WA man charged after taking off his clothes and assaulting crew member on a flight bound for Melbourne The Australian (Robin K). Will we have to add “WA man” to “Florida man”?
Sex and Alcohol in Medieval Times: A Look into the Pleasures of the Middle Age Open Culture (Micael T)
Kansas biologists find ‘super rare’ threatened species in the mouth of a hungry toad KSNT (Robin K)
‘Cocaine sharks’ found in waters off Brazil Science (Robin K)
164 whales and dolphins euthanised by DOC in a year Waikato Times (Robin K)
Science reveals ‘world’s most beautiful woman’ Otango Times (Robin K). You’d never know it from the photo. Makeup harsh and overdone, and she looks like she has cheek implants.
🚨Update: Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park just had a massive eruption! Is the Yellowstone Caldera about to erupt!?!
pic.twitter.com/SLuWZEVAPC— US Civil Defense News (@CaptCoronado) July 23, 2024
Researchers discover battery-free technology that harvests power from radio and Wi-Fi signals for low-powered devices Tom’s Hardware (Micael T). Health fetishists will depict the fact that this much energy is zapping around as bad to health. It may be bad for bees.
#COVID-19
Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts ICEMSG. Paul R flags: “This is an open letter to hospital and clinic administrators, as well as any healthcare organization. Feel free to share widely, particularly to any administrators you may know.”
Covid-19 is an unwelcome attendee at the Paris Olympic Games CNN. Paul R: “Heck of a job.”
Climate/Environment
Snow Belt to Sun Belt Migration: End of an Era? Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Tasmania offers ‘Eco-Milk’ from seaweed-fed cows Taipei Times (Robin K)
Twisted carbon nanotubes could achieve significantly better energy storage than advanced lithium-ion batteries PhysOrg. Chuck L: “Assuming they’re thinking electricity, a motor/generator device will be required to charge/discharge the ‘battery.'”
Trees have an extra climate benefit thanks to methane-eating microbes New Scientist (Dr. Kevin)
China?
US, Japan replace China as graduates’ destinations Taipei Times (Robin K)
Why is China stockpiling resources? The Week
North Korea’s economy rebounds as Russia ties fuel arms trade South China Morning Post
Africa
US sanctions three, including two based in SA, for expanding Isis in Africa The Citizen (Robin K)
Sudan war: Weapons being exported to conflict-torn country despite UN arms embargo Sky
The dearth of leadership Kaieteur News (Robin K)
European Disunion
Europe’s Path to War and Self-Destruction Fabian Scheidler (Micael T)
LNG terminals built in Germany turned out to be of no use to anyone International Affairs (Micael T)
Annalena Baerbock is not only stupid, but also malicious and deceitful Anti-Spiegel (Micael T)
Old Blighty
Soaring UK mortgage rates have pushed 320,000 adults into poverty, thinktank says Guardian
Gaza
Making Gaza uninhabitable. The Israeli military detonating a water reservoir in Rafah. pic.twitter.com/1JjTjVqnjI
— Nicola Perugini (@PeruginiNic) July 27, 2024
Palestinian Deaths In the Gaza Conflict Are Probably Close To Half A Million Ian Welsh
Gaza’s Orphans London Review of Books (guurst)
The ICJ Just Demolished One of Israel’s Key Defenses of the Occupation Haaretz (Dr. Kevin)
A Legal Justification for Genocide Jewish Currents (guurst)
They Did the Math: Hebrew University’s Great Mathematicians Are Leaving Israel Haaretz (Dr. Kevin)
Tourism to Israel in dire straits as 10 percent of hotels face total financial collapse The Cradle
Syraqistan
Why Iran’s missile strikes pose a real problem for Pakistan European Leadership Network
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia’s Putin hosts Syria’s Assad in Kremlin as tensions rise in the Middle East South China Morning Post
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Bretton Woods Moment—and Its Necessary Replacement Carnegie Endowment
Chinese Warships Watched by NATO Arrive in Russia’s Strategic Baltic Hub Newsweek
World War Three is closer than anyone dare admit Telegraph
US military, seeking strategic advantages, builds up Australia’s northern bases amid China tensions Reuters
Trump
Beware of an Unconstrained Trump Foreign Policy Daniel Larison
Trump Assassination Attempt
Secret Service Opted Out of Drone Surveillance Before Trump Assassination Attempt US Senator Sputnik
FBI wrong about assassination attempt, Trump’s doctor says RT
Vance
JD Vance Has a Bunch of Weird Views on Gender Politico (Dr. Kevin)
Kamala
Amazon DISAPPEARS Book About Kamala Harris! w/ Caleb Maupin Jimmy Dore, YouTube
Government transparency site pulls page naming Kamala Harris ‘most liberal’ senator NBC (Paul R)
Who is behind Kamala Harris? UnHerd. UserFriendly: “One more reason not to vote for Kamala. She already has Holder tapped for vetting VP’s.”
Donald Trump and J.D. Vance Attack Kamala Harris’s Legitimacy Charles Pearce (furzy). So this is how the Dems try to pretend there isn’t a legitimacy problem, by pointing out that the evil Rs are making an issue of it?
FBI raids home of former aide to NY Gov. Hochul, report says NBC (BC). Hhhhm.
Our No Longer Free Press
Why Does Washington Post Keep Publishing Foreign Assets? Active Measures (Micael T)
AI
Energy-Efficient AI: New Hardware Could Slash Computing Power Needs by 1000x ScienceBlog (Dr. Kevin)
ChatGPT is bullshit Ethics and Information Technology. UserFriendly: “Obviously, they must have read NC.”
The Bezzle
CrowdSuck American Prospect. Another must read by Moe Tkacik (Userfriendly)
As Foghorn Leghorn warned “This is going to cause more confusion than a mouse in a burlesque show.” The Ohio Supreme Court ruled selling a boneless chicken dish is a “cooking style not a guarantee.” https://t.co/jjLFeCU7iD
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 27, 2024
Class Warfare
The New Threat to the Chip Industry: Worker Unrest Wall Street Journal
(1/3) RIP OFF: Big health insurers overcharge taxpayers a whopping $140 billion dollars *a year* to administer Medicare Advantage plans (more than the U.S. has spent on defense aid to Ukraine since 2022 and ~3x what the U.S. spent on foster care in 2023.)@joeyrettino @PNHP pic.twitter.com/8dBQLSSS4V
— Wendell Potter (@wendellpotter) July 26, 2024
Higher CEO pay in large health care systems linked to hospital consolidations, study suggests MedicalXpress (Chuck L). This is a big reason for consolidation everywhere. Odd that MedicalXpress tries to depict this as a surprise. The CEO of the selling company gets a big exit payoff. The CEO of the buyer gets a pay increase because running a bigger entity supposedly warrants a bigger comp package.
Antidote du jour. Daniel G’s goldfish:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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RE: Tourism to Israel in dire straits as 10 percent of hotels face total financial collapse The Cradle
Only 10%? That leaves 90% available for genocide tours. Profitable.
Many of the remainder are being propped up by serving as housing for the 60,000 to 100,000 settlers near the northern border who have been displaced by tit for tat strikes by Hezbollah. The government is apparently paying for their quarters.
Which government(s)??
Touché!
That’s a damn shame.
Sing to the tune of the Notre Dame Fight Song (traditional)
Come, watch your Kamala stump!
Followed by vicious insults from Trump
Two bamboozlers
They’ll amuse us
Waiting for Joe to “thump!”
It’ll be like those late 70s to middle ’80s commercials for Miller Lite…Tastes Great! Less Filling! Or maybe it’ll be a different version of rah rah rhee kick em in the knee, rah rah rhass, kick em in the other knee…
“We got the Spirit yes we do, we got Democracy how about you ?!?”
My favorite cheer:
“U-G-L-Y
You aint got no alibi
You’re ugly”
Talking about old commercials – Mastercard [family blog warning] Commercial – Priceless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlPRnUSuS-o
It was once talked about on NC back in the day how 24/7/365 full immersion marketing would effect societies … we’ve come a long way baby ….
Washington man to Florida man, hold my beer…y’all ain’t seen crazy…Im adding one more on a list of reasons I’d really prefer to avoid flying, when possible.
There was the Florida man from not long back, as an Instagram influencer he jumped into the alligator pit at the Tampa zoo…
Washington Man: see the original “Jackpot” short story by Robert Heinlein.
The WA in the story is the state of Western Australia.
Yes, should have clarified that WA = Western Australia. Thought the Melbourne mention would be a tipoff, but perhaps there is a flight from Seattle to Melbourne.
…or maybe it was Melbourne, Florida:
https://floridatrippers.com/things-to-do-in-melbourne/
Sydney Nova Scotia apparently gets tourists who arrive there by mistake. (I once looked for train schedules on DB for Barcellona, using the Italian spelling. It tried to send me to North Sicily….)
Melbourne is a great surf spot, but there are gonna be sharks, whether you see them or not. I have shared waves with them. Surfed all the way to the shore, stepped off on dry land and drove to a different break. I’m NOT that Florida man…
Ah, mistakes on me and the slow Saturday morning start. Well we can then let one of the lower 48 US states off the hook then.
At least in my defense it’s a small self inflicted wound(!). I’ll go to the penalty box or sit in the corner.
WA is also a big mining state full of FIFO workers. Stories abound for yonks about the antics of such workers in regional pubs and flying back home or off for a short holiday.
In my day mandatory health and well being meetings with the sisters blowing through by management sorts was coined a “6 pack event”. Due to how many it took to get through it.
Strangely I am currently working on a house for a bloke 30 odd yrs in the coal mining industry centered on Mt Isa, Qld. Having a chat about it all and banged on about how much WiFi has changed the industry. Then I dropped the Crowdstrike dramas and some other well know hacks that have cost huge sums and show a vulnerability many if not most investors are in denial about.
