Why petting your cat leads to static electricity Phys.org
Earth had Saturn-like rings 466 million years ago, new study suggests Space.com
Burnt out? Your Zoom virtual backgrounds might be causing fatigue, says study Interesting Engineering
These Creatures Occupy ‘Third State’ Beyond Life And Death, Scientists Say Science Alert
Climate/Environment
It’s Getting Worse. The Sentinel-Intelligence
Microplastics in the Olfactory Bulb of the Human Brain JAMA Network Open
Desert Floods Unmask Hidden Climate Threats SciTech Daily
The US is finally curbing floodplain development, new research shows Grist
Water
Pandemics
Why virologists are getting increasingly nervous about bird flu MIT Technology Review
Health Authorities Warn Monkeypox Outbreak In Africa Is Not Under Control VOI
Haunting Questions About a Lethal American Virus MedPage Today
Africa
African Stream: Russia’s Latest Covert Influence Pipeline Targeting Africa and the U.S. Stanford Cyber Policy Center. Commentary:
Since our inception less than two years ago, we’ve attempted to reshape the narratives surrounding Africa and African people. In doing so, we seem to have upset some very powerful people. pic.twitter.com/BqeHB2RIGQ
— African Stream (@african_stream) September 19, 2024
The Koreas
US Military Policy Is Stoking the Risk of Nuclear War on Korean Peninsula Truthout
China?
US ‘forgot’ Typhoon missiles in Philippines, China warns of risk Bulgarian Military
US urged to abandon its missile system deployment plan in Japan, ‘will seriously heighten regional tensions’ Global Times
***
Old Blighty
Revealed: Far higher pesticide residues allowed on food since Brexit The Guardian
European Disunion
Berlin is sceptical of EU migration policy, but warms to Europe-wide Albania model Euractiv
Syraqistan
Israel intensifies air raids on southern Lebanon amid escalation fears Al Jazeera
‘We cannot urge restraint to Hezbollah after Israeli terror attacks’: Beirut The Cradle
Gallant says Israel’s ‘course of action will continue’ after Nasrallah’s speech Ynet
Lebanese people talk about fears after pager and walkie-talkie explosions Al Jazeera
The making of Israel’s ‘modern day Trojan horse’ plot Middle East Monitor
Company Behind Walkie-Talkie Devices Transformed into Bombs Also Supplies the U.S. Military Lee Fang
***
Videos circulating on social media show Israeli soldiers throwing the bodies of three Palestinians, killed in the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya, off a rooftop on Thursday morning.
The footage shows three Israeli soldiers standing on the roof of a building, throwing the… pic.twitter.com/j2b8fMyDKt— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) September 19, 2024
White House admits ‘imminent’ Gaza ceasefire deal ‘may never happen’: Report The Cradle
New Not-So-Cold War
EU to raise €35 billion loan for Ukraine using Russia’s frozen assets, von der Leyen says Euronews
Power outages in Ukraine will last for 4 to 18 hours per day in winter – UN report Ukrainska Pravda
EU chief travels to Kyiv with promise of fresh energy funds to get Ukraine through winter AP. “The EU is trying to decentralize energy production through the use of solar panels and other new technologies in Ukraine to make it more difficult for Russian attacks to have a direct impact on the energy grid. It would also help Ukraine become a greener economy, [Ursula] said.”
Revealed: Russia anticipated Kursk incursion months in advance, seized papers show The Guardian
September mobilization newsletter Events in Ukraine. “270,000 lost or stolen weapons. 200 anti-military arson cases. 400,000 emigrants in 2024. $37 thousand to dodge the draft. Deaths and violence. Mobilization minivans and electronic warfare.”
Exclusive: Ammunition from India enters Ukraine, raising Russian ire Reuters
Russians mine dams around Belgorod in preparation for false flag operations Ukrainska Pravda. Translation: Ukraine is going to try to blow up the dams.
***
NATO-Russia dynamics: Prospects for reconstitution of Russian military power Atlantic Council
MEPs vote in support of Ukrainian strikes inside Russia, Taurus missiles delivery Kyiv Independent
Russia Warns Its Missiles Can Reach US Ally in Three Minutes Newsweek
UK wants US directly involved in UKRAINE CONFLICT The Duran
Estonia signals readiness to preemptively strike Russia to defend NATO UAWire
The Caucasus
Armenia breaks up alleged Russian-inspired coup attempt Eurasianet
Spook Country
Are You a Russian Agent? Take the Test John Varoli, A Vaccine Against the Pandemic of Lies
Biden Administration
How Biden’s NLRB has Boosted Bottom-Up Unionism (& Why this Matters) Labor Politics
2024
The Political Economy of Trad Dad Populism Law and Political Economy Project
Kamala
Meryl Streep, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller Join Oprah Winfrey in Live Event Uniting Zooms for Kamala Harris Groups The Hollywood Reporter
“We need some lawyers to host this Harris fundraiser.”
“OK, the Democratic Party is crawling with lawyers, pick anyone.”
“Great, I got Uber’s lawyer and the guy who represented Nestlé’s right to enslave children.”
“Now wait, that seems like a bad ide-” pic.twitter.com/5N2SfGkcoP— David Dayen (@ddayen) September 19, 2024
Lina Khan Doesn’t Need to Be Confirmed Again The American Prospect
Democrats en Déshabillé
Cuomo personally altered report that lowballed COVID nursing-home deaths, emails show – contradicting his claim to Congress New York Post
GOP Clown Car
‘I’m a black NAZI!’: NC GOP nominee for governor made dozens of disturbing comments on porn forum CNN
Imperial Collapse Watch
BRICS Develops a Multipolar Economic Architecture Glenn Diesen, Glenn’s Substack. See NC here, here, and here for ongoing challenges.
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Defending Humanity Consortium News
States’ Endless Pursuit of Gambling Revenue Is Bad for Everyone Boondoggle
Police State Watch
Groves of Academe
Charges filed against UC Irvine students and professors who took part in protests LAist
Our Famously Free Press
Interview on Unherd: On State Department Censorship and Blacklisting Matt Taibbi, Racket News
Declassify RT records so the public can vet administration’s claims Freedom of the Press Foundation
Healthcare?
For-Profit US Healthcare System—Once Again—Ranks Dead Last Among Its Peers Common Dreams
‘Too big to fail?’: A cautionary tale for health systems Becker’s Hospital Review
‘Failing Wisely’ Can Promote a Safer Healthcare System MedPage Today
Cigna sues FTC over ‘defamatory’ PBM report Becker’s Hospital Review
Therapy patients stop treatment after ‘pre-payment reviews’ swell Clear Health Costs
Digital Watch
Project Analyzing Human Language Usage Shuts Down Because ‘Generative AI Has Polluted the Data’ 404 Media
FTC Staff Report Finds Large Social Media and Video Streaming Companies Have Engaged in Vast Surveillance of Users with Lax Privacy Controls and Inadequate Safeguards for Kids and Teens Federal Trade Commission (press release)
Antitrust
Amazon’s New ‘Shark Tank’-Style Show Gives Winners Top Billing in Its Store Wall Street Journal
Dairy farmer profits sink as industry continues to consolidate Investigate Midwest
Class Warfare
Up to a Quarter of Rental Inflation Is Due to Price-Fixing BIG by Matt Stoller
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
JEWISH CONCENTRATION CAMP
(melody borrowed from The Lady Is A Tramp by Frank Sinatra)
Insane Israelis have chosen their fate
Fresh Gaza settlers won’t find a blank slate
Fierce Hamas fathers and brothers await
Jews run a concentration camp!
