Chuck L provided a follow-up tweet that the period of silence was to protect her and her family:
So, in 2005, after a vow of 100 summers of silence, Northern Cheyenne tribal historians revealed that it was a female warrior, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, who killed Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer (by clubbing him in the head) at the Battle of Little Bighorn. June 25, 1876. pic.twitter.com/phC0DMAqG7
— Lakota Man (@LakotaMan1) June 25, 2024
Christopher Labos: Debunking Myths About What We Eat and Drink Eric Topol (Robin K)
CBD use during pregnancy produces strange behavior in offspring New Atlas (Dr. Kevin)
#COVID-19
This timeline is so fricking stupid.
"Los Angeles’s Mayor Was Contemplating a Mask Ban. She Just Got Covid." pic.twitter.com/5BtCfQY0Cv
— tern (@1goodtern) June 28, 2024
COVID-19 experts warn of risks of summer surge as N.B. hazard index leads country CBC
Climate/Environment
Antarctic Ice Melt – New Sobering Studies Jacobin
I visited the site of Jesus's baptism & learned something shocking.
The Jordan River is dry. Its water flow is 2% of its former level.
Since the 60s, Israel's National Water Carrier has diverted water from the Sea of Galilee. A puddle remains where Jesus was baptised.
This… pic.twitter.com/2Mu2lhqSHV
— Ousman Noor (@ousmannoor) June 24, 2024
Nearly half of American EV owners want to switch back to gas-powered vehicle, McKinsey data shows Fox (Kevin W)
Bipartisan Consensus In Favor of Renewable Power Is Ending ars technica
Major EU airline introduces hefty ‘environmental charge’ RT (Kevin W)
Globalisation is fracturing. That’s a big problem for net zero, experts say Capital Brief
China’s investments in coal mining reach new high Global Energy Prize
Maldives climate minister arrested for performing ‘black magic’ on President Muizzu First Post
China?
🥰 China is collecting submarine detectors the US is dropping in the South China Sea pic.twitter.com/nmbWVshFTw
— COMBATE |🇵🇷 (@upholdreality) June 27, 2024
World’s largest maritime drills begin in an increasingly tense Asia Pacific Aljazeera
Japan
Japanese yen weakens to fresh 38-year lows; top currency diplomat replaced CNBC
Japan’s Olympic athletes will wear outfits designed to block infrared — and the reason is disturbing ZME Science (Dr. Kevin)
Africa
Behind the Deadly Unrest in Kenya, a Staggering and Painful National Debt New York Times
European Disunion
SONDAGE EXCLUSIF – Législatives : découvrez la dernière projection en sièges avant le 1ᵉʳ tour TF1 Info. Colonel Smithers: “Last poll before Sunday’s elections.”
French far-right leader Jordan Bardella vows ‘cultural battle’ and demands EU rebate Financial Times
Old Blighty
‘If there’s nowhere else to go, this is where they come’: how Britain’s libraries provide much more than books Guardian (Kevin W)
Six key takeaways from Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer’s final TV debate before the election BBC (Kevin W)
Defaults on leveraged loans soar as BoE warns on private equity’s ‘challenges’ Financial Times
Gaza
Fixed it. pic.twitter.com/2con10zdaE
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) June 28, 2024
Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide American Friends Service Committee (Robin K)
State comptroller warns there’s no evacuation plan for North in case of war Times of Israel (Kevin W)
Rafah operation and Gaza war are winding down; Israel is no closer to its goals Times of Israel
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox leaders failed. That’s why they may stick with Netanyahu Middle East Eye
US intel indicates war between Israel and Hezbollah inching closer Politico
Houthis claim to have developed long-range hypersonic missile Splash 247
Meltdown Looms for the West Bank’s Financial Lifelines Crisis Group
New Not-So-Cold War
Russian Note To The U.S.: Your Drones Are Now Targets Moon of Alabama
Russia mulling downgrading ties with West, Kremlin says Reuters
Le Pen: RN Would Block Ukraine Troop Deployments American Conservative
Polish Firm Warns European Companies It Could Seize Their Payments to Gazprom OilPrice (Kevin W)
Syraqistan
Khamenei protege, sole moderate neck and neck in Iran presidential race Arab News
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Lawsuit Claims Microsoft Tracked Sex Toy Shoppers With ‘Recording In Real Time’ Software 404media
Imperial Collapse Watch
Jamie Dimon says schools are making his job harder by not giving students the proper training to enter the working world Yahoo (Kevin W)
A war draft today can’t work. Let us count the ways. Responsible Statecraft
A Southwest flight took off from a closed runway, forcing workers to clear out CNN (Kevin W). I have never heard of anything like this before…..
Southeast Asia has its reasons for pivoting to BRICS Asia Times (Kevin W)
India-Iran makeover dovetails into Iran’s ties with Russia Indian Punchline
Trump
Judge rejects Trump’s claims that FBI misled court in Mar-a-Lago search warrant Politico (Kevin W)
Biden
Did the Daily Mail just accidentally uncover the Biden family money-laundering scheme? Revolver (Li). Yes, a right wing pub, but the underlying facts are pretty problematic.
* * * We are providing only a sample of the overwhelming amount of coverage of the Biden-Trump debate aftermath, so do not hesitate to point to other informative articles.
Biden vows to fight on in first speech after Trump debate BBC
Obama to hold intervention with Biden as Kamala is ‘furious’ post-debate: Report Fox
President Biden Has a Cold Columbia Journalism Review
The Democratic Coup Matt Taibbi
DNC Rigs Campaigns Is What’s Going on Sam Husseini
Supremes
Supreme Court Backs Jan. 6 Defendant, Curbing Use of Enron Law Bloomberg
More on the ruling above:
….For Trump, this rips the wings of the plane that Jack Smith has been trying to take off in D.C. In an ordinary case, there would be a superseding indictment. Smith may try to go forward on the remaining counts. However, it is hard to see how the indictment holds together…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) June 28, 2024
BREAKING: In its latest gift to big corporations, SCOTUS has overturned Chevron v. NRDC.
This decision will make it easier for corporations to challenge rules that ensure clean air and water, safe workplace and products, and fair commercial and financial practices.
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) June 28, 2024
When OHSA unilaterally mandated that tens of millions of private sector workers take the COVID shot or wear masks, appellate courts cited the Chevron doctrine for allowing it
People don’t understand how important it is that Chevron deference is dead pic.twitter.com/K9FEXwtXbA
— Gregg Re (@gregg_re) June 28, 2024
US Supreme Court ruling allows cities to ban homeless people from sleeping outdoors Associated Press (Kevin W)
AI
‘Let’s not go overboard’ on worries about AI energy use, Bill Gates says Financial Times (Kevin W)
The Center for Investigative Reporting is suing OpenAI and Microsoft The Verge (Kevin W)
AI Designs Radical Magnet Free of Rare-Earth Metals in Just 3 Months ScienceAlert (Chuck L)
Falling Apart Boeing Airplanes
Boeing whistleblower says he saw holes being drilled incorrectly on 787 planes, adding to the chorus of people speaking up against the company Business Insider
Mechanic’s Viral TikTok Highlights Right To Repair Issues With Newer Car Models Daily Dot
Class Warfare
Wealthy Americans are anxious about making ends meet Fox Business
Antidote du jour. Robert H: “Baby spider, just hatched.”
And a bonus (Chuck L):
Even Seals love Greek Summer…
💙🇬🇷🌊🦭⛱️🇬🇷💙 pic.twitter.com/vq3q7nFtpB— Diogenes of Sinope (@DiogenisSinopis) June 24, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
Major Democratic Donors Ask Themselves: What to Do About Biden? (NYT)
https://archive.ph/9sCJ4
Plenty of quotes from those who’s views count. If they cut off the money spigot, Joe is done, right?
Biden is the poster child for the new horns of a dilemma.
Liability vs. pliability.
Walking plutonium? He appears to be compromised, and is joined by so many in his family. What a crew!
Hillary spent a billion in a lost cause. The losers would be DC RE agents and private school administrators.
Biden has the power of incumbency, which must be worth hundreds of millions.
>>>. If they cut off the money spigot, Joe is done, right?
No, DNC by-laws favor Biden’s delegates. The DNC convention is late Aug.
The 50-state election laws have deadlines re. when political parties must submit their party slates. The deadlines are relatively early, typically late Aug early Sept.
IMO, Alexrod should’ve gotten a detailed legal brief from his lawyers re. the actual logistics of removing Biden before opening his mouth (maybe he did, and/or maybe the donor base reaction was that livid).
Much like most issues nowadays, the Political Class opened their mouth on TV/internet before thinking about the logistics of things, lol.
I think this illuminates the whole debate timing and decision. Now that primary voters are out of the game, the real primary battle among the insiders can begin. It seems safe to assume that Biden delegates are consummate pols with negotiable loyalty, as their candidate, and will simply vote as they are told.
The dem’s best shot would be for Biden to resign ASAP, make Kamala first WOC president, then they have Kamala find a reason to bow out of the 2024 race in favor of the anointed successor they think has a shot against Trump.
Either that or they go for the loss, and let Kamala take it so they can stick with the racist/misogynist voters cope.
leaders of other, more serious countries may see her as a lightweight, but otoh Harris seems pliable enough to follow orders as prez, so the backroom guys may want to keep her after all. Whatever. We’re doomed.
She was best financed candidate in 2020, imo why Biden picked her even tho she didn’t win (from memory) any delegates. Could be they still like her ‘views’, but recognize her lack of popularity. Imo likely would continue as vp if Biden replaced or as pres if Biden croaks.
Harris is a heartbeat away. She isn’t going to step aside. She’ll go nuclear.
Lambert and I have had a brief conversation about this.
It is unfortunate that the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic National Convention have the same initials. They are distinct and independent organizations.
Lambert said the Democratic National Convention has plenary powers. So they can rewrite the rules.
According to a piece at The Intercept in September of 2022 the Democratic National Committee bylaws have been modified to allow it to overrule some decisions made at the convention.
But can any rules be strong enough to overcome the powers of Tinkerjill’s magic fairy dust?
The NYT editorial board:
To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race
The stenographers want someone different in there, just not orange man.
Don’t know why. The main stream media got rich the four years that he was in power by constantly reporting all his ‘outrageous’ behaviours. After he left office, their revenue plummeted like a rock.
Dunno either.
Humanity would be saved by Biden resigning today!
Democrat Party Apparatchik: “What is the “humanity” of which you speak deplorable?”
Biden is the legal nominee of the party. He cannot unwillingly be forced to vacate the nomination. He would have to decide on his own to bow out of the race and release his delegates. He could release them to vote their conscience (yeah right) or instruct them to vote for another candidate of his choice.
Short of that, the Democrats can’t do a damn thing. The 25th Amendment pertains to the office of President, not the nomination of a party. The anti-democracy Democrats have sure made a messy bed for themselves, and now they have to lie in it.
>Biden is the legal nominee of the party.
?? What does this even mean?
The “party” is a private entity, dba “Democrat National Committee”, which has been granted certain statutory powers to raise and expend “campaign” funds, and to “certify” candidates for President and Vice President to states for the purpose of awarding/certifying electors.
In this case the “party” (DNC) has issued a “call for convention” Call for Convention
In that call there are established standing committees on rules and credentials (pertinent to this discussion) for the convention. The standing committee on rules will draft proposed rules report for the convention IAW the call. As far as the possible scope of those rules, I think you would have to be a rules / Roberts Rules expert to actually opine on what’s possible by parliamentary procedure.
I do note that on 4 June the DNC standing rules and bylaws committee passed out a resolution to modify the rules and that would have to be studied, as I understand it provides for the rules and credentials committees to “self approve” their reports prior to convention (if needed due to “Ohio” situation).
I think I’ll be watching “The Best Man” (1964) again. Seems timely.
Written by Gore Vidal, who, let it be known, literally grew up inside Washington DC politics. He helped his blind uncle, Senator Gore from Oklahoma, during business on the floor of the Senate chamber and was exposed to Washington politics from the inside.
If Vidal didn’t know how politics in Washington is conducted, no one did.
“The Best Man” is definitely worth a rewatch in today’s fraught political climate.
Then, as a palate cleanser, check out the Jerry Lewis film version of Vidal’s play “Visit to a Small Planet.”
Yep…we used to discuss Vidal’s historical novels in one of my high school history classes. The Best Man, however, was a play first.
won’t spoil the ending…..but what happens at the conclusion of “The Best Man” is a rather common occurrence in “game theory” experiments when you have 2 actors playing a competitive game—and supposedly happens among primates under observation as well.
Is The Best Man available for streaming or coming up on regular TV?
a VHS-rip copy here….(not the best quality) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq3mRW4xAIo
your best bet might be your local library. These old movies sometimes have lapsed rights holders or no one bothers to make it available or put in the money to upgrade the film to HD resolution for streaming.
Thanks for the tip. Our local library doesn’t have it. Neither does Kanopy. I will keep looking.
Check World Cat through your library. There are copies available out there. And your Inter Library Loan Department should be able to get a copy for you… https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=best+man+gore+vidal&itemSubType=video-dvd&itemSubTypeModified=video-dvd
This is a good site to find out on which streaming sites you can watch specific movies and TV shows: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-best-man-1964
They say it’s not currently available, but you can ask to be notified when it’s available somewhere.
