Pair of sea lions chase people, charge through crowds once again at California’s La Jolla Cove FOX. Meanwhile:
Two people were thrown into the ocean after a whale landed on their fishing boat off the New Hampshire coast on Tuesday morning, and the entire incident was caught on video by two brothers on a nearby boat https://t.co/tZ4tildSTx pic.twitter.com/WzPemowDTZ
— WCVB-TV Boston (@WCVB) July 23, 2024
Baby bull sharks are thriving in Texas and Alabama bays as the Gulf of Mexico warms Phys.org
CalPERS’ plan to generate alpha from climate investments Top 1000 Funds
Editorial: STRS Minnesota meddling Toledo Blade. STRS = State Teachers Retirement System. From last week, still germane.
Joseph E. Stiglitz Says More…. Project Syndicate
Climate
Sunday was Earth’s hottest day in all recorded history, climate agency says Politico
June 2024 featured record-breaking heat and billion-dollar weather disasters, NOAA says Space.com
Six out of nine “planetary boundaries” have been crossed and a tenth has appeared BNE Intellinews
* * * How energy intensive are data centers? BNE Intellinews
Globally aligned regulations, standards critical to role of biologicals in sustainable agriculture S&P Global
Syndemics
Video: The ‘excess mortality’ phenomenon: What does the future hold? (transcript) Insurance News Net
Extreme heat in Colorado may have contributed to an extraordinary outbreak of bird flu in people Colorado Sun
China?
Chinese nuclear reactor is completely meltdown-proof New Scientists
* * * Beijing trains sights on China’s vast finance sector with new anti-corruption body South China Morning Post
The Billionaire Criminal Who Secretly Profited Off Jack Ma’s Deals The Wire China
* * * China’s Cement Boom Is Over. We Can All Breathe Easier Bloomberg
Chinese commodity imports reach new highs Splash 247
A rapidly growing China-owned fleet Hellenic Shipping News
* * * The Myers-Briggs test is wildly popular in China. Is it a threat to labour rights? South China Morning Post
India
Charts: Debunking the Modi Government’s Railway Spending Myth The Wire
Bangladesh protests pause after top court scraps job quotas, more than 500 arrested over deadly unrest Channel News Asia
‘All-in on the Indo-Pacific’ the key message on Blinken’s upcoming visit to Asia, says US official Channel News Asia
Syraqistan
China Brokers Unity In Palestine Moon of Alabama. Commentary:
🚨BREAKING: 🇵🇸🇨🇳China reconciliation talks between Fatah, Hamas, Palestinian factions sign reconciliation agreement.
The national factions agreed during their meetings in China to achieve comprehensive Palestinian national unity, including all Palestinian forces and factions… pic.twitter.com/vqAkJz4JfI
— Firas 🇵🇸 (@FirasPalestine) July 22, 2024
* * * Israeli government allocates millions to unauthorised West Bank settler outposts France24
Israeli settlers set fire to olive groves in the occupied West Bank (video) Al Jazeera
US “charity” aids armed Israeli settlers The Electronic Intifada
* * * Red Sea crisis reaches peak impact on box ships Seatrade Maritime News
Israel urges citizens attending Olympics to be cautious, warning of terror threats Times of Israel. Commentary:
Israel will probably do a false flag attack on the Paris Olympics and blame it on Palestine either through Mossad or their ISIS proxy.
They will do anything to win back world opinion, they’re desperate
— Benjamin Rubinstein (@BenFRubinstein) July 23, 2024
European Disunion
France’s left-wing bloc to propose senior civil servant as premier following snap polls Anadolu Agency
Dear Old Blighty
Labour’s new defence adviser Fiona Hill: from the White House to Whitehall Guardian
Labour could deliver clean air – and really should if it wants to succeed Funding the Future
New Not-So-Cold War
Iskander-M Strike Kills Around 50 Western Foreign Fighters on Ukrainian Frontlines Military Watch
Russians attack Odesa Oblast with Shahed drones, damaging port infrastructure and house: 3 people injured– photos Ukrainska Pravda
How Russia abandoned BTGs:
How Russia Fights – Part 2.1: Battalion Tactical Retrospective
I was going to write a post on my best guess at the Russian Army's current tactical organization when an insight hit me about their prewar combined-arms maneuver element: the Battalion Tactical Group.⬇️
I wrote a… pic.twitter.com/ZiioUGT96c— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) July 24, 2024
* * *
Military intervention in Ukraine is now essential The Telegraph
Europe turns to conscription as threat of wider war with Russia grows CNN
* * * It’s not possible to reconstruct all damaged Ukrainian power facilities before winter – energy advisor Ukrainska Pravda
* * * How Russia is using nuclear power to win global influence FT. From last month, still germane.
Biden Administration
House Dem’s staff calls Capitol Police after office was swarmed by anti-Israel protesters Politico
It’s time for Congress to intervene with the Bonneville Power Administration Washington State Standard (PI).
2024
Trump team files FEC complaint over transfer of Biden’s $91M to Harris campaign: ‘Brazen money grab’ FOX
Trump posts letter from Palestinian leader ahead of Netanyahu meeting Axios
House Intel Chair Turner: ‘Indecisive’ Biden poses a national security risk Politico
* * * Can Kamala Harris Wipe the Blood Off Her Hands? Jeremy Scahill, Drop Site
The tiny Indian village claiming Kamala Harris as its own BBC
“Gods in the Building”: How the Texas Senate Buries Sexual Harassment Complaints and Enables Bad Actors Texas Monthly
Antitrust
McKinsey in Lina Klan’s crosshairs:
FTC Chair Lina Khan is investigating McKinsey. https://t.co/8ZknPfbHqT pic.twitter.com/SJoCteNLIb
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 23, 2024
Writing Law: Minimum Requirements for Enacting Robust Antitrust Legislation (PDF) David Hanley, Open Markets Institute
Digital Watch
The Most Misunderstood – and Important – Factor in the AI Arms Race The Diplomat
Websites clamp down as creepy AI crawlers sneak around for snippets The Register
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs TechCrunch
Police State Watch
Missouri prison ignores court order to free wrongfully convicted inmate for second time in weeks AP
Supply Chain
Hospitals, labs, and health departments try to cope with blood culture bottle shortage STAT
Class Warfare
General strike May 1, 2028:
@AFTunion just overwhelmingly passed @CTULocal1 and @BTUBaltimore resolution to align union contracts across the US with @UAW for a common expiration of May 1, 2028 to win more for working people in bargaining, at the statehouse & all the way up to the White House. #RealSolutions pic.twitter.com/FgGgT9cNxf
— Jackson Potter (@jacksonpCTU) July 23, 2024
America’s 60-Year-Olds Are Staring at Financial Peril WSJ
The Employment Effects of a Guaranteed Income: Experimental Evidence from Two U.S. States (PDF) Eva Vivalt, Elizabeth Rhodes, Alexander Bartik, David Broockman, Sarah Miller. Commentary from Vivalt.
Reading as Moral Formation Hedgehog Review
Life, What’s Luck Got to Do With It? Fossils and Other Living Things
Antidote du jour (JJ Harrison):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
144 comments
Comments are closed.
BIBI’S SPEECH TO YOU
(melody borrowed from Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant)
Israel’s Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, will address a joint session of the American Congress this evening. The stated goal of Republicans in Congress is to give Bibi even more than the 55-standing-ovations-in-45-minutes that he got last time. The Democrats will keep pace with them. Only a reggae song can capture this historic moment.
OY! OY!
In the American Congress
Our money flows to every one
We do our best to brainwash ’em
A bit of blackmail gets the job done
(Oh no!)
Make all our dreams come true with Bibi’s speech to you
Like you he is a liar
(Ohh!)
You’re gonna give our guy a hot hullabaloo
He’s feared and he’s admired
We need more tanks and more soldiers
We’re neck deep in shit you can see
Few freighters come to our shore, ya
We’re tryin’ to draft the Hasid
(Good God!)
Our Bibi comes to you for bombs and revenue
Our country is on fire
(Ohh!)
High time for each of you to stand up for the Jews
Or we’ll get you retired
Let’s go! Let’s go!
Let’s go! Let’s go!
(Oh Lord!)
Make all our dreams come true with Bibi’s speech to you
Our situation’s dire
(Ohh!)
