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Links 9/22/2024

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Gatwick train cancelled after squirrels board and ‘refuse to leave’ Sky News

Flight makes emergency landing after live mouse climbs out of in-flight meal CBS

Governance watchdogs take fright as ‘zombies’ stalk US boardrooms FT

The IMF Must End Its Destructive Surcharges Joseph Stiglitz, Project Syndicate

Climate

Weather Derivatives Grow as Risks Intensify OpenMarkets

World’s biggest deforestation project gets underway in Papua for sugarcane Monga Bay

Solar Ambitions Phenomenal World

The Breakthrough That Could Unlock Ocean Carbon Removal Heatmap

How to Cool the World Without Blocking the Sun The Atlantic

Water

This Is Life in America’s Water-Inequality Capital. It Might Be About to Change Time

Is the Indus Waters Treaty the latest India-Pakistan flashpoint? Al Jazeera

Syndemics

Second health care worker tied to Missouri bird flu case had respiratory symptoms STAT

Is bird flu spreading among people? Data gaps leave researchers in the dark Nature

COVID-19 is a leading cause of death in children and young people in the US (press release) Oxford University Press

Covid-19 : A risk assessment too far? David Osborn, Patient Safety Learning

Unrepentant droplet dogmatists in UK hearing:

China?

The Long Game: Understanding US and China’s Theories of Victory The Diplomat

Is China looking to Mao Zedong’s ‘Third Front’ as part of economic self-reliance drive? South China Morning Post

Why China is sending southern officials north to its rusting economic front lines South China Morning Post

The rise of solar power and China’s staggering EV growth may have pushed global emissions into decline ABC Australia

Chart of the Day: China Exports of Green Energy Products Pick Up Pace Amid Oversupply Caixin Global

Marxist leader set to become Sri Lanka’s next president Channel News Asia

Africa

Kenya signs historic pact with US to advance its nuclear power plans BNE Intellinews

Syraqistan

U.S. fears war in Lebanon but hopes Israeli attacks push Hezbollah to a deal Axios. “Israeli officials said their increasing attacks against Hezbollah are not intended to lead to war but are an attempt to reach ‘de-escalation through escalation.'” Oh. Commentary:

‘Battered and weakened’: Israel deals Hizbollah its worst ever week and Israel bombs Lebanon as Hizbollah rockets hit Haifa suburbs FT

3 Israelis injured as Hezbollah strikes military industrial complexes in northern Israel and US urges Americans to leave Lebanon as Israel-Hezbollah border attacks intensifies Anadolu Agency

Is ‘Israel’ using small nuclear weapons in Gaza and South Lebanon? Al Mayadeen

* * *

Israel raids and shuts down Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah in the West Bank AP

* * *

Did Middle East device attack violate international law? Advocates want an investigation Associated Press

The Neck and the Sword (interview) Rashid Khalidi, New Left Review

European Disunion

Europe’s authoritarian, unelected ruler, Ursula von der Leyen, in a growing dispute with NATO leadership Gilbert Doctorow

Macron unveils new right-wing French government BBC. Meanwhile:

Mathew D. Rose – Germany: Legacy Political Parties in Panic Brave New Europe

Albania plans to create ‘sovereign state’ for Bektashi order Anadolu Agency

Dear Old Blighty

Keir Starmer shows off new Downing Street cat called Prince: Siberian kitten was ‘part of deal’ with PM’s kids to move into No 10 Daily Mail. Commentary:

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukraine’s Victory Plan envisages NATO membership invitation for Kyiv and modern weapons supplies Ukrainska Pravda

Ukraine’s victory plan: bold and speedy steps needed from allies Politico

Zelenskyy has a gamechanging plan to win peace. For it to work, Biden must back it – fast Timothy Garton Ash, Guardian

* * *

Ukraine strikes two Russian munition depots, says military Guardian. Commentary:

* * *

Zelenskyy to visit US factory producing 155mm artillery shells – AP Ukrainska Pravda

Ukraine Has a Strange Way to Make the M1 Abrams Tank Even Better The National Interest

Why U.S. Foreign Policy Won’t Grow Up The American Conservative

2024

US Secret Service finds security ‘breaches’ in its review of Trump assassination attempt France24

Kamala Harris plans to skip historic Al Smith dinner despite long-standing tradition: report FOX

Michigan Arab-Americans ‘can’t stomach’ Harris stance on Gaza BBC

A Last-Minute Effort to Mess With the 2024 Vote Is Underway. It’s Scarier Than Expected. Slate

Digital Watch

Delivery Robot Knocked Over Pedestrian, Company Offered ‘Promo Codes’ to Apologize 404 Media

Health

Cells Across the Body Talk to Each Other About Aging Quanta

The Final Frontier

What the 1st analysis of China’s Chang’e 6 lunar far side samples revealed Space.com

47-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft just fired up thrusters it hasn’t used in decades CNN

Boeing

Boeing’s turbulence continues: CEO Ted Colbert resigns amidst struggles Financial Express

Boeing becomes its own ‘burning platform’ The Air Current (PI).

Class Warfare

Boeing machinists on picket lines prepare for lengthy strike: ‘I can last as long as it takes’ CNBC

New practices in industrial relations The Anarchist Library

Disavowed Knowledge Three Quarks Daily

Book Review – Living on Earth: Life, Consciousness and the Making of the Natural World The Inquistive Biologist

Antidote du jour (Macieias):

Bonus Antidote:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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About Lambert Strether

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

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177 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Kamala Harris plans to skip historic Al Smith dinner despite long-standing tradition: report”

    In another article-

    ‘In the two months since she announced her presidential campaign, Harris and running mate Tim Walz have given a total of seven sit-down interviews, while former President Donald Trump and running mate J.D. Vance have given 70 interviews and press conferences, according to a tally compiled by Axios this week.

    Asked why Harris is not doing more interviews, Lance-Bottoms told CNN on Friday that “we would love to see her sit down every single day with CNN and do interviews, but it’s that she’s a very busy person.”

    “She’s the vice president as well as a candidate,” Lance-Bottoms continued, reiterating that Harris is simply “too busy” to match Trump’s media schedule.’

    https://www.rt.com/news/604443-kamala-harris-avoiding-media/

    I suppose showing her off to the public has too many ways that that could go sideways. Best to keep her in her own bubble.

    1. rob

      this US election is an “AS-IS” sale. The last thing the wizard wants us to see is what we are buying. there will be enough of that when we are in the “it’s too late “, part of the experience.
      This was the strategy before genocide joe spilled the beans, and had to be “refurbished” into this new “steaming pile of democracy”; so the crew with no imagination just go with what works…. hide the truth.

      1. Petra

        We have an elaborate and detailed record of Kamala screwing up as a D.A., A.G., Senator, and Vice President. If morals are counted, like Trump’s case, there’s the commencement of her career as a mistress to a power broker.

