Links 7/23/2024

Subscribe to Post Comments

219 comments

1. Antifa July 23, 2024 at 7:00 am

   PALESTINE
   (melody borrowed from Red Red Wine  by Neil Diamond, as performed by UB40)

   Palestine
   One million dead
   Decades of genocide
   The world sees it so

   Palestine
   Not only for the Jew
   This land’s for everyone
   It always was so
   Always was so

   To be born in our time
   Is to live as walking dead
   Death is always in mind
   It’s a thing no child forgets

   Palestine
   River to sea
   This is the land I love
   The Jews have no heart
   One day they’ll depart

   As we mourn each war crime
   Weary stunned and underfed
   We’re not lost or resigned
   We’ll be free as we have said

   Palestine
   River to sea
   This is the land I love
   The Jews have no heart
   One day they’ll depart

   Palestine
   River to sea
   This is the land I love
   The Jews have no heart
   One day they’ll depart
   1. Louis Fyne July 23, 2024 at 9:22 am

      interesting Palestine news…

      https://x.com/SpiritofHo/status/1815699343497630081

      14 parties and organizations have signed the “Beijing Declaration” in a key move toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
      1. JTMcPhee July 23, 2024 at 1:33 pm

         I’m not finding a full text of the Agreement. How big a role for the Palestinian Authority, the successors to the horrendous lootery operated by that disgusting rogue, Yasir Arafat?

         A broad cataloguing of the way he built the intentionally corrupt and murderous foundations of current Israel/Palestine: “ In a Ruined Country: How Yasir Arafat destroyed Palestine,” https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/09/in-a-ruined-country/304167/
2. zagonostra July 23, 2024 at 7:27 am

   Gaza – While the facts are horrible, it is important that they get out. The doctor discussed how snipers are targeting children, which the press has shied away from admitting:

   Someone who won’t shy away from admitting the carnage and slaughter of children is Rep. Brian J. Mast of Florida District 21. I happened to be on an Allegiant flight from PBI to PIT yesterday morning and on the adjacent flight preparing for take-off from PBI to DCA was Rep. Mast. His two prosthetic legs made him easy to identify in the crowd. He wore a neatly pressed suit with a pink striped tie and a button on his label. I accosted him and told him that the images of children being slaughtered with aid from the U.S. made me sick, that there has to be a better solution to achieve peace. I asked how he could justify such horrendous killing of civilians whose images come to me each day on my phone. He was unperturbed, face smooth and calm with a patronizing smile playing on his lips. He told me wars kill people, including innocents. I protested that this wasn’t a war, that the Palestinians huddled in tents have no weapons. The conversation went back and forth and lasted a couple of minutes ranging over various topics.

   In retrospect, I’m ashamed that after the repartee and back and forth, when he stuck out his hand to shake mine, I took it. I should have walked away. As I waited in line I could see him in line talking amicably with a constituent. Unlike the press, Rep Brian J. Mast doesn’t shy away from the bloodshed of innocent, he told me himself that we are at war and that Israel is an ally and we need to support them no matter the slaughter of innocents.
   1. pjay July 23, 2024 at 10:00 am

      I was curious and looked up Mast in Wikipedia. An interesting bio, one increasingly common in Congress I think. Former soldier injured in Afghanistan. It included this passage:

      “Mast is “a vocal supporter of Israel and Israelis”, reported The Times of Israel during his 2016 campaign. “If anyone was lobbing rockets into the US, guys like me would be sent to kill them, and Americans would applaud us,” he said.[14] In January 2015, Mast volunteered with the Israel Defense Forces through Sar-El, working at a base outside Tel Aviv packing medical kits and moving supplies.[14][74] Following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Mast wore his IDF uniform in Congress…”

      “On November 1, 2023, in arguing for a bill to reduce humanitarian funding to Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war, Mast compared Palestinian civilians to the civilians of Nazi Germany during World War II, saying: ‘I would encourage the other side to not so lightly throw around the idea of innocent Palestinian civilians, as is frequently said, I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term ‘innocent Nazi civilians’ during World War II. It is not a far stretch to say there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians…”

      Nice. So I guess he won’t be boycotting Netanyahu’s address to Congress.
   2. 123 July 23, 2024 at 10:03 am

      Can’t get past your comment. It will stay with me a long time. Since I think you’re from Pennsylvania, I’m wondering if instead of seeing Mast, you would have bumped into Fetterman at the airport; how would that have turned out? So many willing killers leading the USofA. So, so sick.
   3. Antifa July 23, 2024 at 10:31 am

      His District is among the top 20 Jewish Districts in the country. Further south, Districts 23 and 25 are also on that top 20 list, according to the Jewish Telegraph Agency website.

      They have a map of these 20 top Districts.

      With 25% of his District voters of Jewish faith, and over 65, Representative Mast can hardly do other than steep himself in the mythologies behind Israel’s absurd Hasbara spin. No doubt, if he had a completely different demographic to represent, he would sing along with that choir. He is a politician, after all.
   4. Alice X July 23, 2024 at 10:37 am

      Anyone who cannot see the innocence of children does not have a human heart.
      1. Vandemonian July 23, 2024 at 1:13 pm

         …and should not be allowed to pretend that they are entitled to masquerade as a member of civilised human society.
   5. Tyco Haldeman July 23, 2024 at 12:50 pm

      They lied about Vietnam, and WMDs, and Syrian chemical attacks.
      They lied about the banks and the bail-outs.
      They lied about the Russians stealing the election.
      They lied about Covid.
      They lied about “gender affirming” health care.
      They lied about Ukraine and about Gaza.
      They lied about Trumps’ secret service protection.
      They are lying about Biden’s health.

      And we all can agree that tomorrow they will be lying about something else.

      But they never lied about World War 2! They would never do that.

      There was so much non-lying going about the most complicated and violent mass phenomenon the history of the species that only evil people would suggest otherwise. The truth of WW2 is so obvious that you are not allowed to question or reconsider upon pain of imprisonment 17 countries.
   6. everydayjoe July 25, 2024 at 2:13 am

      Thanks for sharing this. Cold blooded congress men we have giddy with power.
      You are brave for confronting him.
3. Terry Flynn July 23, 2024 at 7:29 am

   Re UK uni catastrohpe re universities. Good.

   The polytechnics should never have been relabelled as universities (in the name of some egalitarian nonsense) during the 1980s. They served a valuable role as they were, producing people who had far more practical or applied skills. Only the most blind can fail to see that we need trained electricians, plumbers and a host of others with “higher level skills that are nevertheless not deemed to be worthy”.

   Members of my family went mental when I entertained thoughts of going to a polytechnic to learn applied skills regarding accountancy/book-keeping and business studies rather than the “proper subject” (Economics) at a “proper university”. I then spent 20 years unlearning the dross that Cambridge University taught me. Fundamental rethink required.
   1. Colonel Smithers July 23, 2024 at 7:43 am

      Thank you, Terry.

      I don’t disagree.

      It will be interesting to see what happens.

      The Blair business empire was first founded on lets in university towns, especially Bristol and Manchester. Therefore, a bail out may suit the family.

      Euan Blair, the eldest child, has vocational training and AI businesses, including the Sunaks as minority investors, so may want competition from universities out of the way.

      One wonders what Blair will counsel Starmer.
   2. .Tom July 23, 2024 at 8:13 am

      > Fundamental rethink required

      Abolish the universities, I say. What social benefit do they offer? Mostly they manufacture class division and produce the trustworthy minions for maintenance of the status quo.
   3. Aurelien July 23, 2024 at 9:31 am

      I have to agree. I remember the relabelling episode well, not least because there was a great deal of sark at the time about the PR changes to institutional names: South-East Staffordshire Polytechnic becomes University of Central England, and such. But more importantly, the relabelling simply encouraged the Polys even further down the road of aping universities and dropping their original functions, and by sleight of hand made it look as though a far higher proportion of young people in the UK were in university.

      The reality is that only about 20% of young people are fitted for university courses, and it’s cruel and misleading to tell others that they are. Those others are better off elsewhere, learning something useful and avoiding crushing student debts. I don’t think Blair ever realised that if you make universities into private-sector operations, they could go bankrupt. Clever, that.
      1. Colonel Smithers July 23, 2024 at 10:29 am

         Thank you and well said, Aurelien.

         Circa 2010, I attended a workshop on the orderly liquidation of banks and was stunned to see some representatives from universities, but not so much for the utilities.

         That can was kicked down the road, but there’s little road left.

         It’s interesting that you mention Blair. Many of the overpaid and over here administrators were his (and Clinton) cheerleaders.
      2. ACPAL July 23, 2024 at 10:39 am

         We have a similar problem here in the US. If you actually get to know people rather than reading about them in books or through research experimentation you quickly learn that not everyone is suited for universities. I think that Aurelien’s 20% is a fair approximation. People’s skills are random in that some are good at academics, some at art, some at mechanics, and so forth. Even within academics some will quickly learn algebra while others will never understand it. We’re all different and should be allowed to be what we are.

         On the other hand schools, including K-12, are structured assuming everyone is alike as if we all come off an assembly line. These schools teach math, history (how many people use what they learned about Napoleon?), and other subjects that are sometimes never used throughout a person’s lifetime. I have a coffee cup sleeve that says “Yet Another day Has Passed Without Me Using Algebra Once.” I think that it speaks volumes about our education system as well as our society.

         Our education system, starting with K-12, should be structured around the same range of skills that people actually have. Further they should be structured to educate students in those things they’ll need in their daily lives such as customs and laws. Anatomy by itself has almost no value to most people but combined with first-aid and a broader knowledge of medicine (who doesn’t deal with bruises, cuts, digestive disorders, diseases, and such on a regular basis) would reduce our dependence on a bloated healthcare system. Yet almost everything taught in these schools is devoid of practical applications.

         I tried substituting in K-12 and with 20-30 students per teacher I gave up quickly. I found little discipline, children that evolution created to be out hunting rather than trying to learn math they’ll never use, and an education system and society that failed to understand human nature let alone nourish it. The Universities are designed to cater to the “20%” and little is offered to the rest.

         Just another way our society fails.
         1. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 11:52 am

            https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/081815/student-loan-assetbacked-securities-safe-or-subprime.asp/
            Student Loan Asset-Backed Securities (SLABS)

            At least in the USA, that’s what a lot of this “Oh, everybody needs to go to college…” mess is really about.
            I don’t know what regulations other countries have, but I bet this garbage is being sold all over the globe.
         2. ArcadiaMommy July 23, 2024 at 1:16 pm

            I could not disagree more about not using algebra. I use it all the time. There are many instances where you need to make a decision where you are missing information and need to use the information that you have. My boys started simple algebra in 6th grade. Now we have AP Calc AB and AP algebra 2. The thought process and logic involved have many practical applications.
            1. juno mas July 23, 2024 at 3:00 pm

               Teaching mathematics requires talented instructors, at all levels. Simple algebra show how to manipulate values (ax+b=c) into a more recognizable form. It defines connections much like what people do when observing the world around them. The logic in mathematics can be applied universally. It is useful.
            2. formerly known July 23, 2024 at 3:06 pm

               Well, as one who never got past one semester of simple algebra as a freshman in high school, I managed to earn B.S. degrees in psychology with a minor in sociology. I completed post degree in secondary education. Took many graduate classes in various disciplines, mostly out of curiosity, though could have gone through the hoops to get credentialed with a master’s degree. I also had a “respectable ” SAT score, btw.

