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Links 7/5/2024

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Rewilding plan aims to bring majestic white storks to London Guardian

The brain makes a lot of waste. Now scientists think they know where it goes NPR

July 4 Post-Game Analysis

Fireworks (1):

Fireworks (2):

Fireworks (3):

Climate

Market forces are not enough to halt climate change FT

The risks of leaving long-duration energy storage short of money S&P Global

Datacenter demand driven by AI… but constrained by power shortages The Register. The deck: “Not content with drinking up all our water, now we’ll compete with DCs for power.”

Satellites burning up in the atmosphere may deplete Earth’s ozone layer Physics World

Syndemics

Vaccines and social distancing saved 800,000 American lives from COVID, according to a new study by a CU professor Colorado Sun

* * *

The ‘Ruby Princess’ case and the future of COVID litigation Peter Vogel, Case notes and legal musings. Australia.

Trends in Sudden Cardiac Death in Pilots: A Post COVID-19 Challenging Crisis of Global Perspectives (2011-2023) (preprint) medRxiv. From the Abstract: “Recent studies suggest a potential increase in SCD incidence among pilots following the COVID-19 pandemic.”

* * *

Infective SARS-CoV-2 in Skull Sawdust at Autopsy, Finland Emerging Infectious Diseases, CDC

‘Visionary’ study finds inflammation, evidence of Covid virus years after infection STAT

COVID’s Hidden Toll: Full-Body Scans Reveal Long-Term Immune Effects Science Alert

Cold, Flu Virus Can Trigger Long COVID Relapse MedScape

China?

China’s Communist Party on track for 100 million members by year’s end South China Morning Post

Xu Gao on housing sector’s centrality to China’s economy and how to save it The East is Read

Controversial clause on ‘hurting the feelings of the Chinese nation’ dropped from China’s proposed security law Channel News Asia

A Rare Cross-Section Illustration Reveals the Infamous Happenings of Kowloon Walled City Colossal. For example:

Philippines president orders de-escalation in South China Sea, military chief says Reuters. More:

The Great Game

Xi Jinping tells leaders at Central Asia summit to ‘resist external interference’ Channel News Asia

Georgian NGOs: The threat of freezing the EU accession process is real JAM News

Bloggers in the Crosshairs: The Complex Reality of Media Freedom in Uzbekistan The Diplomat

Notes on Tajikistan Matt Lakeman

Syraqistan

Mossad chief likely to lead Israel’s negotiating team to Gaza cease-fire talks Anadolu Agency

Africa

Junta-leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to hold first joint summit France24

Dear Old Blighty

For Labour Now, It’s the Gilts Market, Stupid John Authers, Bloomberg. The deck: “Like Thatcher and Blair before him, Keir Starmer surges to power in a mandate dictated more by brutal finances than voters.”

* * *

He’s derided as dull, but Keir Starmer becomes UK prime minister with a sensational victory AP

Keir Starmer, the steely incoming Labour prime minister FT

* * *

While much of Europe embraces hard-right parties, the UK has swung wildly to the left. Here’s why CNBC. Commentary:

And:

But:

* * *

George Galloway loses Rochdale seat to Labour months after recent by-election win Independent. Commentary:

* * *

Photos: The dogs of UK election day Al Jazeera. Commentary:

New Not-So-Cold War

Putin ‘is prepared to SHARE Crimea with Ukraine according to new peace plan that has been presented by Russia to the US’ Daily Mail

‘Istanbul deal’ could be used for future talks with Kiev – Putin Russia Today. We have always been at war with Eastasia:

* * *

Hungary’s Orban urges ceasefire on Kyiv visit BBC

Zelenskyy comments on Orbán’s ceasefire proposal Ukrainska Pravda

Putin dismisses ceasefire in Ukraine, says Kiev could arm itself anew Deutschen Presse-Agentur

* * *

Ukraine’s army retreats from positions as Russia gets closer to seizing strategically important town AP

* * *

Ukrainian President’s Office denies Zelenskyy interview with Tucker Carlson Ukrainska Pravda

Moscow Responds to Hillary Clinton’s Ukraine ‘Chat’ With Russian Pranksters Newsweekd

As an American in Kyiv, I’m proud of how much we helped Ukraine and scared we may let it down Kyiv Independent

Biden Administration

Students at fake university in Michigan created by ICE can sue US, court rules Detroit Free Press

2024

What if Biden spoke these words? (not paywalled) Editorial Board, WaPo

Biden tells Democratic governors he needs more sleep and plans to stop scheduling events after 8 p.m. Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN

The Supremes

Roberts court hands major wins to Trump, conservative movement in 2023-24 term SCOTUSblog

The Assassination Hypothetical Isn’t Even the Scariest Part of the Supreme Court Immunity Ruling Slate

Digital Watch

AI has all the answers. Even the wrong ones FT

This Week in AI: With Chevron’s demise, AI regulation seems dead in the water TechCrunch

Sports Desk

Joey Chestnut shows no rust as he downs 57 hot dogs in competition at Fort Bliss FOX

The Final Frontier

We could terraform Mars with desert moss — but does that mean we should? Space.com

Russian space agency head says Moscow has proof America really DID go to the moon BNE Intellinews

Zeitgeist Watch

The Nibelung’s Ring: Prelude Ecosophia. Commentary:

Class Warfare

07/04/2024: More Starbucks Nonsense Matt Bruenig, NRLB Edge

Warren Buffett pledges $100 billion for nothing in particular Axios

The Journal of Scientific Integrity Bits of DNA. See KLG here and here. Commentary:

Antidote du jour (Lip Kee):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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185 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘Conversation
    Stephen Eckhardt☀️
    @seckhardt
    Careful with those at home fireworks displays. Don’t let it become a disaster like this one.’

    Hope you didn’t forget your M-320s.

    ‘Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it.’

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc2d652_2hE (1:46 mins)

    1. griffen

      These disaster video recaps always lead me to the cynical point of view…thinning of the herd and the future scenario as projected by the film Idiocracy…might be too late(!)

      Darwin award candidates, please accept your prize with your remaining 9 fingers intact. A shame about that thumb on your left hand!

    2. Wukchumni

      The actual 12 year old version of me (as opposed to the current 12 year old version of me all grown up) loved fireworks, and really about the only PRC imported item I can remember (Stolichnaya vodka was the only Soviet import) being for sale in the USA.

      We’d go down to Tijuana every year, and in theory it was about dad showing us the cardboard shacks on a hill and how good we had it in comparison, but in reality it was all about scoring firecrackers for yours truly or something with more bang for the buck in a store on Avenida Revolución, that one with a faux zebra in front-in wait of a photo op with a dumb gringo, and a street taco vendor.

      Fast forward a few years and i’m playing pinball @ the Texaco gas station in East LA where I grew up, and this really old guy (must have been 18, in retrospect) walks in and asks, ‘hey you kids want to buy some fireworks?’

      This would be tantamount to Howard Carter asking if we want to look into Tut’s tomb, and off we walked to his Toyota Celica with it’s tiny trunk loaded to the gills with bricks of firecrackers (144 packs of 16, for those of you scoring at home) bottle rockets, M-80’s and more, and dirt cheap, I think I paid $6 per brick of firecrackers. I must have felt like Musk or Gates that day, the richest man in the world, well at least in things you blow up real good.

      Driving to Colorado this winter, the Moapa tribe’s gas station/fireworks stand is right off Interstate 15 about 40 miles from Pavlovegas, and they have literally a warehouse full of fused items, with the most curious sales, such as buy 1-get 2 free, who does that in retailing?

      Bought a 4 pack of stout rockets for $19.99 and this item was buy 1-get 1 free, so my cost per rocket was a measly $2.50 per, and here in Tiny Town, March is the time to let loose with those bad boys-as everything is green and it’d be hard for anything to catch fire and my gosh, what bang for the buck as each rocket came with about a dozen explosions, in their field report up there.

