Why Do Dogs Bark? Madras Courier
What Lies Beneath bioGraphic. The deck: “With their astounding sense of smell and ability to find what humans can’t see, dogs are quickly becoming some of conservationists’ best friends.”
Climate
Scientists say they can now forecast El Niño Southern Oscillation years in advance Space.com
Experts see ‘mismatch’ between US utility planning cycles and data center builds S&P Global
California Grid Breezes Through Heat Wave due to Renewables, Batteries This Is Not Cool
Funds tapped, Florida stops taking new applications for home-hardening program Orlando Sentinel
California Faces a Brutal Wildfire Season, With More Land Burned to Date Than in Recent Years Smithsonian
Syndemics
COVID Levels ‘Very High’ In California As New Variant Spreads: CDC Banning-Beaumont Patch
England’s ongoing Covid wave and new Long Covid research Diving into Data & Decision Making
China?
Readying for war or being prepared for crises? China’s stockpiling of resources raises eyebrows and questions Channel News Asia
Going Postal at the Qiaopiju JSTOR Daily
The Philippines’ and Vietnam’s South China Sea Strategies Have Failed RAND
Commentary: Political upheaval in Vietnam is holding its economy back Channel News Asia
Myanmar
Ayeyarwady vice: Law and disorder in the Delta Frontier Myanmar
India
India is not destined to be the next China BNE Intellinews
Bangladesh TV news off air, communications disrupted as student protests spike Bangkok Post (Furzy Mouse).
Syraqistan
Mike Johnson Threatens to Arrest Lawmakers Who Disrupt Netanyahu’s Congress speech Haaretx
Biden expected to meet with Netanyahu next week, despite COVID diagnosis The HIll. Big if true:
🚨BREAKING: Netanyahu canceled his trip to the U.S right after the drone attack from Yemen on Tel Aviv.—Hebrew Media. pic.twitter.com/tCesshzwaq
— sam (@sam_official586) July 19, 2024
Also big if true:
BREAKING: ICC ARREST WARRANTS TO BE ISSUED
Israel’s Channel 14 reports that the ICC is expected to issue arrest warrants against Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant within the next two weeks. pic.twitter.com/6na6S6Agje
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) July 17, 2024
* * * New health crisis unfolds in Gaza as poliovirus found in sewage Anadolu Agency
Yemen’s Blockade Bankrupts Israel’s Port of Eilat Consortium Newws
The Great Game
“Debts must be repaid” – Expert on Azerbaijan-France relations JAM News
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukrainian defenders withdraw from Urozhaine, Donetsk Oblast Ukrainska Pravda
Ukrainians say it’s time for peace negotiations with Russia Deutsche Welle
Slovakia and Hungary say Ukraine suspended transit of Lukoil oil Ukrainska Pravda
Dear Old Blighty
Private equity groups battle it out for $15bn schools group FT
Private equity firm behind Six Nations rugby considers bid for Telegraph Guardian
Biden Administration
Court halts Biden’s student loan repayment plan. How this affects California borrowers Sacramento Bee
Pentagon inspector general to put the microscope on hypersonic defenses, CJADC2 ‘strategy‘ Breaking Defense
2024
‘I’m not supposed to be here’: 5 key points from Donald Trump’s acceptance speech FT. Commentary:
It’s fascinating to have this view from the RNC floor where I can see Trump and his teleprompter.
He constantly goes off script and delivers long sections off the top of his head while the prompter operator waits for him to return to the script. pic.twitter.com/Vv9N2XVYUQ
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) July 19, 2024
I described this “riffing” behavior here at NC in 2016.
Trump comes out fighting after rally shooting: 5 takeaways from RNC’s last night The Hill. Commentary:
Backstage seconds before Trump’s most iconic entrance in history at RNC
KING.⚡️pic.twitter.com/HaRPJRi1LT
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 19, 2024
Donald Trump appears to a be a changed man. And that’s a big deal for both Republicans and Democrats FOX
Melania Trump watches husband’s convention speech in rare appearance BBC
Critic’s Notebook: Donald Trump Returns to Bad Form — and Gives the Democrats Hope Hollywood Reporter
* * * Can J.D. Vance’s Populist Crusade Succeed? Matt Stoller, BIG
What Trump picking Vance for VP means for the Senate Politico
O’Brien Speech Played into Republicans’ Phony Pro-Worker Rebrand Labor Notes
* * * Inside the Trump Plan for 2025 The New Yorker
The political media’s fantasy of an “unified” America defies reality Dan Froomkin, Press Watch
* * * ‘He’s got a gun’: The 60 minutes leading up to Trump assassination attempt Al Jazeera
Whistleblowers come forward on Trump rally security, Judiciary Committee says Just the News. Commentary:
Statement from Edward Natali #ButlerTownship Commissioner pic.twitter.com/aT7qHjl5HS
— DeadbeatPrincessParody (@BadMomBree) July 17, 2024
Via FaceBook.
Secret Service struggles to quash congressional fury over Trump assassination attempt Politico
How It Happens Here Nina Illingworth
Democrats en Déshabillé
Donald Trump is Democratic Failure Ross Barkan, Political Currents
Karma, Bitches Declassified with Julie Kelly. The deck: “The most powerful American institutions colluded in 2020 to steal the election for Joe Biden. Now those same interests are collaborating to get him off the 2024 ballot. Sit back and enjoy!”
Who Is Favored To Win The 2024 Presidential Election? FiveThirtyEight
The Supremes
What employers can expect following the end of Chevron deference Construction Dive
Digital Watch
Major Windows BSOD issue takes banks, airlines, and broadcasters offline The Verge. Commentary:
A gentle reminder that a considerable amount of modern civilization depends upon software intensive systems that are beautifully fragile.
— Grady Booch (@Grady_Booch) July 19, 2024
Human or AI robot? Who is fairer on the service organizational frontline (PDF) Journal of Business Research
ChatGPT Isn’t ‘Hallucinating’—It’s Bullshitting! Scientific American. AI = BS (Naked Capitalism, January 31, 2023).
Imperial Collapse Watch
For the Rest of the World, the U.S. President Has Always Been Above the Law Foreign Policy
The F-35 Urgently Needs a New Engine: The Engine Core Upgrade Program’s Design Review Highlights Why Military Watch. “A new engine for the F-35 is considered an urgent priority for multiple reasons, among them the aircraft’s perceived wholly insufficient range and flight performance for operations over the Pacific.”
Class Warfare
Average Japanese Wage Hikes Reach 33-Year High of 5.1% in 2024 Nippon.com
How gravity falls down on falling down Physics World
Antidote du jour (Wallace Keck):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
197 comments
Comments are closed.
WHERE THOSE BULLETS COMIN’ FROM?
(melody borrowed from Mama Told Me Not To Come by Randy Newman, as performed by Three Dog Night)
Two teams of snipers with their spotters
For Trump’s security
We’re the Secret Service but we’re Team Number Three
His primary team had some other place to be
‘You hear that pop-pop-pop?—you see what I see?’
‘Where those bullets comin’ from?’
‘Where those bullets comin’ from?’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, no!’
There’s panic in the bleachers—sniper’s rifle goes boom
Trump is back on his feet—for the cameras I assume
Trump is bleeding from his ear, one fan of his is dead
‘Shooter’s down’ says a sniper from the roof overhead
‘Where those bullets comin’ from?’
‘Where those bullets comin’ from?’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, run!’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, run!’
(musical interlude)
Our prep work was bad—we left a wide open door
We all know sure as shootin’ we don’t work here any more
We’ll end up mercenaries on some foreign shore
This was the kind of screwup the bosses can’t ignore
‘Where those bullets comin’ from?’
‘Where those bullets comin’ from?’
I said, ‘Must be some guy with a gun, run!’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, no!’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, no!’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, run!’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, no!’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, run!’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, no!’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, run!’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, no!’
‘Must be some guy with a gun, run!’
‘Sulaiman Ahmed
@ShaykhSulaiman
BREAKING: ICC ARREST WARRANTS TO BE ISSUED
Israel’s Channel 14 reports that the ICC is expected to issue arrest warrants against Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant within the next two weeks.’
So I am thinking that the black shirts that both of them are wearing may suit their character and their black hearts. After all, Netanyahu just stopped the building of a field hospital for wounded Palestinian children. But maybe the both of them may be wearing another colour one day. Perhaps something in orange?
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/07/18/netanyahu-blocks-order-to-build-field-hospital-for-gaza-children/
What type of pearls may be around their necks? Something to match their little, black dresses?
If there’s any justice, big house pearl necklaces would be the least of it.
NHS app has big warning on front screen that it isn’t guaranteeing up to date/current info.
Whilst I’m aware that servers/other machines at my ISP may well be relying on the dross that is Windows, I sit here happily typing on my Linux PC with Firefox+all the add-ons to watch cat videos to my heart’s content.
Same here on my Win7 ‘puter using Firefox as well. It seems that those using Win10 got hit pretty hard. The root cause is suppose to have come out of Crowdstrike. If that name is not familiar, this was the mob that swore back in 2017 that the Russians totally hacked the computers of the DNC’s emails – but refused the FBI permission to examine their servers (you can do that?). Popping my tin foil hat on, I thought for a brief moment that Crowdstrike deliberately caused this chaos around the world simply so that Trump’s speech at the convention would not be covered much. Good thing that we do not live in such a world.
