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.
129 comments
Comments are closed.
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.
Shrek 5 was recently announced. He’s doin alright, I reckon
Ah, further proof I am completely out of the loop, I was unaware of that news or that there was a 4th film. And speaking of Eddie Murphy, I am surely glad they didn’t run a sequel to his film Trading Places. No need to try it again, or once more with feeling.
It’s like the opening scenes for Tropic Thunder, where the Ben Stiller actor is cast in a 6th, 7th or 8th film franchise sequel(!)
“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
It likely helped sever a small hunk of western Kentucky from the rest of the state. The eyewitness account of the earthquake that appears at the end of the linked article is a fascinating read.
https://kentuckykindredgenealogy.com/2019/03/04/kentucky-bend-and-the-1811-1812-new-madrid-earthquakes-fulton-county/
Twain’s _Life on the Mississippi_ talks a bit about the continually changing course of the Mississippi.
(Haven’t posted in a bit, but I formerly posted as 430MLK.)
It did create a lake in Tennessee, Reelfoot lake.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152214/a-lake-born-out-of-an-earthquake
An interesting fact it that Tecumsa predicted that earthquake. Clever man he was. Look up the story of the Red Sticks.
A biography of Tecumseh can be found in the book by Allen W. Eckhart’s book A Sorrow In Our Heart. This is available to read online at Archives.org or as some say the Wayback Machine.
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”.
Russians tend to keep their word. For one, the current head of state is a rather fussy legal type who actually believes in meeting the requirements of an agreement. For two, a reputation for keeping one’s agreements greatly bolsters Russia’s soft power.
If other countries can trust Russia to stick to its agreements in BRICS, SCO or the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) the better situated Russia is diplomatically.
The CSTO action in Kazakistan was classic. Aid to the Government, in and out in ~ a month, exactly what the accord would imply, if I understand it correctly.
I would be surprised if Russia would not be pleased to get those oblasts but not at the cost of a loss of trust in the world.
Russia tends to think long term.
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.
Just remember what happened to her and her dopey campaign back in ’16 and that should cheer you up again. She had one shot at becoming the first ever Madame President and she blew it.
2008 too. Her campaign didn’t deploy resources to win delegates. In states she won, Obama would only come in behind by one or two delegates. Her brazen calendar changes made the dnc take Michigan out, costing her delegates and reducing strains on the insurgent campaign. The whole thing was an epic s@@t show.
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.
“Nobody would trade places with our economy!!”
Not sure that’s actually a positive:(
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!
An at least superficially coherent idea was, toward the end, when he mentioned the need for “industrial policy” in order to improve the output of munitions and weapons systems. It was a bit muddled, however. It seemed to me that at times he was talking about the ability to domestically produce the machinery that is needed to increase output.
(Seymour Melman, in his “After Capitalism”, discussed the decay of US industrial base after WWII and the surrender of its leadership in the production of machine tools. He identified the policy choices that led to this outcome.)
It’s not clear to me whether JRB was advocating policy aimed at reshoring enough industrial base to make it at least possible to rapidly increase defense capacity (with “market forces” providing the signals that this increase is needed). or a more intrusive policy to ensure that defense industries always have adequate rapid surge capacity to meet all contingencies (analogous to the situation in RF).
“The idea was to create an alliance of free democratic nations that would commit themselves to a compact of collective offence.”
NATO as an offensive, not defensive organization. Actually, I can’t tell if that was substance or a flub.
“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.
yeah… interesting how it isn’t until the end of the article that one discovers Russia, as in the state, had nothing to do with it, rather it was a con job by 2 Indian nationals and one corrupt Russian immigration specialist… and that Russia, as in the state, is not “kicking out” anyone but rather attending to the con that facilitated the deception. It wasn’t “conscription” if I’m reading that right. Involuntary conscription of what Ukraine is doing. I doubt Modi would be smiling if Russia, as in the state, was behind it.
Almost makes you wonder if there are similar cons taking place in Latin America, taking advantage of (the news of) personnel shortages in US military.
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.
Maybe China should stop supplying drones to Ukraine (and Patriot components to Raytheon).
“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.
Treasury paid $104 billion in interest the past month, on track for > $1 trillion this year!
Yesterdays Fed assets report showed >$3.34 trillion excess reserves deposited at FR banks. Project 2025, those evil righties, want to stop paying interest on reserves!
Tightening amounted to adding $2.56B to the balance sheet at $7.22T.
