply encountered a road bump and re-calibrated. The key take away is even at this late stage, Putin was delusional regarding The West.
For example:
“What was in the agreements that Kiev so suddenly walked away from? First of all, Kiev would have gotten back practically all its territories, including Donbass, in exchange for neutral status. There were certain options on the table even in regard to Crimea – a situation that would now be impossible.”
This position taken by Putin – giving back Donbass to Ukraine – is so terrifying to me and probably many Russians, I’m too afraid to even want to know what monstrous blunder Putin had in mind regarding “certain options” regarding Crimea’s future status.
This potential further catastrophic blunder by Putin makes sense only in a vacuum and matches what Putin has done several times – put his head in the sand and completely, totally ignore West behavior right in front of his eyes (for eight yes eight years at least), it also ignores US, NATO and Western behavior for the last 100 years or so not to mention the last 10 years with respect to Ukraine. By any measure, what Putin was offering was doomed to fail and very possibly make matters worse than they already were due to ignoring Western build up un Ukraine for 10 years, unless you really think The West and it’s leaders would suddenly find they have reverse gears and would wake up after the agreement signed as re-born classical liberal seeking peace and harmony among all nations.
Giving back Donbass (and maybe even Crimea) and expecting a hail storm Western flowers and chocolates of cooperation, is as plausible as China agreeing – out of the blue – to agree that Tibet become a separate independent nation, run by Western NGO’s, and then the Chinese leadership really believing this would lead to greater peace and harmony.
Putin has tried to be diplomatic for too long. The West sought to undermine him since Bush II.
Russia finally went in to liberate the Donbass in 2022. Were I Putin, I’d have gone in far sooner.
I think that a parallel can be drawn between Russia going in finally in 2022 and pre-war Britain. There were critics at the time that said that the UK should have declared war on Germany after Czechoslovakia but the truth of the matter was that they were nowhere ready to take part in a war and were still developing their defenses like radar and aircraft. I suspect the same for Russia in that before 2022 they were simply not ready both militarily and in terms of their financial defenses.
Yup, I agree. Putin knew he wasn’t operating from a position of strength. He miscalculated that Zelensky would crumble and leave the country during the initial invasion, just as we miscalculated the collapse of the Russian economy, and then, therefore, “regime change” with the sanctions. But, it’s a new world now, and Russia is patiently becoming the strongest military on the continent and beyond. Everyone expects (or wants) the Big Arrow offensive from the east, but, I wouldn’t be surprised that you don’t see that for a few more years, if ever.
They want a big arrow offensive because it makes headlines and because that is what USA/NATO would do (and did in Iraq).
Paul Craig Robert has been pointing out Putin’s failure of not gone farther sooner in several articles:
It is unclear whether Putin yet understands that his tolerance of provocations encourages the neoconservatives to push forward with their hegemonic policy. It is Putin’s failure to put down a firm foot that is leading to war.
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2024/03/05/putin-now-complains-of-the-consequences-about-which-i-warned-of-a-conflict-that-continues-too-long/
My God!!…quit acting like all Putin has/had to do is push a button. Think it through.
And in other news, Biden writes in lipstick on a rest stop mirror, “Stop me before I kill again.”
What’s with the notion that Russia is supposed to be the actual world policeman? The friendly beat cop that moderates the neighborhood bullies and gangs? As opposed to the US as top cop a la Chicago cops who loot businesses in daylight and run black sites and are unable to reduce the public gunfights.
I disagree. Putin has been playing a multidimensional game. Russia is coming out of this more internally cohesive and is demonstrating military superiority even when conducting what is actually a limited war (if Russia had been operating conventionally, it would have taken out all Ukraine comms and would have destroyed its grid, or at least in Kiev, as quickly as possible).
Instead by trying every possible way not to have this war, Putin won the support of much of the rest of the world. That is not at all a normal outcome for an invader (ex the US which has tons of vassals and only beats up on people in sandals).
And their Arms industry will be like “Honda”….the car that sells itself!
Careful. I just waited four months for parts to make my Honda operational again.
A more benevolent view is that he was trying to save Ukrainians from themselves – something he had give a chance before switching on the meat grinder that will destroy Ukraine as a political and physical entity.
I know it’s really hard to comprehend, but majority of the Russians would prefer a wholesome, brotherly Ukraine to the desperate wasteland it is turning to.
Well, reports have come in that Russia has come right in and spent a lot of time and money rebuilding Mariupol, so, not entirely a wasteland. Those mine saturated fields in the south are going to be a problem for years, though.
Russia rebuilding Mariupol would never win an Oscar though!
Oddly enough, I’ve heard that the Mariupol documentary award part was cut from the international stream. Ukrainians are not happy, even if the propaganda did reach the main target audience.
Heard the same too and I think that it is significant. Last year they would have never dared to do something like that. This year they know that they can get away with it as before too long, the Ukraine will be memory-holed.
Similarly Russia have been hitting electrical infrastructure that Russia will be capable of quickly repairing once they get access, while being harder for EU or USA to deal with as there are component mismatches.
Why western MSM pundits has been so confused, as they were expecting a shock and awe invasion similar to what USA did to Iraq.
I know there are questions about the quality of the construction but the infrastructure was in rough shape before the war and in some areas the rebuilding looks impressive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bau-MBW6_Ts&ab_channel=VideosfromMariupol
If I’ve understood correctly, many Ukrainians have been convinced by their media that Mariupol is still just ruins without electricity, water or food.
I found an article on this recently. It was being spun as ethnic cleansing (lots of noise about Ukrainian artworks being covered with pro-Russia signage and the like) and there was obviously not much in the way of access for Western media. But even with the limited coverage, it was clear there was a major rebuild effort underway. Doubtless it will all need to be destroyed now because it’s Russian, like the Kerch Bridge in Crimea.
