The Hidden Life of Scotland’s Wild Haggis Haggis Wildlife Foundation
Capital buffers and the micro-macro nexus Bank of International Settlements
Climate
How hot was it (1):
It’s so hot in NYC that the Third Ave Bridge over the Harlem River can’t fully open/close because the heat has expanded the steel. We saw workers using a saw to shave part of the steel down & fire boats shooting water on the bridge to cool it down @nbcnewyork #nbc4ny #nyc #heat pic.twitter.com/lAxdyXNHEP
— Jesse Hamilton (@JesseJHamilton) July 8, 2024
How hot was it (2):
Got a source who works for the airlines who's telling me that flights into the southwest are getting canceled due to heat. A lot of planes aren't certified for above 119°F/48.3°C so they get canceled or diverted.
Source says this: pic.twitter.com/DBGFWvSwH0
— Josh Ellis (@jzellis) July 6, 2024
How hot was it (3):
The manufacturer is citing extreme weather affecting production of the plastic used for these bottles as well as the sharp ⏫️ in demand during the pandemic. This is directly related to SARS-CoV-2 as bacterial infections like bacteremia are often secondary to covid infection.
— David Christopher 🏥🥼🔬🍉 (@MLS_Dave) July 8, 2024
Can we air condition our way out of climate change? The Climate Brink
Peering Inside the Pandora’s Box of Oil and Gas Waste Inside Climate News
Syndemics
This May Be the Most Overlooked Covid Symptom NYT
The Lancet: Changing Epidemiological Patterns in Human Avian Influenza Virus Infections Avian Flu Diary
China?
China needs more momentum in its economic recovery China Daily
Japan’s tacit NATO membership acts as bridge for global security Nikkei Asia
Myanmar
Myanmar’s ethnic rebels say they captured an airport in a new setback for the military government Associated Press
CNA Explains: Myanmar’s ex-president visited China, followed by its junta No 2. What’s the play? Channel News Asia
Delivering Death: Chinese Jet-Fuel Tanker Sailing Into Myanmar The Irrawaddy
India
The complexities of India’s Neighbourhood first Policy Modern Diplomacy
Syraqistan
US to resume 500-pound bomb shipments to Israel The HIll
Israel tells ‘everyone in Gaza City’ to leave BBC
The Palestinian Authority’s shrinking influence in the West Bank FT
Only an anti-fascist front can save us from the abyss 972 Magazine
Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape US discourse around Gaza war The Unbalanced Evolution of Homo Sapiens
The International Criminal Court’s Jurisdiction in Palestine and the ‘Oslo Accords Issue’ Just Security
Iraq halts financial transactions in Chinese Yuan under US pressure BNE Intellinews
European Disunion
‘Contained but not stopped’: French far right takes record number of seats in parliament France24
French Elections : Antifascist Victory and Deep Political Crisis The Left Berlin
Dear Old Blighty
Israel Lobby Funded Half of New UK Cabinet Consortium News
Starmer, a thread:
If you are wondering who UK's new PM @Keir_Starmer is, wait no further.
This will be an interesting thread. pic.twitter.com/ZmoSEPzp5o
— Esha K (@eshaLegal) July 5, 2024
The Tories betrayed Britain – and too many still refuse to admit it The Telegraph. Commentary:
For years I kept the list of Tory levelling up promises stuck on a cupboard door. You’ll see from the sellotape that once I ripped it down in impotent rage. Then I stuck it back up again. pic.twitter.com/e0AihzQDpb
— Ian McMillan (@IMcMillan) July 6, 2024
New Not-So-Cold War
New Development In Black Sea, Russian Navy Using Base In Georgia Naval News
First F-16 Jet Fighters on Their Way to Ukraine, U.S. and Allies Say WSJ
Zelenskyy meets with top executives of leading US defence companies Ukrainska Pravda
Clinton promised Yeltsin Nato expansion “no threat”, newly declassified documents show BNE Intellinews
Russia faces labor shortages despite low unemployment Anadolu Agency
NATO Summit
Fate of Biden Hangs Over the NATO Summit Like a Ghost Conjured by Shakespeare Larry Johnson, Son of the New American Revolution
Biden, Starmer project optimism amid political tumult Politico
* * * Ukraine is on an ‘irreversible’ path to NATO. But only after war with Russia ends AP. Commentary:
NATO means not being alone.
NATO means protecting each other.
NATO means living in freedom.
NATO means peace#NATOSummit | #WeAreNATO pic.twitter.com/Eh0Z8Fv2Ot— NATO (@NATO) July 7, 2024
Stoltenberg: Ukraine’s right to self-defence includes strikes deep into Russian territory Ukrainska Pravda
Russia pledges response to US decision to deploy long-range weapons in Germany Anadolu Agency
NATO SUMMIT: Alliance’s Endgame Appears to Be Nuclear War Consortium News
China a ‘decisive enabler’ of Russia’s war in Ukraine, says Nato in stern rebuke Guardian. Commentary:
The funniest thing about NATO calling China "a decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine" in their "Washington Summit Declaration" yesterday (https://t.co/9E5tirgNvW) is that China is probably "a decisive enabler" of the other side to a much greater extent than Russia.… pic.twitter.com/DFzVE2tHK1
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) July 11, 2024
2024
Point/Counterpoint: Hillary Clinton Is Polling Ahead Of Joe Biden vs. Did Somebody Say Hillary Clinton? The Onion. June 9.
Illa in Manila: Will History Demand Trump-Hillary II? (excerpt) Matt Taibbi, Racket News. June 10.
Analyzing the Biden and Trump Debate and the 2024 Electoral Process Black Agenda Report
2024 Election: How to Get Involved As a High School Student Teen Vogue
The Supremes
The Hydraulic Effect of Loper Bright Enterprises in Consumer Finance: More Regulation By Enforcement Credit Slips. Important.
Project 2025 Is Taking Its Cues From the Supreme Court’s Worst Decisions Balls and Strikes
Global Elections
Meta’s Oversight Board is unprepared for a historic 2024 election cycle Brookings Institution
The Final Frontier
The Boeing Starliner crew might be stuck in space for the rest of the summer Quartz
A Tale of Two Spacecraft Pluralia
Digital Watch
Big Tech’s eventual response to my LLM-crasher bug report was dire The Register. “[A}n almost complete lack of bug reporting infrastructure from the LLM providers.”
Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fashion
Shein to Address Fashion Industry Waste Ahead of Potential Listing WSJ
Guillotine Watch
Elon Musk beats $500m severance lawsuit by fired Twitter workers Al Jazeera
Class Warfare
Grocery Workers File Union Democracy Lawsuit Labor Notes
Minneapolis park workers’ strike will continue indefinitely, union says Star-Tribune
To Best Understand Inequality, Think Class, Not Generation Inequality
A Life Full Circle: Gramsci in Sardinia Andy Merrifield
Antidote du jour (George Gastin):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
129 comments
Comments are closed.
HERE COMES HILLARY
(melody borrowed from Here Comes Santa Claus by Gene Autry, as performedby Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters, 1949)
Here comes Hillary, here comes Hillary, called to save us again
Schumer, Pelosi and sweet Kamala grimacing in pain
Ask Obama ‘Who’s your mama?’ cue the sweetness and light
That Russian bear may not play fair this time she’s doin’ it right
You’re deplorable, she’s adorable, nothing’s wrong with her brain
She’ll mop the floor with that orange-faced bore and he won’t come back again
Wokey labels, gender tangles, CIS-folk getting uptight
Jump in bed get your legs well spread this time she’s doin’ it right
So right
This time she’s doin’ it right
Happy Days Happy Times
Cue the bells and chimes
As Hillary comes your way, today . . .
Here comes Hillary, such nobility, not for wealth or for fame
She’s as pure as a force majeure as we call on our grand dame
Grace unstinting, both eyes glinting, aching for a big fight
She has no peer and this is her year this time she’s doin’ it right
So right
This time she’s doin’ it right
Stand by . . .
(musical interlude)
Trump won ’16, what a sad scene, all our efforts in vain
Now she’s back for the big attack and she’ll wipe away that stain
So share with all that she’s heard the call if we can just unite
No more shorn of the one we love this time she’s doin’ it right
Happy Days Happy Times
Cue the bells and chimes
Here comes Hillary!
Again, you’ve saved another doom scroll day…
Ha! Great.
adding: from Taibbi’s longer article about the mini-convention blitz proposal
….The ingenious “mini-primary” idea therefore boils down to clearing decks so the same clutch of decomposing aristocrats who put Biden in office in the first place can roll out the same slate of interchangeably unelectable neoliberal fuckwits Democratic voters rejected in 2020 in favor of a clear dementia sufferer, a list that conspicuously includes the current Vice President.
That strategy is just dumb enough to be believable, but the truly inspired bad idea, the one that would make the whole world convulse with horror and wonder is obvious. It has to be Hillary, especially since the party seems determined to create a process receptive to the idea. Pollster and longtime member of the DNC executive committee Jim Zogby described to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now his vision of a “very democratic and transparent process” for removing the still-wriggling Biden that would require a mini-quorum of apparatchiks to approve a candidacy:….
Five out of five stars ★★★★★ !
I feel bad for NC readers not old enough to hear this one sung in a Gene Autry voice.
For those unacquainted, here’s a film version of The Singing Cowboy doing this classic tune. From 1949’s Cowboys and Indians, it’s a very big dollop of cringe with ‘Sanny Claus’ on horseback.
https://youtu.be/X_OGX3jT2pA?si=KH0d4rfZPiVKvlJF
I rarely try to run through these in my head as if I’m performing them, but this was so easy and it fit together so well. Spot on.
I’m fearful.
“2024 Election: How to Get Involved As a High School Student”
My own advice to those high school kids is don’t, just don’t. If they want to pay you, then fair enough. But neither party is worth the effort as far as I can see and in fact both have dedicated themselves to screwing over young people. Instead, these kids should enjoy life while they are in high school. Hang around with friends and shoot the s***, go to parties, learn to be a good driver. If they still want to volunteer, then there are lots or worthy causes that can be found that actually help people as in right here and right now. You can never get your teens years back again so don’t waste them on political machines who will use you up and then spit you out. Cynical much?
“2024 Election: How to Get Involved As a High School Student”
Be especially careful before becoming at all politically involved, as American institutions are showing they may subsequently track your involvement and exclude you if the involvement is disapproved:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/08/business/sullivan-cromwell-israel-protests.html
July 8, 2024
A Wall Street Law Firm Wants to Define Consequences of Israel Protests
Sullivan & Cromwell is requiring job applicants to explain their participation in protests. Critics see the policy as a way to silence speech about the war.
By Emily Flitter
well said
I’ll go one step further – even adults should stay away. You can never get ANY years back and the older you get, the more precious the remaining become.
My advice would be to reach out to your local anarchists, build your network offline before you altogether lose the ability to. And grandma says don’t forget your mask.
You say that like being cynical is a bad thing…
(it’s the hap-happiest time of the year~)
It’s beginning to look a lot like Kamala
Everywhere you go
Take a look at the state of Joe, he’s uttering malarkey once again
With Jill as his cane and health suspicions that grow
It’s beginning to look a lot like Kamala
Veep story no more
But the pettiest sight to see is the word salad that will be
A daily bore
Syntax jumbled about and a mouth that shoots
Is the wish of Kam & Doug
A doll that’ll talk and will not get mocked
Is the hope of the Donkey Show
And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for election talk to start again
It’s beginning to look a lot like Kamala
Everywhere you go
There’s hope in the grand scheme, her administration will go well
She’s the sturdy kind that doesn’t mind the show
It’s beginning to look a lot like Kamala
Soon her administration will start
And the thing that’ll make ’em zing is the vocabulary that you bring
Right within her vocal chords
It’s beginning to look a lot like Kamala
Goy story, some say a bore
But the scariest sight to see is the ‘I’m With Her’ campaign poster that will be
On your own front door
Sure, it’s Hillary once more
Ho, ho, ho … Christmas in July!
Keep them all away from the mistletoe!
Did this go from Xmas to Camelot halfway thru? (Same thing, really)
It’s a horror carol that would scare the bejesus out of somebody when a dozen revelers dressed for the occasion showed up on the front doorstep, rang the bell and started singing.
