Links 7/13/2024

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1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 7:10 am

   ‘Buitengebieden
   @buitengebieden
   Can’t stop watching this.. 😊’

   That was hilarious that. Was wondering why that dog was running like a bat out of hell until you could see why at the end. Good boi.
   1. matsb July 13, 2024 at 8:26 am

      It’s a labrador! They’re crazy about bathing.
      1. timbers July 13, 2024 at 10:15 am

         Yep. My Labrador behaves that way when he sees people. Even at the far opposite side of the park. I think he has a special gene requiring him to say “Hi!” to everyone in sight. Even when I leash him as we pass a group of people, when they pass I unleash him he stops, looks at me for permission, then his eyes say “l’m taking my chances of risking your punishment for disobeying you by greeting my friends” then turns around and dashes to say “Hi” to his friends (which consists of everyone on earth).
         1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 10:18 am

            What’s the favorite breed in Fresno*

            Meth Lab!

            * any downtrodden city will suffice
   2. steppenwolf fetchit July 13, 2024 at 9:50 pm

      Neat waterproof doggiecam.
2. timbers July 13, 2024 at 7:30 am

   AT&T Says Criminals Stole Phone Records of ‘Nearly All’ Customers in New Data Breach Techcrunch

   And AT&T forced upon me their “my” password in an act of “security theater” to “protect” “my” account who’s contents they sell to the US government which shares it with other governments and corporations throughout the world. A “my” password I never remember because it’s really AT&T’s password I told them I did not want, so they text me a temporary password every time they pretend they can’t access their “my” account.

   Reality check: “Nearly All” of customer data breached is an improvement over AT&T’s long standing policy of providing all customer data to the US government and others.
   1. dao July 13, 2024 at 8:29 am

      You can presume all voice calls are recorded and converted with text-to-speech software and saved to government hard drives in Utah. They aren’t just recording “meta data” like the press tells you.
      1. barefoot charley July 13, 2024 at 2:43 pm

         Yes, but luckily that’s still formally illegal, so after they’ve heard you they have to go back to ATT to buy a legal version of what they heard for court. What would we do without a rules-based order?
         1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 2:53 pm

            Reach out and touch someone

            AT & T 1970’s slogan
      2. BlueMoose July 13, 2024 at 4:19 pm

         Having worked in the industry for quite a few years I was always under the impression that TTS was use to generate speech from text. Did I miss something since I retired?
   2. Oh July 14, 2024 at 1:13 pm

      Looks like 2FA is working well!
3. timbers July 13, 2024 at 7:39 am

   “CNN reports that a prominent Democrat has claimed Biden’s advisors have threatened White House staffers, saying they will “beat the shit out” of anyone who says anything about Biden’s health that runs contrary to their narrative.”

   This is what happens when rich donors abandon you, who in normal circumstances would available to just Seth Rich anyone who leaks bad things about their candidate.
   1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 7:47 am

      In a way that story may not be true. Alex Christoforou was reporting on how things are done at the White House. In the same way that when Biden talks to reporters he has a card with not only a list of the reporters that he will be actually talking to but also what questions they will be asking him, staffers at the White House are also in the same position as those reporters as they have to have written down what they intend to talk about before actually meeting him. So you can be sure that none will be so stupid as to have ‘Presidential Health’ listed as a topic that they want to discuss with Biden.
      1. timbers July 13, 2024 at 7:52 am

         Don’t say things like that. Because Biden and his Vice President Trump is our first black female President.
      2. ilsm July 13, 2024 at 10:22 am

         Time to read Shakespeare: Henry VI!

         Regency and a Margaret of Anjou!

         The PBS series was awesome!
   2. Screwball July 13, 2024 at 10:15 am

      They must have told their loyal voters the same thing. It has been an amazing thing to watch and hear. Just yesterday someone suggested Biden has dementia and another person just went off. How dare you!!! You just don’t like Biden so now you are just throwing **** against the wall to see what sticks. There is nothing wrong with Biden, he’s just old. He is as sharp as a tack and certainly qualified for the job.

      These people have gone off the deep end. They were already unhinged and clueless, but now they are just making up their own reality. Add in all the Project 2025 stuff they are getting programmed with – I can only imagine the level of hair on fire they will be by November. Which of course is the MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION EVER! It will be the end of the world and Joe is going to save them.
      1. LawnDart July 13, 2024 at 11:01 am

         It is a good time to review Brandolini’s law:

         Brandolini’s law (also called the bullshit asymmetry principle), is the adage that “the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it”. This denotes that it’s generally much easier to say something without concern for things such as the truth, evidence, or logic, than it is to prove that what was said is wrong.
         1. Screwball July 13, 2024 at 11:26 am

            Yea, that fits. It makes me laugh. These very same people are the ones who think everyone else but them are stupid. They are well educated, but show little signs of such.

            They are also the same people who said Trump would back out of the debate because he has dementia and was scared to debate Biden. One told me last week, when a discussion about the doctor visits was going on, the White House press secretary said…

            Right, the paid liar? I’m suppose to believe her? Giggle.

            They are simply falling down drunk on blue bullshit.
   3. Jason Boxman July 13, 2024 at 11:23 am

      Honestly, a lot of our political class ought to have the shit beat out of them, so this is welcome news! Let the beatings begin!
   4. flora July 13, 2024 at 3:10 pm

      Heh. Because “free speech”. right? / ;)
4. Randall Flagg July 13, 2024 at 7:45 am

   >The US Treasury is Denying Jill Stein Matching Funds the FEC Awarded – Campaign Manager Sputnik (Kevin W). Holy shit.

   As has been said in the past by some on this NC site, This is some 3rd World Banana Republic Bullsh*t…
   In the most important election ever, Democracy must be saved, yada, yada, yada…
   1. Stephen V July 13, 2024 at 8:41 am

      Hmmmm. Is this the same US Treasury that doesn’t enforce COVID $$ Reg’s so that our County in podunk can expand its jail? That one? We have to keep up with population growth, Doncha know?
   2. Carolinian July 13, 2024 at 8:53 am

      However, the US Treasury has declined to distribute the funds, citing a shortfall. In March, the government raided the fund of $400 million as part of the $1.2 trillion spending package that averted a government shutdown. Most of that, $320 million, was used to fund the Secret Service, $55 million was appropriated for election security, and $25 million went to the Justice Department.

      So millions were raided (with Congressional approval apparenty) but 100,000 can’t be found for the Stein campaign sez Treasury. We’d be churlish to suspect Democracy Joe and his political operation have anything to do with this. With such rash, fake news accusations next they’ll be saying he blew up Nordstream.

      Biden is always pushing the envelope of what he can get away with but then democracy is at stake both here and abroad. And if any of his would be competitors gain an advantage then the necessary outcome may be in danger.
      1. Randall Flagg July 13, 2024 at 10:49 am

         Oh, and don’t forget RFK jr being denied Secret Service protection. IIRC he documented 80+ incidents affecting his security.
         He may have it now I haven’t checked.
      2. nippersdad July 13, 2024 at 10:58 am

         Seems like it was only two days ago that the US pledged another 225 million dollars to the Ukrainian black hole, but, as you say, a hundred thousand cannot be found to “preserve Democracy” here at home. They aren’t even trying to make sense anymore.
         1. JBird4049 July 13, 2024 at 1:14 pm

            >>>They aren’t even trying to make sense anymore.

            Of course not, it’s about being petulant.
   3. Jeremy Grimm July 13, 2024 at 12:55 pm

      It might be timely to send Jill Stein’s campaign some contributions.
      1. Glenda July 13, 2024 at 2:54 pm

         Thanks for the reminder.

         I can’t believe that friends of mine keep trying to tell me I “should” not vote for her, but for Biden – because “reasons”. Grrr.
         I keep saying that CA is a totally Blue state and my vote won’t affect that. Sigh.
         It is good to have this site to remind me that my “independent” thinking is not alone.
5. William Beyer July 13, 2024 at 7:51 am

   Big Banks’ Stress Tests Are Flawed, Bloomberg.
   Not “flawed,” …but it definitely rhymes with “flawed.”
   1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 8:24 am

      [on Dave’s return to the ship, after he has killed the rest of the crew]

      HAL : Look Dave, I can see you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress test, and think things over.
      1. Carolinian July 13, 2024 at 9:19 am

         We’re waiting for the banks to sing Daisy.

         I recall from my youth there was some kind of device issued to sing the first digitally generated speech.

         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Bell
         1. Jeremy Grimm July 13, 2024 at 1:00 pm

            Bell Labs sent a science kit to schools “Sun to Sound” in the mid-sixties that included a solar cell, a booklet, other stuff I’ve forgotten and one of those paper thin records that included the Bell Labs computer singing Daisy.
            1. Carolinian July 13, 2024 at 1:19 pm

               That’s it.
   2. flora July 13, 2024 at 3:12 pm

      er, um, flawed rhymes with fraud. or something. / heh
6. Randall Flagg July 13, 2024 at 7:52 am

   >AT&T Says Criminals Stole Phone Records of ‘Nearly All’ Customers in New Data Breach Techcrunch

   Am I alone in the amount of mail I am getting lately regarding data breaches, including companies I have not interacted with for years ( looking at you TicketMaster… ), telling me to check on this and that , apply for credit bureau monitoring paid for by the company, etc., etc., all because some third party vendor screwed up? And I don’t use the internet for a fraction of life’s business compared to most I know.
   I can’t help but think if the regulatory agencies simply dropped an anvil on these guys with some serious fines and penalties these companies might get serious about protecting data.
   1. timbers July 13, 2024 at 8:00 am

      And why aren’t AI robo calls not classified as spam while human calls I want are? What happened to do not call list?
   2. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 8:01 am

      Doesn’t exactly give you confidence about a digital currency if they try to bring it in much less a mandatory digital identity like they have in India. Computer security always seems to come down to the lowest common denominator which works out to be that guy who insists on writing his password down on a stick-it note attached to his computer.
      1. Randll Flagg July 13, 2024 at 8:27 am

         I have a difficult time imagining a world inhabited with the use of digital currency only.
         First, get rid of the best way to pay off politicians? C’mon man, but I’m sure there will be a workaround. Will you take some gold bars Senator Menendez?
         Think of all the people that are completely unbanked to start. A slow grab of the cash in circulation by using the machines that take cash and give a debit card? Oh, and we’ll only charger 4 % so the pricks ( excuse me, our “partners”) at B of A, or Wells Fargo, Goldmans, get a cut for providing you with the privilege of availing yourself of this opportunity.
         My tinfoil hat may be a bit too tight but wow, the Government control over our lives. Can’t spend your money on this, it contributes to Global warming, can’t spend your money on that, it’s bad for your health and that will contribute to our overstressed medical system (Unless you are going to buy Big Pharma’s latest and greatest drugs). You’ve already eaten too much meat this month. Had too much alcohol, cheetos. Why are you spending your money at a Functional medicine Doctor? What, your local PCP , you know, the one that can’t fit you in for 8 months isn’t good enough?
         Can’t spend it on that. it’s a contribution to our political opponent, or that website, we believe that organization is a purveyor of disinformation.
         You can’t buy that house, it’s too big.
         Oh, sorry, your account was hacked, along with 200 million others and you’ll have to bail in to pay the ransom. They are only asking for a few trillion, your share will be X…
         Gah, too much coffee this am.. Sorry
         1. tegnost July 13, 2024 at 10:31 am

            I don’t know if it’s the coffee.
            Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you…
            Dystopia is here.
            Vote joey…the democrats have always been the warmongering genocide party!
            Get. In. Line.
            1. Jbird4049 July 13, 2024 at 11:37 pm

               According to the Fed 22% of Americans are either unbanked or underbanked because they don’t use whatever savings or checking account they have, just alternatives like check cashing. Using the 6% unbanked, that is 20 million people. I wonder if all those bank deserts, areas where there are no branches, like those food deserts with no grocery stores, is a cause? Using the higher number, that is 73 million people if you include their dependents.

               But are those 20-70 million people all that important (to the ruling class)? If the deplorables can’t be bothered to get a checking-savings account and a credit-debit card maybe they are disposable?
      2. Vandemonian July 13, 2024 at 12:37 pm

         …or store it as an unencrypted note on his phone…

         (In response to Rev Kev’s comment about the password on a sticky note)
   3. flora July 13, 2024 at 3:17 pm

      And my friends wonder why I don’t use online banking and still use a non-digital, landline phone at home. It’s good to be an analog preferring Luddite these days, imo. (Sez a person with decades of professional work in the IT world.) / ;)
7. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 7:56 am

   “Night Owls Had More Brainpower in Large UK Survey”

   ‘It’s a common belief that early risers are naturally more productive than night owls’

   I had a grandmother who told me that the hours of sleep that you have before midnight are worth twice that of those after. I was never convinced of that argument. It’s like saying that if you lay down a piece of string in front of you, cut some of the left end and attach it to the right, that you now have a longer piece of string. But it’s all about the appearance of “productivity”. Like when the boss goes to work early and finds Tom Terrific beavering away in the office and being impressed by this early riser. Never thinks about the worker working from home who works his own hours and does just a good a job. Maybe even better as he can even spend some of the hours saved by not having to travel to and from work each day to think about his job and how else he might do it. So I am going with to each their own.
   1. tegnost July 13, 2024 at 10:34 am

      morning = naked capitalism
      night = o’ donnell and maddow

      I’ll stick with the former…
   2. GC54 July 13, 2024 at 1:24 pm

      If you’re willing to “sleep with Google”, a Fitbit watch +app recently crapified does provide useful data on sleep patterns … it accurately sees REM vs deep and shallow sleep which I verified briefly with a dream log. Its composite “sleep score” and “resting heart rate” time series do correlate with the level of refreshment from sleep to tune bedtime and duration.
      1. Turtle July 13, 2024 at 1:53 pm

         I’m still not sure if their sleep monitoring feature is as good as Fitbit’s, but Garmin is a smartwatch manufacturer that’s supposedly more privacy respecting than Fitbit. They were named in Mozilla’s privacy policy analysis list as being good. So I guess I’m saying you may be able to get sleep monitoring without sleeping with Google.
         1. Craig H. July 13, 2024 at 2:34 pm

            Is there any independent research to confirm the intuitively obvious datum that if you wake up in the morning with a bunch of vivid dream details you hit good REM level in the previous hours?

            I’m pretty sure if you pay attention to your levels of vitality and arousal and fatigue you are going to have some grasp on the quality of your sleep. It can’t hurt to keep a few notes. I keep notes. I have not spent any money on tech aids.

            The sleep authority, William Dement, says categorically, early and often in his book

            The Promise of Sleep: A Pioneer in Sleep Medicine Explores the Vital Connection Between Health, Happiness, and a Good Night’s Sleep

            the overall state of sleep research is very poor. Research on sleep is expensive. His work is before these cheap personal devices and I would be interested if anybody knows a better book than his.
            1. Ernie July 13, 2024 at 2:48 pm

               Having not read Dement, I can’t really opine on whether it is better, but I thought Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams to be quite good.
               1. jrkrideau July 13, 2024 at 10:46 pm

                  I have never read the book but Alexey Guzey has an interesting review on it

                  It is not totally favourable.
         2. bloodnok July 13, 2024 at 9:34 pm

            use an oura ring to track sleep. it’s not too bad. also gets a decent score from the privacy policy analysis list mooted above. i’ve the first gen ring. they’ve apparently improved upon it. occasionally mine has almost no data from an evening of tossing and turning. how it can generate a “sleep score” from that lack of data is one of those geek mysteries. find that a ring is less physically intrusive than a watch or other gadget.

            despised fitbit long before they were acquired by the chocolate factory (aka google). their app was consistently buggy. no surprise that the enshittification has become more prevalent since the oompa loompa took over.
   3. Ann July 13, 2024 at 6:51 pm

      What I want to know is what time of day did they do the test?
8. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 8:03 am

   Sun is shinin’ in the sky
   There ain’t a cloud in sight
   It’s stopped rainin’ removal calls, everybody’s in the play
   And don’t you know
   It’s a beautiful new day? Hey

   Runnin’ down the naysayers neighs
   See how the sun shines brightly in the city
   On the debate where once was pity
   Mr. Blue Guy is living here today, hey

   Mr. Blue Guy, please tell us why
   You had to hide away for so long (so long)
   Where did we go wrong?