               I did have brilliant English teachers in high school. My senior year teacher taught us the principles of logic and debate. Well, to this day I can apply these principles when making decisions . I never looked at a Calc AB or a algebra 2 book.

               I know many people who would benefit from going to a vocational or technical school. I can’t do any kind of fine carpentry, fix a broken water pipe, design a solar energy installation, beautifully create a handmade crocheted sweater. I know people who dropped out of, or were passed through high school, who can do these things masterfully.
               Who do you call? “Don’t knowing about algebra…but what a wonderful world it would be”.
            3. kareninca July 23, 2024 at 9:56 pm

               I’m middle aged and I haven’t used algebra once since I was forced to study it in high school. I still feel nauseated by the thought of it. I do have an advanced degree in a field that does not require that I know anything about math.

               I do wish that I’d learned about Napoleon in high school; our only history course was U.S. history.
            4. hk July 23, 2024 at 10:37 pm

               AP Algebra 2? Gees,h, Serge Lang as a high school text now, so to speak?
         3. LifelongLib July 23, 2024 at 3:06 pm

            Well, if all you know is your own life and the lives of those close to you, it’s easy to think that this is just the way it is, nothing can change. History and literature at least show that people can have drastically different lives, and that much of what we take for granted is not inevitable but the result of human arrangements. Everyone should at least learn that much.
         4. lyman alpha blob July 23, 2024 at 5:52 pm

            I do think students should learn the more useful and simpler mathematics, from arithmetic to basic algebra and geometry. I do think most people can grasp these simpler concepts and find a use for them later in life. You might not be writing out equations, but I bet you do use algebraic logic without even realizing it! But even if you don’t use them, you should still understand them, because if you don’t, in our uber-capitalist society you will be taken advantage of by those who do.

            But those skills don’t necessarily need to be taught in math classes – they could also be incorporated into art, or culinary, or welding classes, etc. Then math becomes more of a tool to make something you really like to do easier instead of having to learn it for its own sake.

            That being said, mathematics at a higher level than that really isn’t necessary. Harpers had a good article on it years ago – Wrong Answer: The case against Algebra II.
            1. ACPAL July 23, 2024 at 8:22 pm

               Excellent article. Trying to force students to learn what they can’t harms the students’ opinion of schools and society in general.

               “I cannot see that algebra contributes one iota to a young person’s health or one grain of inspiration to his spirit. . . . It is the one subject in the curriculum that has kept children from finishing high school, from developing their special interests and from enjoying much of their home study work. It has caused more family rows, more tears, more heartaches and more sleepless nights than any other school subject.”

               Algebra (again an example) requires a level of mental abstraction. This, as in art, is not an ability that many, possibly most, human minds are capable of. Imagine failing students because they could not write a sonata? Or sing like Bing Crosby? Or produce a show-quality armoir? Or rebuild a racing engine? Human minds are not produced to specifications on an assembly line, each is unique, and to assume that everyone should be able to learn algebra is either the definition of insanity or the deliberate refusal to recognize the true scope of what it is to be human.
            2. Belle July 23, 2024 at 9:23 pm

               In high school, I made it through Algebra. Precal took me down.
               In community college, mom and the admissions counselor wanted me to take precal. I suggested college Algebra, but they overruled me. I got a D (Better than before!) Next semester, I passed College Algebra.
               When I returned to community college, the associate’s degree/training program I was in required math below the level of College Algebra- so I didn’t have to worry, and could focus on the core courses.
         5. Grebo July 23, 2024 at 6:38 pm

            We need some people to know algebra (etc.). We find out which those people will be by trying to teach it to all of them. Is there a shortcut?
            1. eg July 24, 2024 at 3:02 am

               This is like saying we need some Olympic gymnasts, so we have to humiliate every unathletic child in the country by forcing them to attempt the balance beam or rings.
               1. Grebo July 24, 2024 at 9:09 pm

                  Humiliation builds character! Not really, but I think your analogy is a stretch. A child may seem unathletic but there’s probably something they can enjoy. Shotput maybe, or dressage. How do you know until they try it? I hated rugby and cross-country running but turned out to be killer at basketball.

                  These abstract subjects like algebra have a bit of a hump then they are easy. Some kids just need more help over the hump rather than giving up on them if they don’t get it first time. A friend of mine needed remedial lessons in primary school. He ended up with a PhD in physics.

                  But whatever, I guess we need burger flippers too.
         6. ACPAL July 23, 2024 at 7:30 pm

            I tried to keep my comment short by using Algebra as an example, and only an example. I tried to convey that there is a great variation in human abilities and needs. I’ve been fortunate to count as my friends rocket scientists (for real) with IQs of 200 as well as auto mechanics, musicians, and some who could barely stay out of institutions so I can say I have a first-hand grasp on the scope of human nature. Yes, we need people with academic skills (including algebra) but we still need the other 80% (or whatever the number is) yet those 80% are not being equitably included in our education or political systems. The result is that they are treated as less worthy and their skills are being squandered. This is not a sign of a healthy civilization. Think what we could accomplish if we included them as partners in civilization, different but equal.
   4. David Jones July 23, 2024 at 11:37 am

      UK education became a business when manufacturing declined starting from circa 10 million jobs in to the 1960’s to around 2 million around. 2000.

      Paid apprenticeships at 15 years of age which allowed students to attend Technical Colleges,PolyTechs etc had been a feature of post war Britain.Indeed,believe it or not, ‘alienation’ as represented by the dehumanising effect of mass production lines was much talked about publically and privately.There was a surfeit of manufacturing jobs.Heavens above even the mighty Ford Motor Company hardly a bastion of enlightenment offered full time paid degrees for shop floor workers

      Faced with the massive decline in jobs and the corresponding increase in the unemployment figures the obvious answer was to increase the school leaving age to 18.
   5. Jokerstein July 23, 2024 at 8:42 pm

      Not in the name of egalitarian nonsense, IMHO. I saw it as a piece of malice from one M.H. Thatcher, on being denied an honorary degree from her alma mater, Oxfoed.
4. IEL July 23, 2024 at 7:29 am

   The border collie video appears twice; the first, in error, in the Gaza section.
   1. Cervantes July 23, 2024 at 7:46 am

      We needed it twice, most importantly in the middle of the Gaza section.
   2. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 23, 2024 at 9:04 am

      Sorry!! Sort of fixed. Could not find original tweet but have another there with the key video footage.

      I HATE what Twitter has done to its embed function. This was a Musk change. It used to be that an embed was a one-click operation. Now it takes 3 clicks. And critically, Twitter does NOT like replacing an earlier embed with a new one, so all the time I wind up duplicating embeds and not always catching it.
      1. Alice X July 23, 2024 at 10:40 am

         For me, X/Twitter will not allow dragging and dropping its links. I can copy and paste them in Pages doc.
   3. Cetzer July 23, 2024 at 7:12 pm

      In case, anyone does not know it:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_Sheep_Is_Best_Left_to_Shepherds
      Many versions on YT, but here is one showing the sheep being chased (1m52s) from the film:
      https://ok.ru/video/1975448439445

      Apropos ‘The Draughtsman’s Contract’: It was a marxist morality play, wasn’t it – Instead of the woke bullshit explanation on Wikipedia!?
5. Mikerw0 July 23, 2024 at 7:36 am

   In regards to lithium, no one should be surprised, at all. I have been involved with commodities as an investor (from various platforms) for over 40 years. What few people fail to talk about is where these futures markets came from, as in what their original purpose was, what they have become and how mining companies think.

   In short, commodity markets are actually pretty thin. So, when a group of investors, typically hedge funds, decide to play in one, they quickly move the price — by a lot. So when EVs and the batteries they require were going to be all the rage they went long cobalt. The price broke its typical range in the mid $30,000/mt and shot up to over $80,000. Oops. As soon as it wasn’t the next hot thing the trade completely unwound.

   Miners see the world very differently. They typically look at the long term average price (usually not recovering inflation, because that is what the data says happens), and not the short term price in deciding to make a investment in new production. In same ways an over simplification, but the basics are correct. They are humans after all and when they see a price below what they think is required to justify the investment they tend to delay. Remember, in takes years of planning, engineering, etc. to bring on mining capacity (and for some ores well over a decade to do so).
   1. i just don't like the gravy July 23, 2024 at 8:53 am

      Thank you for your comment – any suggestions on further reading related to mineral commodity markets? I’m fairly familiar with ag commodities due to previous professional work & my own interests (“Invisible Giant” is a short read and highly recommended to the NC commentariat).
   2. jefemt July 23, 2024 at 9:53 am

      I seem to recall some of this with $140/bbl** oil…

      bubble, or barrel, depending on P O V.
6. Jake July 23, 2024 at 7:39 am

   “Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett says she’s “not confident at all” in Kamala’s chances — because “behind closed doors,” Democrats are saying “it can’t be her.” Yikes!”

   To me, Kamala is already disqualified. She has been in Joe’s orbit, she knew what was going on, but she went along because she hoped to take over after Joe dies. This whole thing is so bad for the Democrat party. They shouldn’t be allowed to exist after keeping Joe in place when they all had to know how bad he had gotten. The whole thing was a bait and switch to make sure no real progressive could jump in the mix, or even attempt to. As it has been most of my life, this is a time when the Republican party should be cratering, but the Democrat party is so ridiculous that they make the Repubs look like a better choice. Democrats won’t govern, they only know how to scream “Look how bad THOSE OTHER GUYS are!!!!!!!!!111.”
   1. DJG, Reality Czar July 23, 2024 at 8:43 am

      Jake: You should see my Fcbk feed, mon frère. It is like 2015 / 2016 all over again. My head was spinning from the déjà vu, because August White Chicks are already out in force lecturing people on the evils of Trump and on how one must vote. Otherwise, one is showing one’s “privilege.”

      Yes, being a leftist is a “privilege.” Doncha know?

      Meanwhile, Biden fanbois seem to be twirling, twirling, and, well, twirling.

      It is not a winning tactic, but I expect Fcbk to be a swamp for the rest of 2024.

      And there will be no discussion of the wars in Ukraine, Palestine, and (impending) China, because that would impair their sterling qualities.
      1. Colonel Smithers July 23, 2024 at 10:35 am

         Thank you, both.

         British and French TV are showing the same. Yesterday evening, I watched BBC, Channel 4 and TF1 and came across the August White Chicks foaming about abortion. Don’t bread and butter issues like food on the table and a roof on one’s head matter to these people? It gets better when, on British TV, poor blacks etc. parrot what August White Chicks scream about.