Core year on year for June was 3.3%!
Good report if you are looking for a good CPI story?
Stocks are the new gold!
> Treasury paid $104 billion in interest the past month, on track for > $1 trillion this year!
And for all that, the Fed Gov still isn’t sucking currency out of the economy. Every dollar in goes right out again.
1 Trillion in interest! At this point the numbers are meaningless phantoms, people could still fire up the BBQ on the 4th of July, grocery stores still have abundant food, gas is not that expensive, no, the debt at this point is meaningless in most people’s lives.
According to the apologists, 17% net price increase under Biden is meaningless, bc the people complaining are deplorable, conspiracies peddlers.
Devaluing the currency is no issue, wasn’t for Germany until 1930!
MMT is just fine…..the T is theory!
Categorical error to compare 1930s German currency dramas with currant currency administration. Germany suffered putative debt load post WWI which then resulted in having productive industry seized. Which in the end resulted in being unable to pay back the debt. Reminiscent of Russia post USSR collapse after neoliberal econ was unleashed on it – loot the place and set up friendly western oligarchs.
So before one can even talk about currency its proceeded by problems with productivity and its share, not to mention concentration of Capital and its broader socioeconomic effects.
Focusing on currency alone without looking deeper into other socioeconomic factors is a strange framework to investigate complicated socioeconomic dynamics in the last 50 yrs alone. Especially since at its conception its based on ex ante ideological beliefs.
Don’t you find it curious ilsm, how western econ sorts attempted to do basically the same thing to Russia via Economic/SWIFT sanctions, not to mention steal 300B in assets. Yet Russia is doing better economically and socially.
Where does QTM come into any of this ….
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.
That still doesn’t address the fact that those homes still impede upon the local forest mgmt agencies’ ability to employ effective forest maintenance strategies like controlled burns and targeted logging.
>‘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
Considering the cut off of aid trucks that’s happened per the above chart, in the last couple months, I don’t think it’s crazy to assume the death rate is spiking right now.
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.
>if I wanted to set up my very own private paramilitary organization, then that barn might well come hand
Not with the worlds tackiest bar stools
The photographer cranked up the HDR settings (high dynamic range) to the point of obscenity – which nicely matches the equally obscene interior design of the home.
Photo editors use HDR enhancement effects to give their photos a localized saturation and contrast but too much makes it look unreal. This photographer decided to turn the filter up to eleven.
HDR is frequent in real estate listing pictures. Make that dark, dingy property look bright and cheery! I assume that was a fad technique some realtors picked up from webbing the intertubes.
>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
Don’t know hwo said it but – “I’ll believe in the death penalty when the first corporation gets the chair.”
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.
You think the establishment is recruiting out of a different pool (bubble) than the one that put that guy in charge of something?
I think that Russians are the last ones to want this guy dead.
The reasons I’m skeptical of the CEO assassination plot story are … 1. Annalena Baerbock said it and I’m skeptical of anything she says 2. Why would Russians waste time and energy plotting to assassinate the CEO? Weapons production would go on uninterrupted whether a new CEO was found or not 3. This is just the kind of fake propaganda plot that deindustrialized managerial state types would concoct, since they believe themselves to be the high value targets rather than the ordnance production itself
Facts.
#3 makes me laugh, but is also doubtless true
This is a preemptive cover story: when Europeans finally get tired of footing the bill for Project Ukraine and start sabotaging arms shipments, gov officials and MSM can point to this say “Look! Those evil Russians are at it again!”
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.
‘Some people want a big house, a fast car and lots of money. Others just want a tiny cabin in the woods away from those kinds of people.’ And a zabuton.
Wonder what it costs to heat that place when the Polar Vortex comes down for a visit.
Feel like using the tried and true phrase when it comes to owning a nice boat or expensive yacht. The best boat in the world is your friend’s boat.
All that acreage needs tending, weeding and landscaping…minor expenses I will suppose if you hit the jackpot athletically* or in corporate life. No thanks.
*As in, Lebron James still very competitive at this stage of his career. Or for any professional golf fans, Tiger Woods winning over 80 events around the world. I’m sure Tiger counts his annual income using the Michael Jordan method, counting in large dollar amounts only, which is in the tens of millions.
Sometimes in Okla…they don’t want trees too close to the house in tornado alley.
I’m going with former football player. The interior design could only have been conjured up by someone with severe CTE.
Note the outdoor basketball court. I’m guessing a member of the OKC Thunder.