“The Boeing Starliner crew might be stuck in space for the rest of the summer”
‘Boeing and NASA still aren’t sure when they’ll bring the CST-100 Starliner home.’
So maybe those astronauts will never be able to use that Starliner to go home but will need to hitch a ride with another ship. Maybe with one of Musk’s ships or maybe with the Russians. But not to worry, Boeing is on the job. They have a secret teleportation program in development and reckon that they will be able to use it to beam those two astronauts back down to earth. They just have to work out a coupla kinks first like how things get turned inside out in transportation but they figure that when they have an 80% success rate, then they will be able to use it to bring those astronauts back down. In the meantime, NASA may have to schedule another launch to carry more supplies and provisions and maybe start charging those two rent.
The Rev Kev: They have a secret teleportation program in development.
Jeff Goldblum in The Fly had one of those too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj1SHpBsY7w
I see your The Fly and raise you Spaceballs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etY7kbRRQ_c
And I see your Spaceballs and raise you Galaxy Quest-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW-NiGp1gys (2:40 mins)
been saying all along the Starliner is now a permanent fixture to the ISS – and how will those folks return to earth – hitchhike a ride with the Russians?
I’d bet Boeing would take the Russians over SpaceX in a heartbeat, though I’m not sure the US government would go along with it.
I have read that Boeing wants it back to study what went wrong. If it burns up on re-entry there will be nothing to analyze. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that the problem parts might be normally jettisoned during the process so there will be nothing to see. Looking for information about the Starliner on Ewe Tube only produces news from SpaceX. I wonder why Boeing has nothing to say?
MAR’s hahahhahaha~~~~~
Investors~~~~
Lost In Space TV series plot:
Dr. Smith: accountant for Boeing, sneaks cuts aboard the Starliner, and the Swift Family Robinson is stranded in outer space indefinitely, Danger Will Robinson! is a given.
>Only an anti-fascist front can save us from the abyss 972 Magazine
It’s very difficult for a society stuck in a continuous state of trauma to evaluate or even notice the transformations it is undergoing in real time. The Israeli public is still recovering from the shock of October 7…
But right now, we must begin preparing for this day by building a broad anti-fascist front that can curb the worst impulses of this new society and chart a different path forward.
,
No, I’m not buying this account. It’s couching the argument in psychoanalytic terms like “trauma” or “impulses.” Israel has adopted an evil ideology, Zionism. Those who embrace it are either ignorant, evil, or a combination of both. You want some sort of “anti-fascist” movement to combat it, fine, as long as you call out the moral depravity of the perpetrators and the need to restore the “moral order.”
over the past three decades, Netanyahu has built an Israeli society in his image. Everything rhymes with German fascism.
Israel is the result of Zionism. Abolish Israel.
Abolish Israel?
And how, exactly, will that “abolish” the causative disorder, Zionism? Like the Sisyphean task Russia has set itself of “denazification,” an endemic madness that has infected the corpus of pretty much all of The West, to varying degrees? Zionism being apparently just one expression of the disorder?
Though it might be one necessary, if not sufficient, step in a healthier direction. And it does look like the Israelis are on the cusp of self-extinction.
So wanting a homeland is a disorder? And all the people who weren’t lucky enough to acquire one a thousand years ago or so are just supposed to sit around the jungle, the desert, or the ghetto, waiting for someone to grant them one? That’ll work.
Wanting a homeland isn’t the issue; committing genocide and land theft, as well as creating an apartheid state, is. Don’t try to pretend all Zionists want is a homeland. It is either a very ignorant or extremely dishonest position. Most of the “settlers” in the occupied territories are from Europe or North America, and many of them were far from poor or homeless in their countries of origin.
Another excellent article, another episode in Andy Merrifield’s re-thinking of the life of Antonio Gramsci. “A life full circle. Gramsci in Sardinia”
Highly recommended.
One of the reasons why I lose patience with the empty slogan “there is no right or left,” which is self-indulgent and sterile nonsense, arguing for stagnation in history, is that there are people like Gramsci. His profound humanity and his ethos are thoroughly leftist.
To quote from the article by Merrifield: ‘Underneath is a citation from Prison Notebooks: “culture isn’t having a well-stocked warehouse of news but is the ability that our mind has to understand life, the place we hold there, our relationship with other people. Those who are aware of themselves and of everything, who feel the relationship with all other beings, have culture…So anyone can be cultured, can be a philosopher.”’
You may think that Italian life now centers on Chiara Ferragni and Fedez, or the latest offerings from Prada, but there is a constant current of gentle disruption—Gramsci, Saint Francis of Assisi, Rossana Rossanda… Which make a left possible and life more or less bearable.
I’ve always admired Gramsci, I have his Prison Notebooks on my book shelf which I’ve read several times. His concept of the “supra-structure” always made sense to me in helping to understand why often, if not the majority of the time, the “proletariat vote against their own interest.”
Unfortunately many podcasters I would otherwise admire tar him as some evil originator atheist “Cultural Marxist.” I scrolled through article, and based on your comment, I’ll have to steal some time to read it.
>Israel Lobby Funded Half of New UK Cabinet Consortium News
A parliamentary adviser who went on the delegation told openDemocracy: “there was a clear and obvious agenda to make sure people had a pro-Israel stance going into government”.
What’s wrong with that? A foreign country lobbying to promote its interest buy providing financial incentives and assistance to friendly members of parliament. And unlike the U.S., it’s only half the UK Cabinet. Israel needs to up the ante, after all Thomas Massie has pointed out that all Republican members of Congress have a “handler” that “educates and guides” him/her to appreciate Israeli interest in crafting legislation.
UKIPAC?
not to be confused with UkiePAC?
Congress critters with handlers? I have a vision of the handlers herding congress critters down a chute where each is ear tagged, branded, and injected with the proper attitudes.
One might also imagine the critters looking at their handlers rather like the sheep in the daily antidote.
Preserving “Our Democracy.”
Somehow, this does seems like an accurate, real-life, vision of Congress. F—– m.
And then there is a growing majority who are No Friends of Israel.
Labour Friends of Israel
They’re a thing.
And then there is the Conservative Friends of Israel.
And then there is a growing majority who are No Friends of Israel.