   Mr. Blue Guy, please tell us why
   You had to hide away for so long (so long)
   Where did we go wrong?

   Hey you-his political base
   Welcome to the re-election race
   A celebration, Mr. Blue Guy’s up there waitin’
   And today is the comeback press conference we’ve waited for

   Oh, Mr. Blue Guy, please tell us why
   You had to hide away for so long (so long)
   Where did we go wrong?

   Hey there, Mr. Blue
   The usual suspects are so pleased with you
   Look around, see what you do
   Everybody smiles at you

   Hey there, Mr. Blue
   The usual suspects are so pleased with you
   Look around, see what you do
   Everybody smiles at you

   Mr. Blue, you did it right
   But soon comes Father Time creepin’ over
   Now his hand is on your shoulder
   Never mind, I’ll remember you this
   I’ll remember you this way

   Mr. Blue Guy, please tell us why
   You had to hide away for so long (so long)
   Where did we go wrong?

   Hey there Mr. Blue (Guy)
   the usual suspects are so pleased with you (Guy)
   Look around see what you do (blue)
   Everybody smiles at you
   1. griffen July 13, 2024 at 8:59 am

      Nice applause for the effort. That’s a good tune. If polite applause is somehow not sufficient, I’ll share the below quoting verbatim of philosopher / greenskeeper Carl Spackler from Caddyshack…

      “Hey Lama, how about a little something for the effort?”
      “On your death bed you will receive total consciousness”
9. Mikel July 13, 2024 at 8:14 am

   Re: CNN reports…

   Lee noted “You know, we talked to a lot of folks who said, ‘Of course we know that he has aged. Of course, we had seen some signs, especially over the last year, of his decline in terms of his physical stamina, his mental clarity.’ But that version of the president that we saw on the debate stage, they said was basically unrecognizable.”

   The gaslight contained within a faux critcism. This is a type of propaganda intended to make people think their concerns are being recognized and addressed, but a critical reading usually shows that the issue at hand is being minimized or the origin of a problem is being obscured.

   ‘Of course we know that he has aged’

   The problem is that he has a illness that only gets progressively worse. Not that he’s aged.
   1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 8:23 am

      Can you imagine what he will be like by January of 2029 which is when he wants his Presidency to continue to? It won’t be so much a tragedy as a farce.
      1. Jackiebass63 July 13, 2024 at 9:14 am

         At 82 I have heard a lot of gloom and doom predictions about what will happen if a certain candidate is elected president. In most cases it has turned out to be a lot of hot air. We have survived for a long time. I don’t see anyone elected president changing much.
         1. chris July 13, 2024 at 10:33 am

            Well, that’s the reality. Unless one of the addled men in the running does something drastic. But in genera I think l you are correct. The insulated class above us doesn’t want anything to change. As far as they can control things they will keep them this way. And nothing much will materially change for those of us below. Except at the margins. It’s almost like watching financial and social erosion take place. Slowly in some places, faster in others, the water rises and more of us are swept away.
         2. John Wright July 13, 2024 at 10:56 am

            I thought that having bush getting the presidency over gore would not be that important. But I believe gore could have avoided many of the problems bush created.
            The world and USA may have fared far better if Bush had retreated to his ranch .
            1. nippersdad July 13, 2024 at 11:06 am

               You give Obama and Pelosi far too little credit for having legalized and normalized all of Bush’s depredations. He could have been an object lesson, but instead he was made the norm.
            2. britzklieg July 13, 2024 at 1:41 pm

               Joe Lieberman says you’re wrong.
            3. spud July 13, 2024 at 9:05 pm

               reality says otherwise, gore made sure bush could do what he did.

               https://listverse.com/2014/02/05/10-reasons-bill-clinton-was-secretly-a-terrible-president/

               “Extraordinary rendition” is when shady government operatives stuff a bag over your head and fly you off to some foreign country where they can legally torture you. It sounds like something Alex Jones might dream up in a paranoid frenzy, but it’s a well-documented phenomenon under both Bush, Jr. and Obama—and Bill Clinton was the guy who started it all.

               Clinton and Gore signed off on the first rendition back in the ’90s, despite being aware that it breached international law. Until recently, rendered people frequently wound up in the prison cells of places like Mubarak’s Egypt or Gaddafi’s Libya, where they were tortured with electric shocks, rape, beatings, and even crucifixion. It can sometimes go hideously wrong: In 2003, the CIA snatched a terrorist off the streets and beat, tortured, and sodomized him, only to discover they’d accidentally grabbed the wrong man. The victim just happened to share a name with a wanted criminal. His suffering came care of the Clinton/Gore dream team.”

               “In the aftermath of the 1990s’ Gulf War prequel, the UN Security Council imposed strong economic sanctions on a belligerent Iraq. Strongly championed by the US and UK and fully supported by Bill Clinton, the sanctions were meant to break Saddam and keep him from indulging in any more war crimes. Instead, they killed over half a million children and hundreds of thousands of adults.

               The trouble was twofold. Firstly, the economic embargo was the strictest in modern history. Secondly, Saddam responded by hoarding wealth, allowing his own lifestyle to continue while his people starved. The sanctions were directly responsible for the deaths of 4,000 children a month. The UN itself linked the economic blockade to devastatingly high rates of malnutrition, starvation, and disease. Medicines were restricted, so children were left to die in agony of leukemia on cancer wards in Baghdad’s hospitals. Instead of morphine, all they had was aspirin—if they were lucky. Thousands of meningitis patients died because the country lacked basic antibiotics.

               Worst of all, the sanctions patently failed. Saddam still enjoyed the high life. His party still wielded unimaginably brutal power. The only ones who suffered were the poor, the young, and the sick. We can’t imagine having to make that decision, but it can’t have seemed intelligent to call the bluff of a crazy dictator.”

               https://theintercept.com/empire-politician/biden-iraq-liberation-act/

               “In 1996, when President Bill Clinton expanded the no-fly zone bombings in Iraq, Joe Biden was an enthusiastic backer. Biden acknowledged that the U.S. had a “big stick” in the form of military power and said, “I think we should swing it hard enough to make sure we maintain the expanded fly zone, no-fly zone.” ”

               “In January 1998, the neoconservative Project for the New American Century sent a letter to President Bill Clinton calling on him to overthrow the Iraqi government and making that goal an official “aim of American foreign policy.”

               The letter — signed by leading Washington hawks such as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, John Bolton, and Elliott Abrams — charged that U.S. policy was being “crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.”

               Less than a year later, that letter would form the basis for the Iraq Liberation Act, which codified changing the Iraqi regime as a goal of U.S. foreign policy and helped lay the groundwork for the eventual invasion. It also authorized increased support for Iraqi exiles, some of whom worked with the CIA.

               Joe Biden voted in favor of the act, which was signed into law by Clinton in October 1998. In touting his support for the law, Biden said, “So it seems to me that we have a big problem. Saddam is the problem. Saddam is in place. Saddam is not going anywhere unless we do something relatively drastic. It is clear our allies are not prepared to do anything drastic.” “
               1. Rolf July 14, 2024 at 8:28 am

                  Spud, thanks for this comment and links.
         3. JP July 13, 2024 at 12:41 pm

            Maybe we’ve just been lucky, or to borrow from a comment above: On your death bed you will receive total consciousness. If only it was that simple. On your death some essence of you will merge with total consciousness and everything you identify as you, your ego, will be obliterated and just evaporate. But there will be sort of an epigenetic energy component that will persist and it will bear on the social fabric that you were once a part of. That energy will gestate in combination with legions of others and may someday condense into the birth of one who will drastically change the course of history. We will attribute this history to that person but in reality it is an accumulation of energy.

            Just spitballing
      2. griffen July 13, 2024 at 12:46 pm

         Quite likely by that date* he’ll be in a home for elder care or he’ll be pushing up daisies..Then again Diane Feinstein managed to hang longer than many presumed.

         *unless we as a country or even this species, are somehow magically erased in an ill-advised effort to defeat Russians or Chinese with first launch of war heads …MAD can not be ruled out, oh and that analogy applies more to the Biden administration in my view. Blinken, Sullivan, the entirety of the intelligence community are drunk on their personal flavor of blue punch.
   2. Mikel July 13, 2024 at 8:32 am

      The FT article opens with same BS:

      “…With his party in disarray over the question of the president’s age and political viability..”

      They go through great pains to make sure no brain affecting disease is considered.

      If age was the big concern, he wouldn’t have been nominated 4 years ago.
      1. Carolinian July 13, 2024 at 9:12 am

         BS indeed. It’s not just Biden who is over the hill. Both parties are coasting on brand fumes and trying suppress even the hint of a third party alternative. Michael Tracey asks why the Dems are so upset over Project 2025 when they support the foreign policy portion.

         https://www.mtracey.net/p/project-2025-is-just-project-1981

         And the domestic portion which he doesn’t talk about is indeed Back to 1981. They need a Delorean.
         1. Mikel July 13, 2024 at 9:16 am

            https://archive.ph/xPjEn/
            A NY Times interview with a lucid 83 year old.

            Just as a juxtaposition.
         2. Mikel July 13, 2024 at 9:27 am

            Indeed..when NC did a special post the other day about Project 2025, I read some of it and said: “This could have come out of the 20th Century.”
            1. jefemt July 13, 2024 at 9:54 am

               Funny thing… I saw a post on Zero Hedge (I know, I Know…) and it was a review of a book called, “Birth of a Transfer Society”, written in the late 70’s by two deeply free market Austrian Economists that taught at Montana State University in the heyday of the Reagan years— PJ Hill, who was from eastern MT, studied at U Chicago, and Terry Anderson. Along with a couple others- Richard Stroup and John Baden. Baden went on to host Judicial confab training retreats at Big Sky ski area, to help teach the judges the charms and remarkable benefits of free markets. Forty years ago, and these chickens are on the roost, big-time.
               Heritage Foundation, guest editorials in the WS Germal… well-orchestrated and played. And heck, no issue for the neocon Uniparty.
               There Is No Alternative.
               1. Procopius July 15, 2024 at 8:06 am

                  It goes back further than that. See Law and Economics. Yves refers to it frequently in ECONned. A very insidious, pernicious doctrine.
         3. Butch July 13, 2024 at 1:56 pm

            In 1981 Union membership was slightly double what it is now. I don’t suppose that’s on offer…
            1. Procopius July 15, 2024 at 8:10 am

               One reason for union decline is that too many unions go to corrupt leadership. Then they change the election rules to stay in power. No union officer should make more than twice the lowest paid union member. Yeah, yeah, you need to offer great pay to get great performers. That’s what we’ve gotten, performers.
      2. ArvidMartensen July 13, 2024 at 5:10 pm

         One of the reasons the media, pundits, Dems etc are harping on about age and not illness is that Trump is of a similar age, and they think that talk of age will make people put Trump into the same ‘old man must be stoopid’ category.

         Those who put out the PR and run the joint don’t do much that isn’t strategic, in a kind of playground way.

         Of course, kids in the playground aren’t so big on understanding unintended consequences.
   3. Mikel July 13, 2024 at 8:58 am

      FT today with another article that leans into “it’s just age” narrative:
      Biden’s debate disaster woke me up – FT
      https://archive.ph/jtUYI/

      “…When our president lost his words, he revealed a very human and dignified thing: that we all age, and plans can change, and that’s OK…”

      The actual issue: He’s trying to be President with a degenerative illness.
      1. ilsm July 13, 2024 at 10:25 am

         Richard of York aka Trump is so evil!

         Regency forever.
   4. Katniss Everdeen July 13, 2024 at 8:59 am

      So, I’m guessing that the whole nominating joe biden on Zoom before the convention because he’s the overwhelming favorite thing is off now.
      1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 9:12 am

         Like Liz Truss’s lettuce, maybe they should be asking which will last longer – Biden or a pumpkin. To be resolved by October 31st.

         Say, guys. Does anybody else realize that the Paris Olympics are only a fortnight away? But there has hardly been any news of it in the media this time around.
         1. caucus99percenter July 13, 2024 at 9:35 am

            Dunno about other countries, but in the U.S. the qualifying trials — held in Eugene, Oregon — for the Olympic track and field team & events were all over cable TV.
         2. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 9:40 am

            I’m trying to compress a lifetime of training for the Pent-Up-Athlon event into a mere fortnight, but honestly i’ve been holding back my best moves for the games, where when on the podium, I hope to be able to repress my emotions.
         3. Jabura Basaidai July 13, 2024 at 10:17 am

            what’s an Olympics without the Russians? – disgraceful to the max –
            what exactly is “neutral” status and who wins if they get the gold?
            https://apnews.com/article/ioc-russia-paris-olympics-neutral-athletes-cdbc4f27ef45e50f4005d49ff5b29478
            1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 10:24 am

               If your athletes can’t beat theirs, you just rig the rules so that they can’t even compete or even attend. You get more medals that way. But don’t be surprised to see officials try to mess with those Russian and Belorussian athletes by flinging all sorts of accusations at them. It’s what they did in the last Winter Olympics
               1. Polar Socialist July 13, 2024 at 11:46 am

                  They already harnessed Ukrainian athletes to find “compromat” on Russian athletes: even a hint of supporting SMO in social media by a Russian will get them banned. Or supporting someone who supports SMO. Or having relatives fighting in SMO. Or pretty much anything.

                  Way back when Carl Lewis admitted he was doped up to the eyeballs while all those Russian had their medals taken away* based on very shady and self-contradictory tales of a total nobody** kinda finally turned me against the whole Olympic thing. Mrs. Socialist still bothers to watch a lot of it, but I’ve found it’s really not worth my attention anymore.

                  * to be returned (in silence) after going trough the Court of Arbitration for Sport, where actual evidence of doping/breach of conduct is required
                  ** who earned a new life in USA for his “whistle-blowing”. Just like the dude who invented the word novichok in his “exposure” of Soviet industry he had nothing to do with.
               2. Jabura Basaidai July 13, 2024 at 11:47 am

                  sadly a correct assumption – anybody know what sports the ‘neutral’ athletes are competing in?
                  “You may well see some neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus in Paris, it just won’t be in athletics,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said on Friday.
                  what part of the Olympic competition is not “athletics”??
                  1. Joker July 13, 2024 at 12:09 pm

                     Shooting?

                     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Olympic_Participants_at_the_1992_Summer_Olympics
                  2. griffen July 13, 2024 at 2:03 pm

                     I saw a Russian male cycling entry, and also for gymnastics I believe; could be more in the coming days. They can likely ban Russian golfers from competition, and granted that list might be a short one anyways!

                     Or in the newest category for breakdancing. It’s like the 80s called and demands were met. Maybe they’ll drop some wicked bass line by the Beastie Boys…”Listen all y’all this is Sabotage !”

                     It’s an Olympics year and I might care less…but I’m gonna try watching some of it. Wake me up if we have a breakthrough effort like Mary Lou had in 1984..
                  3. Howe Street July 13, 2024 at 9:52 pm

                     Athletics is Track and Field specifically.
            2. Captain Obvious July 13, 2024 at 11:10 am

               What’s an Olympics without the Russians?
               The Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics remake. I expect some Elon Musk wannabe to fly into the stadium with his brand new invention, jet pack.