>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.
Increasing the time people have to spend working in order to improve economic output means that the productivity is actually going down. Otherwise, workers would work less, but produce the same, or even more.
Oh wait, there are figures — and they show that productivity in Greece peaked before the financial crisis of 2008 at an index of 125.90, then collapsed to 88.73, and its hesitant attempt to creep upwards has been marred by wild up and down swings ever since 2015. Currently, at 98.48, productivity is decreasing with respect to last year at 99.42.
But there is more: official Greek statistics show that productivity increases are somewhat linked to a reduction in labour unit costs — themselves linked to the evolution of wages and compensation. In other words, even basing productivity on monetary terms, the new law will probably lead to a decrease of computed productivity in national statistics, since it provides for a 40% wage increase for work on the sixth day.
Summa summarum: that law has nothing to do with productivity, but only with raw production capacity — and it hints at disturbing facts:
(a) Greek firms are encountering major difficulties to staff their operations (but why would all young Greek workers have gone away? ’tis a mystery);
(b) Greek firms have not managed to increase effective labour productivity, which would compensate the reduction in available manpower. Either they are unwilling to automate their operations, or they cannot do so because they are stuck in low productivity sectors requiring lots of low-wage workers — such as tourism…
This law is actually a bad sign. Economic development and increasing productivity were historically associated with a reduction in working hours. Greece is going backwards.
And laws like thus will only encourage (younger) workers to leave. Talk about stupid.
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?
ERCOT* is up their standards once again, at failing the people of Texas with such a crappy electricity grid. This is just another glaring, obvious example that features on Houston metro, I can recall the city being flooded repeatedly as well (Hurricane Harvey was memorable, for wrong reasons of course).
Heck, going back to 2011 during a heat wave which set new records, the Dallas and Plano areas were having to do rolling blackouts due to the excessive demands. I moved back to the east after 2014, after about 9 or so years in Plano. You would think Abbott or the Lt Gov might find a clue on their own…
*It’s the state designated regulatory department for the varied portions and suppliers to their unique grid infrastructure.
“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. / ;)
A lot more strawmanning and ad hominem than debunking in that tweet IMNSHO. Try “debunking” this:
Plotkin: “Postauthorization studies are needed to fully characterize the safety profile of a new vaccine, since prelicensure clinical trials have limited sample sizes, follow up durations, and population heterogeneity.”
Siri: Comment: Let me translate: the clinical trials relied upon to license childhood vaccines are useless with regard to safety since they virtually never have a placebo control, typically review safety for days or weeks after injection, and often have far too few participants to measure anything of value…
So, agreement.
Or this: Plotkin and company should welcome studies which can show vaccines have not contributed to the rise in chronic childhood disease (many of which are immune mediated diseases) from 12% of children in the early 1980s (when CDC recommended 7 routine childhood injections) to over 50% of children now (when CDC recommends over 90 routine childhood injections).
90 “routine” injections!!!
And maybe someone should address the elephant in the room–that once a “vaccine” maker manages to get its product on the childhood schedule, it is relieved of ALL legal liability. What possible benefit could there be to conducting safety studies that could demonstrate post-injection harm? In a nakedly for-profit system, that’s just batshit crazy.
Some may find it worth the time to look at what Aaron is basing his statement on in his own words:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-146488873
“Progress in vaccine-safety science has understandably been slow — often depending on epidemiologic evidence that is delayed or is inadequate to support causal conclusions and on an understanding of biologic mechanisms that is incomplete — which has adversely affected vaccine acceptance.”
I believe a key problem is casually tossed out at the tail of this statement — “on an understanding of biologic mechanisms that is incomplete”. There is too much emphasis in vaccine-product development, vaccine-product licensing, and vaccine-product profitability and far too little money and effort spent on building the basic Science and Knowledge needed to understand how vaccines work and how the immune system works. The surges of new and variant viruses at increasing rates suggests to me that viruses may be gaining the upper-hand over our current Knowledge of Medicine, and more alarmingly, over the human immune systems. The crowding in our cities and the crowding of industrial meat production provide ample opportunity for virus evolution to find new attacks on human and animal immune defenses. A time may come when using vaccines to trigger response from the human immune system will become ineffective because a virus has found some ‘zero-day’ exploit to tear a hole through native human immune system defenses.
>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.
Old joke about ‘how do you tell a lawyer is lying?’