Israelis are now despised in this world
Nobody’s darlings—for sniping at girls
Advice is useless ’cause swine won’t eat pearls
Jews run a concentration camp!
No flour or water and trash everywhere
Starving in there
Toxic smoke people choke
Babies are born there in a tent with a lamp
Jews run a concentration camp!
Hezbollah’s happy to answer your hate
Mountains of missiles and they work just great
Iran is well poised to shatter your state
Jews run a concentration camp!
Sniping young kids truly puts you all at odds
With the whole world’s opinion and certainly God’s
You have mastered the filthy, the furtive, the frauds
Jews run a concentration camp!
You talk of freedom—we do not care
How do you dare?
Bad joke from you folk
You heed no warnings, you just rubber stamp
The Jews run a
The Jews run a
The Jews run a concentration camp!
Thank you. Whilst I could make some anodyne comment about how relevant that is, I’m quite concerned at the “temperature” of discourse here in middle England.
I (having been mugged years ago) am hyper vigilant when I do my walks for my health. I’m not hearing anything remotely positive from people I pass (who of course are talking loudly into a smartphone on loudspeaker status).
Suffice to say, it’s not just the USA that might be close to riots due to political issues. The “air” round here is rancid. I’ve been pressing “do not recommend” almost continuously on YouTube to the channels that are rancid TDS but which keep being pushed at me. I. Don’t. Use. YouTube. For. Political. Info. Full stop.
Craig Murray via Paul Craig Roberts. utube video of Murray’s speech at the bottom of the post.
Here is a summary of the speech in the video below of former British Ambassador Craig Murry describing the transition of Britain and the West in general into Tyranny
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2024/09/19/here-is-a-summary-of-the-speech-in-the-video-below-of-former-british-ambassador-craig-murry-describing-the-transition-of-britain-and-the-west-in-general-into-tyranny/
When seeing those clips, I got a flash of those old WW2 clips of the disposal of concentration camp bodies. Nazis and Fascism, the Holocaust, and the Cold War all seem to be making a return. I would guess that there is too much money to be made in having them back.
In order to make a return, they would have to be gone for a whle. They have not been. The spice must flow.
“Estonia signals readiness to preemptively strike Russia to defend NATO”
This sounds serious. I had better check Wikipedia for what forces Estonia can bring to the table in case of war-
‘The Defence Forces consist of basic military units totaling 6,500 officers and conscripts. The planned operational wartime size as of 2017 was 21,000 personnel, which is to be increased to over 24,400 by 2026.’
Never mind. And they would be short of both weapons and ammo right now after sending everything that they could to the Ukraine. All bark and no bite.
I did see a quote from that Estonian dude, and frankly, my take on it was that he has signaling frustration more than readiness. Wasn’t paying too much attention (it is Estonian Armed Forces, after all) but I recall he stated that when Estonian joined NATO, the idea was that NATO would defend Estonia. Now it seem that the idea is for Estonia to defend NATO… It is what it is.
The Estonian strategy, according to this man, has been to hold against the Russians for ten days, after which NATO forces would come to help. I believe NATO experts calculate Estonia can fight for about ten hours, and with some luck NATO HQ in Brussels will be aware of the invasion before it’s over.
So, I think this military man is starting to doubt if it will be in Estonia’s interest to launch a preemptive strike and hope there will be something left of Estonia when NATO has time to check back.
One has to admire their fighting spirit!
https://x.com/OlgaBazova/status/1836773859741126910?t=0_cVWSE3TCyOtYRCmwpnGg&s=19
Estonia – the Black Knight of the Baltic States-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmInkxbvlCs (2:55 mins)
Estonia’s population? About 1.3 million according to Wiki. Add its two Baltic sisters, Latvia and Lithuania, about another 5.0 million. Go figure, I’d say. They’re not dubbed the chihuahuas for nothing.
More like brave Sir Robin. They are ready to preemptively hit the road.
The Rev Kev: Thanks for pointing this out.
“Estonia signals readiness to preemptively strike Russia to defend NATO UAWire” is one of the most remarkably obtuse squibs that I have ever read. So the Estonians are going to do what? Storm Pskov?
A friend of mine in the Chocolate City in the Undisclosed Region remarked that Poland has to be kicked out of the EU. Frankly, no one Italy is going to be willing to go into the trenches so that Estonia, a suburb of reality, can have a temper tantrum.
On the other hand, I wonder what kind of fire water that Estonians are drinking. Either they don’t have any synapses left or they have reached some new realm of consciousness. Maybe I should get a liter of whatever it is that they have cooked up.
Poor Alyosha from Russia who is trying to buy my vote (don’t tell Hillary!) is only offering two crocks of dill pickles and three jars of strawberry preserves…
Estonia was (and probably still is) the destination for those large ships sailing from Helsinki, full of Finns eager to buy distilled beverages in quantities and prices that the State-licensed Alko shops could not match.
Oh, and where can I sign to get the pickled gherkins and strawberry jam? “Concrete material benefit” in politics, at last.
The Mouse that Squeeked?
Re Revealed: Russia anticipated Kursk incursion months in advance, seized papers show The Guardian
According to Ukrainian sources, that cannot be independently verified, as the article explains amidst its breathless admiration. In other words, to be taken with a barrel load of salt. As ever, the Guardian acts as stenographer to whatever the Ukrainians tell them.
Provided that I’ve read some pretty angry comments in Russian blaming the Kursk region administration for not creating a proper buffer zone on the border as they were told to, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ukrainians managed to capture papers along the lines that the region has to prepare for a possible Ukrainian incursion.
There are very likely similar papers doing rounds in every Russian region bordering Ukraine, and even probably administrators actually heeding to the advice of evacuating people closest to the border, and constructing some defensible positions 5 to 10 km away from the border.
Not that I want to defend anyone, but if you were a farmer there, you would probably not be very enthusiastic about forced deportation, and turning your orchard into a minefield, not to mention the destiny of the farm animals. Politicians tend to avoid unpopular measures, because of the votes.
My initial view, reported to NC, was that the Kursk operation was a ruthless trap set by Russia, and the Russian forces retreating in disarray, coupled with the Yukkies capturing raw conscripts, were essential to the purpose of Russia’s plan which was, simply, to make the Kursk operation so attractive to Kiev that most of their best troops in the Donbass would be sent to ideal killing fields generously opened by the Russian military. Similar contingency plans probably exist for most, if not all, the regions bordering the Ukraine, and I assume the same contingencies have been planned for Belarus. Subsequent events have not changed that view.