               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt0E-AkoM9U
            3. ArvidMartensen July 13, 2024 at 5:12 pm

               Olympics – Just another arm of the American Empliar
            4. c_heale July 14, 2024 at 2:00 am

               I’m sure they are working on a drug scandal for the Chinese athletes too.

               I stopped watching the Olympics a long time ago. Too much politics and too many drugs.
               1. steppenwolf fetchit July 14, 2024 at 2:12 am

                  There should be an Honest Olympics . . . . a Drug Freedom Olympics.
                  An Olympics where any and every performance-enhancing drug or anything else is permitted. Let the best drug win. Drugthletics at its finest.
                  1. The Rev Kev July 14, 2024 at 2:22 am

                     It’s already happening. Too busy to look up the details at the moment but they are holding precisely that pretty soon and brought to you by our elites.
                  2. The Rev Kev July 14, 2024 at 2:40 am

                     @ steppenwolf fetchit

                     Here is a link to that “sporting” event that I was talking about-

                     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Games

                     To my shock, shock I tells ya, Peter Thiel’s name crops up.
         4. GF July 13, 2024 at 5:51 pm

            The Tour de France is having a Covid problem. I was wondering if it will spread to other athletes or affiliates of the Olympics? Does anyone know what measures are being taken for Covid at the Olympics?:
            https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/tour-de-france/2024/tour-de-france-2024-tom-pidcock-forced-to-withdraw-due-to-covid-as-virus-spreads-through-peloton_sto20017611/story.shtml
      2. timbers July 13, 2024 at 11:46 am

         So far, Trump has brilliantly remained silent. Helping keep maximum expose on Biden. Does he have new advisors, and he’s actually following advice?
         1. Screwball July 13, 2024 at 1:42 pm

            Amazing isn’t it? Especially with the material he has to work with right now. I’m guessing he will do something stupid in the not too distant future. Like pick Marco Rubio for VP. Just what he needs, another swamp creature who loves war.
      3. antidlc July 13, 2024 at 3:08 pm

         Katniss: “So, I’m guessing that the whole nominating joe biden on Zoom before the convention because he’s the overwhelming favorite thing is off now.”

         https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook/2024/07/12/can-biden-run-out-the-clock-00167908
         Can Biden run out the clock?

         Democratic National Committee members are expected to meet next Friday to determine a date to nominate Biden in a virtual roll call, which could come as soon as the end of this month, weeks before the party’s convention in Chicago, which begins on Aug. 19.

         Officially giving Biden the nomination would effectively blunt some calls for him to drop out and would send a clear message to wavering party members that it was time to put aside their concerns and get in line.
      4. flora July 13, 2024 at 5:10 pm

         Well, heh. Bernie isn’t running again. / heh

         Due Dissidence guys. utube, ~8+ minutes. / heh

         Democrat ADMITS Biden CHOSEN By Insiders To BEAT BERNIE, NOT TRUMP

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzik2xo9i9M
10. Carla July 13, 2024 at 8:17 am

    I happen to be a fan of Bubbies Kosher Dill Pickles. They are sold in the refrigerated deli case and have always been expensive. In 2021 they were $9.99 a quart. Sometime that year or early in ’22 they went to $10.99 a quart. In ’23, they skipped a buck and the price jumped to $12.99 a quart.

    A couple of weeks ago, I was amused and pleased to see that they are once again selling for $9.99. Apparently the rich dogs didn’t like the price of the dog food.
    1. albrt July 13, 2024 at 9:34 am

       Check whether the contents of the jar has changed. Clif Bars recently lowered their shelf price for the same size box. Except the box has five in it now instead of six.
       1. Carla July 13, 2024 at 11:06 pm

          Still 33 ounces. That’s right, not 32, but 33.
          1. steppenwolf fetchit July 14, 2024 at 2:14 am

             No less pickles, no more juice?
             1. caucus99percenter July 14, 2024 at 4:54 am

                In Germany, when something is immersed in juice, syrup, brine, etc., food labelling regulations also require clear indication of the “Abtropfgewicht” (the drained weight).
    2. Carolinian July 13, 2024 at 10:01 am

       Re that WaPo article–not only are customers buying house brands at Aldi and Lidl (leading a very mindful Walmart to offer more of them)but these store brands are often better than the long standing name versions. You just need to know at what store to buy what.

       I know that Aldi has a rep for carefully choosing its vendors with the more recent (around here) Lidl perhaps a bit less reliable. Many times though all three stores seem to be offering the same product in different packaging.

       An investigation of how our manufactured food chain works might make an interesting NC article!
11. griffen July 13, 2024 at 8:26 am

    Comments on whether Biden continues on in his election campaign, well the drum beat will roll until November it seems. Hard to find agreement with Matthews ( tingles in his leg ) on much but surely he’s correct; Joe is gonna do Joe based on his companionship with Jill. Politics is the man’s life work after all, any nonsense about “loving his family” notwithstanding.

    Joe is gonna tell any of Obama’s Hollywood, or celebrity elite pals, politely but they can go straight to hell.
    1. Randall Flagg July 13, 2024 at 8:36 am

       Or Biden will just challenge them to do push ups or something to prove his fitness.

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oJjWpaHC2A

       Brings new meaning to just being an asshole. Even if trying to be fair the questioner may have had it coming.
    2. Neutrino July 13, 2024 at 9:12 am

       Potential silver lining: retirements of commentators and pundits, with or without book deals.
       Given the egos involved and the access to, well, to the anointed, the brunch hosts, the inner circle jerks.
       Looking forward to a new crop not yet saturated with the swamp gas.
       1. jm July 13, 2024 at 10:32 am

          Not likely to be an improvement. As Chomsky once noted while being interviewed by a denizen of the MSM, these people gain and keep their positions precisely because of the things they won’t say and the questions they won’t ask.
    3. Dr. John Carpenter July 13, 2024 at 10:59 am

       I don’t think he knows how to do politely. And the best part is, they’re going to have to take it, unless they can convince someone in his tight inner circle to give him the Epstein treatment (or if nature decides to do the Dems a solid.)
       1. ArvidMartensen July 13, 2024 at 5:17 pm

          They have ways but it would take some planning to get past the praetorian guard at the WH (aka Jill)

          But they have learnt a lot since the messy debacle of JFK, which needed much too much tidying up after the event.
    4. Jason Boxman July 13, 2024 at 11:15 am

       Yeah, I don’t get this liberal Democrat freakout at all.

       This is the guy that they wanted. The farce primary process ensured this.

       And now a bunch of self important hacks in various factions are all beating their chests, about Biden’s future as the nominee, when simple ballot logistics dictate that Biden is the guy. Full stop.

       All that matters is what a few “undecided” voters in a few swing states think, and the rest is irrelevant.

       So instead of doubling down on Biden, factions of the Democrat Party are melting down. Talk about lack of executive function. These people really seem to believe in the Magic Pony Theory of electoral politics, that they’re gonna get a “do over” on this at this late a date in the campaign cycle.

       You’ve got to be kidding me.

       These are our elite, everyone! Small wonder that they believe in Magic Pony solution to Climate as well.
       1. Lou Anton July 13, 2024 at 12:12 pm

          Nothing more the PMCs hate than being embarrassed. Biden’s public flubs are embarrassing to them, and that’s what they’re compensating for.
       2. griffen July 13, 2024 at 1:48 pm

          Fwiw, the link today to the newest location for Nate Silver projections as things currently sit is worth a quick review. Thankfully to him, the site gives you a sufficient preview of the national election in swing states just before reaching a paywall section. If I want more of the details I’ll gladly pay up, just not there yet.

          Trump ahead in a few more swing states, which he directly admits the Rasmussen poll tends to weight towards the R candidate in prior election polling. I’d be interested in how he weights these polling outcomes and how often they’ll be refreshing the projections.

          Keep refreshments and beverage choices on hand… interesting to say the least.
          1. albrt July 13, 2024 at 4:39 pm

             Silver’s commentary has been on fire lately in my opinion. He’s much less restrained than he was when he worked for the lamestream outlets.
12. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 8:29 am

    Been listening to lingering far away thunder & accompanying lightning strikes in the wee hours up in the back of beyond and that ain’t no bueno as these are served dry on a baked platter.

    https://www.kqed.org/science/1993613/california-on-fire-watch-this-weekend-with-dry-lightning-over-sierra-nevada
    1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 8:37 am

       Not as bad as living on a flood plain but still….
       1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 9:46 am

          Noah good plumber?
          1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 9:50 am

             Some plumbers may arc up about such a job.
13. Expat2uruguay July 13, 2024 at 8:45 am

    Wait, is the nasal vaccine an mRNA vaccine? I skimmed the article but I might have missed it. The underlying study says uses a MPV/S-2P, which it says is alive attenuated Murine virus, but I don’t know what that means either.
    1. Jim Thomson July 13, 2024 at 10:07 am

       yes, the virus carries the nucleic for the spike protein. So it is a similar mechanism to the mrna vaccines. The spike protein is produced by our own cells after they take up the nucleic acid. the details are different but the general mechanism is the same.
       It is not just the spike protein itself in the vaccine.
       1. Verifyfirst July 13, 2024 at 1:17 pm

          I clicked through to the clinical trials site, which says this (and no I don’t know what it means):

          A live murine pneumonia virus (MPV) vector expressing an additional SARS-CoV-2 S-protein, stabilized in its prefusion form, is being tested for its efficacy in protecting against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
          1. marku52 July 13, 2024 at 3:52 pm

             Spike is known to be toxic. Why the H are they using spike and not nucleocapsid or some other less toxic part of the virus as the antigen?
          2. Dr. Nod July 13, 2024 at 10:34 pm

             Murine pneumonia virus is a mouse RNA virus. The RNA encodes (among other things) a modified version of the spike protein that stabilizes it in a particular configuration. As far as I know, the spike protein produced by vaccines is never in the native configuration. If you spray it into your nose, it will infect cells which will then express the modified spike protein resulting in an immune response. It is unlikely that the vaccine could be boosted effectively because the initial infection would result in a strong antibody response against the virus proteins which would prevent or attenuate subsequent infections. One might be able to get some response after a few months.
          3. Dr. Nod July 13, 2024 at 10:51 pm

             Antibodies against the nucleocapsid protein are non-neutralizing (i.e. they do not prevent infection by the SARS-CoV2 virus). However, they do reduce reproduction of the virus and should reduce the severity of infection. It would probably be a good idea to produce a vaccine that provoked an immune response against both the spike and nucleocapsid protein. It would likely be more effective than vaccines against the spike protein alone and might retain more effectiveness as the virus mutates.
    2. Jason Boxman July 13, 2024 at 11:19 am

       From what I saw this pulls a J&L with a virus to deliver the payload. That went so well last time, so why not try again? I can’t get excited about the “live virus” delivery mechanism. If it isn’t a sterilizing result, this is gonna be a one and done and we’re nowhere still. I don’t see how you can get “live virus” again and again, unless they can easily swap the virus every time so you can get additional doses if required.

       Shame the NIH blew a billion dollars on graft rather than using that money to fund lots of different nasal vaccine attempts, since they chose not to use it for serious long-COVID research. I can only imagine some people got some really nice houses and cars out of the graft, though.
       1. Procopius July 15, 2024 at 9:02 am

          So Public Health has become just like the military industrial complex. A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.
    3. Expat2uruguay July 13, 2024 at 3:10 pm

       Aren’t other countries also testing nasal vaccines? I thought there was one that was using dead virus… Does anybody remember something like that?
       1. Dr. Nod July 13, 2024 at 10:35 pm

          The Chinese vaccines that have been used extensively are dead virus.
14. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 8:46 am

    I’ve taken to bringing a metal cup on my forays to Home Depot, to rattle against the cages of an awful lot of stuff behind lock & key, in hopes that an employee will hear my plea, and present a key to allow me to point to something and if I desire it, said employee will walk with the goods to a cashier-lest I purloin it en route.

    Every HD employee I ask about shoplifting tells me the same thing, it’s bad!
    1. Carolinian July 13, 2024 at 9:48 am

       Funny. These days it’s the products that are in jail and the “screws” walk around with a ring of keys to liberate them when a customer comes up with the bail money. Also our president is aging backwards.

       Lewis Carroll was ahead of his time.
       1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 9:57 am

          This is what a low trust society looks like. But since economists could not put a price on trust, they held it to be of no value.
          1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 10:02 am

             Around the turn of the century about the only thing you’d see behind locked glass was razor blades, as merchants wanted to slit their risks.
             1. Carolinian July 13, 2024 at 10:57 am

                In the movies experienced thieves are always able to pick padlocks in a few seconds suggesting the HD variety may also be taking the shopping carts for use as transportation. Then, if it’s my town, they throw the getaway car into the local creek (no really but not so much since they built a trail along it).

                Either that or the movies are making stuff up.
                1. Captain Obvious July 13, 2024 at 11:19 am

                   In the movies experienced thieves are always able to pick padlocks, on Youtube it’s the lawyer.

                   https://www.youtube.com/@lockpickinglawyer

                   If you want to be dissapointed in your brand new lock, just search on Youtube for someone picking it in seconds.
                   1. marku52 July 13, 2024 at 3:54 pm

                      Mine they didn’t even bother to pick. Just cut if off with a bolt cutter.

                      Bye Bye trailer.
15. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 8:58 am

    ‘Deep Barot
    @deepbarot
    JUST IN: The US has entered a new “great game” with China with President Biden just signing Tibet Resolution Act. Will be interesting to see Chinese reaction, they clearly do not recognize the current Dalai Lama as legitimate nor they wish for Tibet to be a “Autonomous region.”’

    This is Washington saying what one of the main things that they will be attacking China on by next year. As China neither recognizes the Dalai Lama or a Tibeten Autonomous region, it will be a one sided negotiation. That is until Washington ramps up the sanctions on China until they agree to negotiate – with them acting as the neutral arbitrator like they do in Israel. I note that Tibet borders Myanmar (Burma), India, Bhutan, and Nepal so there would be plenty of ways to slip in equipment, fighters and whatever with Myanmar being the most likely staging post. Fun times ahead.

    I got an idea. So maybe China should contact Mexico and say that they want to talk about the Mexican Autonomous Regions of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming lost back in 1848. Say that they want to see this issue resolved and the Chinese National People’s Congress have just passed the Mexico-US Dispute Act which will include demanding that the human rights of those Mexicans in the US in those regions be protected and supporting efforts to preserve their distinct linguistic, cultural and religious heritage. But China still recognizes the Mexican Autonomous Regions being part of the US. Think Washington will go for it?
    1. caucus99percenter July 13, 2024 at 9:27 am

       More to the point, all the BRICS countries could start foregrounding the decolonization of Hawaii in every possible medium and forum.

       https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/struggle-hawaiian-sovereignty-introduction

       https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hawaiian+sovereignty&ia=web
    2. ilsm July 13, 2024 at 10:29 am

       Gaza
    3. Randall Flagg July 13, 2024 at 11:00 am

       >This is Washington saying what one of the main things that they will be attacking China on by next year.

       Right now the only thing Washington attacks and achieves success 100% of the time is common sense…
       just my humble opinion.
    4. Captain Obvious July 13, 2024 at 11:24 am

       In order for Myanmar to be the staging post, they would need to take control if it first. As you may have seen from the news here, the “Liberation Army of Myanmar” have been struggling a bit.
    5. neutrino23 July 13, 2024 at 1:43 pm

       Awesome, and Poland could start making noises about reclaiming territory lost in previous wars of conquest. And Ukraine could retake Crimea. And Japan could retake the Sakhalin islands.
    6. CA July 13, 2024 at 2:56 pm

       https://x.com/Jingjing_Li/status/1812113709688377827

       Li Jingjing 李菁菁 @Jingjing_Li

       The U.S. still talks about human rights in Tibet (Xizang)?
        
