Tiny Hippos And Elephants Once Roamed Cyprus, Until Humans Arrived ScienceAlert (Chuck L)
Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ Is Surprisingly Scientifically Accurate, Mirroring Complex Atmospheric Physics ZMEScience (Dr. Kevin)
Earth will get another moon this month — but not for long! Space (Micael T)
Breakthrough study predicts catastrophic river shifts that threaten millions worldwide ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
What Happened to Easter Island? New Research Refutes Best-Selling Population Collapse Theory SciTech Daily (Chuck L). This story has been covered elsewhere, in case you missed it.
The Anti–Rock Star Atlantic. Anthony L: “Leonard Cohen”
#COVID-19
CAUGHT: NYC Covid Czar Admits Forcing Vaccines & Having Drug-Fueled Sex Parties YouTube (IM Doc)
Researchers build shortlist of animals that could have started COVID-19 pandemic 9News (Kevin W)
Climate/Environment
EPA Scientists Said They Were Pressured to Downplay Harms From Chemicals. A Watchdog Found They Were Retaliated Against. ProPublica (Kevin W)
Avoiding microplastics has become a luxury good. Atlantic (Dr. Kevin)
End of an era’: UK to bid adieu to its last coal power plant Daily SabahGermany Needs New Natural Gas Capacity to Meet Its Coal Phase-Out Target OilPrice
Drought and wildfires threaten energy supply in Amazon’s largest city The Brazilian
China?
China’s growing military activity makes a shift to war harder to spot, warns Taiwan Financial Times
US keeps missile system in Philippines as China tensions rise Reuters
* * * The Great China Car Blitzkrieg Michael Dunne (guurst)
China dairy farms swim in milk as fewer babies, slow economy cut demand Reuters
ASPI’s two-decade Critical Technology Tracker ASPI. Discussed further: China leads world in 57 of 64 critical technologies; up from 3 just 20 years ago Hacker News (Paul R)
Fukushima water under the bridge between China, Japan Pekingology
Show of force’: are North Korea’s missile tests a sign it has given up on diplomacy with US? South China Morning Post
The Antipodes
New Zealand’s economy contracted in the second quarter Business Times
European Disunion
German economy could shrink again in Q3, Bundesbank warns Reuters
France’s record deficit could break taboo on tax hikes Le Monde
Old Blighty
UK Deficit Overshoots in Blow to Reeves as Debt Hits 100% of GDP Bloomberg
Farage says Reform can win election as conference leans into hard-right tropes Guardian (Kevin W)
Gaza
Strange how the Chinese Media seem to have no problems understanding what seems indecipherable by British, US, and EU Client Media. @SCMPNews pic.twitter.com/rufoBDg8wC
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) September 19, 2024
Israel kills top Hezbollah commander in Beirut attack Mondoweiss
Israel vs. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran — and Itself New York Times (Dr. Kevin)
* * * First Israel’s Exploding Pagers Maimed and Killed. Now Comes the Paranoia and Your Phone Won’t Be the Next Exploding Pager Wired (Dr. Kevin). I doubt that this will be dispositive. But most buyers are ruled by inertia, and instead will take the view that they are highly unlikely to be targeted. And the reality is that the most risky thing that people do on a routine basis, which is use cars (or here motorbikes) is far more hazardous than the exploding electronic device potential.
New Not-So-Cold War
SITREP 9/20/24: Ukraine Allies Squeezed by Weapons Drought as Clock Ticks Simplicius
Ukraine – Recent Front Line Reports Point To Systemic Failures Moon of Alabama (Moon of Alabama)
EU support falls short as Ukraine faces looming winter energy crisis EUObserver
Let Ukraine strike into the heart of Russia, MEPs urge EU countries Politico
Putin ally warns West of nuclear war over Ukraine Reuters
Russia-Ukraine war: US imposes new sanctions on Russia and North Korea – as it happened Guardian
Russia-EU Trade Grows for First Time Since November 2023 Sputnik. As in it had periods of earlier growth since the war started (Robin K)
Ukrainian special forces bomb Russian base in Syria: Report The Cradle (Kevin W)
Hidden network in Sweden manufactures materiel for Ukraine’s defense Aftonbladet via machine translation (Micael T)
Immigration
Sudan refugees in Egypt caught between conflict and crackdown Middle East Monitor
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
On the emerging digital panopticon NeoFeudal Review (Micael T)
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Decline of the U.S. Empire: What Will Happen Next? ZMEScience (Dr. Kevin)
The Rise & Fall Of Higher Education & The Medieval Universities Crisis Ian Welsh (Micael T)
The ‘Genocide Gentry’ Consortium News (Robin K)
Biden
Biden touts economic gains, acknowledges a long way to go Politico (Kevin W). First “Biden” header in some time.
Trump.
This is na ga happen. There was a mini-crisis that was not well covered in connection with the Global Financial Crisis. Banks has sold off portfolios of credit card receivables. These were supposed to be transfers even though banks were still servicing the cards. When defaults mounted in the crisis, the buyers said, “You need to eat the losses or we will never buy this stuff again.” There was no way banks had the balance sheet capacity, much the less in a crisis, to retain new credit card receivables.
However, if Trump finds a way to implement a variant of this idea (a cap at a higher level for new credit card loans), it would force the industry to go back to something like its model as of the 1980s: being much much much more stringent about extending credit, and imposing annual fees (which they all had as of then, the purpose was to assure they made some money on the consumer side from customers who paid off balances in full every month).
BREAKING: Trump announces that as president, he will immediately implement a temporary 10% cap on credit card interest rates
"We can't let them make it 25% and 30%."
Credit card interest rates are at a historic high under the Kamala-Biden regime. His simple plan will alleviate… pic.twitter.com/yENoVsqv1S
— George (@BehizyTweets) September 19, 2024
2024
Dems Have “No Hope” of Winning Election Warns Green Party VP Candidate Butch Ware Glenn Greenwald. Muslim voters set to throw a major spanner. A large majority will not vote for either party.
In an Unprecedented Move, Ohio Is Funding the Construction of Private Religious Schools ProPublica (Kevin W)
Our No Longer Free Press
Taibbi & Kaminsky: Why are we targets of the State Department? Unherd, YouTube. A useful overview if you have not kept on top of this particular story.
Mr. Market Got Its Way
The Fed says its long-awaited rate cut is apolitical, even close to the presidential election Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K)
Antitrust
High insulin prices spur a federal lawsuit against three pharmacy benefit managers Associated Press (Kevin W)
Qualcomm wants to buy Intel The Verge (Paul R). Don’t try to catch a falling safe.
Class Warfare
Largest port on U.S. East Coast, New York/New Jersey, begins prepping for what could be first union strike since 1977 CNBC (Kevin W)
Antidote du jour (mrsyk):
This is The Dude (she/her, long story but distills to a version of her pulling a Lola on us. Her stage name is Lady Stardust, described as “a feather duster with teeth. Littermate to previously featured Jean Claude, so I beg your indulgence.
All the best from the southern Greens of Vermont,
A bonus (Chuck L):
When a baby sperm whale decides that you’re now best friends and wants to play. pic.twitter.com/v6VMqXba1t
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 18, 2024
A second bonus (guurst):
Любопытный нос pic.twitter.com/4h0dJAn8Nh
— Etna (@Etnaetoya) September 19, 2024
A third bonus (Chuck L):
Horse helping people in hospital pic.twitter.com/sDCnS6hNwp
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 20, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Working link for “EPA Scientists Said They Were Pressured to Downplay Harms From Chemicals. A Watchdog Found They Were Retaliated Against.” article at-
https://www.propublica.org/article/epa-scientists-faced-retaliation-after-finding-harm-from-chemicals
And I notice that The Dude in today’s Antidote du jour has positioned herself where the sun is.
And “southern greens” has a whole other meaning in these here parts but beautiful cats are universal.
The Dude is currently taking a victory lap around the neighborhood. Thanks Yves!
Thank you. We’ve fixed it.
EPA as latest of the What gets measured gets mismanaged trend. They join the CDC and so many other agencies, three letters and all.
Private sector management has the shareholder guardrails, of sorts, to attempt to redirect idiotic trends. Some even have, uh, regulators to turn mostly blind eyes. Yet, or because of that, they have their share of bad actors, worse results and toxic spillovers by rapacious sociopaths onto a misinformed populace.
