The pet I’ll never forget: the fox I invited into my home – but never quite trusted Guardian
Cuts Are Back in the Air After Inflation Surprise John Authers, Bloomberg
How did the auto dealer outage end? CDK almost certainly paid a $25 million ransom CNN
Climate
Half a Million Will Be Under Houston Outages a Week After Beryl Bloomberg. URL: no-shops-no-gas-large-swaths-of-houston-are-still-in-the-dark. Meanwhile:
The Whataburger app works as a power outage tracker, handy since the electric company doesn't show a map.
Still nearly 1.9 million power outages. pic.twitter.com/d8srWmw1oV— BBQ Bryan (@BBQBryan) July 9, 2024
* * * World’s largest tropical wetland burned this year Wildfire Today. Commentary:
the forest service is very, very sure will burn, and that those new homes make it increasingly impossible to manage the forest for future fires:
To manage fire, you have to burn the forest. But if you put homes there, you can't. It's already nearly physically impossible …
— (((Matthew Lewis))) progressive federalism SOS (@mateosfo) July 8, 2024
On Canadian wildfires and real estate, see NC here and here.
Google says datacenters, AI cause its carbon emissions to rise sharply S&P Global
Climate Change Risk to National Critical Functions RAND
Legal Personhood: Extending Rights to Nature? JSTOR. See NC on Lake Erie and legal personhood here.
China?
Cooking oil scandal may prompt China to tighten food safety policies, observers say Channel News Asia
India
Russia to kick Indians out of the army after Modi complains to Putin BNE Intellinews
Modi’s Russia visit part of larger push for India to be a global power, say observers Channel News Asia
Huge earthquake 2,500 years ago rerouted the Ganges River, study suggests Space.com
Bangladesh police fire tear gas, rubber bullets at student protesters Channel News Asia
Syraqistan
Gaza live: Fighting rages on in Gaza City as Shujaiya destroyed Middle East Eye
Optimism Over Hamas Deal Spreads From Washington to Israel’s Top Brass. Netanyahu Has Other Concerns Haaretz
* * * Biden says ‘disappointed’ with troubled Gaza aid pier Agence France Presse. Commentary:
Humanitarian aid to Gaza.#AFPGraphics chart showing the number of humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza daily since October 21, 2023, according to UN OCHA pic.twitter.com/xiCjIBhi5B
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 12, 2024
* * * Israel’s military admits it delayed entering kibbutz as Hamas attacked FT. Commentary:
Based on Israeli media and military sources, these by my count are the confirmed locations so far of where the Israeli military enacted the Hannibal Directive and killed Israelis on Oct. 7th:
1. Nova Rave
2. Kibbutz Be’eri
3. Erez military base
4. Re’im army base
5. Nahal Oz…— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) July 10, 2024
* * * ‘More than 186,000 dead’ in Gaza: How credible are the estimates published on The Lancet? France24
Pro-Israel Group Censoring Social Media Led by Former Israeli Intelligence Officers Lee Fang
The Case for an International Hard Law on Corporate Killing (PDF) Keele Law Review. From the Abtract: “Soft law options have not brought about a sufficient reduction in instances of deaths caused by corporate behaviour across jurisdictional borders. This article will argue that the time has now come to establish an international hard law on corporate killing, and for states to ensure that there is a viable path towards a redress for victims and their families along with adopting a duty to assist the victim or their family to pursue redress to ensure a fair balance of power against transnational companies.”
Africa
Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso: How a triumvirate of military leaders are redrawing West Africa’s map France24
European Disunion
Brussels confirms that Orbán rubbing shoulders with Putin violates EU treaties and Six EU countries to boycott ministerial meetings during Hungarian presidency Ukrainska Pravda
Why is Greece introducing a six-day working week? Al Jazeera
From Nazi bunker to hipster hub FT
Small fire in towering spire of medieval cathedral in French city of Rouen is under control AP
Dear Old Blighty
Labour needs to abolish the hereditary peers Funding the Future
Journamalism:
Access journalism is stupid because they never uncover anything important. It is merely being a member of the PMs PR team when paid by another entity.