      They’d lock me up and perhaps throw away the key, were I to attempt a similar ignition yesterday… as everything is bone dry, all of the green grasses have died back with their roots on, in search of a spark.

      1. Wukchumni

        p.s.

        I’ve seen a few drone shows @ Burning Man, and really impressive in person!

        A great alternative to much louder gunpowder ~

      2. The Rev Kev

        As a kid, we all looked forward to “Cracker Night” and in the months leading up to it, we frantically saved up our money to buy bungers, crackers, pin-wheels and whatever else we could. Each of us had our own private stash and around the corner the kids would start piling up timber, bits of wood and anything else flammable for the bonfire that we had on cracker night. We all had a great night around that bonfire that we had all built up and out would come out our horde of goodies. One kid had a spark fly into the case he had his crackers in and the entire lot went up at once. My older brother claimed that if you lit a bunger and held it at the extreme end, that it would not burn you. Turns out he was wrong. And then one year the government announced that Cracker Night was to be no more because of the smoke, kids getting injured and any other reason that they could find. They said, don’t worry. We will have a huge fireworks show on that night instead for all the kids. Come the following year the government said ‘Fireworks show? Don’t know what you are talking about.’ My mistrust of governments dates back to then-

        https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/rewind–cracker-night-20170602-gwj9fj.html

        The Northern Territory still has a fireworks night where ‘Territorians are provided five hours to legally blow up fireworks without needing a permit or special training, the only instance of its kind in Australia.’

        1. Wukchumni

          I was in NZ for Guy Fawkes Night a few times, hard to catch a rainforest on fire, but it wasn’t from a lack of effort, good fun!

        2. marieann

          Fireworks were never really a thing when I was growing up in Scotland…we did have “bonfire night” at Guy Fawkes day.
          When I came to Canada I went along with all the Fireworks Fun, as I got older and loaded up my home with assorted cats I realized that animals are terrorized by fireworks…we still participated in “the fun” as my sons were young, but I always had the kitties corralled in a safe room.

          As an old woman now I hate fireworks because if my kitties were terrorized, what about the rest of this planet’s animal inhabitants, and who’s looking out for them.Have we not done enough evil to the animals that we have to subject them to this unnecessary cruelty.

          1. ambrit

            Don’t worry yourself too much. We Terran humans are even crueler to each other than we are to the animals.

          2. Thistlebreath

            Growing up in a tony suburb of Detroit, my late faither’s tales of Guy Fawkes’ mayhem in Glesga’ long, long ago were stirring accounts of coal shed doors pressed into service to celebrate

            “….gunpowder, treason and plot.”

            An introduction to the Clydeside epicenter of ironic sarcasm is “Red Plush.” Quite a read.

      1. Pat

        Count me as another sparkler fan.

        The sparking toys are fun, but as I remember some designs were better than others.

    4. HandyAndrew dba SunnyBoy

      DIY fireworks malfunctions have nothing on San Diego. Municipal fireworks show suffered a “glitch” in 2012, and everything basically went off at once. This video shows it up close, but apparently there were 4 or 5 barge-loads of fireworks that went off simultaneously!
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndVhgq1yHdA

    5. juno mas

      The fireworks extravaganza in my coastal town went off as planned. Except nobody got to see more than glowing mist after deafening booms. The current heat wave inland in California created the conditions for dense coastal fog to creep inland at twilight (8:45pm) and the celebration was all sound and no fiery visuals. Lots of disappointed families and friends.

  2. Amateur Socialist

    Here in southern VT we skipped the fireworks in favor of on-screen explosions. I picked the July 4th movie some weeks ago, thinking that George Clooney’s good night, and good luck. would be a worthwhile celebration. The biopic of Edward R Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly did not disappoint, and everyone agreed the movie turned out to be more timely than expected.

    In the discussions that followed everyone wondered where is the Murrow of today?

    1. Carolinian

      And where is the Clooney of Good Night and Good Luck? I agree it’s a good movie.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Where is George? He got with the program. I would have liked to have seen his face as he was watching the Trump-Biden debate though. But yeah, not a bad movie at all.

      3. tegnost

        Surprised to see that after all he’s done he and amal are only worth 570 million….people really can’t conceive what a billionaire is, and we have hundred billionaires…misallocation of resources, anyone?
        Adding, lots of 50 million a year nba players these days…pity the poor single digit millionaires…what happens if/when housing crashes again?

    2. britzklieg

      …and where is that Clooney, now that he’s gone full McCarthy w/RussiaRussiaRussia and all the Illiberal Democrat agitprop in which he now wallows ?

    3. mrsyk

      Yesterday was the most subdued Independence Day in memory in my patch of southern Vermont.

      1. Steve H.

        Same here, ‘subdued’ is the word Janet used seconds before I saw your comment.

    4. EMC

      We watched “The Most Dangerous Man in America” which also felt timely. A good reminder that we once knew we were steeped in lies.

  3. Jake

    Watching the News Hour on PBS has become surreal. Yesterday they has a segment on AI and the huge waste of electricity. The pro AI guy actually said that we can think of this massive waste of electricity as ‘stored energy’ because these LLMs can continue to be used for a long time. So some D bags can continue running ChatGPT, producing crap of questionable value for years. Of course, this guy has to know that these LLMs will be obsolete in a few months, and they will need to create new ones. So amazing to watch this hype cycle and the D bags that plan to make a killing firing up old coal power plants so they can build something that will clearly never amount to anything. All this just after the crypto hype cycle crashed and burned. Tough to watch, really glad I don’t have children. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ai-and-the-energy-required-to-power-it-fuel-new-climate-concerns

    1. Anon Mouse

      Inference at the scale being used today is still fairly energy intensive. There’s also the TCO for the models including moving and storing the data.

      Anyway, here’s a preprint that discusses some of the environmental impact. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.16863

      1. rudi from butte

        I like Galloway but hate the “You’re terrible but Great argument.” It’s nonsense. Peace!

    2. vidimi

      I don’t believe in electoral suffrage any more but it was still very depressing to wake up to the news this morning of the Worker’s Party getting smashed, Galloway losing his seat and none of the other great candidates winning theirs. Increasingly I am resigned to the idea that any change will have to come via a military defeat. Perhaps the Starmer/Van der Leyen politics are the most progressive after all.

      1. Samuel Conner

        It will be intriguing to see how a Starmer-led government addresses the suffering of the people of UK. Per the Authers article at Bloomberg, there isn’t a lot of policy flexibility under current funding practices (I suppose that if BoE were to outright monetize the UK deficit and accept a decline in the exchange rate, there would be more policy freedom, at the cost of imports inflation).

        I’m not optimistic about the prospects for national-level politics. Perhaps what truly Left groups there are can organize from the bottom up.

        1. Ben Panga

          I think one of the keys to understanding Starmer is that he is loyal to the British state/establishment to an incredible degree.

          I think he is a throwback in that he has a lot of twentieth century British class-based insecurities. He has for a long time been working among those of a slightly or greatly higher class than him and I think it bothers him.

          This may be why he scolded the audience that laughed at his “my dad’s a toolmaker” schtick – he was genuinely wounded. I suspect he has some contempt for the less successful sons and daughters of the working class.

          He has a bad hand to play: Britain is family-blogged on so many levels. Once the nation’s relief at binning the Tories passes I see him as headmaster perpetually scolding an incalcitrant nation. He comes pre-loathed so we’ll see how that goes. I think he will comfortably lean repressive in areas.

          Philip Pilkington has made a good case on his podcast that the BoE and financial institutions will treat him favourably and not Trussify him so maybe he can incrementally improve things.

          I find it far too easy to imagine him as a war leader.

          1. vidimi

            the BoE and financial institutions will treat him favourably and not Trussify him so maybe he can incrementally improve things.

            he has showed no intention of improving anything. The level of contempt he has shown to the public in promising nothing and scolding anyone who dared to demand anything is unprecedented.

          2. Jeff H

            sounds like Joe Biden schtick. Then again I remember back in the 70’s Trump was the wannabe fancy boy who wanted to be accepted by the Manhattan elite but was dismissed and derided as uncouth. That seems to be a big part of his psychological dysfunction.