         These reports made me think of a dinner I had last week with an SW. During the day she had been volunteering for a charity that helps women move on / out of SW. My dining companion reports that about a third or so of British SWs are mothers, often single and some in their mid-40s. There’s rarely an outcry from August White Chicks about this immiseration.

         @ DJG: You will delighted to hear that I gave her a box of chocolates from your city.
         1. Paleobotanist July 23, 2024 at 7:05 pm

            SW?
            1. Colonel Smithers July 24, 2024 at 4:16 am

               Thank you.

               Sex worker.
      2. Don July 23, 2024 at 7:06 pm

         I have two questions:

         1. When, and how, did Kamala Harris become black, as well as south asian? (My south asian friends and acquaintances do not regard themselves as black; similarly, my black friends and acquaintances do not regard themselves as south asian.) Is this an American thing?

         2. What are August White Chicks? (I get the White Chicks movie reference, I guess — but not August…) Is this too an American thing?
   2. Carolinian July 23, 2024 at 9:12 am

      Scream and do other things. Funny how the Black Lives Matter protests simply stopped after Biden became president. One might suspect that they were really about Trump who had little control over local police and their abuses.

      That doesn’t make the grievances that were being protested untrue, but some of the protest means, the leadership, the sponsors?? During Biden political arguments were even injected into health care with legitimate questions about the vaccines and Covid policy tagged as MAGA “disinformation.” We have devolved into partisanship instead of government.
      1. wendigo July 23, 2024 at 10:16 am

         Kind of like how the Idle No More protests stopped after Harper left.

         Not because Trudeau actually changed policies, but more because he said the right things.

         Also the same for working class support for Trump, he doesn’t have to change anything, just continue saying the right things.
      2. Colonel Smithers July 23, 2024 at 10:39 am

         Thank you and well said about the BLM grift.
   3. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 10:56 am

      It should be the “Weekend at Bernie’s Scandal” – who knew and when did they know? Or rather – “Weekend at Biden’s Scandal.”
      Might be enough to implicate apparatchiks across the political spectrum.
      1. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 10:58 am

         Or more appropriately – “Weekend at Biden’s Scandal”
   4. .Tom July 23, 2024 at 3:15 pm

      One thing Drunk Auntie Kam actually does have going for her is she isn’t a boorish 80-year old dude. I couldn’t vote for her but it does change the ballot from choosing among those two addled gerontocrats. That was a very stay-home ballot for a lot of people, I imagine, and the switch up might change it a bit.
7. disc_writes July 23, 2024 at 7:43 am

   Re: Sarco

   I could find nowhere on the interwebs that the Swiss will offer it as a way out for poor citizens. The articles I find only say that the Sarco might be used this year for the first time.

   Note that the Swiss welfare state is generous enough that a ll Swiss citizens can afford necessities. It seems quite unlikely that they may encourage suicide for less well-off.

   A few Swiss MDs assist people who want to die, but the selection is usually quite strict and based on their customers’ health, not their bank account.

   So if there is a Swiss source reporting this, please link to it. Otherwise, the tweet is at the very least misleading.
   1. vao July 23, 2024 at 8:27 am

      I can confirm that the tweet is utter rubbish — if there is an example of fake news, then this is it.

      1) The legality of the Sarcopod in Switzerland has not been settled. Switzerland is a federal State where health care is the responsibility of cantons — and at least two of them have already officially forbidden the use of the Sarcopod under threat of criminal prosecution. The approval of pharmaceutical products and medical devices is a responsibility of the federal government, but Swissmedic, the equivalent of the FDA, has already stated that the approval of the Sarcopod is outside its purview, since it serves to kill a person, instead of curing or alleviating an ailment.

      2) The Sarcopod has not been used yet; its inventor hopes that the first application will take place this year. He chose Switzerland because of its liberal legal framework regarding assisted suicide. Unfortunately for him, the established organizations that have (many years ago) set up assisted suicide operations in Switzerland — such as Exit and Lifecircle — are dead set against the Sarcopod, since it contradicts all the principles of euthanasia in the country (among others: process controlled by a physician, possibility for the dying person to keep in touch with his friends/relatives till the very end).

      3) The $20 is a complete misunderstanding of the situation. The Sarcopod is a, well, pod, within which a person lies. Death occurs when a capsule releases nitrogen that ends up displacing oxygen in the lungs, and hence choking the person. The cost of such nitrogen capsules is CHF18, which corresponds to the USD20 mentioned in the tweet. The inventor of the Sarcopod has declared he wants to make it available for free, excluding the cost of the nitrogen capsule — i.e. people would pay CHF18 to get euthanasied.

      That is all there is to it. A complete treatment (in German) of the topic can be read here.
      1. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 23, 2024 at 9:08 am

         Sorry, a reader sent this. It’s the second time he’s sent me bad information. Not intentional (he’s been a follower for many many years) but lack of discernment.
      2. Skip Intro July 23, 2024 at 9:43 am

         Too bad about the window, totally wrecks it for Schroedinger’s Grandpa type studies.
      3. Captain Obvious July 23, 2024 at 10:49 am

         I would say that the established organizations — such as Exit and Lifecircle — are dead set against the Sarcopod, because of business reasons. Those are not charities, and he is competition threatening to take a piece of not-so-big cake. He is trying to enter the market with low price.

         There are no nitrogen capsules. The pod itself is “die Kapsel”. I think the pod is supposed to use liquid nitrogen, though regular nitrogen tanks would do the job. CHF18 is the price of nitrogen refill.

         P.S. Also, Sarcopod is not an invention. It’s a fancy gas chamber, renamed for marketing reasons.
      4. Washington Woman July 23, 2024 at 10:56 am

         I think X or Twitter or what ever is a total joke, a scam farm, and maybe a way for the D33p State to make us all waste our time. You have to spend hours to weed out all the BS on there. I do not know how anyone trusts Musk who has ties to all these military orgs. When I started blocking the BS on X my generated feed started showing me sexually explicit tweets. I saw it as the brainwashing platform it is and I left. I have a customer constantly shoving these conspiracy tweets in my face and it drives me crazy.
         1. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 23, 2024 at 11:18 am

            Lambert disagrees with you vehemently. The Covid is airborne community could have established itself only via Twitter. That is how various experts met each other and exchanged idea. I could not have knocked out the post I just did on Hezbollah and Israel without Twitter. It’s indispensable to find out about breaking stories.

            And I did not find that bad tweet on my feed. It was sent to me by email.
            1. Washington Woman July 23, 2024 at 11:39 am

               But it happened to you twice today. The Tweet about Ancestry being bought by Blackstone now has a community note that the news is four years old.
               1. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 23, 2024 at 1:12 pm

                  So? It’s not wrong and many readers here, including yours truly, did not know that and I do try to keep up. I have readers also occasionally e-mail me very much out of date stories and I don’t catch that and post them.

                  That tweet BTW was emailed by the same reader so it is about his deteriorating discernment and not Twitter. Again it was not in my Twitter feed.

                  You need to drop this. I am not having you censor how I run this site.
      5. Kouros July 23, 2024 at 11:17 am

         I don’t think one can call death by oxygen deprivation as “choking”. Th thing is, the body doesn’t even know it is dying. We are triggered by the high levels of CO2 in the blood, not by low levels of oxygen. In fact, all life on earth uses as little oxygen as possible, or as it was when life started, 3-4% at cellular level. Everything else is dillution. Big insects and dinosaurs, higher than today levels of oxygen.

         If I were to choose my death, would be by oxygen deprivation.
         1. Not Qualified to Comment July 23, 2024 at 7:20 pm

            FWIW my own researches have arrowed in on the ‘bag-over-the-head’ method – the poor man’s Sarcopod – plus helium as the latter is odourless, tasteless and easily available for inflating party balloons. Mind you I’ve never been to Switzerland and a few day’s wandering in die Berge seeking peace für mein einsam Herz would be nice first, and I might even be able to afford a one-way trip!
            1. Captain Obvious July 24, 2024 at 8:49 am

               Easily available party balloon helium is mixed with oxygen in order to prevent its use for suicide purposes, and also to reduce price (or increase profit). Pure helium is a bit harder to deal with, which astrounauts on Boeing spaceship would confirm.
   2. communistmole July 23, 2024 at 10:23 am

      I left a similar comment below (sorry, didn’t see that there was already a comment).

      Basically about Switzerland: Switzerland has had a health insurance law (Krankenversicherungsgesetz/KVG) since 1996. Every Swiss citizen must be insured and belong to a health insurance company. There are around 40 of these (called Krankenkassen).

      The level of premiums has been rising for years and is also heavily dependent on the canton in which you live.

      There is also a so-called franchise (which can be selected; the higher the franchise – maximum 2500.- – the lower the premium, which is practical as long as you are healthy) and a 10% deductible per invoice.
      The minimum amount yo have to pay is Sfr. 1000.-, but there are already discussions about doubling it, which would logically hit people with low incomes or the chronically ill harder.

      For people on low incomes (calculated on the basis of the tax amount) there is a so-called premium reduction – this also varies from canton to canton and fluctuates greatly.

      As is well known, Switzerland presents itself as a safe haven for the rich and a perfect tourist destination, which is why a certain social network is logically required to keep the rabble quiet.

      This does not change the fact that Switzerland is one of the countries with the greatest social inequality in the world; and, as mentioned below: poverty is a class issue, not an age issue
   3. thump July 23, 2024 at 1:05 pm

      Here is the Wikipedia page on the Sarco:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarco_pod

      and here is a BBC article from 2021 on the Sarco:
      https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59577162
8. GramSci July 23, 2024 at 7:44 am

   Whoopsie. The time-lapse sheepdog antidote somehow got filed under “Gaza”.
   1. Alice X July 23, 2024 at 10:43 am

      Noted above, but as it might be a useful metaphor for Our Democracy™ worth watching twice.
9. Samuel Conner July 23, 2024 at 7:45 am

   Re: COVID and brain damage, I’ve been wondering since early in the pandemic, when reports of “brain fog” started to appear, what affect this would have on university-based research and academic careers.

   That is a highly competitive career path and I would think that universities would have an interest in “best practices” to protect their valuable faculty, and the faculty themselves would have an interest in protecting their own cognitive function for the sake of maximizing their research outputs and grants inflows.

   I get the impression (from NC commenters like, IIRC, petal, that even at elite universities, there is a relaxed approach to “personal safety” for staff, faculty and students.

   I have difficulty understanding this. Students spend $x10^5 to obtain a credential (and, presumably, an education) in some field that (surely) requires good cognitive function, but don’t take zealous measures to protect their own cognitive function.