       Well … here are some shocking changes in #Tibet that they may want to know! 

       (An explainer video I did last year.)

       https://x.com/i/status/1812113709688377827

       9:15 AM · Jul 13, 2024
       1. c_heale July 14, 2024 at 2:06 am

          The US talks about human rights in other countries but is actually completely opposed to them.
16. VTDigger July 13, 2024 at 9:10 am

    I see, so it’s now anti-semitic to oppose arms shipments to Israel….
    1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 9:20 am

       It’s now antisemitic to oppose the policies of Israel’s Likud party much less Zionism.
       1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 9:32 am

          Anti-Semtexism!
          1. ambrit July 13, 2024 at 11:53 pm

             That’s an exclusive explose Wuk! Semtex is from Czechia. Rooting for the Home Demo Team?
             1. Wukchumni July 14, 2024 at 12:14 pm

                I really appreciate you appreciating what I thought was a quite clever gibe.
17. John July 13, 2024 at 9:16 am

    Biden this and Biden that. What you are seeing is a large steaming load of b-ll sh-t. This is not an election thundering down on us. It is a farce. It is absurd. DJT will destroy “Our Democracy” as if ‘they’ owned it. Hey,I’m a deplorable, Hillary said so and we always believe her don’t we? JRB or DJT? What changes? Either one interested in ending the censorship regime? Either one interested in telling Bibi to knock it off? Either one interested in a saner world? It is true that DJT would be insufferably noisy, but he has always been insufferably noisy … and vulgar … mustn’t forget vulgar. But JRB? I watched the so-called debate. The sit-down with what’s his name, the NATO speech … man that was a trip to fantasy land … Missed the press conference, really would have liked to have seen President Putin and Vice President Trump though. I am considerably older than JRB. When I cannot recall names in a timely fashion, it annoys the hell out of me, but to be looking at a person I know well and misname them and misname them as two persons for whom, by all indications, you have a visceral hatred(?) dislike(?) loathing(?) That boggles the mind.

    But I ramble. The farce continues. Absurdity rules the day. I go Pogo. (You may recall that Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”)
    1. jefemt July 13, 2024 at 9:58 am

       Esp after reading the FEC Jill Biden campaign money article. Rot rot and more rot. Uniparty.
       1. Alice X July 13, 2024 at 10:18 am

          Jill Stein
       2. Expat2uruguay July 13, 2024 at 11:45 am

          Joe, is that you?
    2. ilsm July 13, 2024 at 10:31 am

       This is little different than parliament backing Henry Vi/Margaret of Anjou over Richard of York!

       650 years?
       1. Revenant July 13, 2024 at 6:05 pm

          All you could want to know and more about Margaret of Anjou, first Foundress of Queens’.

          https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/visiting-the-college/history/college-facts/foundresses-and-patronesses/margaret-of-anjou

          Will Joe Biden found an Eton and a King’s College and be responsible for the loss of half the US empire?
    3. ArvidMartensen July 13, 2024 at 5:23 pm

       I maintain that because they are going with a candidate who is so obviously infirm and non-functional, then they think they have other ways of winning.

       1. Narrative/propaganda/media blackout on reality – sort of working so far, but wobbly
       2. Fall-back – computer glitch in November. Worked a treat in other countries, and with Sanders
18. Ann July 13, 2024 at 9:32 am

    Editorial in the journal “Science” : Stop H5N1 influenza in US cattle now

    https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr5866

    “Why is there not a greater sense of urgency to control these infections?”
    1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 9:35 am

       Because it would interfere with this year’s political cycle? I wish that I was kidding.
       1. Randall Flagg July 13, 2024 at 11:04 am

          Umm… Our Overlords in Big Pharma haven’t yet figured out how to make money on it with a shot that gets Federal emergency approval?
          1. Oh July 14, 2024 at 10:11 pm

             Exactly! Any drug that the Pharma markets has to have repeated use. Therefore the requirement for booster shots for any “disease”.
       2. Cassandra July 13, 2024 at 12:10 pm

          Because it would interfere with this year’s political cycle?

          The only alternative I can see is that the depopulation program is proceeding as planned. But that is crazy talk, right? Right?
       3. ArvidMartensen July 13, 2024 at 5:52 pm

          Market indifference as to whether you die or not. There’s always another one to take your place.
          Only of interest if you can make money for them.
    2. southern appalachian July 13, 2024 at 10:40 am

       Odd, isn’t it?
    3. Jason Boxman July 13, 2024 at 11:21 am

       Because markets. Go die.
19. Alice X July 13, 2024 at 9:35 am

    >The UAW’s federal monitor twice pressured the union to back off its call for Gaza ceasefire, then launched an investigation

    Barofsky told Fain he was not calling as the federal monitor, who has nearly unchecked power over the union, but merely in his personal capacity.

    A chilling piece from Ryan Grim. Barofsky and the entire cast of characters his improper action represents should go. Meanwhile the genocide carries on. Being anti-genocide is not anti-semitic. What a bizarre world that that needs to be said.
    1. Verifyfirst July 13, 2024 at 11:33 am

       I had just read this piece in the Detroit News about these same events, but no mention whatsoever of the items Grim brings up. Shocking, I know.

       UAW monitor report highlights ‘culture of fear,’ presidential oversight concerns

       https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2024/07/12/uaw-monitor-report-highlights-culture-fear-presidential-oversight-concerns/74386648007/

       It is stunning, the privilege Barofsky seems bathed in, that he ever imagined it appropriate to try to get involved in the UAW’s public political positions, an area he himself admits is not remotely in his remit as Monitor. Monitor’s have rules and regulations, and ethical conduct guidelines, governing their behavior.

       I don’t know why the UAW has not asked for his removal, especially in light of this bit:

       “On February 29, just six days after the UAW sent its letter to Barofsky complaining about his improper lobbying, Barofsky sent the UAW a sweeping demand for documents, saying he was opening an investigation into Fain over a dispute Fain had with the secretary treasurer. That letter was made public in a court filing by Barofsky this week. He also asked for “any and all emails, text messages, and instant messages” sent between Fain, his top deputies, and his lawyers, from February 12 through February 23, 2024.” That covers pretty much the exact time the UAW and Barofsky were jockeying over the ADL’s complaint about their call for a ceasefire.”

       Witch hunt much?

       The UAW needs internal reform (like just about every large American union, corporation, non-profit and government, lol), so this just damages that opportunity. It’s a great gift to the UAW, whenever they decide to play this card.
       1. Katniss Everdeen July 13, 2024 at 11:49 am

          Monitor’s have rules and regulations, and ethical conduct guidelines, governing their behavior

          How quaint.
    2. Katniss Everdeen July 13, 2024 at 11:47 am

       Might as well face facts. The “united states” has been conquered by the zionists. Constitutionally “guaranteed” freedom of speech is being erased in deference to them, and the screeching about “election interference” is openly mocked by their influence.

       At the end of his show last night, Glenn Greenwald highlighted a self-congratulatory aipac tweet from yesterday touting its american electoral “success”:

       All 90 aipac-endorsed democrats have won their primaries so far this cycle!

       Being pro-israel is good poicy and good politics.

       america is now a vassal state of israel. I halfway expect aipac to target Santa Claus next for skipping zionist kiddies. Just to see if they can pull it off.
       1. ArvidMartensen July 13, 2024 at 5:56 pm

          No, Israel is a vassal state of the oligarch class who run the West, and so is the US that has been designated as arms supplier to Israel.

          Israel is suffering from this as well although not in the same universe of suffering as the Palestinians. But Israel’s turn is now baked in, on the larger suffering front, it might just take a while longer.
20. Alice X July 13, 2024 at 9:42 am

    >Chris Matthews makes a prediction on Biden…

    He’s a blue pill purveyor. It’s the Matrix stupid!
21. tennesseewaltzer July 13, 2024 at 9:53 am

    My thanks to all who contributed to the coffee discussion a while back. Based on the recommendations I ordered an AeroPress and have been savoring my coffee now for about a week. The advertisement and recommendations are on target. The coffee this press produces is delicious, not at all bitter. The NC commentariat is the best!!
22. GramSci July 13, 2024 at 9:54 am

    A walk down memory lane with Joe

    Share this widely. I sent this to my TDS sisters.

    This was quoted yesterday on Counterpoint, but without a link. The X link to the embedded video has gone dark, so I don’t know how much longer this embedding link will live:

    https://x.com/cactus__flower_/status/1810558490223792142
    1. jefemt July 13, 2024 at 10:03 am

       Wow. Not sure about either the message, or the messenger. Not a big fan of carving but bankruptcy on student debt, either. But he was a silver – tongued devil, greying temples, swagger….

       Shakespearean tragedies are everywhere these days. Nothing new under the sun–the fault may be in our selves…
    2. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 10:05 am

       Thanks for that. I have seen other videos of Biden from this era and it is entirely in character for him for what he was saying. The only thing missing is that stage whisper of his when he says something really bad.
    3. Alice X July 13, 2024 at 10:05 am

       The other night Greenwald did an entire segment on Creepy Joe. I remember much of that well having watched C-Span incessantly in the 90’s, until I couldn’t stand it any more. I wasn’t going to vote for statusquObama even before he picked Joe for Veep*, but it was cringe worthy by itself.

       Is Joe Biden a “Good and Decent Man”?

       *the Elites picked Joe.
       1. GramSci July 13, 2024 at 11:03 am

          And thanks for that, Alice!
23. ilsm July 13, 2024 at 10:05 am

    Biden agonistas!

    I am seeing Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou!
    1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 10:08 am

       I am seeing Willy & Linda Loman, and their good for nothing son Biff.
       1. ilsm July 13, 2024 at 10:33 am

          ThanX!!

          Big smile on that one.
24. Pat July 13, 2024 at 10:19 am

    I may be the only person who appreciates the ATT hack. I have spent the last several years refusing to give a regular mobile number for two step verification aka security theater. It has meant either convincing them to use a google voice number I use for that alone or that they have to use an email or a landline The extent of the hack blew the cover off that front, it is no more secure than the methods I will do (well except for Google or Yahoo spying as per usual) they just come with less texts, notifications and intrusions.
25. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 10:20 am

    When Joe was a toddler during WW2, he would dig to Tibet.
26. Barnes July 13, 2024 at 10:42 am

    So much for Jill Stein…
    1. John Anthony La Pietra July 16, 2024 at 12:08 am

       Could you please elaborate on this extra-terse comment?
27. ChrisFromGA July 13, 2024 at 10:43 am

    Well, well, well …. what do we have, here, McFly? An edifice wreck just handed investors a family blog sandwich!

    For example, in May, holders of a $308MM CMBS note backed by the mortgage on an office building in Manhattan were hit by losses as this building was sold for $185.9MM. Notably, this CMBS note had the highest rating (AAA), so for the first time since the Great Recession, investors were hit by losses in an AAA-rated paper. The technical default of the paper formally occurred in 2022, when Blackstone stopped paying interest payments on this mortgage. It is also interesting that Blackstone initially paid more than $600MM for this Manhattan building back in 2014. As such, its price has dropped by almost 70% since then.

    Source: Avi Gilbert, analyst for the Seeking Alpha website.
    1. Cetzer July 13, 2024 at 12:53 pm

       It’s high time for an AAAA¹ rating, that can only be issued by natural persons, that have at least one pound of flesh in the game and it must be a matter of the heart for them.

       ¹Detractors call it: Four Aces in a death row
28. Victor Sciamarelli July 13, 2024 at 10:47 am

    The POTUS is, supposedly, the most important job in the world. Yet, you wouldn’t know it by looking at the top two candidates for the job.
    Then in order to understand power, compare Biden to Jerome Powell. My guess is if Powell, or any of the other six members of the Fed Board of Governors, began to behave even remotely like Biden the elites would lose their minds and insist on a replacement before the market crashes.
    Moreover, among the 12 Fed bank presidents the mandatory retirement age is 65, with an exception depending on when you were appointed, but not more than age 75.
    Besides Powell, I’d wager, Treasury Secretary, DNI, and a few other jobs would get the same attention.
    1. .human July 13, 2024 at 12:33 pm

       Conspiracy scuttlebut has it that J. Edgar, being beyond mandatory retirement age, was continuing to serve, annually, at the discretion of the Kennedy brothers. Another possible arrow in the quiver that killed them.
29. Captain Obvious July 13, 2024 at 10:50 am

    Known as ‘Tesla of Euthanasia,’ ‘Suicide Capsule’ Banned by Swiss Authorities Weeks Before First Planned Use Venture Capital Post (Paul R). If this really is a not nasty way to die, why isn’t this remarketed to the US states that still execute prisoners?

    I have seen news about ‘suicide capsule’ reappearing in media for years, probably for “shock value”. Dr. Philip Nitschke have gained infamy a while ago (by performing legal assisted suicide in Australia), though he is not as notorious as Jack Kevorkian (that was known as “Dr. Death” before this “Dr. Death”).

    Funny (or unfunny) thing is that Switzerland is already well known for “death tourism”, thogh the method commonly used is lethal drugs. It is a legit business there. This stinks of choking the competition.

    This really is a not nasty way to die (if done properly, of course). It is not used for executeing prisoners, because executeing prisoners is a political matter first and foremost. Electric chair is a nasty way to die, and still it replaced hanging (which is less nasty, if done properly).

    P.S. If anyone is interested in this taboo stuff, I would recommend a BBC documentary with late Terry Pratchett (Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die).
30. Tom Stone July 13, 2024 at 10:55 am

    I have had to deal with people who had advanced dementia and when they reached the stage Genocide Joe appears to be at there was nothing left but reflexes and anger.
    The fact that he has brought Hunter, “The Smartest Man I know” into his inner circle of advisors is not reassuring,Crackheads and Alcoholics are not known for self restraint or good judgement at the best of times and Hunter is under a lot of stress.
    There’s the Felony Gun conviction, there’s the upcoming felony tax trial, there’s the criminal perjury referral and in the background there are the potential FARA charges.
    He also has $6,500,000 in unsecured debt to Kevin Morris who might be getting concerned about the ability of an unemployed felon to pay him.
    Hunter needs a pardon and so does brother James…
    However they are dealing with Genocide Joe and have to walk on eggshells while trying to get a Man who is unreasonable during his lucid periods to do something he has promised not to do.
    i expect we’ll see increasing drama until the end…which hopefully won’t be Nuclear Armageddon.
    Since someone IS always “That Stupid” I won’t be buying any green bananas for a while.
    1. Pat July 13, 2024 at 12:14 pm

       I’m going to add in there that they probably also figure Ashley and especially Jill need pardons as well and not just for conspiracy to subvert an election. If reports of the business records are correct, taking this to the end would include them in profiting from Hunter’s selling his father’s influence.
    2. Cetzer July 13, 2024 at 12:17 pm

       “walk on eggshells […] green bananas”
       As I was informed by my always reliable sources in the White House, Joe Biden has ordered all green bananas to be confiscated and their carriers¹ to be executed, because their peels are so slippery², he feels dangerously dizzy when seeing or smelling them. His son Hunter disagrees:
       The wills above be done, but I would fain die a broken neck’s death

       ¹Even when they allegedly bring the insidious bio-weapons as a present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beware_of_Greeks_bearing_gifts
       ²Used by hitmen all over the world when told: Make it look like an accident
31. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 10:58 am

    “As fears mount of an Israel-Lebanon war, Hezbollah’s arsenal looms large”

    This is like something out of a schoolyard where you have a smaller kid saying that he is going up to a big kid to punch his lights out – while depending on his friends to hold him back so that he does not get hurt. I really think that the Israelis are pushing for the US to go in an help with an invasion of Lebanon as they know that they can’t do it. But Israel’s “friends” – the US and the EU – are holding them back as they know how it will end.
32. Useless Eater July 13, 2024 at 11:03 am

    I’m a little confused by the Baldwin dismissal. The ammunition question seems to me beside the point. As I understand what happened, Baldwin’s pointing the weapon at someone and pulling the trigger was him just horsing around, it was not in the script or being filmed as part of a “scene,” it was him behaving recklessly between scenes. Which should (if I understand the law) open him up to a manslaughter charge regardless of what ammo was in the gun or how it got there.
    1. Cetzer July 13, 2024 at 11:42 am

       “it was not in the script or being filmed as part of a “scene,”
       Perhaps it was for the Gag Reel. You need a lot of source material to get it (a small selection) certified as 100% spontaneous by a committee of film nerds.
    2. Pat July 13, 2024 at 11:54 am

       I will have to look into it closer but my first thought is that the ammunition issue should never have been part of this as well, especially once they through his producer position out. I admit to being a little sick today as after years of hearing the mandatory set gun safety lectures and working on sets with responsible armorers AND actors, there is far more wrong with Baldwin’s actions than the final minutes, although they are bad enough. I can list three actions from his receipt of the gun alone that were outside SAG set protocol, (one of which which would have made the tragedy impossible.) He killed that woman, maybe not intentionally but certainly through his own negligence as much as the negligence of both the producers and the armorer.
       I may be too conspiracy minded, but between his reaction when the case was thrown out to the inclusion of questionable evidence with discovery issues, I can’t shake the feeling that the fix was in to end this. (Baldwin is strangely detached, neither anxious or excited, and it takes him a decent number of beats to pretend to cry. If it was shock the response would be different, it is pretend.)
       I hope the Hutchins family revisit to the settlement bankrupts him.
       1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 12:44 pm

          Oddly enough, the premise for Rust was kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts, bang-bang shoot-shoot.

