Dreaming Under Anesthesia? MedPage Today
Sudden cardiac arrest occurring in temporal proximity to consumption of energy drinks Heart Rhythm
YouTuber charged over video of helicopter shooting fireworks at Lamborghini The Washington Post
Climate/Environment
Q&A: As Temperatures in Pakistan Top 120 Degrees, There’s Nowhere to Run Inside Climate News
The world’s largest fungus collection may unlock the mysteries of carbon capture Ars Technica
Water
Atlanta drinking water system suffered as city spent billions on sewers The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pandemics
The bird flu outbreak has spread to humans — are we too late to prevent the next pandemic? The Hill
The desperation to ignore aerosol transmission is on full display here. Someone clearly wanted to use the word “droplet” as much as possible, to the point it’s just comical.
Lawyers: those impacted by H5N1 without proper PPE are victims of negligence.https://t.co/85WR6mdd9c
— Mark Ungrin (@Mark_Ungrin) June 8, 2024
***
Paxlovid Fails First Test in Long COVID MedPage Today
4 years later, COVID remains a year-round threat. Here’s why this virus isn’t seasonal quite yet CBC. Commentary:
Covid will never be seasonal, you fricking dimwits.
— tern (@1goodtern) June 8, 2024
La belle France
New Caledonia independence party refuses to meet French president’s dialogue mission Anadolu Agency
Africa
Two unsolicited ideas on how to invest some of Melinda French Gates’ $12.5 billion An Africanist Perspective
On Niger’s orders, US initiates withdrawal, albeit ‘slow’ Al Mayadeen
Update on the Sahel: “Not only are the Jihadist-terrorist groups continuously targeting the militaries of the entire region; more and more, they are engaging in open confrontation.”@p_vanostaeyen‘s latest monthly report👇 https://t.co/c9wRq9RWz4 #CounterPoint
— CEP (@FightExtremism) June 5, 2024
India
US engages a chastened Modi in office Indian Punchline
Taiwan rejects China’s protest over messages between its President, Modi The Indian Express
The Koreas
Seoul to resume loudspeaker campaigns against North Korea after hundreds more trash balloons cross border Channel News Asia
Japan
Kishida’s New Capitalism Phenomenal World
Fuel shortage in Japan hinders flight increases amid tourism surge Kyodo News
China?
China has shown its resolve, sincerity; the ball is in EU’s court to avoid bruising trade row Global Times
Chinese solar panel makers face dilemma as US plugs trade loophole in Southeast Asia South China Morning Post
China export boom to Global South continues Asia Times
Could the rise of China eclipse the enlightenment Pearls and Irritations
Syraqistan
US involved in Israeli operation in Nuseirat that killed over 200 Palestinians Middle East Eye
Biden celebrates Israel’s rescue of 4 hostages, vowing ‘we won’t stop’ The Hill
Troops hid inside aid truck for deadly US-Israel operation in Nuseirat The Cradle.
Leaked Cable Calls Fears of U.S. Military Presence In Gaza “Disinformation” — But Is It Really? Ken Klippenstein
Suppressing Palestinian Drone Forces: U.S. Uses Aid Pier to Deploy Anti-Drone Combat Vehicles to Gaza Military Watch Magazine
It’s been less than month since it was finished, and our “conspiracy theory” has already been proven right.
The US military-built pier is NOT being used to provide Palestinians with humanitarian aid. It’s only being used to carry out military operations against them. https://t.co/ifzce13BEr
— Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13) June 8, 2024
US weighs plan for Centcom to coordinate directly with Palestinian Authority’s security forces Middle East Eye
***
Israel to be included in UN blacklist of children’s rights violators The New Arab
Single cigarette costs $20 in Gaza as prices for basic goods spiral FT
***
‼️ USS Eisenhower Latest Position
I follow MT Anderson, but, preoccupied with my gardens and chickens, I apparently missed this post from yesterday.
If this grainy satellite photo is authentic and accurate (and I have no reason to believe it is not), then the Ike is still in… https://t.co/aixcbfSZ7e
— Will Schryver (@imetatronink) June 9, 2024
European Disunion
German politician flees to Russia RT
German, French luxury carmakers lobby EU to hold off on export restrictions to Belarus bne Intellinews
New Not-So-Cold War
Polish soldier stabbed at Belarusian border dies bne Intellinews
Polish Troops to Get Legal Right to Use Weapons on Border – Prime Minister Sputnik
***
Cuban Missile Crisis 2.0 Gilbert Doctorow
Russia’s Su-57 Stealth Fighter Confirmed Struck for First Time – But Not in the Sky Kyiv Post
French Mirage jets to strengthen Air Force, not turn tide in war, says Ukrainian veteran major The New Voice of Ukraine
Old Blighty
The Brexit October Revolution Wrong Side of History
Imperial Collapse Watch
West under clowns and zealots Alex Krainer’s TrendCompass
Navy Admiral’s bribery charges expose greater rot in the system Responsible Statecraft
I fear that one of the main reasons the Cass Review guidance has gone unheeded in the USA is that so many people in positions of influence have personality disorders that prevent them from making concessions or admitting error. https://t.co/gTXWhoR5KM
— HeterodorxPodcast🍂🧑🦳 (@heterodorx) June 8, 2024
Groves of Academe
UC JOINS STARBUCKS AND AMAZON IN SUBVERTING LABOR LAW, SECURES TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST STRIKE UAW 4811. Commentary from a UCLA law professor:
CA’s Little Norris-LaGuardia Act bars TROs when the employer has “failed to make every reasonable effort to settle that dispute,” which UC hasn’t done, and it requires a court issuing a TRO to make & file various specific findings of fact, which this judge seems not to have done.
— Noah Zatz (@NoahZatz) June 8, 2024
‘This Ain’t It’: Pennsylvanians Slam Jay-Z’s Roc Nation for School Voucher Push Common Dreams
Our Famously Free Press
Corporate Media Push Conspiracy Theories to Discredit Student Protesters FAIR
This headline is a case study in western media’s role in genocide & dehumanisation of Palestinians:
⚪️Israel rescues (+ve) ➡️ active voice
⚪️Are killed (-ve) ➡️ passive voice
⚪️Israelis ➡️ numbered
⚪️Palestinians (210) ➡️ “scores”
⚪️Israel ➡️ facts
⚪️Palestinians ➡️ hear say pic.twitter.com/K2ZDmBcj5e— Tameem | تميم (@TameeOliveFern) June 8, 2024
Israel says Hamas weaponised rape. Does the evidence add up? Times of London. Commentary:
After eight months of the New York Times, BBC, CNN, Guardian, Reuters and AP regurgitating Israeli disinformation about “mass rape” by Hamas on October 7, an investigation by a mainstream outlet finds it was all a hoax.
A hoax that justified genocide. https://t.co/6lCZJFdXni
— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) June 8, 2024
Antitrust
Economic Termites Are Everywhere BIG by Matt Stoller
Biden
Trump
Silicon Valley warms up to Donald Trump The Verge
The Supremes
Justice Clarence Thomas Acknowledges He Should Have Disclosed Free Trips From Billionaire Donor ProPublica
AI
“Confidential” 988 Conversation Records Shared with Corporations Mad in America
Supply Chain
Are Geopolitical Conflicts Push Shipping Towards a Golden Era? Bloomberg
The Bezzle
The formulas home insurance companies use to set rates in Florida may become more secretive Seeking Rents
Class Warfare
The Urge to Surge The American Prospect. “Businesses are hiking prices to take advantage of consumers. They learned it from Uber.”
Uber and Lyft made a deal to raise drivers’ wages. It was another victory for big tech The Guardian
Sports Desk
The Beauty And Boredom Of 500 Laps Around The Same .148-Mile Loop Defector
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
204 comments
Comments are closed.
“Q&A: As Temperatures in Pakistan Top 120 Degrees, There’s Nowhere to Run – Inside Climate News”
Keep on saying. If this is going to be the new normal or if temperatures start to rise further, then the only realistic thing that they can do is build underground where the temperatures can be maintained at a cooler temperature. They won’t have a choice and this is going to have to be a society-wide initiative. Any other “modern” solution is going to require more energy than that country can generate. And no, there won’t be an app for that.
if only some of the 2.25 trillion dollars the US spent there over the twenty years we were there,
Went to something useful like building the caverns/ dwellings; so people could live and work inside.
The mountainous terrain would seem like it would be useful, as elevation is the best/easiest way to avoid water issues in your building envelope. It could be done with an eye to earthquake dangers and floods… If only…
Just another opportunity ,wasted…. like so many others…
Indeed. The only thing I’m inclined to add is that humidity spikes in already hot places are going to have to be monitored also. The MSM doesn’t yet seem so good on reporting of newly raised wet bulb temperatures when compared with coverage of increased “raw temperatures”.
Hottest experiences in my life have been in Adelaide and parts of the USA south west. However the potentially most lethal hot weather (due to humidity) has been in SE Asian places like Singapore (who have indeed moved so much underground).