Yea. Those Rooskies are ruthless, just like CNN and movies described them. Stalin must have had shown up in Putin’s dream and told him to throw civlians and conscripts under the wheels of NATO, and he did it because he has no regards for lives of his own people. /s
OK I have watched some weird stuff on the Internet but I couldn’t watch all of that Israeli soldier stuff.
If LedByDonkeys want to really make their mark (beyond that whole Clacton poster shenanigans) then might I suggest they (following proper checking for authenticity in this AI world) project this onto the UK Palace of Westminster? Preferably during SIR Keir Starmer making some speech.
The IDF said in a statement-
‘This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values and the expectations from IDF soldiers’
I would contend that after watching what they have been doing the past 11 months alone, that it was exactly in line with IDF values and the expectations. It is who they are and what they are all about.
Agreed. SIR Keir Starmer is of a differing opinion, however, and he clearly neither understands nor cares about the hoi polloi (in contrast to his position when a top lawyer as DPP).
Does he say something in last 24 hours about necessity of secondary incomes? Maybe I imagined that and if so how his promise to resign if so-and-so happens will be conveniently memory-holed by the Guardian.
Richard Murphy today did a video entitled “Single Transferable Party”. Yep
In Spain we had this “democratic” experience with two alternate parties (though both representing more or less the same interests) in between 1875-1916. It was called “The Turno” (now my turn and then yours) done by electoral manipulation previous agreement between the alternating “liberals” and “conservatives”. The difference is that you don’t need such manipulation nowadays because TINA. When the electorate is tired of STP1 it comes the turn for STP2 and vice-versa.
So will the UK have a Primo de Rivera?
Not to rule out. The way we are going nothing can be ruled out.
Thanks. I’d argue that the Gladstone-Disraeli period was effectively the same here in 19th century UK. Twas only the slow nature of the Liberal Party to reform that caused the upheaval that decimated it in favour of the Labour Party.
Unfortunately we have a new uni party. This will lead to fascism and a reset. Why? Because it always did.
If I am not mistaken, a similar process took place in various Latin American countries, where “liberals” and “conservatives”, “blancos” and “colorados”, etc, kept taking turns in heading the government — of course excluding, if not smothering left-wing movements.
What wasn’t in line was that somebody managed to video the op and successfully share it. There are sound reasons for us/israel targeting reporters. This was a very minor incident, sniprts targeting children is a better reflection of idf values.
TF: that is a terrific idea to project that scene (after validating it) on Westminster
When the press is too compromised to cover it, that will be clear as well
Thanks but I’m not being original. They have done this multiple times to show how bankrupt the Tory govt was.
Their arguably best stunt was done when Sunak-failure called the election.
Music blasted at 100Db and big projections onto Parliament seem to be all we have left.
Kind of easy to forget a missile system that doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as a US Typhoon missile. There is a launcher vehicle called the Typhon (named after a mythical Greek monster), which consists of a truck with standardised launch boxes that can take a variety of missiles. Most likely the ones in the Philippines have the RIM-174, which is a medium range anti-aircraft/missile system with a secondary air to ground and anti-ship function. The Philippines are known to be considering this missile along with some Indian and other systems as a longer range sea and air defence system. Most likely the system was left behind to allow the Philippines air force to assess it, although it seems unlikely they could afford the most up to date versions.
And contrary to what the article (and a few others on the topic) states, it does not have the range to reach the Chinese mainland – nowhere close. China is probably upset about it because it potentially covers disputed lumps of rock in the Paracel’s and elsewhere. Or they could just be upset about potential arms sales. Over the past few years China has given quite a lot of free or cheap military equipment to the Philippines, including trucks, drones and rifles, presumably in the hope of generating future sales. The Philippines government is, like most small countries in the region, pretty skilled at extracting deals from big players by playing them off against each other.
Are you sure about the range? Not that I trust it too far, but unless Wikipedia is now doing propaganda for the US, this battery platform can very much fire missiles that would reach China. Source of the Wiki claim:
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2024/04/u-s-army-deploys-new-missile-launcher-to-the-philippines/
In any case, I’m not sure why one would want to downplay such a provocative move in light of current world events.
The launcher mentioned can be loaded with a number of different missiles, with varying ranges. No one has specified which were supplied with said platform. The wiki article is going to use the range of the biggest compatible missile.
No one knows what missiles came with the launchers, or will be made available on short notice. Goven the current state of US-China relations, it seems that it’s only logocal for ths Chinese leaders to assume the worst.
And?
This is my point. It does have the ability to reach China, if the right missiles are used. This directly contradicts what PlutoniumKun claimed.
Again, I’m puzzled why some people downplay the seriousness of this situation.
Considering the much greater firepower of the destroyers in Japan, I don’t really see these army MDTF batteries as doing that much from a strategic standpoint, unless intended to allow Philippines to independently support their off-shore interests.
“It does have the ability to reach China, if the right missiles are used…”
Of course. A choice of American missiles for the system in the Philippines can reach China. However, “lumps of rock” that China is inhabiting off the China coast, as is its right, are as important as Beijing. America has been openly determined to contain China since 2011, but there will be no containment.
The object of American policy in the Pacific is to undermine Chinese development and directly threaten China. Containment of a country is threatening to development and will be necessarily resisted by any country that is already developed enough to resist.
Japan invaded China in 1931, beginning the World War, marauding and causing the death of millions of Chinese. While ordinary Japanese citizens have for weeks been in China to apologize for the invasion, there has never been a Japanese government apology.
The transition to AI finally caught up with me yesterday. Plagued for years by a mystery app, symptomsd, in my Mac OS. It would suddenly fire up, msg all my other apps and then the kernel would quickly go into a panic tying up the CPU.
No search engine would reveal anything meaningful about this app. Finally I gave up, contacted someone I knew who definitely knows hackers and I got a piece of code. Entered it into my Mac and the problem was solved. Not just solved, over the course of half a day my Mac cleaned itself up and is now running like new.
The kicker? After whining to this guy about how bad search engines are, he said, “Why didn’t you just ask Grok or ChatGPT?”
Using AI had never occurred to me. I didn’t need the internet to think for me, just to point me to the articles and comments that were on topic. But search has been scrubbed of useful information about this app. Learning that AI could have helped was devastating because it’s Big Tech once again taking the hard road to please capitalists. Search has been trashed, long live AI?!
It’s like they’re killing all the taxis and ubers to force everyone to rent limousines. This is the kind of water-hogging capitalism that has to be stopped now.
I’ve had that happen over the years, the occasional mysterious OS X process that uses all CPU for one reason or another. Generally searching for the process name and “reddit” yields a possible solution. You need to launch “Activity Monitor” to get the process name, and sort by CPU column.
I used the Activity Monitor to shut this app off. In fact I kept it running in a corner of the screen so I could spot the app turning itself on. An Apple games app is my next deletion target!