   What is going on?
   1. GramSci July 23, 2024 at 7:47 am

      f(finance) > f(cognition)
   2. Louis Fyne July 23, 2024 at 7:50 am

      it costs a * lot* of money to put in true-HEPA quality HVAC in an institutional building.

      it is rare to get a bonus for spending a lot of money to prevent a mess—this is one of those iron laws of institutions, maybe it’s already a named “razor”.
      1. converger July 23, 2024 at 1:24 pm

         Yes. A complete HVAC retrofit for existing commercial buildings to optimize for HEPA filters is not cheap. That said, simply adding more outdoor air exchange (as opposed to recycling indoor air through HEPA filters) is cheap, easy, and effective.
      2. redleg July 23, 2024 at 2:04 pm

         The private school that my spouse teaches at installed a 6-8 room volume/hr filtered HVAC system during lockdown and the school had had a total of zero (as in none) in-school outbreaks of Covid or anything else since they returned to in person learning.
   3. Louis Fyne July 23, 2024 at 8:01 am

      getting HEPA-clean air in an non-HEPA institutional building is not just a matter of slapping different filters and calling it a day. and i bet a provost is loath to buy one hepa machine for every cubicle.

      at home too. don’t just slap the highest rated HEPA filter in the blower slot—your furnace may not be able to handle the restriction of airflow. check the specs of the unit.

      at home, you need dedicated machines and/or Corsi boxes
   4. Samuel Conner July 23, 2024 at 8:10 am

      Thank you, GramSci and Louis.

      I see how there could be institutional resistance to public acknowledgement that an institution’s work and study environments are hazardous to the brain health of workers and students. And the further that can is kicked down the road, the stronger the incentive to keep kicking it.

      I remain puzzled at what I interpret to be a lack of individual initiative to undertake self-protective measures. I get the impression from petal’s reports from her institution that there is not a lot of masking. I appreciate that not everyone is as well-informed about CV hazards as is the readership of NC, but reports of cognitive impairments, going back to the first year of the pandemic, are surely not invisible to these people.

      It makes me feel a bit anxious about how these people will approach “risk management” in their future areas of work responsibility.
   5. i just don't like the gravy July 23, 2024 at 9:01 am

      Yes, based on personal experience the “elite” universities are no different. You still see masks but they are about as frequent as anywhere else in society.

      I firsthand noticed cognitive decline in both students and professors/research staff alike. Simultaneously astounding and terrifying.

      Give it another year or two of more infections and these supposedly elite individuals might finally realize they are significantly dumber than before.

      Edit for examples: the oft-described brain fog; reduced ability to remember conversations and/or information from a week+ in the past; difficulty in discussion remaining focused and able to hold abstract ideas without being asked to repeat what you said; quick to be irritated, and lack of patience generally; attraction to outlandish fantasy, such as “AI” which I saw captured the gullible minds of people I previously thought immune to BS marketing.
   6. GM July 23, 2024 at 9:28 am

      You need to understand the economic structure of academia to see why the attitude is what it is.

      And for that it helps to first also look at another field where you would naively think they would be paying very serious attention to COVID, but they are not, and that is professional sports. Performance drop as a result of COVID is a very bad thing if you are a professional athlete, right? It sure is, but that is from the perspective of the individual. Which is not the perspective from which decisions are being made. What matters is revenue generation. And most of the big money making sports are team sports. Meaning that people will generally line up to watch no matter who the individuals playing are, though obviously having the big stars out there helps. From there on it becomes a numbers question. What is the rate of serious debilitation as a result of COVID as a function of age and physical condition? So it happens that professional athletes are generally young and very healthy, which is only natural, so the rate is as low as it gets. And then you need to also understand that in any given sport there are at any moment only a handful of superstars, so the statistics work out that more likely than not the serious sequelae will spare them for a while, perhaps until the time they are due to retire anyway.

      And again, most sports are team sports. You can hide such a declining superstar quite well in most team sports for a fair bit of time before the revenue generated by that superstar decreases. The team can compensate. So someone like Messi got Delta in late 2021 (very unlucky for him — just when Omicron was sweeping and quite a long time after he got vaccinated, so protection had worn off, he got the second or third nastiest strain so far) and then was a ghost for the rest of the season, which he later admitted was because of COVID. He then won the WC, and he played well at the WC, but it was won because of the whole team, it wasn’t a one-man carry job, and he was still not the same player physically, and he never recovered, quite the opposite, he has been declining very fast. Is it post-COVID effects or natural aging? Hard to tell, but can’t help but suspect COVID contributed.

      Yet with such a vast pyramid, i.e. millions play soccer and basketball, there will never be any shortage of competent players who haven’t survived unscathed to fill rosters. And that will keep the product on TV.

      Individual sports are a bit more tricky to hide it though, and we have in fact seen the impact in some of them — e.g. this year’s Wimbledon was an unprecedented sickness and injury s**t fest. But everybody is in full denial mode.

      The one exception is cycling, where they have been taking it very seriously longer than anyone else, but that is a unique situation that also showcases all the considerations above — cycling is pure cardio, i.e. any drop in physical performances is immediately obvious, and it is also a fairly level field with a very significant team component, but without being a team sport. So you cannot hide anyone who is off the pace.

      But again, in most sports eyes will be mostly watching as before, and even if there is a bit of a drop-off in revenue, so what? Remember who pockets it in the end — the same people who own everything else. Those people had much bigger concerns than sports when it came to COVID containment — the whole power structure was threatened by a proper such effort so it had to be firmly vetoed, and it was. Who cares about the billions of dollars involved sports when there are trillions at stake?

      Athletes have an incentive to cover it up too, as transfer fees and salaries depend on maintaining the illusion of perfect health.

      Well, it’s largely the same thing with academia. The larger power structure had bigger concerns than the drop off in scientific productivity because of COVID. But incentives inside academia were also stacked against taking it seriously.

      First, academia is a Ponzi scheme — most of the work is done by grad students and postdocs, who are generally young and healthy. And disposable, as there are academic jobs for only a small fraction of them. So who cares if some percentage of them get COVID and brain damage? Those will be disposed of and that’s the end of it. No big deal. Especially if the rate of attrition is relatively low, and for that very young demographic it generally is. Also, it is not as if the hiring process has been even looking for the best and brightest for quite a while now — DEI killed that off as an objective a long time ago.

      Meanwhile the faculty have tenure. Or at least the faculty that matter for these things. But once they have tenure, they don’t really care about the brain damage — it does not affect their job security.

      What they care about is money and power. And even their wealth was threatened by COVID containment measures. Remember, at elite level these are people who are just sufficiently well off financially to be playing the stock market, and some of them are actually truly wealthy themselves too, off of patents and early investments in successful start ups. So they care a lot about the stock market on a personal level.

      Doubly so on an institution level. The key insight here is that the modern elite university is not an educational institution with an endowment, but a hedge fund with a university as an appendage to it.

      That has never been demonstrated more clearly than in those crucial months in March-May 2020, and I remember it very well. If you recall the stock market lost 40% of its value in the month of March 2020. And with it went down the endowments too. Which created the kind of panic I have never seen in people in academia on any other issue.

      The ratio of people whose primary thoughts were “Hey, if this is not contained, it is the end of the world as we know it, and not just epidemiologically, because it will have countless other nasty ramifications all throughout society” and those who were only thinking and talking about the stock market and how things absolutely had to go back to normal within months, “or else”, was 1 to 10 at best.

      But, of course, nobody wants to admit that such crass brutal greed was the primary motivation behind decision making. So denial mechanisms are activated to hide it, one of which is pretending that COVID is over and there is no need to take precautions. Which is not that hard given the labor structure in academia…
      1. Randall Flagg July 23, 2024 at 10:26 am

         For my two cents this could be a post all in its own.
         Thanks for your thoughts.
         1. .Tom July 23, 2024 at 3:30 pm

            Agree.
      2. Wukchumni July 23, 2024 at 10:58 am

         I can usually walk a lot of miles, but as of late I get fatigued pretty hard after a few miles, and require 2-3 naps of 3 to 5 hours during the day per week @ home…

         I’ve had Covid at least twice, and part of my lethargy might be just getting older, but i’d be way bummed out if I was say 40 and this was occurring to me~

         I fully expected to age out at some point on my outdoors dance schedule, seems like its coming a bit quicker than I anticipated.
      3. Jason Boxman July 23, 2024 at 12:02 pm

         Meanwhile the faculty have tenure. Or at least the faculty that matter for these things. But once they have tenure, they don’t really care about the brain damage — it does not affect their job security.

         If people really knew that each infection likely confers brain damage, irreversibly, what portion of people would continue as before? I genuinely wonder. I can’t even guess how that might shake out.
         1. Mike July 23, 2024 at 12:27 pm

            The only people I know who still mask in public are two dentists with solo practices. They have no safety net for their careers and businesses. Also, they don’t imitate the crowd…
10. GramSci July 23, 2024 at 8:00 am

    «Note the contact URL. This is not a bunch of randos»

    OK, but which Rand?
    1. Mr. Woo July 23, 2024 at 9:09 am

       I didn’t understand the story for this post
       1. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 23, 2024 at 10:33 am

          The Heritage Foundation is gathering information about the Trump shooting, since they sensibly do not trust the FBI or DHS. This could be fun. As much as I do not like Heritage, I do like Godzilla v. Mothra type fights.
    2. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 23, 2024 at 10:34 am

       Ooof!!!
11. TomDority July 23, 2024 at 8:02 am

    The Whitest Paint Is Here & It’s the Coolest – Could Help Curb Global Warming SciTech Daily
    Now, if they can figure out a way to keep it clean for more than a few weeks – might go somewhere then.
    1. Carolinian July 23, 2024 at 8:38 am

       Prob is that in the 1950s Bauhaus to Our House era lots of buildings had flat roofs whereas now my town is replaceing some of those buildings with retro style buildings that have sloped roofs (flat roofs often leak). If I paint my roof blindingly white the neighbors might object.
    2. Benny Profane July 23, 2024 at 9:22 am

       Many towns in Southern Spain are known as the White towns, due to the ubiquitous use of white paint everywhere.
       1. britzklieg July 23, 2024 at 10:11 am

          I spent 2 weeks near Frigiliana, where my sister was living in the campo just above that beautiful town. One of her neighbors was an 80 year old man who was a master at producing the ash from which the white-wash is made. It’s an elaborate (and dangerous) process and there aren’t many youngsters, if any, interested in maintaining the skill. There is much concern that it will soon be a lost art.

          Frigiliana is breathtakingly beautiful.

          https://theunknownenthusiast.com/guide-to-visiting-frigiliana/
       2. Rolf July 23, 2024 at 11:13 am

          Also Bermuda. These white structures are quarried limestone and stepped, a means of hurricane defense, and collect rainwater as well (freshwater in Bermuda is from groundwater Ghyben-Hertzberg lenses).
       3. Cristobal July 23, 2024 at 11:32 am

          Most southern Spanish houses have flat roofs that don’t seem to leak. Of course It doesn’t rain much (!!!). On newer buildings, or rehabilitated older ones, he roofs are often “double” to provide an air chamber above the ceiling.
    3. redleg July 23, 2024 at 3:18 pm

       This might work in warm latitudes, but applying this to pavement in mid- to high latitudes would make travel impossible in the winter except by snowshoe and ski. Low albedo pavements don’t retain ice for long. Anyone in Minnesota or Wisconsin who has gotten their car stuck in an intersection by crosswalk paint on a subzero (F) day will attest to this.
12. William Beyer July 23, 2024 at 8:03 am

    The Whitest Paint Is Here & It’s the Coolest – Could Help Curb Global Warming?