        Brady violations, refusal to prosecute pedophile priests, allowing crack dealing youth to walk, back as fentanyl dealers, jailing parents of sick children for truancy, refusing to prosecute Bay Bridge scandal, Herbalife MLM, using people railroaded for marijuana crimes as cheap prison labor and letting Mnuchin’s One West Bank skate in 2008, tie breakers for Bidenocracy and inflation in Senate, border snipehunt, and she would more likely lead to billions of deaths, end of the biosphere in a Ukraine weapons delivery causing thermonuclear war.

        Other than that, she’s a great candidate.

    2. SocalJimObjects

      She is keeping the border safe for Murica!!! Also she has a super secret bathtub where she washes her vegetables and that thing requires special care and handling that normies just don’t know how to do. Perhaps AOC can help with the later, but she is too busy trolling Jill Stein and making sure that people in Gaza stay down for the count.

    3. Pat

      Campaign of Joy being found inadequate by all but those deep in TDS. Even with a compliant press and boatloads of money, this campaign is still too long for Harris to fake her way through.

      I want a complete schedule rundown of three days from the past two weeks picked at random from the Harris campaign. Some version of this would be demanded by a reputable uncowed press at least in my youth. I buy that Walz is busy, he has an actual job. Harris appears to have botched or ditched every assignment the Biden administration gave her prior to her coronation, too busy just doesn’t pass the smell test and won’t satisfy any doubts possible voters have.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        I’ll somewhat defend Harris on this matter, but there is no chance the second level of staffers don’t have fond memories of the Bartlett administration and as a result can’t do anything beyond try to get photos of Harris walking.

        The consequences of safe seats, Obama’s disinterest, and the reign of the Clintons is a party structure composed of nothing but Dillard’s.

        Harris isn’t classic presidential material, but she is clearly unprepared. Staff work could make her look better, but I don’t think they are capable beyond offering platitudes. Yes, she brought in some Obama hands, but Obama beat Hillary and McCain, legends in their own minds and not exactly great leaders.

        1. Mark Gisleson

          And I’ll keep pushing her back into her political coffin that she spent decades in the making of.

          On Twitter this morning, I blew up the political world with a great suggestion that may be seen by dozens of people (if I’m lucky).

          Trump should debate Jill Stein on Fox at the same time Harris does the empty chair routine with CNN. Harris, of course, will never debate an empty chair (she’d lose) but by making the challenge be about her attempt to create an empty chair debate with her unilateral acceptance of DNC-CNN’s debate offer that Trump would obviously decline, the image would stick. Late night talk show jokes would result. Neutral pundits are calling out ABC’s bad faith moderation so this is an ideal time to push hard on the duopoly debate monopoly.

          The Trump-Stein debate would blow up everything. Stein would gain followers at Harris’ expense all but assuring that the current DNC would be blown up and some air let back into the party. Trump would benefit because I’ve come to suspect that if confronted by a serious person, Trump would seriously debate them and that would elevate his status with voters.

          The GOP would never do this. This is an “only Trump could…” strategy. The duopoly does not benefit from elevating third parties but Trump would benefit to an extraordinary degree.

            1. nycTerrierist

              perhaps Tucker Carlson on Rumble? not corporate media but he can deliver a large audience, plus clips will circulate

          3. hk

            He should, and Trump may just be far enough out of mainstream that he migjt do it. It’ll achieve several goals for him, including, as you say, undermine the Dems’ “empty chair” strategy.

    4. Screwball

      Some seem to think that policy doesn’t matter. I don’t know who this guy is, but he has 12k+ followers including Chuck Schumer on the X platform. My PMC friends seem to love him (can’t imagine why).

      CBPolitics Tweet

      One of the most encouraging developments of this election is that Kamala Harris has clearly learned something that Democrats have traditionally refused to accept:

      For purposes of winning an election, policy doesn’t matter. (1/6)

      Elect me, I’m not Trump.

      1. hk

        He is probably right, but not the way he thinks, I suspect.

        “Policy promises/plans/proposals” don’t matter much because there’s no way for people to evaluate them. They often reach into matters beyond people’s casual understanding (when it comes to particulars) and they are only words anyways–they are trustworthy only so far as the people offering them are trustworthy. The best “policy proposals” can buy is credibility.

        But “credibility” is where things can get dicey: they can at least show that you know what the problems that people face, you have thought about them, and are willing to do something serious about them (or, at least, what people would consider something serious).

        Harris is not exactly doing the latter. She’s ducking the issues and talking in generic and unspecific catchphrases. She’s not exactly winning any credibility for herself. The only thing she’s relying on is that Trump is not exactly a credible person to many. She’s sort of right about the latter, but only “sort of.” I have trouble seeing this convince more than her “47 percent” (quoting Mitt Romney who tried, in a sense, the exact same strategy if only for the other party.

      2. Pat

        I am tempted to point out that she has shown that elections are for show. That the Democrats don’t give a damn about voters, for whom they have little or no respect. And with assistance from Hillary Clinton and others, that they also do not believe in either freedom of speech and freedom of choice of candidates.

        So we have a policy free candidate that garnered not one delegate from elections in two primaries, a party that actively works to remove candidates from the ballot and freely advocate for penalties for expressing opinions they disagree with often erroneously describing as misinformation meanwhile clearly misinforming the public that they are the party defending democracy and the constitution.

        But hey the people who thought this guy was smart are willingly wallowing in propaganda and snake oil so are unlikely to recognize the candidate is not just naked but a puppet and is no choice whatsoever.

        1. Wukchumni

          This is no way to treat Madam Ovary, who has a highly romanticized view of the world and craves beautiful smiles, wealth by war, faux passion, as well as high society via Sauvignon, say no more.

    5. hk

      I thought she had nothing to do with the current administration! /s

      Honestly, the way she’s flipping between the incumbent and the new person as convenient does not exactly inspire any confidence. I hope I’m not the only person thinking this.

      1. No one

        I wonder if Biden is the vengeful street thug that his family relations suggest he is, and that Kamala will be flat on her face before November because of his behind the scenes string-pulling.

        Looking at her record, her campaign style, and her total invisibility during her term as VP, it seems obvious that Biden selected her because she *couldn’t* replace him. In other words, like Dan Quayle ( the only VP who did as little as she has) she was impeachment protection because she would be so unacceptable to the establishment.

        Something went wrong with that narrative, obviously, but can Biden really just step aside after being forced out by the party leaders? Surely, he, or rather Jill & Hunter, have something up their sleeves to avenge the old man. How can the Bidens tolerate a Harris win?

  2. Amfortas the Hippie

    that al mayedeen thing re: tiny neutron bombs is rather disturbing.
    the part about fallujah is new to me, as well.
    like Uncle Johnson might have said, “they studies evil all the time…”

    1. Antifa

      If America used such bombs in Falluja — and elsewhere in Iraq — it helps account for all the birth defects and incurable cancers there from what the West calls depleted uranium. It sounds more like enriched uranium.