My years of using Little Snitch were very educational. The biggest threat to your computer security is usually the company who made it and the major software developers. Music and video apps are all daemons from Hell and I strongly encourage NC users to consider using freeware like VLC in lieu of iTunes.
yep VLC is cool…been using it for years and years.
i dont use any of the things that come with windows, if i can help it…and i remove them if i can(cant get rid of Edge, so far…and even though i never open it, its always talkin to the mothership)
cousin says he has an extra laptop he’ll bring for me, so i can stop migrating this one between bar and home…and im determined to do some Linux thing.
been too chicken to do it with my only reliable machine.
You might like to look at Antix, Amfortas:
https://antixlinux.com/
Antix doesn’t use systemd (which does dog knows what at startup, and uses many more lines of code than it should).
I’d been trying to run Linux Lite on an old (very old) Acer Aspire One. It struggled to respond to a mouse click. With Antix it works just fine.
Name of the “mystery app”?
Seems just as likely the work environments and work cultures that allow playful and humorous backgrounds prevent burnout. And what of people who create an amusing and ongoing backstory for their static background?
For me, personally, as a person who does not want what some have called “a reason to put on some lipstick,” Zoom beats live by a mile.
I see both Diddy and the US insurance industry are on “suicide watch”.
Top 4 trending X topics for me here in UK as at 13:30 BST are Starmer, Ann Widdecombe, FarageRiots and Jess Phillips. Yep just a normal day here in the country on suicide watch.
Hi Terry, here’s an article to restore your faith in fellow Britons. Not the article itself (usual BBC media macroeconomics) but the comments.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cje39kw1281o
Boy, the comments! The article has hit a nerve with the Great British Public and 2000 people and counting have laid into to the Labour government for having no economic vision beyond meaningless sacrifices of the poor to the gods of austerity and soaking the middle classes to featherbed the international 0.001%.
Joe Public sees through Starmer as winning by default. Nobody has a kind word to say and Labour is called out for lying. The occasional lesser-of-two-evils “blame the Tories” partisan is downvoted into the ground.
It makes me optimistic… for Reform. If only there was a leftwing alternative.
Wow. And thanks. My Dad follows a lot of what I follow but also has more patience for MSN stuff so when he gets home I’ll be unsurprised if he’s aware of this and can add to your confidence that there is a growing group of us hoi polloi who want genuine change.
And major corporations like Intel and Boeing will soon have to be put on “life support”.
Indeed. And I find myself having to be ever more careful about the veracity displayed by certain YouTubers who run accounts that I traditionally would not have put my “political filter” on for.
A “only 737 certified” YouTuber was very against the idea that MCAS might have any role to play in the crashes. Until Boeing faced Congress and uncomfortable questions were raised about what the company had been doing more generally – most likely leading to collapse in his channel’s support.
As always, ask who funded this?
I’m finding all these tiny violins and don’t have enough arms to cradle each one…I shed no tears when these musical industry titans such as a Combs, or these corporate giants of their narrow industry do themselves such harm. By most standards the banking behemoth Citigroup is on year 14 or so of their turnaround strategy…once more with feeling!
>UK wants US directly involved in UKRAINE CONFLICT The Duran
You can’t understand the current day conflicts unless you understand the metamorphosis from the British Empire to the American Empire. The borders of the Middle East are a British creation arising out of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. How America inherited, or rather how the British Oligarchs/Ruling Elites, shifted their interest/policies for maintaining these borders, fomenting, rivalries, and shifting alliances is the hidden narrative of modern geopolitical machinations.
The book A Peace to Ed all Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. by David Fromkin documents how the Middle East was artificially created and how it was the British and U.S. anglophiles that created the antecedents that have led the current situation.
This is the British MO. In WW1 the UK spent 3 years piling anti-German propaganda into US newspapers to help get the US to enter the war. In WW2 they once again worked hard to get the US into the war. And now they want the same setup for WW3.
Unlike WW1 and WW2, the British military is an utter laughing stock with an army of less than 100,000 (with only 75,000 regulars) and an airforce and navy that would be wiped out within days. And quite a lot of that army’s equipment already went to Ukraine, with a military industrial complex that more resembles a group of cottage industries than large manufacturing enterprizes.
I would not be shocked if a couple of the the major participants in the JFK assassination were British.
Or Canadian.
That David Fromkin book is required reading for all who want to understand the Middle East now.
A lot happened after what that book outlines but it was the foundation of everything since.
One of those unusual things: a necessary classic that should be part of the required reading of every intelligent enemy of empire. Up there with Manufacturing Consent etc etc…..
Not looking to vote for Black Nazis but it’s odd how the newspapers can ferret out comments made on pornsite chat boards years ago yet none of them can tell us for sure who Jeffrey Epstein’s clients were, whether the nasty rumors about Adam Schiff are true, or if a former but still living POTUS is an active homosexual.
It’s not that I need to know any of this, but I deeply resent the establishment selectively deciding which of these stories merit my attention this election cycle.
I’m adjacent as I live in South Carolina, but I will comment as a native of the Tar Heel state. That man is a doozy by political standards of perhaps any era…wowser he is a combination of both hatred and bile, capable of insulting most ( okay I presume most ) thinking adults with just a few paragraphs.
Ads for Stein are prominently running, Stein being his opponent for governor. And to add, it’s possible and likely you get plenty of assistance from the local newspaper there be it Greensboro or Raleigh. Robinson is serving well, apparently at least, to be his worst opponent. Proves that maxim of not interrupting the enemy.
So it’s not like any voters needed help to figure out that Robinson is a lousy candidate?
As news it’s legit but my problem is that I can’t help but wonder how many October surprises are oppo-research gifts to Blob-owned candidates from their friends at Langley or the NSA?
I’m intrigued by implied existence of porn forums that are not full of disturbing comments.
The way you quoted this makes it look as though CNN is the porn forum…
From the information provided, it could be a very clever frameup, and it would be interesting to see if the is any record of these comments from archival sources downloaded at the time they are alleged to have been made.
I was thinking the same thing as I read the extremely detailed descriptions of his porn site comments made years ago. And apparently there’s lots more too explicit to be reported. Such intrepid investigative journalism!
I’m no fan of Black Nazis either. Right-wing Republican hypocrites have been around as long as there have been right-wing Republicans, and this guy deserves to be outed. That’s not the point. The point is the one you make here.
Hell, back in the day, everyone on the Nude Africa comments section was a black Nazi and wanted to reinstate slavery. But that was a long time ago in dog years.
We’ve got to move on now to address the threat to our children represented by drag queen reading hours, the cultural Marxist groomers and the woke lgbtq+++ agenda.
I, for one, celebrate this journalistic effort.
It serves to complicate and reframe what we know about the Strength-Through-Diversity programs of the Obama years and corrects the mistaken notion that national socialism is a mono-ethnic phenomenon. They way I learned it, true inclusivity demands that every voice sing.