The thought occurs to wonder, given the trend since 2008 (BHO/JRB, JRB/KDH) of D Presidents to prefer VPs who do not outshine them, who will be on KDH’s short list of candidates. Perhaps this accounts for suggestions I have seen that Pete Buttigieg is under consideration. (“Pete did a worse job as Secretary of Transportation than I did as ‘Border Czar!”)
Pete? Mayor Pete? Mayo Pete? The chauffeur of Kabul? Millions for pretense but not a cent for reality? That guy. (Too much snark?) Why does his name keep coming up as if he had any, I say again, any, political legs? As it is I see no reason to waste a moment on Harris or Trump or Vance or whomever Harris anoints as the democrat for VP be it Mayor Pete or the generic whomever. Genocide supporters all. Keep the dollars flowing to the overfed MIC. Keep the campaign dollars flowing back to congress. Oh! Oh! Did you hear? The congress critters and the chair fillers replacing the 135 critters who found a backbone and did not show up. (I assume they may have found a backbone.) gave Bibi 50 standing ovations? Have they no shame or is it no brain? Are they really that compromised, that bought, that brainwashed? Well Mr. Franklin, thanks for the republic. It worked quite well for a while, but it grew very large and then very rich and then it found itself the only one standing undamaged after a horrific war and conceived the notion that it was appointed to run things for everyone. Then it sold its soul. The DC Bubble and Echo Chamber literally sold itself … You know the old line about love of money? Need I say more? Thus the circle is complete and we have the Chauffeur of Kabul a possible vice presidential candidate. Sorry Mr. Franklin. We didn’t keep it. We sold it.
” Why does his name keep coming up as if he had any, I say again, any, political legs?”
Perhaps they are just setting the bar so low when they do finally pick a mediocre VP we’ll give them a standing ovation!
Hey! Look over there! Guyana and the “dearth of leadership” spells out the success of western influence in South America. It’s stright out of the US palybook:
” … we have a very serious problem with political leadership at all levels of the society. Most of our leaders are arrogant, untrustworthy, inefficient and corrupt and more often than not, they behave and act like dictators. Many lack the skill-set required for good governance, accountability and problem solving—qualities that are, for the most part, not endemic in our political culture.
Since the attainment of political independence in May 1966, successive political parties, namely the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and the People’s National Congress (PNC) have in their own respective ways perfected the art of practicing divisive politics in order to win elections.”
It looks to me it is a feature, not a bug. Welcome to Plutocracy Inc.!
By a slimiest chance, if Mayo Pete is detoured into Presidency, can we call him a “war president” since he drove around in Kabul?
Here’s a clue for you all: Mayo Pete is a resident of swing state Michigan now. He’s not from deplorable Indiana anymore. How cool is that?
Coincidentally, Pete did a long interview for the NYT that was published yesterday. Haven’t heard from the guy in ages, through Palestine and the Southwest Christmas debacle, but, here he is, head popping up out of the ground, waving hand. Me! Me! Ooh, ooh!
Twitter sent me a link to a post gushing over a new family photo of Pete, his husband, and the twins. It wasn’t as cute as it should be. But it is yet another sign that the push is on to add the other mediocrity of the 2020 primaries to the ticket.
Seriously when Harris and Buttigieg are supposedly the best you’ve got it would be considered satire if this was fiction.
I’d say it’s another example (like JB and KDH) of the power of the sunk costs fallacy in imperial politics. But what do I know?
Pretty much all explained by entropy, Murphy’s Law, and “We are so screwed.”
So your choices are either someone proven to be ineffective or a christian nationalist who could be effective?
Who is the Christian Nationalist? The guy who held the bible upside down or the guy with the Hindu wife? Does this term mean anything? It seems like a scare term, a bogeyman for liberals. I’m sure there are those in Coeur D’Alene who actually fit the bill but they might number in the low five figures and their political inflience ends at the state line. Empty decalog placement gestures here and there, but as I recall Moses was a nationalist of a different faith.
Be wary of such comparisons. Moses was a Theocrat who led a band of Settler Colonists on a filibustering expedition. America has form is that as well.
See Smedley Biden’s book, “War Is Our Racket.”
Of course it’s gonna be Pete. They see everything through the lens of identity, and how could they possibly pass up the chance to pair the First Black Asian Woman Presidential candidate, with the first* gay VP candidate?
* as far as we know
Kamala Harris vetting process is being guided by Eric Holder. I’ll wait a second, let that first few bites of breakfast settle. Yes, the architect of the Holder doctrine in the Obama administration.
Holy heck, it’s not hard to understand what she will likely be as a President when one recalls how Obama campaigned versus how Obama managed and governed during both terms.
Added…no way does a Lina Khan fit the mold in that possible future. Tough on corporations and tough on merging of large companies; these goals weren’t “exactly a feature” under the Obama terms.
Pretty easy process. Gotta be a pretty short list of people who actually want the job.
Ha. I bet it’s something like that opening scene in the Godfather. “Someday, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me.” And now it’s that time.
That Godfather line is getting a lot of play these days. Are we seeing similarities? As Charlie Pierce would say, “Unpossible.”
Is part of the Inner Party’s “plan” (not the right word, as it implies that their thinking is really strategic, versus simply -reflexive) to ensure that Khan is removed? I mean, any appointment that would potentially benefit the average American can’t be allowed to stand, right?
I was only familiar with her stint in the Biden administration at FTC; she is much younger than I would have initially guessed. I suppose they would have her remain there, but if she has higher office aspirations might as well get started. Also having the connections to a Holder or a Michael Froman ( I think that’s right ) wouldn’t hurt the list of references for any attractive role at any of our high faluting , white shoe law firms.
However it would appear she doesn’t have that in mind. Good on her if she is a different legal professional not in the mold of Holder or say, a Mary Jo White.
Even the NYT thought the Obamas calling Kamala video was quite cringe. Did Oprah produce that?
The Obamas Called Kamala Harris. Cameras Rolled. Hokeyness Ensued. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/26/us/politics/barack-michelle-obama-harris-video.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
Yes, if anything, we’re going to have some fun with this. Kackle, kackle.
The NYT also points out that this was way too clearly staged, as in sound quality on both ends too good.
Remember her recent proof of life phone call with Biden? It looks like her campaign thinks these “You are there” moments are engaging.
Archive.ph link for ease of reading: https://archive.ph/k7ITo
I like the “Oh, you’re both together!”. Like,how do you approach that? Dumb as door thought they weren’t married? Or, she knows the marriage ain’t so great right now and they spend a lot of time apart? Or, is that just the beginning of many stupid things she says that we will have to endure for 100 days. Please God, no longer, no longer.
it’s just “down home” empty chat signifying nothing.
and they probably think the bad sound quality makes it sound more authentic to the slobs who actually vote and to whom they prefer to pay minimal, if necessary, attention.
“down home”
Or, as Obama says, “folk”.
Here’s the video of the call – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Y8u6bR_Ks
/s
I guess their ideal is having eyes on the side, like a rabbit.
She and her primary plastic surgeon cooked up a study and sent out a press release ?
To wash that image away, I offer you this: https://www.theatlasofbeauty.com/
Compiled by a Romanian photographer lady who travelled through about 40 countries to make it.
wonderful and filled with beauty – sharing with my daughter – thx
Honestly, I’ve hated that actress’ face the moment I saw it in ads for the last version of Austen’s Emma. She looks like cartoon come to life. Betty Boop and Sailor Moon. My favorite Emma was Romola Garai, who looked like she stepped out of a Lawrence painting from the period.
From one mole to another:
Romola Garai is underrated, just like Gemma Arterton.
I also liked Emma with Kate Beckinsale
Yea. About a century-or-so ago.
It has also been put to use since, in passive RFID tags. If you want to “discover battery-free technology that harvests power from radio and Wi-Fi signals for low-powered devices”, go to a local store and look at one of those thick stickers with barcode on them, or try to steal something.
I guess a sign of being too old to be relevant anymore would be assembling a crystal radio kit as a child.
“crystal radio”
With an antenna¹ long enough, it could even power a loudspeaker (not only headphones) or another radio to receive far away stations².
In Germany there is an urban legend: Clever people in a ‘Schrebergartensiedlung’³ ( ~ garden allotments, settlement of small garden lots), that was very near a strong radio station (Medium wave), stretched long wires/cables (they had lots of place) and used the reaped energy to power light bulbs. Of course, this misuse of the radio waves, generously donated by the state, was illegal…
¹Beware lightning
²Crystal radios are rather attuned to strong, local stations
³Perhaps not yet connected to the electrical grid, story is quite old
Yes, I was a bit “backwards,” but I did build a crystal radio, and strung wire across my bedroom ceiling as the antenna. Finding the “sweet spot” on the crystal…
It came in handy during long mammoth hunts….
I recall attaching the antenna wire to the phone.
It sounds like you did the real crystal radio thing with the “whisker”. My “crystal radio” used a germanium diode.
True that. I only had enough chore money saved up to get the Radio Shack model. I did hanker after the Heathkit version.
It’s tough to do humor in service to empire as almost all the jokes involve punching down. Vance is an unusual target in as he only recently bobbed to the top but barely had he started hanging with the nobs than D pundits called him fair game (cute how they get to use your elevated status to take cheap shots at your origins).
It’s July 2024 and I am not aware of there being a single high profile Democrat who’s gone on record to denounce Russiagate as a seditious hoax. Hardly anyone on the national stage questions the numbers on COVID and the vaccines. They all lie about Ukraine.
Polls have become ridiculous. Trump is looking at the biggest landslide of my lifetime. Only possible D path to victory would be if time stopped and no more cans fell into the news cycle after tumbling off Kicked Down the Road Mountain.
D’s have no October surprises and I am terrified they will resort to October diversions: a false flag attack on our nation or a belligerent ill-founded attack on another country.