Public sector bureaucrats are more insulated from intrusive notions like common sense, failing to serve those they are purported to represent. Those guardrails may be replaced by political influences to serve faceless misleadership to serve unpublicized ends in the name of slogans and FUD. Local applications like city governments are theoretically closer to the action and on shorter leashes. How does your community deal with the issues?
Accountabilility, and its traveling companion ethics, are in short supply. /end rant
The clip above from the SCMPNews, gotta love how the gentleman ends his comments mentioning Ohio and closes with a shake of his head…
Like it’s one giant WTF as far as what is going on in the USA. Because it is.
It really is.
This being the internet, it took less than a second to find videos of people eating domesticated animals around where Springfield is. But that’s not close to what I found most concerning about that whole episode.
1-the people eating “non-traditional” game, are poor and hungry. Why is no one asking about that? Why aren’t we more concerned about bringing down the cost of food? No one chooses to chase down a goose or a cat when they can afford beef or pork. If there really is an issue with people in Ohio eating whatever they can to survive, my God, what are we doing about it?
2-What the hell are all these migrants doing in Ohio??? Specifically Springfield??? That is not an area capable of handling that kind of influx. Are we supporting Springfield and Ohio sufficiently to assist with that kind of a surge in the immigrant population?
3-why are Democrats continually ignoring people’s concerns when it comes to the direction of the country and what is happening? Sure, Trump did his old man yells at clouds shtick during the debate. Sure, we really shouldn’t be talking about people eating cats and dogs when we’re involved in two different wars right now. But we can’t talk about how many illegal immigrants we’ve let into this country in the last 4 years? We can’t talk about the challenges people who live in areas where they’re arriving are facing? We’re all racist if we want to have order in our towns, and keep the towns in some kind of shape similar to what they were before the immigrants arrived?
We’re not talking about what’s going on in Israel because it’s not affecting most people in the US. That’s why the people pushing these awful things can get away with what they’re doing. But our leaders are focusing on what’s happening in Israel because they don’t want to think about what’s happening at home. And since they’ve made sure none of the migrants are shipped to where they live or shop, they don’t care about what’s happening to other people.
I think it was timbers a day or two ago who first posted the following link about Springfield OH from several years ago before immigrants started arriving en masse – https://www.npr.org/2016/09/19/493920060/springfield-ohio-a-shrinking-city-faces-a-tough-economic-future
While it is not the focus of the article (but probably should have been), the piece does discuss how labor in Springfield was absolutely and deliberately crushed over a period of years in the area, leading to mass exodus of many residents, and widespread despair among those who remained. This same dynamic has played out all over the US in town after town.
It seems pretty clear what the solution turned out to be, and it wasn’t giving the locals a pay raise. Instead, it’s declare a “labor shortage” and bring in even more desperate people from outside the country who can then be easily exploited. Someone else posted a link here recently that I can’t put my finger on right now describing how one Springfield man has made an extremely good living for himself transporting immigrants into Springfield and then housing them in derelict buildings he has bought up. Nice work if you can get it!
And here I was thinking that bringing in masses of foreigners under duress to perform cheap labor while being forced to live in substandard conditions, something the US did routinely from about 1619 to 1863, was a bad thing.
One might argue that today people are come voluntarily rather than at gunpoint, but in many cases those fleeing their native countries are doing so because the US has already destabilized those countries, by economic or military force, often both. So the guns may have been pointed at different points in the process, but the result is essentially the same – cheap labor for rich exploiters.
Corporate exploitation through global labor arbitrage — add global desperation arbitrage.
There’s also word of mouth. Whole families move just to be with each other. It’s obviously fairly safe, it seems, if you’re black – which is unlike a lot of other US towns and cities. That’s a darn good reason to move somewhere, that you won’t be shot and killed based on skin color.
It could also be that Dave Chapelle famously lives in Ohio, Yellow Springs, which apparently he practically bought up. Odds are a lot of people, when he mentioned that in his routine, were baffled but then did some homework…
This being Saturday in the fall, a football analogy is in order. Teams play zone or man-to-man defense. What is happening in Springfield is called flooding the zone. That allows more offense, more points to be scored. Now ask who is trying to score those points and why.
There are public and private reasons for that flooding. Publicly, humanitarian goals and compassion are top of the list, followed by We broke it (e.g., Haiti, countless others) we bought it, so resettling is our obligation. Privately, punishment of small town deplorables, overwhelming of social services, rebalancing the voter pool for political ends, helping that donor with the labor pool each can get some play.
Past eras of big immigration waves have taken time to play out, with dislocations, enrichment, and even new culinary adventures.
Adjust your tinfoil hats.
One side effect of past immigration surges is a noticeable uptick in violence against ‘outgroups.’ Such as anti-Irish riots in the New England states, or the anti-Italian riots and lynchings in New Orleans during the same time period.
All this needs are some competent agitators to turn this “Narrative” upside down. Think, political influencers.
“Someone else posted a link here recently that I can’t put my finger on right now describing how one Springfield man has made an extremely good living for himself transporting immigrants into Springfield and then housing them in derelict buildings he has bought up. Nice work if you can get it!”
A long article, featuring ‘King George’ – well worth a read. Certainly justifies repeating the recommendation.
https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/opinion/375011/feds-and-state-ag-investigate-an-alleged-human-trafficking-empire-run-in-springfield-ohio/
As someone who grew up not far from Springfield, it greatly saddens me to watch what has happened there. It used to be a prosperous factory city with good paying jobs. Springfield has an interesting history, too, being located on the Old National Road. For a time in the 1830’s, it was the last stop on the National Road before the Road was eventually extended through Indiana and into Illinois. For a small city, it has impressive historic architecture. There are many beautiful 19th and early 20th century public and private buildings there, including the only Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Style house in Ohio. My mother and I used to enjoy visiting Springfield to go antiquing and have a lovely day.
The current version of the federal gov’t has evolved to primarily serve political and economic interests while the original intention of legislation slides into irrelevancy. It it what it is and will not and cannot easily change its orientation. This is why I favor the dismantlement of the federal government starting with irrelevant organizations and moving to re-organize essential organizations. I say this as someone on the left. I have seen the change and the dramatic rise of corruption in the past three decades.
Why? Because the system is not equipped to handle the needs of ordinary citizens. It has evolved to support a highly corrupt system that is immune to change. This is why I favor the complete dismantlement of the federal government except for crucial organizations which will need to change more gradually. The System is irredeemable and cannot be reformed even if a large majority and the POTUS wanted it reformed. Obviously we would have to start radical reform with Congress, for example, end all rules relative to political parties particularly offices relating to the party structure. Only committees that deal with the people’s business should be allowed in Congressional offices–at any rate, there are many more reforms of Congress and elections that need dramatic change–it is Congress, after all, that is at the heart of the systemic corruption at the heart of the federal government.
2-What the hell are all these migrants doing in Ohio??? Specifically Springfield???
Here’s a possible answer: “Federal and State agents are reportedly investigating Springfield, Ohio for a potential human trafficking operation responsible for the importing and exploiting of Haitians run by a local business owner referred to as “King George.” Specifically George Ten, the chief executive at First Diversity Staffing Group Inc.
“Help! My child is becoming right wing!”: Leading Berlin newspaper provides “tips for democratic parents” who are forced to deal with “undemocratic children”
Just the title was hilarious as was all the “advice” offered. One of the best ones was this-
‘When it comes to your daughter – assuming that you’re dealing with the merely fascist and not the dual fascist-racist variety – you’ll need to scare her by telling her that fascists are super violent.’
I don’t know about you but that sounds like that they are telling their daughters that the fascists of their age group are the ‘bad boys.’ And if there is one group that young women steer clear of it is the bad boys. Of course the title of this article could be tailored for different countries. Here is one example-
“Help! My child is becoming a MAGA!”: Leading New York newspaper provides “tips for Democratic parents” who are forced to deal with “unDemocratic children”
It only takes 2 minutes a day with a young child. The Two minutes of Hate thing Orwell wrote about. Sets the pattern into adulthood.
Yes, then the kids can join the Spies, wear cool crimson scarves and inform on their parents to the Thought Police!
And, yes, frightening the kids with warnings of violence. Not only does it not work, but it contradicts the need to recruit those kids into the armed forces to fight against Russia, China and Iran.
The title could be tailored for the same country in previous era.
“Help! My child is becoming a communist!”