As a (classical) liberal, I rather believe in diversity as a strength, however, as it is being used by the neoliberal Democrats as Strength-Through-Diversity propaganda, I am thinking of it as it was done by the Nazis with their Strength-Through-Joy program.
This particular effort I have not read much about honestly, but it certainly sounds like the Joy!-With-Kamala effort. Somebody in the Harris campaign certainly knows some history on propaganda that I don’t know much about.
>US Military Policy Is Stoking the Risk of Nuclear War on Korean Peninsula Truthout
U.S. imperialism is eating the world, and it will not be challenged from within the U.S. political system. That challenge must come from below — not just as a demand to end U.S. wars, but to fundamentally change who holds political power in the U.S.
Not sure that anything in this day and age can come from “below.” The reign of control is too tight and life is too precarious for most, nothing short of a catastrophic event will change the current trajectory of the impending war. My fear is not of Putin or Xi bent on extending Russia and China to “our shores,” no, my fear is that the invisible inner circle of oligarchs really running the show are worshipers of Thanatos and hell bent on maintaining their global hegemony.
Superman is not from Krypton, and he is Asian. https://www.mlb.com/news/shohei-ohtani-reaches-50-homers-50-steals.
In a game for the ages, Shohei Ohtani became the first MLB player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season and he did it in style by hitting 3 home runs, driving in 10 RBIs, on top of 2 stolen bases. For people who don’t understand baseball, he basically won a game by himself while doing something that has never been done in baseball EVER. It might actually be the best individual performance in MLB history.
It’s never been done before because most managers tell their pitchers to intentionally walk hot players after their second home run or so.
It’s baseball’s greatest weakness: conflict avoidance on steroids. Player A is hot? Take away his at bats by intentionally walking him. Pitcher B has a perfect game going? Tell your fastest batter to lay down a bunt even though there are two outs and you’re trailing by five runs.
Baseball gives managers too much time to think or we’d have many more moments like Ohtani’s.
Shohei Ohtani better take care of encountering any Tonya Tappers.
I wonder how many homers Bonds would have if say seven percent of his walks were converted to homers.
Contrary perhaps to fans from the late 90s or early 00s…but how many additional home runs are already attributed to Bonds, to McGwire, to Sosa, and others…given the lack of testing for PED and enhanced “supplements” in use at the time…
I attribute much of this as well due to Bud Selig’s “negligence of facts” and his owner friends too. I have to include Alex Rodriguez in the aforementioned camp as well…to be certain.
I don’t follow MLB closely or much at all anymore, since the past 10 years…but I once loved the pennant races and the high pressure of elimination in the playoffs.
Are they counting Barry Bonds?
If you have not seen it, the Baseball Doesn’t Exist video on Ohtani is worth seeing. At least a one-in-a-million jolly good fellow. The last I read his wife sits in the stands, not in the luxury boxes.
The BDE video includes a big scandal in Japan when the wife was photographed carrying an expensive designer purse which was plastered all over the newspapers.
He also is one of the best pitchers in the majors. This has not happened in one hundred years. The last one was Babe Ruth.
Babe Ruth never stole 50 bases. Also, Ruth’s career as an elite pitcher was quite short–and he was never a “full time” pitcher after he was an “everyday” guy in the lineup. Stuff like this has NEVER happened.
Ruth was a very good pitcher with Boston but didn’t put start putting up huge hitting numbers until he went to New York, where he also stopped pitching.
This is truly historic and I really can’t imagine it ever happening again. This kind of excellence is truly a pleasure to behold.
Do you think that Ohtani might have benefited from being a designated hitter? Ruth didn’t. I believe that twice in his career, Ruth hit more home runs in a single season than the seven other American League teams did as individual teams; and he was more than just a very good pitcher, he was one of the most outstanding young pitchers in all of baseball. As they say, look it up. It’s nearly impossible to compare players from different eras, in any case. And don’t get me started on the abilities of players in the Black leagues. I think it’s best to say that a hall-of-fame baseball player would be a hall-of-gamer in any era he played.
Agreed – that might have been the best single game performance ever. On top of everything else you noted, he went six for six! And he almost hit for the cycle but got thrown at 3rd trying to stretch a double. I almost felt bad for the position player they put in to pitch to him who gave up his 3rd moonshot.
Here’s a list of six hit games – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_single-game_hits_leaders Unfortunately the list doesn’t give SB or RBI totals to compare to, but only a few of those games had 3 HR among the six hits.
What’s most interesting about H5N1 is that, after some brief coverage, we’re done. We know it gets into milk, and infected milk is dangerous, but because markets, producers won’t let anyone test, we had the weak sauce assurances that, with pasteurization, it’s probably okay, but there’s no testing of real commercially sold milk to back up this claim, and that’s a wrap.
I maintain we’ll know when H5N1 is spreading when a regional hospital system collapses.
Fun times.
>I maintain we’ll know when H5N1 is spreading when a regional hospital system collapses.
Fun times.
Mr.Boxman. Who knows, maybe you’re more correct than you realize. At least in Vermont.
https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2024-09-19/vermont-hospitals-are-heading-for-bankruptcy-a-plan-to-keep-them-afloat-calls-for-dramatic-changes
https://www.wcax.com/2024/09/18/key-report-says-vermonts-health-care-system-is-critical-condition/?outputType=amp
True, we’ve got the ongoing collapse of regional health systems due to private equity exploitation.
There was a recent case in Missouri where CDC is having trouble figuring out how it was contracted, since the individual had no known direct contact with existing sources.
I think you’re right that we’ll only know how it evolves when healthcare services become impacted. Even then, I strongly suspect that it will be memory-holed. My guess is the media declares it a “bad flu season” if H5N1 picks up in winter.
At some point, they will not be able to memory-hole H5N1 or Covid, no matter how hard they try because it will get too awful to hide; just how bad it will be then?
WSJ (Citing US officials): We do not expect both Hamas and Israel to reach a deal on Gaza before the end of President Joe Biden’s term.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/gaza-live-blog-destruction-in-metulla-massacre-in-nuseirat-israelis-oppose-gallants-dismissal-day-350/
Aw … and I was so looking forward to another round of “Weekend at Bernies” with Blinken and Bibi.
“Stranded Astronauts Say They’ll Vote From Space”
How to say this? Nobody cares. You don’t get to do feel-good stories to hide the fact that your employer – Boeing – screwed up big time. Astronauts have been voting in space since the late 90s so this is no different-
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/how-nasa-transmits-votes-from-the-space-station/
Can they go on strike from space?
Already happened once. Back in ’73 the second crew for SkyLab and been pushed to the brink by ground engineers who were planning their day down to the minute forgetting that in space things work differently. In the end they broke, cut communications for a day and explored their own interests. You go to Google and there are any number of articles that it never happened but they are lying as it actually happened-
https://www.sustainlv.org/focus-on/skylab-and-the-sit-down-strike-in-space/
Those ground engineers said later that they were proud that they could plan an astronaut’s day down to the minute.
Apparently IIRC Suni needs medical attention for her eye. Not necessarily emergency care but a known space problem has been raised about her extended stay.