And if there are protests? Law enforcement embeds will be busy setting fires like they did in Minneapolis during the George Floyd riots.
The enemy is not us, the enemy is US.
A sad second :(
The truth is not electable. The truth is a target. Lies are electable. Someone wrote yesterday in comments that Trump tells the truth. Trump has two sides to his mouth and often contradicts himself in the same sentence. Sure he tells the truth and quickly checks himself. It is amazing how believers only hear what they want to hear, and let’s face it politics is fast merging religion as the preference of team players. Each team accuses the other of just what they are doing.
Let’s also admit that the unvarnished truth is only available to the truly enlightened who have risen above the curtain of self importance. The enemy is ignorance.
Trump does what every good car salesperson, real estate salesperson etc does.
He uses hyperbole. This is the best car in the history of cars. This house looks out over the Bay (if you stand on a ladder on the roof).
This tactic of hyperbole totally irritates the ‘educated’ “middle” classes, handmaidens to the “wealth and power” class. They know that education gives them the right to be smug, to feel superior to and and to despise the ‘uneducated’ ‘lower’ classes. Fear and hubris intertwined.
Every time Trump opens his mouth they see a lower class real estate salesman, selling to morons and despicables.
I mean, if you are going to lie at least use your brains to obfuscate and hide behind half-truths and do it with a lazy humour. They loved Obama and they didn’t care that he droned US citizens, or bailed out the banks and not the mortgagees. He went to Harvard! His grandma was a bank executive! Middle class success all wrapped up in one package. He was just so damned cool, and they could all aspire to be that cool dude.
You can’t really run generators on super elastic rope, but you can make an extra powerflul ballista.
It’s more like a spring, as a mechanical store of energy, except apparently four orders of magnitude better at storing the energy. It can make your grandfather clock run for months.
Or it can store, say, wind energy for later use. Just imagine if the generator was down, at the root of the pillar (which could then be lighter), and the movement from the windmill was relayed by using this type of cable that would first twist itself as much as possible, then start turning the generator and when the wind dies, still keep on turning the generator for hours…
It’s not more like a spring, because ballistas used rope made of animal sinew to store energy. A crossobow would be more like a spring, because a bow is essentially a leaf spring.
Windup Girl is a biopunk science fiction novel by American writer Paolo Bacigalupi. It features windup batteries.
Highly recommend anything written by Baccigalupi!
Nitrogen is much like a perfect spring. It compresses over 600 atmospheres and gives it all back without degradation. It is very light weight. The problem is it requires heavy tanks to contain it.
Like hydrogen the problem is the support equipment required to take advantage of it.
Any kind of elastic energy storage have big problems with scaling. What works good for a toy train, does not for a real sized one.
P.S. Even slightly oversized slingshots are way too dangerous for the user, and I don’t mean Wile E. Coyote. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ipvR9wPvWg
Yesterday in Links comments ulfarthelunatic gave this link to Eugyppius summary of the RKI-Files scandal, including links to German media sources. It’s remarkable how closely the details of the German fiasco track with the American one.
Unredacted RKI protocols lay bare the entire Covid farce yet again
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/unredacted-rki-protocols-lay-bare
“how closely the details of the German fiasco track with the American one”
Like Laurel and Hardy (Stan and Ollie, Dick und Doof…) dabbling at synchronized swimming to impress their fully clothed girlfriends, standing a bit too close to the pool edge.
Cui bono Corona?
I’m not surprised by the reaction and non-reaction to the Gaza genocide by the state and people (who largely support the genocide) of Israel. Israelis and Zionists tend to not see non-Jews as anything but inferiors. They have caught, as often happens, the Nazi bug even more than the Germans bought into it. Yet, Jewish people have always tended to be more compassionate to non-Jews towards those who have suffered at least in the 20th century. Jewish philanthropists who have supported the arts have been a major force for good in the USA. What the f33k happened to Jews? How did they become literally Nazis in Israel? How have they become so hateful and, how else to evaluate them, evil in an almost cartoonish evil. A Jewish friend defends Israel and just chants “Hamas” as if Israel had no part in creating both Hamas and the conditions that fed Hamas in Gaza. When I traveled a lot back in the day Israelis sounded a lot like British colonials and southern racists as they talked about the uncivilized, dirty, disgusting, Arabs who only understand the language of violence.
But what does surprise me is the US and European reaction to the genocide. People who used to believe in “humanitarian intervention” to stop genocide, who would have tried to stop Hitler (they say) are giving the worlds most blatant and obvious butcher standing ovations in Congress. And why not? The previous generation of Jews who did so much to make the US a better place are now bloodthirsty fiends living the stereotype that anti-Semites have been warning about since Shylock–Gaza is worse than the Warsaw ghetto–and I knew someone who survived it.
To be clear here, the people and states, like the US and its vassals in Europe are as much to blame for this situation as the Israeli people. When the count rises to one million will the great moral leaders of the West say anything?
https://www.amazon.com/Empty-Wagon-Zionisms-journey-identity/dp/1642555541
What’s happening in Gaza is not a discrediting of the Jews but rather of exceptionalism–which is to be sure something that many Jews (not to mention many Americans) believe in. In Chinatown the villain played by John Huston gives a speech, perhaps Huston wrote it, that ends with “under the right circumstances humans are capable of almost anything.” And that’s the truth. Humanism means recognizing that we are all human, that “all men are created equal” rather than some being “chosen.” Somebody tell the Israelis who are allowing their own humanity to be robbed by a crackpot ideology and leadership. You could even go so far as to say that the obsession with Nazism these days is a means for our elites to pretend that “we’re not them.” If it walks like a duck.
Don’t think Israeli Jews are being robbed of anything. They’ve given away their humanity, or rather sold it, for their own piece of paradise. See Gaza, then die.
Israelis sounded a lot like British colonials and southern racists as they talked about the uncivilized, dirty, disgusting, Arabs who only understand the language of violence.
This similarity is due to the fact that Zionism, which started as a nationalist movement, very quickly and deliberately veered towards a colonialist endeavour when its proponents addressed the practical issue on how and where to set up a Jewish national state.
Israel, and the regime it has been applying to Palestinians since its creation, is a typical colonial regime.
Blindly shooting at civilian populations? Razing their dwellings? Destroying their economic foundation (killing cattle, destroying fields, sinking fishing boats)? Deporting survivors? Putting them in concentration camps? Starving them? Torturing the “rebels”? What has been taking place in Gaza since October 2023, and happened before in 2006, 2008-2009, 2012, 2014, 2021, are typical colonial punitive expeditions.
But what does surprise me is the US and European reaction to the genocide. People who used to believe in “humanitarian intervention” to stop genocide, who would have tried to stop Hitler (they say) are giving the worlds most blatant and obvious butcher standing ovations in Congress.
The USA and most European countries are former colonial powers, racism is a foundation of colonialism, colonial endeavours unavoidably entail genocidal levels of violence and outright genocide. Hence, for Western countries, Israel is “one of us” — a “civilized” country dealing in the usual firm manner with dark-skinned “savages” who have the impudence to rebel against the abject conditions they are kept in.
Very well said.
Americanism, Arianism, … Zionism.. from A to Z of ethnic supremacism…
Seems like there’s ever more holes in the AIPAC-hasbara firewall, as the scope of haughty, murderous Eretz Israel Zionism gets displayed in the colors of gore everywhere its adherents touch. And even the Great Censor in the Tubes has become more tolerant of Ziocriticism.
Reminds me of the Wrongthink I personally developed on re-reading the Pentateuch. They insist they’re YWH’s chosen people, a strange “jealous God” that the authors say infinitely tolerates and forgives all the times those Chosen People “fall away” and poke their god in the eye with various sharp sticks.
Amazingly, all is always forgiven, and the Chosen People go off to “kill all the Amalekites” according to some admonition discovered in an obscure corner of the scriveners’ attic.
But never fear, the People will never be extinguished. The Prophet Frank Herbert reveals that they will become a hidden folk, finally to reappear millennia from now to claim hegemony over the universe once again.
They are told, according to the Bible to go out and kill everyone if they are goddess worshipers–not only women and children (which normally they take as slaves and concubines) but in one incident God scolded Aaron because he neglected to kill wommen, children, and even the animals. BTW, God spoke through prophets which means those people channeled a spirit as many psychic mediums do today. Some of the Gnostics believed that spirit was what they called the Demiurge a rather twisted spirt closer to Satan than the Christian God which appears to have no relation at all to the OT.“
In 587 BCE, the neo-Babylonians besieged and conquered Jerusalem. They destroyed the temple, and as was their usual practice, they forced the religious and political elites into exile in Babylon where they could be easily controlled and replaced them with Babylonian elites who ruled over the remaining plebes.
In 539 BCE, Cyrus and the Persians conquered Babylon. Cyrus had a different approach to handling conquered peoples, and he released the exiles and their descendants to return to Jerusalem. Some did, but many did not, and the project of restoring Jerusalem’s temple and the worship of YHWH faltered. Four kings later, Artaxerxes commanded the Jewish scribe and priest to return to Jerusalem to complete the job. This is recounted in Ezra 7.
Jewish tradition and most scholarship consider Ezra and the scribes he brought with him to be the people who put the Pentateuch/Torah together. Since the job was to re-create a destroyed people and religion, the thrust of the Torah was to re-establish a national identity and religious orthopraxis. Ezra was alarmed that the Jews, more specifically the returned exiles who had once been the elites of Jerusalem, had intermarried with the “people of the land:
Ezra 9
Ezra’s attitude toward the relationship between the Jews and the people around them obviously colored the Pentateuch stories that were either created out of whole cloth or cobbled together various oral legends (Deuteronomy is an exception to this, but that’s another story.) That demand for purity carried over in the Jewish tradition through the Talmud and Mishnah and is seen today in Zionism.