    In fact, 3M was advertising the benefits of white roofing in the early 1950s in the pages of Northwest Architect magazine.
    1. Bsn July 23, 2024 at 10:42 am

       Yea, this whole white paint thingy. Talk about putting a bandaid on a weeping chest wound. Let the massive release of CO2 and methane continue, but paint roofs white. That’ll cure the cancer.
       1. cfraenkel July 23, 2024 at 1:07 pm

          What’s with this need to badmouth every incremental step just because it’s not *the* one silver bullet that will solve climate change once and for all? There is no silver bullet, just lots of small incremental steps. If we don’t take enough steps, then climate change will kill and impoverish lots of people, solving the problem another way. That’s preferable?
       2. neutrino23 July 23, 2024 at 2:52 pm

          Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
       3. Not Qualified to Comment July 23, 2024 at 7:41 pm

          Don’t get it anyway. A white roof will (I’d imagine) help cool the building beneath, but unless the roof reflects the heat back out into space it’s only going to warm up the air above it, surely?
    2. Captain Obvious July 23, 2024 at 10:55 am

       Were they advertising the benefits of lead-based paint?
    3. rudi from butte July 23, 2024 at 10:58 am

       Common sense….used a lot (looking over Butte rooftops) but again, common sense also means considering…hard to keep clean/white. More upkeep.
    4. Grebo July 23, 2024 at 8:12 pm

       The article underplayed it but this is not your grandad’s white paint. This stuff has high radiance in the infra-red part of the spectrum that passes through the atmosphere unhindered. Which means it sends heat back out into space, even when the sun is shining on it, cooling (not just reducing heating) whatever it is applied to without any energy expediture.
13. eg July 23, 2024 at 8:04 am

    “Kamala Harris can’t count on American labour” because American labour can’t count on Kamala Harris …
14. Kevin Smith July 23, 2024 at 8:07 am

    re: Why We Need an Immunome
    The other problem with screening tests which detect, for example, ~20 cases in ~10,000 patients is that you will also generate a WHOLE LOT OF false-positives, which will lead to ALL SORTS OF ADDITIONAL TESTING AND CONSULTATIONS, making your total cost per positive test VERY HIGH.

    We do NOT have unlimited resources, so choices will have to be made …
15. Cassandra July 23, 2024 at 8:15 am

    Re: the twit questioning Biden’s signature. Given that it is a fuzzy image, all of the executive orders offered for comparison seem to have the exact signature, indicating that they were robosigned. If, indeed, they are actual images and not manufactured for the twit… It also is a remarkably clean signature for someone with advanced dementia.

    Which is not to say that the situation isn’t exceedingly fishy, just that it may be years since the man actually carried out executive duties.
    1. Cassandra July 23, 2024 at 8:30 am

       OK, I went and looked up the original documents. I didn’t do an exact comparison of the images, but it looks like a robosignature, perhaps captured at the beginning of his term or even as vice-president. This may be standard practice as opposed to the performative bill-signing with the souvenir pen.
       1. jefemt July 23, 2024 at 10:00 am

          Channeling Linda Green…
       2. t July 23, 2024 at 11:06 am

          My guess is there’s an Adobe process for this and whoever was pushing buttons is not the usual admin.

          The account that posted that is such a garbage account. Seems to be spooling slightly adjusted takes for cash, but not a lot of followers. After reading a few screens of Chief Trumpster Tweets, rethinking my gratitude for the commentor who posted about nitter.poast.org!
    2. Dr. John Carpenter July 23, 2024 at 9:30 am

       To me, it’s not just the signature. It’s the whole thing: The abrupt turnaround on this after being so adamant he wasn’t dropping out. The fact that he resigned from the race via Tweet and I’ve read this was how people in the campaign found out. We still haven’t seen or heard from him since, aside from a call at a Kamala appearance that could have been a recording (and she even slips and says recording at one point.) The fact that they don’t have a plan B lined up yet..on and on and on.

       I don’t mean to sound conspiratorial, but after all the gaslighting and lying about Biden’s condition over the last four years it would be insane to take them at face value now.
       1. 123 July 23, 2024 at 10:45 am

          No conspiracy at all. We were right all along. Joe Biden has been dead these past four years. It’s like ‘Weekend at Bernie’s,’ but only at the White House.
    3. Daniil Adamov July 23, 2024 at 11:36 am

       Ha, so maybe the new signature is his and the others aren’t?
       1. ambrit July 23, 2024 at 7:36 pm

          Does Dr. Jill have power of attorney for her husband if he is “incapacitated?”
16. communistmole July 23, 2024 at 8:18 am

    The tweet about the Sarco capsule is quite misleading.

    Switzerland is known to have a very liberal legal situation when it comes to euthanasia, which is due to the federal system that gives the cantons considerable rights.

    The organization The Last Resort, which offers this capsule for dying, held a press conference in Zurich and confirmed that it is in talks with several cantons, but did not give any specific details.

    Since then, there has been some discussion – Exit, the oldest and best-known euthanasia organization, for example, is against it – and some also fear that Sarco could jeopardize the liberal Swiss euthanasia system or at least trigger regulations.

    Euthanasia is gaining popularity in Switzerland because many old people want to die in a self-determined way, and poverty in Switzerland is not a question of age, but of class.
    1. jefemt July 23, 2024 at 10:01 am

       Got me hook, line, and sinker. My big question… what to do with the corpse, vis a vis sustainability? Full of heavy metals and plastic. Dog Food?
       1. Captain Obvious July 23, 2024 at 11:01 am

          Cremate the corpses, and throw the pots in the lake. ;)
          https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/dozens-of-urns-with-human-ashes-in-lake-zurich/
    2. Carla July 23, 2024 at 10:23 am

       Poverty everywhere is a matter of class. Upper and upper middle class elderly do not live or die in poverty. It is true that among the poor, the very young and the old are treated the worst, as they cannot do the servile work that those in between perform, and therefore are considered “useless eaters.”
17. Carolinian July 23, 2024 at 8:26 am

    Re that RT on the campaign funds–here’s the original WaPo story with a little extra detail.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/21/biden-harris-campaign-dollars-legal-challenge/

    Because Harris’s name was listed on the Biden campaign committee’s paperwork — and because she would still be running in the general election if she becomes the party’s nominee — former FEC chairman Trevor Potter said he does not think Harris would have to return those general election contributions.

    But, Potter added, “that has never been tested, because we’ve never had a situation like this.”

    The gist is that current law says the transfer allowed only after the ticket formally selected at the convention. After all Biden could have gotten the nomination and then he or the party selected a different VP to run with him.
    1. albrt July 23, 2024 at 9:39 am

       It seems to me they should be able to avoid a lawsuit by returning donations to anybody who objects to the transfer. If nobody’s funds are being misused then nobody has standing.
18. TomDority July 23, 2024 at 8:32 am

    “Our obsession with ownership
    Our need to own a home is pushing prices ever higher.” Steve Keen (Micael T)
    Maybe our need for shelter is being taken advantage by speculative investors which is pushing prices up.
    A little bit of history repeating —
    “The gloom is fading from the real estate situation. More nibbles during the last few weeks than the last three years. If January brings us good rains, this next year will open the door to the sunshine – a case of rain bringing the sun.
    It is to be hoped, however, that there will never be another boom. The crash of the boom of 1923 was due to the same causes that wrecked the wall street stock market. People sold what they did not own. They made a payment down in the hope of getting the property off their hands before it began to burn. Real estate fell into the hands of sharp-shooting gamblers who had no interest in land. To them it was just a pile of blue chips on a roulette wheel.”
    1. earthling July 23, 2024 at 10:03 am

       Mr. Keen’s theory is reminiscent of the relentless propaganda to minimalize, do without, recycle, ‘live simply’ we were subjected to in the ’90s and onward. It was only the start of ‘you will own nothing and be happy’.

       Meanwhile the 1% and the 10% scoop up all the assets. Our problem is not that ordinary people seek to own a home, it is that prosperous people want to own 2, 3, 4, 5, or however many they can stack up in their piles of blue chips.
19. LawnDart July 23, 2024 at 8:33 am

    Re; Boeing Expects Its Pilotless Air-Taxi To Begin Carrying Passengers ‘Later In the Decade’

    Wisk is developing a four-seater autonomous aircraft that will have a range of 90 miles (145 km).

    Wisk’s strategy is a departure from other major air-taxi makers, which are developing models that will require a pilot to fly the aircraft. The company has said operators of its aircraft will save on pilot costs.

    But industry experts at Bain say a full autonomous passenger flight is not expected before the late 2030s and pilotless aircraft will face competition from autonomous vehicles on the road.

    Meanwhile, in China…

    China moves closer to launching flying taxi services as EHang seeks Beijing’s go-ahead

    The CAAC earlier this year granted EHang’s EH216-S the country’s first production certificate for a passenger-transport eVTOL aircraft. The same pilotless aircraft obtained its type and standard airworthiness certificates – both required for commercial operations – from the CAAC last year.

    Nasdaq-listed EHang’s successful certification initiatives mark a breakthrough in mainland China’s multipronged effort to establish the nation’s low-altitude economy, covering a wide range of industries related to manned and unmanned eVTOL aircraft operating below an altitude of 1,000 metres.

    Recognised as a strategic emerging industry at the tone-setting central economic work conference in December, the low-altitude economy has seen heavy investment and policy support from Beijing – in similar fashion to the country’s electric vehicle sector.

    https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3271569/china-moves-closer-launching-flying-taxi-services-ehang-seeks-beijings-go-ahead

    China is easily a decade or more ahead of the US with regards to this tech. This Chinese aircraft has many more advantages over Boeing’s Wisk: it has been flying for several years without incident, it is simpler and of safer-design, it’s low-cost, it’s autonomous, and it is officially begining commercial operations/flights within the next few months– not several years away.

    Also note that Wisk’s aircraft utilizes tilt-rotors. These are utilized by the much-maligned Osprey as well, and are known to cause unstable flight charactetistics during transition from vertical to horizontal positioning.

    Will the FAA rush approvals for Wisk and other US eVTOLs at the expense of safety in order to “compete” with China?
    1. jo6pac July 23, 2024 at 9:45 am

       boeing should try and solve this problem first.

       https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner-no-return-date-from-iss
       1. LawnDart July 23, 2024 at 10:42 am

          Maybe just send up the Swiss capsule and spare them the terror of re-entry.
          1. Alice X July 23, 2024 at 10:51 am

             lol
          2. Jabura Basaidai July 23, 2024 at 5:10 pm

             the Starliner is a Swiss capsule – been saying all along they’re lucky they got there and the Starliner is now permanently affixed to the ISS – hope they have extra Depends for those folks –
20. DJG, Reality Czar July 23, 2024 at 8:47 am

    Estee Palti and Mike Sperrazza vids:

    Damn, they are funny. And salty.