Thanks for that reco. Under “trivia” I found:
On a rather less serious note, there is Theodore J. Flicker’s psychedelic satire The President’s Analyst (1967) for a weird outing, with James Coburn as a grinning Freudian psychoanalyst, who gets tapped to be the shrink to the POTUS, but the FBI and CIA are breathing down his neck (nicknamed FBR and CEA, a.k.a. Central Enquiries Agency). Head of the FBI is a J. Edgar Hoover type paranoid, who really gets into killing people. And then pretty soon all sorts of foreign spies are chasing after the shrink. Lots of eye-popping 60s style. Hippies. Free love. Russians. African dictators. Yachts. Spook action up the wazoo. Joe Bob sez check it out.
Just think. The Blob kept telling people it was Trump who people should worry about not stepping down when the show is over.
“Biden vows to fight on in first speech after Trump debate”
In other words, he won’t stand down for another Democrat but demand that his party carry him over the finishing line this November. I can see that the scheduled second debate is going to be a hoot and a half. Thing is, I have seen a ton of videos listed on YouTube about this debate and it is always about Trump and Biden of course. The ones that I have played have true believers say that Trump has to be defeated because he lies, etc. But what you do not hear is the same people talking in terms of finding the best person to run the country, deal with the economy and get themselves sorted in international affairs. Those things are irrelevant as it is all about Trump. Fortunately I did find one video that was actually worth watching amongst all that garbage-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrZhHLA5i10 (7:12 mins)
I thought that the president was supposed to keep citizens informed about his/her (LOL) health – especially serious health.
It’s very obvious that something serious is happening to Biden. And it shouldn’t be up to the Democratic Party to decide whether he continues in office. The Press and Republican Leadership should be stepping up to demand details about the state of his health.
Us commoners must routinely take drug tests just to start work at a job. Being Prez is notably more important than the jobs us commoners have. So why aren’t President’s required to take drug tests?
Exactly – what prescriptions does he take. What emergency medication has he been given? The press should be demanding answers.
Special K Street vitamins?
That form of Vitamin K is found in leafy greens, like bundles of hundred dollar bills.
Not just presidents, all elected officials. It’s good enough for WalMart greeters, it’s good enough for people who start wars.
>It’s very obvious that something serious is happening to Biden. And it shouldn’t be up to the Democratic Party to decide whether he continues in office. The Press and Republican Leadership should be stepping up to demand details about the state of his health.
Agree completely and I can understand the RepublicanLeadership raising a stink about it but the Press, MSM variety? I can’t imagine. A functional press would be asking a lot of hard questions WAYYY before now and they have to after that debacle that can’t be hidden or explained away. I am reminded of how soon after Trump was inaugurated the 25th Amendment was being bandied about by the press and opinion writers (one and the same usually). Now, crickets…
Listening the the NPR programs yesterday, sure, sure, President Biden was slow, raspy voice, he’s a good man, dedicated life of service to the People and all but, but, but, all the constant LYING by Trump, we can’t have that! Must! Save! Democracy!
Jeezus on a bicycle it was so bad it was comical.
The best way forward I’ve heard.
Mind you I don’t expect JB to quit
Biden retires with any excuse he wants. But it only works with harris not running for president. IE she says that she has to focus on running the country. She’s still the first woman president. That leaves open the DNC who then chose the P/VP
It gets rid of both of them.
On a side question seeing Dr Jill Biden I wonder if she is not one of the major impediments to Joe retiring?
Of course you are correct Dr.Jill is the one pushing for him. She’s the one leading him around, yet telling everyone including old Joe that he did a great job. Of course Dr. Jill loves her role as First Lady and Dr. Jill also was signing along with her husband for that 4.2 million in re-financing that was done on their 2 homes. Money laundering and Fraud? Only Donald Trump is capable of that! She is also very proud of Hunter, snorting coke and dating Hookers, she really loves the guy!
Those transactions aren’t just money laundering. Those re-fi’s that pulled $4.2M out of a $350K house are also tax evasion.
When I sold my primary residence in 2021 in order to move into a new primary residence with the exact same appraised value (which thanks to 25 years of specu-flation happens to be nearly 400 percent of the original sale price), I got whacked-up for 30 percent in Federal and California capital gains taxes, that aren’t assessed on a cash-out re-fi. Let me assure you that in a California beach town that tax payment amounted to about 60 percent of the original sale price.
Boomer problems, I know. Still, Joe and Jill’s lender must be using the same appraiser who values Hunter’s finger-paintings…
How does one refinance a house without paying off the existing loan?
To pull out 4.2million implies the homes are appraised at more than 4.2 million, otherwise there are some generous banks generating “debt forgiveness” taxable liabilities for the Bidens.
BTW, Dr. Jill seems to have a fondness for the “Dr.” title, as it is used 20 times in her biography
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/FLOTUS-Bio.pdf
It may be difficult for Dr, Jill to surrender the keys to the White House.
Biden could negotiate an orderly withdrawal including family pardons. He’ll never be in such a strong position to demand favors, perks and feigned ignorance.
President Harris would have to pull a Gerald Ford and pardon the entire Biden Crime Family “in the interests of National unity.”
And the Ford pardon may have cost Ford re-election.
How to explain TDS? When he was president Obama said (to Dimon and others) “I stand between you and the pitchforks” and apparently they see Trump as the pitchforks–even though when he was president Trump made the rich like himself even richer. So they are terrified of even rhetorical populism because TINA must prevail else the dreaded 90 percent tax rates and other New Deal social contract measures return. By this thinking Biden could be completely catatonic and as long as his people are on their side they will pretend not to notice.
Unfortunately for them the four year election ritual means they have to notice. So Biden must go now that the spell is broken.
Or not. Interesting times, if nothing else.
On Trump and pitchforks, well put!
Land of Confusion…cue the original from Genesis or a recent cover by the band Disturbed. Either version seems apt.
It was just weeks ago a WSJ article on Joe Biden’s performance behind closed doors was slammed as partisan politics. And same response to the report by Hur, raising legitimate concerns about his ability and mental faculties.
Given the givens, they’ll stick with Joe unless he really puts one foot in a grave. I’ll channel or borrow a quote I believe comes from Winston Churchill. We can trust America to make the right choice, eventually and only when all options have been exhausted. Replace America with the DNC.
>Land of Confusion…cue the original from Genesis or a recent cover by the band Disturbed. Either version seems apt. Absolutely agreed, but, I’ll hit the wayback even further to this 1974 Steve Wonder song with the line ( which applies to the Dem party as well as Biden himself), “It’s not too cool to be ridiculed but you brought this upon yourself”
If memory serves this was slam at Nixon, but I could be wrong, haven’t researched it. Anyway…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji2ma2mfyhU
Land of Confusion? – how about “Ball of Confusion” from Hitsville, USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq7rALRVvFE
Right. The former White House doctor under Bush and Trump spoke the truth and was denounced.
It would be nice to have at least one newspaper devoted to news the old fashioned way rather than narrative. My barely alive local newspaper–now likely edited somewhere else–follows the party line, hates Trump etc and this is South Carolina. Whoever it is pitched to it is pitched rather reported if national politics is at all the topic.
“… I can understand the RepublicanLeadership raising a stink about it…”
Why would they raise a stink? The so-called repubs don’t want Trump any more than the dems.
The R / D distinction only rears its head every couple years when the uniparty is compelled, by “democratic” tradition, to split itself into two “factions” to preserve the illusion of voter “choice.”
An empty, cognitively vacant vessel like biden is as useful to the ersatz elephants as he is to the ersatz donkeys of the uniparty. Just shove him to a podium, give him something to read off the teleprompter, and tell him what a wonderful and deserving “president” he is. Then go on and serve the unelected masters and overseers.
In ukraine, zelensky flat out cancelled an election he couldn’t win in order to retain power. These sorry united states are not quite ready for that yet, but, to my mind, electing a non-functioning husk like biden as figurehead (or harris when biden’s incompetence becomes too obvious to paper over) is the next “best” scenario.
Biden and/or his handlers were kind of lucky or clever in the choice of Harris. From somewhere in his term when it started becoming apparent to many that he was too mentally incompetent to continue as President, we-all found ourselves “on the horns…” Better the unfit you know than the one you don’t.
I understand that Willie Brown is a fairly competent politico. With him as a “mentor,” (not as bad as Cheney, but similar,) Harris might have a chance to do a credible job as President for the rest of this year.
If you think the mumbling Biden is a disaster, wait ’till u see the K-girl for an extended run under the lights.
Yes, until there’s a nuclear standoff and Biden is having a bad meds day, and gets belligerent with the launch codes guy. We don’t like Kamala, but she has a full set of marbles.
I’m more concerned by Harris’s health.
Re: “Biden vows to fight on in first speech after Trump debate”
Mostly what I saw was Dr. Jill vowing to fight on, whilst Joe stood there looking dumbfounded.
BTW, that reaction video with a certain famous German politician is pretty funny.
What reaction video?
This one-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrZhHLA5i10 (7:12 mins)
Here’s an interesting addition from MofA:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/06/the-dnc-campaign-to-oust-biden-has-failed.html
It includes this seemingly supportive tweet from Obama:
https://x.com/BarackObama/status/1806758633230709017
Seems to be some behind the scenes battles going on. Also noted is Greenwald’s observation that if it becomes clear that Biden is staying put then we can watch how fast the media tries to memory-hole debate night.
Read the same thing how the media will memory hole the whole sorry saga. And since the second debate is not till September, they will get away with it. They had one good shot to dump Biden and they blew it within 24 hours. A month from now when asked, the PMC mob will say ‘Debate? What debate? Don’t know what you are talking about.’
Unlike the 1960 Nixon/Kennedy debate, just about everyone now has a video of the latest Biden/Trump disaster. There’s no memory-holing this one.
(I intentionally did not watch the debate. But I’ve now inadvertently come across it several times today. Unavoidable.)
Failed? Nah. I think we’ve just seen the end of Act 1. Old Pros like the Wiz knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Overnight, we’ve gone from any mention of Biden’s feebleness as verboten to media calls for him to step down. Yes, it may look like the Wiz gave talking points but did anyone really expect him to publicly call for Biden to step down? I guarantee he’s working on what comes next, regardless of his public face.
Are there any more court dates for Trump coming up? Dems sure could use one, otherwise the party members might keep paying attention to Biden.
Sentencing for the conviction on 34 counts of felony falsification of business records is on July 11th.
working link for The Democratic Coup – Taibbi
https://www.racket.news/p/the-democratic-coup
The Democratic National Committee is sad to announce the death in his sleep of President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. next Tuesday about 3 AM. His cremation will follow the same day.
RFKjr on Rising.
EXCLUSIVE: RFK JR On RISING!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lDU7raxqU0
I recommend this RFK interview. They allowed him to talk uninterrupted.
The rumored night of the pillow, following Scalia?
Jimmy Carter could pre-empt that for a double-header state funeral and fund-raiser. Not underestimating the craven and morbid pols.
Carter outlives Biden … hadn’t considered that outcome.
Yeah, and look at who succeeded Tiberius Caesar. Who will succeed Joseph Robinette Caesar?
Or they could just have Carter take over. Why not? He’s only served one term.
Won’t they just dunp his body at sea, to prevent him becoming a martyr for PMC extremists?
That’ll surely be the cover story, but like OBL and Dillinger, trophies will be kept.
And like JFK’s brains-
https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/oct/21/presidents-brain-missing-mislaid-body-parts
I prefer they load Biden’s carcass on a missile to be launched into either Gaza or Russia (from Ukraine). The Prick is so hell bent on doing nothing to stop the destruction of both places.
“The Democratic National Committee is sad to announce the death in his sleep of President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. next Tuesday about 3 AM. His cremation will follow the same day.”
Eulogy to be given by Hillary Clinton.
“Eulogy to be given by Hillary Clinton”
Three days before she will be injected an Anti-Laughing-Vaccine, guaranteeing that decorum shall not be broken.
My wife and I finally watched the debate this morning, the whole thing, and now I firmly agree with Taibbi. Biden was nothing like as bad as nearly everyone is making out. Yes, it was bad but it was nothing worse than we expected. He’s evidently been going senile since the 2020 campaign and has been having embarrassing moments on and off since. His performance Thursday was no worse than his interview with Time a couple of weeks ago. What I saw in the debate was the Biden we already know.
So for the CNN panel, immediately and with one voice, to tell us he’s done is implausible. And then all lib media to be of one mind, no arguments, no debate, when a few days ago you were a Russia spy for suggesting he’s past it … Why now all of a sudden?
It’s true, I’ll admit I was well into my drinking game in order to watch at all, but he seemed just normally demented to me. So I was startled that so suddenly all the blob silos noticed what the rest of America saw long ago. I’ll charitably guess they realized there was no more denying it.
The CNN commentators clamored together that their phones had caught fire from the first moments of Biden’s blithering. Spontaneity is the last thing I expect from the DNC.
Yeah. They had to pretend to be surprised.
This. 100% this.
The only thing I found shocking about the debate was that the narrative was allowed to suggest Biden isn’t up to the job anymore. Anyone who has believed their lying eyes for the last four years won’t be surprised by Biden’s performance at all. It’s just having the Dem apparatchiks say the obvious that’s surprising. (And I fully expect that to stop when they realize Biden isn’t going anywhere just yet.)
Because they’d been gaslit that Ole Joe was sharp as a tack behind closed doors, never mind the obvious evidence of physical and cognitive decline — and then the scales fell from their eyes when he froze up under the lights with nowhere to hide.
Obama to hold intervention with Biden as Kamala is ‘furious’ post-debate: Report Fox
Didn’t Obama oppose Biden being the nominee to become President before he was for it?