There is another contemporaneous Jewish tradition that is found in Third Isaiah (Isaiah 56-66) which was obviously written by a returned exile in the 6th century BCE rather than First Isaiah, a priest under King Hezekiah or the exiled Second Isaiah. Third Isaiah is a universalist who envisions Jerusalem’s temple as “a house of prayer for all nations. (Isaiah 56:7). Mark has Jesus quoting this verse as he clears the temple of the moneychangers, which may say something about which side of this intra-biblical controversy the Christian tradition takes.
So the Zionist attitude toward the Palestinians has deep roots extending back to the 6th century BCE.
LISAN-AL-GAIB!
Let us pray the Pater Herbert 13Xs.
There’s Zionism in the Age of Dictators which provides a detailed history of the development of modern Zionism out of the seed of German nationalism into the monster we know today.
The Telegraph opinion piece seems to available in full on Yahoo NEws UK.
It’s pretty stunning..
“America’s adversaries are on an escalation course”
“Concerningly, it was the first time Russian and Chinese jets were intercepted during a joint Arctic exercise. The possibility of Russia and China carrying out a provocation of this kind was always there.”
“More worryingly, the Bering Sea drills, which forced this Alaska interception, are just the latest in a long string of provocative military exercises involving Russia and China.”
No mention, of course, of NATO’s repeated testing of Russian airspace and the extensive military exercises this year.
Nope, it’s all unprovoked once again.
Par for the course, of course. It’s like the “unprovoked” attack on Ukraine, and the “full-scale” invasion and many other slogans. One of the predictions I made at the end of Cold War I was that now that the Soviets were gone we would inherit their attributes–and we have.
Makes you wonder who would answer that 3:00 pm call?
KJP? Kirby? Jill? /s
Dear Hunter. He’ll be wide awake but not because he’s reading Nietzsche.
As unprovoked as the American attack on the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, no doubt.
Re: World War Three is closer than anyone dare admit
Paywalled.
In any case, the anthropologist Emmanuel Todd has taken the position that it’s already begun. See:
The Problem isn’t Russia — it’s America. World War III has Already Begun (Asahi Shinsho, 2023).
I could read it without further ado on a text browser¹. Sometimes the paywall is just some javascript¹ code, that puts a kind of figleaf over the valuable text.
The article is a proof, that many cold war warriors are now immortal, being turned into vampires by the bloodthirsty Kissinger himself, although you might argue, that – even from hell – he rather acts as a Zombie Master.
I can no longer imagine this shit coming to a good end, or at least not ending with WW III – The war that really ended all human wars.
¹Called lynx, links, elinks etc. They totally ignore javascript, HTML5 etc. and are thus an almost perfect ad blocker, very frugal with traffic (important if you have metered internet access) and you don’t get overloaded/over-manipulated with/by pictures,
Excellent recommendation!
Text-based browser will come in very-handy– thank you for that!
One I found and installed is called
violoncello
Good reviews, and so far, works great.
Lynx is the first broser I have used, about three decades ago, on a character based terminal. :-)
“Science reveals ‘world’s most beautiful woman’”
That photo does not do justice to Anya Taylor-Joy’s sublime beauty.
But I’m a Bella Hadid admirer, tbh. Always elegant and slinky.
Zendaya is just cute.
Taylor-Joy is certainly striking.
As for Zendaya, part of the oddness of her pairing with Chalamet in Dune2 is that he is prettier than she is. Of course story wise there’s a reason for that, but then why have the unconvincing romance at all? That movie had casting problems.
I don’t grok the fascination with Zendaya. She’s not much of an actress, unless a scene calls for someone looking moderately angry at all times – she’s got that look down.
I did like the new Dune movies in general and was happy that she didn’t get much screen time in the first. The second would have benefited from less of her sourpuss.
She’s up their with Keanu Reeves in my personal pantheon of bad acting and I really wish they would both stop messing up otherwise good scifi movies. I found out recently that Will Smith had a chance to do the Neo role in the Matrix. If he had done so, I would have been able to watch that movie a 2nd time.
In The Greatest Showman she gets to smile and be more appealing. That’s a film I really liked although some critics dumped on it. The musical numbers are almost monotonous in their high energy but how many films these days have musical numbers at all? Beats another Liam Neesom shooting people.
Keanu’s nonacting is almost his thing. It certainly hasn’t held back his career.
You outta see the John Wick numbers. In the first of the series he kills around 56 guys. In the second of the series he offs around 78 or so. It was hilarious just counting the stiffs and the multitudinous ways he finishes them off. But, the choreography is really superior.
i love zendaya. her recent work in challengers was excellent, and she had a lot of excellent scenes in euphoria too. (euphoria has terrible writing, but most of the scenes with decent writing were given to zendaya’s character rue, so she gets a chance to show off.) plus i used to watch shake it off when i was little, so i have a long time enjoyment of zendaya. at least among my peers, everyone loves her.
I thought that late July was the silly season for lists in the varied sports talk shows…rating “next guy to be hyped and overpaid by NFL owner” and such similar listings. Nonsensical but hey those 4 hour shows on ESPN radio have to anything to fill that air time…
Most beautiful..as I get older my proverbial list is unlikely to change or alter…and since she recently made headlines Jennifer Aniston ( fan of the Friends show of course, office space too ) goes on my list, as does Anne Hathaway. And Jennifer Garner…she’s a mean baddie mom in Peppermint.
Eh list almost got typed as lust…oops.
I looks up some other pix.
No, she’s had a LOT of work and looks odd. Pretty sad that the current standard of beauty is a plastic surgery creation.
She has at least had her buccal fat removed, which will ruin her looks when she ages and there’s no fix.
https://beautymatter.com/articles/buccal-fat-removal-consequences
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcALGkAd1Zc&pp=ygUYZG8gbm90IHJlbW92ZSBidWNjYWwgZmF0
She also look likes she has had cheek implants or a lot of filler in other shots.
She does have a beautiful nose and eyes and her lips look like they are original.
Not too surprising to me:
“Computerised facial mapping techniques used for the measurements were developed by Harley Street facial cosmetic surgeon Dr Julian De Silva, and he found Joy, 28, to be the “clear winner”.”
Totally objective, “scientific” evaluation of beauty, I’m sure.
Looking at the pictures of Taylor Joy all I can think of are the wide-set eyes and a low nose bridge as a part of fetal alcohol syndrome. I really hope she and her parents are all well.
https://fetalalcoholpresentation.weebly.com/what-fas-looks-like.html
Wide-set eyes is also my overriding impression. I saw her in Peaky Blinders, she’s striking and otherworldly but not the most beautiful woman in the world by any means. But then I’m not a Scarlett Johanson fan either, so what do I know.
IMO, Scarlett Johanson isn’t really beautiful. Reasonably good-looking, but great body.The amount of work she must do to stay in shape is amazing. Of course, once you’re in shape, exercising really feels good, so it’s not so hard, but it’s never easy.
Yes if you compare her in her earlier casting roles to now the work is obvious. She was a very beautiful person before and it’s a shame that she did all that.
Grace Kelly and Donna Reed, “It’s a Wonderful Life” era.
Apparently I have no taste where beauty is concerned. Of course some of it may be that I have disliked all of the Taylor Joy vehicles I have watched. But in truth most of the people on their list wouldn’t get a second glance from me. I find Taylor Joy and Zendaya to be lifeless for the most part. Give me someone whose face gets crinkles when they smile or frown, where there is a range of emotions that reach their eyes. There are major paintings that have more emotional micoexpressions than what their top choices are capable of making.
They will never make a list like this but I would rather watch a Margo Martindale or an Imelda Staunton or the Viola Davis anytime. Their faces move.
I had a quick look at the Wikipedia pages of those three personalities (whom I did not know at all).
In each case, I was wondering whether the photos were of the same person. Contrast Taylor-Joy’s pictures of 2018 and 2021, those of 2017 and 2018 for Hadid, or Zendaya’s 2016 and 2018 shots.
All in all, I find that these portraits exhibit sophistication — in the sense of being excessively refined and adorned (a lot of work, says Yves); I do not appreciate that. Perhaps this is why they do not look (to me) to be really the same person from one shot to another (because of successive plastic surgeries and the extreme variations on make-up/hairdressing).
Funny this. None of these three would be anywhere near the top of my list of beautiful people. Beauty is, obviously, highly subjective (and the average person is highly susceptible to suggestion).
My beautiful partner recently inherited a huge collection of vintage magazines going back to the 1920s and beyond through the early 2000s. Even a cursory perusal of the images shows that over time the standards for beauty are fluid and ever evolving. Cover images demonstrate this, of course, but I think the advertisements are even better as their subjects often represent a less glamorous, more everyday, type of beauty.
Wellie, Isabella Rossellini was a classic beauty and had some longevity as a model.
As, coincidentally, she is on my short list I fully agree. Her mother is right there, too.
Your list is laminated?
but she cut her hair! totally disgusting.
I dunno. I think that was a statement that she was opting out of the trying to be forever beautiful/young game.
Or maybe she had chemo? After that, some people have their hair texture change.
Short hair also better allows for a wig, perhaps for acting gigs.
I like Isabella, but I could look at her mother for hours…and have.
Yes, Bergman is right at the top of any list I would make.
https://www.theatlasofbeauty.com/
That is a wonderful site. Refreshing and genuinely beautiful.
Umm, for all-time great actresses: Grace Kelly. Check out Rear Window. Even without the Edith Head rags she pops out of the screen. And best movie kiss ever: To Catch a Thief. Cary Grant’s reaction says it all. Among more recent (and living) beauties, who can act!, Charlize Theron from about 30 onwards has to be the reference.
Agree about Theron. Incidentally, one of my friends from grad school (ironically, also a South African native who became a US citizen) is a dead ringer for her.