More generally, I get the sense that (west) Ukrainian culture and Russian culture have had a complex and fractious relationship over the years, sometimes coexisting amicably and sometimes trying to suppress each other with varying degrees of success and civility (or lack thereof). Naturally the relationship is at a pretty low ebb right now. Western media coverage of this is highly one-sided, deploring the ‘war crime’ of removing kids from the Mariupol war zone and teaching them Russian, while elements in the other direction (like the Maidan killings, the ongoing suppression of the Donbass separatists in the civil war, or the hunt for ‘collaborators’ in recaptured Kherson) are airbrushed out of existence.
The leadership of Ukraine and the West see this, not as reasonableness or humanitarianism, but as contemptible weakness.
In a way, they are not wrong: Russia is not, in all likelihood, strong enough to do what it’s supporters want them to do, at least not comfortably for the Russian leadership. Putin already had to overrule them once for a risky operation (the big invasion with fairly small force in Feb, 2022). Doubtful he wants to do that again.
Realistically, Russia’s best path forward is to defeat NATO (not Ukraine) in Ukraine, defeat America east of Dniepr, “defeat them here so that we don’t have to fight then there,” so to speak. This has it’s own risks, obviously: first, this ensures that the war will drag on; second, it gives the initiative to the Americans–we (US) can frustrate the Russians’ aim by cutting Ukraine loose. Thankfully for Kremlin, Russians have Joe Biden, Anatomy Blinken, and other Russian deep cover agents, on their side…. (Not sure is this is snark or not…)
If you think that the Americans and their NATO poodles will accept defeat, take their bat and ball and go home, then you and I are on very different planes of reality.
While I’m sure there are still some lingering spooks in Afghanistan, for the most part Western forces are gone.
My guess is the US will leave Ukraine too, as soon as they find a country easier to beat up on than Russia.
If they cared, they would have stayed in Afghanistan.
Ukr west doesn’t give a rats ass for Ukraine, granted plenty hate for russia. They’re already shifting to Moldova. That and Central Asia are their next targets imo.
They care about Ukraine only to the extent it serves as a weapon against Russia.
If Russia did not exist, Ukraine would go from The Outpost Of Freedom And Democracy to a pariah state, overnight.
They/we won’t (although they should, for their/our own sake). That’s the point. If we take our bat and ball, they/we win because we will have stopped wasting our assets and cut losses short without losing the whole house. We are not led by such wise people, at least not in this universe.
Instead, we’ll keep trying to “win,” getting deeper and deeper. That will allow Russia to beat NATO in detail over the long term and not just waste time in Ukraine. Now, if a gambler keeps trying to up the ante until they win, there is a small chance that they will win and bankrupt the house. I would hardly consider it wise. Now, this gambler is quite rich and may he may think that he could force the house to give up by upping the ante forever–but I don’t think that’s likely since the game is, by construction, rigged in house’s favor.
Like I was saying, the West upping the ante in Ukraine forever is not to the West’s advantage. They (the Russians) are fighting us there so that they don’t have to waste the resources sending an expeditionary force to conquer Paris, London, or Washington. They don’t want to do it because they can’t realistically do it. If we do take our bat and balls and leave, they will have to fight us over here at the expense of the resources they don’t have and they may have to start negotiating at a disadvantage. Our alleged leaders are aiding them by insisting that we waste resources over there. In this world, we are led by bunch of Kremlin stooges who don’t even realize (I think–hope) that they are working for the Kremlin. Or, maybe, Joe Biden is really Josef von Stierlitz and he’s already been awarded the gold medal for his contribution to defeating the United States thoroughly from the inside.
More likely, what happens is that we all get killed.
Feral Finster: More likely, what happens is that we all get killed.
If so, one small benefit will be that we won’t have to endure any more of armchair warrior Feral Finster continually complaining all over the internet that Putin was such a fool for not embarking on total war to crush the West at the earliest opportunity.
Give us a break. War is always to be avoided, if it can be.
Of course war is to be avoided. And we’ll get that total war, in spite of Putin’s attempts at being reasonable, although I never said that Putin should have made war on the West. He should have quickly and decisively crushed Ukraine and not given the West time to intervene.
Sorry that what I have to say hurts your feeling so that you have to wish for war to not read it.
According to the Russian statute, conscripts cannot be assigned outside Russia. Therefore, in February 2022, Russia did not have enough volunteers/enlistees in their forces to provide a large enough army to actually conquer Ukraine. I would say the Russians have done remarkably well to keep the war going while they mobilize and train their army and avoid casualties. Don’t forget what a short life expectancy untrained recruits have on the battlefield. Russia is trying to lose as few people as possible.
Huzzah!
If that thesis is correct, and I am pretty much inclined to believe it, then the West may have made its greatest blunder since WWII in forcing Zee-man to walk away from that agreement.
Unless he’s the stupidest person on the planet, all the events since then, including Cookies little going-away stunt of dressing up Ukrainians in Russian uniforms and calling them “partisans” to attack the Russian border region (and failing badly) can only have worked to disabuse him of any notion that there is any point to negotiating.
It’s a TINA scenario for Russia – denazify and demilitarize Ukraine completely, or accept being a vassal state of the US.
“the West may have made its greatest blunder since WWII in forcing Zee-man to walk away from that agreement.”
Biden before bear hugging Bibi: Hold my beer.
One of the two classic blunders, in fact.
Shiver me timbers!
As I recall, from the time the tentative deal was reached until it fell apart, it was not popular with the political classes as it gave away too much. (Probably per analysis by Doctorow.) It may not have sailed domestically, but we’ll never know. Interesting spin to lay it all on Zelensky not Johnson. Johnson’s refusal of security guarantees made it something he couldn’t sign.