He will tell you true it all depends on you—
The world occupier
Zionists throughout your country
They all want Ar-ma-gedd-on
We’ll start with standing ovations
‘Cause we all think genocide’s fun!
(Oh no!)
Make all our dreams come true with Bibi’s speech to you
Like you he is a liar
(Oh no!)
You’re gonna give our guy a hot hullabaloo
He’s feared and he’s admired
(Ohh!)
Stop the Houthis!
Iran to their knees!
This isn’t play time!
Our final fight!
(Ohh!)
Our Bibi comes to you for bombs and revenue
Our country is on fire
(Ohh!)
High time for each of you to stand up for the Jews
Or we’ll get you retired
All our conceit
Theft and deceit
Our foes have now found
How to cast Zion down
(Ohh!)
Make all our dreams come true with Bibi’s speech to you
Like you he is a liar
(Hey!)
You’re gonna give our guy a hot hullabaloo
(Oh yay!)
He’s feared and he’s admired
(Help us make it Nuke Time!) Bibi’s speech to you
(How else can we fight?) Like you he is a liar (Bibi’s speech to you)
(Nukes will bring the End Times!) A hot hullabaloo (Bibi’s speech to you)
(They will know we won!) He’s feared and he’s admired (Bibi’s speech to you)
Nice one, Antifa. This is hot!
And now I want to ask Rastafarians how they feel about the I-P conflict. Are there differences of opinion over the meaning of Zion?
Epic troll from Trump to Bibi, posting the letter from Abbas. You gotta hand it to the guy, he has no fear.
I think that it may have been politically necessary, too, as a counterpoint to the JRB/KH snub of Netanyahu.
If “push comes to shove”, I suspect that DJT would “revert to type”, continuing the JRB policy of “no restraints on Israel” in its activities in Gaza. IIRC, he said as much in The Debate, criticizing JRB not for his unconditional support after the Israel/Hamas conflict began, but rather for an implausible DJT theory that JRB failed to restrain Hamas from attacking Israel by being soft on Iran.
DJT is plainly politically highly skilled; this looks to me like a low-cost gesture that may earn some points in electorally significant communities in swing states, but that does not reflect a substantive policy stance meaningfully different from that of JRB.
“(NATO) Military Intervention in Ukraine is now essential.”
There’s absolutely nothing in that article to explain what the author means by “military intervention” or how he thinks it would achieve victory for Ukraine and restore NATO’s credibility. Let alone any consideration of the possible consequences of declaring war on the country that holds the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.
What’s up with pundits and nonsensical saber-rattling? The UK has no real army to intervene with. Is he proposing a general NATO-wide war against Russia? The Baltic States might have enough of a desire for self-destruction to agree, but I don’t see others wanting to be de-electrified as well. Was punditry always this incompetent?
Neither side needs a big army for a NATO-Russia war.
It’s why the whole mobilization in Europe talk is so baffling.
Such a war will last 72 hours at most and will be fought with missiles and aviation.
It is also why the Kremlin’s posture is so inexplicable — right now it is allowing NATO to stage the relevant weaponry right at the Russian border. What happened to never again (allowing a repeat of June 22 1941)?
De-electrification is the least of one’s worries here.
“Such a war will last 72 hours at most and will be fought with missiles and aviation.”
Are you talking about a nuclear exchange?
Because of the short distances involved a nuclear exchange may be over within an hour.
Perhaps there are sotto voce military-to-military contacts taking place.
I don’t think that the senior uniformed leadership of Western militaries want any kind of direct conflict with RF; they know that they can’t win. I think (perhaps I’m mistaken) that it’s the civilian leadership that is talking brave.
Given that JRB may not be fully in control of USG, perhaps things are less dire than they appear in your analysis, on the theory that the military chain of command would disobey civilian orders that would precipitate RF strikes on NATO states as response to the crossing of RF “red lines.” Such disobedience would not be unprecedented; DJT experienced this repeatedly, IIRC.
furnace: What’s up with pundits and nonsensical saber-rattling?
Nothing baffling about it.
G. Orwell: –
‘War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.’
‘War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.’
More specifically, the EU has deep economic problems.
So, like FDR’s USA was able to during WWII and as Putin’s Russia is doing now, it hopes war and militarization will create a large economic stimulus to help solve those problems.
Smedley Butler was 14 years ahead of Orwell and his warning straight forward –
War is a Racket
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.32000014248506&seq=15
he tried to warn us in 1933 about the Business Plot and he told a congressional committee that a group of wealthy industrialists were planning a military coup to overthrow FDR – which was as effective as a snowball in hell – nobody went to jail or even indicted so he wrote the book in 1935 and gave speeches – just about as effective unfortunately –
Are you familiar with the involvement of the Bush family in the business plot?
ahhhhh yes, Prescott Bush a died in the wool fascist and part of the Liberty League that fomented the coup –
Guardian did an interesting article decades ago – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
from the article –
“His business dealings, which continued until his company’s assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.”
Don’t forget Averell Harriman, Skull & Bones ’13, the boss of Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker.
Or his Mom.
wandered thru the guardian a while ago…to wit:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/24/i-know-we-will-win-and-how-ukraines-top-general-on-turning-the-tables-against-russia
“…One initiative is taking shape in neighbouring Poland. Ukrainians abroad will soon be invited to join a new legion there. Training will take place in Poland itself, building trust between men and officers. Later the legion will transfer to the frontline. Syrskyi credited Zelenskiy with this “different approach”. One senses relations between them are harmonious, helped perhaps by the fact the commander has zero political ambitions and a lower profile than Zaluzhnyi. Syrskyi is celebrated in a cat meme, though….”
falling anew from the turnip truck each morning.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/24/putin-lies-russian-economy-eu-ministers
“It was imperative, they said, that western democracies turned the screw amid fears that if there were a ceasefire in Ukraine tomorrow, Russia would spend the next few years regrouping its weakening economy for a second attack on Europe.“By re-Sovietising the Russian economy, Putin has put it on a path towards its own decline. Now it is time for the west to up the pressure even more. Supporting Ukraine and undermining Russia’s capacity to wage war at every turn should be the top priority of every democratic country,” they said.
“President Vladimir Putin and his authoritarian regime are peddling the false narrative that the Russian economy is strong, and that its war machine is unharmed by western sanctions. This is a lie that must be refuted.
“In fact, there are many signs that the Russian war economy is deteriorating. The sanctions and other measures to weaken the Russian economy are effective, but even more can be done. We must continue to increase pressure against Putin’s regime and support Ukraine.””
sigh.
its just not worth arguing with the folks i know(almost all of them) who believe all this.
the righty leaners who are die hard old style gop believe all this, too.
the more trumpy gop are skeptical of ukraine(thanks, JD) but still think the ussr needs to be defeated(sic).
the local dems are still hiding in their hillforts, i suppose….although i do not come down out of the hills that often, these days…and dont frequent the winebars,lol…
falling anew from the turnip truck each morning. heh heh.The Ukrainian Expat Legion. Going to be light on troops seeing as they fled to avoid the violence. Small and agile I guess.
“One initiative is taking shape in neighbouring Poland. Ukrainians abroad will soon be invited to join a new legion there.”
Hard to train in the Ukraine with Russia eyeing any type of troop formation, movement of weapons, and the destruction to Ukraine’s infrastructure.
The EU is set on war. The USA can’t seem stop trying to police the world. Old habits die hard.
“One initiative is taking shape in neighbouring Poland. Ukrainians abroad will soon be invited to join a new legion there.”
“Invited” is the key word here. “You are invited to join OR you will be deported” We are tired of you sponging off us.
There’s a fairly significant difference between the incompetent and the clearly unhinged. Hard to believe, but 60 years ago the Telegraph was the go-to place for news and tight, hard nosed analysis about the world beyond the Channel.
Nobody will declare war.
The missiles will fly, disguised as yet another “Ukrainian” cruise missile attack. But this time they will reach very deep into Russian territory.
We haven’t gotten to that point of boiling the frog yet — that will come after the Kremlin has agreed on ATACMS, Storm Shadows, JASSM-ERs, and eventually even Tomahawks, flying deep into pre-war Russian territory. At which point early warning systems might as well be non-existent, because you are supposed to launch on warning the moment any such missiles fly towards central Russia, as you don’t know what their targets are and what warheads they carry.