Biden’s adoration of NATO (MIC profit mill) in whole is cringe-worthy.
I thought the most damning part was when CNN pointed out that Joe had a full week of R&R before the debate at Camp David.
Puts to rest the lie that he was furiously jet-setting around and walked into the debate jet-lagged.
He had ample time to rest and prepare, and he still face-planted. He’s in the late stages of Alzheimer’s/Parkinsons, where the “good” days get fewer and fewer and the bad days higher. Last night must have been a “good” day.
I noticed among all the rambling, the overuse of the word ‘I’ and the underuse of the word ‘we’. A complete narcissist like Trump.
They haven’t started up the Biden Lie Counter like they did for Trump so I’d say he’s still relatively safe for now
‘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?
Two sensitive IDF bases were overrun, seemingly very rapidly. I suspect the order for indiscriminate killing came when leadership realized what sort of personnel Hamas had likely captured.
They simply turned the war machine against Israel itself, everything follows from that. And they did that because they panicked and didn’t know what else to do anyway.
I find it curious that most people seem to be glaringly uninterested on whether there was prior knowledge of 10/7 and if there was an overt or tacit order to “stand down.” Even Col. Douglas MacGregor has intimated that he would not rule it out and there has been credible reporting on it. If the Hannibal Directive is damning, imagine if the attack was used to perpetrate policy goals that would not otherwise have been tolerated.
The civilians in question were largely ravers and kibbutzim, not valuable demographics to the right-wing mind. The rave in particular was moved closer to Gaza and extended by officials, whose bosses are suspected of knowing what was about to happen.
Ok, the Medvedev thing.
Here is my translation of his full Telegram post, with my own comments in [brackets]. Draw your own conclusions. I should note, that Medvedev since the start of the SVO has been the “bad cop” to Putin’s “good cop” when it comes to the Ukrainian issue. As well, there is some red-meat-for-the-nationalist-base thing going on.
Stripping out the pathos, and boy is there a lot of pathos – his point is that so long as Ukraine exists, the West will keep trying to turn it against Russia using radical nationalists. I mean, I would point to neighboring Belarus as an example of how to not have that happen without having to occupy the whole place, and I will reiterate my suspicion that Putin & Co’s ideal outcome would be to install a Ukrainian Lukashenko into a rump Ukrainian state and just make sure he stays a) in power and b) loyal. So in this context Medvedev really seems to be pushing an edge case here. But again, feel free to draw your own conclusions.
—–
[Begin post]
Will that godforsaken clown, former president of former Ukraine, agree to peace talks?
This is seemingly a rhetorical question. Nearly everyone agrees that the infinitely inflated ego of the coke-addled buffoon, the threats of radical nationalists, and Western support render this scenario practically impossible. I had written about the genital pianist’s mortal fear of the brazen banderites, to the point of swearing a blood oath of fealty to them, in the “Kommersant” newspaper even before the commencement of the SVO. Little has changed since then. At the same time, the changing of the window dressing in the US could strengthen the desire of Ukraine’s sellout elites to pause the conflict and begin talks. The question is, does Russia benefit from this outcome?
I believe the answer is a categorical no.
Our country has, in a number of different settings, repeatedly stated that we are only willing to resume negotiations on our own terms. These are simple – recognize the outcome of the SVO as per the Russian Constitution [i.e. acknowledge the annexation of the four regions], and forswear the accession of former Ukraine to the Alliance [i.e. NATO]. Most recently, the President of Russia outlined all of this during his address at the Foreign Ministry. NATO and Zelensky rejected this proposal outright.
But what if they were to turn around and accept it?
In this case, we must exercise maximum caution. Why? Because:
1. Until the Kiev regime obviously demonstrates its intention to capitulate, any talks will merely be a pause in the fighting that will enable the enemy to replenish its manpower and weapons.
2. Any declarations by Ukraine regarding a refusal to join NATO by themselves won’t lead to anything. I won’t even mention that the current crop of banderite criminals is unlikely to ever even make them.
3. Even if (1) and (2) were to take place, Kiev would quickly face a bloody new, third Maidan, which will sweep away the current junta and install into power an even more radical one.
Strange as it may seem, only then [after this “third Maidan”] will conditions for peace talks start to fall into place, including the question of capitulation. The Western Alliance will find it a lot more difficult to aid open extremists. As well, they would need to admit that hundreds of billions of their taxpayer dollars went up in smoke. And so, Washington et al. will force the Nazis in Kiev to accept the outcome of the war.