Just to be clear: this shouldn’t be taken as scare mongering. But the 1% predicted shuttle failure rate by Feynman (yes that guy) turned out to be consistent with facts.
More clarity is needed about the real risks. No more Boeing “figures”
Harris, With an Online Avalanche, Outspends Trump by Tens of Millions
But does online spend matter?
Looks like archive.ph got blocked on the full article. Oh well. I knew since 2021 that that day would come eventually, as sites wise up and find ways to block.
It’s been an avalanche of Harris ads alright…and just about every one I’ve seen consists of one or more lies about Trump (e.g., He’s vowed to sign a national abortion ban; he’s against IVF funding; he’s declared his intention to rule as a dictator; he promises a bloodbath if not elected, etc.)
If you take away the lies, Team Harris doesn’t really have diddly squat.
more Kamala news..(preaching to the choir)
Kamala campaign’s Twitter manager proudly shares her endorsement by >100 ex-GOP national security officials.
(I thought that this was a parody until I realized it is from the actual campaign account)
https://x.com/KamalaHQ/status/1836492181701275721
The reason I connected my VPN to Canada and will keep it there until election day.
Re: Declassify RT Records, freedom.press, and Google DNS
On my end, I don’t use Google products. (I’m forced by family pretensions to use this used mePhone.) But something along the way popped up a friendly warning from google.com: ‘Are you sure you want to visit [… . freedom.press]?’
The story is an obsequiously anodyne critique of Biden’s fraudulent ‘declassification’ of the case against RT. I’m not warned when I search google.com for https://freedom.press, so I attribute the warning to LLM immoderation and Google DNS.
Disregard the preceding; the warning only appears when I follow the above link to the article.
The use of solar panels is the way to get trough the winter.
Friend, ain’t no way you can solar panel your way through -10f. Believe you me, I have tried up here in VT. Heat pumps efficiency drops at about 25f, then its time to light up the oil furnace. Or burn some wood.
I’m guessing that’s Jester’s point.
Maybe they can install windscreen wipers on all those solar panels to keep the snow off in winter time. Solar powered ones of course.
Not to mention, isn’t it overcast like 75% of the time in that part of the world in winter?
(I’m guessing that Jester left off the /s tag …)
Maybe they can set up big torches to shine on those panels in the wintertime and the power for those torches can come from the panels themselves. Using a torch is how I check what time it is on my sun-dial at night.
Torches and marches is how Banderites stay warm.
https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/3.-Ulana-Suprun-Banderite.png
Will there be s’mores?
Just so we are clear, solar panels produce more power at lower temps.
Lower temps produce higher volts.
Higher volts X same amps = higher watts
Friend, we are living in a Monthy Python’s sketch. This is funnier than Blinken with a guitar.
She actually went there, and told them that they will get trough the Russian winter through the use of solar panels, and that Lithuania is dismantling a thermal power plant to ship it piece by piece to Ukraine for rebuilding there, and no one punched her in the face. Future historians will look back at this, and not believe that it really happened.
You just need to get the ones the Israelis have rigged up. They generate all kinds of heat once they explode.
Trad Dad fear mongering:
“The replacement for diverse, inclusive social values is close at hand”
Heaven forfend!
Do tell. It seems despite being diversified and inclusified we have made our way to the bottom of every concrete measure of economic wellbeing.
Ma’am your values appear quite ineffective, perhaps even a useful smokescreen for the ongoing wave of social violence since the 1970s.
i can get along, so far with these “trad dad” people….i like em a whole lot better than the “conservatives” i grew up with(in the mold of lindsey graham, westborough baptist, etc).
and while i remain suspicious of their sincerity regarding all the new dealish stuff, i reckon that at this point its worth a try.
(then trump comes roaring out of his cage talking about deporting all the pinko commies,lol)
i do, however, take issue with their obsession with trans…and even the woke mess…the former barely registers demographically…and the latter takes such criticism and uses it for fuel.
the drag queen obsession, too…theres a place for that…or should be.
but to get all ocd about it makes the “trad dad” new conservative types seem silly…and takes away from the largely thoughtful stuff ive seen from thm regarding labor and political economy.
leave the culture war nonsense to the dems…because theyre terrible at it…and develop a laser focus on the bread and butter.
Trad Dads, bringing weaponized id politics to the right?
Your last few words are why I automatically read your comments.
DO BREAD AND BUTTER STUFF. Stop talking about alphabet crap. Every time (and this increasingly comes to mean 100% of the time) my gay new local MP opens his godamned mouth he makes one more person round here want to punch a homo like me.
STFU. Your predecessor (Labour MP til Johnson’s “landslide”) was old school Keynesian/Post-Keynesian economics and refused ever to touch the social issues with the proverbial 10 foot bargepole because it was electoral suicide. Learn from him. You have alienated my mother within 2 months – she only liked you cause you’re attractive and gay. *and breathe*
Don’t encourage them to breathe.
We only want true blue MP’s. :-)
Trad Dads have kids. The trans movement/wokeness goes after young children. Children that do not understand that there is no Santa Clause and that you can not change your sex/gender with out consequences.
i do, however, take issue with their obsession with trans
Distracts nicely from actual issues such as climate change, wealth inequality, health insurance issues and genocide in Gaza.
I wonder who is hyping these things?
The exploding batteries affair is going to destroy the global supply chains for electronics.
Turkey and Iraq are already implementing additional control mechanisms on imported devices and parts. Expect a swathe of countries to quietly implement the same. Allegedly Chinese manufacturers are snowed under with Middle East orders for headphones, with a contract requirement that all manufacturing must be done in China.
It will become impossible to operate multi-national component outsourcing under these conditions. If a significant fraction of customers now get the heebie-jeebies from your products or even sub-parts of it coming from or passing through certain countries or affiliated countries, you may as well bite the bullet and buy from a domestic supplier instead. Not that many of those are still in business.
I predict a wave of electronic onshoring and manufacturing conglomeration in the coming years, if not months. China is already in such a position and will see a short boom, but countries and consumers are going to back-pedal quickly to their own domestic industry. A cheap phone must now be weighed against the now real risk of it being an on-demand bomb for whoever planted it, or whoever can hack into it.
I also predict that a key driver of this will be a new generation of (probably incompatible) battery designs, which may well be mandated by law in various jurisdictions. Another lamp to go out courtesy of the Israel state lobby.
I’m wondering if we re going to see new designs in electronic digital access gadget designs that allow the case to be easily opened and the interior easily examined.
You can’t examine the interior of a battery. I wonder if dogs can sniff it.
If it’s batteries that are being “doctored” we are all truly family blogged.
New designs in electronic digital access gadget designs that allow the case to be easily opened and the interior easily examined, also known as the old designs.
Good point.
Lebanon has already banned pagers on their airline. They won’t be the last.
Delta has canceled all flights into Tel Aviv through December 31st. I heard that Lufthansa did as well; need some confirmation, though.