    I am reminded that during dire times, as when Hades kidnaps Persephone, and the goddess Demeter is in mourning, one can break through the mess with some obscenity.

    Goddess Baubo, Expository, ora pro nobis.

    The fragment which mentions Baubo’s anasyrma is from an Orphic hymn and is five hexameters in length.[12] It is preserved in the Protrepticus of Clement of Alexandria, written in the second century CE:[13]

    This said, she drew aside her robes, and showed
    A sight of shame; child Iacchus was there,
    And laughing, plunged her hand below her breasts.
    Then smiled the goddess, in her heart she smiled,
    And drank the draught from out that glancing cup.[14]

    [From the wikipedia entry, Baubo. Wiki has its uses, eh.]
    1. communistmole July 23, 2024 at 10:43 am

       George Devereux, the French ethnopsychoanalyst, has written an entire book on the subject: Baubo, la vulve mythique.
21. Benny Profane July 23, 2024 at 9:15 am

    I’m not the only one to think we are living in a very bizarre moment in history. Matt Taibbi agrees with his latest substack, but I have no idea how to link it, and it’s behind a paywall anyway. Who’s Running This Country? He always comes up with some great snark, and I love this: “To say a president breaking up with America via digital post-it note is bizarre is a massive understatement.” I mean, he dropped out of contention, and sight, by way of a Twitter post! A Twitter post that seemed to surprise his Twitter manager! WTF? And all I see on the front of the NYT this morning is Harris campaign material that the editors sent out orders for the kids to write up, fast. Not, where the hell is our President? We’re lobbing missiles into Russian territory and Netanyahu is about to fly in to DC and try to drum up support for a war with Iran as the genocide continues! All this after it’s starting to look pretty plausible that somebody besides a 20 year old dork from Butler tried to kill Trump. I know we can’t count on the MSM to even try telling us the truth, but this is getting absurd. I smell a real nasty false flag coming around the corner, and I usually laugh off most “conspiracy” theories.
    1. tegnost July 23, 2024 at 10:23 am

       my rough guess is there’s 13 or 14 weeks of rachel maddow shows and each one requires a hair on fire topic, so only one false flag?
       I’ll take the over…
       No need to wonder who is running this crapfest…Chaos reigns
    2. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 11:16 am

       “To say a president breaking up with America via digital post-it note is bizarre is a massive understatement.” I mean, he dropped out of contention, and sight, by way of a Twitter post! A Twitter post that seemed to surprise his Twitter manager! WTF?

       This is what people have been warning about: all of the lack of accountability that is underneath the hype around the software tech coming out these days. It’s a feature, not a bug.
       1. hk July 23, 2024 at 12:09 pm

          And the fact that he’s still the nominal president, eben if he’s clearly not “presidenting.”
          1. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 12:46 pm

             I’m talking about the broader implications of systems with an inherent lack of accountability.
    3. Bugs July 23, 2024 at 12:12 pm

       If nobody is in charge right now, who the heck is doing the Netanyahu’s laundry?

       https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/benjamin-netanyahu-us-visits-dirty-laundry/2020/09/23/8407f52c-fdb3-11ea-830c-a160b331ca62_story.html

       Enquiring minds want to know!
22. Mr. Woo July 23, 2024 at 9:15 am

    I was wondering why the blackstone tweet was posted when there are user comments attached to the tweet showing the story is 4 years old.
    1. Paleobotanist July 23, 2024 at 9:47 am

       The news wasn’t common knowledge? Given this, I don’t think that I’ll be doing DNA testing on myself at all… Too scared of harming my relatives.
       1. Kurtismayfield July 23, 2024 at 9:58 am

          It feels as if the entire point of these DNA companies was to collect a large enough data set and then study it or sell it. Google has been involved in it for a very long time, and the early government DNA collection efforts were immediately sold to private business.
          1. vao July 23, 2024 at 12:15 pm

             There were much earlier projects to collect DNA and build databases of it at population level in Estonia (EGF, starting in 2000), and in Iceland (deCODE, starting in 1996).

             In both cases, the goals were lofty: discovering new therapies based on “big-data” analysis of genetic information. While those projects enabled many scientific advances, the practical therapeutic results have been very limited.

             What is certain is that the DNA databases ultimately ended up as the property of entities in the USA, without the possibility for the persons having contributed their genetic information to prevent this transfer of ownership…
             1. Polar Socialist July 23, 2024 at 1:26 pm

                To be fair, it’s so much easier to do “big-data” analysis than actual thinking and wet lab needed for the real insight, it’s not really a wonder we’re still waiting for the significant results.
                1. vao July 23, 2024 at 1:49 pm

                   From what I read (but the information might be dated), the projects went from:

                   “We’ll discover the genes causing some illnesses and therefore have special-purpose drugs or genetic therapies to cure them”

                   to:

                   “We’ll discover the genes causing illnesses and thus have quick blood/saliva/urine/placenta tests that can detect whether a person is susceptible to them”

                   to:

                   “We’ll provide people with some statistical evaluation of their personal risk to some illnesses based on their genetic profile”.

                   Perhaps if we wait 25 more years something practical will come out of those endeavours.
                   1. Kurtismayfield July 23, 2024 at 2:30 pm

                      I believe the problem is that people are looking for one gene or one target sequence when diseases, like cancer, are probable multi allelic. Right now all if the CRSPR treatment tend to be for the one allele mutation and low hanging fruit.
                      1. Polar Socialist July 23, 2024 at 3:23 pm

                         Well, monogenic deceases are the “low hanging fruit”, and they are rather well understood at the moment.

                         Oddly enough, while listening to a dissertation in 2001 I think I figured out the math on how to calculate the number of loci involved from the consanguinity and affected individuals in a family, but since we got extremely drunk afterwards, I totally forgot my putative algorithm.
                      2. vao July 23, 2024 at 3:26 pm

                         I believe that the scientists who used the DNA databases of those projects have indeed been looking into combinations of genes as factors for illnesses, and that they gained genuine insights into genetic and chemical processes of immunity, physiological disorders, etc.

                         That results of course in very interesting and groundbreaking papers in specialized journals, but those who donated their DNA were expecting (and promised) more tangible benefits for themselves — some 25 years ago.
                   2. Polar Socialist July 23, 2024 at 3:13 pm

                      Way back when I entered the field, people were still doing linkage analysis with families and trying to figure the cause (and cure) from molecular to cellular level.

                      That was, of course, before the Human Genome Project and the advent of cheaper and always cheaper sequencing. Then everybody was suddenly talking about biochips and “diagnoses while waiting” and so on…
             2. Vandemonian July 23, 2024 at 2:10 pm

                My understanding of Iceland’s DNA collection is that the primary concern was to reduce the likelihood of someone marrying a close relative. Iceland has a small population (<400,000) with relatively few incomers. The risk of inbreeding is significant, and this has been addressed in the past by the careful maintenance of family trees.
                However, family trees are a record of marriage, rather than parentage. I believe the DNA project was seen as a way to develop family trees based on parentage, to reduce the risk for Icelanders of marrying their cousins.
                That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a nefarious underlying motive, though….
                1. Kurtismayfield July 23, 2024 at 2:12 pm

                   The nefarious underlying motivations seem to be a feature of alot of online activity and surveillance.
23. Joker July 23, 2024 at 9:24 am

    Developing countries face worst debt crisis in history, study shows Guardian.

    Debt slavery working as intended, study shows.
24. ilsm July 23, 2024 at 9:30 am

    In 10 days we have observed a failed assassination [despite the total ineptitude of security apparatus], and a successful [inadequate/partial] coup both attempts arguably benefitting the deep state.

    e rest of the Biden coup, 25th amendmenting Biden would not benefit the deep state.

    The loyal opposition must push the 25 th Amendment! cui bono? The deep state.

    This election is deep state vs America
    1. Henry Moon Pie July 23, 2024 at 9:44 am

       That’s the way I see it too, as the Ins vs. the Outs. Can we on the Left resist the temptation to come to the aid of the current allies of the Deep State in the Democratic Party? The Rs have little to nothing good in store for us other than the hope that they will take on the CIA/FBI/NSA/SS complex leading to the their mutual destruction. In the meantime, we should be busy organizing and preparing for the situation that will present itself after the internecine warfare.
    2. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 12:41 pm

       “This election is deep state vs America”

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWOa73qfTPU&ab_channel=TheDuran/
       Blinken talks escalation with Iran

       And the beat goes on…
25. Henry Moon Pie July 23, 2024 at 9:36 am

    Covid and cancer–

    It is a terrifying prospect. One of the things I feel I’ve had going for me is that I haven’t had Covid.

    Tomorrow, I go in for my third of four surgeries. It turns out that the tumor that showed up in the right adrenal gland in the very first PET scan was not a metastasis from the rectal cancer. It’s a third, independent tumor, a pheochromocytoma. So three, independent tumors at once! Quite an accomplishment. And the pheochromocytoma is fairly rare though 90% are benign. Even if benign, it has to go because it causes the adrenal to secrete too many hormones, raising blood pressure, heart rate and glucose levels. The surgeon who’s going to remove it ran tests for it, and the results showed it was a pheochromo, not a metastasis. The tricky thing is to get it out without causing a surge in hormones that raise BP and heart to lethal levels during surgery. I’ve been on a steadily increasing regimen of taking my BP three times a day while the doctor adjusts the level of terazosin I’m taking upward from 3 mg to 9 mg.

    The good news is that my PSA is undetectable after radiating the prostate and hitting it with chemical castration medications. And the rectal cancer had apparently not reached Stage 4.

    Removal of the still cancerous rectum will take place after I recover from the adrenal laparoscopic surgery on the adrenal.

    Just think if I’d had Covid, thus making spread more aggressive.
    1. jefemt July 23, 2024 at 10:06 am

       Sending you all the energy, peace, strength and grace I can muster –
    2. Carla July 23, 2024 at 10:41 am

       I will be thinking of you tomorrow, HMP, and sending positive energy your way.
    3. Alice X July 23, 2024 at 10:55 am

       Henry, karma is on your side.
    4. CA July 23, 2024 at 11:24 am

       Know you will be thought about.
    5. Daniil Adamov July 23, 2024 at 11:34 am

       Best of luck.
    6. Keith Newman July 23, 2024 at 11:35 am

       Best of luck HMP.
       “Bon courage” as they say in french.
    7. PlutoniumKun July 23, 2024 at 11:37 am

       Very best wishes.
    8. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 11:40 am

       Wishing you well.
    9. antidlc July 23, 2024 at 11:45 am

       Hoping all goes well, HMP.
    10. anahuna July 23, 2024 at 11:47 am

        I’m in awe of your grace, courage, and lucidity. Not mine to direct, but continuing grace be with you, whatever your current state of belief — the ‘belief’ part being mostly irrelevant.