I’m so old my first thought was Sophia Loren. At least back then we didn’t have to analyze a famous face to guess how much of it came from some surgeon.
Sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Taylor still tops my list: https://www.vintag.es/2018/04/elizabeth-taylor-by-philippe-halsman-1948.html
She’s classically beautiful. Timeless. So was Hedy Lamarr. Among current actresses, I think Salma Hayek compares favorably to them. She has a lovely face with classic features.
Guess I’ll weigh in and say that Sylvia Sidney was once considered beautiful for her perfectly symmetrical face (not sure we’d say that now). And the reputed Ford Modeling Agency standard for beauty was tall and thin, of course, as well as light eyes and wide eyes. The wide eyes thing doesn’t do much for me but must be why Jackie O. was considered a beauty.
I agree that young Liz Taylor is hard to beat. See A Place in the Sun.
O!M!G! I quiver at the memory of those close-ups. And Maggie the Cat!
Wide-spaced eyes as a sign of fetal alcohol syndrome?
I’ll vote for Barbara Hershey all the way from “Boxcar Bertha” to “The Right Stuff.” And I’ve always had a thing for the “hippie girl” look with relatively little make-up that might be best represented by Michelle Phillips.
Re Europe’s path to self destruction–I see Trump has a new campaign pitch which is “vote for me or World War 3.” This may be one that the Kamala “team” and the Dems in general find hard to answer should the Trumpies really pursue it (a big question). Biden’s foreign policy is his greatest disaster.
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1817113451354898715
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
Looks like another instance of persecution of an iconic Chinese company might be developing in the US, with Homeland Security raiding Fuyao Glass America:
https://wlwt.com/article/homeland-security-agents-fuyao-glass-america-dayton/61711282 *
Fuyao Glass America is especially famous because it was the company featured in Barack Obama’s Netflix documentary “American factory”.
As such it’d be immensely symbolic if they were to become – after Huawei, TikTok, DJI, etc. – yet another victim of the US’s crusade against anything related to China…
* Homeland Security agents searching Fuyao Glass America, 27 other locations in Dayton
4:23 AM · Jul 27, 2024
Attempting to access that WLWT article returns the following error message:
Sorry, this content is not available in your region.
Oh well.
Forgive my lack of skill, but I find no problem with the Fuyao Glass America link. An alternative could be:
https://www.whio.com/news/local/homeland-security-other-law-enforcement-agencies-scene-fuyao-glass-america/PVEBMB7QIFEEREMCYT2A7E72UY/
That one does not work either, complains about me being outside the USA. Do not bother further, if this story develops, there will be other media outlets talking about it.
I find that I have to use a VPN if I want to see stories made either for the West or for the rest of the world.
The internet is fracturing more and more along faults congruent with the areas of control of the various elites, whoever they are.
Interesting that.
So far archive.ph is taking me to articles that I bookmarked but are no longer available via regular links.
Yeah, there’s a lot if hard-copies that I need to print out…
It’s amazing to me how you can be reading something one day, only to have it disappear the next.
Interesting to me that while our rulers are busy “protecting” us from highly productive Chinese companies, China is building what may be the biggest deep-water port in this hemisphere forty miles north of Lima. Makes me wonder if a couple of generations from now South America will be prosperous and democratic and North America will be broke and backward. I guess then we will fortify the southern US border to keep affordable Chinese cars from coming in, or jailing people who travel south to get their diabetes cured.
Fuyao Glass is the only named company but it says “and 27 other locations”. Perhaps they genuinely are investigating “allegations of financial crimes and labor exploitation”, which I would be in favour of. Why the media chose to name only the Chinese company is another matter.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/had-us-locked-down-worker-describes-nerve-wracking-scene-as-homeland-security-raids-fuyao-plant/ar-BB1qIcyl?ocid=BingNewsSerp
https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/homeland-security-investigates-fuyao-what-we-know-about-raid-on-factory-and-27-other-locations/N7CYF26YOBBRPKHGMVF3Z3BORI/
The first link is funny. After being raided for “labor exploration” “he was told by bosses that the plant has mandatory overtime beginning Saturday.”
The second link has better info. Houses crammed with Chinese people.
Trump’s relationship with Orban is almost a reason to vote for him.
What seems to me to be most interesting is that the European Union and it’s various Institutions are sliding into something which appears to have many of the fundamental characteristics of the two great failing totalitarian regimes of Europe’s 20th Century, Brezhnev’s CPSU and the post-1941 Third Reich, but instead of ideology the latest developments in Europe are based on the attitudes of, for want of a better word, it’s “leadership”.
I suppose the difference is that the smaller countries which the European oligarchs wish to bully into total submission do have the possibility of engaging with the countries and institutions of the rapidly developing multi-polar world, and a quick glance at a map of Europe exposes the potential land corridor through the Ukraine via the way stations of Hungary’s historic claims on that territory, Transnistria and, of course, Odessa. This will enable them to have access to Russia’s resources and protection, and the resources and markets opened up by the Belt and Road, a highly advantageous option for a country which is not an EU member or a member state which has not yet sacrificed it’s sovereignty to the €.
“JD Vance Has a Bunch of Weird Views on Gender Politico (Dr. Kevin)”
Related, from New York Times: JD Vance, an Unlikely Friendship and Why It Ended
I found this to be a bit ho-hum. For better or worse, people are known to change their minds.
His views on alternative uses for couches seem to be getting all the clicks, to the point that it’s moved to the top of searches on his name.
I wouldn’t underestimate the symbolic power of the pantsuit to create a pantsuit army of newly energized voters. Perhaps it’s because watching Biden stutter and stumble for years that Harris seems invigorating. I’m not sure, however, if her debate skills have improved.
Nonetheless, Harris speaking at a NC rally was surprisingly confident and a stark contrast to Biden and other dems. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3O75ZfcBOg
Kamala is being built up in the media like no other candidate at this point–reminds me a bit of Obama. She seems to me to be a consistent mess but the DNC/Deep State regime seems to be 100% behind her and that should never be underestimated. I’m sure they’re training her in public speaking–if they can get Biden to be sort-of passable reading the teleprompter they can get her to stop cackling so much and repeating her entertaining word salads. The DNC political machine is formidable and ruthless and will use every mind-control technique known to social-science.
Well, if the demo handlers can prop up a 90% dead man to fool some of the people some of the time for almost three years, they can probably do wonders with a real live one that can walk and talk. Get ready for the new Kamala like you never knew her before! Never underestimate the ability of the image industry.
I remember hearing that a lot in 2016 and it backfired badly. To paraphrase a poster child for Democrat tone deafness, for every pantsuit they pick up they’ll repel two pairs of coveralls.
re: Why is China stockpiling resources?
And so how does anyone even know they’re stockpiling resources? Because the US says so? I’m at the point where I regard China stories with extreme suspicion, most likely US planted propaganda.
“Why is China stockpiling resources?”
Remember that the United States has been openly committed to “containing” China since 2011, and has been continually preventing Western trade with China for what are considered critically important goods. Also, China stores necessary goods such as say pork or rice or liquid natural gas to protect against international shortages or price swings.
Chinese pork stores were used to keep prices stable as domestic pork supply was limited by the spread of African Swine Virus. The problem was overcome in mere months, with no adverse price effect, because of the stores.
Notice how well China has contained domestic inflation because of stores of goods.
Also, China has repeatedly assisted relatively poor, belt and road countries with essential supplies from stores these last few years.
A buffer stock is a key economic tool which the West hardly uses. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the only one that comes to mind, though I do recall a lot of talk about ‘wine lakes’ and ‘butter mountains’ in the EU back in the day. They were considered a problem.
Perhaps they’d rather have large inventories of real physical resources as opposed to the alternative, USD-denominated paper.
That is the problem, China buying real goods instead of US Treasury Bonds…
The problem in a nutshell! I’d use it with my sisters, but they would refuse to understand :-(
Notice that American defense spending has now reached $1,048 trillion yearly:
https://apps.bea.gov/iTable/?reqid=19&step=2&isuri=1&categories=survey#eyJhcHBpZCI6MTksInN0ZXBzIjpbMSwyLDNdLCJkYXRhIjpbWyJjYXRlZ29yaWVzIiwiU3VydmV5Il0sWyJOSVBBX1RhYmxlX0xpc3QiLCI1Il1dfQ==
July 25, 2024
Defense spending was 56.2% of federal government consumption and investment in April through June 2024. *
$1,048.2 / $1,863.8 = 56.2%
Defense spending was 21.0% of all government consumption and investment in April through June 2024.
$1,048.2 / $5,001.2 = 21.0%
Defense spending was 3.7% of GDP in April through June 2024.
$1,048.2 / $28,629.2 = 3.7%
* Billions of dollars
The affordable connectivity act passed by congress a year or so ago saved us retirees $30 a month on our internet bill. It was not renewed in May, so now it’s back to where it was. But we can afford all the bombs necessary to kill who know who.
Not to mention the growing homeless population. I’ll stop there before I blow another gasket.
Thanks pricks!
Me too. I heard that 20 billion would end homelessness. Can’t have that.
Correcting: a comma should be a period –
Notice that American defense spending has now reached $1.048 trillion yearly.
Was Hollywood / MSM / AI spending included in those ‘defense’ numerators? Defending against Truth? Feedom isn’t free.
7-27-1984
On this most auspicious day, my 40th Birthday, I’d like to thank Yves, Lambert, and the NC Commentariat for shining that brightest of Light on the Internet.
Here’s to big lifestyle changes, a class based 3rd Party, and the beginning of a New American Public!
OMINA FAUSTA CANO
Happy birthday, Jonathan. Enjoy your special day!