Probably the nearest example is the Antebellum period, and the disproportionate influence of the slaveowning class over just about every aspect of political and civic discourse in the United States.
Government should be guided by facts, not financial incentives.
At least in Canada government officials and representatives aren’t allowed, by law, to accept financial gifts and bribes for this very reason. I would have thought the UK would have similar laws since Canada derives many of its laws from the UK.
Es S Ce Tera
Really? There has been for years a Friends of Israel group within the parliament of Canada. They are given so-called educational visits to Israel in order to avoid the financial gifts clause. Two members of the BC legislature, both NDP, one who resigned a couple of years ago after having switched to provincial politics, and the other who took the same path but is not going to run again provincially having just made his announcement. His late father had been lawyer fighting for the disadvantaged, who had been on Vancouver City Council for many years.
>Israel Lobby Funded Half of New UK Cabinet Consortium News
A parliamentary adviser who went on the delegation told openDemocracy: “there was a clear and obvious agenda to make sure people had a pro-Israel stance going into government”.
What’s wrong with that? A foreign country lobbying to promote its interest by providing financial incentives and assistance to friendly members of parliament. And unlike the U.S., it’s only half the UK Cabinet. Israel needs to up the ante, after all Thomas Massie has pointed out that all Republican members of Congress have a “handler” that “educates and guides” him/her to appreciate Israeli interest in crafting legislation.
Speaking of Thomas Massie, his presence on TwitterX is sorely missed. I’ve still seen no account of what caused his 51 year old wife to die suddenly.
This article has now disappeared from Consortium News. It goes to a 404 error and I could not find it on the site by searching.
Sure, nothing like starting your day with a video of a hawtie Martian blonde from Uppsala that can kill silently with her eyes, and then moving on to a variety of dangerous distaffs. I think it was supposed to be about NATO.
The only thing she can kill is future of her nation.
If we are going to have green girls, then make mine an Orion slave girl.
>Meta’s Oversight Board is unprepared for a historic 2024 election cycle – Brookings Institution
Many worry that campaigns will use their social media to spread false information and that tech companies won’t adequately address these issues as their platforms continue to host democracy-compromising content ahead of elections.
I was hoping to read some information about Meta’s new policy regarding the use of the word “Zionism.” The “many” who are worrying about “false information” are the ones perpetrating the dis/misinformation in spades, especially by omission of legitimate view points. I don’t use Facebook or other platforms controlled by Meta. That people still get “news” from these platforms is part of the problem. Even if people had reliable information to draw on in trying to influence policy makers, we all know studies have demonstrated, it really doesn’t matter, the donors will have their say/day while the rest are destined to be but spectators.
I don’t think Meta’s board are the only ones waiting for the results of the 2024 election. I am sure William Gibson is waiting to see the results before publishing his third part of the Jackpot trilogy. How can you write about the future before the near future is known? If Trump wins he will have a great villain and if Biden stays and wins he will have a different story. What to do? He may have two versions ready and waiting for the printers. It would never do to look like Bill Gates and have your book about the future called back from the printers because you didn’t mention the Internet.
Re: “Can we air condition our way out of climate change? The Climate Brink”
William Nordhaus is the primary Economics contributor to the IPCC reports, and he blatantly ignores the thermodynamics realities of which Andrew Dressler writes at today’s link. Steve Keen has made Nordhaus’s inputs his personal punching bag for several years. Here’s one of his pieces on the subject.
‘Esha K
@eshaLegal
If you are wondering who UK’s new PM @Keir_Starmer
is, wait no further.
This will be an interesting thread.’
Good news everybody. Starmer is doomed. Tonight on the news I saw him hug Zelensky so it is only a matter of time until the Zelensky Curse goes to work on him. Notable recent victims of this curse include Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak, Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron. That’s proof enough for me.
>To Best Understand Inequality, Think Class, Not Generation Inequality
What’s going on here? We’re not suffering through a generational war. We’re continuing to live through a clash of economic classes…
Baby boomers just happened to have had the good fortune to come along at one of those rare moments in history when the richest among us were not doing so well in that clash of classes. These boomers found themselves born into a postwar America that average people — after years of struggle — had fundamentally transformed.
I love it, “just happened to be?” What a felicitous phrase. The article is a study in false framing of the issue, both class and generational inequality are inextricably linked in multitudinous ways. The group, what Lambert calls the “inner circle” will ensure that they pass on their status/privileges to the next generation, this group which represents a specific class, creates the conditions which ensure inequality will forever persist, at least while they hold sway over public policy decisions.
I like Sam Pizzigati. He’s one of the few consistent advocates of a Maximum Income. And I like the way he closed this piece:
«All this should serve to remind us about a basic simple truth. We can’t change the generation we get born into. We can change how the world we enter distributes income and wealth.»
Apropos of which, here’s Ian Welsh’s latest:
«To create this sort of world we need to take “getting rich” off the table. You can get wealthy: say have four or five times as much as the median, but not rich. Focus competition towards status and prestige, and towards living a good life and contributing towards others.»
https://www.ianwelsh.net/dont-call-it-degrowth-call-it-the-no-bullshit-society/
Thanks for that link. I often read Welsh, but I’m not a regular reader so I appreciate a link to a particularly cogent post. I don’t know if he’s read or heard any of Jason Hickel’s ideas, but Welsh and Hickel are certainly on the same page. Get rid of production aimed at essentially nothing more than conspicuous consumption, and a related problem, conspicuous waste. Reduce the work week. Guaranteed income. Radically increased free social goods in the form of education, housing, health care.
There are lots of needs that are inadequately met in our society: child care and education, elder care, Earth care. Instead, we have a society where you can always get a Big Mac or book a flight to Europe. The essential problem is that the goal of our society is quite clearly to maximize profits, profits that mostly end up in the stock portfolios and dividend distributions of the mega-rich. Change the system’s goal and you’ll change what the system produces, both primarily and collaterally, if Donella Meadows is to be believed.
And in the comments to the Welsh post, people are clued in for the need to change the paradigm as well. “He who dies with the most toys wins” does not produce a healthy society.
Yes, it kind of felt like the piece was going nowhere until the ending, but that last phrase is quite profound.
The one thing i’ve noted with the prolonged big heat here, is dead branches higher up on oak trees have definitely drooped down some in our oh so sunny sojourn.