      Since the main effect of this weapon is the long term poisoning of the population near where it lands, it also helps explain the reticence of Israel’s Arab neighbor states to fight Israel. It’s a poison pill weapon you can’t recover from even if you win in all other ways. A scorpion’s tail weapon.

      Are the Israelis dropping them only north of the Litani River? That would indicate plans to settle southern Lebanon, and poison the rest of it.

      1. Aurelien

        The author says he’s not an expert, and he had completely lost me by the end of the piece. There are no “uranium bombs” except for early-model nuclear weapons which used Highly Enriched Uranium (ie above 80%) as the active ingredient, and no-one has ever suggested that such weapons have been used since 1945: it would be a bit hard to miss them. These days, actual nuclear weapons use plutonium.

        Since the Cold War, tanks and aircraft firing armour piercing rounds have used Depleted Uranium penetrators, because they are extremely hard, and will penetrate most armours. They disintegrate on penetrating, and leave a toxic dust behind. It is alleged that use of DU in Kosovo and later in Iraq against enemy tanks left poisonous residues that have caused illnesses. The fighting in Fallujah was against Islamic guerrillas without armoured vehicles, so there would have been no point in using DU rounds, although I don’t think anybody actually knows. So far as I know, the type of weapons he seems to be describing do not exist.

        1. Polar Socialist

          [pushes glasses up] DU penetrators are dense, and since penetration depth depends almost linearly on the mass the penetrator can consume to “eat” it’s way trough, DU is a good choice. It’s also claimed that the way it’s tip shears under the enormous pressure of the terminal ballistics causes it to self-sharpen, but that’s not nearly as important as having the whole remaining mass of the penetrator to force the tip forward.

          Tungsten prenetrators are harder than DU, but also much, much more expensive. Which is the main reason for DU ammunition – it’s cheaper than alternatives.

          IIRC the latest technology (a few years ago) in this area is a three piece tungsten rod inside a sleeve. The practically non-existent gaps between the different parts of the penetrator protect the mass from the immense power of the initial strike so there’s no deforming or disintegration, and the sleeve directs the pieces with the main mass trough the penetration channel.

  3. timbers

    Water

    This Is Life in America’s Water-Inequality Capital. It Might Be About to Change Time *************** Must be a bad link. Read the article and didn’t see Flint, Michigan mentioned even once.

  4. The Rev Kev

    “Zelenskyy to visit US factory producing 155mm artillery shells – AP”

    Is it possible for a place to be subject to the Zelensky Curse like people are? If so, I wouldn’t want to be working at that factory.

    1. timbers

      Yes. In Harry Potter, Harry’s mother protected him as a baby from He Who Shall Not Be Named with a re-bounding spell. When Voldermort raised his wand to finish baby Potter off, it rebounded onto Voldermort, thus forcing him to send the next 8 episodes gradually recovering from a curse that by rights should have killed him day 1.

      1. harrybothered

        Voldemort made Horcruxes (put pieces of his soul in objects significant to him) so that he wouldn’t die. It’s a good thing he did, or we wouldn’t have had any books!

        1. timbers

          Right. Horcruxes. The producers forgot all about those which sadly forced them to do another 8 episodes just to clear up that mistake.

          1. mrsyk

            Lol! We had a cat who was frequently referred to as “She who will not be named”. She had genocidal tendencies too! It was a bad time for mice.

      1. John Wright

        I wonder if Z will be doing some side trips to look at US real estate?

        Even if he somehow achieves peace, staying in Ukraine seems extremely unlikely as many locals should view him as destroying their families and their country’s infrastructure.

        Maybe Zelensky will have multiple USA homes and upgraded, non Trump quality, Secret Service protection.

        The USA has to protect him in order to encourage future USA influenced foreign leaders that they and their families will be safe if TSHTF.

        1. Jester

          Shopping is what Mrs. Zelenskaya have been doing all along. Real estate, jewelry, cars, you name it. Since he won’t be enjoying his retirement for too long before some accident happens to him, she also bought a lot of black underwear to wear as a widow.

  5. timbers

    “there is no difference between Hezbollah and Lebanon, Lebanon will be annihilated.” ************ hope these guys don’t cross the Atlantic Ocean – today Lebanon, tomorrow USA? If they are willing to regard American soldiers as cannon fodder pawns for their land theft agenda, doesn’t that suggest they just might see Americans as part of the sub human crowd? I’d put folks like this is a locked room with Zelensky with hidden cameras for 12 hrs and watch the cat fight breakout.

    1. The Rev Kev

      What if the Israelis kill a large number of the Americans stationed in Israel right now and claim that it was actually a Hezbollah drone that did the deed? Not the first time for this sort of Israeli stunt. They tried to sink the USS Liberty and kill everybody aboard to blame it on the Arabs to get the US into their war but the USS Liberty refused to sink and saved that crews lives.

      1. ambrit

        The other primary theory is that the USS Liberty was capable of intercepting Israeli communications between ground and air units concerning the atomic weapons the Israelis had deployed as a “what if” contingency plan.
        The theory says that Israel doesn’t want even their allies knowing “certain things” about their capabilities and goals. That theory is still valid. Perhaps even more so today.
        A fun CT is that Leiberman was made the Senator from Connecticut to pave the way for that state being the new Israeli Homeland if things went sideways in the Middle East.
        Next up: The Rothschild Menace!
        Stay safe and at least a bit rational.

        1. The Rev Kev

          I don’t think that the Israelis wanted survivors from that ship. When the crew started to lower life-rafts to get ready to abandon ship, the Israelis moved in and machine-gunned those lift rafts. What does that tell you about their intentions.

      1. timbers

        Been reminding my family that Israel not a Jewish state, but a Zionist state. Judaism (as I understand it) is profoundly against Zionism as immoral and I would assume forbids it.

        1. Chris Cosmos

          Not only that but, in my view, Jews have had a strong humanizing and civilizing effect on US culture. Having said that, many American Jews (not most) are either Zionists of very emotionally attached to the “idea” of Israel. I had a colleague (and friend) who was exceptionally urbane and literate who told me he was very reasonable about all subjects and issues but one–and that was Israel.

          2. Old Microbiologist

            Most American Jews are Reform or Conservative neither of which are welcome in Israel. Orthodox faith is necessary for Aliya. Being Christian is the same to Zionists as being Muslim.

    3. ChrisPacific

      Some of the trolls here have already made most of that argument (if you’re not 100% on board with the Israeli response it means you’re an apologist for Hamas, if you’re an apologist for Hamas then you’re the enemy).

      They dodged the question when I invited them to draw the obvious conclusions, but the dotted lines were right there for anyone to follow. Israel can and will find a justification for anyone they wish to strike at this point, allies not excluded.

  6. ACF

    The Dr. Ritchie statement strikes me as very Upton Sinclair.
    I have no idea how the droplet goons sleep at night unless they have deluded themselves into believing their dogma (or are sociopaths)

    1. CanCyn

      I’m going with the idea that they are just plain stupid!! I don’t mean to say that the everyday Joes washing their hands and using tons of hand sanitizer is stupid, they’re are going with information they’ve been given. But that asshole? He should know better.