No airline company wants to assume the reputational risk associated with an air disaster triggered by exploding personal devices. You can stick a fork in tourism in that part of the world. Of course, there are probably a few outliers out their, like died-in-the-wool religious nutjobs who want to witness the battle of Armageddon firsthand.
For them, it’s El-Al or the bus.
Many changes will result from this incident not only from a sourcing/production standpoint but from a socio/psychological one as well. There is now a palpably new sense of vulnerability to one’s own person and family from multiple ubiquitous devices we use each day
To add to this new dread/anxiety is to hear spokespersons from the IDF bragging that they have other yet undisclosed means of infiltrating a population to do harm. The Tweet of their saying such immediately made me think of chemical/biological weapons that could be unleashed. Ethical civilized standards don’t apply when Israel is the perpetrator, so God only knows what they are capable of…I look at bar codes and avoid purchase anything with 729, though I’ve seen reports that they have changed these codes to avoid boycott. Not sure what an individual can do to combat this festering evil.
In this connection, it occurs to me that all those anti-BDS laws servilely passed by our various legislatures (including that of Colorado, my home state) seem to have a serious unanticipated problem — and this quite aside from their patent unConstitutionality.
In this era of reboots, I feel the inevitable Back to the Future line will go:
“Made in China?!”
“Yeah, all the stuff that doesn’t blow up is made there”
Puts a whole new spin on “killer app” too.
Want it?
No thanks, I’ll pass…
Gooooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!
The platoon was out on a LRP into the Sierra highlands when what appeared to be Water Buffalo, were merely the Marmot Cong in drag, one last fling before the big sleep starts and they awaken in April, going through anti-freeze withdrawals as they exit winter bunkers in search of 4 wheels good.
I receive Thomas Neuberger’s Links for Friday and saw this. Given the complete abdication of the State Department from any diplomacy, I have been wondering how long it would take before the Pentagon showed its hand. Apparently, DoD slapped down Biden, Blinken and Sullivan and humiliated Starmer- big if true! Plus (as I have always suspected) the Pentagon has been constantly talking with the Kremlin (fortunately for all of us).
I watched the Judge Nap episode where Wilkerson makes these claims. If they are true, it looks like a quiet military coup has just taken place and US foreign policy is now determined and carried out by the Defense Department.
Thanks for this link. I’ll believe some degree of sanity can prevail when I see evidence for it. But there has been a history of this sort of thing occasionally since the neocons took over our foreign policy. I think some “realists” (relatively speaking) within the military and CIA finally put the breaks on the Cheney/Rumsfeld cabal in the later Bush administration before they could do something really stupid to Iran. They did the same thing when the neocons were about to push Obama into bombing Syria over a false-flag gas attack, and there have been a number of stories about “back-channel” communications between US and Russian military forces in that theater. Ukraine seems to have been primarily a neocon/NATO/CIA project. I would certainly hope that there are enough military strategists left in the middle levels of power who are not afraid to state the obvious to their “leaders.”
Wilkerson’s ambivalence about Austin is warranted. To me he just seems to be a yes-man who has fallen upward for that reason and who is still loyal to the MIC that used to employ him. Kind of reminds me of Wilkerson’s former boss. But let’s hope some of these military guys are able to impose some kind of reality check on the ideologues and idiots before it’s too late.
https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/pine-island-capital-partners/
In November 2020, the transition team of President-elect Joe Biden announced that several DICP partners were under consideration for top-level appointments. News aggregator Axios reported that the appointments could raise concerns about a “revolving door”-type conflict of interest between the defense industry and the Biden administration. 2 Biden announced that he would nominate two DICP partners for Cabinet positions: former Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken for Secretary of State, and retired Army general Lloyd Austin for Secretary of Defense. 3
The renewal of Executive Order 13224 by Biden, “National Emergency Act”, puts some very authoritative structures and persons in place to guaranty Continuation of Government., of course by TPTB.
Very interesting, thanks.
I suppose that with Biden now well past lame duck status, and into “plucked and dressed, ready to go in the oven” status, it is not surprising that Blinken and Sullivan have been sidelined. Overseas absentee ballots go out next week, and where I live, early voting via absentee ballots starts on October 7th, essentially 2 weeks from Monday. No matter who wins, Blinken and Sullivan are likely going to be canned in January.
That leaves the Pentagon as the “adults” left in the room.
>Overseas absentee ballots go out next week, and where I live, early voting via absentee ballots starts on October 7th
No. In NJ they’ve already gone out, and I’ve already voted
You mean you hope you have. The US mail isn’t what it used to be.
I faxed it, with a mail version required as backup.
While I won’t reveal my full vote, I can assure you that I did not vote for Menendez.
There’s a huge irony here, since this is the sort of thing that Democrats were wondering aloud about when Trump was about to come into the White House, back in 2016: on the presumption of Trump’s allegedly predilection for violence and war, whether the military would be willing and able to restrain him. As with many things that we have found out, things that people have predicted about Trump turned about to be much more applicable to the Democrats after 2020. (The things that the military dragged their feet on Trump were, IIRC, pulling out of wars, in Afghanistan and Syria, to add even more irony).
> Project Analyzing Human Language Usage Shuts Down Because ‘Generative AI Has Polluted the Data’ 404 Media
>> “Generative AI has polluted the data,” she wrote. “I don’t think anyone has reliable information about post-2021 language usage by humans.”
What stands out is the retrospective date. Over half the span since the Before Times, all of Ukraine/Russia, all of Israel/Gaza. This is not using Newspeak to narrow the range of thought. This is about decreasing the relative range of Human thought during a tremendously volatile time. There may not be enough human-generated text to fuel the next iterations of artificial intelligence. The Curse of Dimensionality. Which means a stage of AI has hit its peak.
I haven’t been able to identify a point of peak oil. But peak tv was watching every NCAA tournament game on basic cable. Peak internet was before bots became ubiquitous and poisoned the ranking schemes. And now we find out the data pool for using machines to mimic humans has already been poisoned, and is post-peak.
(Please understand, that’s viewing the online record as the apple from which one must bite. We can still generate data the old-fashioned way. But that doesn’t seem to be the way the incentive system works.)
However, with the firemonkeys, there’s not just the decay stage, there’s the depravity stage. I’ve seem commenters listing some – go to the hospital to get Covid; Monsanto sells cancer causing agents and buys Bayer for the chemo drugs. Peak Roget’s Thesaurus being the Third Edition of 1962. I mention that because you can watch the degradation of a Body of Knowledge over subsequent editions, into the word bubble tea now on the shelves. And as of no later than 2022, that meaning is increasingly machine phantasms, not human.
So what? Well, since about a quarter of voters believe that it is very likely the other party was running an assassination plot, it’d be nice it our town square wasn’t diffracting meaning in different silos, which makes it hard to reconcile the corrupted dialogues. One hundred and twenty two days until the inauguration. I no longer believe the election will stabilize things, whomever loses will dispute, and foreign interests may base behavior on who holds the actual reins. Throw in the lame-duck soup with three cooks, Republican, Democratic, and Vengeful Crime-Families. Cauldron bubble.