It needs to be turned obsolete https://t.co/LYXW7iO9Qs
— Esha K (@eshaLegal) July 11, 2024
New Not-So-Cold War
Can the West Still Win? Analyzing Claims of Ukraine’s Coming Tech Supremacy Over Russia Simplicius the Thinker(s)
Russia To Occupy ‘Remaining Ukrainian Lands’ After Ceasefire: Medvedev Newsweek
Ukraine Seeks New Summit With Russia Ahead of US Elections Bloomberg
* * * US Announces It Will Deploy Previously Banned Nuclear-Capable Missiles To Germany Antiwar.com
Zelenskyy says the problem with the coming F-16 fighter jets is the same one Ukraine had with the Abrams tanks Business Insider
Northrop Grumman finalizes deal to coproduce ammo in Ukraine Breaking Defense
* * * Russia’s war-driven brain drain reverses as up to 45% of emigres return home BNE Intellinews
NATO Summit
Key takeaways from Biden’s NATO news conference: gaffes and defiance Al Jazeera. Commentary:
The problem with this press conference is that everyone's watching for Biden's lucidity and/or basic competence, rather than the substance of what he's saying, which entails drastically escalated bloc conflict with China and Russia. (Trump has virtually identical positions, FYI)
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 12, 2024
Joe Biden vows to ‘complete the job’ in closely watched press conference FT
Scholz joins shaky chorus of world leaders sticking with Biden Politico
NATO Summit declaration omits mention of Georgia’s accession possibility JAM News
The Pentagon and Its Pet NATO Monkey Matt Bivens, The 100 Days
2024
Hollywood’s Democratic donors turn away from Biden BBC
Presidential battle could play role in control of state capitols in several swing states AP
Democrats Escalate Election Year Pressure on Supreme Court WSJ
Biden Administration
NS Endorses NTSB’s National Safety Policy Recommendations Railway Age
The Supremes
The Consequences of Loper Bright (PDF) Cass Sunstein SSRN. From the Abstract: “[C]urrent evidence is consistent with the following proposition: If the goal is to predict whether a court of appeals will strike down an agency’s interpretation of law, it may be more important to know whether the panel consists of Republican or Democratic appointees, and whether the agency’s interpretation leans left or right, than to know whether Chevron or Loper Bright is the governing law.”
Thinking Out Loud: The Chevron Doctrine American Council on Science and Health
Healthcare
Funding Postauthorization Vaccine-Safety Science (abstract only) NEJM. Commentary:
Dr. Stanley Plotkin, the world’s leading vaccinologist, and his disciples, have just capitulated. After decades of claiming vaccine safety is robustly studied, they just admitted it is not, neither before nor after licensure. But don’t be fooled – read my stack or this long tweet… pic.twitter.com/FAxYgmy678
— Aaron Siri (@AaronSiriSG) July 10, 2024
Can a reader with an NEJM account comment?
Serious errors plague DNA tool that’s a workhorse of biology Nature
Digital Watch
OpenAI Scale Ranks Progress Toward ‘Human-Level’ Problem Solving Bloomberg
Imperial Collapse Watch
More ex-military officials are becoming VCs as defense tech investment reached $35B TechCrunch
Guillotine Watch
Capital allocation/spectacular bad taste:
Let’s start with more of the 32,000 sq ft barn 😍 pic.twitter.com/Z44iqQUnU4
— Zillow Gone Wild 🏡 (@zillowgonewild) July 11, 2024
Class Warfare
New York Amazon Workers Demand Paid Juneteenth Holiday Labor Notes
Teaching Teachers to Bust Unions Exposed by CMD
Why Ernest Hemingway’s Younger Brother Established a Floating Republic in the Caribbean Smithsonian
Antidote du jour (Adrian Pingstone):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
CLEAR SIGNS OF DEMENTIA
(melody borrowed from Winchester Cathedral 1966, by The New Vaudeville Band)
Clear signs of dementia
The talk of the town
Jill tells me I’ve got this
We’ll stare ’em all down
Sometimes I do dumb things
It makes people cry
My words come out tumbling
At times they run dry
Now everyone says how I am is bad for morale
I’ve got to go on, come what may
I feel safe in my Oval Corral
My problem’s cerebral
My brain’s falling down
Sometimes I’m not conscious
Till I come around
The antidote is very sly messaging. A Donkey “out to pasture.” Someone’s subconscious is working overtime.
You sure that it isn’t an ass? The braying kind of course.
From Shrek. “I’m all alone, with no one here beside me…”
That’s a nice boulder! I hope Murphy got some nice coins from his voice role.
“Huge earthquake 2,500 years ago rerouted the Ganges River, study suggests”
I can well believe this as the effect of earthquakes on rivers is not to be dismissed. Back between 1811-1812 there were a series of violent earthquakes in the Mississippi valley that were even felt in Washington DC and at one point, the Mississippi River started to flow backwards for several hours. No idea if it changed the course of the Mississippi but I would not be surprised if it did as this river tended to meander across the landscape in normal times-
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/earthquake-causes-fluvial-tsunami-in-mississippi
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and prime minister, said on Wednesday that Russia will seek to occupy “remaining [Ukrainian] lands” even if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agrees to the Kremlin’s most recent conditions for peace.