“The key take away is even at this late stage, Putin was delusional regarding The West.”
Of course. Putin seems to have been the only one who did not know that Minsk and Minsk-2 were shams and that neither Ukraine nor its western sponsors had any intention of following through with them.
A Minsk-3 would similarly be a sham.
Doesn’t this seem like a literally incredible level of delusion? Especially for someone who has been dealing with those people, and with our 90s elites, for decades? I suppose it’s not impossible (there is the example of Gorbachev), but I think it’s much more likely that he did not believe in that either, and would not have expected them to honour any such deal if they could help it.
“Doesn’t this seem like a literally incredible level of delusion?”
Yes. The fact that Putin spent eight years, impotently trying to get germany and france to do what they promised and get Ukraine honor Minsk-2 is telling.
“Certain options” is extremely vague. I’m not sure what that could have been, realistically, except for a referendum re-run and/or some agreements on practical questions (trade, property, citizen mobility, etc.) falling well short of actually returning Crimea to Ukraine. Doing that last one without the cover of a referendum (which would be very hard to rig in Ukraine’s favour) would have been a massive and gratuitous own goal in terms of domestic politics. There is a reason why even Navalny could never commit to doing that.
As for the Donbass, I suspect this would’ve been the federal/autonomous arrangement that was, after all, what we were officially pushing for since the Minsk agreements at least. That plus neutrality and some guarantees of Ukrainian good behaviour with regards to Russian-speakers might have made it palatable in theory. In practice, Ukrainian and Western leadership being what they are means that they almost certainly would’ve violated every point of this agreement eventually. Incidentally, I really doubt that Putin did not realise this. Perhaps the offer was meant to fail, or else he was willing to quietly sweep the whole thing under the rug (that would, if nothing else, be consistent with how many Russian nationalists characterise him, and not entirely without cause).
It was far more nuanced than this piece would suggest. an autonomous, self-governed Donbass was to have remained part of Ukraine; There would have been a referendum conducted is Crimea sometime down the road to determine if Crimea still wanted to remain part of Russia, or to return to being part of Ukraine.
The proposed agreement in no way represented Russia caving in to Ukraine and the West.
So yeah, pretty much what I thought. The question is, what would we do if Ukraine were to violate the autonomy of the Donbass at any point?
There are a lot of red flags in this article for me, but since I didn’t read the WSJ article Mr. Poletaev attempts to undercut, I will leave it there.
Never go to war without dry powder!
“America’s border crisis is made up.”
I have seldom seen the issue put so clearly and succinctly.
ZOMG, published after Links launched:
https://www.ft.com/content/4767f282-c7a1-4b56-b0df-8d2e475f9f64
That article does not say so but I am going to take a guess that Israel tried to tack on the Palestinian-owned portion of that gas field to their own claims. Needless to say, the legal departments of BP and Abu Dhabi freaked out about the legal implications of developing gas fields stolen by a country that is still before the International Court of Justice and how they could get sucked in big time. For only $2 billion, that is not such a great deal and so they walked. Just a theory mind.
Looks more like the issue is Hezbollah, as the mentioned field, and others Newmed is involved with, border Lebanese territorial waters.
I’ve been banging on in several chat discussions about the largely unmentioned significance of the apparently substantial mineral assets in Gaza – off and onshore. Israel can’t touch them until they can lay sovereign claim to the territory- necessitating the complete removal of the Palestinians. Sadly, at the end of the day it’s “all about the Benjamins, baby!”. All that said, however, I’m inclined to agree with Digi_owl’s theory re: Hezbollah and Lebanese territorial waters. Adding, $2bn is small potatoes in the Oil Patch – and the players are very careful about the ownership of mineral rights.
It never dawned on me before that “all about the Benjamins” could also be a reference to Netanyahu. Was that part of the controversy of the phrase previously and it just went over my head?
I’ll be taking bets on whether BP changes its position once the Tory outrage machine swings into full gear.
Any chance of dual-purpose piers being part of the field development?
Or of a Palestinian motion, or their behalf, at the ICJ for recognition of an ownership or beneficial interest?
The Panic Of the Ruling Class – Craig Murray
Remember Starmer claimed that it is legal for Israel to starve Gaza fits with
…audio of Columbia University vice president Gerry Rosberg unable to respond when asked if Palestinians are human.
This reminds me of what Guido Giacomo Preparata refers to the elites attempt at “insect-ification” of the populace where we are all connected to the “hive” mind, like the beginning of the movie, Matrix.
Columbia’s VP Gerald Rosberg was formerly at the Washington Post, where he was lauded by TPTB as being a champion of free speech and independent journalism. (Cough. Gag.)
And the Columbia Journalism School turns out many of those NYT reporters with an agenda. However an article here yesterday, by someone who had attended, said that school was more about process and teaching journalists not to think rather than what to think. The what to think likely comes later. Given the waffling described above perhaps the storied institution should be renamed Don’t Rock the Boat.
> Given the waffling described above perhaps the storied institution should be renamed Don’t Rock the Boat.
It’s a tough place to be. He obviously cannot answer “No”, but to plainly affirm “Yes” opens cans and cans of worms. The only way to avoid antagonizing either “the donors” or “nearly everyone else” is to not answer at all, which is what he tried to justify doing. “Intimidating” indeed; there is no good consequence that could follow for him if he directly answered. I can imagine an anguished internal debate about “how do I preserve my job?”
Me thinks that, increasingly, people in his position will try to avoid facing questions like this.
Me thinks that, increasingly, people in his position will try to avoid facing questions like this.