        Another way of putting it, from one of my Hispanic contacts: Que dios te siga bendiciendo: May God continue to bless you.
    11. hk July 23, 2024 at 12:06 pm

        Best wishes! Hope all goes well!
    12. Bugs July 23, 2024 at 12:14 pm

        Take care, brother. Thinking of you and looking forward to the NFL preseason. Basically the only thing keeping me sane right now lol
    13. KLG July 23, 2024 at 12:33 pm

        Positive energy coming your way from a very large community!
    14. petal July 23, 2024 at 2:05 pm

        Sending good, healing thoughts, HMP!
    15. Henry Moon Pie July 23, 2024 at 3:16 pm

        Thanks, all. I’ll carry those good thoughts into the OR.
        1. ambrit July 23, 2024 at 7:46 pm

           And bring them back out again in good health.
    16. kareninca July 23, 2024 at 10:43 pm

        I hope very much that it goes well.
    17. BillS July 24, 2024 at 4:46 am

        Here’s hoping that your surgery goes well HMP. I always look forward to your philosophical contributions here at NC. As they say in these parts in bocca al lupo!
26. Jabura Basaidai July 23, 2024 at 9:36 am

    Mysterious ‘Dark Oxygen’ Discovered at Bottom of Ocean Stuns Scientists – and there are companies lining up to mine those nodules “environmentally” (sure, yeah, right…) – companies are being touted for the contracts they have and the riches they will find from scraping the ocean floor – when first reading about this little over a year ago it was easy, even not being a scientist, to see this was a bad idea – but here we go again –
    https://www.isa.org.jm/exploration-contracts/
    https://phys.org/news/2023-11-showdown-deep-sea-pacific.html

    i love NC as source of information, but each morning the old Dorothy Parker quote – “What fresh hell is this?” – echoes when i open my NC email – it provides a Pandora’s box of info that can never be put back in the box, a genie let loose from the lamp – at the same time i don’t feel quite alone thanks to NC and all the commentators – NC will get a cut of my next fixed income check, and thank you all –
    1. thump July 23, 2024 at 10:52 am

       re: dark oxygen production. I was excited when I read an article about this in the Guardian, since it seemed to imply that electrolysis of water was happening in darkness. The article was focused on the oxygen, but electrolysis implies that it was also producing hydrogen, and might have implications for the production of hydrogen gas for energy storage. However, I skimmed the Nature Geoscience paper, and they really don’t know what the physical process is, and are only hypothesizing that electrolysis happens via currents between different metal ores in the nodules. So, maybe something with applications to hydrogen production, but it looks like a long shot.
    2. Alice X July 23, 2024 at 10:56 am

       seconded
    3. converger July 23, 2024 at 2:43 pm

       This is really important:

       The discovery of oxygen in deep ocean implies ongoing physical processes and ecosystems that we know nothing about.

       This research that resulted in this remarkable discovery was partially funded by The Metals Corporation, which is about to commence massive, unregulated, deep ocean strip mining operations, completely destroying those ongoing physical processes and ecosystems that we know nothing about. They aren’t waiting to see what the implications might be.

       What could go wrong?
       1. converger July 23, 2024 at 2:55 pm

          Oh yeah. I forgot to add that the sole source of that deep ocean oxygen is seawater electrolysis, powered by the multi-mineral nodules that The Metals Corporation is about to strip mine.
          1. Jabura Basaidai July 23, 2024 at 5:29 pm

             TMC is the stock that has been heavily touted for the last 6 months –
             indeed, what could go wrong?
             the fish stock has been stripped – the Pacific irradiated first by nuclear test bombing and most recently by the ‘dilution is the solution’ discharge from Fukushima – acidification – dead zones – plastic and other pollution impacting sea-life – this is just a pile-on – someone further on in comments described the timeline to develop mining on dry land as 10 – 20 years from first shovels in the ground before ore can be commercialized/utilized – my guess is the timeline is shortened significantly when all that is needed is to scrape the bottom of the ocean for the nodules – to heck with the collateral damage and who is going to see it when it’s miles under water – as a species we’re a pathogen –
             1. Jabura Basaidai July 23, 2024 at 5:58 pm

                and even though the article points out the dead zones where previous mining had occurred had never recovered, TPTB still thought moving ahead on mining the ocean floor was a good idea – from the article – “Why such ‘dead zones’ persist for decades is still unknown.” – oh really……….unknown, so let’s put an asterisk on it…..we’re a pathogen –

                “In 2016 and 2017, marine biologists visited sites that were mined in the 1980s and found not even bacteria had recovered in mined areas. In unmined regions, however, marine life flourished,” explains Geiger.

                “Why such ‘dead zones’ persist for decades is still unknown. However, this puts a major asterisk onto strategies for sea-floor mining as ocean-floor faunal diversity in nodule-rich areas is higher than in the most diverse tropical rainforests.”

                As well as these massive implications for deep-sea mining, ‘dark oxygen’ also sparks a cascade of new questions around the origins of oxygen-breathing life on Earth.
27. sarmaT July 23, 2024 at 9:38 am

    🇱🇧🇮🇱Hezbollah published footage of the destruction of an Israeli Merkava tank using the Iranian ALMAS ATGM, capable of hitting targets beyond line of sight. – ISZ reports pic.twitter.com/axeMHuDUmZ

    — Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) July 20, 2024

    Almas is Iranian copy of Spike missile, which is made by Israel. Wikipedia says that: “Iran received Israeli Spike-MRs captured during the 2006 Lebanon War by Hezbollah.” I guess this counts as getting the taste of your own medicine.
    1. Louis Fyne July 23, 2024 at 11:07 am

       It is fascinating how every time Israel/IDF rachets up the escalation against Hezbollah, Hezbollah pushes back with equal force…classic rational behavior that you learn in month 1 of game theory 101.

       It’s clear that Hezbollah (Iran) doesn’t want a war, but happy, and more than capable, to respond in kind. But Netanyahu and Co. really want to kick around someone in the sandbox.
       1. WobblyTelomeres July 23, 2024 at 2:56 pm

          Does Netanyahu have to keep the war going to stay in power/stave off imprisonment?
28. Bazarov July 23, 2024 at 9:41 am

    Per the Trump assassin AD-ID tweet, 9 devices pinging the ad-networks in different locations does not seem that crazy to me. My dad–a geezer–travels with at least 6 internet-enabled devices (as in running apps or able to browse enough to get an ad-bot’s attention). In my house right now in front of me, there are seven such wifi connected devices, five of which are portable.

    I had incredibly low expectations for Kamala’s big speech. I have to say, she was better than I expected. A friend of mine described her as having “drunk aunt energy,” which far from a liability is exactly the kind of goofiness the average American voter loves (see Bush Jr., Trump, Biden). I thought she seemed lively, like she was having fun, and a bit silly in her style of speaking. That kind of silliness can quickly become a strength, a brand: Bush Jr.’s certainly did.

    We shall see. Her performance was not quite enough to push her from the Crash and Burn category in my mind to the Maybe She’ll Pull It Off? category, but there’s something more there than I would have suspected. She could yet surprise everyone.
    1. britzklieg July 23, 2024 at 10:44 am

       Style over substance fools only the willfully credulous, who, granted, seem to be in the majority. IMHO, Harris has nothing – zip, nada – to offer but platitude and attitude, which I suppose makes her the perfect Democrat.
    2. Alice X July 23, 2024 at 10:59 am

       Never underestimate the Bernays sauce.
    3. Katniss Everdeen July 23, 2024 at 11:50 am

       She’s not going to be the candidate.

       The only thing that might change that is if biden croaks or leaves the presidency before they can anoint someone else and she becomes the incumbent. A lot harder to pitch her over the side if that happens.

       The fact that obama and co. have not already ousted biden and conferred that presidential “legitimacy” on her suggests that they have other plans.
       1. Bugs July 23, 2024 at 12:20 pm

          I’m going to go with Occam’s razor here – Obama has always seen himself as some holy surfer above the fray. He’ll endorse her soon enough. She’s just gotten past enough delegates for the nomination, so she’s the candidate. Having her take over for JRB before the convention is too messy. They need the old man to anoint her in public before he shuffles off.

          Just my humble opinion.
       2. Alice X July 23, 2024 at 1:47 pm

          Symone Sanders, a voice of the Inner Party:

          Earlier on: There will be no primaries, there will be no debates:

          https://www.youtube.com/shorts/B7_PIcKJlh8

          Yesterday: Harris is well poised to lock up the nomination:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE6d8Yr5QHU

          Now, Harris has the nomination locked up, so it is said.

          Our Democracy™ at work, doncha know.
       3. Alice X July 23, 2024 at 2:06 pm

          There was Bomber Harris, now there could be Genocide Harris. It doesn’t quite have the ring to it of Genocide Joe, but as the genocide continues… there’s time.
          1. Antifa July 23, 2024 at 4:16 pm

             There’s Homicide Harris, Kamala Cleansing, Holocaust Harris, Apartheid Barbie, Catastrophe Kamala, War Crime Kamala, Killer Kamala, Glide Bomber Harris, Campaign Kamala, ‘The Horror’ Harris, and of course, painting lots of WWII graffiti on Gaza walls and rubble that says, ‘Kamala Was Here’ . . .
    4. kareninca July 23, 2024 at 10:47 pm

       I always like to be roused to a good goofy yuk when I listen to the person who controls the nukes.
       No, wait, actually I don’t.
29. sarmaT July 23, 2024 at 9:49 am

    American B-52 bombers intercepted near russian border in tense standoff MSN

    The only tense things there, were knickers of B-52 crew members. The only weapon they have against those fighter jets is harsh language. It’s opposite of Mexican standoff.
30. Jabura Basaidai July 23, 2024 at 9:52 am

    “…..the signature was not normal for Biden.” reminded me of Grace Tully, FDR’s secretary, being forced to retype and sign a letter purported to be from FDR so the name would be “…Harry Truman or Bill Douglas!” – definitely not Henry Wallace, who was FDR’s choice – Bill Hannegan who was chairman of the DNC at the time was responsible for it – Grace asserted in her book, “FDR My Boss” that when she searched the files for the carbon copy of the original version of the letter stating Wallace as FDR’s choice, it could never be found – the more things change, the more they stay the same
31. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 10:41 am

    Recession pop’ is in: Why so many listeners are returning to music from darker economic times – CNBC

    Disco was the original post-WWII “recession pop.”
    And it’s not lost on me how much of pop today is full of flavors and colors of disco music. Even down to much of pop today being a producer driven genre.
    Everything old is new again.
    1. Big River Bandido July 23, 2024 at 11:22 am

       flavors and colors — thin, weak, and faded, perhaps. But none of the substance.
       1. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 12:04 pm

          “flavors and colors — thin, weak, and faded, perhaps…”

          “Sampled” is the exact word you may be looking for.
          1. Joker July 23, 2024 at 4:33 pm

             Nah.