35C (95F) wet bulb rings the death knell, per Steve Keen and others.
handy chart to understand wet bulb temps relative to humidity%/air temp
https://climate-preparedness.com/understanding-wet-bulb-temperature-and-why-it-is-so-dangerous/
Thank you very much for this. It has been remarkably difficult to find a simple conversion for air temp/humidity/WBGT.
For those who prefer fahrenheit, follow the link below the bottom table (https://arielschecklist.com/wbgt-chart/).
‘Hottest experiences in my life have been in Adelaide’
My brother used to live there for a few years. I dug into that city’s climate and found that it could be roasting hot as the air sometimes blew in from the central deserts but that was balanced sometimes in winter time when you had the winds blowing in the cold air direct from Antarctica.
Read that Adelaide was once called the ‘City of Churches’ because of the large number of them. One time a British architect was taken on a helicopter ride where he was shown the entire city below. When he asked why the larger number of church spires, was informed that it was because the city was founded by Protestants. His reply? ‘Good God. Surely not as bad as that!’ In it’s early day it’s night life was so quite that it was sometimes called the only cemetery in Australia lit up at night. Thankfully things have changed.
While only Death Valley-adjacent and in no way as hot as Hades next door, once upon a time I had the misfortune to be in Trona.Ca. when the high heat combined with a flurry of who knows what chemical concentrations in the air to create Hell on Earth or something surely approximating it.
LA Times had an article in regards to houses under $100k in the state, and I just knew Trona would make the cut.
Ah Trona, a company town. Swam there as a child in the company pond. Don’t ask me where they got the fresh water from, a pretty salty place.
For a minute, I was thinking you were talking about Toronto, also known as trana to the locals (at least the locals that I know…).
I was warned before my one visit to Adelaide to be prepared for the churches and their “arrogance that they were never founded by convicts”.
Yeah…. Was not enamoured of the place.
A high of 13C here in Adelaide today. Quite pleasant when the sun could be seen. Hottest this year was 41C. The only saving grace of our scorchers are them being a dry heat, much the same I imagine as walking around inside a hair dryer. Outside of the occasional extremes our weather is usually described as Mediterranean.
We are still called the City of Churches. Nobody seems to go to them anymore so they get re-purposed as drop-in centres, or for advertising agencies, nightclubs & the like.
As I said, a lot has changed in that city over the decades and it has shucked off its former reputation. I think that it really changed when Don Dunstan became the Premier of South Australia back in the 60s.
I wish it had been 13 when I visited! Twas 44. Though, as you say, a dry heat so not debilitating, when you carry water with you. A/C everywhere (unlike my experience living in Sydney eastern suburbs).
This all reminds me – must renew my Aussie passport this year…..just in case I ever decide to return on a whim.
Singapore moving underground? I don’t think that’s the case at all, unless you are talking about shopping malls in which case there are quite a few with 3 or 4 basement floors. Orchard Road, Singapore’s main shopping artery also has a couple of underground passageways connecting the various shopping complexes, but most people in Singapore live in condos or government built housing called HDB, and they are all tall buildings in order to maximize the limited amount of land that Singapore has.
Indeed I meant the malls etc which I omitted in the interests of space.
Whilst the deliberate mixing of groups to minimise “ghettos” in those HDBs may be good, I certainly worry at the Sinhalese/Sri Lankan workers who I saw routinely doing the manual work when the wet-bulb temperature must surely have been in the fatal zone.
I’m certainly not one of the people looking at that city-state with rose-coloured spectacles. I see YouTube Engineering videos about their latest plans for underground expansion and can’t help think “have you factored in tipping points for sea level rise?” The academics I collaborated with from NUS certainly weren’t good on non-linear models.
‘…quite a few with 3 or 4 basement floors…’ – remember being in vendor stalls building like that in a popular market area of Bangkok, might have been more that 4 floors below grade – made me very nervous and started think what if building collapsed, bad construction?…too many people for load capacity on floors above?….too many other things to imagine the mind boggles – it was summer there and very hot and very comfortable underground like that though which made each floor very crowded –
Back in the Mother Earth News era earth sheltered houses were a minor trend. But as with geodesic domes practicality, and perhaps building codes, stood in the way. Putting your house underground–at least in climates like mine–means you have the same moisture problems as living in a basement.
In dry climates like our Southwest thick adobe bricks were the way. However the tract houses currently covering up Phoenix are conventionally stick built with large air conditioners.
There are places doing this already and people have been doing it for thousands of years. It seems to be a matter of good engineering practice so is not a matter of re-inventing the wheel-
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230803-the-town-where-people-live-underground
We need to think big here and have whole districts built underground and not just individual houses. In Links yesterday there was an article about drones making a vertical economy in a city so this would be going the other way.
You’d only need to live la vida troglodyte when the high heat comes, and a 1950’s fallout shelter would suffice to keep out the rays while basking in the shadows.
There are lava tubes near where Portland almost hit 120 a few years ago that would be perfect, except you’d be a little cold as the constant temp in them is around 45 degrees, bring a jumper!
Yes underground houses/fallout shelters may be a growing need during Cold War 2: The Sequel.
That’s Trogluddite to you, bub!
Not Morlock?
{golf clap}
Smash those ‘like’ buttons Onliners!
Lived for a decade in a thatched cottage in Eastern England, 200+ years old. Two walls still original cob construction – 2ft. thick and just a plaster skim over mud held together by horse-hair and twigs with the bark still on. Reed thatch 3ft thick at the ridge and 18in eaves. Very little heating went a long way in the winter yet always cool inside even on the hottest summer days, tho’ regrettably for the wife the thatch was also a cosy home for the biggest, blackest spiders you ever did see.
The biggest blackest spiders probably kept indoor insects under control.
Unless these underground spaces can produce food, water and oxygen, it’s not going to matter much. If the result of a runaway greenhouse effect is an atmosphere like Venus……..
I often speak ill of Fresno, its a bad habitat.
That said, should you find yourself stuck in the 5th city’s embrace, make a beeline for Forestiere Underground Gardens, a place like nothing you’ve seen before, pretty cool.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forestiere_Underground_Gardens
https://undergroundgardens.com/
I agree. I remember when people would say just move to a northern (or far southern) climate as the tropics warm up. Uh …… if you go far enough north, you’ll be going south – in more ways than one.
Venus Venus here we come ……..
AMOC weakening, climate tipping point approached
And here is the peer reviewed paper
Sooooo… …does anybody have a take on thoughtful climate research detailing what happens when Europe gets really cold once the AMOC winks out?
Southern Italy might turn out to be a pretty good choice for a few hundred years.
It’s in the paper linked to. Southern Italy will become about 1.3 °C warmer and have about 0.2 mm/day less precipitation. The Nordics would remain pretty much the same. It’s the New England that will suffer the most.
The article also mentions that there’s no climate/ocean model currently that can meaningfully predict if the AMOC will collapse, and if it does, will it recover soon after.
One should remember that the AMOC is not the Gulf Stream and the Gulf Stream is not the AMOC. As long as the Earth rotates, the prevailing winds will push the hot surface waters from Caribbean towards the Faroe Islands where it will cool and sink and start it’s return journey.
The “tipping” here is about that sinking point moving southwards and the streams (surface and deep water) themselves moving towards coastlines and slowing down somewhat. That means the New England coast will get hotter and wetter. A lot hotter and wetter.
We can grow fungi to produce food underground. We can harvest dead wood from our ghost forests at night to provide food for growing the fungi.
The fungi can mutate and adapt to a diet including Homo economicus ignorami.
“It’s a little hotter than last year, but I’m getting used to it,” said all the frogs.
Given that this is an uneven process, I wonder if the mass migrations we worried about might be resolved with massive waves of sudden climate deaths. How many Pakistanis just died? How many would die if it got even hotter?
You can’t run from the sun.
I was thinking they could bring back public baths. Doesn’t even need to be fresh water, as in salt water will do. Waist deep water should be enough to cool you off, even if its at 90F. Gonna make driving a taxi kinda hard to do…
A kind of a reverse H.G. Wells Time Machine world in store?
>>>USS Eisenhower Latest Position
A self-evident assertion….winners in a war have less incentive to lie; losers lie a lot more, or obscure the truth.
and yes, we are in a literal war w/the Houthis. I’m old enough to remember one airstrike on Libya (see the 80’s) and that strike would be headline news at 6:30p—and we’ve struck Yemen multiple times over the past weeks, though you wouldn’t know it from NPR or NYT.
‘If an air strike falls on Yemen with no NYT/CNN to report it, did it actually happen?’