      2. pjay

        After decades of watching and studying politics in the US, I have come to the conclusion that foreign policy means little or nothing to the masses unless the country is directly engaged in a conflict, in which case any politician must simply “support our troops” with full voice. Otherwise, it is bread-and-butter issues of the economy that shape electoral politics. Most of the voting public is oblivious to most foreign policy issues. On the other hand, for our Establishment foreign policy is crucial. For our elites, a politician’s stance on Social Security or other domestic issues is not a “third rail,” but mess with our geopolitical projects and you’re gone. Over here, they don’t really give a damn about Trump’s stance on abortion or immigration or his “fascist” tendencies. That’s just fodder to stir up blue voters. But Trump made noises about reducing our commitment to NATO and dealing with Russia in Ukraine, so it’s full spectrum “resistance” by every major institution.

        NC readers see these global conflicts for the world-shaping events that they are. Sometimes it’s difficult to acknowledge that most people don’t, and don’t really think about them. That’s my rather depressing take these days.

        1. Adam Eran

          One inference from what you say: the US will increasingly use other nations as cat’s paws to prop up the MIC. Words like “despicable” and “underhanded” come to mind…but there’s plenty of US history with “Let’s you and him fight” as the game.

  5. JW

    The FPTP system in the UK gave the other big ‘anybody but the Tories ‘ party the win everyone was expecting. The exit polls could have been taken a week ( month?) ago. The flip flop voters between the two parties are unlikely to have read the manifestos of either party. If they had , neither would probably have got over 20% of the votes.
    As its been said , probably correctly, the ‘elite’ want continuation of policies in one or other of the two main parties, and the early election ‘surprise’ called by Sunak did not disappoint.

    1. Revenant

      Nobody flipflopped. Labour voters voted for Labour. Tory voters ran for Reform or LibDems. And 40% of people stayed away for None of the Above

      1. Not Qualified to Comment

        Labour voters voted for Labour.

        Self-referentially true, but the raw numbers of Labour voters have been falling steadily since Blair’s ‘victory’ and subsequent betrayal. Tory voters at heart at least had the option of Reform to turn to in order to try to scare the Tories back onto the path of righteousness but there was no such alternative for the left, Galloway’s Worker’s Party not having the organisation or public profile – and an unnecessarily scary name – to really challenge Labour .

        I’d suggest that if Starmer’s Labour doesn’t ‘deliver the goods’ – which it probably couldn’t even if it wanted to which I don’t think it does – the door will be wide open at the next election for a new party of the left to seriously challenge Labour while the numbers of ‘a plague on both your houses’ could be in the majority.

        1. Revenant

          Agreed.

          And my tautologous statement hides that some voters migrated between Tory and Labour but the point I was trying to make and that you made better is that the Labour did not change much – except, as you point out, to drop slightly overall – whereas the Tories were this time literally rather than metaphorical punished at the ballot box.

          I don’t think Starmer will last five tears. Labour are as venal and ghoulish and mediocre as the Tories, they simply have not been in the spotlight. Look at that oily oruck Streeting (even the Guardian called him “glossy”) saying the NHS is broken on his first day. Not something constructive and nuanced, like the funding settlement or the clinical commission mechanisms or the integration with social care or the staff recruitment and retention model but just the whole damn thing! He us clearly trying to frame ” creative destruction”. I don’t think it will be accepted, the country is too angry. The punishment of the Tories was not a catharsis but, like that joke about a crashed ‘plane of lawyers, a good start.

          Starmer will make unforced domestic errors, he has no more feel for the people than Sunak or Johnson, and his team of smug centrists will not cope with the events that geopolitics are about to throw them because they have no grand visions of how things should be (the Ukraine, Gaza, the Middle East generally, immigration, pandemics, US internal power struggles, BRICS response to NATO expansion, collapse of previously reliable vassals etc.).

  6. The Rev Kev

    “Putin ‘is prepared to SHARE Crimea with Ukraine according to new peace plan that has been presented by Russia to the US”

    ‘The demands were that Ukraine must completely withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk regions, both of which are now partially annexed by Russia.
    But Russia would hand over Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station and the nearby town of Enerhodar to Ukraine.
    And he would discuss the possible transfer of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to the control of Ukraine.
    Crimea would become a ‘specially demilitarised administrative territory with dual subordination to Ukraine and the Russian Federation’.
    ‘Ukraine must take on itself legally binding international guarantees, not to block the supply of water to Crimea,’ said Gordon, reading from a document.’

    In other news today, the Daily Mail has announced that future stories will be vetted by The Onion and the Babylon Bee.

    1. Polar Socialist

      Isn’t that pretty much what we’ve learned was offered in Istanbul in 2022? The peace deal that Zelensky turned down. There’s no way Russia would accept that as a starting position two years later, while advancing on every front (and apparently creating new ones as we speak).

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        With Biden being completely brain dead, this feels like appointees realizing they need an end but having no authority or directives. They are just going with the old plan, and these would be people with Jeff Zients seal of approval, morons in the vernacular.

    3. Skip Intro

      The loud silence from all sides on Odessa remains striking. Russia can really offer anything, since they know no deal can/will be accepted.

      1. Polar Socialist

        I was wondering, though, how Helmer got from “we haven’t seen the actual proposal” and “we’re not in talks with Trump” to “we’re ready to accept Trump’s proposal and deny this publicly twice to communicate it to our close circles”?

        1. nyleta

          They may even prop up the Ukraine front a bit until after the US election, why frighten the horses until you see what you are dealing with ?

  7. Mikel

    “This week the NY Times just casually dropped that the official U.S. intelligence assessment has always been that Putin didn’t want to expand the Ukraine conflict beyond Ukraine. But in public, Biden and other U.S officials have been pushing a domino theory…”

    Countries in Europe have been boosting military budgets based on yelling “the Russians are coming.”

    1. Benny Profane

      The winner goes to Finland, who went from neutral to hosting about a dozen American bases in just a few years.

      1. The Rev Kev

        The funny part there is that they are shouting how Russia is colonizing the Ukraine, while they let the US/NATO colonize their military bases in their own country.

        1. Louis Fyne

          much of human culture, at the micro and macro levels, is “elite” mimicking.

          People still want to be like America (thanks Hollywood!), particularly if one’s view of America is stuck in 1999.

          to paraphrase Milton, better to be pimped put by Adonis than be loved by the local gas station attendant w/nukes.

          1. Mikel

            “People still want to be like America (thanks Hollywood!)…”

            The kind of thing that makes China and Russia more cautious in the face of threats from the USA than any weapons system.

    2. Polar Socialist

      Countries in Europe have been boosting military budgets based on yelling “the Russians are coming.”

      That has been going on at least since 1501, when future bishop of Dorpat, a German from Livonia, Christian Bomhover convinced pope to allow him to preach crusade against pagan hordes coming to enslave the Western Christianity.

    3. Lefty Godot

      Russia hasn’t been able to get the AFU out of the four oblasts that voted to join Russia in 2022, so the idea that Russia will be overextending itself into Poland or Germany is insane. They are close to taking all of Luhansk. The other areas of offense have slowed down, other than adding small incursions in Kharkov and Sumy. It does look like they may be pushing the AFU out of Chasiv Yar, New York, and Toretsk over the next week or two, so some progress is happening, but very slowly. The public story from Biden and company has always been incoherent and based on whatever they think will get money appropriated this week. Nobody in his upper echelon knows anything about war.

    4. Ram

      When US with trillion dollar budget could only hold to kabul or green zone in Baghdad , I am sure no one in their right mind believed Russia would come for Europe. Every politician is a paid actor to tow the most lucrative narrative. Co opted media will amplify it as if everyone in country also beleives the same. Anyone out of line will be vilified and kicked out

  10. Steve H.

    > The Journal of Scientific Integrity Bits of DNA. See KLG here and here.