Hey, “we’re going to party like it’s your birthday, drink Bacardi like it’s your birthday”. That’s the extent of my knowledge from that particular tune for better or worse. It’s for the best I suppose. Or if you wish crank up some Poison, nothing like a fun 80s anthem! I’m aware that era of pop metal or glam ear might be hard for the listener.
It’s fun getting older…I’m sure that’s a saying just can’t find the correct attribution! I’ve got my AARP mailings myself…I just can’t quite make the leap and finally sign up …heh…
Happy big 4-0!!
The forties are fabulous! Have a great celebration!
Jonathan Hollan Becnel: The 40s are a little like falling off a log. They (usually) aren’t overwrought.
Celebrate. Pass the vitello tonnato.
Yes the forties can be a lot of fun. Have fun today but don’t have Too Much Fun!
Congrats– you probably didn’t expect to make it this far, but trust me little brother, you’re just getting started!
@Johnathan HB
40! What a wonderful time: peak experience, peak intellect, peak health. Savour every moment brother!
And may those wishes come true.
H. L. Mencken had this to say on the subject:
Happy 40!
Happy Birthday! May there be many more.
Prosit. Jonathan! My daughter turned 39 today. Good to know she’s not alone.
Happy Birthday, JHB!
Where in the USA are you now? I remember you left NOLA for the West Coast and then left there for somewhere else but I’ve forgotten what you said – wherever it is, I hope the weather and the women are fair!
It seems there’s a big opening in the “trusted computing” ecosystem, with major companies including Intel shipping insecure systems. Probably not an issue for normal people, but another papercut for Intel in the corpo space.
Dave’s Garage explainer: https://youtu.be/7sYzwb6eUgQ
“One more reason not to vote for Kamala. She already has Holder tapped for vetting VP’s.”
I remember a similar situation in 2000. Former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney was tasked with vetting potential VP candidates for the Bush campaign. Turned out he concluded that he, himself, was the most qualified. As I recall, former Attorney General Eric Holder has enough self regard that he briefly considered entering the presidential primary race during the 2020 cycle. What are the odds that Holder might find himself to be the most qualified running mate for Harris? And then, you know, with Harris being a similar light weight as Bush, Holder chooses to operate using Cheney’s theory of the Vice Presidency being an independent and essentially equal fourth branch of government.
Failing that, how likely is it that Holder resumes top dog status at Justice if Harris wins?
Anybody think that Holder will do a Dick Chaney and decide that he´s the guy?
If he does do that, he’ll have the best campaign slogan ever:
“Place Holder in the White House”
Wow. A word just came to me, and the context is correct. Perfidious. The FDA unwillingness to approve the latest Novavax when they eagerly rushed through the original modified RNA garbage. They rushed through the Biogen useless Alzheimer’s drug over their own advisory panel’s recommendations. But here we are in wave nine, and the FDA is useless as usual.
Fun times.
I’ve managed to get NV the last few times, despite Kaisers attempt minimize its usage. I tried to look for anything related to FDA non-approval of the latest NV. Could you tell me where you saw/heard this? Thanks in advance…
It’s been coming up on Twitter; the latest Novavax is held up on FDA and isn’t available.
https://x.com/we_are_ssd/status/1813533360435916996
Thank you!
Not that the FDA gives a sxxt what we say..
Otango Times article about world’s most beautiful woman has it wrong as I’m pretty sure she’s actually . . . the one you’re with.
Source? 46 years, and counting, with the most beautiful woman in the world!
Never, ever, ever…. (ever), say anything to the contrary, at least not where she can hear you, or hear of you
Never, ever, ever utter the word ‘hair’ in her presence.
Corrrect, but my calendar says 47 years…
The article is for those that are legally divorced, and probably legally blind, considering the winner of the title, according to science.
The Right-Wing Dream of ‘Self-Deportation’
Anything but going after executives that run illegal employers!
If they do actually succeed at mass deportations, we’re heading for a depression. There aren’t enough healthy workers available in America with COVID ongoing. And we’re leaning on immigration to plug the gap; people that have the health to enter the country illegally are probably healthy enough to work, at least until repeat COVID infections lead to disability.
COVID doesn’t care whether people are here legally or not. Eventually we won’t have enough healthy people to run a functional economy.
The Uniparty will never deport anyone that is here. They want low paid workers in order to suppress wages.
How about we make work permits easy to get but holders are required to be paid 50% above prevailing wage plus pension taxes for home country. And be very hard on employers who avoid the law.
Going after employers is the only solution and the fact that there has always been bipartisan opposition tp that shows the powerful like things just as they are.
I came up with a plan years ago for politicians serious about illegal immigration. Impose a twenty year sentence in federal prison for anyone hiring an illegal immigrant. Next, any illegal immigrant who turns in their employer gets a green card on the spot, no questions asked and no exceptions. Require all workplaces to prominently display signs that advertise this law.
Anything short of this is just allowing the exploitation to go on.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/olympics/article-13677879/An-Olympic-balls-Eagle-eyed-viewers-spot-performers-TESTICLE-hanging-opening-ceremony-Paris-2024-dancer-suffers-x-rated-wardrobe-malfunction.html
An Olympic balls-up! Eagle-eyed viewers spot performer’s TESTICLE hanging out during opening ceremony of Paris 2024 as dancer suffers x-rated wardrobe malfunction
That was better than the grotesqueries visited on viewer eyes 👀 that detracted from the dignity in other segments of the program. Pity the athletes.
As Macron said: This is France.
Merçi pour presque rien.
The balloon flame was nice.
I was wondering when someone was going to comment on the weird opening “ceremony” in a driving rain. Having all the athletes slowly come down the Seine in boats must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course it was refreshing to see all the authentically French pop culture touches (oh wait). The children of Marx and CocaCola–now without the Marx.
One hopes the aftermath won’t be a crush of pneumonia cases in the wards of Paris hospitals. Meanwhile the excluded Russians must have been chortling at this pageant claiming to be devoted to world peace and unity. Perhaps the heavens were adding some commentary.
Parts of the ending reminded me of “Triumph of the Will”. I found it creepy and disturbing, though I only caught the last half hour or so.
I feel like I must say something about this. We were watching this last night as a family. I was horribly offended. It is one thing to re-create the Last Supper – for example the iconic photo of the Battlestar Galactica crew among others, it is a whole new level to actually humiliate literally half the world. I understand that Muslims and Muslim countries are just up in arms because their athletes were forced to be in the parade, etc while all this blasphemy was going on. I felt like I was watching something straight out of Weimar Germany. It really was that bad. And I am still trying to figure out what all the religious imagery was even doing at the Olympics to begin with. It was like they were telegraphing something – I mean – come on – the Skeletor character riding the Pale Horse in front of the Eiffel Tower? WTF? Behold, on a pale horse I saw the rider and his name was Death. And all that…..
And now I go on my Twitter feed – and it appears the boycotts have already started of all the Olympic sponsors. Many of them – like AirBnB for example I would never dream to use to begin with – but I really do think I may just need to stop some of the ones we do use – at least for a while. And this has all the potential to make the Bud Light, Target and Disney boycotts look very small – half the world has been humiliated and insulted.
Seriously, what were they thinking?
I have to admit – the single best take I have seen of the whole disaster was from Jillian Michaels – the Biggest Loser Personal Trainer – admittedly not one of my favorite health pundits- but she pretty much nails it – https://x.com/JillianMichaels/status/1817235506687783374
Our own local Orthodox Patriarch is suggesting we should all not watch the rest. I am hearing all kinds of stuff similar to this from around the world in multiple religions. I get the feeling that this may be the last Olympics that many of the Muslim nations even attend.
These cultural warriors like this seem to have zero self reflection. They are clearly totally out of control. For all of their talk of tolerance and inclusivity , they seem to be some of the most intolerant people around. Lots of navel gazing – I mean, seriously, did they not think through the consequences of drag queens doing the Last Supper with men’s testicles hanging out in front of a little girl? I mean just wow. I am all for drag queens doing their thing – even if they want to mock Christians and Muslims in a theater or whatever – go for it. But to do it like this for the world to see – and breaking serious norms in the process – I think not.
I am very concerned about incidents in the next few days – Incidents that will make Charlie Hebdo look like a Sunday School lesson. People appear to be seriously riled up. It truly was like “The Hunger Games.”
And there it is…when they I mean the cultured elite show your their true colors you best believe they plotted that portion out as well. Saw a few tweets about it earlier perusing a few news feeds on the ceremonies. Celine Dion chooses to sing once again ….but what will be remembered instead from opening night? I could take about 15 to 20 minutes…Peyton Manning for one, gotta long way to go to reach an Al Michaels level if that is feasible anyway.
Let alone this was performative theater broadcast around the world…in the same city where many were watching as the Notre Dame cathedral nearly burned into complete ashes ( okay maybe it wasn’t a full destruction ).
I don’t do culture wars much anymore so, I’ll watch some basketball and that might be enough.
Thanks for filling me/us in. I took a break during the early going last night and guess I must have missed the Last Supper bit. I did see today that X was honoring DMCA takedown requests against users who must be posting this offensive drag sequence or other vid property of NBC and the Olympic committee (the broadcast, not the event itself). Since last night was a repeat due to the time difference then you wonder why NBC didn’t cut that segment out.
In general much of the intended presentation seemed hard to make out given all the raindrops on lenses (no lens hoods in France?) and even if things had gone smoothly this observer would have found it misconceived.
There were things I loved for instance their inclusion of Paralympic athletes among the last marathon of French torch bearers to the cauldron, the oldest living French Olympian holding the torch that lit the final two torches was lovely and admirable. The journeys with the torch through catacombs and across the roofs of Paris, even the generation of figures from the paintings going to the windows of the Louvre to watch was fun and amazing I was enjoying the journey through the raising of the barricade at a performance of Les Mis until they cut to a grotesque bloody depiction of Marie Antoinette holding her own head. I also enjoyed them using acrobats on the scaffolding on the roof of Notre Dame although I found shots of the reconstruction most interesting. If I understood the theme correctly, and there is no guarantee of that, the torch journeying through the history, art and architecture of the this city was a terrific idea but they apparently thought it wasn’t enough so threw in too much shocking and edgy.