This is the big questions right now — will the Kremlin allow that. So far it has sheepishly watched as every rung of the escalation ladder that leads to that point has been climbed. Thus, given that past behavior is the best predictor of future actions, one has to take very seriously the possibility that the Kremlin will continue with its herbivorous behavior even when those things start happening.
At the moment we have only seen ATACMS strikes on Rostov and many HIMARS attacks on Belgorod and Kursk. Including an attempted HIMARS hit on the Kurchatov NPP (!!!), which was intercepted. Why on earth would you try that??? But overall there has been considerable “restrain”. The “permission” to launch Storm Shadows on pre-war Russia with no limits was given by the British monts ago, and in principle those have the range to hit even Moscow. Yet we know of not a single attempted such strike.
Also, Global Hawk drones stopped flying in the Black Sea after the Sevastopol attack and after one of them was allegedly brought down by a MiG-31 that flew close to it causing turbulence.
So maybe a red line was finally drawn. But that was not done publicly, and escalation can resume at any moment.
And then we get back on the previous trajectory. Which, to remind people, leads to first normalizing cruise and ballistic missile strikes, and then eventually the warheads get swapped with nukes and a decapitation strike is carried out with early warning systems having been trained to ignore such threats.
Again, nobody will declare war, it will be just done. It’s on the Kremlin to stop it.
You greatly underestimate Russian missile defenses. The West has already thrown its various missiles at Russia and Russia has learned their profiles and so brings down >90%. Longer transit time = longer time to intercept. The West does not have the showstopper of hypersonic missiles and won’t for many years.
When nukes are involved, it doesn’t really matter if you are intercepting 90%.
Again, the point is to have them accept those being fired at them in the first place. Which should be absolutely unacceptable, yet here we are.
Also, you underestimate the fact that airplane-sized drones have flown repeatedly more than 1000 km from the Ukrainian border. So clearly there is a serious issue with low-flying objects not being detected. Which is exactly what the cruise missiles will be — low flying and terrain hugging. And we know what the issue is — the Kremlin allowed the oligarchs to spend countless billions on megayachts, limousines, and real estate in the West (as if they could ever actually truly own that real estate without the Russian army controlling the territory physically), while not a single new AWACS plane was built in 30 years (they only restarted production very recently) because there was no money in the budget for that. So there is no 24/7 coverage of what flies in terrain hugging mode where, and in fact there cannot be even if you get all the available planes up in the air in the same time, as the territory is so huge.
The low flying drones have not done serious damage. The worst has been hitting a fuel storage tank or two at refineries. Impressive-looking explosions but refineries are massive complexes and the impact on supplies and production have been nada.
And if you are talking nukes, please. The US can launch them from subs, so this is an existing concern if that is where you think this is going. I have talked repeatedly about the US getting too cute and hitting Siberia with a tactical nuke from a Pacific sub. The Baltic is already a NATO lake.
Any nuclear strike = end of world as we know it. Russian doctrine is immediate and massive retaliation.
Your assumption seems to be that Russia “has learned their profiles” but the West has learned nothing about Russian air defense. You might be right, but considering what appears to be significant ISR assets from the West, I would consider that low probability.
The question if both sides are learning becomes who can gain an advantage.
This is another issue — the West is firing missiles and in the process mapping out Russian AD. And depleting it too — S-300/S-400 do not grow on trees, these areh hugely complex and expensive installations, and it takes years to train the crews. So when they get taken out, it’s a very painful blow. And now they are being taken out even in Belgorod and Kursk…
That is not how this was supposed to play out — the idea was that the two sides will clash directly and it will be over quite quickly.
But doing it slowly it presents this asymmetric opportunity to figure out the opponent’s defenses.
No, they are not “taking them out”. All the reports I have heard are that at most a repairable part of a system has been damaged. The nervous Nellies and MoD critics (many) among the hawkish Russian Telegramers tend to get overwrought at any news of setbacks. Calmer heads with more data have not found any reason for much alarm on this front.
And S-300s and S-400s are mobile, not that Russia is or necessarily wants to be moving them around a lot.
I don’t understand your argument. It might be possible for the West to assemble a limited number of aircraft in Ukraine without having them destroyed, and it might be possible to send them on a mission to launch missiles against targets in western Russia. Some of the aircraft might get through. Some of the missiles might get through. Some of the missiles might do some damage. In return, the Russians could, if they wished, devastate targets in western Europe (and even the US) with hypersonic missiles, whilst the West would have lost a good proportion of its air power.
How is this a good idea? How does it even equate to “war,” and what possible political objective could it serve? I suppose that if there was some absolutely overriding imperative on the West to strike a symbolic blow against Russian territory, then that would be the only possible method. But I see no sign of such lunacy.
Publicly drawing a ‘red line’ for irrational opponents bent on escalation same like a stupid move. I believe the entire concept of red lines has been demonstrated to be counterproductive. Managing the pace of demilitarization of NATO seems like a task requiring more subtlety than, say, a Torygraph pundit.
The Russians have not been “sheepish” in the war so far. They have been calculating and restrained, while living well within their means in terms of weapons and soldiers.
At the same time, they have wiped out three or four Ukrainian armies and 80% of the electrical grid in Ukraine. Right now Ukraine can hardly find anyone to man their army and the average age of their soldiers is 43 years. It’s easy to imagine the Russian military wiping out the Ukraine and its leadership and infrastructure in its entirety if it wanted to but as far as I know they don’t see any advantage in it. Putin does not have the goal of taking over large swaths of territory from what I can see.
Russia already has large swaths of territory. My take is that the Russian leadership wants to eliminate a serious and growing threat right on its border, much as we would want to do if the Russians took over the Mexican government and started amassing forces right on our border.
I am quite thankful the Russians are being deliberate and thoughtful in their prosecution of this war. They are about the only ones acting this way.
Jacques Baud has been saying that because the collective west keeps doubling down, the Russian Federation is being forced to destroy Ukraine.
I confess that I gave up reading partway through the first paragraph, when I encountered the claim that RF does not negotiate in good faith. This looks to me like “projection” — interpretation of the other in terms of what one knows to be true about oneself — and I find that very tiresome to wade through.
It’s actually kind of funny — VVP does a lot of speaking, and a theme in his speeches, abundantly illustrated with examples from recent history, is Western bad faith in negotiations. I can’t think of a single public address by a Western leader that makes similar substantive claims, backed up with evidence from history, about RF. (This is not to assert that there are no such substantively justified claims by Western heads of government, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be a theme.)
IMO the “bad faith” charge is pure projection.
Or maybe it’s COVID-induced brain damage.
that the amen choir keeps insisting that the ussr(sic) is hell bent on taking over europe is my favorite.
when i ask where’s the evidence…well…there aint any…its just a truth(“it is known”)
of course, this being a red county, the bigger worry is those dern Chi-Coms.
(an hypothesis: beginning in the 80’s a bunch of korean war vets moved to the texas hill country to die….beginning with kerrville(once a redneck hippie enclave)…and their kids followed with them.)
and speaking of commies:
https://x.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1815602590509678754
and here i though hinkle was a rabid righty,lol.
Haz al-Din is the Lenin/Mao figure in this outfit…which at least lends some credibility to the effort…i only started reading him when i got on X…dont know who he is, where he comes from…but he talks a consistent game.
and now ive “followed” al-Din on X.
this sort of thing is worth Nsa scrutiny:
https://x.com/InfraHaz/status/1811505378149998711
Thank you Amfortas. I do like that Al-Din.
Russia taking over Europe is difficult to understand. Russia has energy and mineral resources that Europe lacks so invading Europe would likely consume Russian resources to placate the conquered population.
Then there is the issue that gwb mentioned and amply illustrated, that the USA ” doesn’t do nation building”
Russia should view Europe as a problem neighbor to sell product to, not as a neighbor to conquer with resultant massive follow on costs and little upside.
EUians are afraid that barbaric Russians will invade them in order to destroy their freedom and democracy, steal their money printing press, and rape their women, men, and all the other genders. They might even sit in a bistro under the Eiffel Tower and order a coffee.
Russoa “invading” Europe may become an issue if the Europeans keep up their antics. It may only be missiles and bombs doing the “invasion” and it may be done only reluctantly, but I wouldn’t rule it out categorically. Indeed, Z and hos neocon buddies are trying very hard to make ot happen.