I’ve been reading about this all morning. It sounds like updating the buggy piece of software from Crowdstrike isn’t as simple as applying a patch and rebooting. It requires going into “Safe Mode”:
You Fix It, IT monkey!
Now, that’s going to be fun for virtual machines and POS systems. Tempted to take a run down to my local bank and see if the ATM is blue screened.
Come to think of it, that’s missing a step or two.
Locate CrowdStrike Folder, delete it.
Delete all registry keys tied to CS
Restore from last known good image prior to installation of CS
Fire somebody!
I am very glad I don’t need to boot into my W11 partition until next week. I really don’t want to have Windoze mess up my otherwise beautifully running PC.
If you don’t have the CrowdStrike software installed, you should be fine.
(not official advice, statements made by random people on the internet may not be reliable, etc.)
Thanks for the clarification. The thing that always worries me is that so many software packages that you don’t want or need get installed because they “enable functionality” of something else that you use.
Thus I’d never know whether CrowdStrike was on my device unless I go look for it and check that it isn’t something required to “support” (ha!) one of the programs I do actually use.
From what you say, it sounds like something irrelevant to me, but this just goes to show how next time it could be a program that looks innocent but is the “backbone” to something we all use.
I guess theoretically you could have troubles if some other software you depend upon is itself dependent on CrowdStrike for its services if those are stored on the cloud, etc. But afaik local users are unaffected; from what I gathered on HackerNews it’s the result of some kernel changes that CrowdStrike implements conflicting with Windows code. As they put it, you really really shouldn’t roll out untested updates worldwide to a software that is mission critical (and which bricks computers if it fails). Maybe this is the Boeing rot spreading out, since no minimally sane corporation (or rather, management) would do something so dangerous and potentially catastrophic. People most likely have literally died from this, given 911 went offline!
Literally everything is almost completely untested compared with what needs done. This was the case way back, even when companies actually cared more about it.
The example I was given when I first worked in a QA testing department was a simple program that accepts up to 2 2-digit integers and adds them. To thoroughly test every path through such a program would take over 30,000 passes.
I’m not sure how much they do these days but when I left development for good in the noughties they only tested for the most common instances with the most common hardware setups.
User testing of software has been Microsoft’s business plan since the 1980s.
My Windows 10 machine with Firefox has had no problems.
But then I changed the password ages ago so that nothing goes to (the cloudy) One Drive. I get nags from Microsoft about not being signed in to One Drive but ignore them.
I save my stuff to my hard drive,and back it up on another hard drive. And use an Uninterruptible Power Supply after a bad experience with spiking taking out both my PC and the backup a few years ago. Got it all back, but it cost me!
And my Windows 7 laptop runs the online entertainment on my large but old TV using Firefox. Still going strong after years.
And use Kaspersky as it won an award years back. And now it looks even safer given that the US is just about to ban it.
A tip about banking. Don’t trust that your bank will have uncorrupted records of all your mortgage payments. I have a paper folder of payments for when the SHTF banking style.
IT 101. From an old timer IT worker.
Dunno if it’s still the case since I switched to Linux a while back, but with the earlier editions of Windows I was familiar with, up to Win 7, Microsoft kept the actual OS very secret and almost impossible to access which made it very difficult to test software against as Microsoft’s own updates which may or may not have been installed plus other third-party software insinuating itself into it could create all kinds of conflicts on an unpredictable, specific-to-that-machine basis. Linux being Open Source means programmers can get right down to the nuts-and-bolts and have a much better idea what potential pitfalls exist.
I also understand this conflict actually prevented the OS from booting except in safe mode, which means the Crowdstrike app somehow went right to the kernel level which should be a no-no for any third-party software. Because of its design Linux would refuse let that happen without first demanding specific Aministrator permission.
Ah, Crowdstrike. ( Where has that name come up before? Something about a server?) / ;)
From ZDNet:
CrowdStrike causes Windows outage chaos for airports, banks, and more. Here’s what you can do
A massive IT outage is causing BSODs for millions of Microsoft users around the world. If you’re affected, there is a workaround.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/crowdstrike-causes-windows-outage-chaos-for-airports-banks-and-more-heres-what-happened/
An aside: having some cash on hand is always a good idea. / ;)
No worries. The ATMs are running Windows XP. :)
Sidebar: most of my computer problems just went away.
I don’t expect anyone to believe me when I speculate that Israel-adjacent actors aggressively mess with the computers of their critics but yesterday and today my computer ran the best it has since October 7 (also the date when a major “Russian” pirate site disappeared for two days).
Seems Russia was largely unaffected – mostly because Microsoft ‘withdrew’ its products and services from Russia in January 2022. Lucky Russia!
I was told most ATMs are still on os/2
On my walk yesterday I noticed that 80% of ATMs had (obviously new and makeshift) sheets of A4 taped across them stating “out of order”.
We here in UK Midlands city had total breakdown in contactless card system across the northern half of the city the other day. NC IIRC ran a piece recently that cash use has rebounded a lot in last year or so in UK.
Round here I can certainly attest to that. People aren’t even remarking that close to half of all £20 notes are obviously new – they have King Charlie on them! I laugh at those people who queued outside the Bank of England a month ago to get the first King Charles notes.
Global outages… In the US airports have been grounded, bank systems are in an unknown state it appears…reboot all the servers…I have high anticipation about logging onto my work PC in the next hour or so…nearing 8am on the east coast.
Lead story on CNBC this morning. Crowdstrike is the vendor in the penalty box. Sounds to be an upgrade implementation might be an explanation.
One wonders if this will lead to more scrutiny of CrowdStrike. Perhaps even give a critical eye to their 2016 work?
How can you say that? CrowdStrike is a proud supporter of NATO Propaganda Radio!
Something intriguing has been already noted:
Too funny: In 2010 McAfee caused a global IT meltdown due to a faulty update. CTO at this time was George Kurtz. Now he is CEO of #crowdstrike.
From a 2010 article in ZDNet:
Defective McAfee update causes worldwide meltdown of XP PCs.
Oops, they did it again. Early this morning, McAfee released an update to its antivirus definitions for corporate customers that mistakenly deleted a crucial Windows XP file, sending systems into a reboot loop and requiring tedious manual repairs. It’s not the first strike for the company, either. I’ve got details.
If the French saying “jamais deux sans trois” is respected, I can only wait with trepidation to know what other software provider will be the one that Mr Kurtz will shower with his talents.
Should have used Kaspersky!
Though I understand why people cannot and do not want to change their OS (it’s a lot of work…) I’ll say that changing to Linux is such a nice thing. So long as you do not pick one of the more complex distributions like Arch (unless you want to learn, of course) and stick to a variant of Debian or Ubuntu, you don’t have much to worry about, and it in general just runs so much smoother. Gone are the days in which you had to be a real whiz in order to leave Windows behind! (It’s not a panacea, of course, but I do find it takes a lot of stress out of using the computer once it’s set up right).
Indeed. My first two attempts to migrate to Linux were spectacular failures.
2-3 years ago I discovered Mint and I’ve never looked back. It just works. I only need the Windoze partition for the voice recognition program and zoom (which for some reason misbehaves under Linux and I’m too old/tired/brainfogged to work out why).
It’s interesting to see how we’re already living in a wild, mad max, cluged up world, but since all of that is hidden in the digital space no one realizes how messed up things are.
If this was a power plant or a water treatment facility we’d see the crazy people rocking out in front of the doof wagon with spurts of flame erupting everytime the reverse osmosis system produced clean water…
Another vote for Linux MINT. Works like a champ, and will be very familiar to anyone from a Win background.
The Idle Worm himself?
Here where I am in a medical office.
All Microsoft applications are down – if you are inclined to try to turn it on – ie Word or Outlook – your computer goes into a doom loop that you must completely turn it off to escape from.
Dragon Software is done – no dictation
The Pyxis is down – no medication can be easily given
The authenticator system for controlled substances is down.
The authenticator codes system for work at home access are all down.
All of the outside sites that we could click on from the EMR are all down – every single one
The system to electronically send Rx is down
In essence, except for looking up labs etc – there is nothing that can be done in the medical world today.
We were informed about an hour ago that each and every computer is going to have to be rebooted personally by IT – with patches or whatever done by IT present at each place. Given the fact that the hospital IT dept all over the country has been decimated by things like the vaccine mandates and corporate incompetence – it is likely this could take a while.
It has never been this bad before. And we are told this may be days/weeks to get up and going again. It is unclear to me how extensive this is in the medical world at large.
Somehow, this never happened when we were using that medieval technology called paper. This is all real “convenient” until it is not.
have been in contact with a leader at a major regional trauma II hospital. They have activated the command center reserved for pandemics and natural disasters.
Their ability to practice modern medicine has been so badly compromised that I’ve been advised not to leave the house today except for emergencies, and not to undertake even moderately risky activities.
Today would be a very very bad day to have a heart attack. A heart attack that yesterday would have seen you treated and discharged from hospital within 24 hours is now something that can kill you.
This shit is real. I can’t believe how little attention it is getting on the WSJ front page right now.