If you want a calm but heart felt rant on the CNN farce giving 2 insultingly unqualified and totally inappropriate people a forum to be President, the first guest on Sputnik’s latest installment of The Critical Hour is Richard Wolf who delivers a killer broad stroke controlled but passionate indictment of how shockingly lam and failed the US and Western “democracies” have utterly failed to address the basic function of their elected jobs and concerns of their peoples, those concerns always without fail being shelter, food, healthcare, and peace. A debate in June when neither have been nominated be either party? Why? Closed debate…Why? Two people who represent the masses in no way at all…Why? Completely ignoring America failing economy diplomacy and wars the world over…Why? Why are we having such an unusually run “debate” and a such a peculiar date far before the November election?
https://sputnikglobe.com/radio_the_critical_hour/
Democrats have really boxed themselves in here. Four years ago they made Kamala the Vice-Presidential candidate as they needed Californian voters in 2020 and it worked. Fast forward to 2024 and party operatives realize that if old Joe goes, then Kamala becomes Madame President and will be the face and voice of America for the next four years. But they can hardly dump her as the optics would be awful. Dumping the first female, black President? Do that and kiss the black vote goodbye. Let’s see how they can square this circle in the next few months.
Harris was polling behind Andrew Yang in her home state during the primaries. The donor class made her the VP pick because she was their pick from the jump. Every attempt to sell her to the public has failed, because she is an objectively terrible candidate.
I don’t doubt the punditry would frame any attempt to sideline her as racist and sexist, but IMO, they’d be more at risk of kissing the Hillary voters goodbye. These are the voters who are all in on “First Woman President” as long as it’s not Jill Stein.
Perhaps she’s committed some personal indiscretions that could be presented to her at the right moment.
I keep thinking Hills is running again for some office. She’s written a new book. She’s endorsing candidates. She says she loves AIPAC. etc.
And the Clinton Foundation did bailout the Dem estab in 2016, which according the Donna Brazile book did give Hills defacto control of the Dem National Committee and Convention Committee at that time. Don’t know what the current status of the Cs and the Committees relationship is now.
Agreed, only because they can’t figure out how to slide Hunter in (seriously).
If HRC is running, will caftans be replacing pantsuits? I need advance warning to psychologically prepare myself. A person can take only so much trauma.
“Perhaps she’s committed some personal indiscretions that could be presented to her at the right moment.” Willie Brown sex tapes?
If Joe didn’t F one thing up, it was his reluctance to pick Kamala. I distinctly remember articles stating that she was forced down his throat. To state the obvious, if he held firm and picked someone slightly fit for high office, he would be in a much better position.
On another matter, Charlie Kirk had a twitter/x post yesterday that as of today it is too late to replace Joe on the WI and NV ballots (absent death). That seems odd pre-convention, but could those states require that any change from the candidate winning the primary needs to be executed in June? I will be curious to see follow-up commentary on that issue.
This yt DNC rules and bylaws Committee meeting seems to summarize the state of play re naming of candidates.
Senator, Lawyer, California, Woman, Black/ near -gen immigrant family. Yahtzee!
Fascinating to watch the vastly disparate ‘king-making’ machinations of the R and D camps. There is more than one way to skin a cat!
Remember how confident The Narrative(tm) in the press corps and inside the beltway crew was that the R party was dead until the 2030’s, at least, with Trump and the anti-choice track? Hmmmm
It’s not even July.
All more California votes can do is run up the score in the popular vote. California is the bluest of blue states. It was the other factors (representation, fundraising).
And symbolism (which translated to black voters, especially women, turning out in other states that mattered, like Wisconsin or Pennsylvania, or at least it was expected.)
Which would have worked better had Harris actually commanded significant black support.
>>>California is the bluest of blue states.
There is also the political corruption that gives the Democratic Party effective control of election process by controlling the legislature and the courts. They are like the Mob. Or should I say it is the party’s leadership? What the citizens of the state want is irrelevant.
It helped that when the Republicans had some power in California they instituted electric market reforms. Then Enron with the help of the Bush White House started screwing with the market by shutting down power plants for “maintenance “ with a result of astronomical electricity prices and rolling blackouts. When you mess up first world necessities you won’t get power again for awhile.
It was fun listening to the radio during the morning commute trying to figure out if my job or my home would have power that day.
“…giving 2 insultingly unqualified and totally inappropriate people a forum to be President…”
That Trump and biden are in any way equal as “candidates” is the most mind-blowingly dishonest “democracy theater” that has ever been foisted on this increasingly deteriorating nation. It confers a “legitimacy” on biden, as a “candidate,” that he neither deserves nor is capable of delivering.
Love him or hate him, with Trump, what you see is what you get.
With biden, “voters” are consenting to be governed by an unnamed and unknown cabal of handlers, who use his diminished capacity to implement “policies” that could never stand the scrutiny of “elections,” since they are consistently antithetical to what is laughingly referred to as “the will of the people.”
After Thursday night, no one should doubt the truth of that statement.
biden’s enfeebled brain appears to be capable of only one thought–he’s the “president”, dammit, and he’s going to stay the “president.” This irrationality, a symptom of his progressing dementia, is being relentlessly and cynically exploited as political “strength” and “resolve” by those desperately seeking to keep and wield power in his name.
Col. Douglas MacGregor puts it better than I can in this important 5-minute statement made after Thursday’s debate.
https://x.com/ChuckCallesto/status/1806858776433090668
“With biden, “voters” are consenting to be governed by an unnamed and unknown cabal of handlers, who use his diminished capacity to implement “policies” that could never stand the scrutiny of “elections,” since they are consistently antithetical to what is laughingly referred to as “the will of the people.”
We’ve got “Presidents.” For all we know, Hillary could be one of the acting “Presidents.”
Thanks for saying that, it’s true to my own memory. Biden was rather insistent that he alone could save democracy, and Obama tried to dissuade him, for about two minutes probably. The twitter keeps telling me tho that the reason Obama wanted Joe was to contain Hillary.
Three interesting names; Obama, Clintion, Biden. I’m not sure I can think of 3 other names that has f’ed up more things than these three – including the current democratic party.
How about they all go away and soon. Wishful thinking I know. Still wouldn’t surprise me “it’s her turn Hillary” gets her warmongering ass in the nomination seat just so she can get smoked by Trump.
As far a Trump, he’s a blowhard bullshitter without a doubt, but he will also try to screw this up buy not keeping his mouth shut (he can’t) and making a real dumb VP pick like Rubio or Carson. I don’t think people want retreads and/or warmongers (Rubio).
If he had any brains he would pick Tulsi and win in a landslide. Just my 2c
timbers thanks for the link to Wolff’s interview. Worth the 20 minute listen —
> Biden-Trump debate aftermath
Anyone else get the feeling Democrats covering for Biden are like the shopkeeper in the Monty Python ‘Dead Parrot’ sketch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZw35VUBdzo
That’s good and definitely quite funny. Monty Python is a little ahead of my time but I always appreciate the pop culture references.
Speaking of funny comedy and biting satire, I’ve long thought this American election year is pushing the very limits of what a great mind like, for a key example, Mel Brooks might cook up. I still contend that we are more in Caddyshack territory…with the odd golf references Thursday evening. Snobs vs Slobs.
He did look like he was pining for the fjords a few times.
It is inevitable. Hezbollah is full committed while Western and Israeli governments continue to circle the drain. Besides, Israel sufferring under a blitz of Hezbolah rockets will give the settlers the opportunity they need to launch mass pogroms in the West Bank, so they’ll be committed too. Did I mention the Congressional Bill which prevented the State Dept from stopping private arms sales to Ben Gvirs interior ministry?
Want to bet that Hezbollah has all of the major “settler” infrastructure in the West Bank targeted already? Those “Settler Colonists” will be too busy recovering from the destruction of their own enclaves to do much pogroming for the first few days after a Hezbollah main strike. Also, does anyone know the relative para-military ‘strength’ of the Hamas and aligned groups in the West Bank? If the settlers cannot get meaningful support from an IDF bogged down in southern Lebanon, the calculation shifts significantly. Then, there is the Palestinian diaspora just across the West Bank border in Jordan. Who imagines that they don’t get involved in the case of an expanded war? The Amman government might have to “look the other way” simply to survive intact.
From the tone of her defiant words after the presidential debate, I imagine that even were Biden to die, First Lady Jill would insist he is fit to continue, and strap him into a campaign car as El Bid.
Heh, heh, heh. El Bid indeed-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGMJsgLRe8M (6:19 mins)
But more likely “Weekend at Bidens”
That might be why they have Biden wearing sunglasses so often these days. We’re being conditioned for any future contingencies.
An Aviator index, like the hemline and other indices? Or maybe contra-indicators, lol 😂.
Seymour Hersh weighs in on Biden:
https://twitter.com/doughenwood/status/1806822977595445554
This to me is a MUCH bigger deal than it appears. Hersh is a CIA whisperer, sometimes of dissidents, sometimes of messaging and trial balloons.
This says the knives are really out. Members of the Blob are directly attributing the Administration’s disastrous foreign policy to Biden’s dementia. That means they see him as a danger.
I don’t see Biden living to November if he does not step down. Trivially easy to do him in. He’s on so many meds, just up the stimulant content to induce a heart attack. The only difficulty there would be delaying the arrival of medical professionals long enough so he could not be saved.
In my knee-jerk contrarian way, I am also skeptical about the notion that Obama intervened to save Biden. IMHO, he intervened to keep the press speculation and jousting among wanna-bes down. I think it is entirely possible Obama is working very hard on a resolution given the bad givens, and wants the appearance of staying the present course to give him as much flexibility and control as possible.
This plot line possibility is taking on shades of the ending of the original House of Cards with Ian Richardson. “Are we safe, Elizabeth? Are we safe now?” “Yes, Francis,we’re safe now, very safe.” Rifle shot!, ordered by Elizabeth.
I agree on Obama’s role. His seemingly kind and gentle hand on Biden’s back a couple weeks ago as they left a fundraising stage (in LA?) was really another knife in the back–an acknowledgment that Biden is too far gone and needs to be eased out. The Big O is working on getting his next hand-picked person into the race. We just have to wait to see who it is.
Obama and Newsome are playing this right, defending ol’ Joe all the way up until the switch happens.
Same. Something about it. I just don’t see Obama’s tweets as “final word.” More like buying time. I’m sure there’s been a plan and we’re starting to see it moving into action.
Kinda like how The Goodfellas plays out.
Don’t underestimate the ego involved and the defense of legacy as motivating factors.
Interesting the Hersh cites arming Ukrainians as a reason the spooks are fed up with him. That does lend credence to your idea about Obama’s intervention since Obama had refused to arm Ukraine after the coup in 2014, one of the few smart things he did, and one that the Blob has completely memory holed.
Obama and the CIA are independent. I in now way depicted their actions as coordinated in my comment. Please do not straw man me.
If I recall correctly, Biden was coherent enough to exclaim that Putin would trample westward across Europe if unchallenged.
Would that the moderators had followed up to pin him down on whether he would support a peace initiative that included an outcome other than Russia pulling back out of Ukraine in toto.
In other words, I question whether there’s a contradiction with respect to Ukraine if Biden’s true strategy is to fund Ukraine to take as many arrows as it can possibly withstand.
David Ignatius (WaPo); “Why Biden didn’t accept the truth that was thee for all to see”. The “Deep State” knives are out. Donald Trump is leading in the polls. He is the anti-war candidate who will avoid Doomsday. Matt Taibbi is correct there was a coordinated response to remove Joe Biden but it quickly ran into Dr. Jill Biden, Barrack Obama, the fact that there are no alternatives, and the desperate need to stay onboard the gravy train.
The truth is in January 2025 if Joe Biden is sworn in, again, the Blob will continue with the greatest delusion in the world that the Western Empire is still the global hegemon. The inevitable Western collapse will be violent. Every battle lost. The war with China devastating.
On the other hand, a Trump 2025 inaugural will initiate an internal civil conflict, a clean sweep of the executive branch, and the secession of Red and Blue States if the True Believers and the Professional Class — Nationalist Oligarchs’ and the Global Elites’ Overseers — go to war with each other. This is the first skirmish of the likely future war.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is going full speed ahead in the complete deregulation of business by the corporate-state, the termination of government by and for the American people, the end of clean air/water and safe workplaces, and no public health system. The placing of profits above all else.
Trump is not anti-war. He is only sorta anti the war in Ukraine.
Many in DC think that Ukraine has become a drain of effort and resources, weakening our ability to take on China, the real enemy. So there is a lot ofsupport for getting out of Ukraine or at least reducing our commitment if we can do so without too much loss of face.
Non Twitter link–no paywall
https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/who-is-running-the-country
The apparently prominent role of his wife in preventing a stepping aside makes one wonder whether there may be more Biden dirty laundry than we know about. Since he obviously won’t make it through another term or even to an inauguration then why pretend?
Thanks for link. I found the part about Tom Donilon isolating Biden on Foreign Policy interesting, He and his brother allegedly prepped Biden for the debate. Plus Tom Donilon’s wife has worked for Jill Biden, as chief of staff. Apparently, Donilon antagonized Trump with law suits in 2018.
From the Council on Foreign Relations:
Thomas E. Donilon (born 1955) is a former national security advisor to President Barack Obama and a distinguished fellow at CFR.
He also chairs the BlackRock Investment Institute and has worked with three U.S. presidents since 1977.
Class Warfare
Wealthy Americans are anxious about making ends meet Fox Business
Has anyone else noticed that home prices are still rising? Years into the Fed high interest rate policy (I would call it a normalish rate interest policy) home prices have not declined at all, and are in fact rising according the latest Case-Shiller report. The money to support this has to be coming from somewhere. Corporations buying homes?