That’s why people in political position need to be ejected as soon as possible. If you are going to receive remuneration for occupying a high profile/status job, be prepared to give up your life, like John Barnett who was suicided the day before he was to testify against Boeing and who disappeared from news headlines almost as fast as NY Jewish/Chabad hidden tunnels.
Or Churchill going on about empire versus the uncivilized. Or Borrell and his garden. Or antebellun Southern Baptists on the curse off Ham. Or Israel being sure all their opponents are referred to as “terrorists.” Or Democrats and R2P.
It’s all the same. Power and violence need excuses because good guys versus bad guys (language of the US military) is their “narrative.”
Is consistent with Hillary Clinton and Victoria Nuland both “teaching” there. (According to Judge Napolitano, graduate students there are displeased that Hillary is just reminiscing about old times rather than providing useful lectures).
I assume the Columbia vice president thought it was a set up for a gotcha question, but I can’t imagine what it is. When the three University presidents equivocated about calls Jewish genocide, the gotcha set up was obvious, even if people on both sides had their reasons for pretending it wasn’t, e.g “From the river to the sea” may or may not be a call for the end of the State of Israel, and questioning Israel’s right to exist may or may not be calling for violence against Jews. However, saying somebody interpreting a statement as hate speech doesn’t make it hate speech would be a repudiation of years of hate speech policy at universities.
What was he trying to avoid here, something about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
“‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 158: Israeli airstrikes continue to pummel Gaza during the holy month of Ramadan”
The IDF – or as they call themselves “the most moral army in the Middle east” – are pleased to announce that they are doing their part to help the Palestinians honour the holy month of Ramadan by ensuring that they have no problem in fasting. And you just know that they are joking about this in Israel.
There is a vile cartoon in a French paper showing a Palestinian man trying to catch rats in front of his starving wife and child. The wife is telling him off as they are not supposed to eat during daylight hours over Ramadan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/world/europe/geert-wilders-dutch-election-politics.html
March 11, 2024
A Dutch Quandary Offers a Glimpse of a Deepening Problem for Europe
The ascent of Geert Wilders has vexed parties struggling with how to work with a far-right leader too popular to shun. It’s a puzzle bigger than the Netherlands.
By Claire Moses
Just months ago, Geert Wilders was an anathema to most Dutch political parties.
A disruptive and divisive force on the far right for two decades, Mr. Wilders has said he wants to end immigration from Muslim countries, tax head scarves and ban the Quran. He has called Moroccan immigrants “scum.” His Party for Freedom has supported leaving the European Union.
But then Mr. Wilders won national elections convincingly in November…
Luke 16:19-31
King James Version
19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
JohnA, that’s the purest example of “punching down” I’ve yet seen. The basic lack of human decency from the ‘Western’ organ grinders and their MSM monkeys really is something.
If (WHEN) the current ‘rules based order’ is replaced by something less CONGENIAL to these parasites, hopefully they’ll be held to account. Round them up, put ’em on trial in Beijing or wherever. The Chinese will know what to do with them.
I guessed from your description that it was Charlie Hebdo. It was not, but:
“A cartoon depicting Palestinian hunger in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, published in the French daily, Liberation, sparked ire on social media, with some criticising the widely-read daily for mocking Israeli forces’ “genocide” in the besieged enclave.
The cartoon titled “Ramadan in Gaza – The start of a fasting month” was drawn by Corinne Rey, a former cartoonist at the infamous satire magazine, Charlie Hebdo.”
Re vile cartoon : Is it funny? Not particularly. Is it ridiculing the starving Palestinians? No. Is it valid political satire intended to remind people of the horrible situation these people are in? I think so.
If true there is a second order effect: The Israeli’s won’t be the ones actually carrying out the ethnic cleansing. The very dirtiest work of rounding up Palestinians and shipping them abroad will instead be done by subcontracted states, the US, UK and the EU.
So we are either faced with the spectacle of US marines or German army men rounding up Palestinians at gunpoint into trucks on international television, or else that operation will itself be subcontracted to either western PMCs or NGOs or both in combination. Either way the Israelis can simply wash their hands of the operation and claim it was someone elses humanitarian operation, nothing to do with me, and also would you like to invest in up and coming Mediterranean real estate.
In a practical sense this may be the Israelis only realistic option for a “clean” ethnic cleansing now. Even if Egypt co-operates, it’s becoming very questionable if the IDF can prod so many millions of Palestinians across the border without provoking dozens of massacres, outrages, and even CNN headlines. But if the US army can do the dirty job instead, like they did in Iraq, then all the broken eggs end up on Americas tab. This may have been the plan from the very beginning as if I recall correctly, the US State Department was intimately involved in the plan to displace the Palestinians across the globe, as early as October 2023. A tell here might be if any large US/UK/EU vessels have been undergoing large alterations in drydock.
But even if the evacuation fails due to international pressure, a permanent garrison of US/UK/EU forces can be employed as a garrison to continue the fight against Hamas and periodically crack Palestinian heads and bear the odd IED blast while the IDF does the more imporant job of guarding the border walls around the new settlements.
Happy paddys day from Joe Biden.
Supposing that they used this port to evacuate willing Palestinians to ships waiting. So where do those ships go? I guess that first port of call would be Cyprus for refueling and resupply but where to from there? Europe? The US? Maybe Africa or South America? Which country will step forward and accept hundreds of thousand of malnourished, traumatized and ill Palestinians?
The Mediteraneean Sea?
What, stack them in lifeboats and cut them loose?
Lifeboats are expensive! There’s a sale on at the Bigg Boxx Store on last summer’s blow up beach rafts. My money’s on them being shipped to Tobruk, Benghazi, Sirte, and Tripoli.
“Exodus” comes full circle.