Had this one tree that had been dead for a year and it was one of those trees where I was gonna get around to it, and the lower tendrils of the highest branches had fallen down to 7 feet from 10 feet high previously, all in a fortnight,
I was up @ o’dark thirty as is my custom and had a cup of Joe outside and it was 80 degrees in the wee hour… nothing gets a chance to really cool down, and the weakest links are sagging~
“New Development In Black Sea, Russian Navy Using Base In Georgia ‘
This is what Naval News considers news? A support ship that looks more like a ferry boat ties up in a port that Georgia lost back in ’08 and suddenly this is Russia maybe trying to get Georgia involved in the war in the Ukraine? The news that I have been reading is that it is the Ukraine and it’s NATO allies that are trying to drag Georgia into the war to open up another front for Russia. Would it make any difference if this happened? No, but Georgia would get wrecked for a second time which is why Georgia is determined to sit this war out.
>Israel tells ‘everyone in Gaza City’ to leave BBC
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy the Hamas group in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 38,295 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it had reportedly identified 14,680 children, women and elderly people among the dead by the end of April.
The two concluding paragraphs of the article above omit, by design, recent reporting that a substantial number of the 1,200 people killed where by Israel executing the “Hannibal Directive” and that the 38,295 people is closer to 200K. BBC continues its Zionist slanted coverage of the 10/7 ongoing genocide.
Through a confederate in the Naval Observatory, I have the inside scoop on the reinvention of Kamala as the first rap star Chief Executive ala maK! with advance copy of her first crouton’y word salad sandwich.
If you love it
What can be, unburdened
By what has been
Set it free
If it comes back-its yours
If it doesn’t it was never meant to be
What can be, unburdened
By what has been
Democrats, many republicans and their well funded [by war their spending] sponsors seem to want WW III and armageddon over the borders Lenin and Stalin drew for USSR convenience!
Putin is smart enough to let the full might of US’s unsustainable war machine be drained 6000 miles from any real “common defense” issue.
I have not worked around F-16 flying units since 1985!
If the airplane is supported the way we planned, sending 60 odd aircraft would required boat loads of specialized support equipment, rail loads of scarce line replacement units, several rail cars loaded with even scarcer spare engines, and many hundreds of highly experienced technicians.
I am not sure all 60 could be fit on one Ukraine base!
But compared to the F-35’s 16000 (yes 3 zeroes) pound fuel load, F-16 can only hold 6000 pounds and get the same combat radius.
Getting 60 pilots (neophyte/sheep) is easy, getting enough sheep dipped US/EU support people and scarce supply/equipment is hard!
Therefore, it will take a lot more dead Russian kids to start WW III!
Perhaps this is a stupid question, but…. If “we”(citizens) have elected someone as the “Vice” President and part of that person’s “role” is to step into the Presidents shoes (if necessary). Why the intense turmoil to “replace” Biden with whoever. Isn’t that done? Is an elected VP simply decoration?
Although there should be there is no real movement to remove Biden as President. That would automatically be the VP. However Where they are looking to “replace “ him is on the ballot in November. For that there is no designated successor.
Ford replaced Agnew before Nixon resigned, but it’d be the other way around with a new Veep-and i’ll go with Governor Goodhair, pompadour and circumstance notwithstanding.
Hey, you’re only saying that so California can be rid of him. Nice try.
Q.V. Henry Wallace and Harry Truman
from what i read, wallace was your typical do gooder, who thought free trade benefitted the poor.
as far as truman is concerned, mark blyth says truman saved the new deal, and is one of his favorite presidents.
on the one hand, truman made blunders, but the biggest blunder would have been re-instituting free trade.
the new deal would have collapsed rapidly under free trade, like it did from 1993-2001.
truman wisely vetoed any trade deals till we got Gatt, which allowed for sovereignty and protectionism.
https://www.commentary.org/articles/david-bazelon-2/the-faith-of-henry-wallacethe-populist-tradition-in-the-atomic-age/
“Wallace’s free-trade policy in economics is a clear example of his devious way with the essential meaning of populism. Like most liberals during the 30’s, he began, more or less consciously, to advocate the Keynesian program for a controlled economy.
A controlled capitalist economy in a democratic country must answer two major questions: how to insure capital investment, and how to maintain wage levels and not conscript labor.
High wages cut into profits, and without a high profit return the capitalist simply will not make risky investments. Without going into the economic details, it can be said that, fundamentally, there is only one capitalist resolution of this primary conflict: imperialism—exploitation of foreign markets through overlordship of other peoples. Imperialism is called “free trade” by liberals. In actual fact it is not, and cannot be, any more “free” than the conditions of labor in the colonies and dominated countries with which trade is being carried on.
Wallace is a free-trader of old. But he came to it by another path than did the usual sophisticated liberal. And therein lies our tale. The Iowan began his espousal of free trade as part of a farm program.
The farmer is forced to sell in a free market and buy in one protected by tariffs—Wallace tells us he realized this “quite early in life.” But it should be easy to see that free trade for the farmer is something very different from free trade as imperialism.
This first is in the genuine interest of the small proprietor and is the stuff of the traditional populist program in the United States. The second is a dangerous diversion of the progressive aims and program of farmers and labor, leading to the ever-increasing power of international cartels —and to war.
Though he advocates free trade in moral terms, Wallace’s morality actually justifies imperialism at the same time—which is typical of what happens when an old morality is applied to a new and inappropriate situation.
The contradiction here results from Wallace’s inability either to abandon the populist tradition or to ignore—or to solve progressively—distinctly modern problems.
Clinging to a particular morality and yet unaware of the immoral consequences of the application of that morality in the contemporary world, Wallace has become a nonfunctioning moral symbol for the progressive struggle of this day.
Actually, as a personality, he is in no sense a fighter for human betterment in a world of realities. Rather he represents the final reduction of the religious man. (If one asks what I mean by the reduction of the religious man, let him remember with what indulgence the more self-conscious neo-Catholics and neo-Anglicans of Europe looked upon fascism in its earlier stages.)”
” Is an elected VP simply decoration?”
And not really worth more than a warm bucket of piss.