Why didn’t CNN ask the candidates about that? Why not ask them how they plan to address the crisis in lack of affordable housing for Americans, and their plans to address that as well what they plan to do to stop American wages from falling and how are they going to control exploding profits at corporations who are using those profits to buy up all of America’s housing…making housing unaffordable to Americans and their families?
Granted, I have only been around a few decades as a working poor, but I don’t recall prices for anything retrenching. Oil and gas fluctuate, my theory because there truly does appear to be a global marketplace and competition. But I remember as a little kid, standing next to my Dad, while he filled the car and I enjoyed the fumes of the petrol flowing in to the tank…18.9 pennies per gallon. Loaf of bread at local Bakery was a quarter. Prices go up. I believe a hope for lower cost housing is unrealistic and empirically a deluded notion.
It’s the rocket ship up, and the nominally tilted inclined plane down, if at all.
New floors of costs are established, wages woefully lack and lag, but do seem to begrudgingly trail along.
A 2″ x 6″ or sheet of plywood or sheet rock cost more than they did in the 1990’s. Trades bill 2x or more what they did in the 1990’s. Land has gone up a lot.
Finite resources in a closed loop spaceship, cross-pollinated by the clever fellers on Wall Street and the Banks. How much money did Hank Paulson flow out to the economy when he pulled out his yellow legal tablet and asked for a cool 780 Billions? That multiplied tenfold, pronto, and then went dark and really took off like Covid in winter. All that hot money flowing around the world, dispassionately, at the speed of light. Prices had to be impacted as it landed and took off again. Flip it, realize the gain. Rinse and repeat. Et voila, we have 640 acres ( a Section) of 9-animal-unit ground in MT and WY trading in the 5 million dollar range, if it has a view of blue mountains and a jet-port within an hour. There is no way a producer can make ag land prices in the Rockies pencil… perhaps on a five or six generation basis, barring catastrophe. And we are planning and thinking on a quarter-to-quarter basis, or a two or four year election cycle, much less the seven year business cycle (what happened to the 7 year business cycle? Hanging with Buehler or Elvis? ) very few farm or ranch families are still in the business after three generations.
I recall reading… probably here… that there were 14 million vacant housing units in the US. Right now.
Mr. Market mis-allocates. When greed and power and account balances are the primary value, people do not matter.
but all those 1’s and 0’s ($) were just tranched and sliced and diced and CDO-ed into more1’s and 0’s($)…and on and on the party goes, for our betters.
as for land prices…lol, dont get me started.
some fool with fracking money comes out and buys a distressed legacy ranch(a section or 2) that the sons of pioneers dont want…pays way over market value…and suddenly our place is “worth” a lot more, at least according to the tax assessor.
i will say that a handful of those old pioneer families around here have been smart, and are still going strong.
the ones who went with a trust and various llc’s and such…grew up some lawyers and accountants along the way in the last 150 years.
after 20 years of lobbying and cajoling, thats what my mom finally got done…we’re a trust.
and i, personally, only own a beat up old truck and a more beat up old trailerhouse in the woods.
and ive been encouraging both boys, that if they fall in love at some point, to make certain she’s a lawyer or an accountant(or a nurse!) and competent at it.
like ive told them since they could speak: on the main economics shelf in my library, there’s Smith, Marx and Puzo…all in a row.
the latter is how it really works.
All that debt out there also has collateral on paper.
The easy money era: easy money, take out loan and use money to buy assets that keep inflating. Then it has to be remembered that assets are collateral for loans.
If assets aren’t liquid, loans help with cash flow. And, again, loans need collateral.
Securities and real estate can be an asset or collateral.
It could raise the anxiety if one reflected too hard about it.
I wondered about this too.
How the hell can supply be the issue, if life expectancy is falling and a couple million Americans died early b/c of COVID?
Supposedly the US population is still growing, albeit much more slowly than any time in recent history. And new construction rates cratered during COVID and haven’t gone back up, while older housing does get demolished here and there or rendered uninhabitable, so potentially the supply is shrinking, I suppose.
Around me – anecdotal I know, but – it seems driven by sellers chasing the “next tier” of home prices. A couple years ago, my area had the entry level stuff & townhomes priced around $250K, then the slightly nicer ones around $300-$350K, then a jump to newer construction at $500K, and then the McMansions and “drug baron” places over $1MM.
Now those tiers are: entry level $350-$400 (and some sellers REALLY stretching to get their house to $500K, $500+, $750K-$1MM, and the drug baron places are well into the multi-millions.
Needless to say, salaries haven’t kept up, AND with the squeeze for higher interest rates, you’re paying a tier above what you would’ve paid just 2-3 years ago. It’s insane.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/texas-house-prices-fall-in-multiple-cities/ar-BB1p3I66
Texas House Prices Fall in Multiple Cities
Post from Wolfstreet:
Snippet:
Sales of homes of over $1,000,000: +22.6% YoY
Sales of homes of $750,000 to $1,000,000: +12.9% YoY
Sales of homes of $500,000 to 750,000: +6.9%
Sales of homes $250,000 to 500,000: +1.0%
Everything below fell.
“Wealthy Americans are anxious about making ends meet”
Just take you most indebted credit card and bend it carefully until the upper right edge¹ and the lower left edge¹ encounter their opposites – This will induce a never-ending state of financial bliss, that is called ‘When ends meet’.
[Inspired by a fictitious sketch of George Carlin bending a credit card to show how easy it is to ‘make ends meet’]
¹Also called the ends of the wealth range
excellent!
i shall find that sketch and send it to the boys.
they are forever tempted by the credit demon…and encouraged in this temptation by all and sundry, the weight of whos arguments is accentuated by their apparent wealth, relative to nay-saying dear old dad(i have one debt…the hardware lady…which i will pay off soon)
$125,000 per year? Those aren’t wealthy Americans. Those are modestlly affluent Americans.
” Wealthy” should mean having several million dollars at least.
The sondage exclusif from TF1 is interesting indeed. It signals a return to left-right politics and what may be termed the emergence of France from the swamp of neoliberalism and half-hearted post-gaullism.
Results (which are easy to read even in French): Les candidats du Rassemblement national, en tête, sont crédités de 36,5% d’intentions de vote au premier tour (+0,5). Le RN devance donc toujours le Nouveau Front populaire (29%, =) et le camp présidentiel Ensemble (20,5%, -0,5). Loin derrière, Les Républicains recueillent 7% des intentions de vote (+0,5).
RN (Le Pen and Bardella) at 36,5 percent. The left at 29 percent. The article goes on to assign 225 to 265 of 577 seats to the right and 170 to 200 or so to the left.
The biggest loser is the EU.
Years of neoliberal fantasies of the Macron-ites have led to many tensions in French society. I’m not sure that the results pointed to above will increase tensions.
Our French correspondents will have more to tell us about what is happening in the Hexagone.
Indeed. Macron’s gambit is that the French will freak out over the prospect of a “far-right” majority in the national assembly, and vote for moar neoliberalism. This has worked since 2002, when Jean-Marie Le Pen threatened Chirac — and the streets of Paris filled up with people yelling “shame!” —, but it looks very unlikely to play out that way this time.
Can’t vouch for it but I heard that Macron is screaming about the threat from both the far right and the far left and the only safety is with his centrist party.
And what he calls the “far” left and right between them seem to have about 80% of the electorate between them. So either the French are vastly more extreme than I find credible, or he’s using those terms without regard to any actual meaning.
There are two main takeaways from the poll. The first is that the overall picture has hardly changed since the European elections on 9 June, although direct comparisons are difficult because of shifting coalitions. What’s clear is that Macron’s attempt to scare voters with talk of “extremes” has not been reflected in an improved score for his party in the polls. As things stand, the RN is likely to claim more than a third of the votes in the two rounds, starting tomorrow and continuing on July 7. The second is that the vagaries of the French electoral system make it very hard to translate percentages of votes into numbers of seats, and the pollsters have been very reluctant to do this. However, what is most probable is that no group will have an absolute majority in the National Assembly, and local factors will produce unexpected surprise defeats and victories.
The end result of this is likely to be a France which is ungovernable, because it will be impossible to form a stable government. Bardella has said that he will not be Prime Minister unless he has an overall majority, because he does not want to fall into the trap of being responsible for developments he cannot control, and so spoil the RN’s chances in 2027. Mélenchon’s electoral alliance is full of people who hate each other, and who have totally different views about, for example, Europe.It’s very hard to see how they could mount an effective government. In the short term, constitutionalists are talking either about a Macronite (very) minority government continuing until a new government is formed (which may be never) or some type of “independent technocrat” government being agreed: here, the model is Italy.
The old organised Left/Right model of French politics is definitively broken. The old mass parties of the Left and the Republicans, the inheritors of the traditional Right, are now afterthoughts. The real divide in the country is on the one hand between “sovereignists,” from the Communists to the RN and “Europeans” ranging from the Greens to Macron’s gang and what remains of the conventional Right, on the second hand between the “peripheral” France of the countryside and the small towns and the wealthy big cities, and on the third hand between the extreme social and economic liberalism that typifies all of the established parties, and the economic radicalism and social conservatism of the majority of the French. As elsewhere in Europe, the choices available to voters don’t reflect the actual divisions in society.
A lot of people are getting very worried about the consequences of the elections. The official word is that the results of tomorrow’s round should be containable, but that if the RN do best in the second round, there could be big trouble. I think this is probably right. Both Macron and Mélenchon have, in their own clumsy ways, talked about an imminent or actual “civil war” in the country, and Mélenchon in particular seems to have identified the supporters of the RN (a third of the population) as enemies to be defeated, not voters to be convinced.) In France, politics descends into the street very quickly, and I think it might do so again.
Thanks for that excellent report. Much appreciated.
I find it difficult to reconcile the ‘firebrand’ political French(wo)man and the docile queues outside the pharmacy for their mrna jabs with almost no questions. Perhaps its because Tarn is such a bucolic place , but the only thing to get people ( farmers) riled up here is money. One of our local towns, Graulhet, is full of north african immigrants who were shipped in to replace the workers who left after the collapse of the leather industry. Now everyone says, thank goodness, they have kept the place ticking over and now its in a bit of revival. I am not aware of any ‘racial issues’.
I think this area of Tarn is likely to vote RN ( countryside and small towns), its not enamoured of the EU or Russiaphobia. Much more interested in rugby.
Thanks for that report, Aurelien. As an observer in the cheap seats, my primary concern is for Macron’s ability to escalate and send French troops to die in Ukraine. Should the RN do as well as the polls indicate, is that enough to hem him in?
To the extent that this was ever a real possibility, rather than just posturing, I think the idea is dead now. As I wrote at the time, it was at least as much jockeying for position in the post-Ukraine European security arrangements as anything else. It’s not so much the RN doing well, or at least not only that, it’s the size of Macron’s parliamentary cohort after 7 July. If the FP performs as well as expected, they and the RN will rack up the seats, and Macron’s gang could be reduced to third place, and his credibility will take an enormous hit. After that, you get into some very complicated constitutional issues about who has responsibility for the actual conduct of defence and security policy, especially in the absence of a proper government. Watch this space.
How this goes in round 2 depends partly on how effective that disparate “left bloc” has been on short notice in selecting preferred candidates for a host of seats.
If they do that well, and if the #s for Macron’s boutique party are as low or lower than the polls have them, this could lead to a reversal of the traditional pattern, in which the self-described centrists were always the other party besides RN competing for most seats in round two, leaving the “left” to hold its nose and bloc with the “center right” to stop the alleged fascists.
This time it could be the supporters of Macron’s vanity party in the unaccustomed position of doing most of the nose holding and giving of grudging support.
I did not watch the debate, nor am I going to read the commentary. A Twitter source I trust re: Covid said that during the whole debate, there was NO mention of climate change, Covid or Gaza. Is this true? That would be quite a feat of denial…..
Oh, no time for any of that. Biden was busy trying to make some points about golf.
You didn’t miss much. It was basically a two man political cattle call. B’s audition didn’t go well. / ;)
Actually all three topics were brought up. But the responses were mostly so worthless that it’s hard to remember them. I recall that when Trump was asked about climate change he went on a rant about how his administration had the cleanest water and air ever in the history of the universe (or something like that). On Gaza, I remember Biden repeating his administration line about supporting Israel while making sure to minimize unnecessary civilian casualties, etc. There were several exchanges on COVID that were equally vacuous, though Trump’s strong criticism of vaccine mandates was a relevant point in such a venue. There were a few actual points made, but it was hard to focus on them through all the noise from Trump and fuzziness from Biden.
Biden exhibited unmistakable signs of cognitive impairment, panicking his party, operatives and supporters. This was the lead story.
Trump lied – a lot. He used the debate to hammer home the narratives that resonate with his base.
Climate change was a specific question posed by the moderators.
I don’t remember what Biden said, I remember Trump stating that this country had the cleanest air and water in history when he was president. The moderators pushed Trump for specific answer on climate change.
Rush transcript here:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/27/politics/read-biden-trump-debate-rush-transcript/index.html
I skipped it too; I probably would have drank myself into an early grave. It went markedly worse for Biden than expected, apparently. This country is truly a dumpster fire. And then the Supreme Court ended part of the administrative state, so that’s gonna be fun. And we’re only half way into this year!
> NO mention of climate change, Covid or Gaza
I don’t recall much mention of climate change (Blowncue above reviews that part; all I recall from that section is the memorable boast of DJT that “We had it … H2O!”), but Covid came up in the context of DJT noting that there had been more deaths (from Covid, by implication; given DJT’s rhetorical style, one had to mentally fill that in to infer the intent behind his words) under JRB than there had been under himself (I thought this an inadequate metric, given the difference in time spans of the comparison, but it was evidently a useful rhetorical tack, and I don’t recall JRB parrying it).