Thanks, IM Doc for that on the ground report.
This scenario brings up an issue that I have been worried about for a long time. Increasing automation and centralization of systems in the cloud looks great for bean counters. Hey, let’s just fire all the staff that used to do boring tasks like manually rebooting users workstations!
I would argue that government regulators should mandate higher staffing levels to deal with these sorts of things for critical industries like medical and air travel. But, of course, we all know that “job killing” regulations are bad, bad, bad!
IM Doc,
Thank you for your generous reports from the inside of Medical World. Now in my late 70’s, I’ve watched the digital world roll out. From the beginning I’ve asked myself why we would rely on systems that any number of unforeseen incidents could bring down? My hope used to be that critical systems would keep a backup alive in the analog world so life could continue in spite of the fragility of bits and bytes. I’ve found that hope unfounded. Perhaps I just have a lack of imagination that would allow me to see why it’s better to rely on an electronic back bone? I still can’t understand it, but hope your day will not be completely screwed by the current outage.
It’s now finally and truly Y2K!
Uncork the Champagne!
… and if your business relies on a “platform” do you really have a business?
Funny how “evidence-based medicine” depends on the data format and storage of the evidence!
Collapse in place now, and return to rugged and reliable paper!
“rugged and reliable paper!” gets lost, coffee-stained or misfiled, can’t draw attention to apparent errors, faithfully retains unintelligable handwriting and can’t cross-reference or automatically update related records elsewhere on the system. It also needs space for filing cabinets which have to be physically accessed tying you to a specific location, and both the time and discipline to return the paper to its proper place when you’ve finished with it.
Like pen-and-paper, digital records are only as good as the user. I myself use a Linux app called Timeshift which keeps complete copies of my OS and data at user-specified intervals on an SD card in the machine with a copy of that kept up-to-date in the Cloud so if the machine fails or in an instance like this, I can be up-and-running again in a last-known-good state within minutes. And even if the machine were stolen I could recreate it with little difficulty.
It used to be called ‘belt-and-braces’, which is hard to do with paper!
You think it’s bad now?
Given the quality of code generated by “AI” solutions now replacing senior developers, it’s only going to get worse. Hint: Adding lines of code is easy, finding the simplest most robust solution, that’s hard, but the difference only comes to bite you later, once your manager has “proven his worth” to his superiors.
> You think it’s bad now?
this is really bad now
Not even close to as bad as it could get. There is so much critical software that is little-known, controlled by companies dedicated only to the bottom line, and that would take down large pieces of the electronic infrastructure, that I am surprised this doesn’t happen more often. When budgets are cut, the first thing to go is testing.
Then there’s this:
Xkcd – dependency.
Cheers,
Al
Dateline: 2033
Global outage of airlines, medical systems due to greased AI choking on its own vomit. ETA to resolve? Try never. It’s a black box!
The heavy u.s. dependence on poorly coded, poorly maintained, little tested, and often buggy software with hidden zero-day vulnerabilities presents a remarkable target for attackers — whether domestic or foreign, small-time hackers or nationstate cyberattack forces. These little crash events related to Crowdstrike should be a wake-up call to some national defense agency, perhaps a currently a non-existent agency. With all the saber rattling efforts to rile up Russia and China, and considering the many enemies the u.s. has cultivated around the world I can only wonder how long Internet commerce in the u.s. will last in the event of a ‘real’ conflict with another nation. It may be the case that our enemies feel just as vulnerable to cyberattack, but I doubt that is really the case. Computer operating systems software has become too important to too many businesses, government agencies, and the u.s. Populace, for it to remain the province of commercial enterprises like Microsoft or Apple. As for the activities of the NSA in promoting back doors they might exploit — and others can find — the NSA must be halted from crippling our nations.
CrowdStrike is well embedded with the Blob. One of its principals Dmitry Alperovitch is an advisor to Biden’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, was(?) associated with the Atlantic Council, and contributed tendentious “expert commentary” during the 2016 summer of hack-leaks.
The bungle at hand really only shows the awesome power of unattended automatic updates and poor trigger discipline, as it were. I’ve caused much the same problem on a thankfully much smaller scale. So I’m reticent to use auto-update features of any software or on my phone and I tend to turn them off.
I do not expect anything to change in any way that makes sense.
I run Linux Mint at home and usually incorporate all the latest patches, without problems so far. I am tempted to look for some secure Linux build that I can run on my desktop, and lock the system down. I run with older equipment, older protocols and Linux native applications. I may break down and work through using dd to store an image of my disk on a removable hard drive. Then I might work out how to add mechanical switches to physically separate my main system from a memory protected mini-system running from a stick or some other media physically isolated from the rest of my system, whenever I physically connect to the Internet. Much of the information I used to pull in from the Internet has grown difficult to find and difficult to sift from the trash.
You could try QubesOS for more security.
Thanks! I will check into QubesOS.
Subedtitor service:
Unfortunately for a citation of NC’s own work, the citation here is wrong!
“ChatGPT Isn’t ‘Hallucinating’—It’s Bullshitting! Scientific American. AI = NS (Naked Capitalism, January 31, 2023).”
This should read “AI = BS”.
Did ChatGPT confabulate this? :-)
And to compound the BS some more, go enter your entrepreneurial hopes and dreams via 5 magical prompts to chatgpt (Forbes article)and watch the money roll in. Ka-ching!
It should read “AI = NC”. :-)
Fixed. Thank you!!
«We worry that talking of AI “hallucinating”—a term usually used for human psychology—risks anthropomorphizing the chatbots.»
I’m afraid Making Shit Up™ IS what brainy scientists like to call the human ‘Default Mode Network’.
Recent LLMs are actually slicker than the token-by-token model the Scientific American authors criticize. Modern LLMs take special note of discourse markers like Because, Therefore, and Consequently. Thus they appear to have a purpose. Just like politicians and pundits.
ChatGPT is making Cliff Notes look like a Library of Congress.
The game is really to wait for people to become more helpless and have less agency.
Then the AI gets “smarter.”
Just think: if they called it ResearchGPT that cited all the sources it’s regurgitating, it could be just as helpful without all the bezzle that it’s “thinking” and “hallucinating”.
Thanks for three astute comments. This is the “creators” playing “god.” Some transhumanists seem to have the idea that what they disparagingly call a “meat-brained” human can create a more perfect human version of itself. Who knows what consciousness is or how it’s produced, but the transhumanists are as anxious to attribute consciousness to their silicon made-by-machines machines as they are to ignore the consciousness present in all the life around us, life of which we are an evolved member.
The creator of the second Genesis myth was another astute observer of human–or cultural–nature.
Indeed that is one of their sales pitches.
And it’s the ultimate scam that allows them to collect the middle-man money while avoiding accountability and responsibility.
“It was HAL’s fault…”
But follow the money…
Very true and nothing new.
Emil Brunner:
I watched last night’s RNC convention from 6:30 until 11:00. I watched on the RNC convention utube channel so I could see it without commercial breaks or MSM running commentaries.
It was one big party. Everyone was happy. The music was great. The Texas delegates wore their straw cowboy hats, the Wisconsin delegate wore their cheese head hats (you couldn’t miss them in the crowd), I felt good after watching everyone. Doesn’t mean I agreed with everyone. Clearly aimed at working class and middle class voters who might be undecided. It was courting voters. That’s what parties are supposed to do. T said he would be president for all Americans, not just half of Americans. All presidential candidates say that.
Great show, very entertaining, very energetic, very upbeat. All the energy is on the GOP side right now.
Saw on the news tonight that some were wearing imitation ear patches just like Trump has. But yeah, it seems to be a party atmosphere and lots of happy people there. Boris Johnson turned up, probably so he could demand continued support for the Ukraine in front of that entire crowd. So the Repubs stuck him in a small conference room to make his speech where hardly anybody turned up to hear him.
Boris, Farage, and Truss have all been hanging round the RNC like charity muggers at a shopping center. Seemingly nobody there gives two hoots about them, which is nice.
Look on YouTube for the videos showing the “crowd” who turned up to watch Boris like this.
Crowd seems to have been redefined to mean “five or so”. Big LOL.
Plus there’s a big former Tory who actually made comments on YT that could be interpreted that he thinks Truss is seriously mentally ill. I’ll add the “allegedly” so nobody gets into trouble but come on, I’ve yet to find a person who thinks Truss is NOT “proper mental” as we’d say colloquially in UK midlands.
I guess that Trump is not one to respect the “special relationship.” And he cares for Europe even less.
Nobody respect vassals/cheap whores, especially the ones keeping these vassals/cheap whores.
Why are women being brought into the discussion this way, and why is this being published? What is the point in a political or structural conversation?
Minor quibble — “Cheap whores” are no longer necessarily women.
Hulk Hogan, actually convincing but hey he’s a former wrestler who performed at a high level in his craft. Trumpamania… Trumpamania…the shirt ripping was classic Hogan.
On the other hand…Kid Rock performed and Lee Greenwood sang his famous tune… I’m not too sure how many delegates and attendees younger than say about 55 know Kid Rock…ha ha. I kept thinking Toby Keith would’ve definitely been on stage singing a few big hits.