You wonder how many wars are being fought in out of the way places right now that aren’t being reported on. Remember how back in 2017, four special ops soldiers were killed in Niger. And even the politicians were surprised that US troops were fighting in that country as they had not heard or read about it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongo_Tongo_ambush
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
Don’t let me hear you say life’s
Taking you nowhere, Vladimir
(Come, get up, Slavic baby)
Look at that sky, life’s begun
Nights are warm and the days are young
(Come, get up, Slavic baby)
There’s Putin, lost that’s all
Once I’m begging you save his little soul
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
(Come, get up, Slavic baby)
Last night they loathed you
Opening doors and pulling some strings, Vladimir
(Come, get up, Slavic baby)
In walked luck and you looked in time
Never look back, walk tall, act fine
(Come, get up, Slavic baby)
I’ll stick with you Capitalism for a thousand years
Nothing’s gonna touch you in these Golden Billion years, gold
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
(Come, get up, my GDP)
Some of these days, and it won’t be long
Gonna drive us back down where you once belonged
In the back of a Kinzhal, twenty foot long
Don’t cry my sweet, don’t break my heart
Doing all right, but you gotta get smart
Wish upon wish upon day upon day, I believe, oh, Lord
I’ll believe all the way
(Come, get up, my GDP)
Run for the shadows, run for the shadows
Run for the shadows in these Golden Billion years
There’s Capitalism, lost that’s all
Once I’m begging you save its not so little soul
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
(Come, get up, my GDP)
Don’t let me hear you say life’s taking you nowhere (Vladimir)
(Come, get up, Slavic baby)
Run for the shadows, run for the shadows
Run for the shadows in these Golden Billion years
I’ll stick with you, Capitalism for a thousand years
Nothing’s gonna touch you in these Golden Billion years, gold
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
Golden Billion years, gold (whop-whop-whop)
Golden Years, by David Bowie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRD0ghlFSgk
The Red Sea NW of Jeddah is nice this time of year.
Alternate theory: ELINT in the Ike CSG picked up “surveillance” they could not accept or jam? Were they “painted”?
They did not want to be listened to?
Maybe ELINT aboard the “Ike’ was monitoring Yemeni networks when they suddenly heard the following over their head phones-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAz7Bdqi2iQ (3:46 mins)
Time to Di DI Mau out of there.
Bernhard at Moon of Alabama referred to Yves and Naked Capitalism a few times.
He apparently had surgery about May 25, and expected to be home and writing by June 6.
There is still nothing.
Anyone know anything?
The Beauty And Boredom Of 500 Laps Around The Same .148-Mile Loop Defector
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Portlanders have always been over-represented @ Burning Man, and this strikes me as a tame version of what goes on at the burn, with the only laps coming during Critical Tits, an all distaff affair sans a stitch up top in the saddle among the peloton.
I’m about to go into training for the Tour de Burn, have to remember to plug in my e-Sting Ray, lest I have to actually pedal around the playa.
More speculation about the raid.
https://x.com/steffanwatkins/status/1799443358437302450?t=rmEeUn68HhlFHGKbTPQr_A
I read a coupla weeks ago that the British have flown about 200 flights to Israel from Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus so they must be integrated into the Israeli surveillance network covering Gaza and maybe even identifying targets for the Israelis to attack. But if asked, Sunak would say that the UK is not a party to this war.
Thanks for the backgrounder on Atlanta water problems. I lived there back when they privatized the system and then, after much outrage, de-privatized. But it sounds like things have only gotten worse.
Where I live now we are also having to replace 100 year old pipes which has caused a doubling of water rates and much disruption. Perhaps the whole mess can be added to deteriorating bridges and other infrastructure as tokens of American decline. At least we can still count on our large military to rule the world (oh wait).
Interesting, and inevitable that a US city (in)famous for its suburban sprawl should be having severe water and sewer problems. If they want to keep the place running they will probably have to, within 50 years, dig up every street in the place stretching to “…the southern edge of Alaska.” Imagine if it were still privatized…Thames Water South. At least they got something right.
I think the various “edge cities” that surround Atlanta have their own systems and the article mainly applies to the downtown Fulton county. Here in SC mine is also an older neighborhood from the early 20th.
Part of the problem is the refusal of the United States as a whole to pay for the maintenance that any infrastructure needs because that meant less taxes. If the maintenance backs up for fifty years, don’t be surprised if it all goes kablooie at once’s.
Thieves have stolen about 300 fire hydrants in parts of Los Angeles County, according to the Golden State Water Co. (LA Times)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Historical markers all over the state are being plundered by thieves for their metal content, so new ones are made of stone instead-which has scant resale value.
Same thing went on as the Roman Empire crumbled, with anything metal disappearing.
My favorite one was a statue of the Gipper that metal thieves attempted to abscond with, but were thwarted when Reagan took a hard right position and refused to yield.
https://www.ocregister.com/2011/11/09/newport-oks-5000-reward-for-reagan-statue-vandals/
I’m sure that the Gipper would have approved the entrepreneurial spirit of those metal thieves in showing the true meaning of Capitalism. In any case, how do we know that it was just scrap metal thieves and not some Richie Rich who wanted it as an ornament for his private garden?
Yes, it was irresponsible of me to blame metal urge’ists when the culprit well could have been any Republican politician before Benedict Donald done showed up and put paid to worshiping anybody but him.
I forget what coin it was but once the Republicans wanted to kick George Washington’s profile off that coin and replace it with Ronald Reagans. I’m not even American but even I was offended by that.
Two Bits* Coin, the most common and useful money in our limited arsenal of democracy. It may or may not buy you a sugary sphere from a gumball machine these days at the supermarket, and its highest use comes when laundering money in that fashion.
You’ll almost never see a Kennedy half $ in change, and all those $ coins went down to Ecuador thanks to seigniorage, señor.
A ‘bit’ was a Spanish Real, of which their pieces of 8 equaled one U.S. $, thus valued @ 12 & 1/2 Cents.
1964 Kennedy 50¢ coins are 0.36169oz of silver – been saving them for a while at $29.13 spot each worth over $10 today
I remember hearing it was FDR that the Reaganuts wanted taken off the dime. Efface history in every way they could.
Yeah, when I think about it, I think that you are right. Must have been about twenty years ago when I read that story in my defence.
Can you buy anything at all with a dime nowadays?
I think they only keep the penny around for tradition’s sake. There was some talk about getting rid of the coin several years ago but doing that would have pointed out the extent of inflation.
Cents are 97.5% zinc, and the zinc lobby has quite a vested interest in keeping them being made.
Happening at high speed in Ukro, the disease spreading to the rest of Europe where the Nazi mildew re-surfaces all over. It’s already invaded the Yoonited States. Imported by the bestest of our elites.
So instead they changed Washington International Airport to Reagan International because they insisted that the airport of the nation’s Capitol should be named after a president while apparently not noticing that it already was, hahahaha! Idiots all.
I don’t remember that. But I do remember the Republicans wanted to kick FDR off the dime and replace his face with Reagan.
Part of their motivation for that was to erase from memory the one time existence of FDR and the one time existence of a New Deal.
The Reaganublicans were moving fast and hard to put lots of Reagan faces in lots of public currency places.
https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/put-reagan-on-the-dime
If New Deal Reactionaries could somehow create a New Deal Revival Party to reconquer the government away from its current occupiers, they could say something along the lines of ” the Reagan Revolution is over. There is no Brezhnev Doctrine for Conservatism.”
A New Deal Revival Party President could hang two Presidential Portraits in the Oval Office where everybody could see them. They would be portraits of Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton. And to make the point very clear, the portraits would be hung upside down and would have the universal circle-slash symbol painted over their faces.
The veterans markers the town orders now are made of plastic. It makes me feel lousy when I have one put on a grave because it feels and looks cheap. They can’t even have a proper marker anymore because of the risk of theft by scuzzballs.
The “Copper Gipper Caper,” I seem to recall….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOJGlhw5Jbo
Covid
Some highlights:
Big surprise⸮: the mask study shows that the least effective mask in preventing the exhalation of aerosolized viral particles is the “baggy blue” surgical mask. A piece of cloth works a bit better.
0.053 X 333,000,000 = 17,649,000 Americans with long Covid according to the CDC. Given the source, I suspect the number is low, and given current policy of transmission without mitigation, I suspect this number will grow.
Paxlovid does appear to be somewhat effective in reducing the chances of developing long Covid but only if administered as originally intended, within the first few days of symptom onset. Too many doctors are still being stupid about Paxlovid, as in not providing it when it would likely be of benefit to patients.
I assume it’s too early to know, test, but I can’t help but wonder about the efficacy of Ivermectin on the new emergent?
I wonder what Pfizer and Moderna have ‘up their sleeves’?
To pursue your curiosity I recommend the flccc website, search for link
Yes, FLCCC is quite strong. Also, become aware of Dr. Phillip McMillan as recently he did a short video on COVID Questions Raised by First Bird Flu Death! (2024)
It’s about 30 minutes and he makes a good, skeptical argument.
Hmmm – I guess I am being stupid about Paxlovid as well. Nice to know.
First of all – a huge group of my patients are simply not candidates for it – they are on all kinds of various medications that may engender fairly significant side effects if taken together.
Secondly – I would say about a 1/7 of patients cannot even complete the course because it causes such violent bad taste in their mouths. An even smaller minority have rapid and severe development of urticaria and hives.