Gaza also came up; IIRC DJT indirectly blamed JRB for the destruction of Gaza, on the theory that if JRB had been as tough on Iran as DJT would have been, Hamas wouldn’t have been able to mount the Oct 7 incursion and Israel would not have escalated in response (not a convincing theory, IMO, but it worked, rhetorically — “JRB was a wimp towards Iran; that’s the problem”). I don’t recall a hint of criticism of JRB’s support of the destruction of Gaza after the fact of the Oct 7 incursion.
——
There were no serious proposals from either of them for dealing with any of these issues. But that is not surprising; this was, after all, a debate between two candidates for the US presidency. Substance has no place in such a forum.
I withstood ~4 minutes!
When Biden could not get trillions and billions or millions right…….
He also did not blink while I endured, same as 4 years ago.
More bombs for Bibi and Szelenski!
Forgot the most hilarious part!
Both presidents were asked what can be done to facilitate treatment for those struggling with opioid addiction?
Question was literally deflected multiple times and then I forget who but somebody talked about advances made in destroying equipment that made fentanyl.
And that was it!
And I’m watching with my octogenarian mom and I’m yelling at the television set.
Re: River Jordan
The Israelis steal everything, even water. They are common thieves and uncommon murderers. Is the real reason that Israel exists, to stop these criminals from returning to their homelands in Europe? 🤔
Criminals from homelands in Europe stole whole continents. No one knows what prevents them from returning.
After you steal a whole continent there’s no reason to leave.
I recall visiting Amman in 2003 and being stunned to learn that the capital of Jordan didn’t have enough water. The city had to ship water in.
For a while I have been wondering if there was a process of natural selection acting during WW2, with the result that the survivors of the war and of the concentration camps wound up [as a group] being somewhat more hardy, but also more ruthless, and perhaps unprincipled, than those who perished.
Ask Count Bernadotte about that. (You’ll have to contact him via planchette however.)
Not to overlook Israel’s history, but the “settlers” by modern standards were in countries like the US in the 40’s. It’s why there are no Jewish Rednecks. They moved to Israel.
Prior to the war, Jewish people opposed Zionism at something like 50-1. That changed after the war. Based on what I have read, it seems to me that Zionists used methods to steer the holocaust in a preferential direction- toward anti-Zionist Jews, who where the most potent opposition to their project. Nobody wants to talk about this, but the evidence is there if you look. It is well documented that the UK and USA denied Jewish refugees at the instruction of Jewish community leaders in those countries who were rabid Zionists. Ben Gurion openly stated that if all of the Jewish children in Europe could be saved by transporting them to the US/UK, it would still be better to save only half of them if they were instead sent to Palestine. Zionists made use of the holocaust to further their despicable project. There are books on this. Tony Greenstein has talked about it (there are interviews with him on youtube- I think Electronic Intifada had him fairly recently), and there is direct evidence of Zionist collaboration with Nazis (there is a book with primary sources called 51 Documents documenting this). There were also reports that some of the Zionists groups operating in Europe (Stern Gang, Irgun, etc) were permitted by the Nazis in some areas to go into newly captured communities and round up those willing to immigrate/be deported (the Zionists) in exchange for the names of remaining Jews (the Anti-Zionists)- and if you think about this, it makes sense because in Eastern Europe, many Jews who were secular simply did not stand out to non-Jews, so how else could they have been identified? So basically, based upon my own reading over the past 20-odd years, the holocaust was more selective than people have generally been permitted to understand or know. This is a very dirty secret that seems to have been well kept in western society. It never ceases to amaze me what terrible, evil people Zionists are. There are also lots of reports that holocaust survivors, who were more likely to be eastern European, and seen as communist sympathizers, were prejudiced against in early Israel- the Zionists have always been Fascists. One difference between the Zionists of yore and contemporary ones, is that early Zionists did not see Arabs as subhuman- they just wanted the land, and they openly recognized that Arab resistance was logical. This resistance simply had to be overcome. However, when you treat people that way, you have to program the populace in such a way as to make them accepting of atrocities committed against the indigenous, so that is why the dehumanization took place. The downside to this is that the modern Zionists began to believe in their own innate superiority to the point where something like 10/7 could happen. Israel likely did indeed hear about Palestinian plans, but “cockroaches” do not have to be taken seriously.
At any rate, I am glad to see it coming to an end, even if I am appalled at the sacrifices that must be made by the Palestinians and others in the resistance.
‘COMBATE |🇵🇷
@upholdreality
🥰 China is collecting submarine detectors the US is dropping in the South China Sea’
Rumour has it that the Chinese are stripping them down for their chips to be sent on to the Russians to be put in their missiles. Sure beats washing machine chips.
About those maritime drills— in 1978, another period of “tension” between Empire and Russia, I got a free trip to Japan (to carry the bags for my ex-wife, another story.) Part of our ten days there was three days in the Suginoi Hotel, a large hot-springs resort in Beppu, on the southern island of Japan.
This place had many public baths, of various themes. I happened to pick the “Hanging Gardens” one day. Typical custom: get naked, wash yourself thoroughly, then into the huge, steaming pool with islands and greenery and a glass roof.
So I’m in the giant ofuro, relaxing and half asleep, when there’s a commotion by the changing-shower area. Three American naval officers there, all high intensity testosterone. They stripped down, eschewed the cleansing, and dove into the pool (about a meter deep.) Seeing me, the only other gaijin in the place, they wade on over. They were a pretty happy bunch, showing the effects of maybe a too much Suntory or sake or Kirin. The Japanese in the pool either got out, or retreated to far corners.
It seems these three were from the crews of a US guided missile frigate and guided-missile destroyer, doing a “port call” in Beppu. We talked, they heard I was a Vietnam (Army, booo!) vet. Two claimed to be the tactical officers on the two ships. Turned to politics a bit.
Japan at that time had. “Rule” that nuclear weapons were not allowed in Japanese territory. These guys were from ships that had been playing bumper cars with Russian warships in the Sea of Japan. They allowed as how they had “tagged” a Russian destroyer in the game, sliding up beside it and bumping it beam to beam.
I just had to ask about nuke weapons on board, in light of the Japanese prohibition.They deflected. I asked how likely could it be that a real shooting war might break out in these waters, and they allowed as how it might be pretty likely, almost as if they could hardly wait to put those Commies in their place. These guys were inebriated, so being an old-style hippie liberal, I asked again if there were nukes in the mix of available weapons. Yes, just like their Russian enemy. Got to maintain force supremacy, or at least parity, after all. They started talking about tactics, and bragged that they held the keys to US anti-ship missiles.
And they acknowledged that the theater was on a hair trigger, the level of hostility between competing, testosterone-infused forces was pretty high. They were pretty cavalier about the fact that suddenly a lot of tonnage f ships, including their own, could be incinerated and on their way to the bottom. Not gong to allow the Commies to survive to brag,, if they were going to die.
The reason for the delegation of launch authority seemed to be that the “horizon time” for radar detection of incoming Russian surface-to-surface was only minutes to seconds, so firing decisions had been delegated down to them because no time for a “chain of command.” So World War III could easily have started here due to trigger-happiness on either side, or false returns on the radar. One of many ways it could have started, and it’s not hard to find the many events during the Cold War when misadventure and stupidity and Murphy’s Law could have been triggered and almost was.
And of course the stuff about delegation might have been macho bullshit, but logically it made sense.
War is the natural state of humanity, given the givens. And we mopes have no idea how close we are to proof of that observation of Liet-Keynes in “Dune,” that the most persistent principles in the universe are accident and error.
Another vignette: ex and I were being escorted around by a driver who was former commander in the defeated Japanese navy. Spoke pretty good English, and in conversation made plain that he, 33 years after the surrender, felt no guilt or remorse about the war or his part in it. His principal observation was that if only Yamamoto had not attacked Pearl Harbor, the Japanese would now be running the imperial game in the “Indo-Pacific,” not the Americans.
Stupid effing humans.
It’s safe to say that “rule” has been bent before and since, too, e.g., nukes on ships at other ports, like Yokosuka, right on Tokyo Bay. My guess would be that there’s fine print somewhere in the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, such that a US base doesn’t “count” as Japanese territory, so the US military can bring in nukes and the Japanese authorities will look the other way.
If Kishida and his gang succeed in rewriting the Japanese Constitution (gotta remove all that popular sovereignty and human rights nonsense, and get back to Emperor worship), they may not need to be coy about it in the future.
On the subject of WW III, Emmanuel Todd published a book in Japanese last spring, arguing that it has already begun.
Maybe he’s not wrong.
It should be noted that the LDP has lost popularity due to the assassination of Shinzo Abe revealing ties between the LDP and the Unification Church.
True, but they haven’t lost enough popularity to back off from the Constitution. They know that a majority of Japanese do not support their ambitions, but they clearly do not care.
There is an idea of “separation of Church and state” in Japan, but I would submit that most people couldn’t tell you why it is important. The existence of state Shinto (which many just see as “culture”) has effectively muddied the whole issue.
Poor Yamamoto. Getting blamed for an attack he strongly agitated against. He was one of the few senior Japanese officers who had actually lived in America before the war. He understood America’s industrial potential back then. [Not in evidence now.]
The entire Pearl Harbour attack is a rabbit hole that apparently has some real live rabbits down in it.
I believe so did General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the commander at Iwo Jima. I recommend So Sad to Fall in Battle, by Kumiko Kakehashi. Was recommended to me here probably 15 years ago. I like to pass these on when relevant. Quite a few book recommendations here over the years.
The Doomsday Machine by Ellsberg actually covers this distributed launch authority in detail, delegation. Nuclear annihilation is always a bit closer than we might wish for. An almost nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis is the most notable occurrence, and I believe Ellsberg covers this as well, where we spooked a Russia submarine and that might have led to the release of a nuclear torpedo.
Delegation of authority implies one cannot launch without authority.
I was an eyes on witness to a non authorized land based launch that achieved its target. I was living in a Pacific country at the time.
To this day I do not know why there were no consequences. However, since it was subsonic, I have always assumed there was time for a phone call.
We are ruled by accidents and incompetence.
Ana in Sacramento
Great story, JT. Daniel Elsberg said the same thing in his book: the US had multiple nukes in Okinawa, and the local commanders had authority to fire them on their own initiative. Use ’em or lose ’em.
Bush 41 announced the policy that US ships would not deploy with nuclear weapons. Prior to that “Neither confirm nor deny” was the official posture.
I don’t think that story is an accurate statement of US nuclear command and control; will leave it at that.
And yes, I was qualified as Tactical Action Officer in a destroyer and frigate. The concept of TAO was developed to provide weapons release authority 24/7 without waiting for the CO, but it’s not like that was the status simply because we were deployed and “around” soviets.
Mostly the concern was sub-launched anti-ship missiles like SS-N-9 that would be “late detects”.
Some further ideas on the Democrat and Republican self-meltdown. At a certain point in life, one realizes that many problems, including many of the big problems, are self-caused.
First: Dealing with the Republicans. Many Democrat-types are posting on Facebk and elsewhere that the Republican Party is now a creature of Trump. This is a misapprehension.
–The Republicans are all about will to power. The goal is power. Once in power, the only fiscal policy is tax cuts.
–The will to power is obvious in such old barnacles as Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz. It is equally as obvious with Tom Cotton (who I find somehow louche) and Josh Hawley (Tartuffe with a gym-toned bod)
–The blabber about weaponization of government and influence of those darn Chinese commies are other tactics in the will to power. No one ever accused these Republicans of being civil libertarians.
Democrats: I hate to disappoint (well, in fact I don’t hate to disappoint), but the woes of the Democrats are not about “identity politics.”
–The Democratic Party is where social movements go to die. This is well known. We see the residues in the the black misleadership caucus, bright and shiny acceptable gay peeps like Pete Buttigieg, and the wreckage of feminism in Hillary Clinton.
–So what is going on? First, let’s think of class. The Democratic Party is dominated by lawyers. Those who aren’t lawyers are management consultants. The party pays their way.
–Biden and Harris both are lawyers. Obama and Harris are both “biracial” lawyers with rather thin careers. Jake Sullivan, Blinken, and both Clintons are lawyers. I detect a pattern.
–Being lawyers, they are not known for taking the long view. We are a long way from country lawyer Sam Ervin who likely remembered every client in his long career.
–Has Nancy Pelosi ever worked in the private sector? Yet she’s rich. Hmmm. Back to the point above: The party pays her way and lets her loot.
The result is that the Democrats destroyed their bench. (Lawyers and short-sightedness, eh.) Who’s presidential timber?
–JB Pritzker actually has a record. He surprised me (and then I decamped to the Undisclosed Region). But he has no national presence. In yesteryear, the Democrats would cultivate their governors. After Bill Clinton, no.
–Pete Buttigieg. Why not a mediocrity?
–Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Area of expertise = corruption.
–Delegate Simulacrum Stacy Plaskett. Epstein adjacent = an advantage among the Dems.
What we are seeing is a party that loves power for the sake of power, which is a form of vanity, against a husk of a party, no longer compos mentis enough even to invoke Eleanor Roosevelt.
I will be voting for Jill Stein.
But but the law is about “justice.” Or, alternately, they are trained advocates who help their clients navigate a system created by, wait for it, lawyers (see Dershowitz, Alan).
At any rate you make a good point which could explain all the “lawfare” not to mention the “rules based.”