          In 1880s Kansas, aging outlaw Harland Rust comes out of hiding to rescue his thirteen-year-old grandson Lucas Hollister, after he is sentenced to hang for an accidental killing. Now fugitives, the pair have to outrun both Rust’s nemesis, U.S. Marshal Wood Helm, and the vicious bounty hunter Fenton “Preacher” Lang. (Wiki)
       2. Alex Cox July 13, 2024 at 1:16 pm

          Baldwin was also a producer on the film, and as such had a higher level of responsibility than a cast member. This is something the civil suits will presumably address.
       3. Carolinian July 13, 2024 at 4:05 pm

          Way back when all this was being discussed it was shown that the revolver used could not be fired without pulling the trigger. Still you need a real bullet. From the stories in the trades it sounds like Baldwin’s worst crime was his not hiring a more expensive and competent gun crew. So he should be and no doubt will be sued as the producer of the movie.
          1. Pat July 13, 2024 at 4:36 pm

             No his worst crime was not following protocol. I mentioned three mistakes at receipt. On the sets I worked no one touched the fire arms but the armorer and the actor required to handle them in the script. He should never have accepted the gun from the AD, who should never have handled it, and that AD wouldn’t have been in any position to guarantee the condition of the gun. But it goes beyond that. The armorer isn’t just supposed to tell the actor about the gun, but to show them. As this was a revolver that means opening it and showing that the chambers are empty. If they don’t the actor is supposed to ask them to do it. ((And If blanks are being used they should be clearly marked in some visible manner.) Finally the gun is supposed to be fired into the ground in front of the actor to confirm that gun is empty. And yes, the actor can and should request it be done.
             While he shouldn’t have been playing with the gun, if he had taken the less than five minutes to have that done, there would have been a big dust up when the bullet hit the ground, but it never would have fired during the lighting set up. And I can guarantee you that unless Baldwin was in a pissy mood a minimum of five minutes of stupid chat took place as everyone got settled on set. There was time to do it, it wasn’t too much to ask.
             As I keep saying he didn’t do what should have been SOP for an actor experienced with set protocol for firearms, which he is. It wasn’t just the bad armorer at fault.
             1. Carolinian July 13, 2024 at 6:03 pm

                I’m trying to think of roles where he handled a gun and not coming up with much. Presumably the pitch for Rust included the casting against type since he’s typically the actor who doesn’t carry a gun much less appear in Westerns. Meanwhile I don’t recall John Landis going to jail for getting Vince Edwards killed and Lana Turner once killed her lover with a kitchen knife and got off by pretending her underage daughter did it.

                So Hollywood standards of morality and responsibilty are flexible starting with the fact that so much of their product revolves around guns.

                Baldwin will never live this down but he presumably will do it outside of prison. Because he isn’t an O.J. there may be a lot more self punishment going on than we know about.
                1. Pat July 13, 2024 at 7:40 pm

                   Even if you do not handle a fire arm yourself, I never did, and you are on a set with them you get the fire arm safety lecture which outlines everything. But as for handling a gun he did a lot of it early on, Miami Blues, Married to the Mob, the Getaway off the top of my head. I can’t remember if his Jack Ryan ever did the hand it back rejecting it thing. I also remember a bad one where he was once an assassin.

                   That others got away with things doesn’t make this any less a travesty.
    3. .human July 13, 2024 at 1:18 pm

       Another thought; actors with gun roles should be required to complete, and pass, the states’ gun safety course.
    4. Martin Oline July 13, 2024 at 3:30 pm

       I am looking forward to the next season of Saturday Night Live when they are going to have Donald Trump on as a host. He is going to do a skit where he plays Alec Baldwin who says “I can shoot somebody on a movie set and not lose any producers’ backing.” /s
    5. brian wilder July 13, 2024 at 5:37 pm

       I read about the incident closely when it happened.

       Did the story change that radically on the way to trial?

       The early tale was that they were filming, which was why the director was positioned where she was. There was also in the early telling an on set assistant with a bad reputation in the industry who handed Baldwin the gun and called, “cold” or whatever the term is for a gun that is not-loaded and has been checked to confirm same.

       The on-set assistant seemed to be the designated bad guy, who undermined the inexperienced armorer.

       A lot has to go wrong to get a hot gun with a real bullet pointing at the director. Except for some vague handwaving at skimping on budget, I never got what was compelling about the case for blaming the actor/producer. As for the judge throwing out the case, any other ammunition on set would have been evidence with regard to theories for why a real bullet was uncontrolled on set, or even on set to begin with. Easy to see why that mattered.
33. DJG, Reality Czar July 13, 2024 at 12:29 pm

    Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams, brought to film by Richard Brooks.

    A whole system of mendacity.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ncFrg9afa8

    Writers used to write things like this, knocking the walls down on stage and making the heavens burst open on film. Now writers quote Mary Oliver and Anne Lamott so as to offer advice on dealing with one’s “addictions.”

    In scrolling through the articles today, what struck me forcefully is that the self-absorbed / self-righteous geniuses of Washington, DC, and Wall Street are now promoting war on three fronts. There’s a proxy war in Ukraine, with up to a million casualties on the Ukrainian side alone, including estimates of up to 300,000 dead soldiers. The latest estimate of 186,000 dead and wounded in Gaza from the Lancet seems logical, given that Ralph Nader was already trying three months ago to raise the estimate to 100,000. Now, the grifters and poltroons and uni-party résumé-padders want a war with China.

    Those looking for Roman Empire references should note that war on two fronts was a factor in the decline–the Parthian wars and the wars in the north against the German barbarians.

    I say: Send them to the trenches. Hillary Clinton, Blinken, Sulivan, Stoltenberg, Baerbock, Mother Ursula — all to the trenches. At a minimum, they should sit for a few months in muck with water up to their calves. To receive their just desserts, they should be sent back to their respective countries as ground chuck in cheap coffins.

    Neither Biden nor Trump, not even nostalgia-addled RFKJr. Voting for any of these is suicidal.
34. ChrisFromGA July 13, 2024 at 12:29 pm

    Scene: somewhere in a smoke-filled back room, Chicago, IL.
    Date: August 19
    Characters: Jill, Hunter, Joe, big-name donors to the Democratic Party

    Come in here, Dear Joe, have a cigar
    You’re gonna go far
    You’re gonna fly high, you’re never gonna die,
    You’re gonna make it four more months, they’re gonna love you

    i’ve always had the deepest respect, I mean that most sincerely
    Your brand is just fantastic, that is really what I think,
    Oh by the way, what’s that stink?

    And did we tell you the name of the game, Joe?
    We call it pumpin’ meds to your brain-ain-ay-ay-ayn

    We’re just knocked out!
    We heard about the presser
    You gotta get some rest, now
    You owe it to the people, take a holiday in Curacao

    Kamala and Hills are just green
    Have you seen the polls?
    It’s a helluva start, it could be made into a monster
    If we all pull together as a Donkey team

    And did we tell you the name of the game, Joe?
    We call it pumpin’ meds to your brain-ain-ay-ay-ayn

    Melody:

    Have a Cigar, Pink Floyd
35. more news July 13, 2024 at 1:13 pm

    Polish Air Force M-346 Demo Aircraft Crashes in Gdynia
    https://theaviationist.com/2024/07/12/polish-air-force-m-346-demo-aircraft-crashes-in-gdynia/
36. Jeremy Grimm July 13, 2024 at 2:04 pm

    RE: “Operation DAWN” Scott Ritter
    I can understand Ritter concern about nuclear war but once he rules out throwing a vote away on a third party “an I or a G” candidate I wonder who between Biden and Trump might stop the neocon insanity driving toward nuclear war.

    “Make your vote about the one issue which is literally life and death—preventing a nuclear war by promoting peace.”

    Great idea! I would also like to stop the many ongoing wars the u.s. is supporting and u.s. war-mongering in efforts to start new wars. How are we supposed to vote to prevent a nuclear war and promote peace?
    1. matt July 13, 2024 at 6:51 pm

       The stuff going on in Ukraine has definitely been spooking me. All those attacks on nuclear detection infrastructure plus sending over nuclear capable missiles… it’s scary stuff. And the average voter votes based on domestic policy and not international. So I dont know if Ritter’s plan will work. But at the very least, I hope the anti nuclear messaging gets more media attention.
37. antidlc July 13, 2024 at 2:08 pm

    NY Times Opinion

    https://archive.ph/sCMT5
    Bernie Sanders: Joe Biden for President
    1. ChrisFromGA July 13, 2024 at 2:21 pm

       It was hard to read that and not put a fist through my laptop screen.

       Sanders calls Joe “the most effective President of modern times” yet concedes at the end that Billionaires rule us, the ACA is horse apples, and we’re sponsoring Genocide.

       I guess he’s effective at turning the clock back to the time of Nero and Caligula?
       1. Screwball July 13, 2024 at 3:10 pm

          What politicians do best is disappoint us. Bernie is no exception.

          Why do we keep making the same mistake to begin with? It should be obvious by now.
          1. Joker July 13, 2024 at 4:23 pm

             Because lies are sweet, and truth is bitter.
    2. farmboy July 13, 2024 at 3:21 pm

       Jeff Stein
       @JStein_WaPo
       Scoop: In WH mtg, Sanders pressed top aides for Biden to outline 100-day agenda for working class – including medical debt forgiveness

       Sanders & AOC threw Biden huge political lifeline, want progressive agenda at center of campaign

       See Biden as best chance for their policies — & policies as Biden’s best way out

       https://washingtonpost.com/business/2024/07/13/biden-sanders-aoc-liberal-lifeline/
       1. Pat July 13, 2024 at 4:45 pm

          I still have a lingering fondness for Bernie, but honestly he should know by now that any such promises will be null and void before the Inaugural balls start.
          It is more naive than Charlie Brown trusting Lucy with the football. He might think it is worth the gamble but it isn’t.
          1. .Tom July 14, 2024 at 4:15 am

             You didn’t give away your leverage and then ask for something. He’s not a political novice and not an idiot so these didn’t explain why he behaves like a political idiot. I wonder if Whitney Webb is right and it’s because they have dirt on everyone.
    3. Jason Boxman July 13, 2024 at 4:29 pm

       I’ve come to loathe Sanders.
       1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 7:07 pm

          He’s an empty parka…
       2. John Wright July 13, 2024 at 11:16 pm

          Bernie should have written a short ambiguous endorsement:

          “I can’t say enough good things about Joe Biden”
38. ChrisFromGA July 13, 2024 at 2:19 pm

    Meanwhile, back at the Genocide Ranch:

    At least 71 Palestinians killed in Israeli strike targeting Hamas military chief
39. flora July 13, 2024 at 2:38 pm

    re: Gaza. A tiny landmass 5miles by 20-25 miles. Gaza is a 15-minute city, imo. 15-minute cities are not my friend, imo. / ;)
    1. converger July 13, 2024 at 5:11 pm

       We are coming up on the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, another example of desperate urban resistance to a brutal, genocidal force in the rubble of a shattered city, while the world sits by and watches.
       1. flora July 13, 2024 at 5:15 pm

          Word.
       2. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 5:15 pm

          We are also in the midst of the 80th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Conference…
          1. flora July 13, 2024 at 5:23 pm

             And your point about the US dollar is? / ;)
             1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 5:25 pm

                The fourth turning has provided many a game changer in matters of war and finance in the USA…
                1. flora July 13, 2024 at 6:28 pm

                   Ah, the fourth turning. Indeed, a benchmark for some. Though not for all, me thinks. / ;)
                   1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 6:44 pm

                      Play along…

                      1781: Yorktown
                      1861: Fort Sumpter
                      1941: Pearl Harbor

                      1837: Panic
                      1917: U.S. entry in WW1

                      1893: Panic
                      1971: Panic

                      1907: Panic
                      1987: Panic

                      1929: Panic
                      2008: Panic
                      1. Cassandra July 13, 2024 at 6:50 pm

                         Are you thinking of Aug 6, 1945, Wuk?
                         1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 6:54 pm

                            Well, it works with Appomattox most definitely in terms of ends of war.

                            …I hope it doesn’t match with 2025 going forward
                      2. Mikel July 13, 2024 at 11:17 pm

                         1873 Panic and 1853 Panic. Why omitted?
                         1873 had the nickname of the “long depression>’
       3. caucus99percenter July 13, 2024 at 5:38 pm

          To top things off, German political and cultural elites are taking the nauseating position that for them not to back genocide of the Palestinians now, 110%, would be to show a lack of contrition for their grandfathers’ generation’s genocidal acts then.
40. Tommy S July 13, 2024 at 2:59 pm

    Another thing I want to thank NC for, is your honest and sober views of climate change. I can’t count how many garbage big green group articles I’ve read in four years about Biden ‘doing good’…let alone Solnit…and others’ obfuscation. Willows…oil leases in the gulf….over 8 LNG export projects (Pause was only on ‘new’ which some big green groups called a victory! Deluding people into meaning ‘all’. ). No real mass transit funding…no dense urban housing funding….really…just absolutely ….let it rip. The site is a wealth of around the world facts. Thanks.
41. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 3:06 pm

    We slip into the highest double figures in the middle of the next week after a torrid stretch where it was nearly 110 every day-with lows in the 80’s, the longest span yours truly has ever experienced of such ferocity in Cali.

    On a number of oak trees, the leaves are turning goldenrod in the middle of July!

    They apparently didn’t have a nicely air conditioned house to hide out in…
42. Whitney July 13, 2024 at 3:07 pm

    The energy density of diesel is 27 times greater then current lithium batteries.
43. ProNewerDeal July 13, 2024 at 4:19 pm

    is there any nasal COVID vaccine in development that potentially produces sterilizing immunity?