Conscription is not going to be a walk in the park any more than liberating Crimea, or breaking Russia apart into 17 or whatever different nations the current fantasies propose. Like the rest of our foreign policy – Ukraine, Palestine, Iran, China, we are floundering and grasping at Wunderwaffe to magically solve all our problems. Conscription is not a serious proposal and has a significant potential to make things worse. It will probably happen because it is easier to be seen to do something or anything – as opposed to actually produce a competent military policy/plan.
This link by should probably be added to the discussion.
Service to what nation?
Why people should stop talking about conscription.
Aurelien.
From the CNN article:
So the gas station masquerading as a country is winning? Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania are on the edge of collapse. Any day now the Russian hoards are going to show up on the gates of Warsaw, and a week later Berlin will fall. If you aren’t quaking in fear and patriotism keep in mind “that conscription is good for your CV, for applying for a new job for example”. That alone should be enough to convince you that it will all be worth it.
“…grasping at Wunderwaffe to magically solve all our problems.”
ive noticed that this is a feature in the automatic thinking of most of the PMC types i know….if i just buy the right product, all will be well….or if i cut out the crusts of bread(due to a badly done study, leading to a clickbait headline, but having real effects in ppl i know) from my diet…i can live forever…or give up coffee….etc and on and on…
better living through consumption(which used to be a word for TB,lol)
With this one simple trick you can lose weigth, earn money from home doing nothing, increase size of your private parts, and defeat Russia in a land war.
The author is the prototipical Atlanticist–delusional if not insane.
The ‘tell’ comes near the beginning of the piece.
“For a negotiation to be successful, it must solve the cause of the war: Russia’s ‘Great Power’ ambitions.”
Blame everything on the opponent and the homefront will follow along quietly. That might have worked a hundred years ago, but today there are too many “independent” sources for news and reliable information.
A classic piece of propaganda.
Assuming Russia has Great Power ambitions, the logical conclusion would be returning to the Westphalian (a.k.a. United Nations) system of collective security. For reasons all too easy to understand the Atlanticist writer abhors such system, and soon propaganda could be the only thing they have left – once the last shipment of the artillery shell has been sent…
But that would go against America’s Great Power ambitions, the bigger part of the problem… ;)
It’s a moral claim masquerading as analysis.
Humpback whale video is making the rounds. Any fans like me of the original Jaws…
You’re gonna need a bigger boat. Big fish, 3 tons…
Surreal Normality. That’s what I experience traveling, at work, and interacting with friends. Assassination attempt with potential complicity of the Deep State and Democrat’s defenestration of Biden and selection of Kamala without any participation of voters, all just another blip in the headlines.
Recent picture of Biden, first in several days, has people speculating that it was a double. Deep Fakes, memes, proliferation of podcast, pundits, and TwitterX feeds. A kaleidoscope of “news” that keeps me confused and outraged with no hint that there is any self-correction in sight for a gov’t that Kevin Philips warned was out of control almost 30 years ago.
https://www.amazon.com/Arrogant-Capital-Washington-Frustration-American/dp/0316706027
There’s video of Biden from yesterday:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/23/politics/video/biden-video-withdraw-election-digvid
My 2c: he was so mad for 24 hours he couldn’t have been civil in public. He seemed to manage that at least.
With regard to that video you linked to, it raised questions of whether it was really Biden. He had only one reply to reporters. When asked how he was feeling he said, “Well.” Then he proceeded to climb the stairs leading to the Airplane more spritely than any recent video. An interesting TwitterX I watched breaks it down and makes me question what I see as a potential “deep fake.” New territory for me…
How are you sure what is real anymore?
https://x.com/cancelcloco/status/1815880883993497605?s=51
Is it going from “Weekend at Bernie’s” to “Dave”?
For me, the funniest scene in the movie “Dave”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHgyUL3M4IY&ab_channel=OfficialOliverStone/
Oliver Stone’s Cameo in Dave
Much like HRC after she lost in ’16.
Next come the long walks and glasses of Chardonnay, with a side of cabbage. /s
Hmmm… Isn’t Chardonay made from sour grapes?
As for ‘sour’ cabbage: Kimchi!
There’s a glitch in the Matrix but tech support is hard at work deploying a patch. Stay tuned.
I hear CrowdStrike is on it. No worries.
In fact, Joe Biden was replaced with a robot a couple of years ago. What was present so far during press conferences, official celebrations, and the infamous debate with Trump was not a human being, but an android, programmed with a LLM — the combination of the latest from Boston Dynamics and Open-AI.
Consider:
1) That frozen face with the fixed stare, with lips barely moving? Typical of a robotic head.
2) That stiff demeanour, the rigid movements, the short, mechanical steps, the difficulty to maintain balance, those full-body turns instead of head or torso flexions, those unnatural movements to sit down and stand up? Typical of a robot.
3) Those declarations starting correctly and then veering off into a confused jumble of garbled mutterings? Typical of a LLM that has been parameterized with insufficient original input and fed back too much of its own production, ending up uttering grammatically passable, but semantically meaningless sentences (“We beat Medicare”).
4) Sissi president of Mexico? Calling Harris “vice-president Trump”? Zelenski mixed up with Putin? Confusion about time (e.g. when was Biden vice-president)? Just the typical “hallucinations” which LLM are prone to and (in)famous for.
5) The incredibly long breaks during which Biden is not working, day after day? That’s because a whole overworked team of technicians is frantically trying to correct bugs, reprogram the android, refresh the language model, clean up the electro-mechanics, and replace overheating processors.
6) The Covid infection that kept Biden incommunicado? An effect of the Crowdstrike bug that put the android completely out of action for days.
We must face the reality. The Biden is an android, not a very good one at that — but technology is progressing apace and the Deep State will soon have much better robots to take the exalted position of President of the USA while it pursues its nefarious activities hidden from public view.
A pity I am not in twitter/X, telegram, reddit, bitchute, or any of those controversial social networks…
Checks out!
“My butt’s been wiped” was the last time I was 100% sure it was him
Hear, hear!
Classic vao!
Is Ms. Harris the 1.2 version?
My paranoid side thinks that this is very much the intent of the people who are running things.
Somebody’s running things?
ii watched a movie yesterday…”Leaving the World Behind”, with julia roberts, on netflix.
one of the main characters said exactly that at the end of his first important soliloquy…”nobody’s in charge”…characterising it as the scariest thing in the world.
his last soliloquy was even better…pretty much confirming my own views on the reality of the movers and shakers and what they think of as Good Ideas.
imagine my total surprise when as the credits rolled, the executive producers were someone named barack and michelle obama.
As low as my opinion of the IL government is, I disagree here as I don’t think IL cares about international public opinion anymore. Witness the ambassadors floucing attitude at the UN or the total lack of appeal for the plight of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah or indeed the rather muted coverage of the Houthi attack on Tel Aviv.
As long as the IL state lobby has supremacy over the US/EU political class, I think they have decided to concede the moral front. PR from now on is to be managed by a media apartheid, inconvient stories and websites corralled in censorship ghettoes, while an insipid gloss is painted over eventually by the occupation– excuse me mainstream– media. It has become too hard to face the Gaza coverage head on and the spin masters aren’t up to selling a naked genocide in public anymore.
Expect Xanaxed olympic coverage of the Israeli olympic team, with any protestors being discretely headbagged off camera.
Media has sowed infinite negative karma covering for Israel’s genocide.
To wit, yesterday’s Tom Friedman column headline stood out: “Netanyahu looks like a Small Leader at a Historic Moment”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/23/opinion/netanyahu-israel-gaza-congress.html
When Panem Capitol District collapses, I will roll in the schaudenfraude
Yes. The US Congress has also sown infinite negative karma for inviting the despicable Netanyahu, *once again*, to receive our worship and ass-kisses. Of all the karma-shaping actions of Congress during my lifetime, this has to be one of the worst for its blatant, indeed *joyful*, celebration of genocide. We hold ourselves superior to every other nation and arrogantly insist their leaders obey our commands. But we bow down before *this* leader and beg him to forgive us for appearing less than completely enthusiastic about their slaughter. My hate-filled disgust for these prostitutes will grow exponentially with every f**king standing ovation…
Ok, I’d better stop before I really get worked up.
Is there anything more dangerous than a “desperate” israel? (Well, maybe a “desperate” american “intelligence community,” but I digress.)
Aaron Mate and Max Blumenthal have repeatedly documented how, through the use of the Hannibal Directive on Oct. 7, israel was responsible for the massacre of an untold number of its own citizens. It’s also been documented that israel was informed of the potential and ignored the warning.