And just as an aside one of my favorite TV shows from the last few years was Better Call Saul which was all about lawyers and their foibles. It framed the criticism by, in part, including characters whose motives are not impure.
Carolinian: Your use of the term trained advocates may point to the problem. The adversarial (common law) system is inherently weak, and the proliferation of lawyers in the 1970s may have caused a breakdown. Gone are the days when a lawfirm of 50 lawyers would have been considered big. Now there are firms with thousands of lawyers—and the locusts must have fodder. Lawfare.
Likewise, these giant lawfirms have eroded social trust. Meanwhile, U.S. culture is still in the realm of Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.
I worked for lawyers in the 1970s and 1980s. Like almost all Americans, they consider themselves great negotiators. They were embarrassingly bad.
There is no one like Atticus Finch in the mid / / upper echelons of the Democratic Party. Instead, there is the Delegate Simulacrum AttackDog Stacy Plaskett.
Political parties have trouble maintaining a moral compass. Parties infested by lawyers don’t stand a chance.
Isn’t interesting that the more lawyers that there are, the more expensive and unaffordable they are to the people who need them?
It is the same with both political parties; governing (or lawyering) is not the point. Looting is the point, the more parasitical, the better, with the Republicans with their will-to-power being of no difference. True, the Republicans get their jollies by stomping on the lower or inferior classes, but so do the pseudo-technocratic Democrats “fighting for access” for the helpless, unwashed, and ignorant, masses. One stomps and the other condescends. The stompers are more honest and less annoying to me.
I think that both parties are merging in their opinions of the needy with it becoming the Victorian belief of the worthy and unworthy poor, with the worthy, who deserve and should get help, being a very small minority. Goes with the whole Deplorables bit, and it gives them an excuse for their failures to govern.
Because neither wing of the Uniparty can or is even willing to govern, just how can they expect to stay in power for much long? People require that water, sewage, electricity, and food all be available, if it is not, there is no reason for them to support the parties, which is how empires die. I just look at the ongoing fire season and if it again becomes another overly long season of burning towns and blackouts, it will not be about the inability as much as the unwillingness to deal with the season, it just shortens the time before the government starts to collapse. Yapping about the fake or manufactured social and economic pseudo issues while failing to do only delays the collapse very slightly as anyone who has either done any thinking or reading of history would know.
I guess this means neither party has a backbench of competent politicians because a failure to govern, which both parties are doing, does not require the same cause; the Republicans just have a few competent people as their method of stalking and killing their prey requires a little more brains than the Democrats more vampiric tactics.
Why burden oneself as a government employee or elected with the sorry, unpleasant, zero-sum game of governing, when all the complex decisions are already fully outsourced to corporations and their trade associations and lobbyists and lawyers? When the gilded, rococo dirigible of “government” is almost fully untethered to the dirty commonplace below?
JBird4049: Touché
Pritzker seems to have done some good things for Illinois as governor. When I was recently homeless and looking for affordable housing, I was surprised that Illinois had a few laws that would have benefited me as a poor, sick, older homeless person, laws that my Midwestern state does not have.
Moving to Illinois would have been difficult given my circumstances but probably would have put me in an overall better situation in both housing and healthcare. Since I finally found an affordable apartment in my own state, I stayed here.
In doing my research, I was somewhat impressed with Illinois as a place for vulnerable populations as opposed to my own state (which granted is at the bottom of the barrel). I am referring to smaller cities and towns in Illinois rather than Chicago (which is a whole different story).
This is just an opinion from someone living outside of Illinois, so if NCers from Illinois have a totally different view, please correct me.
Lena: Agreed. Illinois is not the mess that our friendses, especially in California and the Sun Belt, like to portray it. Chicago has plenty of urban problems, and one of its problems is that the citizens have this rather folkloric belief that Chicago is ungovernable and that corruption is a natural part of life. So they fall for evil clowns like Rahm Emanuel.
Northwestern Illinois, around Galena, Savanna, and Mount Carroll, is quite pretty, with much to recommend it. If you can get a little escape, and you like small towns, they are worth a peek.
As someone who loves 19th century architecture, I have visited historic Galena and enjoyed it very much. I also have a fondness for Galesburg and its many historic buildings. Both towns are well worth visiting, especially for history buffs.
Agree on Pritzker, although I haven’t decamped yet. He’s impressed me favorably as governor. I was disappointed and nauseated by his recent pandering statements on Biden’s Gaza position and on his willingness to broom demonstrators off the expressway to ensure a telegenic convention, both obviously meant to keep him well-positioned for higher office. But I’d still support him over anybody else who’s been discussed in 2024.
Admittedly Trump has bloated the bar, but I believe Pritzker is just too fat to become president. They don’t make Tafts like they used to.
“The Democratic Party is where social movements go to die.”
With the exception of LBGTQ, which is in steroids now.
Giving activists brief free rein is a fine tool for destroying them. Viz: BLM, climate action, transsexual whatever. Democrats may be stupid, but they are cynical.
Team Blue had claimed credit for the eggorts of activists via the courts. James Baker should get the accolades showered on Hillary.
To swim against the pro-JB current….
JB is a Pritzker scion (I thought that the GOP was the party of big money!).
JB’s record in Illinois was helped by lots of federal Covid stimulus that helped the state, Chicago, and Cook County kick a lot of cans to 2025 to 2030.
taming the Illinois Democratic machine to win an Illinois primary is one thing—-the national stage is quite another and JB is not charismatic enough (IMO);
But hey, the Dems. have lots of other 100x-millionaires to choose from: Newsome and Jared Polis (if you ever wondered where all that Blueartsmountain-dot-com E-greeting card money went.)
Re: “Biden has a cold.” Rich from the Columbia Journalism Review. Is it possible that the author does not know this headline harkens back to Kremlinology where Kruschev was actually dead but Politburo said he was under the weather? Also, this unacknowledged cognitive impairment (Biden) by self or staff is likely Covid sequelae and incredibly dangerous for the entire world.
Thanks for sharing that historical texture. I must admit that part flew over my head. The Covid part, OTOH, came to mind immediately. Given the effort expended on Covid denial the last four years, the unintended irony of that excuse is pretty rich.
‘He’s not dead, he’s pining for the fjords!’
“Vote Blue (Parrot) No Matter Who!”
Paid for by the Whoville Chamber of Commerce
See: “The Trump That Stole Christmess.”
“Biden has a cold.” That’s an excuse.
Other supporters are complicit in this act of irresponsibility and they’re trying to back out and still look good:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/28/opinion/biden-election-debate-trump.html
The Editorial Board
To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race
“..At Thursday’s debate, the president needed to convince the American public that he was equal to the formidable demands of the office he is seeking to hold for another term. Voters, however, cannot be expected to ignore what was instead plain to see: Mr. Biden is not the man he was four years ago…”
Four years ago, Biden wasn’t the man he was four years ago!!
All nuclear weapons in the US arsenal including those at sea and overseas must be ‘safed’ and rendered inoperative for at least 5 days to restore function.
The world is not safe with Biden and the US’ H bombs.
‘Lakota Man
@LakotaMan1
So, in 2005, after a vow of 100 summers of silence, Northern Cheyenne tribal historians revealed that it was a female warrior, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, who killed Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer (by clubbing him in the head) at the Battle of Little Bighorn. June 25, 1876.’
After the battle, two women supposedly pierced his ears with awls so that he would hear better in the afterlife as he had ignored their warnings in the present. I wonder if Buffalo Calf Road Woman was one of those two women. I had assumed that those two women were from the camp looking for wounded and maybe some loot but maybe those women were women warriors instead.
Custer got as good as he gave.
But Forked Tongues have pretty much had the last laugh. Even in casino looting.
Wondering who will have the last gasp.
Custer was graduated early from West Point due to the civil war. When George Meade was appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, he was given authority to promote some promising officers. On the advice of his Chief of Cavalry (Pleasonton) he promoted three promising cavalrymen to brigadier, including Custer. Custer’s performance at Gettysburg and subsequent actions justify that promotion. It’s fair to say Custer contributed to the successful prosecution of the war and subsequent end of slavery.
Reminded me of this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7_c-R7i8F4
ima print her out and frame her for the wilderness bar.
it says somewhere on a board around here:”custer died for your sins”…for to stimulate the numerous redneck friends my eldest brings around.
(thats one of the more successful aphorisms ive secreted in plain sight so’s theyre noticed when someone goes and takes a leak, or sits on that particular barstump, etc.)
Carlson interviews Taibbi. utube.
Matt Taibbi: How Intel Agencies Control the Media, Putin’s Rise to Power, and 2024 Predictions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyADwZrQFqE
Thanks v. much! Apparently this just out–have recorded for later viewing.
Taibbi and Kirn did put up their regular show this week but recorded before the debate.
https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/146067577/bf4a8fdf7d806952a2847de2defd1db5.mp3
Watched all 2 hours and I never do that. Great interview. Tucker Carlson can be a bit patronizing but all in all worth the watch. Thanks for the link.
Watching it now. Carlson is annoying and always was and neither of them are camera naturals IMO.
But we are here to learn and this fits the bill–the inside dope.
Great stuff. Taibbi is very articulate about what he does. And even if one doesn’t want to watch the whole 2 hrs + the last 25 minutes or so hit home. They both agree that there’s something darker going on with our foreign policy than merely feeding the MIC. The barely functioning Biden and his Blinken/Sullivan are fanatics in a way that wasn’t even true during the Cold War.
On taking “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” too far. Giving the Israeli ultra-orthodox the benefit of the doubt because they make noises selectively about being anti-zionist. Now they don’t want to be drafted, but they do want to disrupt the functioning of government and society.
I think that USonians looking at the ultraorthodox and haredim think: Ahh, the Amish.
Would that they were the Amish. The Amish are hardworking. They are pietists and don’t seek converts. In the Great Lakes States where I am from, the Amish and Mennonites have reputations as great farmers.
The joke about that incident in Brooklyn when the group of young orthodox men were trying to dig their way in that went around was: Do any of them even know how to use a shovel?
The excessively curated religious hair-dos, the big hats, the larval bodies, the oppression of women (where are the women?): Come on. These are allies? I’ll take a pass.
The ultra-orthodox Jewish men are weak yeshiva boychiks with soft hands and poor eyesight, good only for studying Torah. They are tough guys when it comes to beating up defenseless Arabs in the streets or spitting on Christians but useless as military material. Ask them to do any real fighting and they will be crying for their mamas (to whom they are very close).
They are not our allies in any way. Their hatred directed against anyone outside their own sects, including against secular Jews, is well known. They want a “Jewish State” in Israel, they just don’t want to fight for it. The women are at home, btw, having babies and taking care of day to day life, while the men are studying Torah (women not allowed).
how do they eat, pray tell?
is there oil money?
olive, or otherwise?
The evil government pays for their living expenses. Living off the Israeli and American governments, I guess because god wants them to.
I used to live in Pennsylvania. The Menonites beat their babies — probably all these fundamentalists do, Jewish and Christian. They say it is required by the Bible.. In North Carolina when I was there, corporal punishment was allowed in the schools.
Presumably you are referring to “spare the rod spoil the child.” Perhaps they lacked the benefit of modern child psychology where one preoccupation would be “is my child trans?”
Here’s suggesting that all parents are amateurs at the job and perhaps the professionals aren’t much better. Since we the living are here to talk about it I say we should cut them some slack.
“spare the rod spoil the child.”
Spare the fentanyl spoil the Painstaker.
thats an enlightened view.
hypertolerance.
i knew i liked you,lol.
the handful of Mennonites i have known….a small community of them in fredericksburg, texas….were decent honest people by all accounts.
i didnt know them well(i bought a lot of butter from them for the cafe, back when), but they tolerated my “englishness”….and were really pretty cool for such fundamentalist conservative folk.
i only ever spoke to the men, of course…but the women were not hidden(save for the prairie dresses,etc…one of the men even laughed when i remarked that i aint one to get all out of control over an ankle showing…)
and the women….lol.
they were gorgeous.
making me think of bene gesserit breeding regimes,lol
During WWII the conscripted Mennonites were conscientious objectors and were given support jobs around the US to free up people to go overseas. The US government was very impressed by them. This also led to reforms in asylums that the Mennonites sometimes got assigned to work at.
Now… imagine someone from the Mennonite community being elected US President. The US would probably need a lottery system for that to happen. (There my have been a few to make it to Congress.)
“The Menonites beat their babies – probably all these fundamentalists do …”
Woah, Harold, that is akin to stating that all Black people are lazy, or Jews drive a hard bargain, or blondes are dumb.
The Amish I know personally are truly pacifist; they do not countenance violence against others, in word or deed. They never even raise their voices. And, they interact more with their children, in loving and constructive ways, than most of their English neighbors, who spend more time on their smart phones than talking or playing with their kids. That said, Amish are human, and I can’t swear (a word I avoid using with conversing with Amish friends) that there has never been a parent that did not swat their kid’s behind in a moment of frustration.
A few years ago i chatted with an Amish family of 5 (3 girls & boys) in traditional garb in line awaiting the Mars rover landing IMAX movie at the DC Air and Space museum. All were excited by the museum exhibits and anticipated the movie.