    2. Anonymous 2

      I note that she claims only that the predominant mode of spread is via droplet (what is her evidence?) which allows for the possibility that some of the spread is airborne, in which case precautions against airborne spread are still warranted.

    3. EGrise

      My Occam’s Razor approach is that droplets = tell the proles to wash their hands, airborne = bosses have to spend money on air filtration. One costs nothing, so that’s the one they’re going with, and Dr. Ritchie knows what side his bread is buttered on.

  7. H Alexander Ivey

    Unfortunately, the exchange rate of the dollar to gold continued to rise, as more dollars were printed and circulated globally than the available gold reserves.

    Haha. I love how an author blows their own argument (that a gold based exchange provides more stability) out of the water within a paragraph or two.

    The quote block says that a metal based exchange is not stable, ‘cos of cheating (print more dollars than you mine in gold). And if you follow Michael Hudson, you would know that the amount of dollars you print is suspiciously close to the deficit the country is running, which in turn is suspiciously close to the amount the US spends on their overseas military bases.

  8. SlayTheSmaugs

    Re American foreign policy growing up, all anyone needs to do to understand American foreign policy is to view GWB’s invasion of Iraq at the behest of Cheney and Rumsfeld, publicly justified with lies understood as such by Nancy Pelosi and other key Congress members, as a coup by the military industrial complex over foreign policy. Ever since that invasion, we have been in perpetual war, scattering soldiers throughout many countries, acknowledged and not, focused only on blowing stuff up and forcing nations to bend to our will (not that the tactic generally works, which is why traditionally war was a last resort, not the first.) Contrast to China, which deploys soft power globally to win friends and influence people. The other very dark corporate current is the sanctions machine.

    It is impossible to make sense of American foreign policy without viewing it through the lens of corporate profit, not American self-interest. Engaging in any analysis of what we’re doing abroad without directly addressing corporate profit-control of foreign policy will never lead to understanding.

    1. Carolinian

      That’s a useful Carden article but it never answers why American FP won’t grow up. I don’t really buy the notion that Dubya invaded Iraq just to give the MIC something to do. He himself said it was our God given destiny and probably believed it. Oilman Cheney probably thought it was about the oil and the neocons wanted it for Israel.

      Re the latter, Netanyahu has said that Americans are easily moved but doubtless what he really meant is that American politicians are easily bribed. So let’s call it what it is–corruption–and suggest that our FP won’t grow up because we can’t handle the truth. An unless somebody knocks down some NY skyscrapers it is all far away and the further the better.

      1. SlayTheSmaugs

        Cheney and Rumsfeld and their allies wanted to invade Iraq to take over Iraq’s oil in part because of the embargo the Middle East inflicted on us, in part because it was good for Halliburton. Pelosi and Obama decided not to impeach Bush over the lie, and many other crimes he committed.

        Ever since, we have used bombs first. Once you legitimize lying us into an invasion of choice, there’s no way to stop the war machine short of fundamental political restructuring of a kind most people in both parties will not do

    2. Chris Cosmos

      What is American self-interest? Most Americans do not care about any policy whether foreign or otherwise unless it crosses tribal boundaries or has an obvious effect on income and even then anything complex is beyond most people. When we talk about “self-interest” we are talking about the ruling elites in Washington who may live anywhere. We are an oligarchy that governs for the sake of the oligarchs which is why it is called an oligarchy otherwise it would be called an aristocracy.

      Anyway, to put it another way, corporate profit is in the American self-interest with the added bonus of being an excuse to totally undercut the Constitution and to move towards complete corporate control of the peasants using the Feds and law-enforcement (pre-crime will likely be a reality shortly) as the stick and gaming, entertainment, drugs, sex and so on as the carrot. A “bad” foreign policy from our viewpoint, i.e., constant war (hot, cold, and covert) is good for Washington. Also, for the nerds in power, neocoservativism is the ideal semi-religious philosophy in creating the New Rome as an end of history moment etc., etc.

      1. SlayTheSmaugs

        No

        You are conflating the interest of the ruling class of oligarchs with the interests of America

        I define America as all of the people here not simply the ruling class

        It is almost universally true that what is in the interest of our ruling class is not in the interest of America as a whole, but it is most especially true with foreign policy in which we are:

        Currently killing and maiming are all volunteer military members, physically mentally and emotionally

        Destabilizing the globe with our war of choice in Ukraine and our determination to escalate against Russia, killing and facilitating the killing of so many

        Destabilizing the globe with our multiple wars in the Middle East, currently our support of Israel being the worst, but we’ve already killed and facilitated the killing of so many, set in motion millions of refugees through our actions in Iraq, Libya, Syria and North Africa who arrived in Europe and have destabilized Europe

        All of which has followed the invasion of Iraq.

        To the extent that we have used soft power, it has mostly been about funneling billions to corrupt and handpicked leaders of the countries we invaded under the label nation building, which I don’t really consider to be a use of soft power

        And by the way, our support of Israel at the moment makes me feel very nervous in a self-interested way (as well as in a horrified that we are facilitating genocide way) as I do not live very far from New York City and I think our support makes New York City a compelling terrorist target

      2. ArvidMartensen

        Interesting take. Most Americans are oblivious. And why might that be?
        There is a reason that totalitarian control of media is happening now. Back in the old days when nobody of any consequence challenged the US, they allowed alternative voices.
        But now that the US is losing their grip on the world, the media and alternative voices must be controlled to say that the US is winning and winning and winning.
        If the population was told the truth, then they would probably be interested in more than identity and income.
        Say if they were told that the US is in an existential war (WWIII?) and seems to be losing, and if the US keeps this up there might be a missile in Springfield, then they would take notice of foreign affairs.
        The role of oligarch owned media is to pacify and it has been very successful.

  9. Steve H.

    When I saw this headline:

    > Weather Derivatives Grow as Risks Intensify OpenMarkets

    my brain puckered toward discontinuity until I hit override. Being credentialed in environmental science and policy, it might be that I have some value-add to that dialogue.

    May I rather suggest

    > Disavowed Knowledge Three Quarks Daily

    which concerns

    >> Things we don’t want to know that we know.

    which considers how a self-imposed tax on time becomes a belief system. Which said leads to

    : All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

    Yesterday at our annual Firefly fan-gathering, the auction raised over a thousand dollars for the local women’s shelter. We gifted two printer-produced products, the first the shirts with Serenity appearing on the front. This technique does not have the rubber-like quality of the printshop shirts from previous years, they breath better and we were able to wear them in 90-degree heat.

    The other gift was meant to be auctioned, but the keychain spaceships were too fragile at the engines. About half were damaged, so we gave away the rest, which served well enough for James to fly his around the shelterhouse. Vroom vroom!

    The really important part was to get a coordinated run from different machines. We’re also working on a low-pressure non-electric distillation system. Which could be handy in areas with ‘contaminants like uranium, arsenic and fecal coliform.’ Like the Navajo Nation.