This kind of satire could and should come from the real, no-nonsense left, the ones focused on relieving ordinary, decent people being lied to and screwed over and over again of their economic misery rather than fighting symbolic fights about symbols.
I wonder what Ernst Cassirer would have thought about today‘s politics? Maybe a Scaramangian mirror-house of of metasymbolic metaforms where reality will come and shot your stupidity down eventually
W. Allen knew better. If your children is/are becoming right wing check for brain tumour. Sudden turn to liberal-globalist with TDS check for generalized metastasis.
Meanwhile Berlin cops chase a flag wielding child who had the temerity to stand up against genocide.
So….to be a good German you must be anti the right wing in Germany but wholeheartedly support the right wing Israeli war crime machine. Makes total sense \s
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1837417568707244481
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
The US “concedes Gaza ceasefire out of reach for Biden”… When all the guy has to do is tell Israel he’d stop weapons deliveries…
All the US actually concedes with this is that they’re immensely hypocritical, and astoundingly weak: they can’t even stop a small nation with an economy that’s a small fraction of theirs and on which they hold total leverage from committing genocide. Crazy when you think about it.
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-deal-unlikely-before-end-of-bidens-term-u-s-officials-say-efc21510
5:04 AM · Sep 21, 2024
We’ve tried nothing and we’re out of ideas…
It will be interesting to see how this comes back to the US. For a country that relies on poor far away countries for so many essential goods you’d think we’d be more careful about normalizing this kind of total war Israel is practicing.
Israel is more than a weak nation, it is an international player in all kinds of areas supported by a vigorous Zionist network consisting of not just Zionist Jews but Christians (who want Jesus to come etc.) as well. Though this is seldom talked about, Israelis are also involved with all kinds of covert ops and have deep alliances with British and US intel operatives all of which are involved in various levels of organized crime.
Bidet is trying to run out the clock without a bad war on his watch. Gotta preserve what remains of that hoped-for legacy after 5 decades of dedicated public service, dammit.
It all started with that Scranton childhood, the lunchbox, inspiration by Corn Pop and the rest, and babysitter Dr. Jill will not allow any Cabinet meeting or other potential distraction to delusterize the hagiography. Gaffes, schmaffes.
“after 5 decades of dedicated public service”
He has been a public serpent his entire life.
You win!
https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1837248010205679973
COMBATE | @upholdreality
China’s delegate to the United Nations: “Remotely detonating communications devices in indiscriminate attacks, causing mass civilian casualties and panic is unheard of in history… The attacks were so outrageously brutal and atrocious that they deserve nothing less than condemnation in the strongest terms.”
https://x.com/i/status/1837248010205679973
5:50 PM · Sep 20, 2024
What are the odds that the US would veto any UN resolution condemning that act?
Well, we wouldn’t want those things to start exploding over here.
Can’t afford the latest I-Phone,Galaxy or pager? We have these older generation models at reduced prices. They still work great and have been totally refurbished…
Pretty soon we’ll need “black box warning” label on the cartons that these electronics are sold in. Just like tobacco products.
But in the Global majority countries, how much trust will there be in western-sourced tech like this? How much trust will there be in Israel’s high tech industry anymore? If I was one of those Global majority countries I would say the hell with it and order it direct from China – on the understanding that it has to be built in China and not outsourced to some foreign country where they can be compromised. That’s the thing about trust. You can’t just buy it off the shelf.
Could not agree more in all seriousness.
Purchased from direct from China with a clear chain of custody from source to endpoint.
Not that claims are made that China has spyware in everything.
Said in a comment a coupla years ago now that the difference in having Chinese/Russian spyware in your gear and western spyware is that the Chinese and Russians are in no position to send in a police team and to have you questioned and/or arrested. You can ask Scott Ritter about that point.
*Sigh*
The US did not rely on spyware with Ritter.
They went to his home with a warrant and seized his devices. They could have done that no matter what country made them.
That is not what I meant in that last bit so blame my poor wording. What I was trying to say was that police/FBI/Treasury agents are now being used to smother dissent by intimidation tactics. In his case they knew where to find him but I am sure that there are other cases where spyware is used to keep track of who to come down on. And western based social media and security programs are all compromised to hell and by definition can never be secure to use.
That’s a very good point. I may have to reconsider my prior biases there.
But, sadly, I don’t think we in the US have much of an option. If we adopted Chinese EVs today, we don’t have the support infrastructure to make them work like they do in China. We’ll be stuck with compromised tech that has backdoors to all our spooks because the good stuff that works in other countries won’t work well here.
I have managed to never owned a cellphone – first I didn’t see the need for one personally, and then when smartphones came out I did not care for the surveillance aspect.
If I were to get one at this point, I would probably get a Huawei for precisely the reason you mentioned – the Chinese seem far less likely to use whatever info they might hoover up against me.
What I really would like is one of those rotary dumbphones we’ve talked about at NC for a while, but they aren’t widely available yet. If any commenters here have one, it would be great to hear how they work.
Try the Jitterbug 2 flip phone. While you can be tracked via cell tower triangulation there’s no GPS location data. It has dial buttons. No screen.
Supposedly the Israelis opened up those pagers and put an ounce of explosive material next to the battery. Time to deploy sniffer dogs at the Best Buy checkout?
I keep on thinking of that beginning scene from the film “Live Free or Die Hard” where a bunch of hackers were recruited to crack government system. As each delivered their files their computers blew up killing them. How many computers would you have to rig in a supply chain attack to cause chaos in an entire country. Those pagers were just the beginning.
I’m of the view that the Taiwanese company, knowingly or not, assembled those bombs disguised as pagers. Perhaps a completely separate assembly line was used with the full knowledge of the Taiwan and US governments. The simplest explanation is often he mos accurate one.
No, all the reporting so far has indicated that the shipment was held up in customs in another country and that was the likely point in time when the devices were altered. The Taiwan company has come out against this and been adamant that they had nothing to do with it. Until we hear some otherwise respectable source to contradict that, I’m inclined to believe them. Because in most factories making these kinds of products, you don’t actually have the opportunity to install something like a bomb inside.
Unless you actually go to China and bring it back in person, how can you be sure that it hasn’t been intercepted by the Israelis?
Blowback is real.
THAT´s EXACTLY the kind of harsh wording I would have expected from ANYONE, be it media or politicians.
What has been going on in Germany, and I assume elsewhere too in terms of labeling and white-washing was outrageous.
Thanks.
The only political figure that I’m sure would of stated similarly was former MEP Clare Daly.
and Mick Wallace, MEP.
>On the emerging digital panopticon NeoFeudal Review (Micael T)
According to Jacques Ellul in The Technological Society:
The Greeks were suspicious of technical activity because it represented an aspect of brute force and implied a want of moderation…The rejection of technique was a deliberate, positive activity involving self-mastery, recognition of destiny, and the application of a given conception of life.
Very gratifying to see reference to Jacques Ellul. How I missed his work growing up is befuddling, only within the last 2 years or so have I been reading his works, sometimes two or three times. Indeed, as it is stated in the Introduction to Propoganda, written by Konrad Kellen, some works by certain authors you have to read more than once, to get a feel for the lay of land, before being able to understand individual parts/chapters. Anyway, with regards to the “emerging digital panopticon” I would have liked to have seen reference to the recent techno-terrorism conducted by Israeli IDF. It’s part and parcel of this emergence.
Another aspect of the emerging digital panopticon is AI, but to my thinking its not “woke members of the FBI who ran NSA search database queries” that is the main threat, though obviously invidious, no, I think it’s the failure to see social media such as Twitter(X) that is really AI. You have an artificial mode of communication merged with real people’s input, real intelligence, and emotion. This ethereal interaction happening by the billions of tweets each day being sucked up in some database for whatever malleable purpose is the real AI panopticon, on powered by our willing participation and whose role is integral. This understanding is what I find seeded in the thoughts of Ellul.
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/18/archives/the-nature-of-our-world-the-technological-society-by-jaequei-ellul.html
October 18, 1964
The Nature Of Our World;
By RAYMOND WILLIAMS
THE TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
By Jacques Ellul
Translated from the French by John Wilkimon
Witti an introduction by Robert K. Merton
THIS book, by a professor of history and contemporary sociology at the University of Bordeaux, was first published in 1954 as “La Technique ou L’enjeu du Siede.” I prefer the French title, as a description of both content and tone, but in general the American edition has been well done, and the translation is particularly careful.