Then there’s the USS Liberty, which was covered up by OUR OWN government. How many died there?
Does anyone seriously believe that israel wouldn’t knock off or at least wound some of their own athletes to marshal support and curry sympathy for their ongoing genocide? if isreal really wanted to “keep them safe,” they’d just forbid participation. times of israel is essentially telling the world what to expect.
PS. In Taibbi/Kirn’s latest, Kirn contends that the candidate will ultimately be hillary. He postulates that an international “incident” demanding the “resolve” and “experience” of a former secretary of state could justify harris’ replacement. harris is skipping bibi’s speech today and she’s got the anti-genocide contingent of dems to contend with…
And who knows if Trump or harris will be willing to start a war with Iran on bibi’s behalf.
Awful lot of moving parts here.
Walter Kirn’s predictions makes sense in that I have no problem with the necessary ruthlessness and arrogance exist, but I don’t think that the necessary competence does.
Any use of the military could become uncontrollable in days, not weeks, perhaps even in a few hours. American elections are in weeks and months. Then there is the reaction of the American nation, which might not be what they need.
Ooh, Bibi, I love your way, every day, yeah
Ooh, Bibi, I love your way, every day
Shadows grow so long before my eyes
And they’re moving across the page
Suddenly the day turns into night (ooh)
Far away from Jerusalem city
But don’t, oh no, hesitate
‘Cause our lovefest just won’t wait, ayy-yeah
Ooh, Bibi, I love your way, every day, yeah
I wanna tell you I love your way, every day, yeah
I wanna be with you night and day
The Houthis appears to shine and light the sky
With the help of some Persian fireflies
I wonder how they have the power to shine, shine, shine
Well, I can see them under power combined
But don’t, whoa no, no, hesitate, la-di-da
‘Cause our lovefest just won’t wait, ayy-yeah
Ooh, Bibi, I love your way, every day, yeah
I wanna tell you I love your way, every day, ayy-yeah
I wanna be with you night and day
Whoa Bibi, oh Bibi, please, address us every day
How I love, how I love you, oh
I love your way
Ooh, Bibi please
I can see the sunset in your eyes
Flag of white and blue besides
Drones are stalking Tel Aviv in the sun
They seem out of season
But don’t, whoa no, no, hesitate, la-di-da
‘Cause your testimony just won’t wait (ayy-yeah), just won’t wait
Ooh, Bibi, I love your way, every, every day
I wanna tell you I love your way
(I wanna tell you, how I love your little ways)
I wanna be with you night and day (every day and every way)
Billi-aboo-dee-dee-da-di-do-sta-da-Bibi-yeah
Ooh, Bibi, I love your way (ooh Bibi)
(How I love your little ways, yeah)
I wanna tell you I love your way (I wanna tell you how I)
(I wanna tell you how I love your little ways)
I wanna be with you night and day
(Bibi-aboo-see-da-ja-bee-da-di-yeah)
Ooh, Bibi, I love your way (ooh, Bibi, Bibi, Bibi)
Re: pension fund meddling
Somebody has to help me with that story. It seems to imply that some Ohio officials are messing up the Minnesota system because Ohio pays 0.1% in fees when it should be paying 1%. It then seems to blame the NEA for being part of this “team” of Ohio officials.
America’s 60-Year-Olds Are Staring at Financial Peril WSJ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Generation Jones got the shaft early on when we didn’t do any of the cool things our elder Boomers did, and waltzed into teenagerhood and that 70’s inflation, staring down 20% interest rates as we became adults~
OK Boomer TV show pilot episode:
Set in the outskirts of Oklahoma City, follow the travails of a sixty something Sooner Boomer with minimal savings & maximum owing. He’s still a few years away from claiming Social Security, and counting the days.
Sooner Boomer is a bit desperate, and types in GoFunMe on his flip-phone, and receives party hats, noise makers and those things that look like a giant tongue curling out when you blow into them. Undaunted @ missing out on a letter in the web search, said Boomer sticks it all on CraigsList and gets $14 from somebody ostensibly desirous of fun, and blows the proceeds on a 30 pack of Keystone Light.
Who knew top ramen was a breakfast food, too?
I don’t recall the Beatles on Ed Sullivan nor the JFK assassination so I identify as Gen X.
I vaguely remember both, but consider myself as being a member of ‘Gen Null.’
My remembrance of 11/22/63:
6:31 a.m.: right teat
8:43 a.m.: right teat
11:56 a.m.: left teat
The rest is just a blur, unfortunately…
I don’t recall the assassination but do have a distinct memory of the funeral and an even clearer memory of the Beatles first appearance on Ed Sullivan. I don’t identify as any generation. Not only are the designations too open and general, but not everyone reacts to shared experiences the same. But even if that weren’t the case the period between those supposed defining events is much more fluid than general acceptance would have. I don’t think I am the only one that finds themselves betwixt and between.
This 60’s working class curmudgeon came of age under ronald reagan and has had something trickling down on himself for the duration. I hear bezos has a bowl which is almost full and as soon as it hits the lip it won’t be a trickle, but rather a flood, unless sensible regulations and taxing the rich are enacted, which will totally screw things up and lead to more years of working class penury…
There were the usual comments about a motivated individual or couple can plan and prepare for their eventual retirement, using well known books or authors to help guide their approach. I’ll suggest that just isn’t for everyone, and as discussed in that article a typical investor will panic and might even compound their retirement mistakes if funds are fully withdrawn from a major index fund. Just one of a few examples.
Thankful I skated past the need to do so similarly, securing 2 new positions between mid year 2009 and mid year 2012 was not enjoyable. I’d guess surfing the websites of employers and likewise recruiters is possibly much worse now, given the settings and rigors necessary to make it out of the trash bin into a hiring manager’s office to even score an interview.
Next 10 to 20 years will tell the story of whether I can live well in retirement or merely live year to year in a supposed retirement. Middle of the Gen X category.
JD Vance’s supposed mentor.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/peter-thiel-israel-palantir/
Meanwhile from Kamala–assuming she really is the unelected nominee–we can expect the usual soup of platitudes re the “peace process” etc. She seemed to be beaming the other day after finally having gotten her 2020 goal without having to win any primaries. If Biden had made the correct decision originally and opened the field to others would she have been the one selected? Probably not.
Kirn points out that Kamala, who always looks good on paper to the elites, typically finds her greatest support at the outset and fades in the stretch. She is in short not a politician for what is overwhelmingly a political job. You could say the same about Hillary although she did seem almost appealing when she long ago ran in 2008. We may get both of them in a future that isn’t looking too bright no matter who wins. The puppet will need a puppet master.
But we’ll know soon enough about that fading thing.
In that same discussion in which Kirn notes Kamala’s tendency to “peak” at the outset, Taibbi made the very relevant observation about her strong support by insider Democrats and elite funders in the beginning of the 2020 campaign. He said that Kamala would have likely appeared a strong candidate back in the days when they were chosen in cigar-filled rooms by party elites and simply presented to the public as done deal. But in 2020 she had to face public scrutiny and fell flat. Turns out, though, that there is still a path to the nomination that bypasses all that messy democratic pretense. Joke’s on us.
Gabbard, by contrast, has great political talent but was not a member of the club. Here’s an insightful article by Norman Solomon on how the DNC now works.
https://scheerpost.com/2024/07/24/the-democratic-partys-culture-of-loyalty/
Or, as Kamala said in a campaign headquarters video the other day, “let’s hear it for Jennifer.” Solomon points out that the party is now run for its funders and Haim Saban is a major one of them.
Any notion that Harris will be different than Biden on Gaza–at least after the election–is up against reality.
Regarding Gabbard, I’d go further. She was actually being groomed for the club, but turned her back on it for all the right reasons. Within a short period of time, this unknown novice politico was sponsored for membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, named one of the WEF’s Young Global Leaders, and given one of the top positions at the DNC. Clearly powerful people recognized her political potential and were preparing her for great things. But then she started telling the truth about Syria and other foreign policy issues, resigned from the DNC over the Clinton corruption, and said so-long to the Establishment.
I know Tulsi has reemerged as a populist Republican serving as a partisan critic of the Democrats. There are a number of her positions with which I disagree. But I will always respect her for rejecting membership in the “club” by challenging its lies and corruption.