Classic Hogan move. From Politico, utube, ~1+ minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGIhs5xbbmg
I was disappointed the Greens didn’t nominate Jesse Ventura in 2020.
The “diversity” of opinion on the convention, Trump’s speech, and Vance, is pretty striking. They are all Rorschach tests; the commentary is all projection of a particular commentator’s own interests and fears. Obviously Fox News and the Hollywood Reporter are going to see two completely different realities. Triangulating, everyone did note that while Trump’s prepared speech was more positive and “unity” oriented, his frequent ad libs and “riffing” was more old Trump. I noticed that as well. I forced myself to watch most of it. I thought the WWE and Kid Rock antics were pretty funny. The Lee Greenwood-type God and Country patriotism for the “real Americans” always makes my stomach turn.
Also, I had just read Whitney Webb’s scary piece on Vance in Unlimited Hangout right before I read Stoller’s. A lot of similar information but a much different “vibe.” So is Vance really, deep down, a friend of the common man and enemy of Wall Street and monopoly? Or is he the proto-fascist being groomed by Peter Thiel and his pseudo-libertarian tech Lords? All this ambiguity, combined with the various takes on the assassination attempt, is enough to really make one’s head spin.
“So is Vance really, deep down, a friend of the common man and enemy of Wall Street and monopoly?”
Different men but kind of the same principle here:
Remember the 2008 Presidential election? Obama was on the campaign trail and had the conversation about “spreading the wealth around” with Joe the Plumber.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUvwKVvp3-o&ab_channel=AssociatedPress/
Well, that kind of “spreading the wealth around” talk gave Wall Street pause about him for a while, however, we all know how that turned out.
> … Whitney Webb’s scary piece on Vance in Unlimited Hangout …
WW was just on Jimmy Dore, talking for over an hour about this and related topics. She is very good. Can’t find much about her online — guarding her privacy, if that’s what it is, is of course fine — but I’m curious about her background/training.
Thanks for this as I was unable to watch (only out of curiosity). All I had to go by was what my PMC friends had to say, which was; It was awful, he is an embarrassment, couldn’t stay on script, everything was a lie, etc.
So I assumed it was pretty good.
These are the same people who believe the Trump shooting was a setup, and the big money donors are pushing him out because he is going deliver for the people. Yea, one guy actually said that. He must have been living under a rock for the last 40+ years.
These people are delusional, and now their hair is on fire. What a world…
Unlike the Extending Russia Strategy, that is going swell.
Praise be to the Ansarallah. They have become the heroes of the world, the only ones willing to actively fight against the “Israeli” entity for no other reason than in defense of the Palestinians (Hezbollah is also contributing a lot, but clearly the reasoning is more complicated there). With “Tel Aviv” now under strike range, “Israel” has utterly lost its mandate of being a “safe haven”; hopefully more settlers will leave in droves.
God’s helpers.
What that article does not mention is that that drone hit near the US Embassy which was only about a block away. If Ansarallah had hit the US Embassy, would the US have run to the UN to complain that Ansarallah had hit an Embassy in a third country? That might lead to embarrassing question about what Israel itself did in Syria not long ago.
Read on
twitterX that the Israeli killed by that Yemeni drone was a sniper in the Israeli military.So much for the Iron Dome, but that’s no shock to me, as I’ve been watching Jon Elmer on Electronic Intifada making mockery of that ‘system’ for weeks now. The Hoopoe drone from the Hezzies that flew all over Israel undetected last month was followed up by a second more recently.
I don’t get the 538 prediction that joe biden will win the race in ’24….
just on the face of their own screen shot…… all the polls have trump winning…. yet they flip those guesses… opinions and then write the headline that biden will win…. based on their “filters”
Is this just an admission that they just “make stuff up”?
a la NYC’s infamous Boss Tweed. He cared not who voted, he cared about who counted the votes. Or in this modern, digital age, what counts the votes. / ;)
Boss Tweed cartoon from the late 1800’s.
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2020/Images/counting_strength.jpg
Now we have German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock who said that her government simply does not listen to what voters want. Progress!
Meanwhile according to the Guardian, Angela Merkel is (probably very wisely) marking her 70th birthday by avoiding anything political and actively getting as far away from politics as you can get!
I always got the feeling that she came from East Germany to (practically) lead the EU and then thought “WTAF? We thought you guys knew how to do stuff and now I have to run this madhouse?”
I did my PhD and post-doc with two “Ossis” circa 2000 and both were already refreshingly cynical about the “glorious west” that they had submitted to. Plus nicest people I ever worked with.
For what it’s worth Terry, the British cabinet is now officially doomed. It was not enough that Starmer hugged Zelensky thus acquiring the infamous Zelensky Curse. No, he also invited Zelensky into the British cabinet where he probably gave it to everybody. So if things start to fall apart for them, you will know why.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-07-18/in-show-of-support-uks-starmer-invites-ukraines-zelenskiy-to-attend-cabinet
Thanks Rev Kev. Sometimes I think “why not use that shiny Aussie passport and escape?”
Then my friends down under tell me of all the shenanigans that never made it to our UK media thanks to Murdoch pressure etc. *sigh*
Maybe I should have married that rich definitely-not-mafia-type Chinese woman who needed Aussie citizenship back in 2015 to get me some real resources……!
both were already refreshingly cynical about the “glorious west” that they had submitted to.
At about that time, the following saying had already been widely circulating in former Warsaw Pact countries:
In those days, we knew that everything the communists told us about communism was a lie.
Now we know that everything the communists told us about capitalism is indeed true.
Thanks and very apt!
One of my dad’s chief employees is Slovakian and remembers enough from her childhood about life before the fall of communism. She remarks that at least everybody knew that the stuff in Pravda and its local affiliates was nonsense. She is astonished that people here these days believe the BBC.
Just the occassional gentle reminder that:
Most people in most states use hand-marked paper ballots – mail-in or election day in-person (major exceptions for in-person election day voting: GA, KS NV, TX)
https://verifiedvoting.org
A full hand recount was done of the 2020 AZ presidential and senate elections, organized by Republican partisans.
A full hand recount was done of the 2020 GA presidential election (hand marked and machine marked ballots) by law and decision of the Republican SoS.
“A total of 48 states conduct some type of post-election audit. Alabama and New Hampshire do not require post-election audits but piloted different audit types in the 2022 election.”
https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/post-election-audits635926066.aspx
Potential for BMD ballot counting discrepancy:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/04/links-4-9-2024.html#comment-4023920
At least in Minnesota, the audits are not of all the votes but of “randomly” selected voting places.
Which is worse than nothing because if you have the power to cheat the count, you probably have the power to rig the random selection process to pick the voting places you didn’t tamper with.
Not a lawyer or an expert on all 50 states but in the three states where I’ve worked elections the audits simply aren’t powerful enough to overturn a close election. We could do much, much better.
Yes we could. As I’ve mentioned many times, I participated in a hand recount of the machine counted hand marked ballots. We were only allowed to do a recount when the preliminary election results fell within the very slim margin allowed by law. What we found was the machines did not count about 1.5% of the hand marked ballots at all for various reasons. Seems to me that in “our democracy”, every single vote cast should be counted.
So if you really wanted to rig an election, just make sure you program the victory margin to be above the margin that would be legally entitled to a hand recount. Then nobody can legally check.
I saw no good evidence from Trump about the 2020 elections being stolen, but I also don’t think he was asking the right questions. One of the things I most dislike about his presidency was his ridiculous challenge which has now made anyone doubting the accuracy of these machines into a “conspiracy theorist”.
Hand marked and hand counted in public is the only way to do this right.
Sure, audit/recount criteria can be improved, like any aspect of election administration and certification. That should include balancing the of total votes counted by machine with number of ballots issued.
There’s a lot that’s troubling about the approach of Trump and his allies in 2020. This includes declaring in advance that if he lost it meant the election was rigged; proposing but providing no evidence for various types of rigging which would require substantial and widespread collusion by the ordinary people who serve as election workers; and continuing to make these unsubstantiated claims about 2020.
I don’t know whether examples of successful hand counts translate into methodologies applicable to high volumes of ballots with dozens of line items to be counted; or whether alternate methodologies have been proposed and successfully tested.
There is also a lot troubling about Hillary and her approach to 2016. And I was a Hillary voter at the time. Stating repeatedly that Trump was illegitamate. Firing up the entire Russia Russia Russia thing that has destroyed the reputation of the entire Democratic Party and the media in a good chunk of the population. I can go on and on.
It was only until I moved into a rural area that I saw how elections should be run. At each stage of the polling place, there is one Dem little old lady and one GOP little old lady. The hand written ballots are placed in a big locked box. A deputy is standing right there in each polling place. Then at 7 PM, there are 6 counters – 3 from each party. Each ballot is read out loud – again by 2 onlookers – and each counter keeps the tab. Then and only then are they run through the counting machine. If there is any discrepancy on any race between the machine and just one of the counters – the whole thing is done over again for that race.
Absentee ballots are then counted in the same way – and they are ONLY for the sick, infirm, military, etc.
AND ANYONE AND EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO WATCH THE PROCESS IS MORE THAN WELCOME – JUST NOT ALLOWED TO TALK OR INTERRUPT
All the ballots are then kept for a very long time in the county office.