It’s occurred to me more than once, that if Ukraine agrees to Putin’s last peace proposal and withdraws troops from Russia’s new territories, once Russian troops fully occupy them they might simply continue to press ahead and take more Oblasts like Odessa, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv.
That is what the West would do. As Clint Eastwood might say “That’s mighty west of you” (original line “That’s mighty white of you”.
Re: Michael Tracey and the substance of Biden’s warmongering press conference
I completely agree with Tracey. Unfortunately, Biden’s press conference was so rambling and often incoherent that substance was difficult to discern. A person would need to closely study a transcript to find the substance. How many journalists, much less ordinary voters, will actually do that? For most people, the the major gaffe (‘VP Trump’) will be the only thing remembered. For those grasping at a reason to continue to support Biden, the takeaway will be that Joey was *somewhat* less ‘Lost in Space’ than during the debate. To them, I would say, “Danger, Will Robinson!”
But I ask you. Who do you want in the White House to answer that phone call at 3 in the morning?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ_z9Tpdl9A (30 secs)
I remain doubtful that Biden would be able to answer the phone at 3 in the afternoon. ;)
That was painful, you have ruined my breakfast.
Has anyone else noticed that Angry Joe has taken to aping Trump?
“I built a coalition of 50 nations to stand against Putin!”
“Nobody would trade places with our economy!!” (a lie; several European countries while they have lower GDP have much better protections for workers, treat the elderly better, and don’t have homeless everywhere in major cities.)
Edit: here are some folks who found a cheaper cost of living in Costa Rica:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/we-live-better-in-costa-rica-than-we-did-in-the-u-s-here-s-how-much-it-costs/vi-BB1jdGax?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=fc9c7e84752a47309c8f95a3e96d4b30&ei=53
He even had an orange hue. Was the long delay in trotting him out to the podium due to makeup artists needing extra time and materials to cover up the pallor?
The one thing B has always had is an ear for phrases and delivery of what seems to work on the public. Thus, he lifted a UK pol’s speech (that ended his first pres run). He’s still got the cadence down. Lifting ideas now from T? The party is even suggesting a game show for employmen a la The Apprentice – blitz mini primary hosted by celebrities. / ;)
There used to be a funny online satire site that let one create a Thomas Friedman-esque style column by entering some variables like a place name, a topic, and a verb. It was hilarious. I really think the same thing could be done with a B-esque like speech. Come on, man!
Some of these pitches sound effective, though to a skilled adversary they would get picked apart.
For example, assuming Joe makes it to September and there is another debate, when Joe trots out his line about “Who would trade places with the US economy?” Trump should pick up his cellphone and dial that couple who emigrated to Costa Rica, and say:
Joe, I have Edna and Bill on the line, they’d like to have a word with you …
Or maybe just hold up a placard with a picture of homeless people sleeping in the Atlanta airport.
The Due Dissidence guys discuss the press conference. utube, ~12+ minutes.
First Thoughts on CRITICAL Biden Press Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCo2l22vNEg
Seems to me according to Biden NATO (going full grab the Eurasian heartland-MacKinder) is absolutely vital to “our democracy”.
Trump dissing sacred NATO is how Trump will do in “our democracy”.
Whatever “our democracy” might be while the MIC grows!
Biden performed to my expectation.
Circus!
“Russia to kick Indians out of the army after Modi complains to Putin” BNE Intellinews
So, the global war has started for working class people.
An assortment of nationalities also have been reported fighting for Ukraine.
And the madness continues to spread in the Mid-East.
The fox I invited into my home— made me think of the Crack Fox, Mighty Boosh:
Two minutes https://youtu.be/dCuUnTJgD9M
“Why are NATO and China facing off over Ukraine?” Al Jazeera
Well, China is supplying materials for USA and NATO weapons for Ukraine.
And it adds to the reasons why I don’t think they are interested in dismantling the West’s national security state or bringing down the establishments of the West.
“Cuts Are Back in the Air After Inflation Surprise” John Authers, Bloomberg
How will expanding global war affect inflation?
Sometimes things are right in front of people’s eyes and BS dot plots are just BS.
The tweet about building in CA. fire prone areas reminded me of the concept of Stupid Zones that a deceased columnist for the Denver Post, Ed Quillen wrote about a few decades ago. https://www.denverpost.com/2007/07/26/stupid-zones-defined/ His solution was simple: Sure, yo wanna live there? Don’t expect insurance or any fire protection or response. Good luck.