The key to Jacques Ellul’s argument is his definition of “technique.” This term, as he uses it, “does not mean machines, technology, or this or that procedure for attaining an end.” Rather, “in our technological society, technique is the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity. Its characteristics are new; the technique of the present has no common measure with that of the past.”
After this definition, there are more than 430 pages of text, but the careful reader should probably spend more time on these preliminary sentences than on anything else, for if this definition is granted, much of the rest follows. Are we, for example, to understand technique as the application of reason to a complex of human ends? If so, why not simply say civilization? Because, presumably, the assumption of human ends is false. The ends, as Ellul describes them, are not human; they are simply determined by the demands of the techniques, and are more accurately to be described as end products.
IF this is so, we are being asked to assume that rational organization, as such, is from the beginning dissociated from humanity. The justification of this position is then that rational inquiry and organization are applied to human activities to which they are not relevant. At a certain stage, and particularly when they are applied to human social organization, they change in character because they now constitute a totality, from which there is no appeal. Techniques for limited purposes have become “la technique”: a total condition of man. We can then be said to live in an absolute technological society, which in some places already exists and which is certain to become universal. Such a society is not incidentally but absolutely inhuman…
“The Greeks”? Does that include the Greeks who built the Antikythera mechanism?
“The Decline of the U.S. Empire: What Will Happen Next?”
The article ends with the following-
‘Why not suggest a similar trajectory for U.S.-China relations over the next generation? Except for ideologues detached from reality, the world would prefer it over the nuclear alternative. Dealing with the two massive, unwanted consequences of capitalism—climate change and unequal distributions of wealth and income—offers projects for a U.S.-China partnership that the world will applaud. Capitalism changed dramatically in both Britain and the United States after 1815. It will likely do so again after 2025. The opportunities are attractively open-ended.’
I am afraid that Richard D. Wolff is having himself on. The only game played by Washington is winner takes all and international relations are always zero-sum games. The present day Washington has no interest or desire to go into partnerships with China but are winding themselves up to box in China and set up a military confrontation. They even come out and say this. In the past you had confrontations such as democracy versus fascism or communism versus the free world. This one is different. Both countries are capitalistic but you now have a competition between Financial Capitalism and Industrial Capitalism – and only one can survive.
“Both countries are capitalistic but you now have a competition between Financial Capitalism and Industrial Capitalism – and only one can survive.
That is best ever single sentence summary of the existing conflicts.
1) If the “legacy” Oligarchs still ruled Russia, there would still be favorable coverage of Russia as there was until Putin engaged in lawfare against them.
2) If Jack Ma is an example, CCP is quite clear that capital will not rule China.
That idea was from Michael Hudson, a man who really has his head screwed on right.
Branko Milanovic discusses this contest in some detail in his Capitalism Alone
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674987593
I have no expertise on these things unfortunately, but is is completely out of the world to assume aka “hope” that American “imperial” capital since mobile will slowly abandon the US for sake of no WWIII and above all China promising more stable growth.
p.s. Not all economic powers went down with one major bang.
Comparison between the US and the “Fall of Roman Empire” besides makes little sense since latter was uprooted after 1000+ years of rule. The consequences of that ending are entirely different than indirect top down rule of 80+ years, without legionnaires colonizing the colonized areas.
“Both countries are capitalist but you now have a competition between Financial Capitalism and Industrial Capitalism – and only one can survive.”
A terrific comment, as usual, but suppose the Chinese are allowed to describe the system they have developed as Socialist (with Chinese characteristics)? What if China has a Socialist economy? There may never have been a comparable economy, but why do the Chinese think they have a Socialist economy, yes, with Chinese characteristics?
President Xi is an engineer, but he knows intellectual history and for Xi the Chinese economic system is evolving but Socialist.
Animals /vectors / Covid19: Headline evoked Randy Marsh, Mickey Mouse, a pangolin and a bat…
The perils and consequences of having ones’ adolescent chirren sharing their cultural phenomena, such as South Park, and then getting sucked in…
Schumer/Rounds UAP amendment not passed and House to hold new UAP hearings Nov 13th
Word on the twitter is that it was Rand Paul who blocked Schumer/Rounds.
Notably, in 2021 Senator Paul implied that $22 million secured by the late Senator Harry Reid for a UAP program was a bad use of government money. No kidding.
Paul should have x-rays done to find the implants. He’s obviously under the control of the Greys.
Implants? Or probes?
You know how those fun loving Greys are. Both!
In case it´s not on the dicussion board yet:
Jill Stein with a questionable tweet on Biden, Clinton, Assad, Putin, et al. being war criminals.
see first few minutes of the show:
“Jill Stein; Putin, Assad criminals. WaPo, losing to Russia. Norway pager CEO, Bulgaria company”
https://theduran.com/jill-stein-putin-assad-criminals-wapo-losing-to-russia-norway-pager-ceo-bulgaria-company/
I disagree with Christoforou that you cannot call any president war criminal. That upends the idea of any intern. court of law.
However to let herself get into this simplification (e.g. ISIS as Christoforou reminds us) serves noone.
re: Stein – I haven´t followed events in the US.
Others here will probably know what went (wrong?) that GREEN campaign felt compelled to put this statement out now.
It is in my humble opinion an important issue because it is one core cause for the fateful split of the Left in the West.
I personally observed this over the failure of “Democracy Now” which slowly had been almost completely phasing out Ukraine coverage due to awareness of this harmful controversy.
As well as the – entire – German left view on this.
Even the admirable Sevim Dagdelen in her short-hand NATO book never misses to spell it out in full several times:
“The illegal war of aggression against Ukraine by Russia”.
Here we have two comparable highly delicate political problems fit to split common people parties:
1) Russia and Art. 51 (which however was not the reason for the ICC and so far has neither ICJ prompted for action against RU, if I am not mistaken – ?)
2) The case with the pre-emptive genocide convention by the UN-ICJ in conjunction with suppressing free speech as – perhaps (?) – suggested by Craig Mokhiber in his latest piece on Mondoweiss one month ago.
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/western-media-can-be-held-legally-accountable-for-its-role-in-the-gaza-genocide/
I am the last to criticize him. But witnessing how this trope is being utterly abused by German politicians is upsetting.
Of course power will never make it easy to fight back. And doing it on this track shouldn´t surprise but also make Stein smarter and possibly Mokhiber too.
(I am not going to quote Chomsky on free speech this time… ;-P
p.s. Is DN!s blocking of Stein in the past a possible reason for above statement?
Re Genocide Gentry:
We need more lists like this. It is good people know Who they are. Every breath those people take is a waste of good air.
She also had to endure a three year Senate intelligence committee investigation over Russian interference in the ’16 election. If Trump wins again it is in the cards that such “investigations” will be used to deflect blame for Harris’ loss, and she will certainly not want to have to undergo something like that again. When I saw that I immediately thought of Pavlovian conditioning to parrot the company line, but why do a tweet about it at all? It is not going to win her any favors with those anti-war voters who have been keeping up the past couple of years.
I, too, don’t follow the US mainstream media. AOC’s recent attacks on Stein have been reported here on NC, but I had to google to learn that Stein’s “war criminal” charges have been making US MSM headlines (albeit on p. 2) for a week now, e.g.:
https://www.newsweek.com/jill-stein-vladimir-putin-war-criminal-1954965
Her handling of this issue is a little embarrassing to me because I walk around in a Jill Stein T-shirt. She got out over her skis, apparently taking the ICC prosecutor’s recent ‘findings’ to be equivalent to the ICC’s 2023 warrant for Putin. She should have known better than to cite the International Court as some sort of “court of justice”, but one gets desperate for ‘justice’. I think she has learned.
Amerikans don’t pay attention to foreign affairs, and one can’t really blame them; for most, life in the USA is a POS. The best way for Stein to get out of the playground dickering over “who started it” is to call them all “war criminals”, be done with it, and get back to domestic and Green issues.
I’m sorry Christoforu doesn’t understand this; I guess he doesn’t have to live in the US?
After they build them, they will start thinking about the ways to get natural gas and hydrogen required to run them.
Thank you for the Glenn Greenwald deeper interview with Green Party Veep candidate Butch Ware.
Todays must watch/listen. 35 minutes. Illuminating and thought provoking.