The ruling clique, with the ragdoll jester at its head, will flee to the West or be torn apart by the mob. And amidst the ruins of the remaining portion of former Ukraine there will rise a moderate political regime.
But even this will not signal the end of Russia’s SVO. Even after signing the documents and acknowledging defeat, the remaining radicals, after regrouping, will sooner or later come back into power, cheered on by Russia’s western enemies. And then will come the time to finally crush this viper. Hammer a long steel nail into the coffin of the banderite quasi-state. Destroy the remnants of its bloody heritage and return the remaining lands into Russia’s bosom.
But even after this, Russia’s enemies will not disappear. They will gather their strength, and await a new convenient opportunity to destroy our country. We must be ready for future battles to defend the Fatherland.
Wellie, that was bracing.
While I agree Russia would like to install a puppet regime in western Ukraine, I don’t see how this works given that there would be plenty of hostile people there. Russia winds up being an occupier, no matter how much porcine maquillage you apply. That may be the least bad outcome but it does not strike me at all that hot unless the really problematic people have fled or do flee (and why not? Better pickins in the EU) or get killed in the conflict.
I knew the meaning of porcine but hat to look up maquillage…learn something every day.
Historical context perhaps worth noting: The Soviet Union did in fact successfully occupy and govern a Banderite-infested and CIA-destabilized Galicia.
They didn’t have all NATO backing them during the Soviet Union days, just the CIA and the CIA was not as good at regime change then either.
The Banderites had been in general disrepute all over Europe despite the US supporting them in Ukraine. They’ve now been part of the government since 2014, have greatly expanded their ranks, have no doubt looted a ton, and started becoming more respectable since 2020 and are now touted. So their position is vastly stronger now than then.
Not saying that you’re wrong, but I’d like to point out – the optimist I am – that in 1922-23 the remnants of the Ukrainian National Army were hunted down and/or pacified. Because after WW1 and civil war, people wanted peace more than desperate terrorism for cause most people in Ukraine really didn’t believe in
And between 1941-43 they did have the full backing of Third Reich, and then until 1945 has some SS troops fighting among them. All were hunted down or pacified by 1947 or so, because in the end, after WW2 people wanted peace more than desperate fight for a cause most didn’t really believe in.
Things certainly might be different today, but just yesterday the Ukrainian minister of education was lamenting that school kids use Russia language half of the time – third of them use Russian most of the time. And there are the Ukrainians that have not yet skedaddled to Poland or Russia. So the veneer or ethno-natiollism is likely much thinner that Banderistas hope for and were are afraid of.
I think outright conquest, with martial law and sealed borders would make all those things much less consequential.
And in any such scenario, Lviv Oblast, among other places, looks likely to be deindustrialized, deurbanized, and heavily depopulated, with the Russians controlling supply of fuel, fertilizer, etc, etc, etc. I wonder if the Banderites can remain capable of impeding any Russian project under such circumstances?
Occupation is corrosive to the occupier.
Yes. And I’m inclined to credit the Russian leadership with being well aware of this. Unfortunately America also gets a vote.
“The pet I’ll never forget: the fox I invited into my home – but never quite trusted”
There are a coupla videos on YouTube of people befriending foxes which I came across a few months ago. Here is one from Birmingham in the UK-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32AvGGKzP0E (3:27 mins)
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2d6q2oUJeY
Aaw, he did actually sit in the cat bed!
“Brussels confirms that Orbán rubbing shoulders with Putin violates EU treaties
‘The FT reported that the EU’s legal service told member states on Wednesday that Orbán’s actions had violated EU treaties that forbid any “measure which could jeopardise the attainment of the Union’s objectives”.’
Not necessarily. Orbán may have been visiting Russia in his spare time. He might have gone as a tourist. EU President Charles Michel was saying that there can be no discussions about the Ukraine without the Ukraine. But as Zelensky refuses to have any real negotiations, then you are talking about a dead end. It must have panicked a few people when they found that Orbán was going to visit Trump. Since Trump will get direct information from Zelensky, Putin and XI via Orbán, that will give him an edge over Biden who only ever listens to Jake Sullivan and Antony Blinken.
Everyone seems to forget Macron talked to Putin like crazy in 2022:
https://www.politico.eu/article/macron-putins-last-open-line-to-the-west/
But he was never a serious negotiator but who has proven that he flips and flops on his positions. I think that what did it for Putin was when he learned that Macron had let some reporters listen in on one their phone calls which is a no-no in the diplomatic world.