John Nance Gardner
Probably important reminder that 25th amendment requires 2/3 consent of both houses of congress. There aren’t 6 republicans who will vote to remove Biden.
Here’s my stupid question: Will any of the talking heads ask Biden the question Trump refused to answer in the debate? “President Biden, do you promise to abide by the results of the election?”
“A Tale of Two Spacecraft”
Interesting article but I can see how this may play out. The US has the Artemis program to go back to the Moon and by being first, can lay claim to regions that that will prove lucrative in future development. And they have already announced that each site will be surrounded by a “security zone”, perhaps to keep the Selenites away. But it is China that is on track to land successful missions on the Moon so what happens if the Chinese land on and claim the areas that the US wants to claim? I think that it would freak out a lot of people alone if they saw taikonauts exiting a spacecraft to stand upon the Moon.
Hmmm… Send up a ‘new’ second stage booster and forward the two “stranded” astronauts on to the Moon? Get Saint Elon to divert some of his Mars Project hardware to the Moon Base site as beta testing? Lots of possibilities if NASA could get its act together.
Think outside the orbit.
Back in the very early days of space flight, there was a vital need to have an American be first on the moon. One idea was to just send a guy there and keep on sending supply ships until they could work out a way of getting him back. In fact, there were even volunteers for this crazy idea-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMe7dRoPRVU (3:27 mins)
viz The Man Who Sold the Moon
Under current treaty law, a nation is entitled to peaceful conduct of their activities in space, and other nations are not to impinge on those activities. Your robot can’t go blundering through my field of solar panels or slusher-bucket operations.
Thus, there is an as yet undefined “buffer” zone around those operations that others are to respect. This “claim” persists so long as operations persist, and operators are permitted the output of their machines or whatever under treaty law. You add value (say a shake-n-bake of the regolith to liberate the SWIEs), you get to keep that value.
Some sites are more geographically advantageous for certain applications. Under current treaty law, first come first served. If the Chinese erect massive solar power towers around the rim of Shackleton Crater there is nought we can do but curse our own slothfulness and lack of purpose.
I really wish the U.S. had a serious cislunar strategy with the potential to unlock a lot of future opportunity for the nation. Instead we have a kludged together program of bad compromises with the real goal of “First! on Mars”.
Any usurpers to the throne, take notice!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_of_Celestial_Space#:~:text=The%20Nation%20of%20Celestial%20Space,establish%20a%20political%20hegemony%20there.
Re tale of two spacecraft
However as has been pointed out Musk did accomplish this–and it shouldn’t be sneered at–by hiring experienced engineers from the legacy space industry as well as the brightest new graduates.
The article though is about the US versus China and turns into a screed against DEI and NASA. NASA may deserve it, but the success of Space X suggests obituaries for US society are premature.
I have heard it argued that Saint Elon is not an American, but a Terran, ie. a Globalist. Check his Wiki out. It says that he was born in South Africa and has citizenship in South Africa, Canada, and America. About as Transnational as it gets.
As that goes neither was Wernher von Braun.
I’m probably missing a lot, but if SpaceX has received something like $17 billion from US government, that would be about $340 million per launch. Which is about ten times the price of a Soyuz launch.
Doesn’t add up, but I’m too lazy to find out where that money actually goes. The main point here is that without NASA there would be no SpaceX.
In fact NASA provide seed money on the belief that less bureaucratic private initiative was the way out of their dependence on Boeing etc.
But NASA still is a huge money sucking agency with small goals for the most part. When the I.S.S. was proposed many criticized it as a makework project.
I believe the Chinese just had a crash of their reusable rocket in imitation of Musk. So the article’s gush re the Chinese future may need some qualifiers.
Yes, it goes even deeper. The rocket that returns to earth is a NASA design. The list goes on and the reason the Russians don’t do this at this time is cost. They have looked at it and will do it when cost come down. Space x is use Amerikan taxpayers money not musks.
Space X does a huge amount of private satellite launch business. And they now have their own launch facility in Texas.
Of course the USG helped develop the internet and just about every other bit of technology we use. But Space X is a legitimate success.
“Major Tom to Ground Control…”
Those poor b*stards, I hope that they get home somehow.
The same SpaceX that canceled the Dear Moon project? The same one that is set to land on Mars this year?
SpaceX has done fine in LEO type missions, but Starship is a hot mess.
If NASA is set to rely on SpaceX, you can go ahead and print the obits now.
“Stoltenberg: Ukraine’s right to self-defence includes strikes deep into Russian territory”
Yeah, he would say something like that. In some ways he reminds me of Zelensky, another ex-clown. I can only think that he wants to push Europe into military confrontation with Russia as it would be so lucrative for him and his buddies. Does he really miss the early 80s so much when it looked like there might be an accidental war with Russia? I thought readers would like to see him in a lighter moment when he got to throw out first pitch for the Washington Nationals. Couldn’t even do that properly-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3acNczRALM (52 secs)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/10/us/politics/nato-china-russia-ukraine.html
July 10, 2024
For First Time, NATO Accuses China of Supplying Russia’s Attacks on Ukraine
The statement was a major departure for the alliance, which until 2019 never officially mentioned China as a concern.
By David E. Sanger
After decades of viewing China as a distant threat, NATO on Wednesday accused Beijing of becoming “a decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine,” and demanded that it halt shipments of “weapons components” and other technology critical to the rebuilding of the Russian military.
The statement is contained in a declaration approved by the 32 leaders of the alliance, shortly before they headed to a dinner at the White House on Wednesday night. It is a major departure for NATO, which until 2019 never officially mentioned China as a concern, and then only in the blandest of language.
Now, for the first time, the alliance has joined in Washington’s denunciations of China’s military support for Russia….
From WSJ
“HONG KONG—China warned the U.S. and its allies not to “provoke confrontation” after NATO took the unusual step of explicitly identifying Beijing as a threat to its interests.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization described China as an enabler of Russia’s war in Ukraine and expressed concern over the expansion of China’s nuclear arsenal. It also accused Beijing of acting irresponsibly in both cyberspace and outer space in a staunchly worded statement issued Wednesday at its annual summit in Washington.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jin hit back Thursday with similar vigor at a regular press briefing in Beijing, describing NATO’s statement as “full of prejudice, smears and provocations.”