    Or will the nasal COVID vaccine be at best an improved version of the currently available vaccines that offer Limited & Temporary (6 month?) protection againt acute COVID & Long COVID?
44. Mikel July 13, 2024 at 4:26 pm

    “Elon Musk’s X platform in breach of EU rules” DW

    “…In the third preliminary finding, the Commission said X “fails to provide access to its public data to researchers,” which it added is required by the DSA.

    “In particular, X prohibits eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data, such as by scraping, as stated in its terms of service,” the Commission said…

    Speaking of transparency, exactly who are the “researchers”? And why is a social media platform treated like the only (and even an ideal place) to store “public data?”
    What does a detailed breakdown of what these people consider all important “public data” look like?
    1. JustTheFacts July 13, 2024 at 4:39 pm

       NATO’s censorship cells & other governmental agencies.
    2. caucus99percenter July 13, 2024 at 4:40 pm

       Probably harassment (lawfare) because X under Musk won’t “play ball” with the EU Ministry of Truth and their directives for secret censorship and penalization of wrongthink.
45. Martin Oline July 13, 2024 at 4:44 pm

    I listened to the last half of this interview with Mike Benz late last night. It was nearly 1 1/2 hours. I found it so interesting that I went back this afternoon to listen to the whole thing. The viewing bar is divided into about twelve subjects for those with better things to do. It’s the weekend, what else do I have to do? I can’t dance and it’s too wet to plow. Mike Benz interview
46. Expat2uruguay July 13, 2024 at 4:44 pm

    Candidate for the best 1 minute of America this Week with Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn:

    1:19:28
    https://youtu.be/zpOmEGIooHk

    Please vote!! Other candidates?
47. katiebird July 13, 2024 at 6:29 pm

    Trump was just shot at. Looked to me like it clipped his ear (he grabbed it) and his cheek was red. The Secret Service hustled him off.

    No one is saying he was hit but his face and ear looked bloody to me.
    1. Jonathan Holland Becnel July 13, 2024 at 6:42 pm

       Glad Trump survived.

       To my shame, my first thought was an inside job by the Trump Campaign because of the cleanness of the shot on the ear and it being Pennsylvania.

       Can’t just let the people vote!
       1. matt July 13, 2024 at 7:22 pm

          my dad and i wondered the same thing. it could be an interesting strategic move to yknow, rally the troops, divide the nation more, paint himself as a victim. trump’s whole thing was being an outsider, the mainstream doesn’t want him there because he drains the swamp, and being shot at on the camapign trail could contribute to that narrative.
          or maybe it’s a biden fanatic, or someone super worried about project 2025, or maybe it’s just a crazy person. we’ll find out eventually. see how the media spins it as well.
          1. JTMcPhee July 13, 2024 at 8:12 pm

             We’ll find out eventually? In the US of Manufactured Consent and Trilling Mockingbirds? We WILL get a generous helping of Narrative Spin, pick your fave flavor, under a heaping ladleful of Bernays Sauce.

             Hmmm, suddenly it appears that the Saudis, who are taking the petro bit in their teeth, actually WERE deeply involved in 9/11… who would have believed?
          2. Mark Gisleson July 13, 2024 at 8:14 pm

             I think Trump reacted like someone who’s already given a great deal of thought to the possibility of being assassinated. He looks like he rose to the occasion with that fist pump but if you think of him as a loathesome narcissist this will simply feed into his sense of his own importance.

             From a PR POV, all that was missing was some blood on his shirt.

             Thinking they leave Biden on the ticket now. If Trump starts filling football stadiums, this election’s over (you can only cheat if it’s plausible for you to win).
             1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 8:39 pm

                …a smart candidate keeps a couple of packets of ketchup on their person-in case you need a bloody photo-op
                1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 8:44 pm

                   They tried to tell Hillary that but she went with hot sauce in her handbag instead because Mother Knows Best-

                   https://time.com/4297996/hillary-clinton-hot-sauce/
                   1. Ben Joseph July 13, 2024 at 9:38 pm

                      Trump derangement symptoms. CIA knows Joe’s hosed and tried to put in a 1968 style solution
                   2. nippersdad July 13, 2024 at 10:30 pm

                      There is some logic to that. It looks like ketchup but can double as a blood thinner in those occasions where you pass out and have to be thrown into the limo like a sack of potatoes.

                      It is dual use!
                      1. Acacia July 13, 2024 at 10:48 pm

                         Lol. The “sack of potatoes” meme never gets old.
          3. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 14, 2024 at 4:08 am

             Larry Johnson has a discussion up with Nima. He explains the difficulty of making accurate shots at that distance. Wind, bullet trajectory (it goes up and then down), even the shooter’s heartbeat affect the shot affect where the bullet goes. There is no way to shoot at/near Trump’s head at any distance and be assured of grazing him, as opposed to killing him.
       2. Jason Boxman July 13, 2024 at 9:39 pm

          Liberal Democrats have been calling this guy the end of democracy for 6 years. Good job liberals
    2. Daryl July 13, 2024 at 6:47 pm

       Quite the picture he’s got here: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-rushed-off-stage-disturbance-pennsylvania-rally/story?id=111913361
       1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 6:49 pm

          Its got a little of that famous Iwo Jima flag raising photo going on…
          1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 7:23 pm

             p.s.

             Somebody clever with splicing videos together, could take the 1968 Mexico City Olympics podium activities with Tommie Smith & John Carlos-both with raised fist, and substitute out the Aussie guy who nabbed the silver medal-with Donald and raised fist.
    3. michael99 July 13, 2024 at 6:53 pm

       cspan.org home page has “Featured Clip” for replay of the incident.
    4. IM Doc July 13, 2024 at 7:19 pm

       You come for the King, you best not miss.

       I get the idea from my neighbors that the Hounds of Hell may have just been released.

       We are so in a very dark place.

       My family and I will pray for this Republic tonight.

       God Bless America
    5. JustTheFacts July 13, 2024 at 7:44 pm

       From Twitter: Shooter dead. Apparently Antifa. Apparently uploaded a video saying “justice is about to be served”. One audience member dead. One audience member in critical condition. Elon Musk endorsed Trump straight after. Supposedly Biden said it was time to put trump in a bullseye. Picture of shot suggests bullet hit above his ear. Hopefully did not enter his head
       1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 8:29 pm

          I know i’ll miss his ditties on here, and who could ever fill the void?
       2. Lefty Godot July 13, 2024 at 9:41 pm

          I refuse to believe there is a real Antifa, versus a police honeypot masquerading as that entity. I hope they can trace down all the connections of the perpetrator so we get more clarity on who’s behind this. Although, on the other hand, sometimes a lone nut is just a lone nut. But sometimes not.
          1. ChrisPacific July 13, 2024 at 10:11 pm

             There were people actually self-identifying as Antifa at the Charlottesville rally (they were the ones who pepper sprayed the demonstrators, among other things). That’s the only sighting in the wild that I can recall that seemed in any way genuine.

             If it exists, I don’t think it has any kind of central organization or structure. It’s just a symbol that people occasionally find convenient to represent either themselves or a faceless enemy.
          2. Ben Panga July 13, 2024 at 10:12 pm

             I figured people just self-identity as Antifa. It’s not like an organisation, more an agenda.
          3. rob July 13, 2024 at 10:52 pm

             I also doubt there is an “ANTIFA”…. as opposed to people who share similar views, and/or oppose similar views.
             It’s like everyone wearing a guy fawks mask…. isn’t really guy fawks.
             even if 100 groups of people ALL call themselves antifa….
             That doesn’t mean there is “an” anything.

             I don’t see why these contradictory realities can’t be happening at the same time.
    6. hk July 13, 2024 at 8:18 pm

       The analogy between Trump and Teddy Roosevelt (beyond the fact that they are both loathsome loudmouth New Yorkers) has just gotten stronger to me… (I realize Roosevelt was far more skilled a politician and intellectually accomplished, but I do think they cater to the same niche in the political ecosystem, with an analogous set of skills.) Specifically thinking about the 1912 incident when Roosevelt was shot while campaigning to return to the White House….
       1. Bugs July 14, 2024 at 4:55 am

          He was shot in Milwaukee and the speech in his pocket stopped the bullet going too far.
48. NotTimothyGeithner July 13, 2024 at 7:02 pm

    So, we are about to get gun control legislation?
    1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 7:11 pm

       You know for a country as mad about guns as the USA is, we don’t win many Olympic shooting medals, probably on account of lack of gun control.

       Movie Tip:

       Gun Crazy, Film Noir from 1950, 2 itchy trigger fingers up!
       1. rowlf July 13, 2024 at 7:46 pm

          The reason the US doesn’t always do well now in Olympic shooting events is the US farm league system is screwed up. The military teams have cut back and the civilian program is on a shoe-string. The US has a few shooters that can medal but the funding to get them to ISSF World Cup events is minimal. The US also has fewer high school and college shooting teams than in the past.

          China and India have bigger programs.
    2. Dr. John Carpenter July 13, 2024 at 7:12 pm

       I think we’re more likely to get politicians packing heat.
       1. chris July 13, 2024 at 7:29 pm

          If that also means we’re going to have politicians who train, keep in good physical condition, and learn proper gun safety so they stop hallucinating claims about firearms, I’m all for it. If we get a gold plated Trump branded .22 that says “My Little Friend is HUGE!” on the barrel, then I’ll pass.
    3. rob July 13, 2024 at 7:15 pm

       why?
       because trump got shot?

       the real world just suffered a loss;
       If a scenario where trump was shot///// and killed… and then joe biden could be called out as the mentally incapable person he has become; and not allowed to run again….
       just think how many problems that could solve. and force the hand of the powers that be to come up with a new plan…..

       DAMN!
49. VTDigger July 13, 2024 at 7:17 pm

    Hmm tomorrow is going to be interesting…

    “Shooter is down”

    So they say…
    1. chris July 13, 2024 at 7:35 pm

       From the Babylon Bee special events team, there are reports that Obama and Biden teams are working with Lin Manuel Miranda on a restating of a Man for All Seasons. Last heard in the West Wing today were lamentations of “will no donors will rid them of this turbulent Trump?”

       Kidding… maybe.
    2. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 14, 2024 at 4:11 am

       Witness/BBC interviewee said they blew his head off:

       https://x.com/RespectIsVital/status/1812284753946825054
50. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 7:31 pm

    Biden denying Secret Service protection to RFK jr earlier does not seem such a smart move now because of what could have happened.
    1. katiebird July 13, 2024 at 7:42 pm

       I totally agree. Especially now that I see the type of protection the Secret Service gives during an assassination attempt. There’s no way RFKjr’s personal security has this power.
       1. ChiGal July 13, 2024 at 9:46 pm

          It’s jarring seeing that guy in a helmet—SS or not—training his locked and loaded on the crowd…modern warfare comes to politics, I guess.
          1. CarlH July 13, 2024 at 10:20 pm

             Yes. In the after action reviews, this muzzle discipline issue will be made a point of. It will be taught in future training courses as what not to do. They can be seen painting all the spectators in their area with their muzzles. Horrible. Granted, this is a maximum adrenaline event, but their training should have had them ready for this eventuality. It could also be the angle making it appear worse than it is. On a more general level, this whole incident makes me sad. Another slide toward the abyss.
51. Blowncue July 13, 2024 at 7:40 pm

    MSNBC reporter interviewed civilian witness at the scene, civilian claims she saw State Rep and front row with blood on shirt, blood belonging to possible casualty, not the rep. Civilian stated she was told Secret Service or other sharpshooter shot and killed a shooter on a water tower.
    1. ambrit July 14, 2024 at 12:06 am

       Shooter on a tower is the sign of an amateur. Real snipers, I have read, always give themselves escape routes before acting.
52. Willow July 13, 2024 at 7:41 pm

    >Trump shooting

    @SharpFootball “this BBC interview with a guy outside the security perimeter who claims he saw the shooter before he fired is absolutely wild”
    https://x.com/SharpFootball/status/1812265909727396107
    1. Lou Anton July 13, 2024 at 7:52 pm

       Wow, thanks Willow. I’d worry that’s going to get yanked, but with 1.1 million views, plenty of people have downloaded it.
       1. Lee July 13, 2024 at 8:25 pm

          Now at 7.6 million views. Interviewee notes that there are very few rooftop vantage points that close to the venue, and asks why secret service failed to have them secured. Good question.
          1. What? No! July 13, 2024 at 9:17 pm

             Now Retweeted by Elon Musk.
             1. Ben Joseph July 13, 2024 at 9:27 pm

                CIA isn’t what it used to be
                1. Wilow July 13, 2024 at 11:04 pm

                   A teleprompter, which may not have been visible to the shooter, may have saved Trump given the bleeding is said to have been from the glass.
    2. ChrisFromGA July 13, 2024 at 9:32 pm

       The shooter appears to have been a white male. Based on the eyewitness interview on the BBC, he climbed up onto the roof of what appears to be a shed or garage structure and was out in the open, and recognized by several folks in the crowd for at least 5 minutes before the shooting.

       My hot take – Not a professional. A pro would have had a getaway plan and never taken a shot from a roof surrounded by bystanders. A suicide mission.

       However, to come that close to a headshot from that range (130m) shows good training in marksmanship, along with practice at the range, if not a more extensive military background.

       The obvious knee-jerk reaction is how could security have sucked that bad at a rally from an ex-President. As another poster said, pro-Palestinian rallies of college students get snipers on rooftops and drones flying overhead.

       Let’s see what comes out over the next 24-48 hours; the conspiracy theories are going to be epic.
       1. pjay July 13, 2024 at 9:49 pm

          Access to a raised sniper position like this within 300 yards of Trump is pretty astounding to me, especially with several witnesses apparently noticing the shooter and trying to tell the cops. Where the hell was the Secret Service? Whether incompetence or not, the MAGA folks will go nuts – probably already are.
       2. kareninca July 13, 2024 at 9:53 pm

          It sure looks like the cops and the secret service were not interested in being told about the shooter’s presence.

          And no, I have no particular interest in or opinions about the Kennedy assassination.
          1. JBird4049 July 13, 2024 at 10:20 pm

             Nothing on JFK, Malcom X, MLK, RFK, or Fred Hampton? And those are only the major assassinations, not the other lesser known activists, off the top of my head for the 1960s. How many people remember just how violent American politics can be?

             I really, really hope that we are not reverting back to that along with any more politically motivated arrests and trials of earlier decades as with Trump.

             I remember hearing a history professor saying something about the Bronze Age Collapse or perhaps a few centuries earlier likely the Assyrians when he said “then followed a few centuries more of wars, massacres, and bloodshed that are interesting to talk about only because we weren’t there to endure (or suffer) them.”
       3. hk July 13, 2024 at 10:13 pm

          The distance and how close he came makes me wonder if there is something/someone behind this–seems way too “professional” in terms of the skills to be dismissed as a riffraff. But you are right that the aftermath was not clearly prepared for.
    3. kareninca July 13, 2024 at 9:47 pm

       Oh my god. That is not good.

       I just played this for my mother via FaceTime. She found the local guy totally credible.
    4. Useless Eater July 13, 2024 at 10:30 pm

       One vaguely plausible non conspiratorial explanation is that the cops he alerted to the shooter’s presence were locals, and they assumed the shooter was a SS sniper posted on the roof, since to them also, as well as us, it would have seemed too far fetched for a shooter to be able to get up there that close. And there was at least one SS sniper on the roof behind the stage. Which doesn’t explain how the SS didn’t have that roof covered. That part seems inexplicable, as you can see from the pictures being posted there wasn’t much roof in the vicinity for them to worry about.
       1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 10:37 pm

          Here is a tweeted video showing the body of the shooter on that roof. So even alive he would have been visible from those on the ground-

          https://x.com/sentdefender/status/1812268165209928124
53. Norello July 13, 2024 at 7:54 pm

    Witnesses on BBC stated people behind trump were shot and some saw shooter with rifle on a roof minutes before shooting and were pointing and warning police and secret service, who immediately killed him with shots to head afterwards, after doing nothing for minutes.