I wonder what the EU legal service says about Lithuania refusing to sent minister level representatives to EU meetings hosted by Hungary because Orban listened to Putin. You’d think that kind of behavior would “jeopardise the attainment of the Union’s objectives” even more…
Virtue signaling is the objective of a parliament of Heathers
The objective the EU aspires to seems to be a permanent state of war with Russia, but the objective it will attain is it’s own destruction and the imposition of a new security structure on Europe by Russia. And why not? If it will save one more life that is a goal worth attaining.
re: Democrats Escalate Election Year Pressure on Supreme Court -WSJ
The Dems really have a tin ear.
With apologies to other lyricists in the NC songbook. I humbly suggest the best way to resolve the current Democrat candidate disaster is with a classic hip hop freestyle rap battle…
“Without HRC”
[Bill Clinton and Vicky Nuland:]
HRC, no gimmicks
[Hills:]
Two ancient a$$ boys go ’round the outside, ’round the outside, ’round the outside
Two ancient a$$ boys go ’round the outside, ’round the outside, ’round the outside
[The View ladies croon in the background]
Guess who’s back, back again
Hill is back, tell a friend
Guess who’s back
Guess who’s back
Guess who’s back…
[Hills]
I’ve created a monster
‘Cause nobody wants to see Biden no more
They want a Bill, Joe is choking on liver
Well if you want another Bill, this is what I’ll give ya
A little bit of greed mixed with some hard liquor
Some vodka that’ll jump-start my heart
Quicker than the shock or pill
When Joe gets juiced by Dr. Jill
[Flatline sounds effect]
Hey! I’m not cooperating
I’m rocking smoke filled rooms while Obama’s manipulating (hey!)
You waited this long please stop debating
‘Cause I’m back from Paris, refreshed and ruminating
I know that you got a job Ms. Harris
But your boss’s head problems are complicating
So the DNC won’t let me be
Or let me be me so let me see
They try to shut me down on YT
But it feels so empty without me
So come on dip, bum on your lips screw that
Give me your tips and some of your Bit$ and get ready ’cause this $hit’s about to get heavy
I don’t have any lawsuits
F$%# you Donnie!
Now this looks like a job for HRC so everybody just follow me
‘Cause we need a little controversy
‘Cause it feels so empty without me
I said this looks like a job for HRC so everybody just follow me
‘Cause we need a little controversy
‘Cause it feels so empty without me
Little hellions kids feeling rebellious
Embarrassed, their parents still have Cold War fits
They start feeling like prisoners, helpless
‘Til someone comes along on a mission and yells “Gaza!”
A visionary, vision is scary
Could start a revolution
Polluting the air waves a rebel
So just let me revel and bask
In the fact that I got everyone kissing my a$$
And it’s a disaster
Such a catastrophe for you to see so damn much of my past
You ask for me?
Well I’m back
Fix your bent antennae
Tune it in and then I’m gonna enter in
And up under your primary like a splinter
The center of attention back for the Fall
I’m interesting, the best thing since wrestling
Infesting in your kid’s ears and nesting
Testing attention please
Feel the tension soon as someone mentions me
Here’s my 10 cents my 2 cents is free
A nuisance, who sent, you sent for me?
Now this looks like a job for HRC so everybody just follow me
‘Cause we need a little controversy
‘Cause it feels so empty without me
I said this looks like a job for HRC so everybody just follow me
‘Cause we need a little controversy
‘Cause it feels so empty without me
A tisk-it a task-it
I’ll go tit for tat, no teleprompter, cue card $hit, with anybody who’s talking this bomb or that drone hit
Bernie? you can get your a$$ kicked
Worse than Bowman’s tiny black vote shtick
And Clooney?
You can get stomped by Cardi
You 60 year old gin monkey blow me
You don’t know me
You’re too pretty
Let go
It’s over, nobody listens to Amal
Now let’s go, just give me the signal
I’ll be there with a whole list full of new targets
I’ve been dope, suspenseful with a pencil
Ever since Zelenski turned himself into a symbol
But sometimes the $hit just seems
Everybody only wants to discuss me
So this must mean I’m disgusting
But it’s just me best prepared you see!