> Can Kamala Harris Wipe the Blood Off Her Hands? Jeremy Scahill, Drop Site
Yes, ofc. But if she intended to do anything to stop the slaughter and depopulation in Gaza, ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and expansion of conflict to Lebanon and Yemen then she would have signaled such intent already.
Interesting to consider, hypothetically, how many votes she’d gain from independents that way and how many she’d lose from – idk what to call it.
What a position to be in, VP (and thus muzzled) to a genocidaire while also a Prez candidate (maybe) calling for a stop to the slaughter (again maybe). AIPAC can’t primary her, or can they? Anyone who wants the job is likely too corrupt to deserve it. This is making me ill. Humanity is done in with big money, small minds and no hearts.
I thought Drunk Auntie Kam was AIPAC’s pick.
perception is reality
I tried to post that article on Facebook with this prefacing remark:
“Jeremy Scahill asks exactly the right question. Just like every other mainstream Democrat, her hands are dripping with Palestinian blood over the course of the past 75 years.
Will she make good on the leaked “dissents” from Biden’s policy? She has an entire past political history to undo.”
REJECTED: I’ve had so many rejected over the past month or two (I post a LOT on Facebook) that I didn’t even bother to read the screens about reasons and appeals.
I have been arguing with friends that our degenerate political system has given us the choice between FASCISM (taking the Dem line at face value for the sake of the argument) and GENOCIDE. And that there is no sound-byte valid dismissal of this conundrum: you HAVE to wrestle with it, saying “well you are just in effect voting for Trump” really trivializes the moral gravity of genocide.
Anyway, this article provides detailed information about Harris’s past support for Israel and Zionism.
As to WHY I bother to post on FB: well most of my friends are there. But it is a terrible platform, the biggest issue I have after censorship is lack of feedback. Any decent website can tell you how many people came to your site and which pages they saw. Facebook? zilch…
I tried once to post something political when I tried to explain the 2009 coup in Honduras, and Hillary’s complicity. It bounced and I never tried again. I use it to wish some of my actual friends a happy birthday and that is about it. It is worthless for much else.
I’ll echo the modern day usage for the FB…I would drop the social media crap fully, I find it primary use now for the purpose of birthday or anniversary notices, and the unfortunate news of a parent or loved one facing serious illnesses and or death.
I rather despise what they permit and what is rebuked.
I am seeing multiple brief “news” items alleging that, with JRB out of the race on age-related concerns, similar attention is likely to ratchet up on DJT, who would, by the end of a notional next term, be older than JRB now is.
The thought occurs that this might have been one of the “positive” arguments made to JRB to induce him to withdraw his candidacy — he had become the focus of attention when the D Party needed DJT to be the focus. In a call-in to a KH appearance at a campaign office Monday, JRB asserted that his withdrawal was “the right thing to do” and he sounded to my ear surprisingly mellow about it, as if he had made peace with the decision.
I have the sense that we are going to be treated to a flood of video retrospectives of the candidates tossing word salad and/or bullsh!tting. Ah, Democracy!
I’m really not sure they’d want to start down this road. Isn’t Pelosi older than Trump?
“I am seeing multiple brief “news” items alleging that, with JRB out of the race on age-related concerns…”
In addition to your suspicions, it’s also just ass-covering for their years of playing Weekend at Biden’s.
Well, my moment to shine will soon be upon me, all the weeks of training hopefully will not be for naught.
Studying the Olympics, it dawned on yours truly that despite being a nation full of extremist gun nuts who would shoot you down for a purloined Snickers, we really suck in the shooting events and I easily qualified for the team, plus i’m projected to make the podium in the small bore assault rifle category.
p.s.
Can you drape yourself in Old Glory if you come in 2nd or 3rd?
Finally, the Canucks get out of the goody-two-shoes rut: Olympics soccer drone recording complaint sees Team Canada staff sent home. (Although the apologies were a bit overdone.)
@Wukchumni, 9:42
“shoot you down for a purloined Snickers”
I think you’re exaggerating. A much bigger risk is being gunned down when thieves steal your catalytic converter in broad daylight. At least that’s a cat worth dying for, at maybe $200. (vide Johnny Wactor)
So am I supposed to be armed and dangerous at all times, just waiting for those catalytic converter thieves to attempt to gun me down without any provocation in broad daylight. as i’m driving?
…and could that be an Olympic event in the 2028 LA games?
Oooh, an escape from NY/Grand Theft Auto event at the Olympics, too cool! Finally a real world meets gaming Olympic event. The IOC should absolutely be considering it. That there might be casualties among the fans as well as the participants should not deter them!
I think innocent bystanders would be ok, with the agony of defeat.
That may be an event by an event question. I can tell you that everyone on the podium at figure skating events gets to use their flag as a cape as they skate around the rink after the medal ceremony. I’m not sure if shooting events include parading with the flag in front of the targets but why the heck not!
Editorial: STRS Minnesota meddling , Well worth a read, just to see the orchestrated effort to pillage peoples pensions. This, Following the high-profile Ohio reform effort a Minnesota teachers group has hired Mr. Siedle for the same mission. A public records release from Minnesota shows Ohio STRS Acting Executive Director Lynn Hoover and Ohio lawyers and lobbyists communicating with their Minnesota counterparts to undermine the impact of the investigation.
There’s “new math” too. This, A cursory look at the Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association leads to the conclusion they’re either a world class pension or they’re cooking the books. Minnesota reported investment fees on the $26.7 billion teacher pension fund of $24.1 million. The teachers fund has a $6.6 billion private equity portfolio that would be expected to pay at least $132 million a year to fund managers. Moreover, a comprehensive study of 54 public pensions from 2008 to 2023 conducted by investment expert Richard Ennis shows fees average 1 percent of assets under management. By that metric Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association would be expected to pay over a quarter billion dollars a year to fund managers. Who audits this mess?
More “new math”, here in the style of Bernie Madoff. A long term look at Minnesota’s pension math is just as perplexing. The teachers retirement fund purports to beat a composite index they created by 0.2 percent measured over 1, 5, 10, 20, and 30 years. The odds of that level of consistency over each measure of time are infinitesimal.
There is one hellova super typhoon battering Taiwan as I type…
Gaemi is making a series of out and back moves, kinda similar to what Houston experienced a few years back in 1 of their 1 in 500 year flood gigs.
I was in Hong Kong in 1983 for a coin show when Typhoon Ike came calling…
We were ensconced on the 17th floor of the Holiday Inn in Kowloon and i’d guess there was a continual 4.1 earthquake for about an hour at maximum wind speed.
My only hurricane experience, I was torn between watching festivities at the window or cowering in the bathtub behind the locked bathroom door, and the latter won out.
The day after I went for a walk and saw junks that were 100 yards inland, and they used bamboo for scaffolding quite a bit, and shredded bamboo was all over the place near building sites, like so many toothpicks, wow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Ike
Typhoon Gaemi sitting on Taiwan – Cat 4 hurricane and getting stronger – when ya writing a book Wuk?
Ventusky a good weather site – https://www.ventusky.com/
I only have the title so far…
‘Under the White Elephant’
https://x.com/SequoiaKingsNPS/status/1372927088852938753
so far the most cringeworthy hagiography ive seen yet:
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/4787902-washington-cincinnatus-presidential-age/
late roman flavor(garum)…with hints of bagdad bob.
Trump team files FEC complaint over transfer of Biden’s $91M to Harris campaign: ‘Brazen money grab’ Can’t help but wonder if this $91mm was part of the $150 million “money bomb”. A day of record indeed.
If he keeps stomping his feet, he’s agonna aggravate those bone spurs.
Act Blue says they received contributions of $154M
https://x.com/actblue/status/1816165400545005969
my twice a month foray into msmland continues to bear fruit:
K Street has a sad.
https://thehill.com/lobbying/4788758-k-street-struggles-to-decode-trump-vp-pick-vance/
maybe its just me…since i cant put a finger on it…but the subtext or vibe seems to be “look! trumps upsetting Norms again!”…which, i admit, will likely be seen as very convincing over at mom’s house.
Speaking of VP picks; it is being reported on Twitter that Harris has added to the short list of VP candidates – Mayo Pete.
Harris/Pete ticket is a winner for sure if we are competing in word salad Olympics.
I just can’t…I really can’t think of too many people who, when talking, are more fingers on chalkboard than Harris and Pete. Perhaps Hillary. There are plenty more but those are on the Mt. Rushmore of streaming stinking cringe-worthy BS artists of the highest order.