Thirdly, most patients now if they are even able to find the drug in the pharmacy – instantly walk away when they are asked for 1000 bucks or more. Ummm, no thanks. Obamacare and its deductibles – have changed medicine in some really bad ways. Unlike Paxlovid which does not seem to do much at all – this happens constantly with so many drugs that actually work.
Fourthly, after numerous admissions early on from COVID after rebound infections, I have really begun to think twice about using it at all. The rebound infections are really significant – not a joke. And almost without fail the rebound is much much worse than the original.
Fifthly, there are now papers coming out – well done papers – showing absolutely no difference in the clinical course than placebo – and we are asking patients to risk this many side effects and that much cash for what?
So – I guess I am stupid. But I swore an oath many years ago to protect my patients above all else. I did not swear an oath to our federal health officials nor to Pharma.
I would suggest to you that calling doctors stupid for doing their level best to treat the person in front of them is highly inappropriate. This kind of claptrap is what is causing doctors to leave the profession in the droves.
Being aware of the potentially fatal drug interactions from using Paxlovid is hardly what I would call stupid.
I am of advanced age with pulmonary conditions that make me highly susceptible to the worst effects of respiratory infections such as Covid, RSV, etc. OTOH, I take several medications that would behave badly in conjunction with Paxlovid. Checking with the Liverpool University Paxlovid drug list, and talking it over with my primary care Doc, we have weighed risks and benefits and have a plan that would have me reduce dosage or skip for a time my maintenance meds so that I could more safely take Paxlovid.
While I agree as to the utter phktupness of the insurance aspect of the medical system, I think there’s some pretty solid looking science backing up the effectiveness of Paxlovid. I would also venture to suggest that death rates from acute Covid have been reduced by the admittedly inadequate vaccines currently available. However, long Covid, and other Covid-spawned health conditions that shorten life and affect functioning are still rampant and are being largely ignored much to our peril.
Finally, there are probably other factors besides patients addressing them harshly that’s causing doctors to flee the profession, such things as the utter phktupness of the private insurance system. And finally, finally, I would never call a doctor or anyone else “stupid” to their face. That would be rude.
This is the best and most powered study to date.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2819901
Paxlovid seems to do absolutely nothing for long COVID.
We have so far spent 10 billion or so for what appears to be a complete dud. A little bonus right into the pockets of Pfizer. After having spent months dealing with long Covid, and more commonly long Covid vaccine patients, I can assure you, there are many more places those billions can be spent.
Also, there never were and to this date never have been a single study of any appropriate degree to study Paxlovid in acute VACCINATED Covid patients. We just are assuming. The original study and subsequent studies of any helpfulness have all been on unvaccinated subjects.
And again, Paxlovid is now over 1000 dollars for a course. The insurance companies are making the office staffs do all kinds of pre auth paperwork, and even then the copays are hundreds of dollars. So, it is essentially not a viable drug in the USA except for the most wealthy.
“I can assure you, there are many more places those billions can be spent.”
“And again, Paxlovid is now over 1000 dollars for a course. The insurance companies are making the office staffs do all kinds of pre auth paperwork, and even then the copays are hundreds of dollars. So, it is essentially not a viable drug in the USA except for the most wealthy.”
I heartily agree. We may or may not agree on points of science, or who we trust to convey its findings, but as to who controls the economy, privately controlled finance capital, and to whose ends it serves I feel we can concur.
As to the study you cite, my understanding is that Paxlovid’s effectiveness is the result of reducing viral activity during early onset; that the rebound is in fact the result of a cytokine storm following said viral onslaught, and combined with viral damage is the more proximate cause of organismal harm with both long and short term consequences. This is the reasoning behind the practice treating patients with the antiviral rather than immune suppressants in the early stage of the disease progression and then using immune suppressants in the latter stage, usually the second week after onset.
To take a few leaps forward, I would infer, as with the MRNA vaccines, that Paxlovid works better for some than for others. As regards both vaccine and therapeutic effectiveness we have yet to have develop means for knowing who will benefit from various pharmaceutical treatments and who will not. Certainty in this matter at this point in time is elusive. At present, one just plays the numbers as best as one can, hoping the numbers with which we are presented by various sources are at least ballpark accurate.
“Hmmm – I guess I am being stupid…”
No, no. IM Doc is being brilliantly thoughtful and helpful as has repeatedly been the case.
G7 data. Notice that life expectancy for the US has been declining since 2014:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1oND8
January 15, 2018
Life Expectancy at Birth for United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and United Kingdom, 2007-2022
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1oNDl
January 30, 2018
Infant Mortality Rate for United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and United Kingdom, 2007-2022
Dreams:
“The reason we sleep is so that the brain can dream.” – Dr. Rahul Jindial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6yBbzz3u_U&ab_channel=DrRanganChatterjee
“There’s no way to talk about the dreaming brain unless we talk about the waking brain.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wysnmEyoyB0&ab_channel=HowToAcademyMindset
“We need nightmares”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdUsNF8STWA&ab_channel=FearneCotton%27sHappyPlace
There seems to be a lot of controversy and misinformation about the USS Eisenhower in the last few days.
Apologies if this link has been shared here before. I cannot remember where I first came across it but I saved it and look at it now and then:
http://www.gonavy.jp/CVLocation.html
It looks like the Eisenhower was operating in the Red Sea or near Yemen until the last week of April. I think then the missiles started flying and it was moved back to the Med by 26th April.
But it looks like like it is back in the Red Sea now, since June 2nd.
Obviously the interesting thing for naval strategists is “is the aircraft carrier age, or the air power age over in naval operations?”
This has it’s parallel in the demise of the battleship in WWII.
We have yet to see if this is actually true but, the losses of the Royal Navy to Exocets in the Falklands War may provide a hint of what might happen.
Also, remember that Russia, in particular, and Iran have hypersonic capability far beyond those Exocets.
I wonder if this is what Putin may have been alluding to last week when he mentioned sharing technology with entities that are fighting America.
The Yemenis with Russian missiles would be a game changer in the Red Sea. They have already caused enough trouble with drones.
Sorry, tried to edit this but ran out of time.
I think during the Falklands War the UK Govt did not allow the aircraft carrier (The Illustrious? – can’t remember off the top off the top of my head) anywhere near the effective radius of the Exocets.
Which meant extra risk for the Harrier flights but, the point was, that the carrier was known to be vulnerable even then.
Helicopters were used as decoys against anti ship missiles. A very dangerous job. Prince Andrew actually flew those missions I think.
I wonder when the evolution of missiles (much longer range than aircraft launched exocet) put USN aircraft carriers at risk 3 or 4 times the F-35’s range?
Used to be the Navy needed land based fighters like USAF F-15 and USMC F-18’s, today those fighters are useless against the threats.
Military ships in general tend to have surprisingly short half lives considering their costs. You spend 50 billion on a 3000+ crew naval superweapon, and then some clever clogs comes along with a new sail or torpedo or radar or drone and suddenly you have a giant floating white elephant, and surprise!, the admiralty is back looking for a budget for a whole new design.
There is also the fact that a new whatever rarely completely replaces the previous weapon and certainly not at once. The battleship was still a very heavily armed and armored ship that often was used in anti aircraft, fire support, convoy duties, and yes as protection from other battleships even for aircraft carriers.
Machine guns, airplanes, tanks, missiles, submarines, and more have been labeled as it until people find ways to make them not. Every weapon is only good for something and useless at another, which is why “obsolete” weapons are often around.
That must be why China built Liaoning and Shandong, and now with Type 003 Fujian on trials a new class of cv.
There’s a world of difference between building your power projection around carrier groups and building carriers to support your power projection.
Missiles can deny access, but can’t project power far from own shore, plus big fancy ships confer certain prestige.
I constantly wonder how “serious” a weapon these Chinese CV’s, as an actual “weapon” (rather than a combination of prestige toy/technology development project.). Personally, I’m not sanguine about China’s long term peaceful intentions even if I don’t think it’s US’s business to make enemies if them either.
Re FAIR on the swamp that is US cable news. These complaints about “foreign influence” are pretty funny coming from people whose primary purpose seems to be defending the interests of a nation thousands of miles from the US. Self reflection doesn’t seem to be a thing among our plutocrats and the media shills that defend them.
And it is interesting the degree to which Trump is hopping onboard this unsavory bandwagon. Clearly his onetime contrarian stance on US FP is over if it ever existed at all. He does boast that he will stop the wars with his superior negotiating skills. However starting them is now presumably ok. The missiles go up. Who knows where they come down?
In their most recent talk Taibbi and Kirn talk about how in the 60s America had a counter culture and now we have a fake “resistance” whose real purpose is to support the establishment. The Powell Memo on how to crush dissent did its work all too well. Or perhaps hippie poverty chic was just a passing phase from the getgo.
“And it is interesting the degree to which Trump is hopping onboard this unsavory bandwagon. ”
Has Trump learned to fear the Blob? When the American Praetorian Guard draws its swords, previously fearless leaders take note for fear of losing career, reputation, or even life and limb. Only the latter would seem to hold in Trump’s case. It’s worth noting that Trump too has his avid followers who are kinetically oriented. But they do not yet have the organs of state power at their disposal.