    Luebbert and Pachter are very careful in stepping through what they are saying. As Boyd said, “Don’t get hosed.” The full context of the objective facts they present cannot be understood without examining the realities of the environment in which they are produced, which KLG lays out in the first link.

  11. Mikel

    “Russian space agency head says Moscow has proof America really DID go to the moon” BNE Intellinews

    That’s a weird debunking story to put out without saying when they were provided samples.
    Weird that it’s something that should even be bothering Russia right now with all the country has to deal with.

    1. sarmaT

      It is not bothering Russia. It even says that he “was personally interested in this matter”.

    2. The Rev Kev

      That article omitted this bit-

      ‘Many of the arguments have been debunked over the years, but between 5 and 20% of Americans still believe their country’s lunar program to have been nothing but a hoax, according to various polls.’

      Of course this new, upcoming film will not help the cause-

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW7enw6mFxs (2:31 mins)

    3. vidimi

      the cynic in me says that the samples could have been picked up by an unmanned rover or even made in a lab altogether.

  12. ex-PFC Chuck

    Here’s a working link to Marcus Stanley’s post about the NYT and Ukraine. Elon & Co. have apparently shut down twitter.com for good.

  13. Veli-Matti Toivonen

    Marcus Stanley’s tweet on the report on NY Times was another bombshell -not in the sense of what a knowledgeable person would’ve already regarded as being next to obvious, but in the sense of how Washington pr machine can and will turncoat a story without a blink of an eye. ‘Oh, it wasn’t me! It must’ve been you!’ Such is behavior of a narcissistic person.

    I feel broad audience is starving a grand dissection of what was said back then and what was said since then, and how those messages have carried out a major incoherence between themselves throughout the conflict. It’s Orwellian through and through. I am utterly done with the machinery of lies, half-truths and sheer gaslighting of public.

  14. funemployed

    Re growing moss on mars: I’m so tired of this nonsense. Mars lacks a viable atmosphere because it lacks enough of a magnetosphere to stop solar winds from blowing most of the atmosphere away. For this reason there is no liquid water on the surface. None whatsoever. Sooooo, can’t grow moss there guys, no matter how hardy. It isn’t magic space moss. That doesn’t exist. But yeah, maybe once we develop the technology to reheat and spin up Mars’ planetary core we can grow this cool moss there.

    Yet we still have 2 paragraphs at the end of the article to dedicate to questions about the “ethics” of terraforming.

    1. Acacia

      Whatever happened to the canals of Mars?

      I mean, I know they never existed, and least not in this millennium, but was there ever a kind of “oh… uh.. sorry” retraction?

      (Fun fact: “A Fog-Filled Canal on Mars” was painted by Chesley Bonestell in 1956.)

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        It’s hard to look back, but it was likely an optical illusion combined with knowledge the Martian polar ice caps changed size with seasons and changing quality of the catchall telescopes.

        A few kept making claims after the first proper pictures of the surface were made (circa early 1900’s), but the “canals” were seen for the previous 50 years by various people.

        Given the timeline, it was more a case of mistaken ideas dying out as definitely better tools couldn’t replicate the canals.

    2. i just don't like the gravy

      More delusional cope from idiots who don’t realize our own planet will become unfit for human life before the end of the century.

      1. hk

        I’d always wanted to write a sci fi novel set on Venus before global warming. Turned out writing fiction is hard, but still wish somebody would run with the idea some day.

    4. Wukchumni

      When I came to your planet all those years ago, I’d been here a short time when Mars Air went Bk, and I couldn’t get a return flight home.

      Ever notice how you never see any Martians in all the photos and videos from the Mars Landers?

      We’re really good hiders…

    5. Lee

      Once Musk’s Boring Company begins shafting Mars for minerals I suspect that they will encounter extremophilic microbes under the surface. From that point, various untoward scenarios come to mind.

  15. Acacia

    Re: Russia is prepared to SHARE Crimea…

    Whut? Oh, the Daily Mail. Second paragraph:

    The dictator sent his trusted interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev to the US with new proposals to end the war that the dictator started, say sources in both Moscow and Kyiv.

    The rest of it is from unconfirmed sources (including Ukrainian intelligence *rimshot*), so I guess we take it with a handful of salt. If(?) this is really legit, still sounds like an offer that is guaranteed to be refused. The bit about Crimea becoming a ‘specially demilitarised administrative territory with dual subordination to Ukraine and the Russian Federation’ also sounds kind of far fetched. Meaning, Russia would give up a military base at Sevastopol…?

    Curious what more astute readers of the conflict will make of this.

    1. Yves Smith

      Someone must be both desperate to keep the funds flowing to Ukraine and as high as a kite to try to plant a story as silly as this one. Actually, no, the loopy one is the editor who approved it for publication.

      1. ambrit

        When the editor’s continued tenure as editor is thrown into the mix, the decision to run the story becomes understandable. Call it the Upton Sinclair Effect.

    2. Samuel Conner

      IIRC, in some of his commentaries, Alexander Mercouris has asserted that, post accession of the four oblasts and Crimea to RF, their full territory within their administrative borders is RF territory and, per the RF constitution, cannot be negotiated over. If that is correct, this proposal for some kind diminished RF sovereignty over Crimea would require some significant work to paper up.

      I find it difficult to take the report seriously, and wonder “what is the purpose for which this claim is being promoted?”

      It is hard not to interpret US press reporting on JRB’s health in recent years to have been a kind of gaslighting. Perhaps we’re also being gaslit about VVP’s intentions. Or maybe the target is a domestic RF audience, to try to make trouble for VVP, who is already criticized for being too gentle in his handling of Ukraine.

      1. Yves Smith

        Yes, I am quite confident that Mercouris is correct.

        And Putin just made what amounted to his last offer just a few weeks back, and it sure was not anything like this. And the Russians are winning, in case anyone forgot. Mercouris and Dima and not doubt others are seeing more and more crumbling of Ukraine operations at points where Russia is pushing into the line of contact. Not quite a collapse, but getting closer to that point.

        1. Polar Socialist

          Also Putin would very unlikely use his minister of interior to start negotiations with USA. Especially one who is sanctioned by USA and banned from entering the country.

          Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, ambassador Anatoli Antonov or ambassador (UN) Vasili Nebenzja would be much better positioned for – and much more experienced with – such an ordeal.

    1. Acacia

      The rejoinder I’ve heard in this neck ‘o the woods is: “Democrats — the more effective evil.”

      Thanks for the James Carden article — pretty good. I like “The Family” capitalized. And this zinger:

      An administration figure I spoke to soon after the debate says the temper tantrums emanating out of Obama-world will have “no impact—zero.” Biden-world realizes, as do many associated with Clinton-world, that Kamala Harris isn’t up to the task—indeed, she might just be the only person who might do worse against Trump come November 5th.

      My money would be: they are toast. I joked the other day about Obama calling in a favor for a quiet extra-ex-presidential order to take out Biden with a drone strike, but it’s starting to seem less absurd.

      1. Jeff W

        The rejoinder I’ve heard in this neck ‘o the woods is: “Democrats — the more effective evil.”

        It was, of course, journalist Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report, who, referring to President Barack Obama, coined the phrase “the more effective evil.”

    2. Cassandra

      Biden might not be the lesser evil.

      I had decided that by 2020, but I still couldn’t bring myself to vote for Trump. I ended up voting for Howie as the Lesser Evil, secure in the knowledge he would never be president.

      I spent years as an activist, getting people registered to vote, collecting signatures to get candidates on the ballot, canvassing, GOTV, poll watching. This year, for the first time, I may not vote.

      1. Wukchumni

        As far as I know, the only votes cast for Wink Martindale in the 2016 & 2020 Presidential elections, came of my hand.

        It doesn’t have to be that way, we could have dozens, no, daresay hundreds of write-ins for a game show host & a NFL defensive coordinator all in one name.