    1. Synoia

      ow-pressure non-electric distillation system.

      Can you point to a comparison for the two energy loads, Heat and Vacuum?

      You appear to assert breaking bonds with vacuum is less energy intensive than using than heat.

      1. Amfortas the Hippie

        solar does nicely…the passive kind.
        so long as your seals are good, and heat proof.
        ive got plans for a solar still for making ethanol fuel for the lawnmowers…but never moved on it, because cork gaskets are hard to find…and i loathe working on engines, anyways…(the ethanol breaks down the neoprene or whatever gaskets that are ubiquitous, today.)

        and hello to another Browncoat!
        one of my favorite shows of the last 20 years.

        and, too…i ran an inadvertent experiment a few years ago: saw a picture somewhere about tar paper and tin shacks in a nigerian slum…and some kid had taken 1 liter soda bottle, added water and salt, and stuck em in appropriate sized holes in the tin roof.
        passive solar light for the otherwise pitch black slum shack.

        so i took about 4 feet of clear rubber tubing i had laying around, capped both ends, after filling it with salt and water…and lay part of it on the roof of part of the shop, the rest hanging within the dark and scary part where all teh screws and such live…and viola!…fiat lux!
        after leaving it for the month of july, i took it down to examine for UV damage, etc.
        opened one end…and was bashed in the face with a strong whiff of chlorine.
        i had made a weak bleach.
        wiki confirmed that this is essentially how bleach is made.

        1. Steve H.

          Shiny!

          With the low-pressure system, Eliyah is working those numbers, he’s into that sort of thing. I’m thinking about cooking at altitude while I nod my head. My deep interest is in clean water, for drinking and greenhouses. Distilling resolves so many issues, not the least in the supply chain. There’s iron in the well-water out there, and betwixt wildfires, East Palestine, and Three-Mile Island, there’ll be reason to distill atmospheric water soon enough ago.

          1. Amfortas the Hippie

            for water filters…big birky, of course.
            but for more long term, look into bigass sand filters.
            it aint the sand, but the biofilm that develops in the soaked sand, that does the real filtering.
            dig it.
            only downside is if yer in a dry climate like i am…those need constant water flow to function.
            ive seen pics of enormous essentially olive oil jugs, ceramic…maybe 8′ tall…6′ at their widest.
            sorry no links to hand.
            im drunk and HAF on homegrown…just cooked lamb chops and a gorgonzola alfredo veggie pasta thing for my eldest and his new girlfriend.

  10. The Rev Kev

    “Zelenskyy has a gamechanging plan to win peace. For it to work, Biden must back it – fast”

    This is really delusional stuff in this article. His advice is like telling Japan in 1945 that to turn the tide, it first needs to decisively knock back the US. So how did that work out? And Zelensky’s only plan is to demand more money, more weapons and to get them into NATO right away so that NATO can get into the war with Russia. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to find out that the west is basically tapped out as far as money and weapons is concerned and nobody wants WW3 for some reason. Got curious about the author of this article – Timothy Garton Ash – and discovered to my surprise that not only is he a historian but he is a Professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford. But you read in the Geopolitics section of his Wikipedia entry and suddenly how he came to his views all makes sense-

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Garton_Ash#Geopolitics

    1. JohnA

      The article was in The Guardian, a pretend left publication that in reality is a gatekeeper for the establishment. Alongside it was an article about a recently exchanged Russian dissident who predicts Putin’s Russia will collapse in a heap almost overnight. Sheer western propaganda on steriods.

      1. Polar Socialist

        Zelensky’s alleged Peace Plan has been published by other sources, too. Most of the others seem to think that he wants to either threaten Russia with a (NATO based) nuclear war if Russia doesn’t back off, or that he wants The West to tell him to negotiate, a.k.a. stab ukraine in the back so he can blame The West for the “surrender” along the Istanbul terms.

        The first one is, of course, sheer lunacy. The second one sounds kinda plausible, except that Russia is way past the Istanbul terms now. The war ends when Ukraine surrenders or collapses.

        1. Ignacio

          The west talk about Russian bluffs but it is the West indeed a giant bluff. NATO bluff. It will be soon noticed how useless this organization is and how delusional Zelenski apparently is about joining NATO. I yet doubt Zelenski is any longer capable, not to mention trusted by the Russians, on any negotiation with the Damocles sword of the ultranationalists in his throat. So i don’t buy that narrative except for the fact that someone in Ukraine will effectively show the Ukrainians how tragically have they been used as the CW war toy against Russia. The Russians themselves will be happy to push that narrative.

    2. Chris Cosmos

      I used to read Ash’s stuff in the NYRB for decades. He was always featured and his stuff, even by NYRB standards, put me to sleep. He was always “liberal”, loved Poland, was pro EU, anti-Soviet and so on–for a scholarly type, his stuff was based on unexamined assumptions and ideology. The Guardian is a perfect place for him. Fortunately for him, English intellectual life is in tatters and even worse than the state of the intelligentsia in the USA, that is, if you are into logic, rationalism, and intellectual openness.

      1. vao

        Timothy Garton Ash has long been a regular guest for interviews in German-speaking countries because he speaks excellent (if accented) German — besides holding acceptably liberal, EU- and NATO-compatible opinions.

    3. Bugs

      Works for the Hoover Institution and has a house there as well as in Oxford. Eee gads, it’s vomit-inducing stuff. How far the Manchester Guardian has fallen to print such bosh.

    5. Ignacio

      Garton Ash was, years ago, frequently published at El Pais as a voice of Reason and politically correct thinking. No longer. Turned to be nothing but the next idiotic globalist PMC warmonger agit-prop. An idiot in other words.

    6. eg

      The fool Ash has been featured with some regularity in the Globe and Mail for years. He is eminently ignorable.

  11. ChrisFromGA

    Re: U.S. fears war in Lebanon but hopes Israeli attacks push Hezbollah to a deal

    War is peace.
    Freedom is slavery.
    Ignorance is strength.

  12. Michael Hudson

    I didn’t like the article on China’s supposed rivalry with the US at all. The point isn’t rivalry; it’s that China’s aims and indeed its whole spirit is utterly different from those of the United States..
    Rivals are playing the same game, and there is a winner. China does NOT want to play for what the US wants — unipolar dominance, with the aim of securing the economic surplus of other countries for itself.
    America’s stated aim vis-a-vis China is similar to that of US/Russia: To break it up, divide it into smaller countries that are prone to regime change color revolutions to install US/NATO client oligarchies, i.e., to Ukrainianize Russia and China.
    China is win-win. America can’t play this policy because it has nothing to offer, except the paper promise NOT to bomb other countries.

    1. i just don't like the gravy

      China wants to share world domination with the United States, and Uncle Sam wants to keep it all for himself. Sounds like conflict is inevitable because Sam is agreement incapable.

      My money is on Mother Nature, professor.