Let’s just say the Amish are fully human, all-too-human. In Geauga County, Ohio, one sees them in what is evidently a hired-out van buying processed food from the Walmart. Said Walmart has stables for those Amish who do not hire vans and their (Mennonite?) Drivers. The parking lot and the nearby streets (and parking lots, such as that of the local Ace Hardware) are covered in horseshit, to be cleaned at public expense if at all. In central Michigan they are notable for their driving habits. They drive their buggies down state highways at 10 pm (my personal experiences in this regard have all been on Saturday nights) sometimes with some sort of light on the buggy, sometimes with a decidedly insufficient reflector. In Clare, they drive like maniacs pulling out in front of speeding cars where there are speed limits of 35-55, more than enough to cause carnage to horse, driver, passenger and motorists. The Amish are no more deserving of romanticizing than anyone else. But–and this is the biggest of buts–when they move into a new area they do not forcibly expel Midwesterners, bomb our cities or slaughter our children.
Not the Mennonites I’ve known either in Kansas or Pennsylvania. Some do do the same formalized corporal punishment my parents applied to us as children. “That was a three whack offense, now bend over while I strike you with this paddle.” Que horror!
Japan, olympics and textiles.
Isn’t it funny that sex and war are really strong drivers for technological development and diffusion? Where would the movie and internet industries be without porn and war?
I wonder what would happen if the lunatics that want to strategically defeat and break up Russia militarily would choose the carnal ways instead. What if they would say “I would like to make love with all the beautiful ladies in Russia”? Given the givens maybe it would just dengenerate into a rape crusade… but love is still a powerful drive
‘tern
@1goodtern
This timeline is so fricking stupid.
“Los Angeles’s Mayor Was Contemplating a Mask Ban. She Just Got Covid.”‘
Of course this was people wearing masks at pro-Palestinian demonstrations as it made it harder for the police to single them out. Bonus points because Karen Bass, when younger, ‘In the 1980s, she worked as an emergency medicine physician assistant and a clinical instructor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC Physician Assistant Program.’ Obviously since then she regards cracking down on civil liberties more important than stopping Covid surging in here city-
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/25/los-angeles-mask-ban-covid
“Japan’s Olympic athletes will wear outfits designed to block infrared — and the reason is disturbing” ZME
Simple trick.
They might have to keep the Predator franchise reboots set in the past.
“‘It has officially happened’: Mechanic says he can’t work on your car because they’ve officially been locked out of computer systems”
Seems that anything connected with high-tech always ends up in a scam. One partial solution would be to buy an older car that does not have all this whiz-bang technology installed in it. Pity is that the Cash for Clunkers program of Obama led to the destruction of several hundred thousand older cars that sure would have come in use right now-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System
“One partial solution would be to buy an older car that does not have all this whiz-bang technology installed in it.”
Another benefit of work from home has been less wear and tear older cars.
My 1998 Honda does have a computer for diagnostics (which fritzs every so often), power windows and a manual shift. No frills, which is the way I wanted it when I bought it new. It still runs great with good mileage. But I’m in the rust belt so…
Shorty believes that this rule allows manufacturers to lock mechanics out of anything they “deem security sensitive.”
———————
This isn’t new, and while car companies once sold scanners allowing access to all of the car’s functions, that stopped once they began adding things like “immobilizers” and security features that hackers might access. Given all the poo flung Hyndai’s way due to the lack of security features on some of their cars I’m not sure it is valid to say just anybody should have access to alarms and electronic access. The manufacturers are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Meanwhile virtually all of a car’s problems are likely to be mechanical and still accessible to the Tiktok complainer. I know this because I have the factory HTML manual for my car. I got it off the web.
As for scam, dealer repairs always have been that. It’s where they make their money. But the car companies aren’t going to make a car that only the dealer can fix because then nobody would buy it. John Deere may be able to do this, or try to, but cars are mass market goods.
“I know this because I have the factory HTML manual for my car. ”
lol.
and people think im a badass.
my truck is a 2001(i think) dodge pickup.
i got it 20 years ago.
only one of our vehicles thats hardly ever in the shop.
hand crank windows, stick.
airbags turn off.
and if i really really have to, i can work on a lot of it…starter, alternater, oil, etc etc…everything short of taking the big stuff apart.
as far as i can discern, the tiny computer only manages the abs brakes(which wont work anyway, due to the dirt road coating the sensors,lol(abs light burned out years ago, but its still ‘on’)) and the fuel injection.
I wonder if there isn’t a future (if not present) occupation for a tech-smart person to deactivate or even reprogram a car’s chips. If I owned a late model car that I suspected could be interrogated for my driving behavior, I would definitely consider paying for such a service. And I bet there are others out there who might do the same.
Find the car’s cellular antenna then wrap it thoroughly in metal foil. Your radio probably wont work though
I think access to OBD-2 data is mandated by EPA. But that may not extend to other data newer cars might process.
Hey, no problem. COVID is an “annoyance”.
https://x.com/ashishkjha/status/1806394948805165371
At least this hack gets royally skewered in the comments…
We can now manage this virus effectively
No, actually. Managing covid requires fully understanding it and knowing how to treat it, not a hand wave at ventilation (no mention of masks?) while repeating over and over “Mild!”.
Too bad this dude is truly a moron, functionally stupid. Unaware of the literature or lying. Because of the unique protein envelope, and its affinity for ACE2 bindings, SARS2 can never be a cold. The severity of symptoms during infection in no way correlate with the damage that the virus can and does do. SARS2 is and will remain dangerous, forever.
Long-COVID was bad enough, and it was clear we were screwed back in April 2020. Early indications of vascular damage were coming out at that early a date as well. But the subsequent evidence we now have over 5 years of eugenics is overwhelming, that any infection is a risk of lasting damage, even if long-COVID is not the result. And it is abundantly clear that annual infections average 1-3 times annually. This simply is not sustainable, and will not be. The only question is how it ends.
Elimination was and continues to be the only sane approach to this, as I’d advocated for back in 2021 when the initial shots came out and seemed to provide some protection against infection. We’ll never have another chance such as that, but it’s still completely possible to strive for elimination, indeed essential. There’s literally no other course that might leave a functional society in its wake at this time.
“The only question is how it ends.”
you already answered that:”we now have over 5 years of eugenics”
its been my spidey sense opinion since feb 2020 that this whole covid thing was a herd culling attempt.
it will succeed over a long period, so as to keep important hands clean of sin…or at least plausible deniability.
lifespans will decline, more and more, over time.
the goal, i reckon, is that they decline in such a way that blame will not be placed in any way that can be successfully litigated.
the fundamental problem on earth, at the moment, is too many humans.
has been for a long while.
all the rest of the problems fit under that umbrella.
so this counts as a “green” endeavor,lol.
i’m only surprised that the big boss class went with a virus….because of the real potential for splashback on them and theirs.
might be an indicator of how bad things are when viewed through such rarefied windshields….
>>>i’m only surprised that the big boss class went with a virus….because of the real potential for splashback on them and theirs.
They are cunning, not wise. With Covid, Monkeypox, RVS, and who knows what else is percolating in the population, I think that they will get splash-back because infectious diseases are unpredictable. Pneumonic Black Death anyone?
they really are a very fearful, and therefore conservative, bunch…hence, a penchant for subtlety.
their down the road vision…thru that clearer windshield than we enjoy…must have shown horrors, indeed, if they went with this option.
of course theyre also going with the ww3 option, as well…and apparently.
i’m 35 years removed from any interaction with that class…so i cant say what their current thinking is about such things(back then, they were balls to the wall, coke fueled hyperoptimism.)
hard to parse merely rich from oligarch in the damned feedstore,lol.
.
> Hey, no problem. COVID is an “annoyance”.
Depending on the nature and widespreadness of the damage to cognitive function, this might be true in a subjective sense — people have become too brain-damaged to be more than annoyed by the damage they are experiencing.
As someone noted about the common-ness of non-self-awareness of dementia, this might be a mercy — at the individual level. At the collective level, it’s a calamity, sort of analogous to what immune function collapse is to an individual.
Re: sex toy company’s online sites selling/giving customer data to M$.
I’ve always suspected these sorts of things. Google’s “incognito” mode isn’t really incognito. Once the HTTP request hits their servers, your privacy is gone. It all gets logged plus there are tracking cookies, browser fingerprinting, etc. One time let’s just say a friend fell into sin and temptation on one device he thought was in incognito mode, and then his FB feed on a completely different device got let’s just say “spicy.”
And then there is the blackmail angle. Who wants to bet that Mike Johnson’s browser history is safe and sound on the NSA’s computers?
Could have been worse. There was a company a few years ago that was busted for spying on their customer’s internet-connected sex toys while they were in use. Some news stories, once read, can never be unread.
I was stupid to believe otherwise, but never really thought much about it. But we know from the Google Search API leaks/accidental publish to GitHub that as long suspected by SEO people, Google absolutely does use the “clickstream” from Chrome users as part of its search ranking dataset. I knew that was possible if you used Chrome by itself, but that they collected “incognito” data is the kind of causal evil that you should come to expect from Big Tech like Google. Disgusting nonetheless. (Opera was sharing my browsing data with Facebook, a consequence I think of using “Opera Link” to sync my tabs between computers. Beware!)
fortunately, i am a luddite.
this mysterious box im speaking to you on….i never trusted the damned thing from the beginning…which, for me, 1999 gateway desktop.
i always assumed that everything i did on there was sucked up into some gooberment database for later use….(my dad worked for DIA in the 60’s)
but i obtained porn anyway,lol…
and spoke my damned mind.
even unto people in power, when i was angry at being laid up waiting on a hip for 7 years.
hence, i reckon im still on a no-fly list.
and am fine with that, because i’m needed here on the farm, and cant afford to go anywhere in their deathtubes, anyways.
“AI Designs Radical Magnet Free of Rare-Earth Metals in Just 3 Months” ScienceAlert
I’ll just point out one of the bigger problems with this hyped up framing: the machine didn’t decide radical magnet free rare-earth metals were a priotity.
“Israel’s ultra-Orthodox leaders failed. That’s why they may stick with Netanyahu”
‘The Haredi education budget is the lifeblood of their society, providing an unregulated and infinite river of funding for various purposes. However, disputes with the finance ministry are obstructing the release of large sums.’
So what happens at the end of the war when the Israeli budget is totally wrecked and they have to make severe cut-backs. The Haredi educational budget would probably be the first to go.
theyll hafta learn to be subsistence farmers in the new israel of western ukraine…everything is circular,lol.
(and study the torah after dark,like regular folk)
Those Poles, cannot believe it.
First they sue the Russians for their long term gas contracts and move to on the spot pricing. The prices go up and Russians make a mint and the Poles sue for losses and compensation because…
Then sanctions go way up and no payment is allowed and the happy Europeans including the Poles were taking the gas without having in fact to pay. Russians demand rubles and Poles (and others) refuse to pay. Russians cut gas. Poles feel cheated and accuse Russians for breach of contract. Want now the payment from other countries (I suspect exchanged in euros, not the rubles) to be directed to them instead as compenstaion for their losses.
Ugh, the impunity and lack of self awareness, it hurts. Only the Balts seem to have similar levels of infatuated stupidity.
But hey, Jewish people are demanding restitution of their properties from Poland, Hungary, never mind that Budapest and Warshaw were pulverized and the reconstruction was done by socialist systems.
Or, or Americans asking Laos to pay for the bombs the US droped on them when saving them from the Vietnamese communism…
The Poles psyche is interesting. It is a pendulum between megalomania because of some worldwide renown achievements, like Chopin and Curie, and full self-hatred or despise because of their history of irrelevance, a territory-to-be-divided-between-external-parties-being (to speak in Heideggerian terms).
A lot of the stuff they do/not do can be understood from this framework. A lot of self-destructive behaviour on both ends.
History of irrelevance or history of lost importance? Poland was extremely “relevant” to everyone around it in the 15th-17th centuries. Afterwards, for a whole host of reasons, it turned from player to territory for a few centuries. The partitions finished it off, and their first resurgence after that proved to be one hell of a false start. I don’t think their former greatness was forgotten, though.
Libertarian oligarchy… See where it takes you…
benefit of the doubt…its the swamps, and such.
the few polish ive met…very few…were dicks to a person.
and in the same crosseyed superior manner as all the zionists ive met, and Klan members and so on.
maybe be need to make a reservation somewheres for such people with so much in common.
i nominate antarctica.
and jeez…this is clearly about personality types, here…not so unscientific as racial, ethnic or phrenological traits(brow ridge,lol)…put the narcissists and psychopaths in antarctica.
of whatever pigment, religion,etc.
many of them gather in switzerland in february,lol
easy catching.
ill bring a big net.
Once the melt finishes they’ll have highly desirable RE for the residual human population.
” and in the same crosseyed superior manner as all the zionists ive met, and Klan members and so on.”
What do American Poles, Zionists and Klansmen have in common? Extreme, typically inherited sense of grievance and loss of status and mismatch between reality and expectation, I’d guess. Though I doubt the entire Polish diaspora is like that, let alone the ones that stayed and found an accommodation with foreign rule.
Mhm. Not sure if it was an exact match for libertarianism (most libertarians aren’t nominally for hereditary feudalism, I think?), but it was pretty close. It also didn’t help that the Rzeczspospolita was in the absolute worst neighbourhood for that kind of shenanigans. The Poles got worse and worse at mobilising their resources even as the neighbours they’ve been fighting constantly got better.
‘iogenes of Sinope
@DiogenisSinopis
Even Seals love Greek Summer…’
I notice that that seal decided to hell with sleeping on hard, beach stones but opted for a nice soft beach chair instead. Who knew that seals were so smart.
Hope that is not a refugee Tobruk Harbour Seal.
Tell that to the Ukranian conscripts getting bundled into vans and ending up who knows where. It can’t happen in “western democracies” because…?
‘Muricans are armed to the teeth.