  17. Aurelien

    I’m glad you linked to Richard Murphy’s more downbeat assessment of yesterday’s election results in the UK. As he says, the Tories lost, Labour didn’t win. We have in effect reverted to the traditional pattern of British politics, where one of the two main parties has been a long time in power, and loses popularity to a third party or parties, who don’t get enough votes to win many seats, but prevent the government from holding a lot of theirs. A famous, catastrophic example occurred in 1983, when disaffected Labour voters turned to the SDP and delivered to Thatcher a massive majority she hadn’t earned.

    Interestingly, the Grauniad has a remarkably good statistical breakdown of the results, showing how flaky and contingent they were. In effect, Labour has scarcely more than a third of the popular vote, but more than two thirds of the seats.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2024/jul/05/eleven-charts-that-show-how-labour-won-by-a-landslide

    1. JustTheFacts

      When Reform get 4 seats, but 14.3% of the popular vote, the Libdems get 71 with 12.2% of the vote, the SNP get 9 with 2.5% of the vote, the notion that the UK is a “democracy” becomes pretty hard to swallow.

      Yes, I know, it’s not proportional, but the “representation” function is so non-linear as to become meaningless…

  18. The Rev Kev

    “Opinion: As an American in Kyiv, I’m proud of how much we helped Ukraine and scared we may let it down”

    It seems like the authoress – Anna Belokur – is as much an American as Antony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, the Vindman twins, Marie Yovanovitch, etc. who all knew which country to put first when it came down to a matter of loyalty.

    1. Screwball

      RE: The Vindman twins

      One (Eugene I think is his name) is running for congressional house office in Virginia. Him and his brother Alexander are war mongers to the Bolton/Kristol level. I hope he gets smoked as we don’t need any more rabid warmongers in congress.

      Both, and especially Alexander (who I follow on Twitter just for his unhinged rants) have Rob Reiner/Keith Olbermann level of TDS. I keep waiting on him to self combust any day. No wonder he is a PMC hero.

    3. lyman alpha blob

      I had to stop reading that one at “Hitler”.

      I can’t remember who it was (maybe Taibbi), but one journalist said recently that the only way USians can attempt to understand current politics is to figure out who in any given situation is Hitler, Chamberlain and Churchill.

      Can’t waste my time any more with people with such a narrow understanding of history.

      1. sarmaT

        It’s not about USians attempting to figure out who in any given situation is Hitler, as much as them never realizing that they have been the Hitler all along (since 1945, that is, when the original ended his career).

  19. Wukchumni

    Joey Chestnut shows no rust as he downs 57 hot dogs in competition at Fort Bliss FOX
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    MLE (Major League Eating) is an up and comer* in professional gluttony tournaments, indorsements being the key ingredient.

    In some ways it mirrors our obscenely rich and their see me-dig me lifestyle, who frankly only want more, lots more than they need.

    *if I ate say 6 hot dogs, I might give them all back @ once

            1. ambrit

              All right now you two. This is devolving into a spamming contest. (Now made with extra squeals!)

                1. Janet T-H

                  Y’all are sow’ing dissension in the ranks, now.

                  ***

                  I’ll show myself out.
                  [But we are enjoying temporarily being 13 again.]

    3. Louis Fyne

      Amazing that this guy has been doing this for >20+ years.

      Good health to him….though I won’t try it at home!

  20. Mikel

    I don’t understand all the gloating that the Tories are done for in Britain.
    Even with their parliamentary system, there are duopoly dynamics similar to those in the USA.

    Until there is a govt not Labour and not Torry controlled and in the USA, until there is a govt not Democrat and not Republican, the duopoly effect is still in play. Just around and around it goes, like being caught in a hellish loop.

    1. Polar Socialist

      It’s been proven, time after time, that the FPTP leads unavoidably to a two-party system. And a two-party system will, by definition, leave most people under- or even unrepresented.

      Fix that and new parties will have room to grow. Oh, and taxing the blood out of the super-rich to level the playing field would help, too.

      1. Revenant

        Under FPTP, the activation energy is higher, for a new entrant party to break-through, but once it does it can supplant one of the two completely. It remains a bistable system but you can get radically different poles of attraction. Labour wiped out the Liberals at the beginning of 20th century. Reform sees the same opportunity with the Tories, to take over their niche from the right. I suspect the Libdems also see the same opportunity. Sadly they cannot both be right, unless they agree to divide the country geographically, and they have the least common ground of any two parties….

        In fact, they epitomise why the Tory party internal coalition has blown up. There has been a resorting of priorities and the sovereigntist wing rejects neoliberalism and identity politics and the liberal wing rejects state capacity and nationalism / nativism.

        I think the Tory party is dead – bereft of ideas and energy – and we will watch the Reform and Libdem buzzards fight for the larger share of the corpse. My money is on Reform winning the roadkill because the Devil has the best tunes and their statist-Gaullism has a broader appeal than the Libdems, who look like Labour with added PMC sanctimony.

        Reform also have better material analysis: Net Zero, QE/QT and mass immigration are all (as currently designed) an expensive scam on the working man. Reform however would abandon them rather than, ahem, reform them. :-)

        The Greens are just a protest vote for people who find the Libdems fail their purity tests!

    2. Samuel Conner

      In today’s The Duran discussion, Alexander Mercouris expresses the view that the Conservative Party will wither in coming years and that Reform UK will grow. IIRC, I think he expressed the view that there might be a migration of local officials and perhaps even MPs into RUK from the CP. The discussion closed with AM opining that Rishi Sunak will be remembered as the last CP Prime Minister.

      From my US point of view, conditioned by the apparent indestructibility of our duopoly and the near impossibility of new parties winning seats in Congress, this seems absurd. AM seemed quite serious; he considers Reform UK winning seats in Parliament to be a big deal and a harbinger of future growth for that party.

      1. Revenant

        I would concur.

        None of my PMC friends voted for them but a lot of our farming circle would / did. And I am wondering about joining and trying to run in the next election!

        Also, unremarked by most people, Reform was the top party with 18-24 men (possibly 25-34 as well) by a country mile. I haven’t seen a demographic breakdown of this cohort by class but I suspect it might be skewed C2D.

        I cannot tell you why. Racism / anti-wokism seems a lazy explanation. Lower taxes for tradesmen, small businesses etc might be part of the appeal. Also, maybe the message of strong defence expenditure and weak offensive posture (no war on Russia) is a double hit with young men: patriotism without the risk of Sunak’s conscription!

      2. c_heale

        Mercouris is terrible at predictions. The good thing about The Duran is it often mentions news reports I hadn’t heard. The bad thing is Mercourias waffling on about what’s going to happen, or his take on events.

        Personally, I think the Conservative Party has been severely wounded by the events of the last few years, but I also think Reform have reached a high point. Farage I expect to be full of nonsense in the House of Commons, but to be indulged by the media as he always has been.
        As an MP for his constituents, I think he will be useless, because I don’t think he’s willing to put the work in. He’s a narcissist in my opinion.
        I think he will be voted out at the next election.

  21. GlassHammer

    “U.S officials have been pushing a domino theory that if we negotiated an end to the war, Russia would invade Poland and beyond”

    Yes, I to follow the theory of “if you give a mouse a cookie” when negotiating with others.

    It’s never failed me.

  22. Vander Resende

    “Five pollsters who had a pre-debate poll in the month of June have also conducted a survey since the debate, allowing us to understand the debate’s effects, and
    – four of them show Trump gaining on the margin —
    – but none by more than a 4-point swing.”
    https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/04/biden-trump-debate-polling-00166590#:~:text=Five%20pollsters%20who%20had%20a%20pre%2Ddebate%20poll%20in%20the%20month%20of%20June%20have%20also%20conducted%20a%20survey%20since%20the%20debate%2C%20allowing%20us%20to%20understand%20the%20debate%E2%80%99s%20effects%2C%20and%20four%20of%20them%20show%20Trump%20gaining%20on%20the%20margin%20%E2%80%94%20but%20none%20by%20more%20than%20a%204%2Dpoint%20swing.

    1. Skip Intro

      I imagine the only people who didn’t know about Joe’s condition were never going to vote for Trump anyway.