        1. i just don't like the gravy

          Both the Chinese and the Americans are blind men describing an elephant.

          Just because one of the two has found its trunk and learned to feed it, does not mean they understand the scale of the beast they are working with.

    2. Chris Cosmos

      As you know the mentality of the FP community in the US is that “it’s either China or us and it had better be us.” Everything the USA does in FP is predicated on that. They hate Russia because it stands in the way of weakening and controlling China. That’s the extent of deep thinking and everything follows from that central dogma. The idea that big-power politics could ever display cooperation, respect, or synergy is completely beyond them. Everything is war and competition. Sadly, our culture lacks (and not just in the ruling elite) any moral sense other than domination/submission. winners/losers, and always utterly false displays of compassion usually towards pets rather than people.

      1. Carolinian

        Mentality is the right word and it’s the psychological trap of the powerful. You always assume everyone else is out to do to you what you do to them. By that reckoning total domination is the only survival strategy.

        Perhaps this is a huge simplification but mentality-wise history seems to suggest that the only solution is to take away their power–just as they feared. That we also don’t bomb and invade them may come as a surprise.

        You could use the same analysis on our current USA election where the Dems assume the Trumpies are out to be just as authoritarian and paranoid as they are and therefore “a threat to democracy.” Whereas the obvious truth is that Trump just wants thousands or millions of people to love and adore him. He was already a big cheese with a different “mentality.”

    3. AG

      Exactly!
      In Germany I have been confronted with this same adversarial mindset already some 25 years ago. Then I had hoped it´s just temporary. Well, here we are.
      And the oddest thing – it´s progressive leftists aka “woke” folks who domestically are in favour of advanced forms of teaching in high schools, less pressure by grades etc. (which I am all in for), more bottom top organisation, less authoritarian structure. Yet when it comes to geopolitics they turn into the worst kind of neoconservative – Huntington-style – clash-advocates. Disturbing Chimeras of Bolton meets Oprah.

  13. Jester

    Ukraine’s Victory Plan envisages NATO membership invitation for Kyiv and modern weapons supplies Ukrainska Pravda

    My get-rich-quick plan envisages a mansion and a yacht.

  14. CA

    https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1837706885946110229

    Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

    This is genuinely huge: for the first time since the industrial revolution 200 years ago, it looks like 2024 may be the year when global emissions will start a long-term structural decline.

    And, as the article details, it’s in large part thanks to China, because it’s driven by:

    — The rise of solar power and wind, made extremely cheap by China: “Over the past decade, we’ve seen over a 90% reduction in the cost of buying solar modules”, with China providing “around 90 per cent of the world’s solar components.” Same for wind: “onshore wind has dropped from being 95% more expensive in 2010 than the cheapest fossil fuel option to being 52% lower in 2022”, with China producing about two-thirds of the world’s wind turbines.

    This leads to a situation today where “for over three-quarters of the world’s population, they now live in a country where it’s cheaper to build new wind and solar generation than any other form of new carbon-intensive electricity supply”.

    — China’s mass adoption of electric vehicles: we’re now at a stage where “over half of the electric cars on the planet are driving around on Chinese roads”.

    Now, of course, peaking isn’t enough.What will matter now is the pace of the decline in emissions towards a “net zero” future. If we manage to reach net zero in 2050, we will keep global warming below 1.75C. But on current trends, which is a steady, but not rapid, decline from now on, the planet will still warm by 2.6 degrees.

    Link to the article: https://abc.net.au/news/2024-09-21/major-climate-agencies-call-global-emissions-peak/104016030

    12:13 AM · Sep 22, 2024

    1. i just don't like the gravy

      I appreciate your frequent comments as a counterpoint to Western groupthink.

      But China is powerless against Mother Nature. You will soon see that the ratchet only goes in one direction.

      1. CA

        https://english.news.cn/20240916/5ed85a5713fc423faa24fae1eda25bad/c.html

        September 16, 2024

        China’s new foxtail millet variety sets summer yield record

        BEIJING — Chinese agricultural scientists have developed a new variety of foxtail millet, * setting a summer yield record, with the breakthrough expected to provide strong support for boosting grain production and revitalizing the country’s millet industry.

        The new foxtail millet variety, Zhonggu 25, was developed by researchers from the Institute of Crop Science (ICS) under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and cultivated in a demonstration field in central China’s Henan Province. A recent expert measurement recorded a yield of 625.92 kilograms per mu (about 9,389 kilograms per hectare), breaking China’s 2014 summer foxtail millet yield record per mu.

        This new variety has achieved a record-breaking high yield, despite adverse weather conditions such as heavy rainfall and lack of sunlight this year. The success can be attributed to the superior traits of this millet variety, including lodging resistance, high productivity and excellent disease and stress tolerance, along with the use of optimized planting techniques that further enhanced its performance, according to experts.

        This achievement lays the foundation for scientific breeding, the exploration of new cultivation techniques and further development of the millet industry, offering a model for increasing millet yields on a large scale, said Diao Xianmin, a researcher with the ICS and leading scientist of China’s millet and sorghum industry and technology system.

        Foxtail millet is one of the oldest domesticated crops in the world and a staple crop in the formation of the Asian agricultural civilization and it held a dominant position in the Chinese agricultural system before the introduction of high-input agricultural practices like irrigation and chemical fertilizers. Moreover, because it is a crop that can grow across a wide range of environments, including arid lands, it has the potential to be important for food security under climate change, according to experts…

        * https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-023-01423-w77

        1. i just don't like the gravy

          To the hammer of industrial society, everything is but a nail. Humanity must bend the will of Earth’s flora to its own ends in order to fulfill a lust for consumption that knows no bounds.

          You can post all the Chinese agitprop you want. All the “innovation” in the world won’t put the genie back in the bottle.

          What you post amounts to plugging holes on a sinking ship with fundamental structural damage to its hull.

          1. LifelongLib

            Spiders make webs, birds make nests, beavers make dams. Every creature here under the sun tries to bend nature, because nature is under no obligation to provide any creature with a comfortable or even livable environment. They (and we) have to do that for them/ourselves.

            1. CA

              “Spiders make webs, birds make nests, beavers make dams. Every creature here under the sun tries to bend nature, because nature is under no obligation to provide any creature with a comfortable or even livable environment. They (and we) have to do that for them/ourselves.”

              What a brilliant and wonderful comment.

            2. Lee

              “I am this world and I eat this world. Who knows this, knows.” To which one might add, and I’ll be eaten by it.

              Admittedly, the above quoted wisdom was put forth at a point in history when it was probably unthinkable that human activity could reach Shiva-like, world-destroying magnitude.

            3. i just don't like the gravy

              They (and we) have to do that for them/ourselves.

              Pathetic human hubris.

              Plow the Earth until your fields lie fallow.

              Then curse God for what is your own folly.

              The chimps tell on themselves every step of the way.