             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etPs5ddm7j8
             1. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 5:33 pm

                Squeezing the life out of some it…

                In contrast…

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDqULFUg6CY&ab_channel=JazzNight/
32. Cian July 23, 2024 at 10:48 am

    That New Yorker story about Hezbollah is pretty obvious propaganda if you know much about Lebanon. I kind of doubt that any of those interviews with Hezbollah operatives occurred (arranged by his Maronite fixer/translator?).
33. britzklieg July 23, 2024 at 10:54 am

    SS Director Cheatle resigns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2024/07/23/secret-service-director-resigns-after-trump-assassination-attempt/
    1. Rolf July 23, 2024 at 11:27 am

       Thanks for the link.

       Cheatle had previously said she had no intention of stepping down from her role, and as recently as Monday told lawmakers she believed she was “the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time.”

       Hmmm.
       1. juno mas July 23, 2024 at 3:36 pm

          So here’s the question: if Crook hadn’t failed, would Cheatle still be the leader of the Secret Service today?
34. thump July 23, 2024 at 10:59 am

    re: Covid increasing cancer rates. I have skeptical about the anecdotes about Covid producing more cancer, but (more “anecdata” here) a recent conversation with family who is MD / PhD allergist / immunologist has opened my mind to the possibility. Inasmuch as we’ve seen recent data about lingering T cell activation in various organs of the body, the attendant inflammation is apparently a risk for increased cancer formation.
    1. Mike July 23, 2024 at 12:33 pm

       It could accelerate cancer. For example…
35. Big River Bandido July 23, 2024 at 11:21 am

    All of this is basically correct, except for the assertion that Henry Wallace “was FDR’s choice”. Every account I’ve ever read of this makes pretty clear that FDR was sick, tired, had a huge war to run, and didn’t want to get bogged down in politics. He had completely manhandled his party and the nomination in 1940, including going to mat to insist that Wallace be his running mate even though the delegates at that convention wanted nothing to do with Wallace. The entire 1940 convention was a near-disaster for the Democrats, and the election that fall was the closest contest in decades.

    It’s completely believable that an exhausted polio patient, with advanced coronary disease (though he didn’t know about that diagnosis), having to run the largest war in history, might not want to put himself through the ringer for an eccentric political lightweight like Wallace. (And I say this as a native Iowan with a great deal of respect for Wallace’s character and the rest of his career: a great man, but a terrible politician who would have been a disaster as President.) Doris Kearns Goodwin stated that FDR’s conception of the Presidency was “himself in office” — completely consistent with the notion that he didn’t give a damn about who his running mate would be in 1940. His primary goal, it seems, was to keep political peace within his own party.
    1. Jabura Basaidai July 23, 2024 at 2:19 pm

       see your point Bandido, which made me wonder – no copy ever found of original that Bob Hannegan wanted to change – it was my mistaken assumption that Wallace was FDR’s choice – but FDR did state in a letter of record to convention chairman Sam Jackson, “I personally would vote for his (Wallace) renomination (as VP) if I were a delegate to the convention.” Bob Hannegan, then chairman of the DNC and advisor to FDR, obviously knew that FDR would not last 4 years and had concerns of who would be VP on the ticket and become POTUS when FDR passed during the upcoming term if he won – i pulled out Tully’s book and realized my error in that the original letter suggested Douglas or Truman, in that order, not Wallace – apparently FDR suggested SCOTUS Justice William O. Douglas as his choice, Hannegan kept insisting on including Truman, who became a second choice (to appease Hannegan?) – Hannegan had convinced FDR that Wallace would be difficult choice on the convention floor given the convention of 1940 – would who would be FDR’s VP really make a difference to the voters at that point, the war still on why change horses mid-stream? – it certainly made a difference to the businessmen in politics who would desire Truman over Douglas – the change Hannegan demanded of Tully was to put Truman’s name first and Douglas’s name second – thank you for calling me on it – what was eccentric about Henry Wallace in your view? – he was VP during the years of WWII, he certainly got the baptism of fire at an incredibly complex moment in history – so what exactly makes him a ‘political lightweight’? just curious –
36. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 11:28 am

    Finally recognizing the Israeli opioid disaster – Jerusalem Post

    “…The scandal has been indirectly embarrassing for Israel because among the most notorious companies involved in the opioid disaster is the Sackler family, who own the Purdue Pharma company that manufactured and promoted the powerful and addictive opioid OxyContin and who are now drowning in huge lawsuits. Tel Aviv University’s Medical Faculty that was for decades known as the Sackler Faculty has deleted it from its name…”

    Globally, it’s going to take more than cutting ties to the Sacklers to prevent this non-stop zombie apocalypse.
    Yes…the opioid crisis may be the closest thing to the zombie apocalypse.
37. Kouros July 23, 2024 at 11:30 am

    Alex Krainer’s The meaning of freedom and security is pretty spot on and matches quite well my personal experience in Ceausescu’s Romania and then in the undisclosed countries of the west.
38. antidlc July 23, 2024 at 11:35 am

    RE: Who signed Biden’s letter?

    I don’t know who signed it, but according to this article BIden drafted it with Donilon.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/21/us/politics/biden-withdrawal-timeline.html
    Inside the Weekend When Biden Decided to Withdraw

    Still sick and raspy, the president opted to announce his decision by letter rather than on camera, and worked on drafting it with Mr. Donilon, the author of many of the president’s public words, while Mr. Ricchetti focused on next steps, like when to inform the staff, how to do it and who else would need to be notified.
    1. Henry D July 23, 2024 at 12:54 pm

       My guess why we haven’t seen Biden is that he didn’t sign the letter and they don’t trust him not to blurt that out if he gets in front of an audience. They are hoping given enough time that he will forget he didn’t sign or be convinced that he did.
    2. Brian Beijer July 23, 2024 at 2:19 pm

       Hmm.. That’s interesting. In the video clip I watched, when Biden “called” (recorded?) Harris, he sounded fine. He had quite a strong voice without any detection of raspiness. Quite the recovery in 36 hours. This NYT article begs another question. If Biden was too sick to speak on camera, why not just wait the apparent 36 hours until he felt better? What was so urgent that caused him to resign in a tweet?

       “There is no killing the suspicion that deceit has once begotten.”
39. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 11:37 am

    The meaning of freedom and security – Alex Kraine

    “…Under communism we had few restrictions to observe and for the most part they were enforced loosely. In many Western jurisdictions, the rules are so many, you’re bound to break a few on your way to buy groceries…”

    These images popped into my head and a good example (simplified) of what he’s talking about:
    http://www.polisassist.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/confusing-signs-min.jpg
40. Matthew G. Saroff July 23, 2024 at 11:44 am

    While I understand why someone would suggest that, “We Need An FDA For Artificial Intelligence,” but they are wrong.

    Such an agency would be captured by the industry, much as the FDA has been over the past 50 years.

    If one is concerned about AI developments causing harms, even if it is just increases in anthropogenic climate change emissions, the solution is to remove the profit motive.

    Simply exempt all AI systems, algorithms, and data sets from IP restrictions, including trade secret protections.

    Once the profit motive is removed, one will see developments stemming from academics as opposed to the (largely fraudulent) gold rush that we are currently seeing.

    Also, it would wipe the smirk from serial failure and serial fraudster Sam Altman’s face, which is an independent good.
    1. Henry D July 23, 2024 at 1:38 pm

       While I agree it would certainly be a disaster to have AI making the decisions as it would like further hide the rational for decision, perhaps we can turn it around on them and have something like Perplexity AI provide sources and explanations for FDA decisions and keep the public informed thus keeping helping to keep the FDA honest.
       Here how to use it:
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne-j_U2Vkfw
41. Carolinian July 23, 2024 at 11:55 am

    Sounds like Larry Johnson has gone full blown grassy knoll.

    https://sonar21.com/judge-napolitano-and-i-discuss-the-trump-assassination-while-joe-and-kamal-ditch-netanyahu/

    If evidence should emerge that there really was a conspiracy then i’ll have to check out that Civil War film. It seems fantastic, but one shouldn’t ignore the fact that our president (still) has dementia.
    1. Mikel July 23, 2024 at 12:08 pm

       My band name: Bolivian Coup Attempt
       Album title: Full Blown Grassy Knoll
    2. Samuel Conner July 23, 2024 at 1:09 pm

       LJ expresses the view that this concatenation of SS mistakes is too improbable to be an accident; he thinks it is more probable to interpret it to have been intentional.

       But I wonder whether it might be that LJ’s calculations are assuming a pre-pandemic rate of errors. A multiple factor screw-up that would have been an incredibly improbable accident in a population of not-cognitively-impaired public servants might be significantly less improbable under current circumstances.
    3. Samuel Conner July 23, 2024 at 1:21 pm

       The thought occurs that calculations of the improbability of a series of stupid mistakes that is based on pre-2020 error rates might seriously underestimate their frequency under present conditions of widespread prevalence of cognitive impairments due to CV infections and their sequelae.

       Perhaps the Butler case is too over the top to be plausibly interpreted to be due to “unintentional error attributable to cognitive impairment”, but I think that we can expect to see a greater frequency of “natural” (i.e. “unintentional”) accidents, and presumably that will accelerate into the future until the CV transmission rate is significantly reduced.
    4. Joker July 23, 2024 at 4:44 pm

       Jack Devine was on the grassy knoll.
42. Tom Stone July 23, 2024 at 12:16 pm

    I wonder if Genocide Joe ever saw the letter that he allegedly signed?
    I have dealt with people who had Dementia and they are by definition not rational, and Joe was never a reasonable Man at the best of times.
    Tantrums, Kicking, biting, throwing anything within reach, screaming threats and obscenities .are all behavior I have witnessed.
    Even dropping Trou and taking a dump in a public place.
    Rage is common as is Paranoia, it is going to be an interesting next few Months…
    1. Samuel Conner July 23, 2024 at 12:43 pm

       Yesterday’s Taibbi/Kirn podcast displayed a live-streamed call-in (starting about 1:23:50) by JRB to a KH appearance at a campaign office; assuming it was him, he sounded surprisingly well and in control of his emotions.

       ———–

       Wondering how the weekend “intervention” went down, I can imagine that it was pointed out to JRB that it was the Party that was responsible for his nomination in 2020 — he didn’t earn it on his own merits; it was handed to him by default through the Party-induced dropping out of other people who were running in a “lane” similar to his — and now the Party needs him to drop out.

       The Party giveth, and the Party taketh away; blessed be the Name of the Party.
43. Jokerstein July 23, 2024 at 2:17 pm

    I am a natural skeptic but “-omic” sciences (e.g., genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, glycomics) have not been all that impressive to me. Computation heavy, hypothesis light. The “immunome” is an even fuzzier network problem than these examples.

    If you want to get a good, up-to-date-but-with-some-informed-speculation coverage of multiomics (it IS a thing I worked on earlier this year) check out “How Life Works” by Philip Ball. EXTREMELY highly recommended.
    1. Jeremy Grimm July 23, 2024 at 5:46 pm

       Thank you for the book referral. I does look very interesting.

Comments are closed.