No, I’m not the first Queen of controversy
I am the worst thing since Kagan’s offspring
To do Slav murder so selfishly
And use it to get myself wealthy (Hey)
There’s a concept that works
20 million other Russian spies emerge
But no matter how many fish in the sea
It’d be so empty without me
Now this looks like a job for HRC so everybody just follow me
‘Cause we need a little controversy
‘Cause it feels so empty without me
I said this looks like a job for HRC so everybody just follow me
‘Cause we need a little controversy
‘Cause it feels so empty without me
Kids, Vote for Her!
… or else
[Parody based on Eminem’s “Without Me”]
An enthusiastic and rap-tastic thumbs up!
F#CK The EU …
N.W.A. – Nuland With Attitude
Begging to be written…
well imagined, that!
F#CK The EU …
Farage concluding a well considered argument.
I’m so glad AI has found home. Sadly, it’s nothing but death.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/can-the-west-still-win-analyzing
A must read
AI is a new weapon.
It has a very high cost per kill, compared to a mortar shell or a sniper shot.
The jury is out on adding value to the kill.
Also remains to be seen if it reduces friendly loss to achieve body count.
US has long history of wonder weapons that are neither operational nor cost useful.
Cost for the MIC is no impediment.
If it does work even a little the Russians will figure out quickly. This not the USSR.
We tend to focus on the vast computational power needed to train cutting-edge AI (LLMs). But it takes many orders of magnitude less power to run them. More hardware than your average missile or drone for sure, but not beyond the realm of possibility.
Then there are cases where the AI doesn’t need to run in real-time on every individual munition. Rather it trawls through data looking for more effective places to aim your shells, bombs, soldiers, etc.
Basic munitions are cheap, but the vast majority of them don’t hit a target. Dozens of shells, thousands of bullets, overall hundreds of man-hours to kill a single enemy soldier.
Hype aside, AI has significant potential to improve these odds, so I think the military scramble for “force multipliers” like this is understandable. Russia is considerably behind the US and China in this particular race.
It’s not a bug, but a feature. Basic munitions are not designed to kill an enemy soldier with every shot. Some things are made to be targeted at an area, not at a point. A packet of Grad rockets is supposed to spread out, and not end up in one spot. It’s a “scatter shot” weapon, not unlike a shotgun. Machine guns are designed to be used for suppresive fire, which means that often they are not even aimed at enemy soldiers but in their general direction. That does not make them inferior to sniper rifles, but complementary. Modern howitzers fire both unguided and guided shells, depending on situation.
An outlier are FPV kamikaze drones, because they have both low price and pinpoint accuracy. They have changed the way wars are fought, but still, the situation on the frontline says that they can not replace oldschool artillery augmented with scouting drones.
P.S. You say hype aside, and then fall for it. Russia is considerably behind, yet they are the only ones that used AI enhanced kamikaze drones (Lancet) in real conflict in order to track and strike combat vehicles. USA and Israel are way ahead in particular race of using advanced AI to kill civilians, but it turns out it’s not enough to actually win a war. Russians had weapons with swarm attack capability in 1980s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-700_Granit
This is the most entertaining Presidential Election of my 70 years on this planet.
And Joe’s very public disintegration has had a health benefit for all the Dem Congresscritters by curing their constipation.
If Joe does push the big red button at least I will die laughing
Attention, lichen fans!
An oft-cited factoid – lichens cover 8% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface – provides a cautionary tale on scientific communication.
That Nazi bunker hotel in Hamburg will be the perfect lodging for NATO ‘advisors’ once the ‘Ukrainian’ F-16s start flying out of Poland and Romania.
RE: “Climate Change Risk to National Critical Functions” RAND
RAND’s 400-page report, this link conjures is a lot to digest. I suspect it might present a road-map of sorts for future government policy initiatives. It might be interesting to compare this report’s conclusions and policy recommendations with the DoD’s climate policy documents.
Just a quick look at the link, this jumps out at me: “Nearly half of the nation’s critical functions will face at least moderate disruptions—level 3—by 2050, the researchers found. Nearly two-thirds will experience that Katrina-level of risk by 2100, even with no increases in carbon emissions. That means they won’t be able to meet routine operational needs in at least some parts of the country.”
I am afraid this overall assessment may be a little bit optimistic. I also believe the risk level numbering system used in the table at the end of the link, and also used in the report, is overly simplistic and subjective. It smacks of Power-Point analysis beefed up by adding the presentation patter as text. What adds to my concern is my belief that RAND — at least in the past — has supplied high level blueprint indications for the probable direction of future u.s. government policy.