This all gets done by the latest 930 PM. And I have never felt more comfortable in my life that the elections are real. This, or something like it, was the way it was done when I was a kid.
Now, all you hear is that we do not have the human resources for this. Somehow we did for many decades. The excuses are largely steaming piles of crap.
I really have become sick and tired of the whole thing – and all the crazy excuses as to why we have to keep doing it this way.
I did consider adding a “yes, Dems are just as bad if not worse” for a number of reasons, including ballot access and primary interference. I don’t doubt that ordinary election workers and volunteers can develop good hand count procedures and perform them carefully and well. I don’t know how many ballots and how many line items were processed by the 6 counters and 2 onlookers, and so have no way to judge how this would translate in time, staffing requirements, and accuracy for higher volumes, more polling places, and ballots with dozens of line items.
The last election – there were about 15 or so different items – and I would guess about 500 or so voters.
Thanks for the numbers. I don’t think it’s a crazy excuse to consider that it isn’t just a matter of increasing human resources. My IL 2022 general election ballot had 97 line items. How to complete the count by 9:30 (or midnight, or within 24 hours) – each voter gets multiple ballots to be distributed to separate teams of counters? more frequent elections with fewer races? fewer elected offices? Before electronic voting equipment voting for most Chicago races was in voting booths, with one or more color-coded paper ballots for things like judicial retention and referenda. I don’t know how long it took to complete the count then, but the city wasn’t considered a model of voting integrity, not particularly due to equipment vulnerability.
Also, to whatever extent it is a matter of increased staffing, these would be the same election workers and volunteers who are disparaged in many Trump-aligned claims of election rigging, even though there are onlookers, CCTV, some form of buddy system, or other procedural controls for their work.
Australian Senate election ballot papers are notoriously complex and are successfully hand counted every time similarly to how IM Doc reports his are. Experienced scrutineers from the local area is the key.
Indeed. One thing that made me sad about moving back to Europe from Oz only shortly after I got citizenship was missing the opportunity to vote in a general election.
*Especially* since my MP was the “mad monk” and former Prime Minister who spectacularly lost his seat at the last General election!
I was selected for jury duty this week – didn’t get summoned, but the government can compel me to report.
The census bureau hires people every 10 years to ask questions of their fellow citizens on behalf of the government.
Used to could get drafted for mandatory military service.
Doesn’t make sense why vote counters couldn’t either be compelled (like jury duty or military service), or temp hired (like census workers) every two years for election week, especially when in 2018 and 2020 the gov’t handed out a combined $805 million to acquire “secure election technology,” to guard against cyber threats that wouldn’t exist if regular people were just hand counting paper ballots.
Another one for the ever-lengthening list of things I don’t understand!
538 was acquired by a bigger media concern, and founder Nate Silver has departed for greener pastures and open fields. Silver has started a substack for his newest effort.
Now that the RNC anointing is complete for Trump, I’ll need to check out what projections look like currently.
https://www.natesilver.net/
He actually has a recent article about the model: https://www.natesilver.net/p/why-i-dont-buy-538s-new-election
It’s not the same model 538 used before; he still owns, and uses, that one.
“I don’t get the 538 prediction”
Nate Silver doesn’t get it either.
https://www.natesilver.net/p/why-i-dont-buy-538s-new-election
Whoops, the posts from griffen and Daniil seem to have come through since I refreshed.
The Dems still need to fundraise, so they need some narrative to keep the big donors around.
They have to present as a viable party to be able to fundraise in 2024 and beyond.
538 to ABC/Disney was an obvious sellout, and Silver left as soon as he could by terms of sale, I’m guessing. His own, improved model and personal horse sense has Trump a strong favorite at this time.
Priming everybody for the computer glitch?
eg
At 11.31 pm – Trump winning more than half the states.
At 11.31.30 – computer glitch with 10 second outage.
At 11.32 pm – Biden winning more than half the states
At 11.33 pm – 538 – ‘all the data said Biden would win’.
“Debts must be repaid” – Expert on Azerbaijan-France relations JAM News
And as it’s been discussed on NC: Debts that can’t be repaid, won’t be repaid.
These days in Baku, the “Congress of Independence Movements from France-Colonized Territories” is taking place. The event is attended by leaders of more than 15 political parties and movements advocating for independence of overseas French territories such as Corsica, Melanesia, Polynesia, and groups of Caribbean and Antillean islands.
—–
Elsewhere in the world, when a second look has been taken at the books, thngs like this have been discovered:
https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/illicit-financial-flows-africa-a-net-creditor-to-the-rest-of-the-world-11887/
Illicit financial flows: Africa a net creditor to the rest of the world
As usual, Michael Hudson has it right. And the only real power the Europeans still have is debt bondage of the Third World (martyred Haiti knows it best…); once the Third World bands together (hopefully under a multipolar umbrella) and refuses to repay those odious debts under the Europeans’ and Americans’ terms, it’ll be the nail in the coffin for the 500yo world dominance (I guess that’s why China making what seems to be mostly reasonable debts which they often forgive or renegotiate is met with such alarm in Western media).
In fact, I’d go as far as to argue that dedollarization in its full scope, as Yves often criticizes, is probably small peanuts in a geopolitical sense in comparison with the end of Global South debt peonage. You can replace the dollars with some other currency or basket of goods or whatever and have very little change; but if you make it so that countries can raise capital and create infrastructure without onerous terms you’ll have a change so radical I can’t even fathom it. That being said, both processes go alongside one another.
A multipolar order must include a break from neoliberal economics – and the unviversities that exalt that type of economics – in order to have a chance of benefiting more than the global elite.
What if Vlad Putin declared a worldwide Jubilee, canceling all debts?
Maybe have the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch make the announcement.
OK, truth is I really, really enjoy heightening contradictions ; )
A great idea! (If he could get Xi to go along …)
One time only introductory BRICS offer:
ALL YOUR DEBTS CANCELED IF YOU DO BUSINESS EXCLUSIVELY WITH US!
Re Karma, bitches–as it happens Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time just did a podcast on karma. And the notion that sins will be punished, virtue rewarded also has a big place in Christianity even if “faith” is wielded by some branches as a get out of jail free card. Being of the lapsed Baptist branch I do buy into the notion that honesty is the best policy in the long run if not the short. As Yves has said “trust” is the lubricant that has traditionally smoothed the economic machine and Cronkite said “credibilitty” was the product the news business was supposed to be selling. That both concepts are currently at low ebb could be why Trump’s Back to the Fifties pitch is finding an audience. It turns out societies do need to work for all that individualism to thrive.
Not that we should take his late life version too seriously but anything would be better than now.
It’s hard to work “all” and “individualism” into the same sentence.
Explicatory footnote to your “Debts must be repaid” – Expert on Azerbaijan-France relations JAM News’ link.
From the same outlet, in 2023 —
“Why does France behave in our region in this way and not otherwise?” View from Baku, JAMnews
https://jam-news.net/why-does-france-behave-in-our-region-in-this-way-and-not-otherwise-view-from-baku/
More here —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashoda_syndrome
Brought to you by the Department of The Past Isn’t Dead, It’s Not Even Past.
Colonialism never went away. It just changed forms!
Colonialism never went away. It just changed forms!
Not much in the French case.
most incidences of genocide are directly related to free trade: Free Market Genocides: The Real History of Trade
https://evonomics.com/free-market-genocide-the-real-history-of-trade/
Free Market Genocides: The Real History of Trade
One reason this hushed-up history matters is that even today economic “rationality” and plunder often remain partners in crime.
September 10, 2022
By Jag Bhalla
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Capitalism
Free Market Genocides: The Real History of Trade
One reason this hushed-up history matters is that even today economic “rationality” and plunder often remain partners in crime.
September 10, 2022
By Jag Bhalla
…
——
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/03/nazi-germanys-american-dream-hitler-modeled-his-concept-of-racial-struggle-and-global-campaign-after-americas-conquest-of-native-americans.html
“Adolf Hitler believed that the racial struggle for survival was a German campaign for dignity, and the restraints were not only biological but British. The world political economy of the 1920s and 1930s was, as Hitler understood, structured by British naval power.
British advocacy of free trade, he believed, was political cover for British domination of the world. A prosperous Germany required exchange with the British world, but this trade pattern could be supplemented, thought Hitler, by the conquest of a land empire that would even the scales between London and Berlin. Once it had gained the appropriate colonies, Germany could preserve its industrial excellence while shifting its dependence for food from the British-controlled sea lanes to its own imperial hinterland.”
…
————————
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/11/its-happening-here-a-us-version-of-fascism/
“”The root cause of our political distress lies with a liberal class that places corporate and personal profit above the common good. Liberals have conspired, since the presidency of Bill Clinton, to strip the country of manufacturing, and with it, jobs that sustained the working class. They have been partners in the transformation of democratic institutions into tools to consolidate the power and wealth of corporations and the ruling oligarchs.
They forgot the fundamental lesson of fascism. Fascism is always the bastard child of bankrupt liberalism. This was true in Weimar Germany. It was true in Italy. It was true in the former Yugoslavia with its warring ethnic factions. And it is true in the United States.