    Sky news is reporting shooting and an audience member was killed.

    BBC seems the only source not censoring witnesses and event.
    1. Lou Anton July 13, 2024 at 8:01 pm

       yeah, that witness is in Willow’s twitter link above. Been watching the video (raw audio is interesting for the first minute too), and I can’t see anyone clearly hit (in the camera view).
54. Tom Stone July 13, 2024 at 8:01 pm

    That was a serious attempt on Trump’s life and he is very lucky to be alive.
    If you think that attack might have been staged, you have been watching too much TV, there are a few people in America who could deliberately hit his ear with a pistol if he was standing perfectly still, but the number who could do so is minute.
    1. Lou Anton July 13, 2024 at 8:05 pm

       History is made in millimeters!
    2. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 8:06 pm

       As per Willow’s link, the shooter was on a roof with a rifle, according to an eyewitness…no idea whether it was of the assault type.
       1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 8:11 pm

          You would think that the Secret Service could have used drones to make sure that all the surrounding rooftops were continuously clear. Either that or have their own shooters in place. Did somebody stuff up?
          1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 8:20 pm

             Judging from the eyewitness, he did everything he could to alert law enforcement and secret service about the shooter on the roof a few minutes before 5 shots rang out and they didn’t do anything until that.

             Prima Donald is ok-and that’s what counts, er other than a couple of dead and injured right in front of his very eyes.

             You wouldn’t want Genocide Joe to back into the White House by losing the Pachyderm Party’s only real candidate, having the same issues as the Donkey Show in that regard, and who would you replace Trump with on the ticket?
             1. Ben Joseph July 13, 2024 at 9:44 pm

                This is why this happened.
                Until proven otherwise, failed inside job.
                1. Witnesses ignored
                2. Easy to secure full perimeter
                3. Relatively ideal angle with nothing behind Trump. Injured civilians weren’t due to location but desperate follow up shots.
                1. ChrisFromGA July 13, 2024 at 10:04 pm

                   It would be good to hear from someone who is a professional shooter on the difficulty level of getting that close to Trump’s skull from 130m. I mean, 2 inches to the right and he’s dead.

                   I am a golfer and 130m is about 130 yards. So I can hit a green from 130 yards out with a seven or eight iron; visualizing the last time I played that seems a long way to make that accurate of a rifle shot. The wind comes into play. But modern tech may help. Or just random luck.

                   Plus the model of rifle may tell us something. Pro level, scope, did the shooter have a history of marksmanship?
                   1. CarlH July 13, 2024 at 10:45 pm

                      A professional shooter would not have been aiming at his head, in my opinion. Center mass is where shooters are trained to aim, unless tactics have changed drastically. But this is, of course, a trivial point in the larger picture. We have gone (been driven) mad.
                      1. LawnDart July 14, 2024 at 12:12 am

                         Body armor.
                         1. CarlH July 14, 2024 at 12:44 am

                            Good point.
                         2. sarmaT July 14, 2024 at 6:53 am

                            Body armor can not be hidden under shirt.
                            1. LawnDart July 14, 2024 at 8:33 am

                               I used to wear it under clothing all the time, for years, in hopes the concealed armor would catch a bullet that my naked head.
                            2. sarmaT July 14, 2024 at 8:43 am

                               You wore sniper bullet resistant plates under clothing, and no one noticed that you had ’em?
                            3. Wukchumni July 14, 2024 at 8:53 am

                               My LEO buddy* in Sequoia NP was the ‘Narc in the Park’ with his main effort being rooting out the Mexican drug trafficking cartels growing mota**, and the gardens were @ 2,000 to 4,000 feet and all off-trail affairs, and he’d wear 30 pounds of body armor that was pretty identifiable with his park uniform on. I couldn’t imagine wearing a full backpack worth of weight only on my person, ye gads.

                               * he was so tenacious that he earned the nickname Serpico, alienating some fern-feeler NPS employees.

                               ** marijuana is worth nothing now compared to once upon a time, so no chancy gardeners from Michoacán anymore.
                2. Ben Joseph July 13, 2024 at 10:09 pm

                   1. Biden looks weak but won’t quit.
                   2. Easily sealed perimeter yet:
                   Spectator witnesses ignored for long time
                   Angle from shooters position perfect for Trump to be only target with nothing stage left
                   Presumably panicked follow up shots hit civilians?
                   Immediate kill shot after failed mission.

                   Hard to find a sirhan, Lee Harvey or James Earl these days…
                   1. ChrisFromGA July 13, 2024 at 10:10 pm

                      The kill shot to the shooter is troubling. On the one hand, he was presumably still armed, but on the other, this is the Secret Service and they’re trained to handle taking down an armed assailant without killing them.

                      Plus the guy was surrounded with no escape route.
                      1. Ben Joseph July 14, 2024 at 1:01 am

                         I’ve tried to post Google earth view. If you look for butler farm show , just north of main street you can see the large booms which were by the stage. Agr international has maybe 5 buildings and there are 2 more at American glass off PA68. 7 rooftops and one is available?!
          2. britzklieg July 13, 2024 at 8:30 pm

             I can’t help but remember the heavily armed swat teams that were posted on the roofs of several colleges during the non-violent student protests against Israel’s (on-going) genocide.
          3. LawnDart July 13, 2024 at 8:36 pm

             They’re really not as “elite” or intelligent as one may think: the movies give them, the FBI, CIA, etc. far too much credit.

             What they do have is virtually unlimited resources, so if one actually registers on their radar (not ignored as “noise”), then one can expect to be swarmed with overwhelming attention.
             1. CarlH July 13, 2024 at 10:49 pm

                “They’re really not as “elite” or intelligent as one may think: the movies give them, the FBI, CIA, etc. far too much credit”.

                Agreed. The building up of SWAT, SS, Spec Ops, the security services, etc., into superheroes and “warriors” has troubled me for decades now. And it keeps getting worse.
       2. hk July 13, 2024 at 10:16 pm

          Probably not an “assault” rifle–not very good at sniping since they are designed for rapid burst at short ranges (Long after World War II, military snipers preferred using old fashioned bolt action rifles, as I understand). Makes you wonder what really did happen, who it was that did the shooting, and what kind of gun was involved.
          1. sarmaT July 14, 2024 at 6:44 am

             I thought that mention of the assault type.was a joke. Bolt action is what sniper rifles still use today. Semi automatic ones fall into designated marksman rifle category.
    3. Useless Eater July 13, 2024 at 10:13 pm

       If it were staged, his ear wouldn’t have been hit at all, there just would have been some kind of dye. But the dead spectators suggest not staged.

       I saw a picture on twatter in which a bullet zipping by his head is visible. Dunno if legit.
55. Lee July 13, 2024 at 8:13 pm

    NPR: Shots, half a dozen or so, possibly from a water tower outside the safety perimeter. Trump evidently grazed in the ear. Local D.A. reports suspected shooter and one other are dead.

    It strikes me as odd, given the number of shots apparently fired, that no other people in the line of fire near Trump are reported to have been struck.

    Biden sends hopes and prayers to Trump and his family. Biden campaign pulls political ads so as to not further inflame public sentiment.
56. Ann July 13, 2024 at 8:23 pm

    Did you notice the man in the ABC video just to the right of Trump (from the camera’s perspective) in the patterned shorts take a pistol out of his right pocket, check it, start to put it back into his pocket but take it out again, hold it low and check it again? Could anyone be sitting right behind Trump be allowed to have a pistol?
    1. Lou Anton July 13, 2024 at 8:33 pm

       Red MAGA hat, black t-shirt, polka dot shorts? That looks like a smartphone to me.
    2. hk July 13, 2024 at 9:14 pm

       That’s Secret Service. There are quasi-uniformed ones in suit and tie, and then there are real “secret” agents, who stand out by being too stereotypical. When Chelsea Clinton was at Stanford, we could always tell who the Secret Service people were b/c they were always wearing ridiculous amounts of Stanford gear.
57. Acacia July 13, 2024 at 8:27 pm

    My Twitter timeline is full of people speculating about an inside job, saying the security failing is too glaring.

    Meanwhile, Trump’s chances of election just shot up to ~ 70% :

    https://polymarket.com/event/presidential-election-winner-2024?tid=1720848758537
    1. kareninca July 13, 2024 at 9:57 pm

       The BBC interview is enough for me to think it was an inside job.
    2. JBird4049 July 13, 2024 at 10:02 pm

       Interesting, if Trump somehow died, then the Republican convention would be the last point that the party could nominate a different candidate, which would make the original mainstream anti Trump Republican faction happy as well as their allies in the Biden faction.

       Or it could been a particularly fervid individual. But who knows? Maybe someone in Homeland Security got a bad shot for a patsy. Aside from not wanting anyone dead, I am glad that the bullet wasn’t an inch or an inch and a half closer, or we would be in a real crisis.
    3. Carolinian July 13, 2024 at 10:25 pm

       Web graevine says Trump people had asked for more security and DHS turned them down. I’m sure we’ll hear more if true. Here’s betting RFK gets his protection now.

       Biden is an extremely petty person but the optics have changed.
58. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 8:40 pm

    Gunna make the bet that they will be blaming this shooting on Trump himself by saying that this is all a result of the lawlessness that follows him around. We’ll see how the media spins it.
    1. Lou Anton July 13, 2024 at 8:46 pm

       I don’t know…he seems untouchable to me now. There will be a lot of goodwill and sympathy for him, and I think it’ll be really hard for anyone to after him like they did pre-shooting. If he (Trump) wants to, he could have a fresh start.
       1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 8:48 pm

          …did Gerald Ford get a sympathy bump in numbers when Squeaky Fromme tried to bump him off in Sacramento?
          1. Lou Anton July 13, 2024 at 8:52 pm

             Seems a little different. She didn’t hit him (gun didn’t fire right?), and it was 14 months before the election.
             1. JBird4049 July 13, 2024 at 9:25 pm

                Also it Gerald Ford, a man who was excited far less passion than either Trump or Biden, and it was a different country.
                1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 9:34 pm

                   We parked at the ‘Ford Hall Garage’ @ the Beaver Creek ski resort…

                   Wouldn’t have sounded nearly as prestigious if it was simply called ‘Ford Underground Parking Lot’.
    2. Ben Panga July 13, 2024 at 8:56 pm

       Trump’s gonna have that fist pump image which will outweigh any spin. I dislike him greatly, but tbh had a tear in my eye watching the video of him going offstage.

       I just saw on bird site that he’s planning to attend the UFC event tonight. The roar he’ll get will be visceral to put it mildly.

       I’m so glad I no longer live in America.
       1. pjay July 13, 2024 at 9:55 pm

          That picture of a bleeding Trump with raised fist will be a MAGA tee-shirt within days. Yeah, any doubts about Trump getting elected just disappeared.
       2. ChiGal July 13, 2024 at 10:11 pm

          I have a tear in my eye because I do still live in America.
          1. Ben Panga July 13, 2024 at 10:17 pm

             There’s a whole world out there!
             1. ambrit July 14, 2024 at 12:16 am

                But almost all of it no longer wants non-wealthy Americans for longer than the dreaded ‘Three Hour Cruise.’
                Globalism means unlimited mobility for Capital, but limited mobility for Labour.
       3. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 10:16 pm

          I like to be in America!
          Eavesdrop on me in America!
          Ev’rything seen in America
          For a small peep in America!
59. Burritonomics July 13, 2024 at 8:41 pm

    Re: Trump
    Utterly predictable – this is hardly surprising, given the media’s “democracy itself is on the line!!” rhetoric.
    1. hk July 13, 2024 at 10:19 pm

       And ironic, without meaning to be ironic (if those who utter such words even understand irony), too.
    2. Jason Boxman July 13, 2024 at 10:40 pm

       I don’t doubt privately many liberal Democrats have been hoping for someone to do The Deed, as the anarchists called it, in regards to Trump, for nine whatever years now. When I was at Google Cambridge, MA the day after the upset election in 2016, a small group were talking in the cafeteria that morning, and someone said idly that maybe someone should shoot him. I found that shocking at the time. I guess someone else with the means agreed finally.

       Almost a decade of non-stop propaganda about Trump being a Nazi, and somehow also Putin’s agent (no knowledge of history, these liberal Democrats), and surprise someone finally takes a shot. I guess we’ll find out perhaps in the coming days what motivation might have been at play.

       But the constant drumbeat of Trump as a enemy of all free thinking peoples everywhere, without a doubt, is irresponsible, and liberal Democrats ought to face account at the ballot box over this. It’s degenerate. In this country, we solve things by elections, honestly done or not. Otherwise, once the killing starts, no horrors are off the table. None.

       That’s a dark place we best steer clear of.

       And I realize I probably shouldn’t care, it’s not like Trump is a great guy or anything. And he’s fortunately okay, as far as these things go. But this is a bad omen, I think, and all bets are off on what’s coming our way.
60. LawnDart July 13, 2024 at 8:46 pm

    Seems a good night to re-watch “Taxi Driver”
    1. Acacia July 13, 2024 at 9:09 pm

       “Jody Foster’s Army”
61. Amfortas the Hippie July 13, 2024 at 8:49 pm

    https://x.com/Smug_editing/status/1812254234013757682

    that image…man!
    thats teh campaign poster, right there.

    and theres slo mo:
    https://x.com/simpatico771

    and himself yelling fight, fight…lol.
    this election is frelling over.
    i’d love to be a fly on the wall in the oval office/situation room/secret lair right about now.
    1. albrt July 13, 2024 at 8:54 pm

       As Lambert says, go long volatility. There is plenty of time for multiple events crazier than this between now and November.
    2. Lou Anton July 13, 2024 at 8:56 pm

       Totally agree! If Trump has it in him to do a “time to come together” sort of campaign, he could win 400 electoral college votes.

       (He probably doesn’t have it in him)
    3. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 8:56 pm

       That image is one helluva campaign poster. It has it all. Trump bloody and defiant doing a fist pump, the Secret Service trying to protect him because of the surrounding danger and the American flag waving in the background. You couldn’t design a better image.
       1. ChiGal July 13, 2024 at 10:09 pm

          and all they had to do is drop the flag into the frame…easy peasy
    4. Ben Panga July 13, 2024 at 8:59 pm

       Fly-on-the-wall live feed:

       “should we wake him?”

       “God no, you know how he gets if you wake him early from a nap. Last time he bit that aide. Have you seen my crack pipe anywhere?”
    5. hk July 13, 2024 at 9:26 pm

       Yeah, that’s an amazing picture. Possibly, one for history books (better than many that are in the books–the Iwo Jima picture, the famous one, was staged after the fact, after all).
    6. IM Doc July 13, 2024 at 9:44 pm

       My prediction is the plans to replace Biden will immediately cease.

       Which one of these other candidates would want to face this bulldozer?

       If they lay off Biden, it will be a big tell.
       1. Lou Anton July 13, 2024 at 9:59 pm

          I think you’re absolutely right, Doc. Unless more events intervene, no one is going to step in for Biden just to get steamrolled.
          1. Wukchumni July 13, 2024 at 10:07 pm

             What if Joe Biden held off say a dozen quite determined ninjas during his next comeback press conference, and having slayed the last of them, then continued on with the speech…

             That would really amp up his take-out game, no?
    7. Dr. John Carpenter July 13, 2024 at 9:50 pm

       I know it’s past his bed time, but has anyone told Biden his vice president got shot at?
       1. Jonathan Holland Becnel July 13, 2024 at 11:06 pm

          Nice.
    8. pjay July 13, 2024 at 9:58 pm

       Yep. It’s over. The election that is. Don’t know about the chaos that might follow.
    9. Neckmann July 14, 2024 at 2:17 am

       We just witnessed – History – the blood, fist bump, and flag background ensured the next President.