I’ve watched some mobilization videos from UA and so far have not seen the predicted response of someone pulling out their six-gun and giving the recruiter a face full of lead. I have seen some beat-downs and one recruiter getting run over by the conscripts car. Along with women beating the crap out of the men and saving their husbands.
A video that showed an actual fragging would probably get censored by X or TG, so hard to say if it hasn’t already happened there.
Going down in a blaze of glory is a Western romantic theme, so perhaps things would get quite dicey for a draftnik trying to carry out their duties in Alabama, Mississippi, or Texas.
Concerning the viral TikTok video about Shorty of Shorty’s Speed Shop ranting about the inability to access a 2024 Ram 3500 computer should have you asking why would someone take a new truck that is probably under warranty to an independent garage for repairs.
I can probably tell you why from a couple of tells. This is a Ram 3500 which is a heavy duty pickup and probably equipped with a Cummins diesel. The “Speed” in the name of Shorty’s shop probably means the owner had taken his new truck there to have the engine control computer reprogrammed and the emissions equipment removed to get “more power”. This is common among owners of HD diesel pickups. I have a cousin married to a man who has one of these pickups and proudly showed me the parts removed in this process hanging on his garage wall.
The EPA mainly due to the owners “rolling coal” cracked down on shops performing these modifications by fining them. I’m pretty sure they also met with the manufacturers and had them make the engine control computer accessible only to factory authorized repair shops.
This has nothing to do with “right to repair”
There ya go. Vehicles are a lot more government regulated now than the ’57 Chevy days and with good reason. I remember when you could visit NYC and then wipe a layer of grime off your face at the end of the day. Pollution controls are a good thing and those who defeat them are not our friends.
There are also of course safety questions when people start hacking engines. They travel on the public highways and not simply on racetracks.
As a cyclist, well familiar with diesel PU owners need to “roll coal”. But here in Hawaii with trade winds, the effect tends to blow away without the intended results.
Lots of good comments about the post-debate drama and intrigue. I learn so much here. Thanks again Yves and Lambert for your work.
My main thought is that operation “Switcheroo” is do-able even given the short timeline. Lambert did a nice job with the timeline – Aug 7th is the “drop-dead” date unless they move the roll call count of delegates.
No way to deny Harris unless they get ‘er done before then, IMO.
The big problem with Switcheroo is going to be the optics. Even though we know the Democratic party did a dirty job of preventing Sanders from getting the nomination in 2016 and 2020, at least there was a semblance of a fair and open process. Having a smoke-filled backroom gang of hedge fund managers
select a Whitmer, Newsom, or God forbid Killary, on the eve of the convention, will make the US look no different than Peru.
It will be at least as damaging as the optics of the Chosen getting preferred treatment over everyone, including US citizens.
Good observation. Optics are a required consideration if consequences are a possibility. Yet I’m hearing feral finster (whatever became of him/her?) in my head here. “What are you going to do about it?” We might be in that reality at this point.
“We” as in anyone not in lockstep with the Democratic Party don’t enter into the equation.
What they’re going to have to worry about are the black voters who won’t take so kindly to Harris getting a shiv in the back. Possibly female Dem voters as well, if Harris is clumsily pushed aside for a man (Newsom/Mayor Pete.) Remember, identity politics rule in that cohort. (Counteranalysis – that’s a problem that’s solved by Michelle Obama.)
And to the extent that it’s a demotivator, those voters may not go over to Trump or RFK Jr, but they can stay home.
Maybe Newsom could declare he’s transracial and will be having race reassignment surgery in the near future to honor the way he’s always deeply felt inside? Then the PMC could chatter about how “brave” he is for this announcement. That would work, no?
That’s a very good point. I’m going with my “team blue is high on long covid theory for now.
I just ran into this Englich election campaign advert for the Dalek Party.
They do go in for big time technological solutions for problems, but, hey, Daleks, right?
See, and vote, (often): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7v07IP7Tbc&ab_channel=MattafProductions
A countermeasure for China would be for them to drop their own devices that emit submarine-like sounds on a random schedule. Cheaper, easier, and more satisfying to boot. Extra points for training Dolphins to carry them around to simulate a huge fleet of submarines.
Not to brag, but I thought of this in about 3 seconds. Hopefully this “detector” isn’t typical of US military research and development.
We’ve been using sonobuoys for as long as I’ve been around. Not sure there is much to be learned from grabbing them, though I suppose there could be some on-board signal processing that wasn’t available in my day.
Acoustic decoys are not anything new either.
Why Do India and China Keep Fighting Over This Desolate Terrain? (NY Times)
Bracing for a 20 minute anti-China piece, but we shall see I guess. The NY Times always has some propaganda angle.
Because there was never a “border” there. And then the Brits muddled the waters even more. At least China was sovereign most of the times past, there is more weight of “local” history there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/29/us/politics/biden-donors-democrats.html
“Major Democratic Donors Ask Themselves: What to Do About Biden?
Some floated interventions. Others hoped President Biden would bow out of the race on his own. Many came to terms with the low chances that he would do so…”
This is starting to play out like the “Keystone Cops” coups in Turkey, Russia, Bolivia…., Alexrod, Kalorama & Co. rhetorically bum-rushes the stage but realizes that they are really Wile E. Coyote hanging over the precipice.
Axios: Two Joe Bidens: The night America saw the other one
I found this article hard to understand tbh. I did see this nugget, which seems to perfectly describe “sundowning”. So, any crisis in the US outside 10-4 and the head cowboy will be unavailable!
“Between the lines: Biden’s miscues and limitations are more familiar inside the White House.
The time of day is important as to which of the two Bidens will appear.
From 10am to 4pm, Biden is dependably engaged — and many of his public events in front of cameras are held within those hours.
Outside of that time range or while traveling abroad, Biden is more likely to have verbal miscues and become fatigued, aides told Axios.”
This is just as concerning to me as a physician as the other coping I heard on Friday –
“Well, most of the time he is able to talk with and recognize friends from the distant past. Only sometimes does he get a bit confused. But isn’t that true of most 80 year olds?”
But my favorite going around today – “He had a cough – the goofiness was just the cough syrup.”
I am not even sure where to respond to that one.
Well – I would say with all of the copes – good on him – glad he can do that. Many of my 80 year old dementia patients can. But does that mean he can handle the nuclear launch codes? Does that mean he can go toe to toe with Xi if needed?
The cope is becoming completely absurd at this point. People who have spent any amount of time in their lives with these types of patients are deeply concerned.
>>>Boeing whistleblower says he saw holes being drilled incorrectly on 787 planes, adding to the chorus of people speaking up against the company Business Insider
We keep hearing the steady dripping of rumors, informants, “suicides,” falling parts, investigations, and so on, but I wonder just when of Boeing’s quality products cracks apart midair over a city, what then? It obviously only time and chance that is stopping this. It is like with Biden’s dementia. It is going to happen and be seen, and then nobody will take that ride. Or at least, nobody not delusional or insane.
I’m going to posit an alternative opinion of why there was a sudden onslaught of “OMG, he is in dementia” responses from important Democrats on Thursday. Even though Joe’s feebleness was not much different from other troubling appearances we have seen in recent weeks this was the first time most of them had seen live and undeniably unedited, and it was in a situation where no one could leap in and help or redirect focus. Most people don’t watch or actually follow this like folks here. If they saw the troubling videos it was after they had been told they had been faked or edited as Russian misinformation, or MAGA desperation to help the faltering Trump. They suddenly got that nothing was as they had been told. For instance while Trump wasn’t a vital thirty year old, he looked okay compared to a clearly feeble Biden, exactly the opposite of what they had been led to believe. It was a mass incidence of denial meeting reality.
I don’t put trying to orchestrate Biden’s removal past the Democratic elite, but honestly there have to be easier ways, one good stumble for instance. This is so complicated and messy. It depends on too many moving parts.
Unfortunately either way far too many people are going to go “yeah it was the cold”, “it was a bad night” or any thing else that gets posted no matter how little plausibility it has. Cope or denial, it is very popular in the PMC set beset wit TDS.
I doubt this debate’s going to go down the memory hole. All the Republican party has to do, or any PAC out there is to simply rerun commercials of Biden decompensating in that debate over and over and over again.
All Trump has to do is come back and say you think I’m a lying liar who lies?
Fine.
Joe Biden tells the truth?
Then let’s have Joe Biden go down to Walter Reed and get a full work up including neurocognitive abilities and publish the results.
Just because the Republicans have sat back and let Democrats wet their own bed doesn’t mean that they don’t have a hole card that they can’t play.
“Ask Joe Biden to tell the truth about his health.”
They’ve got between now and November to play that card.
Yep. And ask Joe Biden to be truthful about how long and how much he’s been using stimulants.
Loaded question? Not when it’s so obvious he’s on some kind of drugs.
For me, some of the most interesting questions about this debate came from the Sputnik discussion with Richard Wolf, that @timbers mentioned, above:
Indeed. In 2020, the first debate was on Sept. 29th, and often in the past they were held in October.
It’s almost like the DNC wanted to get Biden’s dementia and frailty out into the national spotlight, though to be fair both campaigns decided to ditch the CPD, and the GOP especially seems to have pretty much broken off its relationship with the CPD already in 2022.
President Biden ain’t going to be president next. If nothing else, he will have a sudden case of the deads, which means someone else, but nobody knows because the geniuses in the Democratic Party haven’t decided yet.
Saturday night news dump? NBC tweeted Biden is to meet with family tomorrow to discuss future. I think…
I found the NBC tweet, which seems legit. I’ve already read some say we need more proof, it might be Russia.
Team BlueMAGA are having a bad week.
Don’tcha know? Putin slipped some Novichok into his Geratol to make him look bad in front of Trump. But as Biden has an iron constitution, he managed to fight most of the effects off – mostly.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/biden-family-path-forward-disastrous-debate-mess-rcna159591
That’s the link I saw. Light on substance but it very much smells like a “it’s time to put Granny on the morphine pump” conversation followed by a withdrawal Sunday afternoon/evening.
“….Biden is expected to discuss the future of his re-election campaign with family at Camp David on Sunday…..according to five people familiar with the matter.”
I’m guessing kamala will being finding time for family as well…
Of course it could just be wishcasting or am attempt to pressure Biden via media
Coming to a NYT bestseller list in 2025,it’s the Biden career, a defining memoir. A father that loves his children, and was torn asunder by the passing of the one who would follow him, Beau Biden.
The Biden Sense. I remember dead people,on occasion I see them too…\sarc
not sarcasm. It’s the last chance at pillage and grifting for Joe and Jill.
Painful to imagine, but of course you’re right about the coming Biden hagiography.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jill seems pretty keen on prolonging the grift as long as possible, even as Joe increasingly appears to have one foot in the grave.
Say, do you guys remember when the New York Times and other publications were asking if Bernie Sanders at 75 years old was just too damn old to be the President? You don’t hear stuff like that anymore.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/why-are-us-politicians-so-old-and-why-do-they-want-to-stay-in-office/adv6h6i44
For those still buying Enovid, it’s up to $130 for 2 at Israeli Pharam. BuyEnov is doing it for $105 for two.
Meanwhile, SaNOtize to Evaluate Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray for the Treatment of Sinusitis:
This is now… year 5 of the Pandemic.
The phase 3 trial in regards to COVID happened years ago:
It hilariously has no distributors in Canada, either:
https://sanotize.com/technology/nasal-spray/approved-distributors/
It is still not approved in the US, UK, or Canada. What a debacle. Basically unaffordable to just about anyone that isn’t rich. Per instructions it should be discarded 60 days after opening. So you need at least 6 bottles a year, and more if you’re actively needing it. So that’s $300 a year. Or more.
There’s Povidone‐Iodine Nasal Spray, but:
The Effect of Povidone‐Iodine Nasal Spray on Nasopharyngeal SARS‐CoV‐2 Viral Load: A Randomized Control Trial
Not seeing much if any recent material, almost as if investigations stopped in 2022. Sigh.
“It hilariously has no distributors in Canada”, it’s because it’s distributed as VirX over there? https://www.virxnasalspray.com/. I believe you can also buy it from Amazon US, https://www.amazon.com/virx-nasal-spray/s?k=virx+nasal+spray. I can’t see the listing because I live in Taiwan and Amazon will only show items that are allowed to be shipped to where I live, but depending on where you are, you can click on that link and see if it’s available for domestic consumption.
I’ve switched to the betadine spray for other reasons.
It doesn’t have that slight sting when applied that enovid did, though psychologically, that made it feel like something was happening. In the end it’s all part of the swiss cheese defense I guess.
Prices here better but not great. 1150 baht a bottle, which is about $31.
From the ” Bipartisan Consensus in Favor of Renewable Power is Ending” article, I see the following item about unsupport for renewable power among Republicans being age-related. And here it is . . . ” Republicans under the age of 30 favored renewables by a 2-to-1 margin. Republicans over 30, in contrast, favored fossil fuels by margins that increased with age, topping out at a three-to-one margin in favor of fossil fuels among those in the 65-and-over age group.”
So it could be said that ” funeral by funeral, renewable energy politics makes progress”. But will generational turnover happen fast enough to permit the unblocking of National policy before it is too late to matter the least little bit?
. . . ” Globalisation is fracturing. That’s a big problem for net zero, experts say.” . . .
Really? Experts say? Whose experts? Davos’s experts. Forcey-FreeTrade experts.
Actually, globalization is a major cause and driver of global warming. If deglobalization shrinks ship-borne and air-freight-borne trade between continents feasibly close to zero, carbon skydumping by ships and planes will decrease as the amount of stuff moved between continents on ships and planes decreases.