My PMC friends think that is a dream ticket. Yea, dreams, like what Carlin said about the American Dream. I’d rather call it a nightmare.
He will be out of a job next year whether she chooses him or not.
In a brief conversation about the latest events, my boss actually had creepy Pete’s name come out of his mouth.
Who’s gonna tell you when
In the Graveyard of Empires
It’s too late?
Who’s gonna tell you things
Aren’t so great?
You can’t go on
Thinking nothing’s wrong, oh oh
Who’s gonna drive the General home
Tonight?
Who’s gonna pick you up
When you fall?
Who’s gonna hang it up
When you call?
Who’s gonna pay attention
To your dreams?
Who’s gonna plug their ears
When you scream?
You can’t go on
Thinking nothing’s wrong, oh oh
(Who’s gonna drive him?)
Who’s gonna drive the General home
(Who’s gonna drive him? Who’s gonna drive)
Tonight?
Who’s gonna hold you down
When you forsake?
Who’s gonna come around
When you break?
You can’t go on
Thinking nothing’s wrong, oh oh
(Who’s gonna drive him?)
Who’s gonna drive the General home from Bagram
(Who’s gonna drive him? Who’s gonna drive)
Tonight?
Oh, you know you can’t go on
Thinking nothing in Afghanistan is wrong
(Who’s gonna drive him?)
Who’s gonna drive him home from Bagram
(Who’s gonna drive him? Who’s gonna drive)
Tonight?
Drive, by the Cars
You’re absolutely on fire today.
It felt as if I singed my QWERTY this morning…
“The Myers-Briggs test is wildly popular in China”
Me: Facepalm
It’s the little things like this that make me see the seeds of downfall.
“The Billionaire Criminal Who Secretly Profited Off Jack Ma’s Deals” The Wire China
This is the kind of the thing I’d imagine some USA market players to have a shit-eating grin about.
Criminal entrepreneurs are often exalted.
The nomination of Harris was quick and slick, but when the “Dog Food” on offer is a mix of poultry litter and vomit there won’t be many takers.
Here in California I expect record low turnout, Jill Stein to do better than expected and Harris to take the State.
It’s a one party State and the Dems could literally ( Instead of figuratively) run a turd and it would “Win”.
Harris’ Logorrhea is obviously a problem, does anyone know whether it became noticeably worse after her bouts of Covid?
November will be several Months into the new school Year and the damage from Covid (Immune dysregulation) may well be too obvious to ignore.
If it is still ignorable by our betters ( Bettors?) I don’t think this ‘Flu and Respiratory season will be, there are simply too many Millions of Americans with badly damaged immune systems who will end up in the Hospital and the grave with even a “Normal” ‘Flu season.
When it comes to healthcare America has become “The Home of the Fee and the land of the Grave”.
Anecdotal information re: insurance and medical issues in the wake of Covid. I received a mailer from Mutual of Omaha offering me Cancer insurance. In their multipage pitch they note, and I quote, “Over 1.9 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2023 alone” referencing the American Cancer Society ‘Cancer Facts and Figures 2023. Just as a point of reference the 2024 estimate on their site notes that this is the first year new Cancer diagnosis are expected to top two million, and this is excluding basal cell and squamous cell skin cancers.
Apparently no opportunity for sweet sweet recurring premium money should be wasted.
“Chinese nuclear reactor is completely meltdown-proof” New Scientists
Statements like that make me think of “The Titanic is unsinkable.”
The design is a pebble bed reactor, which is an old design – the first live prototype was built in 1961 in Germany, but the original conception goes right back to the 1940’s. It is theoretically melt down-proof, but the Germans, and later South Africans, didn’t pursue the design for other reasons. Among them is that the ceramic balls that contain the fissile material need graphite, which is potentially flammable. The Germans did a bit safety review of the design a few years ago – I can’t recall the details, but they did identify a number of potential issues.
The one big advantage pebble bed reactors have is that they are scalable – potentially you could build small ones on a modular basis for, for example, ships. The other big advantage – and probably why China is so interested in the design – is that they don’t need water cooling, so they could be used in inland arid areas, unlike conventional PWR designs. Although curiously the Chinese have chosen a coastal site. Its possible that they are equally interested in its military potential as they’ve been touted as a good alternative for nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers (the first of China’s big aircraft carriers is diesel powered, a curious choice seeing as they already have submarine capable reactors).
So in theory this is a design which is very promising and could be relatively a lot safer than the main alternatives. But as always with these designs, the key issue is economics. Billions have been poured into pebble beds over the years, but nobody has made a viable design. It remains to be seen if this Chinese reactor is the real deal or yet another nuclear unicorn.
In the future, could maintenance costs pose any problem?
I don’t know if there is any data with long term maintenance and helium has an advantage of not causing too many corrosion or other chemical based issues within reactors. Pebble bed reactors are being sold as being a relatively simple engineering design, but the previous generation of helium cooled reactors like the UK Magnox reactors had relatively short economic lives. I don’t know the specific reasons. The physics and engineering details of these reactors are a zillion miles above my pay grade.
Both the Germans and South Africans essentially abandoned their investments without giving a lot of explanation (except that the Germans blamed the Greens, as they always do when something doesn’t work). There seems to have been various unexpected problems with controlling the decay within the ceramic/graphite balls. A decade or so ago there was a start up promoting a small pebble bed reactor as a power plant for large ships, but unsurprisingly there weren’t any takers.
Maybe the Chinese have solved this problem, maybe not. As always with nuclear technology, you have to read between the lines as a lot of peoples keep their jobs by persuading funders that ‘this time it’ll work’ or ‘the big breakthrough is just around the corner’. This applies in China as much as in the West. As I noted, the first prototype pebble bed reactor was built more than 60 years ago and they still aren’t commercially viable, and, perhaps most significantly, no military establishment seems interested in them, despite their obvious utility for powering submarines or aircraft carriers.
AVR prototype pebble bed reactor: a safety re-evaluation of its operation and consequences for future reactors by Rainer Moormann. He received The Whistleblower Price from the Federation of German Scientists – VDW a few years after that publication. So I guess he knows his stuff.
tldr; the German bebble-bed reactor surprised the Germans physicists in many ways, and a lot of those were discovered only after the reactor was dismantled. Mostly about the bebbles breaking up, turning to dust, getting stuck, releasing fuel and all this causing unpredictable hot spots and in general making the reactor much dirtier than presumed (Strontium-90 was found everywhere in the premises).
Thanks, yes, that was one of the reports I was thinking of, its a long time ago that I did my reading on this.
This is the key thing about pebble bed reactors – the science and engineering is superficially simple and appealing, but it does seem that they keep turning up nasty surprises for the designers once they are built. If they worked as promoted, they would undoubtedly be the focus of most worldwide research on modular reactors for civilian and military use as they would solve so many of the obvious problems with various thermal, fast breeder or molten salt proposals (or the even more numerous hybrids), or any reactor design with exposed fuel.
As I wrote above, its entirely possible the Chinese have cracked the puzzle and made them work, but I’ll believe it when they are rolling reactors out domestically at scale, not on the basis of press releases.
Why put all that investment into something that doesn’t help your nuclear weapons program?
The Andalou article on the choice of a French Prime Minister is curious: it seems to have been compiled from different paragraphs written at different times.
As the story acknowledges half-way down, the NFP’s nomination may well not be carried forward because Macron has said he won’t consider the question until after the Olympics are over. So far, he’s actually been making common cause with the Right, for example to keep one of his apparatchiks in the position of President (Speaker) of the National Assembly. And the NFP isn’t “expected” to get the most seats in the NA, it already did, two weeks ago. They may be confusing electoral success with the technical process of forming “groups” in the NA, which is quite a different issue.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/23/business/delta-flight-cancellations/index.html/
“Although most airlines were able to recover and resume normal operations by the end of the weekend, Delta has been unable to fix problems with its crew tracking system, leaving it unable to find the pilots and flight attendants it needed to fly its planes.”
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/22/business/delta-canceled-flights-computer-problems/index.html/
“Delta appears to still be in the dark about the whereabouts of their crew members. Crew members logging on to the company’s computer system to sign up for flights receive prompts and questions that include: “Please enter below what airport code you are closest to,” “What is your current status?” and “Please describe your current location.”