I am not religious so I just took the drag version of the Last Supper to be tasteless and confused especially connecting it with bad fashion from a fashion runway show. I get that it was disrespectful but honestly at the time I mostly thought it was a stupid waste of time. For me the thing that stuck my dislike button most was the library. Gorgeous library, filled with classics, books about love and flirtatious readers who decide to hook up after one of the jerks tears apart a book and sends its pages flying across the library. I disliked their “lovers” so much I was happy when they shut the door on the camera and we got to move on. I also felt incredibly bad for the piano in the pouring rain, the bands and the orchestra. I really hope they used their back up instruments.
There are many reasons to rethink the Olympics, but I hope this isn’t the end.
So the fashion sequence was where the testicular expsure occurrd. I skipped that part (the thing was 4 hrs long!)
And I agree the notion of a torch tour of Paris could be charming if not done by someone out to do for the Olympics what was done for Bud Light. When Putin put on Sochi in 2014 NBC made a big thing out of Pussy Riot protests so I guess they finally got their wish with the Pussy Riot opening ceremony.
FWIW Variety says it got a big audience comparable to the London Olympics. No doubt the travelogue aspect contributed or maybe they thought they were watching a disaster movie about global flooding.
I can’t confirm that as I missed it. The blurred screen shot I saw might put it then. But I was also struck with the thought that it couldn’t be a dancer or gymnast. No dancer I know would have been performing without a dance belt, which would have made that kind of slippage almost impossible. And I say they wouldn’t because anyone who has tried to perform on wet surfaces would know that falls and slips are likely and would want to protect their bits.
It doesn’t confirm that exposure was intentional but to me it makes the possibility it was unintentional much more unlikely.
https://www.rt.com/news/601746-bishops-condemn-olympic-ceremony/
Yes it’s Hebdo all the way. All just a big joke although jokes become French “hate crimes” if you are making fun of the wrong people. Aurelian has said that French society these days has almost completely abandoned the church. So presumably they don’t feel they have to “include” or accommodate the sincerely Christian religious.
Of course all that inclusion was a fraud anyway since Russia and Belarus were excluded even as aggressively warring Israel was included and past aggression by the US has never brought exclusion. The summer Olympics once came to Atlanta only because the CocaCola company has always been a strong financial supporter. All the professions of purity are suspect.
Do you have links to some of the sites/feeds where you are hearing this. I keep hitting dead ends even when I try to find a simple video of the boat show from start to finish. As to being able to find anything about anyone religious voicing the slightest objections, I am finding nothing. Getting no help from Google.
Here is one – His Holiness the Archbishop of Antelias.
The Head of the Lebanese Maronite Church
https://x.com/ChristiansMENA/status/1817229846281392492
A tweet from a very “interesting” Muslim individual
https://x.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1817180722781626816
Just look at the comments if you want an idea of what is going on in the Muslim world.
An Irish Catholic leader
https://x.com/svkenney/status/1817257907743854990
If you would like a take on Chinese networks – here you go. A normal middle class family in France and their reaction to this event – it basically mirrored exactly what happened in my house in the USA. Laughing, anger, humiliation, covering your face.
My wife is Chinese – I have been telling Yves and Lambert for a very long time how absolutely unforgiving their broadcasts are at times toward American issues. Their Biden dementia outtakes were just for the ages. They are well and truly laughing their heads off at us.
https://x.com/VanEyck1434/status/1817223806655545473
Multiple Catholic priests – and their input – a minuscule sampling of large numbers.
https://x.com/FatherChrisVor1/status/1817006767387074852
https://x.com/JamesMelville/status/1817088382666690960
I guess I should discuss this whole thing from an Orthodox perspective. This type of intense theological discussion is absolutely not in my wheelhouse – I was a grad student decades ago – but that is the sublime magic of this site – there are so many who know all kinds of things. I am hoping someone can pipe in. I remember a few lectures from my grad school days in Classical History that have come to the front of the mind today after this. Because the interlocutor in what I am about to say is Greek – this is especially an issue for the Orthodox.
Dionysius is the Greek god of fertility and wines and basically debauchery. I heard a few lectures back in the day – in the 80s – that put forward that the entire construct of Jesus and his life were stolen from the stories of Dionysius. In essence, Jesus was Dionysius. I do not know how far this took hold at the time – I remember it being a bit Daffy Duck – but I do know that it became a “thing” in the postmodern pantheon – and was especially held up by the postmodern gender studies and queer studies people. Indeed – that is exactly whom I heard these lectures from. The organized church of which I am a part at the time decried this as blasphemy. I noticed this because of these lectures – I think this got very very little press or attention at the time.
Fast forward to last night – an obvious set dressing of The Last Supper with all the characters being played by drag queens with a twist of a little girl sitting 3 feet from a man with his genitals hanging out. At once very bizarre. Initially, the Jesus drag queen with the big diadem had what appeared to be a stereo receiver in front of her/him ( I have no idea of that symbolism). All of a sudden a large covered dish drops down and DINNER IS SERVED – A big blue barely clothed Smurf like creature jumps out and starts to gyrate.
The symbolism there is obvious – the blue Smurf was Dionysius – it was obviously him – and he was the dinner at the Last Supper. If you do not know – the dinner at the Last Supper is held by all Christians to be the blood and body of Jesus. So, the blood and body of Jesus became Dionysius. It is blasphemous and insulting to any Christian who understands what is going on. And it is very clear that the producers of this show knew exactly what they were doing. And it is very clear to me this somehow goes back to that movement that I witnessed all those years ago.
I agree with the commenter Pat – there were many parts of this spectacle that were just awesome – but that whole scene was just insulting.
I understand there are already two corporations who have cancelled all ads and sponsorships to the Olympics as of now. I am sure that many more will follow. They just cannot lose this many customers. I can tell in my own contacts that people are supremely upset.
There is a curious linkage between Dionysus and France:. St Denis, the patron saint of Paris, is also known as St. Dionysus (Denis is a name derived from Greek Dionysus). It’s a weird association and you have to stretch things quite a bit to make them fit, but I thought this made “sense” in an odd way.
I guess this places some of the oddities of the opening ceremony in context, if you are a trivia nut who misses the big picture–St Denis is best known for walking while holding his head after being decapitated (there are famous statues depicting this), which I guess is what the weird Marie Antoinette skit was trying to invoke. All these smack of the people who think they are so clever tying every obscure factoid together but completely misses the point, which I guess describes a lot of “clever” people in the West these days…
Thanks, IM Doc, for elaborating on this.
Out of curiosity, I tried a search of academic literature, and found there’s apparently been a not-insignificant amount of attention given to the question of Dionysus as a model for Jesus. E.g.:
The Dionysian Gospel: The Fourth Gospel and Euripides
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ggjh7d
Also there has been some discussion in French, e.g.:
https://www.leboncombat.fr/dionysos/
Perhaps others more knowledgeable on the literature will weigh in.
P.S. In the French media, everybody recognizes that the singer Philippe Katerine was performing the role of Dionysus. Here, he’s giving a short interview, saying his message is “the absurdity of violence between humans, the urgency of climate change and peace.”
https://www.bfmtv.com/people/jo-2024-la-performance-de-l-artiste-philippe-katerine-en-dionysos-dieu-du-vin-et-de-la-fete-interpretant-son-titre-nu_VN-202407260659.html
Dionysius has a specific linkage to Paris: the patron saint of Paris, St Denis, is also known as St Dionysius (the name Denis being derived from Dionysius). But all these are really nothing more than trivia nut traps that miss the point, obviously….
The connection between Jesus and Dionysus was already made by Rudolf Bullmann in his commentary on the Gospel of John (published in 1941), specifically with regard to the miracle of wine at the wedding at Cana.
sorry, Rudolf Bultmann.
And so proud of this whole spectacle that the Olympics Committee is, they have apparently already taken down most of it. They are aggressive pursuing and threatening anyone who dares to put videos up on platforms. I am thinking they have heard mightily from their sponsors.
And it is so interesting that X seems to be so siloed that people are getting completely different feeds, etc. I have been having these “I am really angry” tweets pop up all through the day for the few minutes I am able to sit down.
I hope that NBC catches all the holy heck as they will deserve every bit of it. Added, Spielberg has been in ads all this week previewing what we can expect. Was that really what the audience wanted to,see, hey kids look at that ?
I think the succinct add on here..they really just don’t give two sheets about insulting mostly the Christian and religious right with this performative nonsense.
Yikes. South Koreans are up in arms because the French announcer mixed up South and the North, but that seems to have been a rather small mistake among many.
Paris 2024
Yesterday on X, there were clips everywhere of the the Drag Queen recreation of the Last Supper. And a fat, aging Blue Thing served on a dinner table. Plus, a Queen in lingerie back-flipping, and slithering down a long run way.
Today I noticed that Channels were temporarily suspended (DCMA copyrights) for posting Paris 2024 Smurfs and Drag Queen clips.
More
https://www.rt.com/pop-culture/601735-olympics-opening-ceremony-criticism/
Thx.
In case anyone is wondering why the athletes were packed into boats on the Seine River:
42yo Thomas Jolly. Artistic Director of the opening ceremony. A gay man of symbolism explains:
“To begin with, the Seine (river) was a nymph called Sequana, who turned herself into a river so she could escape from Neptune”.
“So the Seine (river) is a woman who resists a violent man. That’s a very big symbol, and one I’m using because it makes the river a female force of resistance.”