Seconded. I knew nothing about Ware before seeing this interview – he has a very Black Panther-y (the activists, not the crappy movie) vibe which I find very refreshing.
I believe that interview sealed my vote for Stein. He speaks intelligently and makes sense. Rare to find these days.
‘Chay Bowes
@BowesChay
Strange how the Chinese Media seem to have no problems understanding what seems indecipherable by British, US, and EU Client Media. @SCMPNews’
So I guess that CNN or MSNBC won’t be booking this guy on one of their news shows anytime soon? If that guy lived in a western country, by now he would be deplatformed by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. and memory-holed as being antisemitic. He’s right though. That attack was actually terrorism by Israel and there is no getting around that one.
“Russia-Ukraine war: US imposes new sanctions on Russia and North Korea – as it happened Guardian”.
as it happened? The suspense is killing me.
And in related news-
‘Video-sharing platform TikTok has deleted the accounts of RT International and several branches of the Sputnik media network. The crackdown came days after the US announced new sanctions targeting several Russian outlets, including RT.
On Saturday morning, the accounts of RT International, Sputnik Serbia, Sputnik Afrique, Sputnik Africa, Sputnik International, Sputnik Brasil, Sputnik Mundo and Sputnik Indonesia became inaccessible. TikTok has not yet commented on the development.’
https://www.rt.com/russia/604424-tiktok-deletes-sputnik-accounts/
I hope they don’t get WZHF. I listen to it in the car sometimes. Refreshing change from the Western propaganda.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WZHF
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1837475694369997067
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
This is truly beyond parody:
A Member of Parliament argues in the European Union parliament against prolonging the war in Ukraine.
They immediately cut his microphone, and lecture him on how there’s “no democracy and no freedom of speech” in Russia…
https://x.com/i/status/1837475694369997067
8:55 AM · Sep 21, 2024
Bizarre. The European Union parliament is starting to resemble a Monty Python skit right now. Dissent will not be tolerated. Just wait until the Ukraine collapses. They are going to turn hysterical and start pointing fingers – likely at this guy for not being supportive enough.
…and after this they seriously announce the next MEP to speak “for ten minutes”!
(I hope I caught that correctly in the end)
Beyond bizarre. It is the perception of reality which obsesses the political élites/pantaloons/intellectual dregs of the Collective West.
Anyone know who this MEP is? He starts his speech by praising Jesus Christ in latin, but there is no other clue.
I found out (or rather Yandex found out for me). He’s Grzegorz Braun, a far-right Polish MEP, also known for antisemitic actions (in the traditional sense; I’ve no idea what he thinks of Israel), and anti-Protestant statements (I didn’t know that that was still an issue in Poland).
Braun I believe was the same man making fuss about Blinken to not being welcome to Poland.
Andrei Martyanov had a short clip:
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2024/09/unlike-americans.html
These things for me don´t make much sense.
But for documenting the same, I think, person.
And being an elected MEP with due process rights as any other MEP
must not be silenced.
– as it was supposed to happen, as Bokonon would say.
Bokonon makes more sense every day.
“Man gotta tell himself he understand”
They forgot to write what those sanctions are.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-imposes-new-sanctions-related-russia-north-korea-website-2024-09-19/
The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on a network of five groups and one person for enabling payments between Russia and North Korea to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine and Pyongyang’s weapons programs, the Treasury Department said.
What payments? I thought Putin payed in horses for artillery shells.
President Biden punished Putin by embargoing Russian grain, oil, refined diesel and fertilizers in March 2022.
At least he had the temerity to admit that we’d all have to collectively sacrifice for the Urkraine War effort.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/09/biden-sacrifices-ukraine/
Lowering interest rates at the Fed doesn’t make up for the food inflation his actions caused. Ending the Ukrainian War should lower grocery prices.
Washing machines. Russia has a huge surplus of washing-machines after they had to take all the chips out for their Iskanders and Kinzhals.
https://www.rt.com/russia/604322-chechen-leader-musk-deactivate-cybertruck/
Chechen leader claims Musk deactivated his Cybertruck
American billionaire Elon Musk has remotely switched off Ramzan Kadyrov’s Cybertruck, the head of Russia’s Republic of Chechnya claimed on Telegram on Thursday.
https://www.rt.com/russia/604361-cybertrucks-sent-front-chechen-leader/
Two more Cybertrucks sent to front – Chechen leader (VIDEO)
Russia has sent two more Tesla Cybertrucks to the combat zone in the Ukraine conflict, Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Republic of Chechnya, wrote on Telegram on Friday.
The disturbing thing about that story is that you can have a guy sitting on the other side of the planet tap a keyboard and suddenly you can’t drive your car anymore. It has been bricked. All I can say is that it is a good thing that hackers will never be able to exploit this capability or even terrorists. That would be bad that, really bad.
Pretty sure the “dead car via a keystroke” is a feature on most newer cars. Also pretty sure it’s done via star-link.
Who here thinks that the F-35s sold by the US also have this feature capable to make them into bricks?
Which probably says all that we need to know about who’s really bombing Gaza, Beirut, etc.
I remember unverified claims attributed to Italian Air Force that their F-35s have to “call home” regularly to keep flying. The claim was that if the operating system can’t send telemetry to Lockheed-Martin engineers, it will start to disable systems – for security.
In the time of crisis – say, when somebody knocks out your power grid and communications – that would be so stupid feature, that I can almost accept the claim as true…
I read something similar about the Danish (or was Norwegian) F-35s, constant communication with the “mother ship”…
It was the Norwegians. The same ones who bought the F-35s and then realized that they did not have proper hangers for them so had to quickly build some.
‘Phone home, 35.’
Aircraft telemetry systems are challenging to maintain. The engineers think the systems work fine as designed and the maintenance people fret about airplanes going silent.
Yea, Uncle Sam spies on you for your own good. He doesn’t do it to Israelis, for some reason, because they get to run customized software on their F-35s.
I’d imagine that almost all the US weaponry used by Israel at the moment has that feature. Meaning that the US government could disarm Israel with a keystroke.
I’d guess that this is one reason why European countries are so docile. Nobody wants to have their police, armed forces and telecommunications shut down.
“Let Ukraine strike into the heart of Russia, MEPs urge EU countries”
No surprise here as the European Parliament is full of Russiaphobes going back at least a decade or more. In the years leading up to this war they were burning every single bridge between the EU and the Russian Federation until there was almost nothing left by the time this war began. With the EU becoming de-industrialised & de-militarized and with the far right making political gains across the continent and Europe set to be a backwater for at least the next generation, I hope that they are proud of all their work.
I believe MEPs feel shielded enough to push for the most idiotic thing because nobody really pays attention to them. They depend only on the electoral drifts in their respective countries.
Still, even if you are meaningless and powerless, why should you also do the stupidest, week after week?
Didn’t they also this week decide who was the true president of Venezuela, “because democracy”.
There used to be a genre of kraut journalism, up until 5 or 6 years ago: “Help, my parents are voting populists! How can I save my family and Germany’s democracy?”
The Greens, which received almost a third of the sub30 vote in 2021, were also huge fans of lowering voting age to 16. They have been rather quite about this reform. No idea why.
These Swedish volunteers delivering material to Ukraine: do they know that the war is about trillions of dollars of resources to the US economy, not even the EU economy or do they think the war is about some freedom or peace or other lofty stupidities?
https://rumble.com/v5efllh-lindsey-grahamyou-are-sitting-on-trillion-dollars-worth-of-minerals-are-goo.html
Interesting if a bit gushy piece about Leonard Cohen. The windup suggests that it was all about being Jewish–the “chosen” outsider.
In fact he once played for the IDF (so did Leonard Bernstein). While some of us might be a bit put off by that, originality in any art is highly to be praised. Outsiders are good. Chosen not so much.
Yeah, well, Bob Dylan played for the troops during the first Gulf War.
Most high achievers seem to deem themselves “chosen” in a sense, but the whole point of the article seemed to be about Cohen running away from being any kind of superior being.
And at least nobody ever nominated Cohen for a Nobel.
https://www.propublica.org/article/ohio-taxpayer-money-funding-private-religious-schools
Eye opening, imo. Another deliberate and malign pull on the thread to further unravel commonality–conceived and implemented here over 125 yrs. ago and most all of us once had.
The organized pushback on a National Common Core Curriculum dropped this retired Educators jaw a couple of decades ago and bode an ill wind for our society.