Lin said NATO is threatening China’s interests by extending its reach into Asia. He said the alliance should “avoid messing up Asia the way it messed up Europe.”
The decision by NATO leaders to dispense with diplomatic restraint over China reflects heightened geopolitical tensions as the war in Ukraine drags on, and as Beijing and Moscow push for an alternative to the U.S.-led global order.
NATO has generally avoided criticizing China, which fields one of the world’s most powerful militaries. The country didn’t appear in the alliance’s main guiding document, known as the Strategic Concept, until 2022, when Beijing was first openly identified as a challenge to its interests….”
Biden and his Neocons have no good news. So they announce aspirational gibberish… It’s China’s fault…its inevitable that Ukraine will join NATO…The US announces they are putting missiles in Germany…It’s Ukraine’s right to attack Russia in self defense, etc. The war in Ukraine is lost, which is becoming as obvious as Biden’s dementia.
It seems to me they might have considered changing the subject.
More like the EU leads are baby birds chirping loudly to get worms mom brings back to the nest.
Japan invaded China in September 1931, beginning WWII, and subsequently killing 20 million Chinese. The Japanese government never apologized for the invasion and killing of 20 million Chinese, but has rather repeatedly honored Japanese leaders of the terrible events.
Now the Japanese government has decided to explicitly reject a peace constitution in place since 1945, and bring NATO to the Pacific to threaten and contain a thoroughly peaceful China.
And subsequently making a target of itself from China, Russia and North Korea. If even a regular war broke out, the Japanese would be wishing that it was Godzilla instead.
Japan is a colony of the U.S. empire whose hegemonic influence has a strangle hold on the EU, Canada, Australia, NZ, etc…, all supported by 800+ military bases. The fragmentation of the Unipolar world into the multipolar world is also being played out in the Philippines, Argentina and other parts of the globe.
So is the rejection of a peace constitution a reflection of the Japanese people, or is it motivated by need to support U.S. policy in the region? Do the Japanese really want NATO meddling in their neck of the woods?
Japan is effectively done as any kind of force as their economy keeps shrinking. They’re now smaller than Germany in terms of nominal GDP, even with the German economy stumbling for the past two years. Using PPP, India has overtaken them as well (score one for the BRICS.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)
And that’s being charitable … nominal GDP does not take into account inflation, and the weakening of the Yen. Today the JCB tried a ghetto move, they intervened massively in the Forex markets to try and “pile on” a slightly weaker US CPI number than expected.
That sort of dirty pool will only take you so far … previous interventions have resulted in short term “spikes” in the USD/JPY that bleed off rather quickly and end up being like the COVID panic low in stocks … a temporary blip on a long-term chart that marches relentlessly upwards.
(Yesterday I linked to a NYT article on how Japan cannot meet its defense spending goals due to US weapons systems being priced in USD.)
As their economy shrinks and the Yen collapses, it will get worse and they’ll become another charity case like Ukraine. Kyle Bass will eventually get his windshield meets bug event.
And let’s not forget the demographics. Japan would have a pretty old army right out of the gate.
Japan is simply the lead socio-demographic indicator of where the rest of the Western world is heading. But unlike the US, Canada & Europe – Japan will come out of it ok.
Japan will come out of ok. Reason why Japanese economy got trashed over the last couple of decades is because US forced Japan to strengthen its currency because Japan was too competitive – same as what US is trying to do now with China. JPY has historically been at between 150-200 JPY to USD. Which is the level the economy will bounce back – as we are seeing with wages increasing +4%. Japan is only intervening in forex to placate US – Japan would be quite happy for the JPY to go to 200 so as to boost competitiveness against China. Weaker JPY also offsets pension fund losses on US Treasury holdings. A weak JPY is very very good for Japan. Unlike US & Europe, Japanese private debt is very low and in aggregate are net savings.
>Japan cannot meet its defense spending goals due to US weapons systems being priced in USD
LOL. US is having to offshore military production and maintenance to Japan because US doesn’t have the industrial capacity. US will collapse long before Japan does.
And then there is China which is only now starting to roar..
Do we have actual evidence of this?
High JPY will impact consumers via higher costs, as Japan imports many resources, e.g., oil, and food self-sufficiency on a calorie basis stands at around 38%.
As noted below, political apathy is very high in Japan, but tens of millions of households really getting hit in the pocketbook could change that fast.
Japan is living in the past, just like the US. The chickens are coming back to roost and there’s not much either country can do.
The Japanese people have overwhelmingly supported the Peace constitution. This is why Jiminto has never made their dream of constitutional revision an election-year issue. The problem is that political apathy is very high in Japan, especially amongst young people.
Karatani Kojin has argued (persuasively, I think), that in fact Article 9 has never been implemented. It’s there in the Constitution, but actually it’s never been enforced.
The reason that Jiminto wants to eliminate Article 9 is so that they can send the SDF into overseas conflicts. They want to make other revisions to the Constitution that are at least as scary, i.e., remove all the language of human rights.
Fundamentally, they want to reinstate the Meiji Constitution, with the Emperor as the sovereign, not the people. The kokumin would just be imperial subjects, not “the people”. That’s the goal.
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2024/April/weo-report?c=223,924,132,134,532,534,536,158,546,922,112,111,&s=PPPGDP,PPPSH,&sy=2000&ey=2023&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1
April 15, 2024
Gross Domestic Product based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP), 2000-2023
2023
Brazil ( 4,085)
China ( 33,552)
France ( 3,865)
Germany ( 5,544)
India ( 13,342)
Indonesia ( 4,391)
Japan ( 6,507)
Russia ( 5,180)
United Kingdom ( 3,917)
United States ( 27,358)
The loss in real value of the Yen since 2000:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=17kKl
January 15, 2018
Real Narrow Effective Exchange Rate for United States, Japan, United Kingdom and Germany, 2000-2024
(Indexed to 2000)
Thanks. It’s weird, I tend to be overly imaginative, and I certainly know the humbling effect of past bad doomster calls, but this time I feel the force telling me that Japan is gonna blow, and it won’t be long.
Today’s intervention is already bleeding off; the USD/Yen is back up near 159. It feels like Soros infamous bet against the BoE.