          2. CA

            “You can post all the Chinese agitprop you want…”

            I have no idea why studying a plant that allowed for cultivated grain production in Asia as long ago as 10,000 years, and finding how that plant could be cultivated again across developing countries amounts to agitprop and especially amounts to “Chinese agitprop.”

            I have no idea why Chinese scientists should be vilified for grain research, such as hybrid rice research and development, that is newly feeding far more people about the world than any other grain, is Chinese agitprop. Madagascar, among the poorest of countries, has recognized the importance of hybrid rice for the island country by printing pictures of hybrid rice as background on the national currency.

            Why should China and Madagascar be vilified?

            1. i just don't like the gravy

              My friend, the grains are irrelevant. Our problems are greater than millet or maize.

              I welcome you to continue posting neat China facts, but do not allow yourself to think they are any better than the rapacious American capitalists.

              Deng already gave the game away: to get rich is glorious.

              Human hubris and greed will erode during this century just as the tide erodes the shore.

        2. CA

          Here is the correct Nature.com link:

          https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-023-01423-w

          June 8, 2023

          A graph-based genome and pan-genome variation of the model plant Setaria
          By Qiang He, Sha Tang, Hui Zhi, Jinfeng Chen, Jun Zhang, Hongkai Liang, Ornob Alam, Hongbo Li, Hui Zhang, et al.

          Abstract

          Setaria italica (foxtail millet), a founder crop of East Asian agriculture, is a model plant for C4 photosynthesis and developing approaches to adaptive breeding across multiple climates…

      2. ArvidMartensen

        You might be right. But I wager that the most advanced technically, including food innovation, will be able to survive the longest.

        Perhaps that’s the new arms race, who will survive the longest before extinction. A bit like when we were kids seeing who could hold out eating their easter egg the longest.

        But the meek will not be inheriting the earth, or even what is left of it.

    2. urdsama

      Where is this “global emissions will start a long-term structural decline” coming from? Even if one were to believe the stories about China’s energy generation shift (which I don’t), there are more than enough new sources of global emissions to erase any such gains.

      You have to look no farther than the second climate link above regrading the latest environmental disaster happening in Papua regarding deforestation on a massive scale. And now Harris is for fracking, so regardless who becomes president the US will be adding to this issue as well. It’s clear governments as a whole are not working to curb emissions in any meaningful way.

      Not to be a doomer, but to quote Private Hudson from Aliens, “Game over, man! Game over!”

      1. Jabura Basaidai

        the curse of Jevons Paradox – interesting to watch the back and forth in the comments – spiders, birds and beavers a pretty cool saying – but have to agree with you urdsama and George Carlin – we ain’t so special, just a cul de sac on the evolutionary tree – here today, gone tomorrow – to turn around the inevitable at this point is turning a battleship in a bathtub – but might as well try –

  15. The Rev Kev

    “Europe’s authoritarian, unelected ruler, Ursula von der Leyen, in a growing dispute with NATO leadership”

    Only a few years ago I thought it a good idea for Europe to develop their own military in order to be more independent of NATO. Boy, was I ever wrong. If the EU had their own military, there would be a good chance that Queen Ursula would have done something stupid with it by now – like ordering it into the Ukraine. And it would not matter that EU laws would forbid the deployment of that EU military without the consent of the European Parliament as Ursulla just does what she wants to do and never suffers any consequences for it. In any case, the present EU Parliament would almost certainly think that it would be a great idea for a EU army to go into the Ukraine. Ursulla with her own military? God forbid. But it must grind her gears that anything to do with military formations in Europe has to get the nod from Washington first. And that isn’t going to change anytime soon.

    1. Chris Cosmos

      In Ursula’s defense, though the EU has become increasingly authoritarian it is still weak as a State. Many Europeans want a strong EU with the equivalent of power that the US Federal Gov’t has achieved over time. War is the perfect instrument to centralize power–it has been the clear road the US has followed. Every war increases the power of the central gov’t to control people and Ursula thinks that would be the best step to make Brussels the equal of Washington in theory at least. At this point in history Europe is still a vassal state of vassals states–centralized power in the EU would change that and make it the equal of other powers. In fact, there is a chance that Brussels could eclipse Washington which i far more corrupt than any European capital whether Berlin, Paris, or Brussels. We will see if the corruption bug stifles Europe the way it has stifled the USA which will not be able to function a decade from now if trends continue, particularly, if Kamala is the new POTUS.

      1. ArvidMartensen

        The EU was set up by US interests. Ergo, it was set up to be weak and to never challenge the good ole US of A

        A bit like the US constitution was set up to make sure the ‘common man’ would never be in charge

    2. Chris Cosmos

      Ursula, and others, want Brussels to be an approximation of Washington. She wants a central government with Washington’s power (developed over time through war-making, and economic crises). War-making and the authority that can be had by controlling the narrative and the organs of the State is essential to making the EU a force to be reckoned with. At the moment Europe is just a system of vassal states to Washington. Only a united Europe speaking with one-voice can provide agency and independence from Washington that NATO does not give. The international system is devolving/evolving into blocks. We’ll see whether Ursula gets her way or not–at least she has a vision.

  16. Captain Obvious

    Ukraine Has a Strange Way to Make the M1 Abrams Tank Even Better The National Interest

    -To counter drone threats and improve survival rates, Ukraine has retrofitted the tanks with steel cages, a method similar to Russia’s “cope cages.”

    First they mock you, then they copy you poorly while continuing to mock you. Those Ukrainian pinky-swear-not-cope-cages are way too close to main armor. The whole point of cages (aka slat armour) is to detonate incomming projectiles as far as possible from the main armor. Few inches rarely does the job.

    1. The Rev Kev

      When I started reading that article, I wondered if it was better reactive armour, though the Ukrainians are forced to scavenge anything they can find on the battlefield, or maybe a new anti-drone system. Nope. Just better cope cages. The very same ones everybody was laughing at the Russians for using. Not gunna save those remaining MI Abrams though. And like you pointed out, those cages should be further away from the tanks themselves to lessen the blast effects.

    2. TheBeeman

      “Ukrainian officials behind the effort tell The Hill that the retrofit has worked extraordinarily well at protecting not just the Abrams but also other U.S. armored fighting vehicles like Bradleys,” the report added. “For the $10 million apiece Abrams, the relatively crude fix has helped keep the tanks on the battlefield.”

      $10 million each – that’s a lot of money for a steel cage – no electronics, no weapons – just a steel cage.

      1. Captain Obvious

        Nah, that’s $10 million for bare Abrams. Price of armor upgrade is not disclosed, but those cages can’t be cheap considering that Ukrainian oligarch is behind the whole “project”.

        This feat of Ukro-high-tech-redneck-engineering reminded me of their earlier work (estimated $5 million a piece):
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVaMn_x1wEE

    3. hamstak

      There were reports a week or two ago about drones being used either by Ukraine or Russia (conflicting info) which spewed thermite in order to clear vegetation or assault enemy personnel or what have you. Setting fires to a forest patch does not seem like a particularly economical use of such drones, which makes me wonder if these operations were in fact field tests and that the ultimate targets will be armored vehicles. Cope cages aren’t going to offer much protection against thermite.