Could we have ever had a Greatest Generation without Public Education?
Do we solve the Climate Crises like this?
some reference:
https://teachercertification.com/teacher-certification/how-to-become-a-private-school-teacher/#:~:text=Private%20School%20Teacher%20Requirements&text=Preferred%20degrees%20often%20include%20master%27s,teacher%2C%20while%20others%20do%20not.
Germany/power plants.
Since 2019 they have shut down 9.5 gw of nuclear power plants.
And have replaced them so far with coal or buying from other countries.
And now they want to replace the coal with 10gw of NG?
Head meet wall
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjr3255gpjgo
Volunteers dying as Russia’s war dead tops 70,000
…
As for Ukraine – it rarely comments on the scale of its deaths on the battlefield. In February, its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed, but estimates based on US intelligence suggest greater losses.
…
Russia’s “meat grinder” strategy continues unabated, according to Russian soldiers we have spoken to. The term has been used to describe the way Moscow sends waves of soldiers forward relentlessly to try to wear down Ukrainian forces and expose their locations to Russian artillery. Drone footage shared online shows Russian forces attacking Ukrainian positions with little or no equipment or support from artillery or military vehicles.
…
LOL. The bbc merely regurgitates what Ukrainian sources tell them, which is almost always projection. It is the Ukrainian soldiers that are being fed relentlessly into the meatgrinder. As for Russian forces attacking with little or no equipments, well in 2022, it was reliably (sic) reported that the Russians were only armed with spades and about to run out of ammunition etc., etc.
A household tip for those that drive older cars:
Headlights get micro scratches and those scratches fill with dust that won’t wash off with soap and water, significantly degrading their usefulness.
I spray “Tick Be Gone” on a paper towel and the acetone in it melts the plastic, then simply wipe the dust off.
It’s 90% as effective as abrasives and one heck of a lot quicker and easier.
Toothpaste also works well.
You can buy kits for this. My last car was so old that it had glass for the headlight housing.
I find this work on Rapa Nui, the world bellybutton a bit light in arguments or at least essential ones.
Yes, maybe they didn’t kill eachother in acts of war and subsequent cannibalism (like the Aotearoa example). And the ocean as a source of food is compelling, as long as you have some wood to build boads to go fishing. Oh, wait, the palm trees dissapeared. The blame is not necessarily the lumberjacks, but the rats…
https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/easter-island-demise/
It is definitely not people’s fault for the environmental collapse and Rapa Nui cannot be made the example of what is happening now globaly… Sattelite images of Amazon through time are evidence to the contrary. Or the link on the extinction of dwarf hippos and elephants in the Mediteraneean main islands 12K-14K years ago…
Before he was assassinated, Julius Casear was working on some laws, like providing land to Roman veterans – to the loss of Senate and Equestrian class that wanted said land for themselves.
Or capping the interest rates to loans made to client states and cities at 10%. And would anyone be surprised to know that Brutus was the biggest banker in the Roman Republic at the time? E tu Brutus were clearly not the last words of Caesar…
Catillina wanted to mess with the debts, Jesus wanted to bring the Jubilee, and now Trump wants to cap credit cards to 10%… I say that he is now the target of more ferocious enemies than the Deep State, since the finaciers are the actual masters of the Deep State. The Principal is on notice now…
RE: Ukraine – Recent Front Line Reports Point To Systemic Failures
I believe I have pinpointed the problem for Ukraine. From the article –
“The first difficulties arose when the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, which had been holding the line in the vicinity of Orlivka and Semenivka (not far from Avdiivka), was replaced by the 68th Separate Jaeger Brigade. ”
Back in the salad days when I was in the Jaeger Brigade myself, a typical maneuver was to get black out drunk, speak gibberish, puke on ourselves, pass out, and then wake up on the floor of some strange place wondering how we got there.
Maybe next time bring in the Green Tea Brigade, who I hear are much more focused. Zelensky, if you are reading this, you’re welcome.
They failed because they are rookie Jaegers, not masters.
So riddle me this; The West seems to believe that on long range strikes into Russia, that Putin and the Russians are rational actors, and this won’t trigger an accidental nuclear war, but at the same time believe that Putin has designs on reconstituting the Soviet sphere, taking Ukraine and perhaps Poland, and if Kamala is to be believed, perhaps moving westward, a clearly irrational foreign policy. So which is it? Is Russia a rational actor or an irrational actor? Or perhaps the west really doesn’t care about accidental nuclear war. I’m betting this, in fact.
They care about accidental nuclear war, because they are escalating gradually.
I’m noticing some subtle censorship, even in our personal, daily lives. The most blatant censorship we read about: Telegram, The Uhuru Socialists, Richard Medhurst, Tulsi Gabbard, Scott Ritter, African Stream ……
But is anyone else noticing some subtle censorship at home? When I go to Garland Nixon, Military Summary, even Kim Iverson – via Utoob – I get an endless “before you go to Utoob” screen, never being able to access the site I want. And, most often, I use TOR. I get the feeling that gaggle has figured out I’m a Russian asset and are taking action against me. Am I “trippin’ or has anyone else noticed this?
If you’re using a YouTube ad blocking extension in Tor, you’re going to have this problem. The only one somewhat functional now is uBlockOrigin. Ymmv.
For a deep drive into China:
The Rise and Fall of LGFVs
Outside my area of familiarity.
*Sigh*
We posted on this when it ran in April, with lengthy excerpts.
Reading NC is like being from the future.
The wasteland that is Google Search: The Rise of Forbes in Google – Parasite SEO Perfected
Sick, eh?
More on ongoing Google Search enshitification:
Forbes Marketplace: The Parasite SEO Company Trying to Devour Its Host
Unreal.
Forbes itself is scummy too:
Forbes, that old mag that got too full of itself and had to call in a turnaround firm for help.
Maybe sell off some Fabergé baubles, that French chateau, other vanity assets and then get serious about expense management by curtailing the restaurant rating extravaganzas. Maybe write, or contract out for, some legit articles and attempt to find another decent editor. At least there were not anymore Prexy runs.
Then sell off some interest to Asians.
Shirtsleeves in a few generations and all that with too many heirs.
Old curmudgeons from Wall Street past would be disappointed at the slide.
Re digital panopticon–this is interesting but goes off the rails, IMO, when it lapses into the conspiratorial belief that societies are secretly controlled by sinister manipulators rather than humans who are themselves prey to that hubris that the Greeks wisely wared against. After all if you gain total advantage and have more money than you can spend and more food than you can eat what do you have? Is it even worth having?
Or in other words the quest for power is itself irrational but persists across the millennia and all those other ultimately failed systems–Greek, Roman, feudal–because some non rational impulse is driving us to do it. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t all threatened by the power impulse. But perhaps what really threatens is our failure to properly understand it. Unlike some other religions the Christians did at least rhetorically support humility. They were on the right track. Understanding human psychology is the real key.
RE: Leonard Cohen
Truly the the anti-rock star. The embedded video of him singing ‘Halleluja” is moving. Here is a more up-tempo guitar solo version by Jeff Buckley that presents a wonderful singing voice with emotion: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=jeff+buckley+hallelujah&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dy8AWFf7EAc4
KD Lange does a cover that brings her stunning vocal presence to emotional lyrics.
I love and adore Leonard Cohen (and k d lang) but in my opinion the only true anti-rock-star was Kevin Coyne. Proof of this being that nobody’s ever heard of him. (Including me before a very arcane Franco-Moroccan primatologist friend, lately sadly murdered, introduced me to him.)
RE: “On the emerging digital panopticon”
This is a long, and in places ‘strange’ collection of thoughts. Near the tail of section #1 of this link: “It feels like we may be on the verge of such an epoch now.” referring to an ongoing “Kuhnian paradigm shift”. The evidence offered to support this, to me, grandiose suggestion: “blind belief in egalitarianism” => quashing research into human biodiversity, eugenics, cloning, link between physiognomy and personality, astrology, ESP or the benefits of bloodletting.
How limitations through funding are stifling research and pursuit of “nuclear energy, by far the cleanest and most efficient alternative to oil/gas”. contrasts with how funds flow to foster research and pursuit of “electric cars, solar power and other alternative energy sources”. The link supposes the “…likely reason for this is that the establishment can graft enormous sums of funds for themselves…” All right, but am I to assume the establishment could not graft enormous sums of funds for themselves from the pursuit of nuclear energy, by far the cleanest and most efficient alternative to oil/gas. [Almost echoes the tone of the line: “…kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life” from the “Manchurian Candidate”.]