We were warned. The seeds of fascism, like the climate emergency, were apparent decades ago. The leading scholars of fascism told us that unless American society halted its slide to ever greater levels of social inequality and returned democratic power to a betrayed populace, fascism would metastasize and consume the state. The ruling class, blinded by greed, a lust for power and willful ignorance, was as deaf to these warnings as they were to those of climate scientists.
This failure, coupled with the refusal by the ruling class to address the dislocation and financial distress of workers and their families who flocked to the megachurches, ensured the ascendancy of our homegrown fascism. We would either reintegrate the working class into society, which meant well-paying stable jobs and a halt to the mercenary exploitation by corporations, I wrote then, or continue down the road to fascism. Now, here we are.” ”
…
—–
FDR understood how free trade drove fascism,
FDR imposed protective tariffs immediately to favor agro-industrial recovery on all fronts ending years of rapacious free trade.
https://matthewehret.substack.com/p/how-to-crush-a-bankers-dictatorship
How to Crush a Bankers’ Dictatorship: How the Great Reset of 1933 Was Thwarted by FDR
Matthew Ehret
Feb 21
9
…
> Free Market Genocides: The Real History of Trade
>> To present a key puzzle pictorially, for the benefit of the the Pinker-reading data-driven rational optimist do-gooders: if globalization is really all about lifting billions out of poverty, why has the gap between the rich and poor nations basically never not been growing?
Water cooler:
>> However, “The purpose of a system is what it does,” says Stafford Beer, designer of the Cybersim system for Allende (“There is ‘no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do’”).
A funny implication of Ehret’s argument is that, Trump, with his interest in reindustralization through trade barriers, is the greatest hope for restoring democracy in this election, exactly the opposite of the Dem propaganda.
Re the Fashoda Incident. At first the French and British were pointing their guns at each other when the British arrived but then Lord Kitchener met Marchand and things quickly settled down and they became friends with each other. They agreed to fly the French, British & Egyptian flags, settle down to daily life and let Paris and London sort it all out where both capitols were going nuts. I always thought that a good example.
If I remember correctly, the column led by Marchand had to fight off the Mahdists when progressing towards Fashoda. The French and the British were not going to fight each other when a common enemy (a powerful polity of rebellious natives) was threatening both of them.
And this. Good God.
Labour’s new defence adviser Fiona Hill: from the White House to Whitehall
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/19/labour-defence-adviser-fiona-hill
Labour insiders well appreciate that Hill is not the route to boost relations with Trump. But she brings with her … valuable knowledge of Washington’s vast national security apparatus …. Her background points to another aspect of Labour’s plans. Labour wants the defence industry to form part of Britain’s regeneration, although an embrace of the arms trade may not be popular with some of the party’s traditional supporters
Jesus wept. These warmongers keep popping up all over the West like whack-a-moles.
Stuff like that (giving national security secrets to foreign enemies) used to be called treason. I hope the new admin actually does something about that.
Stuff like that (giving national security secrets to foreign enemies) used to be called treason.
Hill is British. Dual citizen for work purposes, presumably, before she got out of the US for the obvious reasons.
As was, and have, I.
Great Britain is an enemy? News to me, and to them… Newly elected Starmer was over here licking boots at the NATO summit only a week or so ago. Also Fiona Hill’s married to a US citizen, and holds albeit obnoxious views that fit within a strand of US thinking: Neocon.
There have been other stories of congress people who bedded Chinese spies or journalists who married South Korean spies. Perhaps you’re thinking of them.
Great Britain is an enemy?
It’s going to be the first Islamist state with nukes, according to J.D. Vance.
That’s hyperbole, but the pictures I saw out of Leeds today seemed somewhat disturbing…
I do consider Britain, Israel, and France, as well as Japan and South Korea, to be at least adversaries if not outright enemies of United States. Even worse than actual enemies because their pretend-friendship allows their agents like Christopher Steele and, apparently, Fionna Hill, to influence our politics in a manner that I consider unacceptable in directions contrary to US interests. I can’t remember where exactly, but someone (Alastair Crooke, I think) noted that, in a private conversation while he was still Israeli PM, Ariel Sharon described United States as an adversary to Israel in the long run as US interests and Israeli goals do not align. I think his view, certainly from Israeli perspective, is not wrong and everyone should follow his thinking, at least in this dimension. In this vein, I think it’s healthy for us to be wary of our alleged allies interfering brazenly in our politics and, where applicable, treat them and their agents as hostiles.
Neocons are primarily a Jewish American phenomenon. There are supposedly some British ones, but the only other one I am aware of is Niall Ferguson who became a US citizen some time ago. Fiona Hill learned to be one on her scholarship at Harvard. She certainly didn’t learn to be one at Bishop Auckland Comprehensive (high school), and I very much doubt she learned it at St Andrews where she learned Russian. To give you some context, Bishop Auckland is dirt poor, her father was a miner, and then a porter at a hospital — one of the lowest paying jobs in the UK. Her scholarship was her ticket to a wealthy life, and she obviously was very very grateful to those who lifted her out of her previous life… in particular a certain Neocon Richard Pipes. She too became a US citizen.
Christopher Steele is a crook, but quite honestly if you bothered to read his dossier which was released by Buzzfeed, it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that it was complete and utter rubbish. I read it, and it was what convinced me that Russiagate was nonsense. Clearly all those who argued it was true did so because they wanted it to be true, and those people were mostly Americans… a certain Hillary for example who paid for it.
There is something very interesting about the modern world: one can spend the effort to the source documents, in which case the world is very simple. Or one can listen to an infinite amount of commentary about those documents/speeches/whatever, and end up with some very strange views. I recommend spending the time to find and read the source documents whenever one can. It saves a lot of mental effort.
I do consider Israel to be an adversary of the US. The UK… not so much. You’re not much of an adversary when you let the US maintain your “independent” nuclear deterrent. You’re more of a poodle.
I consider him a crook, but that’s my interpretation and he might have been mislead, although that really stretches the bounds of my credibility detector. Here’s what the NYTimes had to say about what we know of the dossier in 2017.
Yet, British persons exercise disproportionate influence in US policymaking. I don’t know what exactly (is it British accent?), but many Americans, especially liberals nowadays, think Brits are somehow credible. So, even if they might lack material independence, Brits can steer American policy (and elites) against American interests far more than it should be able to, based on just material “power.” If a country can and does manipulate our political leaders against American interests, then they are adversaries to us, as far as I’m concerned. And if a person X has become an American citizen and act as a tool in such manipulation, then that’s traitor (look at it this way: Benedict Arnold was born British, technically, but that doesn’t make him a non-traitor.)
Are you kidding me? Fiona Hill? Could there possibly be a better signal of Labour’s (and Britain’s) complete devotion to US hegemony? Hill, student of Richard Pipes, perfect representative of the neoliberal “Atlanticist” faction of the neocons (i.e. the faction posing as the “good guys” that are going to *save* us from the right-wing fascists). Of all the actors contributing to the first impeachment effort, Hill was the one that shook me the most. This was because of her own obvious sense of intellectual certainty combined with her obliviousness. A perfect example of the type of “expertise” that is destroying us.
Just more confirmation of my assessment of Labour today – not that I really needed any more evidence.
Taibbi and Kirn pointed out in their podcast that Christopher Steele just reappeared on the anti Trump front. Seriously, this is getting ridiculous.
pjay: Could there possibly be a better signal of Labour’s (and Britain’s) complete devotion to US hegemony?
That’s naive, I’d argue. There’s widespread recognition in the UK that the US is declining/collapsing. Hill left the US for that reason. There are reasons for Starmer to take her on (though you won’t like them):
[1] As Palmerston said, nations have permanent interests. Hill’s Washington connections and potential capability to help work out arrangements there that serve the UK’s interests while the US declines could be useful.
For instance, the UK rides on the City of London. Specifically, when you hear that the US dollar is the global reserve currency, what you’re not hearing is that something like 93-95 percent of dollars traded worldwide are not US dollars controlled by the Fed. They’re ‘eurodollars’ — a currency arguably no more ‘real’ than Bitcoin — which were originally created by London banks on the basis of underlying US dollars those banks came to hold by providing tax havens to US citizens and corporations in the 1950s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurobond_(external_bond)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurodollar
Hence, while the City is now the biggest renminbi trading center outside China, for instance, the transition to whatever’s next needs to be managed. Other matters to be negotiated include that Labour plans no tariffs on Chinese EV imports, forex, and no doubt there’ll be US/Trump administration pressures to be dealt with on that score.
[2] Arms sales.
https://www.statista.com/chart/12221/the-worlds-biggest-arms-companies/
After the top five arms manufacturing corporations, Lockheed Martin and the usual US suspects, in sixth place is the UK’s BAE Systems (ahead of the two biggest Chinese arms companies in seventh and eighth position). As a more prominent NATO player — as with Starmer hosting the recent Blenheim conference — the UK can expand weapons sales while playing up the Russian threat.