Global hegemony is the nation’s Precious from which the goodies flow, albeit unequally distributed. That we may have in that regard reached the point of diminishing returns is anathema to our foreign policy elite. And yet they bumble tragically onward, and are likely to do so no matter who manages to slouch to the White House.
I don’t think Trump has any ideology other than Trump. But that does suggest he at least cares about his brand, unlike Biden who thinks he can trick the public and press (and Putin!) with his schemes.
It’s a slugout between character defects. Arguably Biden’s is worse.
Related…A Tweet a little bit ago by Michael Tracy (not a fan);
Tracy – YouGov Poll
I tried to find the exact poll he used but I couldn’t. So we have an electorate that doesn’t, for the most part, like either. Imagine that. The benches are about as awful as the the starting players. Imagine that.
The future isn’t so bright we gotta wear shades.
re: Israel says Hamas weaponised rape. Does the evidence add up? Times of London.
I guess the Western media did an Emmett Till on Palestine.
Archive link for those without a Times subscription.
Caitlin Johnstone article posted on her substack.
The Washington Post Is Pure AIDS, And Other Notes
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-washington-post-is-pure-aids
Caitlin is a bit of a broken record but then so is our situation. No way out? Perhaps the only question is whether both of our polittical parties are equally corrupt and deserve to go the way of the Whigs or whether reforming at least one of them might help. Some thought Bernie was the path to the latter but then just mention the word “Trump” and he was all in for his “good friend” Biden. True outsiders are immediately scorned and treated as some kind of germ.
Maybe the new student movement is a sign of hope. Clearly there’s no relief coming from TPTB
Politically in the normal use of the word there is no hope for reform. If there is a possibility of reform it would have to come from the Republican Party as it’s structured much differently than the Democrat Party which is, at this point, highly centralized and comingled with most of the permanent State. For change don’t waste your time looking at candidates or policies. The way forwards is to be involved in building real communities.
The Democratic Party used to be less centralized because it was a very broad coalition, but the transformation of the institution from a functioning, broadly based, left and liberal leaning political party to the notational, effectively narrowly based, pseudo leftist and leaning, political grift that we all know and loathe required the centralization of power into the national DNC.
Just an example of the zombified corpse of the party being used for the façade of the grift.
Hope from Corey Robin’s blog. Apologies if already posted — I am ever late to the party:
“Troops hid inside aid truck for deadly US-Israel operation in Nuseirat”
‘It’s OK when we do it.’
Was curious how the TV news would cover it and it was as bad as I thought it would be. All the world (i.e. western) leaders congratulating Israel on that heroic rescue and skimming over Palestinian casualties. Oh wait – they did say that they had no idea how many of the dead Palestinians were Hamas fighters. So maybe all 200? Lots of celebrations by ordinary Israelis and Jewish groups around the world. The Israeli military was boasting that this raid will go down in history for being perfectly executed. But the numbers tell a different story. The Israelis bombed three or four nearby camps and killed or wounded about 700 men, women and children. It was an ongoing massacre and they probably had orders to kill anything that moved. I had the thought today that maybe the Israelis saw a movie that came out a few years ago and have really taken it to heart but made it 24/7 now-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us_0aLWOa8E (1:09 mins)
I immediately thought of Operation Yonatan, when Bibi’s brother was the only casualty of a hostage rescue operation in Entebbe, where all but 4 hostages of 106 were rescued, with the numbers being the other way around in that 4 were rescued, 102 are still being held hostage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entebbe_raid
Over the years I have had reason to think that the wrong brother got shot back then. These days I wonder how much of Israel and how many Israelis he is prepared to sacrifice, just so that he can avoid being thrown into the slammer for his corruption.
Had to re-polish a few details…
Over the years I have had reason to think that the wrong person perished in a car crash back then. These days I wonder how much of America and how many Americans he is prepared to sacrifice, just so that he can avoid being thrown into the slammer for his corruption.
Surely you aren’t making reference to this bit of alt-news?
See: https://www.volksfolks.org/forums/general-discussion/ted-kennedy-vw-ad/
As many as it takes . . .
Nuseirat is best summed up as a déclassé echo of Entebbe.
The numbers are far too large to have been happenstance during a lightning raid.
More likely the plan from the beginning was to launch the strikes so that the chaos would cover the rescue and retreat. The IDF was unlikely to be conservative in avoiding Palestinian casualties.
The bigger question is now over American involvement: “Boots on the ground?” and the political go ahead. Since the US dock area was used, for evacuation and it seems to deliver troops in via aid trucks, it’s hard to escape how the US would not have been briefed on the operation beforehand. The troops being described as American are probably the “private security”/PMC contractors mentioned at the time of the pier’s announcement. So not directly US army forces per se. Clearly not “security” forces either.
But this is now a moot point.
Whatever it was before, the pier is now a military port. And US equipment and personnel, and it now appears operations, are being deployed from it. There are US boots on the ground and there will continue to be more, especially after Hamas begins to attack the port. The media will decry attacks on the “humanitarian port” but Nuseirat will remain the gaping hole in that defense.
I find it impossible to believe that the US will not now end up in a ground war with either or both of Hamas or Hezbollah. The logical path of these escalations points only in that direction.
The word is that they also killed some of the Israeli prisoners held by Hamas…
One a US citizen, according to BBC.
Apparently a journalist named Abdallah Aljamal was killed, he held three hostages in his home. The hostages were freed, Aljamal was killed along with some members of his family.
Forgot to mention a really evil part. On that TV news they refused to say how many Palestinians died but called it a ‘tragedy’ as if it was a result of a natural disaster or something. Who are they trying to kid? It was a slaughter and nothing else.
Does it seem prudent? It doesn’t particularly to me. But I am not pretending to be a scientist. Apparently it is too much to ask for perspective or reasoning from these authors. No effort is evident here to establish a basis for “alarm” but “prudence”.
Humanity has been selecting for sociopaths for hundreds of years. The chickens have now come home to roost, because much like Patrick Bateman, they’re simply not there.
Another reason the Cass Review has gone mostly unmentioned in the US is the pernicious influence of the trans industry, which funds academics, NGO’s, politicians, and activist groups to insure, amongst other things, that gender critical information is downplayed, mocked, and ignored in social and traditional media. My understanding is that the trans industry and it’s apparatchiks have mostly ignored the Cass Review here in the US, figuring it’s better to let it fade away from public memory than trying to engage it’s damning claims.
A -lot- of money gets spent selling trans. It’s a growth industry. Bezos has his interests in it, to help paint a picture…
Go for a walk and get some fresh air. Afterwards, reread your entire comment and tell me that you don’t spend too much time on the internet.
Aww, did my comment upset you? Triggering perhaps? Maybe you would like to engage with what I said? I’m up for it.
lmao
My wife’s research indicates that is worth about 4 Billion USD…
i just dont like the gravy: Humanity has been selecting for sociopaths for hundreds of years.
Thousands of years. Simultaneously, psychopaths — because the precise diagnosis isn’t sociopaths, who are the types who fill the jail cells, but psychopaths, who fill the C-suites — have been selecting for domesticated humans among the masses.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280624639_The_domestication_of_humans
Modern humans display a number of phenotypic traits found only in domesticated species. Just the four most obvious ones are smaller teeth, shorter faces, reduced sex differences, and smaller brains. Likewise, our behaviors—our low rate of face-to-face aggression and high capability for cooperation compared to non-domesticated species—are also more typical of pets and cattle.
As regards the smaller brains specifically, the median human brain has decreased in volume by two-hundred cubic centimeters over the last 10,000 years. That’s about 11-13 percent smaller on average than our Cro Magnon ancestors.
Granted, 11-13 percent is still better than your average domesticated pig, which has a 23 percent smaller brain than your feral hog. But it’s not good. If a further two-hundred cubic centimeters’ shinkage were to occur, humanity would again have the IQ of Homo erectus, genus Homo’s earliest member two million years ago, who preceded Homo heidelbergensis, the precursor of Homo neanderthalis and sapiens.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240517-the-human-brain-has-been-shrinking-and-no-one-quite-knows-why
In fact, it’s not hard to figure out why. But nobody wants to. Domestication syndrome in humans starts really taking off in the last 5,000 to 3,000 years with the end of hunter-gatherer nomadism and the rise of sedentism, which meant agriculture, larger settled societies and – as someone controls the granary in such societies – inequality, slavery, and war.
So if human beings exhibit domestication syndrome – and we do – the question becomes whose ‘companion animal’ were and are we?
And the answer, fairly clearly, is psychopaths’ companion animal.
I don’t give much stock to the shrink’s profession, but I am fairly certain the accepted definition is the opposite. That sociopaths are the cold, calculating ones whereas psychopaths are impulsive maniacs. Eh, tomato tomato either way I guess.
Your domestication analogy is certainly amusing, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was intentional on the part of the psychopaths, as that implies it was a concerted effort by said group over time. It’s just selection pressure, not a nefarious plot by the Hannibal Lecters of the world.