Another factor that nobody talks about when these fires hit are cars. We all tend to think of the brush fire itself engulfing structures, but, this is the modern world, and almost always there is a car or truck parked nearby or even inside in a garage that is a literal fire bomb, easily ignited, that burns hard and long and really hot. Up to 30 gallons of gasoline, lots of oil, and tons of plastic. Furgetabout the poor trees.
What if it was an EV and the battery started going off? Those things can really burn which is why smart people park them outside and not in their garages.
>‘More than 186,000 dead’ in Gaza: How credible are the estimates published on The Lancet? France24
Yesterday Prof. John Mearsheimer on the Judge Napolitano podcast estimated that the figure may be closer to 250K
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZRw0Dcxs6I&ab_channel=JudgeNapolitano-JudgingFreedom
Thanks for the JSTOR link on the Rights of Nature, and also for posting the link to your excellent coverage of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights from January 2019, Lambert! I was so glad to reread it. For LEBOR nuts like me, I found the following from last October:
https://mjlst.lib.umn.edu/2023/10/15/hello-my-name-iserie-personhood-for-the-great-lakes/
re: Capital allocation/spectacular bad taste:
It rather looks like a prison and for the owner it will be.
To be honest, I had the impression this was all AI-generated imagery — probably because the lighting is so unusual. The palm trees look really odd and plasticky to me, though.
On the other hand, if I wanted to set up my very own private paramilitary organization, then that barn might well come handy.
>Pro-Israel Group Censoring Social Media Led by Former Israeli Intelligence Officers Lee Fang
CyberWell, an Israeli nonprofit with deep ties to the intelligence arm of an Israeli government propaganda effort, has been influential in shaping social media content since October 7
CyberWell is…is now censoring social media discourse, including benign or true information, under the cover of fighting hate and misinformation. The pharmaceutical industry, for instance, funded a nonprofit that worked to censor tweets critical of pandemic-related policies. The U.S. government funds several think tanks that work to moderate social media content critical of NATO’s policies impacting Ukraine.
So where are the Russiagaters that claimed a foreign entity was meddling in our internal politics (like the U.S. does in most of the world)? No, we won’t hear a peep out of MSM media, all you have to do is see who heads, funds, and controls them
For those who follow Jordan Peterson and his daughter’s meltdown over Nick Fuentes post on TwitterX, or Lucas Gage’s excommunication/suspension and readmission, there are forces jostling for control of what the wider population sees and hears and how the “public” narrative gets (de)constructed.
Link doesn’t work, gives 403 error, apparently expired quickly.
This works and is likely the same article:
https://pure.cardiffmet.ac.uk/files/5919806/The_Case_for_an_International_Hard_Law_on_Corportae_Killing.pdf
Re: Foiled assassination attempt on German CEO-
This reeks of being a propaganda ploy inline with the “Russian bounty on Americans in Afghanistan”.
Five officials from the US and West are cited as the sources. Here’s the money quote:
“For more than six months, Russia has been carrying out a sabotage campaign across Europe, largely by proxy. It has recruited local amateurs for everything from arson attacks on warehouses linked to arms for Ukraine to petty acts of vandalism — all designed to stymie the flow of weapons from the West to Ukraine and blunt public support for Kyiv.”
Apparently they tried to burn down an Ikea warehouse, likely full of cheaply built home goods, which should set back the war effort considerably I’m sure. And the dude that got $7 to spray graffiti was a Putin puppet without a doubt. They are really in overdrive these days and reaching for any straw.
This is all projection as it has been the west using the Ukrainians to recruit local amateurs to commit acts of sabotage, bombings and even murders in Russia. Maybe they are panicking at the thought that Russia might do the same to the west, hence the accusations. When the Russians offed that helicopter pilot that killed his crew mates and flew his helicopter to the Ukraine for money, there must have been nervous twitches at the reach of the Russians as they did it in Spain.
Whatever the truth may be, these should be the targets in this BS and not civilian populations no one gives a damn about anyway.
The killing of “average” people has never stopped a war. It doesn’t ease the oppression from an oppressor.
If this guy was assasinated, then someone competent might take his place.
re: Pro-Israel Group Censoring Social Media Led by Former Israeli Intelligence Officers Lee Fang
Things are worse. This is an outside third party group targeting what was able to get past the algorithmic and warm body censors at Twitter, Facebook, etc. Among my circle, precious little gets past and creative means have needed to be devised.