The idea that businesses do whatever they can to stifle and crush competition leads to a discussion of the accelerating rate of technology adoption. In my opinion, the list of technologies adopted presents a strange view of what constitutes technological innovation: electricity, telephone, radio, television, PC, mobile phone, web or refrigerator, stove, auto, clothes washer, clothes dryer, air conditioning, dishwasher, VCR, microwave, Internet, or smart phone, social media, tablet, podcasting. I hope these ‘innovations’ will not serve as the heart of future eulogies of our Civilization and its lost technologies and innovations.
The section proposing an equivalence between the Security Panopticon and the Mark of the Beast described in Revelations … … wow. ” You will likely be forced to take infinite untested mRNA COVID “vaccinations”, you won’t be able to leave your home without permission or to travel without permission, your carbon footprint will be closely monitored by the woke AI, you will only be able to buy meat occasionally, if that.” What next? “Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!” as Peter Venkman declares in “Ghostbusters”. The epilogue to this link: “Hopefully this post is helpful in explaining where this globohomo system is rapidly heading …” makes a nice cherry on top.
Daniel Yergin – Oil Explains the Entire 20th Century
Full transcript included, fortunately. I’m not much of an interview watching person. Excerpt:
The German tanks in the Ardennes offensive were sent off with full fuel tanks but no refills. The plan being to seize Allied fuel dumps. Unfortunately, circumstances intervened . . .
The Luftwaffe was essentially grounded after 1944 because it had no petrol; the same was true of the German surface fleet after 1942 lacking bunker oil.
There’s quite a lot in Tooze’s The Wages of Destruction about this.
I know that I have been harping on Cyprus. (Sorry, Greeks and Cypriots.)
Cyprus is a smallish, vulnerable island, and it is being used as an airbase and colony.
Dimitri Lascaris explains in great detail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PFbaScMKkk
First: These UK / USA activities place Cyprus in jeopardy, which means that the island can end up as collateral damage. Think drones.
Second: Beirut is a short flight from Nicosia. Lots of problems in Beirut and the rest of Lebanon these days. Coinkydink?
Third: Putting Cyprus back together is not in the interest of Erdogan or the Anglosphere. I wonder why negotiations to do so have been such problem for so many years?
One of the commenters at this video indicates that the Greek government acknowledges eight US bases on Crete. More colonization. And Crete is small than Cyprus.
As someone who lives in Italy, where we consider the Greeks our cousins, and as someone of Sicilian descent, which = Greek, I worry that this will not end well at all.
Revealed: UK military has flown 200 spy missions over Gaza in support of Israel (Declassified UK)
British spy planes have recorded up to 1,000 hours of footage over Gaza, including from the day Israel assassinated three UK aid workers.
It certainly appears that the British are using Cyprus as a base for war crimes (again).
German major alt. news site NACHDENKSEITEN has a longer piece on the genocide written by Norman Paech who for German standards goes pretty far in his criticism and – the reason to mention it here – begins with quoting Michael Hudson:
“Gaza: War and Justice”
“(…)
The American economist Michael Hudson also has no illusions about the historical depth of this policy. In his words:
“So the genocide that you are witnessing today is an explicit policy, and that was the policy of the forefathers, the founders of Israel. The idea of a country without people was a country without Arabs, a country without non-Jewish people. That’s what it really meant. They were to be expelled even before the official founding of Israel, the first Nakba, the Arab Holocaust. And the two Israeli prime ministers were members of the Stern Gang of terrorists. The terrorists became the rulers of Israel…”
(…)
Dominance in the Middle East has been one of the fixed points of US foreign policy since the end of the Second World War. Michael Hudson again in a recent interview on the Gaza war:
“So what you’re seeing today is not just the work of one man, Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s the work of the team that President Biden has assembled. It’s the team of Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor Blinken, and the whole deep state, the whole neocon group behind them, Victoria Nuland and all the others. They’re all self-proclaimed Zionists. And they’ve been playing out this plan for American domination of the Middle East decade after decade.”
Hudson even believes that the Israeli strategy of occupation and warfare is based on US practices and experiences in the Vietnam War. I do not want to go into this any further here. However, I agree with the essence of his analysis that the Israeli occupation policy is based on the joint strategy with the US to eliminate the Palestinian factor in the region. There may be differences of opinion about the methods and practices, as the disagreement over the Rafah offensive between Presidents Biden and Netanyahu shows, but they agree on the common goal of their policy. Michael Hudson sees this no differently:
“I want to make it clear that this is not simply an Israeli war against Hamas. It is a US-backed Israeli war. Each of them has its own goals. Israel’s goal is to have a country with no non-Jewish population. And America’s goal is for Israel to act as a local coordinator, just as it has coordinated work with ISIS and ISIS commanders to turn them against targets provided by the United States.”
Despite all the public criticism of the Israeli army’s merciless warfare, when it comes to a vote in the UN, Israel can count on the protection of the USA.
(…)”
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=121634
https://www-nachdenkseiten-de.translate.goog/?p=121634&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Just a simple quick piece:
“CEO Pay Has Risen 1,085% Since 1978, But for Workers? Just 24%”
https://scheerpost.com/2024/09/21/ceo-pay-has-risen-1085-since-1978-but-for-workers-just-24/
German daily Berliner Zeitung with a special piece on the CJ Hopkins court case:
“Judge on the CJ Hopkins case: Using Nazi comparisons against corona policy – is that allowed?”
by Dr. Clivia von Dewitz, judge and has a doctorate in Nazi ideology and criminal law
Engl.:
https://archive.is/SEVrg
original
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/open-source/richterin-zum-fall-cj-hopkins-mit-nazi-vergleichen-gegen-die-coronapolitik-ist-das-erlaubt-li.2255473
“Clivia von Dewitz”, what an extraordinary name.
It seems that some people are not amused by Kamala’s campaign strategy of avoiding reporters. Having cushy TV specials with actors is impressing only the vidiots in the United States. Some would like her to answer the question.
It’s a dilemma, as every time she opens her mouth (sans teleprompter) she makes things so much worse:
2 min word salad in Oprah interview
re: UKR – The Duran again:
https://theduran.com/zelensky-victory-plan-enter-nato/
At TC 14:00 Mercouris states that just today Ukrainian Nazis warned again that any concession towards RU would be punished.
I think even alternative media in the US are shedding too little light on this issue in general.
Mr. Z has boxed himself into this larger-than-life acting role and I assume he does everything imagineable to maneuver without getting caught in a fascist tsunami.
For those who wonder why the actor Z is so keen on reality: Jerry Lewis (who I have a rather divided opinion on personally) when asked what the biggest thing in his career was, responded without hesitation: the Nobel Price for Peace.
So there you have it.
This madness by Z IS a movie.
Which will never be made on proper terms, about a man who would never trade reality for fiction even if that very reality might get him killed.
Sal at “What is Going on With Shipping” reporting more on the Dali (ship that destroyed the Baltimore bridge):
Dali Sets Sail | NTSB Finds Loose Wires | US Sues Owner | Ship to be Repaired in China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SlbUJ417mc
An interesting report, a potential cause of the engine failures was found (loose wires), and that this ship (as also the one which went aground and blocked the Suez canal) is going to China for repair.
So, note that going to CHINA for repair, but America is going to “fight” China which will be largely naval power project? (American elites must fervently hope Taiwan elites are just as out of touch with reality, and have not paid attention to how Ukraine has flourished under Western “help”.)
One cannot help but think that American elites are in complete denial about the true state of their country, the true state of their standing in the world, and what it would take to change this. Look at some of the other posts and discussions today – the military finally did the responsible act of telling American leadership no because our elite’s actions are in very serious danger of starting WW3, and much dancing around the fact that Springfield “cat eating” is really all about how cheap, captive labor (we use to call them slaves) is increasingly common in America.
Yeah, sure, we’re creating more “good” jobs in America, so good that we have to use prisoners:
US prisoners are being assigned dangerous jobs. But what happens if they are hurt or killed?
https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-injuries-deaths-0ff52ff1735d7e9f858248177a2a60c3
Hm, apparently it would be very hard to boycott prison labor in America if you want to eat:
Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands
https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-c6f0eb4747963283316e494eadf08c4e
Was a slave plantation, are we sure about that “was”?