    2. britzklieg

      that’s how cults behave. a few leave but most double down on their obtuseness when reality shows them to be dangerous fools.

  23. Wukchumni

    Win one for the gaffer!

    …and just when did he get that transracial surgery?

    Joe Biden has said he is “proud” to be the first “black woman to serve with a black president” in one of a series of verbal gaffes as the USA celebrated Independence Day. (NZ Herald)

    1. The Rev Kev

      Obviously that Megadonor did not make his money using his keen powers of observation. Blind Freddy could see that Biden had his wheels falling off way back in 2019. It was all out there for anyone to see.

      2. NotTimothyGeithner

        Yeah, but now, there is the threat of a weaponized DoJ. Or what kind of donation will soothe Trump? It almost makes single payer preferable.

        Even if donor X has done nothing wrong, how about their donor business partner? We haven’t had a functioning DoJ since Janet Reno.

        Perp walks would be wildly popular. Team Blue fumbled Trump legal problems because they went on vacation multiple times and did nothing but praise the Cheney spawn.

          1. ambrit

            Not to mention murdering all those children at the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco Texas.

        3. John k

          Doj is already weaponized. What might be different in 2025 is where the weapon is aimed.

    2. Katniss Everdeen

      If there’s one thing democrats understand, it’s money.

      This morning on cnbc it was “reported” that several big donors are “pausing” donations to biden’s campaign, including Abigail Disney and Reed Hastings. Hastings is the co-founder of Netflix–haven’t the obamas started a second uber-lucrative gig in films courtesy of Netflix? I doubt they are unaware of Hastings’ feelings.

      According to cnbc, there is also a small but growing contingent of big donors proposing to withhold donations to ALL democrats until biden gets gone. From the guardian:

      According to Reuters and the Associated Press, another call with about 40 top donors over the weekend turned tense after Biden’s campaign manager was asked whether the campaign would offer a refund if Biden doesn’t run.
      —
      Screenwriter Damon Lindelof who has been a significant contributor to the party proposed on Wednesday a “DEMbargo”, withholding funding until Biden stands aside.
      —
      According to CNBC, philanthropist Gideon Stein will pause almost all of a planned $3m in planned donations. “Virtually every major donor I’ve talked to believes that we need a new candidate in order to defeat Donald Trump,” Stein said.

      I don’t care how “beloved” you are. If your owners cut you off, you’re toast.

      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/05/joe-biden-election-donors-abigail-disney-pause

      1. ambrit

        The delicious irony is that by backing the Demented Democrat for so long, they now have no-one ‘electable’ to fall back on.

  25. Vander Resende

    “Liz Truss narrowly lost her seat — in yet another stunning embarrassment for the former PM. The votes for Priti Patel were still being counted when Playbook went to pixel.

    Contenders no more: 
    Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and
    Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt were both victims of the Labour landslide.
    Education Secretary Gillian Keegan,
    Transport Secretary Mark Harper,
    Justice Secretary Alex Chalk,
    Welsh Secretary David TC Davies,
    Chief Whip Simon Hart and
    Veterans’ Minister Johnny Mercer also lost their seats.
    Former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg was ousted, as was outgoing
    Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross.”
    https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/were-you-up-for-truss/#:~:text=Liz%20Truss%20narrowly,Leader%20Douglas%20Ross.

  26. Louis Fyne

    Preliminary numbers show UK turnout at ~60%, down 7 percentage points from 2019.

    This might presage US elections….there is a ceiling to the “I *love* Trump” camp and I imagine 2020 turnout was boosted by grassroots get-out-the-vote drive on the heels of George Floyd.

    UK votes hate Tories but they don’t love Labour (see plurality victories in lots of constituencies, seemingly Greens had a good night)….Keir is going to have a very short honeymoon after which he has to deliver.

    1. Mikel

      But it’s still Labour and Tories that are presented as the only legitimate options.
      The “hate Tories” will last a limited time then they flip the script back in favor of the Tories eventually.

      A similar game is played in the USA with the Dem vs Republican hellish loop.

    2. John k

      Without a major change I expect many dems stay home, likely affecting senate/house. 4% is huge, polls might show hopeless for Biden, why leave the couch? Imo a rep sweep of congress would be likely.
      If Biden loses, what happens to donations? If he can keep it that would affect family decision.Ditto if he doesn’t run.

    3. Revenant

      This is a corker. Labour voters gave their reasons for voting Labour.
      43% get the Tories out
      5% Labour’s manifesto policies
      1% Starmer :-)
      nitter.poast.org/YouGov/status/1808458226142196083

      Starmer is on net approval of -6% at the start and this is his honeymoon period!

      I don’t see him last a full term. He could purge the Labour oarrty but he cannot purge his majority and the events around the world to come will overwhelm UK politics. Labour’s front bench are as limited, venal and ghoulish as the Tories, they’re just a bit fresher.

  27. Wukchumni

    {47 hours, 14 minutes, 11 seconds}

    Felt it prudent to put an abdication counter out there…like Joe its a broken clock, of sorts.

  28. Wukchumni

    Listen to the ground
    There is movement all around
    There is something goin’ down
    And I can feel it

    On the waves of the air
    There is glancin’ out there
    It’s somethin’ we can’t shake
    Trump can’t steal it

    That sweet city woman Jill
    She moved through the light
    Controlling my mind and my soul
    When you reach out for me, yeah
    And the feelin’ is right

    Then I get night fever, night fever
    We know how to do it
    Gimme that night fever, night fever
    We know how to show it

    Here I am
    Prayin’ for this Presidency to last
    Livin’ on the edge so fine
    Borne on the wind
    Makin’ it mine

    Night fever, night fever
    We know how to do it
    Gimme that night fever, night fever
    We know how to show it

    Night fever, night fever
    We know how to do it
    Gimme that night fever, night fever
    We know how to show it

    Gimme that tucked in by 8 PM night fever, night fever
    We know how to do it
    Gimme that night fever, night fever
    We know how to show it
    Gimme that night fever, night fever
    We know how to do it

    Night Fever, by the Biden Gangstas, er Bee Gees

  29. The Rev Kev

    “Hungary’s Orban urges ceasefire on Kyiv visit”

    Zelensky was not interested in anything that Orban had to say so Orban has now flown to Moscow to meet Putin. Naturally people flipped out over this. The European Council President Charles Michel condemned the trip and insisting that Hungary has “no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has accused Orban of “appeasement” with regards to Putin. She claimed: “Only unity and determination will pave the path to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine.” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement that Orban’s “visit to Moscow takes place, exclusively, in the framework of the bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia”. “Prime Minister Orban has not received any mandate from the EU Council to visit Moscow,” he added. I other words, they will never negotiate with Russia and will attack anybody that even talks to them-

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/5/peace-mission-hungarys-orban-meets-putin-in-russia-defying-eu-leaders

    2. tegnost

      I’ll bet a neutral ukraine would foster a lasting peace and they could go back to tapping the gas pipelines to europe for pin money…

  30. pjay

    – ‘He’s derided as dull, but Keir Starmer becomes UK prime minister with a sensational victory’ – AP

    Hey all of you Debbie Downers questioning Labour’s great victory. You need to read this AP story; it will warm your heart!

    I had to laugh when reading this. It sounded SO much like those Democratic Leadership Council press releases about Clinton back in the 90s. He was a man of the people from modest origins. Yet he rose to become the brilliant Rhodes Scholar, Yale Law grad, Governor. He saved the Party from the “disastrous” influence of “the left” with his common-sense move to the “center,” etc., etc.

    Same old same old. As the article makes clear in so many words, Starmer’s real accomplishment is ridding the Party of that dangerous antisemitic socialist Corbyn. Now he can “bring government back to where it belongs.”

  31. Carolinian

    Re John Michael Greer’s intro to a series on Wagner–it doesn’t sound like he’s going to talk about the most relevant aspect of Wagner: his musical genius. If Wagner thought the music would make his political ideas transcendent we can ditch the ideas and keep the transcendent. Some of us would go so far to say that profundity in art is overrated anyway. Talent on the other hand…..