That real estate listing from OKC…well there is no accounting for taste and the comforts of the large home and what about that fully equipped, massive barn; that could be accurately called the Ultimate Man Cave … residence of a former professional football player maybe!?!
On the other hand, lot of big time country musicians…Toby Keith aka the Big Dog first came to mind.
That thing looks completely tasteless, and also note the lack of natural trees on the property, driving up cooling/heating costs.
Give me a small house in the woods with lots of trees and acreage over that monstrosity.
>Why is Greece introducing a six-day working week? Al Jazeera
The new policy’s rationale is purely economic, as the aim is to drive up productivity and, therefore, Greece’s gross domestic product (GDP), said Elizabeth Gosme, the director of COFACE Families Europe, a rights-based alliance of organisations.
So much for Marx’s interpretation of the ineluctable march/phases of economic history. What happened to going from Slavery, Feudal, to Capitalism, which through productivity increases resulting from technological advances would to lead to Socialism. What happened to Marx’s famous statement that in a communist society:
nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.
I would be happy with a 3 or 4 day week and healthcare. It’s not that their isn’t the capacity/means to make that happen, it’s that the hierarchical/oligarchic class structure of society will never allow for such a “utopian” vision to become a reality.
re: The Whataburger app works as a power outage tracker, handy since the electric company doesn’t show a map. Still nearly 1.9 million power outages
I would regard any grid as below third world infrastructure which doesn’t have a map tracking reported outages. Maybe they have a whiteboard, tho?
“Ukraine Seeks New Summit With Russia Ahead of US Elections”
Since the first Swiss peace conference was nothing short of a fiasco, Zelensky wants to organize a second one just before the US elections in a cunning plan to trap the Russians. Russia has already said that if it is based on Zelensky’s 10-point plan, then they ain’t a goin’. In fact, they said that this war was caused by NATO’s expansion into the Ukraine so unless the next conference talks about the general security question, then it would be a waste of time. A Kremlin spokesman said-
‘[President Vladimir] Putin has already explained that we are ready and willing to discuss the situation as a whole, all aspects related to security on the continent, the security of our side, and with security guarantees for other nations. All of this should be discussed at the same time.’
https://www.rt.com/russia/600881-russia-ukraine-peace-summit-criteria/
NATO will never discuss these issues so I doubt that there will be any second conference.
As Zelensky cancelled elections in Ukraine and his term of office has expired, Russia does not consider him the rightful president of Ukraine. They also prefer to speak to the organ grinder than the monkey that is Z. On his own part, Z has made it illegal for Ukraine to enter into dialogue with Putin.
>Scholz joins shaky chorus of world leaders sticking with Biden Politico
I just can tell you from my perspective as someone that is speaking with Biden, he’s very focused and he’s very intensely doing what a president of the United States has to do for leading the alliance,
Oh, how far the once great have fallen. Germany in the late 19th to early 20th century was the apotheosis of culture and learning. It was where all the academics and aspiring intellectuals would go to to earn their PHds and immerse themselves in German ideology and advances of human achievements. I remember reading Fin-de-siècle Vienna by Carl E. Schorske and getting a taste for those achievements, and now? Scholz presiding over a U.S. colony, doing the bidding of the world Hegemon? Sad.
RE: Aaron Siri on Plotkin, see “Debunk the Funk:”
https://x.com/Debunk_the_Funk/status/1811365678235930966?cxt=HBwWrMWymZjfoaMyAAAA&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email
The last line in his tweet is a bit of over egging the pudding, imo. / ;)
>Hollywood’s Democratic donors turn away from Biden – BBC
What a surprise, no mention what group of people, what “inner circle” controls and the vast majority of “Hollywood’s Democratic donors.” No, I wouldn’t expect BBC to lift that curtain.
Wonder if it’s that Emanuel fellow, brother of Zeke? / ;)
CNN is suddenly fact-checking Biden:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/11/politics/fact-check-joe-biden-nato-press-conference/index.html
Another sign that the vultures are circling. This piece would never run if he were up 10 pts in the polls.
‘Aaron Maté
@aaronjmate
Based on Israeli media and military sources, these by my count are the confirmed locations so far of where the Israeli military enacted the Hannibal Directive and killed Israelis on Oct. 7th’
There is one question that nobody has talked about and I mean nobody. Originally the Hannibal doctrine was about killing IDF soldiers if it looked like they were going to be captured by Palestinian militants. So my question is this. When exactly was it determined that the Hannibal doctrine would also apply to civilians and who decided it?