Shades of the M. S. St Louis in 1939:
“The more than 900 passengers of the M.S. St. Louis were denied entry by immigration authorities in multiple countries in the lead-up to the Holocaust.”
https://www.history.com/news/wwii-jewish-refugee-ship-st-louis-1939
Otherwise known as refugees. Seeking refuge from the bombs allied forces are dropping on them, and the famine being imposed on them. You don’t get to claim “voluntary migration” when you are the one forcing the decisions.
Per the State Department plan leaked from last year, Arab countries mainly. Assuming that speed is a factor, a short trip to an Egyptian or Jordanian port will be in order. Though I don’t rule out the possibility international allied shipping companies will lash Palestinians to the decks of their container ships to offput the Houthis and re-open cheaper shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
Madagascar? If the Germans are involved, they had experience trying to ship a Semitic people to that island, after all.
Here is a detailed description of the Boeing 777 hydraulic system. What failed and the multiple redundant systems that the article above leaves out.
He also covers the wheel failure with more details.
And it appears to be the actual wheel broke and was not an installation error.
The YouTuber is a 777 long haul first officer. He knows his stuff.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rN256wwVwrs
Thanks!
Great video!
“Trump says opponent could die before election”
He’s not wrong, you know.
If Biden suddenly died, how long would it be until that news was released to the public? It has happened in the past that if a leader or king died, that the news was delayed until all had been sorted out behind the scenes. Hell, when King George V of the UK was on his death bed, his doctor bumped him off so the news would be carried in the official news like The Times and not the tabloids which ran at a different time of day-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_V#Declining_health_and_death
Not often that a doctor can add regicider to his resume. And later they made this guy a Viscount.
Well, no doubt they’re prepared for it, much like the NYT has a whole file of obits 95% written for all of the Boomer rock stars Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. (Sorry, Bob)
If Biden died
Would the DNC claim
He was just biding his time
Would the hunt for a new Veep
Be a roundabout hook Willie Brown sweep?
What if Kamala got bumped off the ticket at the DNC convention in favor of, say, Gavin Newsom? It happened to FDR going into his third term, iirc.
Pompadour & Circumstance?
Touché!
If Biden died, how would anyone know for certain? Would Dr. Jill hold a mirror up to his mouth? That’s what doctors do, right?
What if Jill held a mirror to Biden’s face – and there was no reflection? It would explain a lot.
Mirror, mirror on the wall
Who met with Mitterand
Only last fall?
I have noticed that recent pictures of Genocide Joe seem to make him look unusually youthful as if decades have been turned back. That could be AI making photoshop look bush league.
Certainly, the tech is there to make him live on virtually for a considerable period, as long as the press stays docile and compliant.
The closer we get to November, the more viable this option looks. When the electoral college meets in December, they can always drop the truth bomb right after, and bam, President Kamala!!
If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, than we are talking in regards to a real-life Re-Animator scenario with Lovecroftian lothario in regards to Commander, whom presumably did the Scranton Zombie’s bidding for him.
I was thinking more along the lines of “Weekend at Biden’s”.
Something along the lines of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln @ Disneyland?
But Commander would probably do what he always does, bury one of his master’s femurs, and all the party guests would certainly work femurishly to find and pick out Biden’s bone,so they can put JB, everybody’s favorite Humpty-Dumpty, all together again, all the while having a wonderful time licking marrow flavored ice cream bones courtesy of Prime Minister Bibi, this occurring some time, you must understand, before the Bibi was thrown out with the bath water. And you do know that for how often the Bibi was scrubbed, he could never come clean, and that his backside continued to smell like, well, hell, and little tony blinken spent almost all his free time there, sniffing the awful Bibi, with a bottle of bleach and a white hand towel fashioned from a ten year old’s death shawl, and that he came there as a Jew. Who knew?
Bathists? (family blog) ’em!
If Biden dies, they’ll hook up some motors and pretend that he’s still alive.
If it worked on Star Trek DS9…..
For service to King and country, no doubt.
Was he a Life Peer? /s
Here in Hawaii Rep Patsy Mink died. News had reported she was in the hospital, sounded not serious. Then she was reported to have died, just happened to be the day AFTER the Dems would have had to place a replacement name on the Nov ballot. So she was elected posthumously and we got to hold a special election afterwards.
From the Solari Report:
Visa & Mastercard: The Real Threat to the Digital ID Control System
https://home.solari.com/visa-mastercard-the-real-threat-to-the-digital-id-control-system/
A key para toward the end of the Report:
“Consumers are in over their heads with credit cards, while credit card companies are pulling in billions. Delinquencies are off the chart. Small businesses are bleeding with balances they can’t pay. All of this is hurting communities while furthering the goal of these players. When a customer pulls out a credit card instead of cash, the small business owner loses money and the credit card companies win. The system is fractured and every swipe counts because it continues to give power to the bankers instead of individuals and communities.”
Don’t agree with that at all. First, there’s a range of players taking cuts from CC transactions, not just “bankers”. Second, I don’t think customers are indifferent as to payment method. If “Consumers are in over their heads with credit cards” that implies they don’t have the cash available, so for a small business owner it’s CC transaction fee vs no transaction. Finally, handling cash is not “free” for a business.
Nope, but it can actually end up being less expensive than the CC fees. Restaurants can actually pay vendors in cash as well. Take my word for it, the meat distributor will happily take an upfront order in cash. You have to pay people to go over all the receipts even with CC. Counting the cash drawers and setting up the beginning bank for various shifts doesn’t take that much longer.
My deli has given up, they used to have a minimum purchase requirement for CC use. And I feel guilty when I use my debit card. It may be because they are dealing with so many small ticket items, but I know they would much prefer cash even above that previous minimum.
Here in Ann Arbor I am beginning to see some restaurants offer slight discount for payment in cash.