Gives new meaning to Supply Chains.
Has anybody else heard of this rally in Washington DC in 7 days called Rescue the Republic, apparently organized by a group called Join the Resistance?
Ah, I see that Flora mentioned it several days ago https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/09/200pm-water-cooler-9-3-2024.html#comment-4096891
Back to this present comment, Also presenting are:
Colonel Douglas MacGregor
Bret Weinstein
Robert F Kennedy Jr
Jordan Peterson
Dr Robert Malone
Dr Pierre Kory
Among others, along with some musical groups! Well, this is really pulling together a bunch of rascals to make what the Quakers used to call “positive trouble”! I wonder how big this could get?
https://jointheresistance.org/
Scott Ritter announced that Roger Waters will be there too… towards the end of episode 196 at scottritter.com which features an interview with RFKJ, almost entirely about nuclear war.
I’m trying to get some of my Class Unity DC folks to attend it!
I mean Jimmy Dore and Matt Taibbi!!!
Hell Yeah!
Oh joy…
Plant that experienced US’ worst commercial nuclear accident to reopen soon
The new CCEC will create 3,400 direct and indirect jobs and add more than 800 megawatts of carbon-free electricity to the grid.
Three Mile Island plant is preparing to reopen to power Microsoft’s data centers…
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/three-mile-island-nuclear-accident-microsoft
Don’t steal Kamala’s joy!
Ooh, yeah! All right!
Alright
We’re scammin’
(see)
I wanna jam Kam on you
We’re scammin’, scammin’,
And I hope you like scammin’, too
We’re scammin’
To think that scammin’ was a thing of the past
We’re scammin’,
And I hope this joy is gonna last
We’re scammin’
Scammin’
Scammin’
Scammin’
Scammin’
Now we’re scammin’ in the name of the Vice Lord
We’re scammin’,
Scammin’
Scammin’
Scammin’
Now we’re scammin’ right straight from the schoolyard
Ooh, yeah!
We’re scammin’
To think that scammin’ was a thing of the past
We’re scammin’,
And I hope this joy is gonna last
Kam’s about false pride and vacuousness she cannot hide
To keep the hoi polloi satisfied
Joys that now exist, true joy I can’t resist,
Kam by their side. Oh, yea-ea-yeah!
We’re scammin’
(see)
I wanna jam Kam on you
We’re scammin’, scammin’,
And I hope you like scammin’, too
We’re scammin’,
We’re scammin’,
(see)
We’re scammin’,
We’re scammin’,
Oh yeah!
Jamming, by Bob Marley & the Wailers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMB4I5HbOl4
I have a crush on the Dude. That is one beautiful cat with serious attitude.
Thanks. She’s fab.
I confess to being totally confused by the Harris Walz ad I saw while watching YouTube instruction videos.
I missed that Harris has a plan that will reduce people’s grocery bills . I also missed the Trump plan that will raise everyone’s grocery bills by 15% or more and cost a family of four over $3000 dollars a year.
The first claim I call bs on because I have yet to see one Harris plan detailed enough to show a clear route to reverse grocery inflation. But maybe she’ll fight for something to be detailed later, that next year’s Manchin can derail.
The second, while unlikely, is still possible. So I guess I’m going to have to do some digging through Trump’s utterances.
Truth is to me this means that Harris, along with top campaign manager, should not only be called out for spreading misinformation. They should be the first people to be arrested and executed for doing it as per Hillary Clinton’s latest unconstitutional standard.
Not really, only if our political idiots are stupid enough to follow the ever incompetent HRC.
Honeymoon over: Keir Starmer now less popular than Rishi Sunak
“The latest Opinium poll reveals that Starmer’s approval rating has plunged below that of the Tory leader Rishi Sunak, suffering a huge 45-point drop since July. While 24% of voters approve of the job he is doing, 50% disapprove, giving him a net rating of -26%. Sunak’s net rating is one point better.”
That’s an almost impressive level of decline. Perhaps his broken promises, gifts from donors, granny-freezing, austerity humping, and habit of scolding the nation are wearing thin. Perhaps his “huge” election win was more about the Tories than it was about Labour.
3 or 4 more years of this will be grim. Although the war will probably live things up.
Georgia State Election Board approves new hand-counting ballot rule
The Georgia State Election Board has approved a controversial rule requiring all ballots to be hand-counted at each polling location, which some argue may delay election results.
Georgia politics: More drama than college football or professional wrestling.
Whether or not one agrees with him it is striking how Bill Fletcher has been lacking the same “realism” on Ukraine.
However: The same mistake he makes in below linked piece on Third Reich politics is repeated over and over again even by German scholars – judging in hindsight. And nobody seems to see how totally inept that is!
Bill Fletcher with a harsh critique of Cornel West and in general movements not directed to influence or gain power for real:
The Cornel West Campaign, Third Parties, and the Nature of the Moment
The Left can’t substitute self-expression for strategy
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-cornel-west-campaign-third-parties-and-the-nature-of-the-moment/
“(…)
The West campaign and other third parties (…) will assert they are taking a stand against the two-party system of the capitalist class, against imperialism, against the criminality of the US support for Israeli genocide. And they will be correct! They are. Yet, they have neither plan nor sufficient organization to transform their assertions into political power. Thus, they can only rely on magical thinking in the hopes—and this is a best-case scenario—that their plea to the masses will resonate and result in a great wave of revulsion against the system, thrusting them into office…alone.
(…)”
BLEEEEEEEEEEEP
““Homegrown”: Film Embeds with Proud Boys, Trump Supporters, Before, During & After Insurrection”
Amy Goodman talks with the movie director
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/9/20/michael_premo_homegrown_documentary
“(…)
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to another clip, and this is of Proud Boy Thad Cisneros, an activist from Texas, who you show as he teams up with a Black Lives Matter activist named Jacarri Kelley. This is a clip of them together as they drive in another Trump Train protest.
JACARRI KELLEY: Girl, what you doin’, girl? What you doin’, girl? Black lives matter, girl!
THAD CISNEROS: We are in a caravan going one direction.
JACARRI KELLEY: There’s some more.
THAD CISNEROS: And it’s Patriots Against Racism. That’s what — that’s what it is, Patriots Against Racism. So, then — can I flip this around? There we go. So, they organized another event, the BLM Utah, and you can see them. And they’re being very stunning and brave, and they’re flipping everybody off.
JACARRI KELLEY: But that works vice versa, because when I was in a caravan, the Trump supporters were flipping us off.
THAD CISNEROS: No, it’s very stupid.
JACARRI KELLEY: Just causes way more attention than there needs to be.
THAD CISNEROS: Yeah, exactly. Both Jacarri and myself are of what I think is a very good opinion, that you should allow the other side to voice their opinion without any kind of reprisal. You know, this is a demonstration of what I would consider to be unity amongst people with the same opinion.
JACARRI KELLEY: So, why not just have American flags?
THAD CISNEROS: Well, these guys are Trump supporters. They’re voicing their opinion. They —
JACARRI KELLEY: But if it’s antiracism, like, what does that have to do with Trump?
THAD CISNEROS: Oh my gosh. Trump is not synonymous with racism. Let’s not go there, Jacarri.
JACARRI KELLEY: So, is this a Trump caravan, or is this supposed to be like a patriot caravan?
THAD CISNEROS: Oh, I see what you’re saying.
JACARRI KELLEY: Right.
THAD CISNEROS: Because it is Patriots Against Racism.
JACARRI KELLEY: ’Cause it looks like —
THAD CISNEROS: OK.
JACARRI KELLEY: — it’s a Trump caravan.
THAD CISNEROS: See, at least I’m trying to understand. But can we agree that Donald Trump is not synonymous with racism, please?
JACARRI KELLEY: I see he says some racist [bleep]. I’ll say that part.
THAD CISNEROS: We got guys in New York, one of which is married to a Black woman with Black children. And —
JACARRI KELLEY: That doesn’t make you not racist if you have a Black family.
THAD CISNEROS: I cannot grasp that concept.
JACARRI KELLEY: No, you could still have that little prejudice.
THAD CISNEROS: That is complete nonsense to me, Jacarri.
JACARRI KELLEY: Oh my god!
THAD CISNEROS: That is complete nonsense.
JACARRI KELLEY: That’s like saying a Black person can’t be prejudiced against a Mexican person.
(…)”