When a central bank has to resort to the equivalent of sucker punching a drunk guy in a bar, you know that they are going down, and hard.
Definitive answers are unnecessary; I find these speculations about Japan interesting and will be thinking about them gratefully. So, do keep on speculating. I need to learn.
Debt as a share of GDP for Japan is startling:
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2024/April/weo-report?c=223,924,132,134,534,536,158,922,112,111,&s=GGXWDG_NGDP,&sy=2007&ey=2023&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1
April 15, 2024
General government gross debt as a percent of Gross Domestic Product for Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and United States, 2007-2023
2023
Brazil ( 85)
China ( 84)
France ( 111)
Germany ( 64)
India ( 83)
Indonesia ( 40)
Japan ( 252)
Russia ( 20)
United Kingdom ( 101)
United States ( 122)
also remember, japan fired bombed a chinese city, then killed 100,000’s in a few weeks orgy of killing in nanking, and threatened to kill over 100,000 allied prisoners of war in japan, if japan was invaded.
and people wonder why truman used the bomb.
Norwegian Wood
And thick as a plank.
“NATO means not being alone.
NATO means protecting each other.
NATO means living in freedom.
NATO means peace”
The Stoltenberg mantra. What a maroon. Servant of empire, not his own people.
Paging Joseph Goebells….
NATO is united to protect the 20 y.o. blue-eyed, blonde woman…
not the scruffy 20 y.o. Bulgarian hinterland male draftee.
lol.
Spolier alert…such blatant iconography doesn’t work anymore for the historic core of US military volunteers (ex-urban, rural native-born Americans who are burnt out from 15 years of constant deployments).
but this iconography does work on horn-dog 50-something middle-aged suits like Stoltenberg, lol.
“Zelenskyy meets with top executives of leading US defence companies” the pic omg
The American guy wearing the yellow tie looks like he’s just been told what the thugs standing around him plan on doing to his family if he doesn’t sign the papers and pose with Big Z.
Some fun from the Babylon Bee at George Clooney’s expense:
https://babylonbee.com/news/in-new-oceans-14-george-clooney-pulls-off-30-million-heist-by-tricking-people-into-giving-money-to-politician-before-revealing-hes-demented
Who knew George Clooney’s seeming best matched TV character was as Booker Brooks, the foreman of a plastics factory, in the Roseanne TV show. / heh
adding: I enjoy Clooney’s acting. Rosemary Clooney’s nephew has done well in his profession. He’s an actor, that’s all.
Due Dissidence guys. utube. / heh
George Clooney Calls on Biden To DROP OUT, White House CLAPS BACK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNfYWQeDetI
Thr grift never ends. / ;)
> Illa in Manila: Will History Demand Trump-Hillary II? (excerpt) Matt Taibbi, Racket News. June 10.
Perhaps the greatest gift of “our democracy” is that we get a great spectacle every 4 years. “OK folks, show is over. Back to work.”
What can I say. Taibbi’s article is on point. imo / ;)
With apologies to Emily Dickenson:
I’m a deplorable! Who are you?
Are you – Deplorable – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!
Run from the Hillary,
Run for your lives!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiyJjW6Vfq8
the notion that harpy hrc could replace necrotic diaperman as the dimocrap candidate guarantees that, rather than submitting a blank ballot, this mortimer snerd would actually cast a vote for tangerine maggot.
Seems there was a new derailment and fire of a train carrying hazardous chemicals, this time in North Dakota.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/07/11/rail-j11.html
It’s not clear from the WSWS article, but this happened on July 5th.
The article from the Foster County Independent is here.
re: antidote du jour, / ;)
It had to be ewe
It had to be ewe
Musical interlude from The Muppets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi-jnDSuxf4
adding for all bank examiners of rural country banks who don’t get the joke: “ewe” is pronounced “you”, not “ee-wee”. Ewes are female sheeps.
The mature bank examiners who know what I’m talking about will smile in appreciation of their newbie bank examiners ignorance when examining a rural bank’s books. (Don’t ask me how I know.) / heh
The pronunciation of ewe is regionally determined in England. “Yu” is the received pronunciation but if you actually talk to farmers in sheep country (upland south west, north west etc), the pronunciation is “Yo” and the spelling is “Yow”. Gentry versus tenants / peasants.
I don’t know what happens in Scotland and Wales. It may be like West Cornwall, where the accent is ironically much closer to RP despite being in the historic heart of a Celtic language *because they learnt English as a foreign language* :-)
Also, on the topic of farmers’ pronuncuation, if you’re herding yows, you will need a dug. :-)
Big news, and quite possibly a godsend for US aviation:
Joby Demonstrates Potential for Emissions-Free Regional Journeys With Landmark 523-Mile Hydrogen-Electric Flight
Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE:JOBY), a next generation aviation company, today announced it has successfully flown a first-of-its-kind hydrogen-electric air taxi demonstrator 523 miles, with water as the only by-product. The aircraft, which takes off and lands vertically, builds on Joby’s successful battery-electric air taxi development program, and demonstrates the potential for hydrogen to unlock emissions-free, regional journeys that don’t require a runway.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/joby-demonstrates-potential-emissions-free-100000388.html
Yeah, press-release, but this advancement can be used to muffle the discredit brought upon the industry by Boeing as well as demonstrate the viability of emissions-free travel.
Not emissions-free, yeah it’s water, but let’s look at the externalities: How clean is green hydrogen? ~ MIT Climate Portal
Re; How clean is green hydrogen?
“This process can emit 1 kilogram or less of CO2 per kilogram of hydrogen produced, depending on the supply chain of the renewable electricity and the overall efficiency of the process…”
Stick with jet-fuel, huh?
If you are worried about the externalities of hydrogen, you’re gonna just shit when you read-up on fossil-fuel production processes!
The article you cite states that the cost of green hydrogen is mostly due to the lack of scale: if demand goes up, the price will come down.
Coming back to these aircraft, unlike our fossil-fuel powered ones, their use won’t contribute to air-quality issues, especially in urban areas where this is often an issue.
What I don’t like about these particular aircraft are the tilt-rotors– think Osprey– dangerous as hell, and can be very unstable close to the ground or when transitioning.
But as long as we’re using flying-machines to get from A to B, I think this could be a step in the right direction.