(A sweetener to close: a ten-page short version of A Darwinian Survival Guide. Thank you, and I’m sorry.)
Alternate title for the Hollywood Reporter article:
“Multi-Millionaires Join Multi-Billionaire in Live Event Uniting Zooms for Candidate Supporting Accumulation of Vast Wealth.”
Amusingly, the article, in its first paragraph, refers to “grass roots political groups” joining the Zoom. The link takes you to a story about White Dudes for Harris which prominently features more multi-millionaire entertainers and the multi-billionaire governor of Illinois. Yeah, I got yer grass roots.
Unsurprisingly, the word Gaza does not appear in either article. Caitlyn Johnstone hit the nail on the head when she wrote “The Democratic Party Exists To Make Sure Good People Do Nothing”.
Was sorry to see Chris Rock’s name there, he has always seemed pretty sensible.
EU chief travels to Kyiv with promise of fresh energy funds to get Ukraine through winter AP. “The EU is trying to decentralize energy production through the use of solar panels and other new technologies in Ukraine to make it more difficult for Russian attacks to have a direct impact on the energy grid. It would also help Ukraine become a greener economy, [Ursula] said.”
You need lots of workers to install a significant number of FV modules in a couple of months, and those will in any case will have very few production hours in Ukrainian winter. Besides, if the Russians attack transport & distribution substations the effect would be the same with or without solar modules. With current conscription rates, where Ukraine will find the workers?— In other words: vDL has no idea what she is talking about, as usual.
“Ursula von der Leyen has no idea what she is talking about, as usual.”
Surely so, but von der Leyen has become steadily more influential as European Commission president. She is threatening the supposed democratic structure of the EU. I do not understand how such influence has been gained, but even a Macron appears intimidated.
Let them eat….photovoltaics?
They can only hope they did not contract the supply of photovoltaics from Israel. Nor allow them to be stored anywhere the Mossad can get at them–which is almost everywhere.
Hey diddle diddle
P. Diddy did fiddle
The press jumped over the moon
The offended people were out of sorts
And in jail they only let him eat with a spoon
“African Stream: Russia’s Latest Covert Influence Pipeline Targeting Africa and the U.S.”
This story all fits into a campaign that the US/EU is waging at the moment. They are badly losing the info wars around the world as nobody believes them anymore for some reason. So they are hitting back with mass censorship, the arrests and harassment of people like Scott Ritter and are especially going after RT and Telegram. Meta has recently just banned RT from their platform but it gets better. According to the guys at The Duran, the US and the UK are going to go around the world and try to convince people there to ban RT as Russian propaganda and instead rely on more trustworthy media – like CNN, MSNBC, the BBC, etc. How that African publication was banned from western social media is a perfect illustration of how they want to force-feed western media down the throats of those in the Global majority by wrecking local publications.
“This story all fits into a campaign that the US/EU is waging…”
Campaigns against Africa-China / Africa-Russia relations have been waged with increasing intensity by the US/EU for years. After all, the whole of Africa was colonized by the West by early in the last century and the wealth of Africa was not readily given up as movements to independence arose and strengthened. China and Russia implicitly threatened Western control through Africa.
Russian influence in Africa lessened significantly after 1990, but began to be rebuilt during the Putin era. Chinese political influence has been gradually building since the 1950s. As China developed economically from 1977, overall influence has increased.
From the beginning of the Biden administration, an objective was to undermine Africa-China relations in particular. American officials travelled through Africa repeatedly warning about what was supposed to be Chinese exploitation. The problem for the West was that the China warnings were to little avail. For instance, 53 of 54 African countries became part of the Belt and Road. China now has free trade relations with more than two-thirds of African countries.
I had not heard of African Stream before, but Black Agenda Report has an article indicating they are legitimate despite the propaganda from our Secretary of State.
despite the propaganda from our Secretary of State.
The best endorsement a blog site could ask for.
Making an early start on my 2025 dystopia bingo card: Microsoft deal would reopen Three Mile Island nuclear plant to power AI
My dad had quite a bit invested in the NJ utility that ran 3MI, and was rewarded with it going down about 85% in the aftermath, ouch!
Three Mile Islands
Tchernobyl
Fukushima
–> Three big¹ strikes and you are in (an illustrious circle of immortal technologies – at least until the coal, oil, uran, water etc run out)
¹According to present criteria, after perhaps Kursk 2024 or Tricastin 2025 they might get requalified as negligible
Benedict Donald pre-blames the Jews-should he lose, would that be anti-semetic now, or later?
https://x.com/GeromanAT/status/1837035687880585326
😂
The head of the Crimean Parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, proposed to transfer Poland under UN control.
He thus responded to the statement of the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry, Sikorski, who proposed transferring Crimea under a UN mandate and holding a new referendum there.
A referendum to be held in about twenty years time. Once that UN Mission determines who would be legally eligible residents. Sounds legit. Even the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stomped down hard on that idea-
https://www.rt.com/news/604384-moscow-responds-poland-crimea-protectorate/
UN Mission and a referendum in Poland in about twenty years time, sounds legit. Just imagine what would EU look by then, if the current trends continue.
Here’s to you Mr. Robinson
Donald loves you less than you will know
Whoa, whoa, whoa
Please go away Mr. Robinson
GOP has no place for a black Nazi
Where’s the paparazzi, paparrazi
He’d like to know a little for his files
We’d like to learn to help you out yourself
Look around you, all you see are suspicious eyes
Stroll around a porn site where you feel at home
And here’s to you Mr. Robinson
Donald loves you less than you will know
Whoa, whoa, whoa
Please go away Mr. Robinson
GOP has no place for a black Nazi
Where’s the paparazzi, paparrazi
Hide your hate in a porn site nobody knows
Put it in perspective, your outtakes
Its a little secret, the Robinson affair
Most of all, you’ve got to hide it from the GOP
Coo-kook-a-chew, Mr. Robinson
Donald loves you less than you will know
Whoa, whoa, whoa
Please go away Mr. Robinson
GOP has no place for a black Nazi
Where’s the paparrazi, paparazzi
Sitting on a sofa on a Tuesday afternoon
Watching the candidates debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you’ve got to choose
Every way you look at it, you lose
Where have you gone, Jackie Robinson
Our mation turns its lonely eyes to you
Woo, woo, woo
Whats that you say, the other Robinson
Joltin’ Jackie has left and gone away
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey.
Mrs. Robinson, by Simon & Garfield
This woman, Antoinette Tuff, is my new hero.
https://goodradioshows.org/peaceTalksL135.htm
To my relief, the last part of the report wasn’t that the local police barged in, once she had the situation under control, and shoot both of them.
I was listening to the show gripping my steering wheel feeling the EXACT same way.
Even that they were interviewing her after the fact did nothing (veeery little) to calm my anxiety.
13 week treasury down to 4.56% today. 6 more basis points drop or so and the Fed Reserve will have to do an emergency 25 point basis cut.