    The evolution of movie music was arguably greatly influenced by Wagner and his leitmotivs. Music and visuals go particularly well together. Both are about emotion rather than “ideas.”

    1. Giovanni Barca

      I don’t think there’s anything arguable about it. And the music endures, even if its popularity and influence wane, just as all the talk of his ideas and programmaticism and “music serving the myth ” has waned. Wagner advanced melodic and harmonic thought, extending line and chord effectively beyond anything that had gone before. He created a musical “new normal” in that regard. Olivier Messiaen praised him as one of the three great geniuses of rhythm in the common practice era (along with Mozart and Debussy). And he was a magnificent orchestrator. He brought new combinations of sound into being, and added greatly to the orchestral palette. The euphonium and the bass clarinet owe everything to Wagner.

    2. Giovanni Barca

      I must disagree that music is about emotion rather than ideas. Emotion does not structure a theee hour score. Anthony Burgess once said that he gave up composing music and concentrated on composing fiction when he realized that the 1812 overture was not about Napoleon but about the key of E flat. The key of E flat is an idea subsumed by the idea of tonality. There are harmonic ideas, timbral ideas, rhythmic ideas, etc. Musical ideas may or may not approximate extramusical ideas. Emotion may be the stimulus of a musical idea or set of ideas and it may be the end result in the listener. But the ideas are there the whole time.

  32. The Rev Kev

    “Datacenter demand driven by AI… but constrained by power shortages”

    Of course if things really start to fall apart, I would expect to see people using drones to wreck these datacentres as both water and energy becomes less available. There could be a catastrophic drought and yet these datacentres would still be claiming the right to use as much water as they want to and the same for energy as well. So drones it will be.

  33. CA

    [ Putin ‘is prepared to SHARE Crimea with Ukraine according to new peace plan that has been presented by Russia to the US’ Daily Mail ]

    Know that this report is completely incorrect and intentionally deceptive, as reports in this paper invariably are.

  34. Wukchumni

    Can’t believe Napoleon Obamaparte is hitting me up for five bucks to keep Joe & Jill in a lifestyle in which they’ve become accustomed to…

    I did hit on the perfect vehicle to get Biden back in office for his second term:

    ‘Gaffe-a-thon’

    How can it not work, aside from Jerry Lewis-the proposed host, having passed on?

    1. Samuel Conner

      I was puzzled by BHO”s declaration that “if every single person hearing this ad gives $5, ” etc. etc. Why is he concerned about the marital status of donors to JRB’s campaign?

      Maybe he reckons that unmarried people have more cash to spare.

  35. The Rev Kev

    “The ‘Ruby Princess’ case and the future of COVID litigation”

    Of course the State Government should be on the hook for damages for letting those passengers off the ship and spread themselves to every State in the country, even though there were confirmed reports that there was a major infection aboard. They knew.

  38. Alan kirk

    “When we burn carbon and do not make restitution to the carbon cycle and the atmosphere, we create a real debt, a true imbalance in the budget. There is harm in this imbalance as in all imbalances. The harm is varied and cascading just as the web of inter-being is varied and complex. Harm is radiating out in all directions from this one economic activity. Even the oligarchs are suffering harm. Because they are not truly free to act independently. Because there is no act that is independent. Because there is no actor that is independent. Because there is no such thing as independence.”

    https://by-my-solitary-hearth.net/2024/07/04/the-daily-4-july-2024/

    Find me on FB:

    https://www.facebook.com/alan.kirk.507/

  39. Roger Blakely

    RE: Infective SARS-CoV-2 in Skull Sawdust at Autopsy, Finland Emerging Infectious Diseases, CDC

    Two things are remarkable about this article. The first thing is that SARS-CoV-2 gets everywhere. We might feel better within a few days of exposure, but the virus is still knocking around throughout the body. It seems to have no problem getting into bone tissue. The second thing is that there is no reason to care about this article. Where is the virus? SARS-CoV-2 in the grocery store. If you don’t care about massive exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the grocery store, why would you care about tiny exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the coroner’s office?

  40. Boomheist

    On the Supreme Court immunity argument: Until this ruling, for over 200 years this country had a system whereby a President could be removed from office via impeachment (and we still have that, it seems) and the clear understanding was that nobody was above the law; i.e., if a President committed a clear crime he or she could be indicted and convicted (once out of office). I would argue that this concept of legal liability had a lot to do with Nixon’s resigning way back when. Somehow during those 200 years Presidents were able to function, and be bold and direct, even facing the awareness they might be jailed if they broke laws, even if in office. Now it seems these six wise people have determined that the system which held for 200 years is no longer adequate, and we need a stronger Executive, one who will be unable to be “bold” without immunity from all official (and presumptively official) acts. If you step back and examine this, you will see that this is an entirely absurd argument, and this raises the question, what then is/was the purpose? Two become obvious – one, to delay Trump’s trials until after the election such that Trump might be elected and then exercise this new power; and, two (and this is the far more disturbing truth slowly emerging) this decision is part of a long term coup or takeover involving this decision and others (like legalizing bribery and breaking the administrative state). Look no further than the Project 2025 document to see this laid out for all to see.

    The Gods have a delicious sense of humor, it seems, for just as this episode rises, the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation creating an autocracy and ruling class about as far from a democracy as you can get, we are also distracted by another emerging and awful truth – not only has Biden lost his mojo as we all saw at the debate, painfully and unforgettably, it now seems this circumstance has been known about and covered up for months, years. Bet on this – the media story will be about this issue, this cover up, not the coup against the Constitution, at least as long as Biden stays in office.

    Every single hour that passes with Biden held from being out there among the people and reporters, demonstrating he has all his marbles, is further and growing proof the problem is real, severe, and fatal, so real even the most DNC-ish podcasts are forced to wonder why he has been locked away. And every single hour the story is about Biden, will he stay or leave, how long has he been compromised, is an hour not spent digging into Project 2025 and the Court’s participation in a rolling coup.

    1. Jason Boxman

      Although it’s fair to wonder if the national security state having virtual veto power over candidates isn’t a coup that happened prior to this.

      1. Cassandra

        I believe it was Donna Brazile who said, “The voters may choose, but we decide what’s on the menu.”

      2. Revenant

        Is it so odd that the acts of the Presidency are not the acts of the President personally? The whole of common law jurisprudence is based on the King being the fount of justice (and possibly god being the fount of justice in the court of equity, before it was unified with the common law). UK judges sit under a giant royal coat of arms and the rules on standing, sitting, addressing them treat them as the monarch. The UK executive operates under Crown Immunity, which is much cut back from how it was in mid 20th century by the natural growth of both tort law (pursuing negligence claims against hospitals and prisons and schools etc.) and of administrative law, reviewing decisions.

        Crown immunity nevertheless coexisted with judicial oversight of the executive: the Case of Monopolies and other cases introduced judicial oversight of executive acts in the 1600’s. The sovereign has also served and defended claims personally in court, even if not in person, despite Crown Immunity.

        I don’t think that logically you can have a system of law that is internally complete and exhaustive. Even if you are a logical positivist and cast the entire law as a logic problem like a jurisprudential Whitehead and North, some part of the law has to come from outside, the axioms from which the rest of the system is deduced; some propositions will be undecidable within the systems (Gödel’s theorem) and have to appeal to a meta arbiter outside the system; and some entity has to legitimise and enforce the system, again logically preceding it. All regimes, however benign, spring from a Schmittian state of exception when somebody pronounced l’état, c’est moi!

        In the US case, perhaps this is “we the people” but then the President becomes their tribune. (Given the electoral college he is actually the States’ tribune but never mind that!).

        The office and the man are not coterminous and the office is open to administrative review but not criminal review. Of course, this makes him an elected King so maybe a Ruritanian constitutional monarchy doesn’t look so bad after all. :-)

    2. juno mas

      Watch Glenn Greenwald’s podcast on the topic of Presidential immunity. His conclusions are different than yours.