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1767788896849641841
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
The United Steelworkers union is arguing for sanctions against China because “the US was once a leader in the commercial shipbuilding industry” and China apparently stole that with “unfair economic practices”.
Only inconvenient fact is that, as far as records go, the US has never been a leader in the commercial shipbuilding industry, not even close
Src: – https://eandt.theiet.org/2024/03/12/us-steel-unions-urge-joe-biden-stop-chinas-domination-global-shipbuilding
– https://cato.org/blog/are-shipyard-subsidies-good-idea
1:44 AM · Mar 13, 2024
Gooooooooooood Mooooooooooorning Fiatnam!
In the ongoing War On Cash™ you could hardly not miss Tuzigoot & Montezuma Castle National Monuments going cashless starting March 1, just like days of olde-except plastic hadn’t been invented yet, nor computers or electricity. You’d almost expect me to make a joke about Montezuma’s Castle here, but lets not go there.
I went to plastic when I got my Golden Age Pass although the bennies of this geezer entitlement–created when the NPS trying to promote visitation rather than cope with overwhelming popularity–are shrinking fast. Still I can enter Yosemite with a lordly wave and then get in line for the shuttle bus.
I too am enjoying my golden years (is that similar to ‘golden flavoring’ they claimed was butter on your popcorn in the movies?) and admit to using a plastic Amex to buy a plastic Golden Age pass last week, so when other drivers are stuck in line trying to get into a Nation redoubt no doubt, they can see that i’ve got geezer cred (since ’24).
I think it would be only fair for the pass to give head of the line privileges as when boarding airplanes. We geezers may need to get inside fast and take our medication.
I heard in lieu of the average MLB fan base nearing 60 now, many teams have done away with senior citizen discounts on tickets.
It’s happened with ski passes. Use to be free or heavily discounted to ski over 70, but, no more in many places. Multi mountain Ikon has no senior rate.
Yep, about a decade ago one of the Dartful Codgers was gonna get a free season pass when he hit 65, but then they discontinued it after Big Ski bought Mammoth. You gotta be 80 now for your free season pass.
That eliminates most everybody\
………………………………………\
………………………………………..\
Re Diana Johnstone and Israel as aircraft carrier–it’s about the assertion by Chomsky and others that our Middle East policy is strategic rather than the result of advocate special pleading for a foreign “entanglement.” But one should point out that our foreign policy was full of entanglements like Guatemala (United Fruit) and Iran (British Petroleum) when the Eisenhower administration was still mostly Arabist and the Israelis were flying French Mirage jets rather than F-16s. So the country’s American supporters doubtless concluded “why not us?”
But a tragic flaw in the American political system is still not an excuse for what’s happening in Gaza.
Rather than Israel being an outpost of the US, it feels like the US is a munitions factory and bank of Israel. One that happens to have 330 million captive employees.
‘Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine
@ColumbiaSJP
BREAKING:
LEAKED audio of Columbia University vice president Gerry Rosberg unable to respond when asked if Palestinians are human.
He stated that this question was “intimidating”.
Acknowledging that Palestinians are human is “intimidating rhetoric” to Columbia admin.’
Geez, how gutless do you have to be to say something like that?
Rosberg is standing in the lobby of Columbia’s School of Social Work, refusing to acknowledge that Palestinians are human. There is some irony there.
Even worse, this points the way towards the ‘method’ that will be used more and more frequently to “infantalize,” “deplorate,” and ‘demonize” the ‘working classes’ here in the Homeland.
Remember, one major outcome of “creating food deserts and calling them Green” is starvation and death.
The Gaza method is being given a test run. If it works over there, expect it to be implemented here.
“Reports are coming in of yet another disruption of Inner City food supply chains. In related news, Fast Food Inc. announces the closing of more “High Population Density Environment” franchises in response to rising violent crime rates in those outlets.”
Now now. He musn’t upset the donors. Might lose his job. Disagreeing with Bibi is a dangerous career step in US academia.
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/08/1218314691/after-a-disastrous-testimony-three-college-presidents-face-calls-to-resign
>>>Geez, how gutless do you have to be to say something like that?
I am thinking it is more about his lack of a conscience and/or a soul.
Dehumanisation of Palestinians has clearly been a very long term, very comprehensive campaign. Ideologically the western world’s ruling class now probably closely resembles that of 1930s Europe.
Dehumanisation of Palestinians has clearly been a very long term, very comprehensive campaign. Ideologically the western world’s ruling class now probably closely resembles that of 1930s Europe.
[ Fearfully so. ]
IKEA and Romanian forests.
I weep and I weep.
They have thrown the good management regulation book to the toilet. In my time there all that would have been criminal. Now they do it like is Canada.
From that German article on Chinese EV
See Babylon Bee on “that’s our job.” It should be said that my car and presumably most of them–even Tesla–have the option of not turning on the cell radio. Of course there could be secret radio communication but surely our NSA geniuses would be able to detect that and cry foul.
So what they are really saying is that American car companies want to be sure their customers are hooked to the mother ship via cell and are afraid the Chinese might do the same. To repeat, see Babylon Bee.
one would almost think that in fact they are Deeeeply supportive of TSLA and its boss.
Whodathunkit?
Carolinian: This could even be used to justify a complete import ban on Chinese-made cars.
They could certainly try that. The Owners of the US — those pushing EVs for the sake of a Net Zero/Green Transition future*, anyway — are fully stupid and arrogant enough to have not yet recognized that they confront a intractable real-world choice.
Nevertheless, either they can have: –
[1] Chinese EVs priced so Americans can afford them and a potential Green Transition, or ….
[2] EVs at the price points that American corporations want to sell them at, which the vast masses of Americans simply cannot afford (especially when EV batteries’ limited lifetimes are factored in), and, therefore, no Green Transition..