What in the crappification? So nobody can call anybody?
He Was an Online Drug Lord. Now He’s a Crypto Entrepreneur.
Fun times.
The list of companies and what they do included in the “tech layoffs” article really highlights how little of the industry contributes anything useful (much less essential) to society. Frills and diversions and added ways to unnecessarily spend money all seem to be the major thrust of what tech is being used for, not solving any sort of societal problem or real need that people have. And it all sounded so exciting 30 years ago. Very sad.
From the politico article:
New records being broken in future months and years? Try the very next day:
Sunday was Earth’s hottest day in all recorded history, climate agency says Politico
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I heard Venus asked us out on a date, because we were so hot.
Hard to figure out what’s behind the article advocating abolition of the Northwest Power Planning Council’s role in running BPA policy.
It has some funny “timeline engineering.” BPA’s 1974 Notice of Insuffciency was based on extensive load forecasting work for many years before 1974 — the problem was that their modeling assumed that demand would be unresponsive to rising power prices. When the WPPSS nuke plant bulding program faced huge cost overruns and schedule delays, BPA was forced to raise wholesale power prices, and demand tanked. A spiral of rising rates and plummeting demand caused what was called a “ratepayer revolt,” as reform slates took over public utility boards and voted to exit the nuke plant program.
It was a type-example of a technocratic mess. Plants were terminated after huge cost overruns. Anti-nuke activists had their phones bugged by the feds. A series of titanic lawsuits found that the agreements to guarantee the bonds weren’t valid, because BPA didn’t have authority to do it, and the Idaho utilities didn’t have authority to guarantee (under questioning one of the bond counsel broke down on the stand and admitted it), the Oregon utilities were not on the hook if the others weren’t, and bondholders accused the issuers of fraud.
That was what filled the space between the 1974 Notice Of Insufficiency and the 1980 passage of the Northwest Power Act. Now the Northwest Power Planning Council may have it’s problems — but this former BPA guy thinks Congress can do a better job than local stakeholders? His article covers up a lot of bloody ground, but it is not too clear why, so I have to ask, “Cui bono?”
Listening to Netanyahu’s speech to our Congress — whomever wrote his speech is to be congratulated on their sheer chutzpah. The lies are so bold and they come one after another after another. A superb example of Israeli Hasbara.
Unfortunately for Bibi, and for the Israeli state, things will be settled by facts on the ground, not by bravado, narrative, or by lashing out on seven fronts. With or without American help to its limits.
For all the whooping and hollering, and standing up again and again, it is an empty speech incapable of winning the support of America or the West. Bibi will be told as much when he meets with Biden, Kamala, and others. He has brought bombast to America, and will find we have only bombast to offer him.
That includes the 2,000 pound bombasts he is dropping on women and children across Gaza.
I’m glad Bibi took the trouble to come over here and give us guidance on what our foreign policy should be.
[ Chinese nuclear reactor is completely meltdown-proof: New Scientists ]
https://english.news.cn/20240404/fd62d3c041d7421da8ffa6c4cead4f27/c.html
April 4, 2024
New-generation nuclear power plant begins heat supply in east China
JINAN — The world’s first fourth-generation nuclear power plant, China’s Shidaowan high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) nuclear power plant, has begun to provide heat supply to residents of Rongcheng City, east China’s Shandong Province.
It is the first time the nuclear power plant has provided heat supply to urban residents, marking another breakthrough in the comprehensive utilization of its nuclear energy, according to the power plant’s operator, Huaneng Shandong Shidaowan nuclear power Co., Ltd.
Starting from March 27, the plant’s heat supply project has been connected to the power grid to help heat some 190,000 square meters of areas in the city, replacing the former thermal power. It is expected to save 3,700 tonnes of coal in each heating season, resulting in 6,700 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions reduction, according to the operator….
OMG Larry the Cat has taken a swipe at Harris!
https://x.com/Number10cat/status/1816073346519388422
Truss, but verify.
Can’t Truss It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am9BqZ6eA5c
@ Willow –
Please have a warning — Danger Biohazard: Liz Truss-contaminated Area, or something like that — if you’re going to post a link where I click through and get my ears get assaulted by her stupid voice and see her lips moving.
For what it’s worth, Russia has not “abandoned” Battalion Tactical Groups. Like many others (me likely among them) Armchair Warlord doesn’t really understand the concept.
Their origin is, loosely, in the Red Army shock units from the Great Patriotic War. In any army, a battalion is the smallest unit that has a separate staff, so it’s the smallest unit that can receive a descriptive task and then figure the execution details and needed resources out by itself. It doesn’t necessarily control all the needed resources, but then again, battalions a never independent units, they always operate within a brigade or a division that has those resources.
It’s true that during the 1990’s Russian army went trough a very rough patch, and at the time of the first Chechen war Russian divisions had only about regiments worth of active manpower and weapons. But they made it work, mostly. The permanent base (where ever in Russia it was) was responsible of keeping the quite mobile fighting element fed, clad, manned and armed regardless of where ever that element was temporarily positioned.
And by the time of the war with Georgia, that system had evolved to brigade(-base) having three battalions and division(-base) having four to six battalions to nurture. Battalions can move even faster than regiments, and the speed of the Russian counter-offensive was one of the main factors leading to total Georgian collapse.
How this all works in SMO, hasn’t changed much: a brigade (as far as they exists anymore in Russia) has three battalions – one is for training conscripts, two are for contract soldiers. The two battalions take turns to serve in SMO and then rotate back for R&R, so the fighting capability is retained at a high level.
Oddly enough, the BTG thinking has also penetrated the military procurement system: smallest patch of equipment delivered is actually battalion size. Whether it’s tactical radios, new combat gear, latest model of infantry fighting vehicles, it’s always deployed to a whole battalion at once. So when that BTG rotates back to action, it’s familiar with it’s new equipment.
Also the tactical training for all battalions trough the whole Russian army is standardized to a level where (at least in principle) two BTGs can interact smoothly even if they have never co-operated before. Any higher level staff can create orders for any BTG under their command and be understood from the hour one.
A good example I read is that a battalion if kinda like a boxer; it’s the hitter, it’s the one that goes into the ring and meets the opponent. Battalion Tactical Group is that boxers team – a trainer, a corner guy and a cut guy. And brigade or division is the boxing club that trains and manages everyone and arranges the fights.
BTGs are about how a Russian division is designed to react fast and then keep on fighting for years if the need be in all the wars around Russian periphery. Nothing more, nothing less.
Sorry for the wall of text. Again.
“Sunday was Earth’s hottest day in all recorded history”.
But pushback like this makes me wonder.
https://x.com/TonyClimate/status/1774592394031489164
Are the raw data being fudged systematically in that direction?
After the “Military intervention in Ukraine is now essential” piece of junk, and an interview to a Polish Political Science or similar professor at something called the Center for Liberal Modernity (yes) in Warsaw (check This is not a drill, on Spotify) where she spews out the same sort of drivel about the Russian threat: where can I get some serious discussion of the real threats (as in, what is scaring the shit out of our elites) that a Russian victory poses? I hear the hysterics on one side, and that’s hysterics, clearly, to me. Not long ago, Borrell said that if things are not reversed, the EU is going to be faced with the prospect of Russian troops on the Polish border. Fine. Why is that a problem? That’s the sort of debate that I feel is taking place somewhere and that I am missing.
It is a sort of Kamala issue: everyone says that there is a problem with her, there is agreement on that, but no one states what the actual problem is.
In my view, there are a few things, from an EU perspective:
1-No possible rolling back of sanctions against Russia, with attending consequences for the European economy.
2-No access to Russian (and Ukrainian) resources.
3-If you take the military threat seriously, you have to take action and spend twice+ as much in defence when you can ill-afford it. Plus, conscription, not the most popular thing to implement. This takes you down the rabbit hole of militarism for a generation or two.
4-If you don’t take the military threat seriously, you have heaped on yourself an immense, generational industrial crisis that you can’t explain to your population
5-The ugly head of the 1930s reactionary nationalism rears its head in Europe again (fucking foggy rhetoric for “Germany spits the dummy and starts talking to the Russians and the whole EU/NATO cute fascist project collapses”, why the fuck so much fog-of-words?)
6-Consequences for the US are a different chapter.
There are more, I suppose, but: what is a good source for this sort of debate? Does anyone know any? Is it taking place in a relatively public space?
Thanks