No, he was right. A quick internet search for sociopath versus psychopath would show you that
Listening to a carnivore diet advocate, they said eating piles of carbohydrate will make your brain smaller. Grain agriculture is devastating to the ecology and diversity of a region compared to forests and grasslands. The Romans had their wheat. The Chinese their rice. The Incas their potatoes. The Aztecs their corn. All necessary to get food surpluses to grow the extra young men needed for their armies.
“German, French luxury carmakers lobby EU to hold off on export restrictions to Belarus”
‘A French diplomat stated that Paris supports “strong sanctions against countries that circumvent sanctions”
No they don’t. If Paris really supported strong sanctions against countries that circumvent sanctions, then that would have to include those countries that are shipping Russian oil & gas to the EU and hiding, kinda, their Russian origins. Come to think of it, Paris had to beg Canada a week or so ago not to enforce sanctions that would stop Russian titanium getting to France for its aerospace industry, including Aerobus. You could call the EU’s sanctions the Schrödinger’s Sanctions in that nobody wants to look into that box.
Aerobus sounds like Chinese knockoff of Airbus. It would go well with Beoing. :)
Everybody knows that ‘Beoing’ is the sound that a Boeing jet makes when another part falls off of it.
(Beoing) ‘Look! There goes another door plug.’
Re: The Koreas
“…On Jun 2, it said it would temporarily halt sending the balloons because 15 tons of trash it sent was probably enough to get the message across. However, it vowed to resume if leaflets were again flown from the South by sending a hundred times the amount.
A group of South Korean activists defied the warning and have since flown more balloons to the North with leaflets criticising its leader Kim Jong Un together with USB sticks containing K-pop videos and dramas, and US dollar notes…”
“…A group of South Korean activists defied the warning and have since flown more balloons to the North with leaflets criticising its leader Kim Jong Un together with USB sticks containing K-pop videos and dramas, and US dollar notes...”
Just more confirmation that the most “innocent” looking entertainment is often the biggest propaganda/behavior modifi ation tool.
And the events demonstrate the HUGE cultural influence of the USA. That influence is not declining as fast as some may think.
I’d venture to say it is what makes countries like Russia and China most cautious in dealings with the USA…more than weapons.
I wonder how many of those USB sticks will have malware on it to create back doors in North Korea’s networks.
There was malware back in the day…in the form of loudspeakers. In July ’63 the 10-year armistice was up and a state of war again existed. In early summer the malware from the north on the DMZ was being infected by AI. The favorite in the barracks was “IN JULY YOU DIE G.I.!” We all drank to that.
I’m a little scared, perhaps terrified over the prospect of a couple of flights* and airport layovers totaling 5 hours each way en route to an outdoor wedding that ought to be ok or does Covid crash the party, too?
Can’t be that safe these days and I went to the Army/Navy/NASA store in town and got a great deal on a new mint, never used Apollo 22 flight suit with oxygen pack.
…the question being, will I have to fly first class in order to accommodate said suit?
* this will be only my 5th domestic flight since 9/11. Last time I went aloft, the nice lady at the ticket counter asked how i’d like to pay for my bags, and I mentioned i’d like it to be included in the price of the ticket, and she gave me such a stare that still smarts to this day.
So maybe take a few N95 masks and change for a new one at each layover. I mean, 10 hours total stuck in aluminium tubes with scores of strangers is a bit like Russian roulette these days. Statistically there would have to be a few infected passengers with each flight. If you mask up for those 10 hours plus the stints at the airports, you won’t be sorry. Just don’t let your guard down when you reach your destination. Luck.
Oh, and forgot to mention…
Going on a Boeing~
You should ask at the check-in counter if a parachute counts as free onboard luggage. Probably the bird there will just give you another death stare. Come to think of it, best to have your seat belt on at all times.
My mom worked for United Air Lines in Denver in the early to mid 1950’s, and air travel was so glam back then, and her desk was at the Brown Palace Hotel, where she worked with another agent, who sold the ticket to the gent who sent his mom off on this flight… and never got over it, according to mom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Air_Lines_Flight_629
Sites like seatguru are your friend in knowing what type of plane you’ll be on and (if you have a choice) what seats are better/worse.
When I was a regular on SYD-LHR via SIN using SQ I deliberately used the knowledge that Singapore Airlines (back then) did 4 flights a day; 3 were A380, 1 was 777. One of the A380 flights was set up for business so no economy on upper deck. So the other 2 A380 flights were my top option. Economy on upper deck was 2-4-2 so getting window seat at front of econ section was brill – more flight attendants per passenger and a “side storage bin” due to curvature of the aircraft.
That kind of knowledge is helpful on other planes too. Good luck.
I just had to book a flight for later this summer.
I broke my no layover rule just to find a flight that would avoid Boeing and still avoid LAX.
And OMG…the some of the layovers were making a fligt that’s a little over 3 hrs a 10 -15 hr day at airports. WTH?
I found fights both ways – layovers about 2 hours.
But get this…the non-stop on a Boeing would have been cheaper. That is usually not the case for a non-stop.
You might want to go full on Darth Vader and wear a full or half face military respirator. After all, you will be spending time in just about the most infectious environment known to man.
Don’t accept the “argument” that the wedding you will be attending will sooner or later produce a Terran human being to replace you after the pathogen carries you off to the most defensible position of all.
Plan for maximum safety.
I can’t guarantee it will work but I flew from London to the Arctic circle (three flights there, three back) in the height of the pandemic and wore an N95 mask for the whole journey. I did not catch coronavirus. I also carried my dilute iodine spray and spritzed it liberally in the mouth and nose at regular intervals.
It was a bit uncomfortable carrying heavy luggage at a clip through the airport in an N95 (sweaty more than hard to breather) but that’s because I like to travel hand luggage only and for me hand luggage means carried in the hand: absolutely no way am I going to have a little case on wheels trotting behind me like a stupid lap dog, even if I would , unlike 99.9% of the other wheely suitcase owners, remember to pull it directly behind me rather than out to the side…
If you are not so self-defeatingly literal about luggage, you should be fine.
N = 1
Round-trip flight from Atlanta to Edinburgh August 2023: N95 both ways, never removed it except to snack, quickly.
Round-trip from Atlanta to Houston, November 2023: N95 both flights, etc.
Round-trip from Atlanta to Dallas-Fort Worth, April 2024: N95 both flights, etc.
My son was with me to Edinburgh, same drill. So N = 2 for that one.
No COVID-19 for either of us. There were fewer than five masked passengers on each leg of each trip. The Flight Attendants never seemed to notice. Or care. You get used to the mask…
Thanks for the advice from everybody, appreciate it.
Fewer warm bodies breathing into shared air in first class, and lower odds of being next to a cougher, so take it if you can, say I.
Also, seriously consider a Darth Vader mask (I can’t recomment a brand, but maybe Yves can). The elastomerics make for a better fit.
One thing about a Darth Vader mask is that it will protect the eyes as well. Not I’m paranoid but we wouldn’t want you to cartch H5N1 conjunctivitis.
The Urge to Surge The American Prospect. “Businesses are hiking prices to take advantage of consumers. They learned it from Uber.”
Another example of the inability of supply/demand metrics or analogies with industrial economies to tell the whole story of what is going on economically in the USA.
I view it as a case where one “actor” has the ‘supply’ and ‘demands’ whatever ‘rent’ it can squeeze out of the buying public.
A Neo-liberal definition of “Supply and Demand.”
Here’s another example of a surge-type pricing. I’ve noticed while buying clothing and domestic products like towels or furniture that retailers now charge more for the more desirable colors, designs, or sizes. It’s really infuriating to find that the item that attracted you to their site is available only at a higher price or not available at the sale price of other sizes, designs and colors. I often decide I don’t need that item from them and take a look elsewhere, but it’s really hard to avoid this practice now. This occurs in the discount sector just as much as with high-end retailers.
That is why I have two pairs of florescent pink sneakers, even though I prefer drab colors. They were very cheap indeed. I figure that I don’t have to look at them, and other people can survive it.
It’s weaponized information asymmetry, and we’re soaking in it, Madge.
“New Caledonia independence party refuses to meet French president’s dialogue mission”
I think that French diplomacy here consists of them telling the people of New Caledonia that they are going to do to them whatever they feel like doing – and that the New Caledonians should find a way to be OK with this.
A great crop of links today! And from new authors, too.
The Brexit October Revolution article is very on point. The author cannot quite hide his sympathies (or rather his denial that Team National Collectivist has a moral equivalence and agency to Team Globalist because democracy) but nevertheless the analysus is good. He links to an underlying article on a political theory of alignment that is also good.
The West under Clowns and Zealots article is also good, as are some of his other posts on the direction of travel of the West and the risk to our children posed by the war party. However, looking up the author, he keeps some rum company in his links (Vanessa Beeley). I will read around him more but I detect a strong smell of “BuT tHe VaCcInEs” and, in the articles about the works being by bankers, even a whiff of “BuT tHe JeWs”. Read with caution, possibly with tongs – but definitely read, challenge to groupthink is good.