All the Federal tax credits, tariffs on Chinese vehicles, individual state incentives, punitive regulations and taxes passed against ICE vehicles in specific precincts aren’t going to game the reality that US automakers mostly are unwilling or unable to make EVs at prices working Americans can afford.
*Just to keep things brief, let us assume such a Net Zero/Green Transition is realistic at all.
https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/news/detail/9504
March 6, 2024
US President Joe Biden has come up with a new barrier. Chinese cars could, he says, pose a threat to national security in the US if licensed for American roads. Smart cars, with their sophisticated IT, could ostensibly transmit sensitive information to China. He has instructed Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to examine this threat and take appropriate measures if necessary. This could even be used to justify a complete import ban on Chinese-made cars.
[ Thoroughly unscrupulous, but repeated again and again from the beginning of the Administration. ]
Ukraine’s Manpower Crisis: No Amount of Money or Aid Can Solve It Brian Berletic, YouTube. Suitable for sending to those not familiar with this issue.
The answer will be “Send In The Poles!”
https://korybko.substack.com/p/poland-might-be-seeking-american?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=835783&post_id=142571760&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1cc3o&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
The Poles are already in the Ukraine and thousands have died in combat. At least 2,200 dead as of a year or more ago.
“French Defense Reports Acknowledge Ukraine Is Done With Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)”
The report also acknowledges that NATO troops (including French) are already in Ukraine. As I said, by the time you read in the press that something is “under consideration”, the matter already has been decided.
Yep, the old “presenting something that is already happening as something that might happen.”
I wonder if it’s best described as a diversionary propaganda tactic to buy time? It’s usually a sign that something is not happening as planned or according schedule.
Keep telling yourself that. There is no eleven dimensional chess here, no master plan.
“It’s usually a sign that something is not happening as planned or according schedule.”
They may not have the best plans, but they have payment schedules.
“presenting something that is already happening as something that might happen.”
Same thing you said, but in a different way.
Loves me a hot spring, but this one right off the Kern River has always been a problem child, too easy to get to, and it suffers from an odd malady in that half of the tubs are way too hot, so as a consequence the ones that you can be in are way too crowded with others waiting for their chance, while 3 out of the 6 tubs are completely empty, 110-112 degrees being a no-go zone. Kinda trashy, too.
https://www.newsweek.com/miracle-hot-springs-closed-deaths-reaction-1877242
As Merle said, “I’ll never swim Kern River again.”
Right around the mid-point of the 72 mile long High Sierra Trail in Sequoia NP is Kern Hot Springs, a most welcome soak and about the furthest walk to a backcountry hot springs in Cali.
https://www.outdoorproject.com/ca/kern-hot-springs
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/we-re-all-expected-to-live-shorter-lives-now-thanks-to-covid/ar-BB1jPpf2
We’re all expected to live shorter lives now thanks to Covid
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/03/12/long-covid-costs-coronavirus-pandemic/
The Soaring Cost of Long COVID
An estimated 10 percent of coronavirus patients will need long-term care. (Paywall)
https://time.com/6852852/long-covid-pandemic-anniversary/
The Isolation of Having Long COVID as Society Moves On
And here’s another one…
Seems to be a lot of coverage lately.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-19-leaves-its-mark-on-the-brain-significant-drops-in-iq-scores-are/
March 13, 2024
COVID-19 Leaves Its Mark on the Brain. Significant Drops in IQ Scores Are Noted
Research shows that even mild COVID-19 can lead to the equivalent of seven years of brain aging
By Ziyad Al-Aly & The Conversation US
Meanwhile hilariously this is the biggest bull market I’ve ever seen. Up and up and up; I’m up like 14% since just November. I guess I’m the last bear. We’re all doomed now.
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/104192
“Macron will make an urgent address to the French nation tomorrow on the war in Ukraine
Earlier, the country’s parliament approved the French president’s strategy towards Ukraine and supported the bilateral security agreement signed by Macron and Zelenskyy.
📰 Le Monde”
No, it won’t be popular. Macron doesn’t care, and germany will be forced to go along.
WWIII is coming.
“Why is the EU destroying it’s own economy?” Gaius Baltar
The writer tries to unpack a lot in this article.
But the more he unpacked the more I think that it is with the utmost urgency that the people of the world understand the difference between protest and disrupting the relationships of the global PMC or the rentier world order or the Blob or whatever you want to call it.
I look at protest in this definition as petitioning to be included in a system.
And in this definition, disruption of relationships is more of a systemic change activity.
I guess I went into a what is to be done mode of thinking rather than analyzing policy thinking.
“Why is the EU destroying it’s own economy?” Gaius Baltar
Because the elites want to please their American Master and do not care what happens to the peons, as long as they themselves do not suffer.
The article may be accurate in that it is charting EU planning that was well in place prior to the Ukraine debacle, and it may be that, given tendencies to bureaucratic inertia + dogmatic denial of the changed strategic situation, there’s been no course adjustment, despite strong evidence that a Russia-China-Iran et al coalition can defend itself. The Titanic didn’t change course quickly enough, but often large ships do manage to escape peril, and my guess is that the grandiose plans he describes are in for considerable amendment. And what are we to make of the absence of the US in their reported calculations? Fishy. I hope that one of our EU experts can shed some light on this.
In general the political economy writers that Johnson promotes at his website tend to be strongly libertarian and inclined to exaggeration and scare-mongering. Of late I’ve spotted big hugs for a market fetishizing gold bug, loudly declaiming against any state intervention. Anti-statism extends to all matters of policy, from covid management to climate change (not happening because that might justify state intervention).