What you say makes sense to me, and I don’t dispute the US decline. But Britain is also in decline, and however much NATO policies might hurt the US in the long term, it seems like they will hurt Britain more, and more quickly. Rather than use a simplistic shorthand like “Britain’s devotion to US hegemony,” I should acknowledge that there are relatively autonomous interests in Britain that stand to benefit, at least in the shorter-term, from these disastrous policies. Promoting them requires ideologues. Hill fits right in. Regarding China, I’ll be interested to see how the new government walks that line, one that I believe the rest of Europe is dealing with as well. With Hill, the Russia “expert,” I guess my thoughts go to that topic. Good luck with any “help” she might provide on that issue.
pjay: however much NATO policies might hurt the US in the long term, it seems like they will hurt Britain more, and more quickly
Perhaps. Depends how sincere Starmer is about those NATO policies.
This sincere, it seems.
UK will not help Ukraine hit targets in Russia, defence secretary says
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/19/uk-will-not-help-ukraine-hit-targets-in-russia-defence-secretary-says
Is that skunk on the photo running for office?
if so, not sure about his platform, but smells about right
Naw, it’s raising it’s tail ’cause it has Covid.
NC wanted to start a Skunk Party! Seriously, we have a Skunk Party Manifesto!
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/11/47719.html
But starting parties takes a lot of work and money too :-(
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/02/skunk-party-barriers-entry-political-action.html
there’s always the United States Pirate Party
https://uspirates.org/platform/
I remember it well. The perfect mascot for everyone so disaffected they don’t vote. We could still do it and wear lapel pins of a skunk asking “Why?” And other good merch.
The antidote made me chuckle immediately. I remember an NC idea a few years ago advocating for a skunk political party.
Experts see ‘mismatch’ between US utility planning cycles and data center builds – S&P Global
Which reminds me…
Here’s an idea to address that matter coming from one of the mainstream media’s favorite Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni:
Altman’s $3.7 Billion Fusion Startup Leaves Scientists Puzzled
https://archive.ph/QzSaY/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-18/sam-altman-s-helion-energy-promises-fusion-power-by-2028?srnd=homepage-americas/
I thought actual, thorough peer review meant more than publishing papers – which is how Altman’s team presents the meaning of peer review in this article.
I’m guessing they’re going with the OceanGate School of Science and Technology on this one.
But the scientists around here may see something different.
Interesting Stoller on Vance. By this take Vance–who Kirn calls a California person more than an Ohio–would be taking the side of those who want to re-atomize the web and diminish the dominance of Google. That Google’s once claimed benevolence is not to be trusted now seems obvious as Google allies with the censors and would be information controllers.
Of course the alternative may not be so benevolent either but choices are good. The Dems see their alliance with Big Tech as a mans of control. Is a Silicon Valley political war on the horizon?
Stoller, Cass and Vance all appear oblivious to the climate crisis. The working class folks they claim to care about will be the first to be washed out of the hollers (Kentucky in 2023), flooded in the swamps (as in Houston and New Orleans), burned up in the fires (as in Maui) and starved by the high food prices brought on by crop losses in floods and drought. There is no higher priority than addressing the absolutely necessary need to stop further carbon emissions. How that’s achieved can be guided by degrowthers like Jason Hickel who seek to eliminate non-essential emissions from the conspicuous consumption of the affluent while undertaking an expansion of public goods available to all.
As you noted above, the Repubs are sounding a Back to the Fifties call as the cure for our problems. Dinah Shore singing “See the USA in your Chevrolet” just gets us deeper into disaster. Somebody has to get real with the citizenry or our collective ability to manage this transition will end quite soon.
By the same token the measures that would really impact AGW would affect the poor more than the wealthy who can manage without their yachts and jets. Our transportation system–much of it created in the fifties when TPTB claimed to not know about AGW–cannot easily be changed although certainly the absurdity of so many giant pickup trucks, camping but only in huge RVs etc is something I’ve commented on many times. Without a doubt the AGW denial coming out of the Trumpies isn’t helpful, but this summer Nature seems to be putting out its own message. Therefore what once was denial is now more like defiance.
And the Biden approach isn’t any better. No doubt the notion of waving his hand and forcing a switch to EVs appealed to his authoritarian nature whether practical or not.
Musk is an EV guy and is now supporting Trump so perhaps the global warming issue will find some hearing from the Trumpies once the election is over.
” measures that would really impact AGW would affect the poor more than the wealthy”
As Hickel and others point out, pursuing a market-based approach (like somewhat subsidized EVs) is what hurts the poor. What’s required is prohibition of the conspicuous consumption beloved by the affluent, income redistribution and an expansion of public goods in the areas of housing, education and health care along with a reduction in defense expenditures. It’s possible to shrink the economy while improving the lives of the poor, but capitalism has to go.
From Hickel:
“capitalism has to go”
Well I’ve said that too. Even Carolinians can be commies.
Perhaps it’s the “all politics are local” problem and unless your house is about to be flooded under the ocean or you live in 117 degree Phoenix AGW may still be an abstract problem compared to “concrete material benefits.”
So abstractly we all want to save the planet but self preservation for the overwhelming majority will always be job one. And for the wealthy, who see their lifestyle and privileges as part of their identity, any threat of “leveling” is about self preservation psychologically speaking. In other words it’s real Nature versus human nature–at least as I see it.
Ultimately warming caused disasters may have to become drastic enough to force more action. In the meantime species will be lost but that’s happened in the past.
I don’t disagree with “capitalism has to go” in principle, but that in no way would ensure that degrowth won’t become a boot stomping on (politically disadvantaged) human face forever. If it’s not market, it will have to be some kind of “political” solution, with the mechanisms designed/controlled by some people who are “more equal than others.” They have friends and enemies, or people whom they like and hate. They will use what means they have to let their friends cheat and hurt their enemies. It can NEVER be implemented fairly and that sets the stage for more corruption, except with a massive reform of governance where the power is wielded with such credibility that is justly earned. I don’t see that happening any time soon, in absence of a massive disaster where some great and heroic people emerge (and a massive disaster more likely means that we go extinct rather than heroes emerge). If the climate change is the disaster, we are not at the “massive” (as in everyone, not just the people in Phoenix, proverbially speaking, feels it.) stage yet, I think, and instead of heroes, I fear that we are getting grifters at least at the moment.
It appears to me that we are at that point in the Limits to Growth production curve where the slope becomes negative. It’s downhill from here no matter anyone’s efforts to keep growth going when measured globally. Degrowth is an approach for dealing with the reality. Business As Usual is a failure to deal with that reality.
The people camped under the Degrowth banner do so because they believe that a failure to acknowledge our situation and to plan for it dooms the least powerful. If we switch goals–and the Meadows-style systems thinking is foundational–and strive to make life livable for everyone under difficult circumstances rather than worshiping profit and growth, we could make things a lot less awful than they’re going to be if we continue on our current course.
I don’t think we disagree on the premise–that we are runnig out of room for “growth.” I do think we are disagreeing about the fundamental political/social problem this is intoducing. The nice political property of growth is that you can give everyone more without taking things from someone else. With degrowth, we are not even talking about a zero sum game, but a negative sum one. On the net, everyone has to lose and you have to come up with a credible mechanism for getting people to give their stuff up, and where applicable, give more to (or at least limit the sacrifice from) those who are more “deserving” (and gtet most people to accept why they are so deserving, when everyone has to lose) . I don’t think this is a problem that can be tackled, except with a few major miracles and even then, I don’t think I’d expect it to be actually possible–definitely as a long term program. In fact, this is the sort of thing that generally sparks revolutions and massive social unrest. The only way this will be doable is by lots of bombs and mass murder on a scale not seen at least since Genghis Khan, I think.
My shorthand phrase for the pessismistic path to degrowth being non-consensual and violent is, “a Green Pol Pot.”
Capitalism doesn’t have to go, as in privately owned means of production or whatever. The power of the owners’ class to trnasform their material status in political power must be curtailed as much as possible, so that political decisions are made and implemented for the benefit of the population at large and demagogic propaganda is curtailed drastically as well as smartly.
If some private entreprise can pay and blasts adds denying climate change, Government adds, or NGOs on behalf of government can place adds for free deemed as public benefiting adds.
Mainly for Lambert:
Latest Trillbillies episode, the guys disavowed their reputed anti-Vance leadership. Sexton said Vance is a hillbilly, end of story. Tarence said those early episodes are embarrassing to listen to now, and no one should listen to anything he predicts because his track record is terrible. They also spent some time explaining how they think Vance draws some wrong conclusions from his experience before saying his major skill is sucking up to rich people.
I thought Vance came from a $250,000 house in the Ohio burbs….
Well, I’ll defer to Sexton but I believe he pointed to geography (Appalachia includes the eastern counties in Ohio) and ethnicity (Vance is Scots Irish). They also mentioned elements from Appalachian studies appearing in his book, noting that AS is a common path taken by those who seek a way out through education, themselves included. Marine Corp enlistment (in as private, promoted to corporal) seems on point too, as is parental addiction and being raised by a grandparent.
Not to get all PC but implying you can’t be a hillbilly if you lived in a suburban house might be a bit of stereotyping.