The “economic termites” article is also good but Matt Stoller is familiar to me.
‘CEP
@FightExtremism
Update on the Sahel: “Not only are the Jihadist-terrorist groups continuously targeting the militaries of the entire region; more and more, they are engaging in open confrontation.” ‘
Looks like the US and France are going to use the Syrian playbook again. Finance, train and equip terrorists and send them against the government troops. And just like in Syria, you have the Wagner Group there as well. Just like old times.
“West under clowns and zealots” Alex Krainer’s TrendCompass
He didn’t have time to speak on what makes them more insufferable. All the gaslighting. As if people here are informed about the problems of the USA from China or Russia (foreign propaganda) when they have daily experiences that they are referring to.
The same geniuses also expect people to believe Krugman instead of their own empty pocketbooks. Imagine you have more money, indeed!
“Silicon Valley warms up to Donald Trump” The Verge
They expect the kind of deregulation that will help them continue theft.
On another front, they expect that someone with CRE interests has the same dependency and need for easy money/ultra low interest rates.
Theft? No, just good business practice.
https://www.forbes.com/digital-assets/assets/super-trump-strump/
One of Trumps plans for MAGA 2.0 is to make the Fed subservient to the executive branch ending its independence.
Powell would be fired and replaced with a parrot who says “bwawk! Cut rates to zero!”
One of Trumps plans for MAGA 2.0 is to make the Fed subservient to the executive branch ending its independence.
Another is to crash the economy stat so he can bail out the businesses he owns that he’s bleeding ahead of the strategic bankruptcies. He’s been known to do that sort of thing, in case you were wondering how it’s even possible to bankrupt casinos. Old private equity trick.
I’m looking forward to the standing ovation Bibi will recieve from Congress when he mentions “Israel’s right to self defense”.
It will be clarifying to watch our Congresscrittters overty demonstrate how corrupt, craven and depraved they are for everyone to see.
Money may be the “Mother’s Milk of Politics” but that’s not Bibi’s teats they have their lips fastened to.
Well, if Biden can make foreign policy decisions for Israel, I imagine Bibi can claim right to rule America himself….
It will be an interesting test to see which, if any, Democrats either don’t show up at all or show up so they can get up and walk out at the most high-impact time.
“The US military-built pier is NOT being used to provide Palestinians with humanitarian aid. It’s only being used to carry out military operations against them” https://t.co/ifzce13BEr
The elephant in the room: piers are used for shipping out people to. Would love to be a fly on the wall on conversations about where Palestinians that are moved out will be shipped to.
They keep testing the waters to ascertain what commercial real estate is really worth, and what edifice wrecks they are-worth a fraction of what is owed on them, or even less.
What if the same thing happened with safe as houses and a 1964 SFH 3/2 was all of the sudden not worth a million in LA, but now around $300k?
Edifice wrecks? The Greek tragedy?
First, the REIT wrecks. Then the edifice wrecks.
Ultimately, a large empty slab of concrete, copper, and glass is worth the value of the land beneath it plus salvage, minus demo costs.
Maybe “urban demolition specialist” will be the new hot job category. Kids, careful with that C4!
Tim-berrrrr!
Older buildings with asbestos can have negative value.
Toss in an unfavorable, to the borrower, ground lease and watch the rats scurry away from responsibility.
Another way to become a ward of the state, or some agency or fund.
As Temperatures in Pakistan Top 120 Degrees, There’s Nowhere to Run
A model for the rest of the world: droughts, desertification, crop failures, floods, infrastructure failures, population displacement. Sea level rise progresses but will take a while, and shortages won’t be severe while there’s still enough planet to plunder. Predictive timelines by category and type and by region would be helpful.
Why, when the situation is so clear and alarming, does it remain so stubbornly intractable to change? It is because those who have power in the world want it to be this way. Once the transistion to corporate totalitarianism à la Project 2025 gets underway the ugly ugly trends will be locked in. Game over.
Moving people underground to escape the heat could be expected to divide the people into Morlocks and Eloi, so that should be interesting. Thousands can be saved, at least for a while. Billions, not so much.
Michael Tracey
https://scheerpost.com/2024/06/09/never-forget-that-donald-trump-snookered-his-own-voters-to-pass-ukraine-funding/
Maybe Trump just wants some of that establishment love that is constantly being lavished on Lindsey (Sunday morning ghoul) and Nikki. Sheepdogs get nice kibble.
Trumps gone neo-con … look at him loot!
He’s gone neocon, to fund judgments from lawsuits!
He’s gone country – election’s now moot
He’s gone neocon
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=si-ja75bFvI&pp=ygUZYWxhbiBqYWNrc29uIGdvbmUgY291bnRyeQ%3D%3D
I am looking for any ray of hope right now.
I have no idea what Michael Hoerger is talking about. Some excerpts from his x-account:
https://x.com/michael_hoerger/status/1797738950167232796
Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA
@michael_hoerger
·
Jun 3
4-8 weeks. I cannot say what it is, but many people will start carrying it with them
Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA
@michael_hoerger
·
Jun 3
Not allowed to say yet, but you’re going to like it.
Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA
@michael_hoerger
·
Jun 3
Free to everyone around the globe.
I am looking for any ray of hope right now.
It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness, but that’s going to be tough in this hurricane.
> “Businesses are hiking prices to take advantage of consumers. They learned it from Uber.”
“Prices rise because firms raise them.” –Richard Wolff
So, no. Although they may have learned some new tricks from those little Silicon Valley darlings.
I was informed by the Cory Doctorow piece in Friday’s links on surveillance pricing.
Alex Krainer
“..out of control zealots in other spheres like economics, military, monetary policy, history, art, medicine, education, climate science,..”
Almost anyone unfamiliar with the incompetence of western leadership would write Alex off as a right-wing zealot, which is what I consider all climate change deniers to be.
With these people climate change denial is not the only belief they share.
Anyone who thinks the single biggest threat to humans is a hoax is an idiot in my book. I was thinking of using the term complete idiot, but he is correct about the elite stupidity in general. Since when did climate scientists become part of the elite?
The other ridiclious wa wa wa claims of climate deniers is their endless whining about their fossil fuel freedom being stolen. I’ve had an open challenge for years for any one of them to show me the data of this alleged loss of fossil fuels and have yet to hear back. All the data I have shows an increase if fossil fuel consumption every year since 1988 (James Hansen warning to US senate & world) with minor, one year dip, from the GFC and Covid. The humans have done nothing about climate change except talk talk talk. The talkers consume just as much energy and the goodies it brings as the deniers.
I mostly agree with Alex’s claims in this essay. The only people more stupid and blind than western managers and elite are climate change deniers. Denial is 100% political and has nothing to do with science.
The only people more stupid and blind than western managers and elite are climate change deniers.
All of whom will insist that it’s absolutely possible to dump billions of tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere every year for decades on end and it will have no effect whatsoever.
Five talk radio personalities who were vocal COVID-19-deniers, anti-vaxxers, or anti-maskers all departed after contracting the virus in a single month in 2020. One could argue the case that they’re even dumber than climate change deniers.
It’s not stupidity. It’s about owning the libs, presumably as assets in their estates.
>>>It’s not stupidity. It’s about owning the libs, presumably as assets in their estates.
How is this different from the Democratic PMC Trump hating, Fauci fanatical vaccine worshippers? Whatever the validity or truthfulness of their beliefs and actions, they have them because it is their tribal indicator and they warp their reality to fit. The fidelity to the tribe is more important than fidelity to reality.
As soon as I saw that 4 years later, COVID remains a year-round threat. Here’s why this virus isn’t seasonal quite yet was a CBC piece, I knew that it would be the work of Lauren Pelley, their chief medical correspondent.
Throughout the pandemic, Pelley has been diligent in her amplification of the minimizers, with just enough snippets of other views to allow her to present herself as “balanced”. I’m not sure who she would be equivalent to in other countries – kind of a Canadian version of Tufekci, perhaps.
I see that the excellent T. Ryan Gregory is on the case.
Good resource. Publishes climate articles every other day.
8th June 2024 Today’s Round-Up of Climate News
Thanks! But your post come without the link, or I could not acess the link.
You’re quoting this site: Climateandeconomy.com ???
I hope so!
Thanks
8th June 2024 Today’s Round-Up of Climate News
by Panopticon | Jun 8, 2024 |
https://climateandeconomy.com/2024/06/08/8th-june-2024-todays-round-up-of-climate-news/
Pennsylvania’s Fracking Wastewater Contains a ‘Shocking’ Amount of the Critical Clean Energy Mineral Lithium
A new study estimated there is enough lithium in the state’s wastewater to meet up to 40 percent of domestic needs. But experts are concerned the discovery will be used to justify more fracking.
By Kiley Bense
May 29, 2024
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29052024/pennsylvania-fracking-wastewater-lithium/
Since all that fracking wastewater is pumped back down underground, why not try to figure out a way to create giant geologic sized lithium ion batteries underground. All you would need would be a few giant conductive “poles” sunk into the earth to create a battery, correct? Geo-engineering of another sort.