I’ve found Johnson’s site very helpful re analysis of the war(s). But in general the Johnson/Napolitano/MacGregor wing of antiwar criticism are Republican market fetishists eager to lard that line in on top of their war criticism, which is deservedly getting attention.
“In general the political economy writers that Johnson promotes at his website tend to be strongly libertarian and inclined to exaggeration and scare-mongering…”
I thought about the libertarian ideologies. Especially at this part of the article in reference to spending:
“…This will have severe consequences for the “service” part of the Eurozone economies as well as state finances and the ability to maintain the European welfare state…”
That is something to think about in another way even though alot of these writers go through a lot of mental gymnastics to make it all look like some kind of economically socialist takeover of an economy despite all the global rentierism and corporate coddling built into current supranational organizations. The establishment wants to build bigger corporate monopolies.
How does one stop the supranational organizations from empowering more corporate monopolies?
Good points. Iirc those critics will talk about the MIC profiting from imperialism, but not capitalism generally. And there’s a steady pull to a “war is the health of the state” line (Rothbard?) though that can then get whittled down to not the state in general but certain groupings within it, e.g. the neocons.
However, recently I’ve seen MacGregor, in an interview with Carlson, make surprisingly strong attacks against corporations such as Blackrock that are engaged in carving up Ukrainian resources and which use congressional and administration lobbying to that end. Yet there was still no hint of a more generalized structural relationship, Blackrock is just a bad apple.
> Trump and the 10K troops
I’ve always thought the reason there was no push for a major police/military presence for the Capitol riot was that nobody thought a bunch of middle class conservative white people were or should be treated as a threat.
Based on Trump’s defense secretary’s testimony (page 99) “propose” may be doing a bit of work in Turley’s post.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000036556/pdf/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000036556.pdf
and all for a ridiculous clown show, lol!
On a somewhat hilarious front, I seem to keep running into an ad on Youtube while watching some of the usual channels people watch here (the Duran, military summary, etc) featuring a Zaluzhnyi lookalike peddling some get-rich-quick scam thing. I don’t know anyone else has been running into it, but I thought it looked absolutely bizarre as well as funny, given the likely audience it is getting.
I envy you. At least half the YouTube ads I’ve seen in the last few weeks have been of Biden telling me to give money.
I think Youtube may have pegged you as a Democrat foremost and me as a crazy conspiracy theorist who is not a Democrat. I honestly wonder what Google AI thinks I really am….
Unsolicited advice warning: Do not continue without proper PPE:
Clear your youtube history. I try to remember to do it about once a month, keeps the algo on its toes and keeps the fresh weird stuff on deck.
And sometimes not so fresh weird stuff, been getting a lot of “old youtube” type videos recently that have been a nice change of pace. From back when youtube was still fun and cool!
Unsolicited video suggestion, that has been wildly helpful for me in my business – look up The Pricemaster.
i think ublock origin is a fairly reliable ad blocker
Israeli Genocide Causing ‘Complete Psychological Destruction’ of Gaza Children
I think that some Israelis are happy to be Hamas’ greatest recruiting tool because then Hamas can be the ultra right’s greatest tool for political power in Israel.
OMG…How have I not heard this joke before today:
“Bill Gates and I walk into the bar…
Bartender: “Wow… a couple of billionaires on average!”
Perfect summation of neoliberal economics.
So Family Dollar, owned by Dollar Tree, is closing up to 1000 stores. The usual reasons are given in the CNN Business article about why this is happening (inflation, reduced SNAP, increased competition …etc) but nowhere in the 25 paragraphs is it mentioned that private equity firm KKR, is the owner and usually that means there’s legalized extortion being forced on the imperiled company: selling of Real assets, outsized loans, large exec compensation, to name but a few of the usual shenanigans.
The one question I have is “How in hell is Guitar Center still in business?
“The one question I have is “How in hell is Guitar Center still in business?”
Because, as someone from South Park put it: “Real guitars are for old people!”
Another, neoliberal, war, now mostly forgotten, where ordinary workers were defeated by the power of the state and the long decline of the UK from a viable country to a fading tourist destination was accelerated.
Miners in a once bustling South Yorkshire coal region marched with their champion, Arthur Scargill, at the weekend to mark 40 years since their war with Margaret Thatcher.
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/03/12/watch-cn-live-miners-march-40-yrs-after-strike/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=82111a4b-603f-44c7-b232-c6ddc1f6ca4e
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w4Frx0mef0
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1abU9
January 30, 2018
Real Weekly Earnings for United Kingdom, 1980-2023
(Indexed to 1980)
“China’s treatment of local debt…”
Debt is an easily managed matter in China, * far more easily managed than in the United Kingdom of the Financial Times, but the need in UK economic media is to portray China as collapsing economically and to do so vulgarly.
China, by the way, now has $3.23 trillion in foreign reserves, and a sovereign wealth fund of about $1.5 trillion in foreign securities. China experienced 5.2% real GDP growth in 2023, while UK GDP grew by a mere 0.1%.
* The 10 largest economies:
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2023/October/weo-report?c=223,924,132,134,534,536,158,922,112,111,&s=GGXWDG_NGDP,&sy=2007&ey=2023&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1
October 15, 2023
General government gross debt as a percent of Gross Domestic Product for Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and United States, 2007-2023
I imagine China is across the problem of the US and their captive proxies stealing other countries foreign reserves on any jumped-up pretext, because from my reading of the direction the US is taking, China has to the next one after Russia.
If I may, respectfully, call BS.
“Polish troops would never leave Ukraine – Putin” RT
Some, possibly decontextualized, quoted statements from Mr. Putin in this brief RT article about “Poland coveting it’s ancestral lands,” and the risk that Polish forces would be “unlikely to leave” were they to enter.
Are we expected to ignore the “Novorossiya-sized” elephant in the room?