From
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1145748/thomas-jolly-on-his-inspirations
I liked the severed head of Marie Antoinette singing ‘les aristocrates à la lanterne!’ and the homage to Jules et Jim.
CrowdSuck American Prospect. Another must read by Moe Tkacik (Userfriendly)
My earlier comment on this article immediately disappeared into the ether. I apologize if it appears later on. I will only repeat my main point. The author apparently accepts the “Russian hack” story completely, and is unaware of the many credible questions about “Fancy Bear” as well. She calls the idea that the Wikileaks DNC material was from an insider leak a “Republican conspiracy theory.” What happened instead was… wait for it… “incompetence.” The “conspiracy” was CrowdStrike conspiring to cover up the software vulnerabilities that allowed the Russians to “hack” the DNC.
Despite the useful information on familiar types of corporate malfeasance in this article, this undermines her credibility in my mind. Once again a “conspiracy theory” for which there is motive, means, and credible evidence is summarily rejected with an “incompetence” defense.
Propaganda. Put some facts amongst the lies and half truths and people will swallow the lot.
There is a lot of this happening at the moment in blogs and such
Tkacik is a phenomenal reporter. See her work on Boeing as one of many examples.
She is writing for the American Prospect. I doubt her editors would have allowed her to take any other position.
I normally do not link to American Prospect precisely because it is a hardcore Dem loyalist outlet.
Your comment is a textbook case of halo effect bias, the cognitive bias of needing to see things as all good or all bad.
Tkacik is not reporting on Russiagate. She is reporting on the outage.
The (perceived) Crowdstrike history on Russiagate is relevant because it wound up serving as a massive door opener for them.
I find it interesting we’re being served straight up Russian disinformation on NC. Since there are always two sides to any story I don’t mind seeing the Russian-viewpoint ‘but’ a) this anti-spiegel site is a guy with a pro-Russian agenda, and b) unless we’re given a heads up, it seems straightforward and reasonable.
Anyway, I poked around and found more nuanced views on the subject of the article, and all isn’t as it’s made to appear on anti-spielgel site. A word of warning.
More nuanced views on Annalena Baerbock? This article seems to be summarising one from (reputable?) Berliner Zeitung which got some official documents showing Baerbock was not a big help to Julian Assange. The only mention of Russia is to contrast that with her attitude to Evan Gershkovich.
The author’s bio at the bottom says: “The main focuses of his media-critical work are the (media) image of Russia in Germany, criticism of Western media coverage in general, and the topics of (geo)politics and economics.”
So, we know where he’s coming from. Not much impressed with your link. Why didn’t you link the “nuance” instead?
@Grebo
Totally agree with your comment. I don’t see what the point of John Beech’s comment was other than an ad hominem attack on NC and anti speigel.
Pure cope.
Who decides what is straight up Russian disinformation, and what is not? You have posted a link to some NGO site. How many clicks would it take me to find out that it’s CIA/ADL/Soros/whatever financed?
What’s wrong with being pro-Russian anyway? I am more than pro-Russian. Does that make me extra straight up Russian disinformation, with cherry on top?
P.S. There are always two sides to any story, except for those featuring Annalena 360°.
I like my Russian disinformation served just like my whiskey, straight.
Do you have any words of warning about that site that you have linked? Looks a bit like an NGO snake pit.
https://getthetrollsout.org/partners
If you’re going to toss “disinformation” around, it would behoove you to demonstrate that the piece contains false statements of fact. I also clicked through to the original Berliner Zeitung article, (a perfectly reputable German newspaper) and anti-Spiegel’s summary seems accurate enough, despite the heavy handed editorializing.
Going on about “2 sides to every story” (flat vs round earth? Holocaust happened versus didn’t happen?) isn’t terribly convincing, nor is claiming to have found more “nuanced” takes which you neither link to nor summarize.
If the BZ’s documents are accurate(and they seem to have been released under pressure by the government) they certainly seem to establish that Baerbock’s office did indeed take one stance in public for the benefit of it’s electorate and a very different one where it mattered.
Rectangular, rectangular, dammit! The Earth is rectangular! That’s why we don’t fall off the edge. We just walk around the corner. Anything else is a damned lie that’s come out of Brussels designed to confuse and terrorise the very few clearheaded thinkers left amongst us.
Why not? NC does occasionally link to stories from the Ukrainian Pravda, which is a literal propaganda site, no? I think we can place the info in context for most part. I doubt anyone expects everything linked here to be gospel truths.
Let’s see, which Democrat could raise and spend the most campaign money without beating Trump and leaving the Dems holding the bag the next four years?
Because it’s going to smell worse than a colostomy bag left out in the sun before two years pass, better to let Trump and the Thugs deal with it.
This just in:
Kamala will be stunning everyone next week when she announces that her first act as President will be to implement Medicare for All.
The eligibility requirements are being prototyped at this very moment!
Obamacare! Perfectly illustrated.
The new Artificial Insideness emulation of this oddly specific classic:
https://perchance.org/pgk4gv0c6p
Israel
A rocket (allegedly) fired from Lebanon struck the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Deaths and destruction.
https://www.albawaba.com/news/dozens-israeli-casualties-rocket-strike-1579070
So we have within the span of a couple of weeks:
1) Tony Blinken declaring that Iran has the ability to assemble an A-bomb within two weeks (cough)
2) Netanyahu addressing the US legislature and receiving adoration from both the congress-vipers in attendance and stand-ins to fill the places of those who refused to attend (whom were they attempting fool, and for what purpose?)
3) This attack, which I don’t believe for a second originated with Hezbollah as they are in the habit of assaulting military assets and are not known for denying those attacks, plus it serves no purpose. Some splinter Islamist group, maybe — but wouldn’t they be taking credit for it?
You might also throw in the French railway attack, which I believe Israel has accused Iran of perpetrating or backing.
I don’t like the trajectory of this. The lies and deception are becoming unbelievably brazen. It reeks of desperation. Israel may see no way out but to draw the US directly in (no more of this tiptoeing around Yemen!) by virtue of entangling Iran. Interesting times!
Also wonder how it is even possible. That a rocket could penetrate Golan Heights security dome . .
I believe there is an ‘ISIS’ group that lurks in the Golan, perhaps to the south of this location. (Probably has as much to do with ISIS as Hamas did with the PLO in 1980) They made the news a year or more ago because the injured among them were being treated in Israeli hospitals. I may be mistaken but I believe their function was to lob explosives into Israel, giving them an excuse to bomb Syria. This would be the group who would happily launch a false flag attempt on civilians.
And it would appear, that all the victims were reportedly Syrian.
This is a most distressing utube short from MiddleEastEye (among the many)
Dangerous skin diseases spreading among displaced children in Gaza
I am already so sickened that I cannot bear to look.
Luke 23: 34
Then said Jesus, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
But we do know.
. . . ” Why is China stockpiling resources? ” . . .
Maybe the ChinaGov is preparing China for Survivalism In One Country. It could be just that simple.
. . . ” Amazon DISAPPEARS Book About Kamala Harris! w/ Caleb Maupin ” . . .
I read that this is on a Jimmy Dore YouTube video. His videos can be long and tedious and very time consuming. So I will guess that this is a true headline and not a deceitful clickbaiting headline.
Given that assumption, I think the headline is saying that Amazon is basically trying to remove all traces of the existence of a certain book about Kamala Harris from everywhere within Digital JeffWorld. If that is so, and if tens of millions of Team Blue members and Black Women get bitter enough about that, those tens of millions of people might start boycotting Amazon. They might even seek to extermicott Amazon from existence totally.
If that happens, then this ” disappearment” of a book could be the start of an extended period of good news and favorable developments on the Amazon Front.
n.b. Maupin’s book available here:
https://www.lulu.com/shop/caleb-maupin/kamala-harris-the-future-of-america-an-essay-in-three-parts/paperback/product-zmkjegd.html?q=caleb+maupin+kamala+harris&page=1&pageSize=4
Maupin sounds like a colorful character.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Caleb_Maupin
From the description ar this link, it doesn’t sound like Team Blue (much less the KHive) would be likely to shed tears if the book disappears.
Seems more likely to me that they might have encouraged the book-napping. . . .
Amazon seems to be used as a database for books by some. Even if Amazon doesn’t have the title for sale currently, it will keep it listed with all its pertinent details. Disappearing the title means disappearing it from many searches including some “independent” databases. This means that even if you do not use Amazon for anything, your ability to even know the existence of some works is affected especially of ebooks and audiobooks with limited sales.
At least with books published before Amazon, you will be able to find it listed as having existed, which means that you can look for it. But if it disappears from the listings, does it matter if it exist somewhere? I mean that some books are almost impossible to find or are too expensive, but they are listed, have reviews, often with large excerpts, even if they are many decades old. But newer books especially with the destruction of newspapers, magazines, and journals with their often deep reviews, not so much.
Nice, isn’t? Amazon is a quasi information monopoly. Another choke point. It is not a complete one, but it is there.
Here I am at lunch scrolling through reddit and I find this . . .
” Trump Tells Christians They Won’t Have to Vote in Future: ‘We’ll Have It Fixed’ ”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-if-reelected-wont-have-to-vote-fixed-1235069397/
and . . .
“Trump Says Americans ‘Won’t Have to Vote Anymore’ If He Wins”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/trump-vote-believers-summit/679273/
I wonder just what I should understand Trump to mean by that.
Does anyone here have an idea what Trump means by that, in functional operational terms?
I’d say one implication is he will fix things so evangelicals can go back to ignoring voting, and the other is no one will vote anymore. It seems intentionally inflammatory.
It’s hard to put a good face on this but he did tell Christians and not voters generally they won’t have to vote.
Maybe everyone will be raptured? Or nuked out of existence?
The bible as his voter base sees it is fact …
He as a marketing sort adjust for advantage …
Fat tails in society ….