    3. pjay

      In your view, how does the “long term coup” that was exerted *against* Trump through the machinations of Russiagate, the impeachments, the various lawfare offensives, etc. fit into your scenario? Are the various elements of the DOJ, State Department, CIA, FBI, foreign intelligence services, and their media assets that were involved part of the current ‘coup’ as well, or were they just doing their duty defending democracy? Is the Obama administration, which solidified and even extended the National Security State and its surveillance/censorship power that was greatly expanded under Bush, part of this current ‘coup’?

      I actually share your apprehension about the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. But I think to understand the long-term dangers to the Constitution and the nation you do have to look much further than Project 2025.

    4. britzklieg

      Meh. I second juno mas’ comment below re Greenwald. Here’s the link:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM0tAVPEIFE

      The ruling: “We conclude that under our constitutional structure of separated power requires that a President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office.”

      The ruling did NOT exonerate anything Trump did… “We accordingly remand to the District Court to determine in the first instance – with the benefit of briefing we lack – whether Trump’s conduct in this area qualifies as official or unofficial.”

      Meanwhile it’s a whacko “leftist” (their word not mine) who started immediately talking about “murder.”

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bbc-journalist-said-trump-should-be-murdered-by-biden-only-to-deem-it-satire-after-backlash/ar-BB1pjTGp

      Now let’s talk about Obama’s extra-judicial assassination of US citizen, al- Awlaki, for making speeches (against the advice of the ACLU and ignoring the pleas from his parents that they could attempt to get him to return to the US for trial) and worse, his 16 year old son, also am American citizen, the latter being excused by Obama’s Press Secretary Robert Gibbs that the kid “should have had a more responsible father.”

      https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/10/how-team-obama-justifies-the-killing-of-a-16-year-old-american/264028/

    5. neutrino23

      Yesterday I watched “Judgment at Nuremberg.” It is a really good film about German judges tried for war crimes after WWII. This was different than charging the military who committed the atrocities. These guys enabled the atrocities. It was well done and serious and gave you a lot to think about. In the beginning when they brought in the four justices to be tried I couldn’t help but seeing Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh in their place. (This was for the film, in reality 16 justices were tried.)

    6. Not Qualified to Comment

      The Gods have a delicious sense of humor

      A President officially dissolving the Supreme Court would certainly be, ah, ‘ironic’.

  41. Jason Boxman

    LOL.

    From Market forces are not enough to halt climate change

    The only solution is faster decarbonisation and so greater investment in electricity generated by renewables, nuclear, indeed any source other than burning fossil fuels. But we have to recognise that so far, for all the talk, emissions are not falling and so both stocks of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and global temperatures are rising.

    So, “and then there was a miracle!” is Wolf’s bet.

    A hundred years from now, people are likely to remember our era as the time when we knowingly bequeathed a destabilised climate. The market will not fix this global market failure. But today’s political fragmentation and domestic populism make it almost inconceivable that the needed courage will be forthcoming either. We talk a lot. But we find it effectively impossible to act on the needed scale. This is a tragic failure.

    Yes, the lack of courage to recognize that capitalism and saving the planet are antithetical.

  42. Maxwell Johnston

    “Notes on Tajikistan” is one of the best links I’ve ever encountered on NC (and that’s a very high bar). Fascinating. Well-written. Read it.

    T-stan is one of the few ex-USSR places I’ve never visited. Which is ironic, bc I’ve encountered so many Tajiks during my years in Russia. E.g., our Moscow exurban dacha is permanently maintained by a lone Tajik (a family of young men who rotate in and out every 6 months or so, all related incomprehensibly….. one is a nephew, one is a son-in-law, etc., but all very decent and honest and hard-working fellows speaking faltering but adequate Russian). Moscow alone has untold thousands of Tajik “guest workers” (the Russians call them гастарбайтеры = Gastarbeiter from the German for “guest worker”).

    Important to note: Tajiks are Muslim but ethnically Persian, and their language is not Turkic but closer to Farsi. They DO NOT get along well with the Uzbeks (the other big ethnic group of guest workers in Russia). Russian overseers routinely insert lone Tajiks into otherwise Uzbek work teams (and vice versa) in order to ensure that if any stealing or malingering is taking place, the individual will rat out the bad apples to the Russian overseer.

    Many years ago, in a Geneva outdoor used books market of all places, I bought a lovely coffee table book about T-stan. Incredible photos. Dreadful rural poverty, but Mein Gott what a gorgeous countryside! One can only imagine the clean air and the views. I hope to go there someday, if I can convince my Russian wife to join me. I think T-stan has amazing potential as a tourist destination, and I wish its long-suffering people all the best. Perhaps with China and Russia competing for influence in that part of the world, their living standards will finally improve.

  43. DJG, Reality Czar

    Article: 800,000 saved by vaccines and social distancing.

    [Likely, masking is a factor, but one must not mention the horrors of wearing the Masque in the grocery store, so as not to upset white liberals and mainstream Tartuffian Republicans.]

    Relevant quote:

    “Their two models, one that was simpler and another more complex, ended up returning the same result: The U.S.’s COVID countermeasures, which slow-rolled the spread of infections across the country, saved between 800,000 and 850,000 lives. The study was published last month. What happened next wasn’t entirely unexpected to Kissler, who worked on epidemiological studies about COVID throughout the pandemic. People started emailing him. And they were angry — about the toll of lockdowns, vaccine mandates and all sorts of other things related to COVID.”

    I am starting to lose patience with the gormless tittering from those who just didn’t have a plan for Covid and want us to thank them for preserving our freedom. I can only take so much of Jimmy Dore’s rants against vaccines and stay-home orders. The other day, I saw Tucker Carlson laughing when the word vaccine was mentioned. Kim Iversen’s omniscience is wearing thin.

    So what was the counterplan?
    –No stay-home orders, because the “normal” was working.
    –No use of masks. Masks are for sissies.
    –No vaccines.
    –No vaccine requirements for certain age cohorts (elderly, kids, immune-deficient).
    –Keep the schools open (and pretend that it’s just “the flu”). See: kids, immune.
    –Deny that the flu-less winter of 2021-2022 was caused by the use of masks and stay-home orders. ‘Tis a mystery why there was no flu that winter.
    –Somehow, a highly contagious disease (one does recall scientists fretting about the contagion quotient, R) will magically disappear.
    –Repeat: It’s “just” the flu. People “pass” from the flu all the time. What’s the big deal?
    –Repeat: It’s the magic of freedom. My freedom. And freedom fries.

  44. Expat2uruguay

    Why is no one talking about excess death rates that continue to exceed 10-25+% in the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, and many more countries?? (No data for South America or Africa included)

    Dr John Campbell, nurse educator, looks at excess deaths from 2020 to 2024 using data from the OCED and Our World in Data.

    https://youtu.be/AU0DxJ1vbmM

  45. more news

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/youtube-blocks-accounts-russian-singers-091558308.html
    YouTube blocks accounts of Russian singers who support war in Ukraine, Ukrainska Pravda

    The YouTube video service has blocked the accounts of Russian singers who openly support Russia’s war against Ukraine. Earlier, their songs disappeared from the Spotify streaming platform.

    Source: Lithuanian media outlet LRT

    Details: Specifically, the accounts of such Russian singers as Shaman (Yaroslav Dronov), Grigory Leps, Polina Gagarina, Oleg Gazmanov and Yulia Chicherina have disappeared.

    However, the content of these singers and propagandists was not completely blocked on the platform – their songs can still be found on other accounts.

    LRT reported earlier that the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission (LRTK) turned to Google and YouTube with a request to delete the accounts of Russian artists who were added to the EU sanctions list for their support for the war in Ukraine.

    The Russian service of Radio Liberty also confirms the blocking of the singers’ accounts. It reports that the reason for blocking them were the restrictive measures imposed against Russian singers by the US and the EU within the 14th sanctions package.

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