“India is not destined to be the next China”
Never thought that it would, even though both India and China are capitalist countries. India has two factors which act as heavy drag-chains on their progress. The first is their caste system which persists to this day. And so long as it endures, untold number of talented Indians are not able to contribute to India’s development because of an accident of birth. As it turns out, neoliberalism has the same effect by creating an elite class who tend to hog higher education places, executive jobs, etc. The second thing that holds India back is the poverty of so many of its people. Through sheer hard work, China has virtually eliminated poverty in their country and those people are now able to take part in their country and become consumers of Chinese products. India, with it’s hundreds of millions of impoverished people does not have that luxury. So India will always be behind China because of these factors.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1qmXN
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China and India, 1977-2023
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1qmXS
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China and India, 1977-2023
(Indexed to 1977)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1pNpG
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for European Union, United States, China and India, 1977-2023
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1pNpI
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for European Union, United States, China and India, 1977-2023
(Indexed to 1977)
In other words, could we then say that one factor that made a big difference was China being a communist country, in contrast to India?
India was for long time quasi socialist.
However, the fact that India is a diverse country ethnically with the indo-europeans coming late instituting the cast system with the Laws of Manu and the fact that India is more like a federation, with only true centralization being created by the British, in a very inorganic way, while China has a very long history of strong, capable centralized governments able to create conditions for some level of prosperity for the masses as well, also plays an important factor in keeping India down. Maybe in 500 years, the Indian state will become more capable… But by then Indus and Brahmaputra will be barely trickling from the Tibetan plateau…
Crowdstrike in the news again… where have I heard that name? Aren’t they the company that provided the cover for the Clinton campaign’s false claim that their emails were taken by a Russian ‘election interference’ operation, rather than by disgruntled employee Seth Rich?
Their main gig, being owned by a Ukrainian, was finding ‘evidence’ of well-known hacks that they attributed to Russia. They were so bad even Ukraine had to call B.S. on them at one point.
More to the crash than meets the eye, so.
If one were paranoid, one might imagine a Deep State plan to shock the U.S. / the West with a “one-two punch,” to be blamed on Russia and/or Iran.
Trump’s assassination was to have been followed by a worldwide cyberattack, triggering a stampede to war and loss of civil liberties — as 9/11 was followed by anthrax?
After a quirk of fate foiled punch #1, punch #2 was supposed to be called off but someone goofed and allowed a piece of the planned malware to be released?
</wmg> (“wild mass guessing”)
So to follow this is Russian revenge not Crowdstrike incompetence, which will surely be proven by MSM. /s
“Slovakia and Hungary say Ukraine suspended transit of Lukoil oil”
I’m kinda betting that when the Ukraine finally collapses, the final swan song for the Ukraine will be to bomb and destroy all those pipelines criss-crossing the country in an act of spite.
I’ve been thinking about that pic of Genocide Joe walking up the steps to Airforce one, unmasked.
Deliberately exposing every one on board to a highly contagious Pathogen that has killed 800,000 Americans since he took office.
It was another one of Joe’s dominance displays, like his public molestations of litttle girls when he knows he is on camera.
The fact that it put innocent lives ( The pilots, his protective detail, stewards) and their families at risk is of no concern to Joe.
As to Joe’s Posse, effem.
It will be interesting to see how many on board come down with Covid in the next week or so…
I wonder if we’d even know if it was real or not. We don’t have any testing or contact tracing in place. One of the aids could have acquired an infection and be revealed as a casualty of our dear leaders sacred aerosols, thereby providing proof Joe is in fact sick and hasn’t been put in time out while Nancy and Jill argue over what happens next.
Putting on my tin foil hat. I don’t think Biden has tested positive for covid. My opinion is that the Biden campaign will use the “positive test” as an excuse to move Biden out.
Taibbi and Kirn livestreaming now about last night’s RNC convention and other things. Christopher Steele of the infamous dossier is showing up again in the MSM. utube.
RNC Recap
https://www.youtube.com/live/w1U47fr0T7M
I’ll see you on the back side of the Moon, 55 years ago today.
There is no dark side of the moon, really . . . Matter of fact, it’s all dark.
(thump! . . . thump! . . . thump!)
🫀 … 🫀 … 🫀 …
California Faces a Brutal Wildfire Season, With More Land Burned to Date Than in Recent Years Smithsonian
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Had 20 minutes of hard rain along with thunder & lightning in Mineral King yesterday, and this summer seems more conducive to lightning storms than years past. Typically the bolts don’t really show up until August, but that was then and this is now.
We have a number of conflagrations burning to the north & south of us, the Trout Fire down south seems the biggest danger, now @ 10,500 acres, with 0% containment. It’s too far away to be a problem, aside from it’s smoke coming our way.
Barkan says “Donald Trump is Democrat Failure”. Change “Democrat” to “US Political Class” and it’s fixed.
Re: Covid in CA. In my little central CA coastal town, I know five people in the last week that caught it. Certainly going around. I got lucky again, I gave my ex girlfriend a peck on the lips when saying goodbye last week. The next day she tested and was positive. Dodged a bullet in 2022 when roommate came back from the east coast and came down with it.
No rabbit foot, just lucky.
Since we’re obviously Living in the End Times(tm), what comfort foods are you all considering as the digital world and the political world melts down in the west to the accompanying sound of drones murdering impoverished children?
I’m trying to perfect a pizza dough recipe. It is selfish and useless and privileged and all of that. But given my vote doesn’t matter and there’s no hope for change in any of the issues I’m concerned about, I can at least make some yummy food to share with friends and family. Any suggestions from the commentariat about good recipes to try? You know, before one of our insane leaders decides we can all benefit from a small exchange of tactical nukes?
Pretty much all Indian vegetarian recipes. I’m eating healthier, spending less, and generally enjoying meals more. Start with any of Madhur Jaffrey or Julie Sahani’s recipe books.
1/2 cup 00 flour
1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 cup semolina flour
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp instant yeast
1/2 cup + approximately 1/6 cup slightly warm water, be careful adding water at the end, you don’t want it too wet
Rise until double
Makes two approximately 9″ diameter crusts
Works for us, YMMV
Toast of my wife made demi-white home bread, with butter and thin slices of macedonian feta, which reminds me a bit of the romanian “feta” – we call it telemea. In 1100s, an interal civil war went on in the Bizantine empire because an onerous tax was placed on the valach (galawach) – romanized sheperds in the Balkans to the benefit of the greeks.
What Lies Beneath bioGraphic. The deck: “With their astounding sense of smell and ability to find what humans can’t see, dogs are quickly becoming some of conservationists’ best friends.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Black bears have a sense of smell 7x as strong as dogs…
Yeah, they’re harder to put a leash on and whatnot, but wouldn’t they make a better match for sleuthing via smell?
The difference in innate sociality between bears and dogs is considerable and would likely account for the difference in their utility. But if you want to raise and train a bear I’ll watch with great interest from a safe distance.
It has been done. The most interesting case I have read was of a Russian army platoon that raised a cub from just a baby. I think it was adjacent to the Crimean war. The bear just became one of the gang. He walked upright most of the time and even carried ammunition in his arms. I think he also drank with the men. Probably beer not vodka. Wish I had a link.
I don’t know how many ammo-carrying beer-drinking bears could have been out there, but I know about Iranian-Polish one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear)
When we first bought our place in the mountains we would just come up on the weekends.This was before I made a fenced compost bin. I would bury the garbage and next time up would see the bear dug it up. I buried it deeper and the bear dug it up. I buried it much deeper and the bear dug it up. I buried it deep and soaked the ground but that didn’t work either.
There was a shed and we started putting our refuse in there until we could transport it away. I awoke one night to the sound of fwap fwap fwap and looked out the window to see the bear tearing the siding off the shed.
I am pretty sure they can gauge the ripeness of fruit from miles away and have the uncanny ability to harvest said same just before I was going to.
Train them to find truffles.
Re: Nina Illingworth
I haven’t read Nina in a while. I guess the assassination attempt really got to her, given her fervent plea for everyone to tone down the rhetoric and just get along. Should be read side-by-side with Melania’s letter!
LOL! There’s Trump derangement – then there’s Nina. I’ve got to admit I’ve enjoyed her verbiage in the past when it was aimed at actual fascists. But if the “real Americans” at the Republican convention need any more evidence that “leftists” really are insane and dangerous and should be locked up, this is some excellent bulletin board material.
She sounds exactly like my unhinged and clueless PMC friends. They have had a bad couple of weeks, so their level of unhinged has risen a notch or two.
But, is she wrong?
Sarcasm? Surely not a serious question, I hope.
Greatest IT catastrophe of our lifetimes. Many hospital systems unable to function. 911 services down in many states. All US flights for most major airlines were cancelled in the early AM.
One clown at Crowdstrike can push a button and send the US back to the 1980s.
Industry consolidation is way more of a threat than any ‘foreign adversary’ it would seem…
So Trump and Biden agree about one thing: this election is all about Trump.
Philippines vs. China heating-up:
Marcos issued a war letter to China！U.S. commander clamored: a person was killed and the U.S. military fought
The situation in the South China Sea has recently been turbulent, and the statement of Philippine President Marcos seems to have added new types of fire to the storm. He made it clear that the Philippines will fight China’s actions in the South China Sea, which can be regarded as a challenge to China.
It is expected that in the coming weeks, the Philippine government will formulate a series of plans to act against China, showing a firm stance against China.
https://www.sohu.com/a/794510581_121199690
(Machine-translation, sorry)