I swear and attest I am not ‘indulging’ in psychoactive substances.
“Since all that fracking wastewater is pumped back down underground”
You wish. It’s used to grow Wonderful pistaschios. Among other things.
It helps a LOT with the water shortages out west. Waste not, want not!
You do know that fracking wastewater is laced with all sorts of chemicals used in the fracking process itself. The fracking companies won’t say what chemicals as it is ‘proprietary’ information. Oh, yeah, it is radioactive as well.
really its obvious, its why our elites never have to pay a price for their follies.
West under clowns and zealots
“In smaller ways, similar incidents have certainly happened thousands of times over the years in a process that staffed the leadership positions of Western institutions with such intellectual titans like Sir Tony Blair, James Clapper, Victoria Nuland, Ursula von der Leyen, Josep Borrell, Lord David Cameron, Antony Blinken and “the big guy” himself. Same with media editors, journalists, think-tank analysts, corporate executives, military generals, judges, prosecutors, administrators, academics… ”
————-
most have ties to bill clinton, tony blair, gerhard schroeder, etc.
if you do not name names to their policies of destruction. how are you ever going to get rid of people like the most progressive president since FDR, BIDEN, and tens of millions gobbled up that crap.
the most progressive president since FDR was bill clinton, and obama’s right hand man.
REALLY? “the most progressive president since FDR was bill clinton” ????? Obama was Clinton’s right-hand man? I can only suppose I have no idea or concept of what the word “progressive” means … …. AND what exactly are you trying to say in your comment?
I am not married to the labels “populist”, “progressive”, or X-????? whatever, but is there some term that you might apply to people who believe Our Democracy[TM] is totally remote from caring for the needs of or subject to the will of the Populace? And is there some other word for the politics that cares for the needs of the Populace and subjects itself to the will of the Populace? I know and too well relate to the old fear that sometimes the will of the Populace can devolve to the madness of a mob. [I like to believe a better fourth estate might ameliorate that old fear — were such fourth rebuilt and re-populated.]
I suspect we are reading from the same sheet of music, but I cannot fathom the intent or meaning of your comment. … Your comment is confusing.
i never said clinton was the most progressive. never said obama was clinton right hand man.
here it is again,
“really its obvious, its why our elites never have to pay a price for their follies.
West under clowns and zealots
“In smaller ways, similar incidents have certainly happened thousands of times over the years in a process that staffed the leadership positions of Western institutions with such intellectual titans like Sir Tony Blair, James Clapper, Victoria Nuland, Ursula von der Leyen, Josep Borrell, Lord David Cameron, Antony Blinken and “the big guy” himself. Same with media editors, journalists, think-tank analysts, corporate executives, military generals, judges, prosecutors, administrators, academics… ”
————-
most have ties to bill clinton, tony blair, gerhard schroeder, etc.
if you do not name names to their policies of destruction. how are you ever going to get rid of people like the most progressive president since FDR, BIDEN, and tens of millions gobbled up that crap.
the most progressive president since FDR was bill clinton, and obama’s right hand man.”
pretty easy to understand. biden tried to pass himself off as a progressive, who would be stupid enough to believe that. and yes, biden was bill clinton and obamas right hand man.
I think the comma after “bill clinton” is the point of confusion.
Would that be the Bill Clinton who signed the Glass-Steagall repeal act, or the Bill Clinton who bombed Belgrade?
Just kiddingly pointing those two things out. Suspect you’re sarcasm tag was left out.
why would i even have to say its sarcasm? its so obvious what i meant.
EU Parliament elections: the conservatives win big. Macron in, as Aurelien would say, an epic sulking is calling for legislative elections in France having been defeated by Le Pen in Europe. The “far right” turned the most voted option in Austria and the second in Germany according to polls, not definitive results.
In Finland the “far right” crashed – probably because they’re back in the government and because their voter won’t really bother braving the rain for the EU parliament. The Greens were also totally pommeled.
The Left Coalition (the left-ier party) did have kinda land-slide becoming the second largest party in Finland by the popular vote – although only about 42% bothered to vote at all, which has been the norm for a couple of decades.
Everything changes only to stay the same. Groundhog day in politics all over again. If the conservative win translates into a second vdL term well…
“French President Emmanuel Macron announces snap elections after stinging EU elections defeat
…
“The snap elections are a massive gmable for Macron, who lost his absolute majority in the national assembly after being re-elected in 2022.
His Renew party then secured just 169 seats in the 577 hemicyle, with allies from other centrist parties including MoDem and Horizons supplying another 81 seats.
The RN was the second largest formation with 88 seats, followed by the radical left-wing France Unbowed (LFI), and the right-wing Republicans (LR).
Macron’s approval rating stood at a dismal 31% in May,” …
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/06/09/french-president-emmanuel-macron-announces-anticipated-elections-after-stinging-eu-electio#:~:text=The%20snap%20elections,31%25%20in%20May%2C
The EuroNews bring a interesting round-up, with info from various of EU countries, and with sum up of loss and gains by main national parties.
“Here’s a round-up to get you up to date:”
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/06/09/european-elections-21-countries-go-to-the-polls-as-vote-enters-final-day#:~:text=Here%27s%20a%20round%2Dup%20to%20get%20you%20up%20to%20date%3A
Middle East Eye has the text of the Israeli ceasefire proposal.
It’s important to understand that this is a draft document that never was approved by the Israeli government.
It was deliberately leaked to the press by the Biden admin to try to pressure Hamas into an agreement. Legally it’s a dead letter because Hamas already rejected it. It has no meaning and is the equivalent of me breaking in to your office, finding some old offer you made on a house that was rejected by the seller, claiming that it was your new offer and presenting it to the seller again.
In other words – it’s Fraud.
‘After eight months of the New York Times, BBC, CNN, Guardian, Reuters and AP regurgitating Israeli disinformation about “mass rape” by Hamas on October 7, an investigation by a mainstream outlet finds it was all a hoax.’
Whatever it takes to get to Deuteronomy 20:16.
Whatever it takes to get to Deuteronomy 20:16
Perhaps, though, they might take a moment to check out Exodus 20:16 on the way…
I am thinking that Mathew 16:26 is a better choice. People seem to act as if they do not have one, or if they do, it is not worth anything. Perhaps if they were more willing to look at the cost of enabling genocide or even other evils merely to make some bread, they might hesitate.
I have a fellow zoom church attender who lives in the Midwest. Everyone in her office (which is in Michigan) has been coughing like crazy, including her. One tested positive for whooping cough; my coreligionist only heard about this through office gossip. So she tested and sure enough she has whooping cough, too.
She said it was pretty nasty but she figures it was not as bad as it might have been since she was given a whooping cough booster with each of her pregnancies. So now she is on antibiotics (to prevent infecting anyone else), and her sons, one of whom is severely autistic, are also on antibiotics. She thinks that since this is a reportable disease that the state will step in and start looking at what is up. I am not so confident that they will, but I didn’t say so. She did not know about the huge surge of whooping cough cases in England.
A person was also present this evening at zoom church who had had whooping cough in England in the 1970s as a little kid. He said that his lungs have not been the same since; that it can scar the lungs; that he now has to go to great lengths to make sure he does not catch respiratory infections.
I don’t want to have a bad case of whooping cough, but I’m not in a hurry to get a booster. So far I am glad that I didn’t take the covid “vaccine”, and that is really coloring my view of this.
Last year another coreligionist of mine and I got into it over the covid vax. He was under the impression that it prevented transmission, and that therefore anyone who refused it was being selfish and should be required by law to take it. Since we are obliged to be decent to one another I described my evidence and reasoning in detail and told him about my ardent N95-wearing and although I don’t think I convinced him of anything we didn’t part (via email) in anger. I am really glad of that since it was announced today that he just died. Yes, he died suddenly. I am still trying to wrap my head around that; it is upsetting.
Now let’s do a correlation study of whooping cough and long covid?
AP:
Centrist Benny Gantz is quitting Israel’s war Cabinet, citing frustrations with Netanyahu
Well …. Bye.
Bibi doesn’t need no steenkin’ centrists.
I understand that Netanyahu is the moderate on his cabinet, which indicates truly scary things about that cabinet.
So, does Netanyahu call a snap election in the middle of a “war?”
When Gantz is called a “centrist” with a straight face…..
Is this an example of regional variations in Overton’s Window?
“Confidential” 988 Conversation Records Shared with Corporations Mad in America
Remember when “AI” was called by it’s proper name: DARPA’s “Total Information Awareness Program”?
Maybe the brain trust here are going to cover it tomorrow, but I haven’t seen any comments about the huge protest at the WH over the weekend:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna156186
Jill Stein was there. At least one attempt to arrest a girl; the crowd may have forced the cops to back off and release her:
https://gazette.com/news/wex/anti-israel-protesters-surround-white-house-as-pepper-spray-and-smoke-flares-deployed/article_eda25f7d-9486-598b-81d6-cd61d24153fd.amp.html