       Conspiracy? Maybe. Seems the SS waited until after the shot(s).

       I am depressed by today’s events.
62. ChrisFromGA July 13, 2024 at 9:00 pm

    Glad Trump is OK. Me thinks this chases Joe’s debate woes off the front page until August.

    The shooter is dead? That’s too bad, though I wonder if he left a manifesto or some trail behind.

    Gonna be a heck of a GOP convention starting in two days.
    1. Jason Boxman July 13, 2024 at 9:45 pm

       Liberal Democrats sure piss and moan about 6 January a lot. Now we have an actual assassination attempt. Should be interesting.

       This is what regime change looks like. Way more than 6 Jan. Lol
       1. Lee July 13, 2024 at 10:29 pm

          No one on the news so far has mentioned Jan. 6. in their universal condemnation of political violence. I find this interesting and I’m not sure what to make of it.
          1. Acacia July 13, 2024 at 10:46 pm

             Heh. Some people are talking about it:

             https://x.com/MsBlaireWhite/status/1812271241233104931
    2. pjay July 13, 2024 at 10:00 pm

       Can you *imagine* Trump’s convention speech? Good Lord.
    3. chris July 13, 2024 at 10:10 pm

       Fellow Chris, those were my thoughts too. We have the makings for a historic GOP convention now. Something that will pump up the base and bring them all home. I can only imagine what the DNC people are going to do now, especially with the sting from the frozen donor funds.

       Biden is so fragile they can’t even fake something like this without possibly hurting him badly. What could the Democrats do to possibly compete with this kind of God given PR?
       1. ChrisFromGA July 13, 2024 at 10:19 pm

          Hire a body double for Joe, send him to Russia on a Rambo mission, and single-handedly take out Putin.

          Or have Joe’s doppelganger appear on “American Ninja Warrior” and win.
       2. ambrit July 14, 2024 at 12:39 am

          I wouldn’t put it past the DNC to do a “House of Cards” ending for “Creepy” Joe.
          Dr. Jill: “It was the only way my darling. You do understand.”
          C Joe: ” Isn’t it….”
          Big Capitol funeral. President Harris declares a week of mourning.
          Hillary declares herself Regent, under a “Government of National Unity.”
          China calls for a “Greater All Asia Co-prosperity Sphere” free of Western meddling.
          The State of Israel annexes Madagascar.
          Ebola crosses with Bird Flu in dairy herds in the Congo.
          Project 2025 introduces “Progressive Jackpot” program.
63. Lou Anton July 13, 2024 at 10:04 pm

    Props to a reporter named Dasha Burns at NBC News. She was there at the event, and she’s had some incredible interviews with people there. Spoke to a man who saw the one bystander get shot and die (guy helped take the body away!), and she spoke to a mother and son who saw two people (including the deceased one I referenced above) shot. She’s awesome, just letting people talk, giving them space to think and speak their mind.
    1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 10:16 pm

       Well that is an amateur thing for her to do. Where is the narrative control? Where is the spin? Why didn’t she cut interviews short when eyewitnesses started to report ALL that they had seen? Did she even try to ramble on about unrelated matters or blame Trumpers for the violence while ignoring everything happening behind her? Such an amateur. Pfft!
    2. Jonathan Holland Becnel July 13, 2024 at 11:05 pm

       I thought she was pretty good on her feet too.

       But I hated hearing that poor trump attendee screaming bloody murder every time NBC played the full clip of Trump getting clipped.
64. pjay July 13, 2024 at 10:11 pm

    In all seriousness, we were an inch or so away from igniting Civil War 2.0. Very fortunate. Holy s**t. It’s going to be bad enough as it is.
    1. Utah July 13, 2024 at 11:07 pm

       IMHO it’s Civil War 3.0 The revolutionary war was the first, and actually succeeded.

       I’m with you. I was taking to a friend yesterday about how I think that no matter who wins, we are in for a civil war. I hope to be wrong, but it feels so volatile out there.
       1. JBird4049 July 14, 2024 at 1:22 am

          It is volatile, but I am not quite convinced that there is an armed, organized, and emotionally prepared mass of people ready for an armed fight. If anything, the insanity of the past few weeks of “what the heck did I just see?” “don’t believe your lying eyes” have emotionally discombobulated people. But soon, probably.
       2. Qewds July 14, 2024 at 3:43 am

          In a civil war you’d need 2 different sides and I highly doubt any PMC are personally swearing allegiance deep enough to die for
          the Duchess of Gelato Fridges & the Wizard.

          As is oft said, only the right takes their politics seriously in this country.
65. Martin Oline July 13, 2024 at 10:22 pm

    Larry Johnson reports the shooter was a Chinese national and wonders if he was here legally?
    1. britzklieg July 13, 2024 at 10:53 pm

       Link?
    2. Ben Panga July 13, 2024 at 10:55 pm

       Nypost currently has “only identified as a white male” on their liveblog
       1. JustTheFacts July 13, 2024 at 11:04 pm

          Corpse of alleged shooter is white. Background matches the roof he was shooting from.
          1. ambrit July 14, 2024 at 3:07 am

             Now the picture has been ‘disappeared’ on the XT.
             Narrative Control out in the open for all to see, in real time.
             1. Acacia July 14, 2024 at 3:23 am

                Works for me… :?

                X/Twitler is lit up with this. Memes flying. E.g.:

                HRC: “What do you mean they missed?”

                https://x.com/Fxhedgers/status/1812322175900123476
    3. Martin Oline July 14, 2024 at 12:27 am

       The Chinese report must be wrong. Larry Johnson has updated that an unconfirmed identity is that of “Shemual Hydestein” Mark Violets (I assume the first is given name). He posts a picture of a caucasian male with violet hair so the second must be his non de plume. Another source says he is Thomas Matthew Crooks. Both are Caucasian.
       1. djrichard July 14, 2024 at 1:30 am

          Thomas Matthew Crooks seems to be this guy and he’s still alive https://x.com/jewgazing
       2. Qewds July 14, 2024 at 3:37 am

          Apologies, that name comes up in some variation with every national shooting, it’s a hoax/reference to the Samuel Hyde meme.

          https://www.forbes.com/sites/fruzsinaeordogh/2016/06/02/explaining-the-sam-hyde-as-mass-shooter-meme/
66. The Rev Kev July 13, 2024 at 10:24 pm

    Trump’s official statement on his attempted murder-

    https://x.com/TeamTrump/status/1812286751379243137
67. Jason Boxman July 13, 2024 at 10:29 pm

    Gotta love CNN, giving a history of all the presidents that had assassination attempts, and for Obama:

    President Barack Obama: An Idaho man was charged with the attempted assassination of Obama when he fired shots at the White House in 2011.

    Yeah, no. That was not an assassination attempt. I mean, that’s clownish. Might have messed up the White House flower garden though.

    https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/election-biden-trump-07-13-24#h_d8603afc42c13cd06754faa9ff966999
    1. Ben Joseph July 14, 2024 at 7:16 am

       And they bend over backwards to point out that only Lincoln was proven to be a conspiracy
68. skippy July 13, 2024 at 10:53 pm

    This will be interesting considering the Wests endless berating of other nations as unstable and not good global citizans. All framed by the political dysfunction in the U.K. and E.U. slowly imploding taking all its citizans with them and the best they can do is gin up a war with Russia whilst spewing sanctions which ultimately have the opposite effect intended – white ant their economies and sow social dysfunction.

    BTW Rookie move on the head shot, should have gone center mass …. Trump is one lucky boy ….

    PS as a show man he sure did make packet off it in the blink of an eye, natural.
    1. Carolinian July 13, 2024 at 11:08 pm

       Looking back. Grace under pressure?

       Roosevelt cradled the mortally wounded Cermak in his arms as the car rushed to the hospital; after arriving there, Cermak spoke to Roosevelt and, before he died 19 days later, allegedly uttered the line that is engraved on his tomb: “I’m glad it was me, not you.” The Tribune reported the quote without attributing it to a witness, and most scholars doubt it was ever said.

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Franklin_D._Roosevelt

       Give Trump at least some pointers for bravery. I think.
       1. skippy July 14, 2024 at 1:14 am

          Trump is a megalomaniac and consummate barneys sauce dispenser and top shelf fexian, not to mention life long liberal democrat till he saw a self serving moment to run as a GOP sort and enlist the deplorables as cannon fodder to gain market share e.g. everything U.S. is a market.

          Third way Dems is just different curtains on the same window.

          As some one that has taken shots and fired them back I would never call Trump brave.
          1. kareninca July 14, 2024 at 2:26 am

             Center mass would not make sense due to body armor.

             I think you may find yourself in a minority position concerning Trump’s bravery in this instance. Plenty of people who don’t like him are posting online that he demonstrated courage.
             1. skippy July 14, 2024 at 7:41 am

                Does matter at his age as a hit would be physically devastating, not that he was wearing one.

                Disagree on the bravery considering my actual experience in combat and as a sort that put sights on others and pulled the trigger, expert level with perfect scores. You do not want to be down range of me when life gets like that Karenina.
69. pjay July 13, 2024 at 10:58 pm

    I’m watching CBS news coverage. The female anchor keeps warning about over-reaction by Trump supporters as they are misinformed by a flood of “conspiracy theories.” They have a former Homeland Security official on who is warning that foreign interests will use this event to foment unrest; she specifically mentioned Russia and Iran. And we were just informed that the FBI is taking over this case, so as with Russiagate, I’m sure they will get to the bottom of this very soon! So don’t worry folks.

    I can’t wait to hear about the shooter. What kind of a “lone nut” will he be?
70. britzklieg July 13, 2024 at 11:00 pm

    It’s good, and not unexpected, that Biden has said the right thing about this so far but it has been reported that 5 days ago Biden said Trump should be put “in a bullseye.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/flashback-5-days-ago-biden-said-put-trump-in-a-bullseye/ar-BB1pWbB1

    That’s gonna haunt him and what remains of his desperately failing campaign.
    1. griffen July 14, 2024 at 8:58 am

       I’m surprised to find the comment from Biden to not be getting the memory hole treatment. I saw this late yesterday, so appreciative of the reference.

       Now to turn the tables for a second. Let’s switch the candidates making that comment to donors and see a few talking heads go absolutely bonkers that Trump “went there”…That said I get it, either man spews a heaping amount of bullshite to the viewing public. I’m losing the ability, though I do try, to not be downright cynical of the US prospects for these next 5 to 10 years.
71. Louis Fyne July 14, 2024 at 12:30 am

    >>>My Twitter timeline is full of people speculating about an inside job, saying the security failing is too glaring.

    Incompetence looks the same as malice. If you look at the snipers behind the rally bleachers, they were wearing local police uniforms—no gun-less spotters helping the two snipers.

    It looks like the Secret Service details was barebones around Trump himself, w/local authorities providing the real meat of protection.

    Lends credence to the purported internet-hearsay from the Trump camp that DHS would not give Trump a bigger security detail—Trump likely has the same size detail as Bill Clinton w/the remainder paid by his campaign.

    >>>>”Chinese man”

    purportedly/allegedly the first run of the NYPost’s reporting described the shooter as a Chinese man. (I’m just repeating what I read). A social media photo floating around within 2 hours of the shooting clearly showed a motionless dead white dude on the metal roof.

    to be grazed by a bullet from 150 yards away (3 to 4 inches is the standard of error for a decent rifle), the marksman was an accurate shooter—it literally is sheer randomness (or ethereal intervention) that the bullets didn’t hit the back of the head.

    One impulsive turn of the head plus a random spurt of wind was the potential difference between a merely-wild 2024 election and a full-on 1914 Archduke Ferdinand moment.

    for the entire unedited scene…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-j3KLSA4ak

    of course the dead bystander will be memory-holed. A mass shooting victim that the media wants to avoid, wowsers!
72. JustTheFacts July 14, 2024 at 12:54 am

    RFK’s statement.
    Nicole Shanahan’s statement.
    Biden’s statement.
    Jill Stein’s retweet.

    Apologies if this is posted twice. The spam system says I’ve posted it already, but I can’t see it on this page. I guess it doesn’t like many links.
    1. JBird4049 July 14, 2024 at 1:06 am

       If it’s in hold, the system will know that you posted, but until/unless the reviewer approves, it is invisible. And sometimes there are glitches and it’s just delayed.
73. JustTheFacts July 14, 2024 at 1:04 am

    Simplicius The Thinker has a good report on the situation with photos of the layout of the venue, and apparently instructions to the media not to call this an assassination attempt. Given that even European News Organizations also had ridiculous headlines, it certainly seemed coordinated. If these instructions were indeed issued, I am surprised they had enough time to write such a well thought out alert to affect breaking news.
    1. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 14, 2024 at 2:24 am

       Simplicius needs to stop Making Shit Up. He has a bad tendency to mix solid information with garbage.

       BBC banner headline: Trump leaves hospital after assassination attempt at rally

       https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cljy6yz1j6gt

       WSJ: Trump Survives Assassination Attempt https://www.wsj.com

       Or if they tried, no one fell in line.
       1. britzklieg July 14, 2024 at 4:31 am

          Probably related to Biden’s on camera response where he was asked directly if it was an “assasination attempt” and Joe said he didn’t know, would not be commenting further until he had some factual information… which actually came of as an honest answer, imho. In fact, for that entire press face to face Biden came off surprisingly well… not impaired, just old, and not fumbling for words. Sounded sincere and as I despise the guy, that’s not easy for me to say.

          Strange happenings these dark days with even stranger to come, I imagine. I’m getting too old to take measure of it all.
          1. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 14, 2024 at 4:33 am

             OK, fair point.
74. JustTheFacts July 14, 2024 at 1:21 am

    If this video was indeed taken this evening, Trump seems remakably OK
75. britzklieg July 14, 2024 at 4:14 am

    Watching CNN and several late night talking (however empty) heads are quick to report that the presumed shooter was registered to vote as a republican, with a recently added caveat that, apparently, he made donations to democrats.

    Even worse was a FOX segment where some white haired idiot (I don’t know any of these peoples names and don’t care to) managed to blame it on the “violent youth” who “don’t know what they are talking about” and who most recently were seen protesting on campuses against Israel… yes he actually insinuated that this shooting was somehow anti-semitic.

    ufb
76. Expat2uruguay July 14, 2024 at 4:54 am

    Brian Berletic just posted a video about the Trump assassination attempt
    https://youtu.be/f6-z0PqTKeU
77. Tom Stone July 14, 2024 at 11:33 am

    As to the accuracy of AR15’s, the gas expansion system Gene Stoner came up with is inherently accurate and a rack grade AR15 from any of the major manufacturers will put 5 shots into 1″ center to center at 100 yards with match ammo, and within 1.5 to 2 inches center to center with hunting ammo.
    Les Baer has been selling AR15’s guaranteed to put 5 shots into .5″ center to center at 100 yards with match ammo since the 1980’s.

    And I suspect that this event might actually make it more likely that Genocide Joe will retire ( With Dignity!) and let cackling Kamala take the loss because Trump will certainly win in a landslide unless the next attempt on his life is successful.
78. KFritz July 14, 2024 at 5:33 pm

    Re: Copa America

    There’s a bit of irony to the mediocre management of Copa 2024. Those epic crooks, Chuck Blazer and Jack Warner were, actually, pretty good at running soccer tournaments!

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