      @TheBeeman – I don’t believe the $10M was the cost of the enhancement, but of the vehicle itself. Maybe the add-on was procured at the low low price of $500k! (Installation not included.)

      1. Polar Socialist

        They were quite certainly Ukrainian, as the videos were posted by Ukrainians, and Russian soldiers have commented that they are not very effective against trenches. They can cook off exposed ammunition, though.

        Maybe the ERA blocks covering most armored vehicles can deal with thermite droplets. The delivery method doesn’t seem to be that accurate.

        1. Joker

          Russians have posted some videos too. Strapping incendiary mixture to a drone is not rocket science. Youtubers would start doing it soon enough.

  17. Trees&Trunks

    The delivery robot and promo codes: that robot looks wonderfully easy to kick over. That is a promo code back

    2. DeSoto

      If you are interested in more jobs for low income people, uncluttered sidewalks, privacy, stripping power from billionaires, then knock over everyone of things you encounter.

      Also, in San Francisco, swarms of white robotaxis clog the streets, pause for a long time after dropping humans off, blocking traffic, honk at early hours of the morning and destroy the jobs of cab drivers. Kick them, slash tires, block them with your car, just do it to make them unprofitable. The cameras and sensors are also sensitive to laser pointers and spray paint disables.

  18. Wukchumni

    Gooooooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!

    Semper finance had been deployed across the border from profit, for a lowly ranked GI nicknamed ‘Corporal Punishment’ had put all the grunts manna into office buildings, ‘safe as houses!’ he had cackled copiously before the corpus derelicti got raptured of employees, who suddenly realized after like 25 years of being on the internet, that they really didn’t need to travel to a large building 5 times a week, and could work from the comfort of their homes, who knew?

    2. Mark Gisleson

      Flashing back to the sales reps I used to work with. There was nothing they hated more than company meetings because it meant they had to actually go to the building where they had a tiny desk they never used.

  20. The Rev Kev

    “47-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft just fired up thrusters it hasn’t used in decades”

    I have to admit to feeling fondly of Voyagers 1 & 2. For all this time they have performed far above anything that could have been expected of them – and even more. Maybe, just maybe, one day we will develop near-FTL space craft. And maybe also we could send a mission to retrieve those two craft and bring them home. It would only be fitting. Or maybe they will be left on their voyages as reminders that we, as a species, once existed. So where are they going?

    ‘Voyager 1 is expected to reach the theorized Oort cloud in about 300 years and take about 30,000 years to pass through it. Though it is not heading towards any particular star, in about 40,000 years, it will pass within 1.6 light-years (0.49 parsecs) of the star Gliese 445, which is at present in the constellation Camelopardalis and 17.1 light-years from Earth. That star is generally moving towards the Solar System at about 119 km/s (430,000 km/h; 270,000 mph). NASA says that “The Voyagers are destined – perhaps eternally – to wander the Milky Way.” In 300,000 years, it will pass within less than 1 light-year of the M3V star TYC 3135–52–1.

    Voyager 2 is not headed toward any particular star. The nearest star is 4.2 light-years away, and at 15.341 km/s, the spacecraft travels one light-year in about 19,541 years – during which time the nearby stars will also move substantially. In roughly 42,000 years, Voyager 2 will pass the star Ross 248 (10.30 light-years away from Earth) at a distance of 1.7 light-years. If undisturbed for 296,000 years, Voyager 2 should pass by the star Sirius (8.6 light-years from Earth) at a distance of 4.3 light-years.’

  21. diptherio

    ZIRP wreaks gaming destruction in Animal Crossing economy (free FT link):

    https://www.ft.com/content/68f96d24-02f0-42fd-b132-aba0acba777f

    Savers at the Bank of Nook are being driven to speculate on turnips and tarantulas, as the most popular video game of the coronavirus era mimics global central bankers by making steep cuts in interest rates.

    The estimated 12m players of Nintendo’s cartoon fantasy Animal Crossing: New Horizons were informed last week about the move, in which the Bank of Nook slashed the monthly interest paid on savings from around 0.5 per cent to just 0.05 per cent.

    The total interest available on any amount of savings has now been capped at 9,999 bells — the in-game currency that can be bought online at a rate of about $1 per 1.9m bells.

    The abrupt policy shift, imposed by an obligatory software update on April 23, provoked fury that a once-solid stream of income had been reduced to a trickle with the stroke of a raccoon banker’s pen.

  22. lyman alpha blob

    RE: A Last-Minute Effort to Mess With the 2024 Vote Is Underway. It’s Scarier Than Expected.

    Oh my god, they’re talking about counting ballots by hand – the horror, the horror….

    Nice handwave by Slate with zero evidence presented to back up their BS claims –

    “Even if one favors hand-counts of ballots—a procedure that is far less accurate than a machine count followed by a hand audit of a sample of ballots—it is insane to roll out a change this late in the election process. There is simply no time or personnel available to get this done.”

    1. The Rev Kev

      ‘Even if one favors hand-counts of ballots—a procedure that is far less accurate than a machine count followed by a hand audit of a sample of ballots’

      These are the same sort of people that tell you that to stop getting Covid, to make sure that you wash your hands and that wearing masks is dangerous.

      1. Polar Socialist

        I wonder, honestly, where the claim of far less accuracy comes from? Mrs. Socialist has been hand counting votes in several elections, and they never made a single mistake in the counts. Hard to be far better than 100% accurate, me thinks.

    2. Mikex

      We have all these ‘neutral’ fact-checking organizations- that seem to spend all their time exclusively investigating things Trump says. I wonder if they ever turn their gaze to places like Slate? Seems like they could make some hay with that paragraph you highlighted. Maybe Biden’s Ministry of Disinformation will get after them.

    3. marym

      If you do a search on something like ballots hand count studies there will be numerous articles. Many of them are from establishment-Dem-leaning sources, so you can factor in the bias, and there’s probably some duplication of content. However, some of them do provide some of the arguments, examples of actual hand counts, and links to studies.

      Also, while here at NC people may make logical arguments in favor of hand counting as more secure, the Venn diagram would probably be close to a circle of Republican politicians and activists currently promoting hand counting and those accusing those same election workers and volunteers who would do the counting of having processed ballots in suitcases or counted ballots more than once despite those procedures being open to public observers and cctv cameras.

      As far as the hand count of number of ballots (not votes) currently proposed in GA, GA is one of the few states that uses ballot marking devices rather than hand-marked ballots for in-person voting. That’s probably a better place to look for alternatives to electronic vulnerabilities.

      https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/02/a-transparent-open-source-vision-for-u-s-elections.html#comment-4004322
      https://arizona.votebeat.org/2023/5/25/23737472/pinal-county-election-errors-hand-counting-ballots

      1. hk

        Sometimes, even Republicans are right. If the goal of elections (which it really is) to get credibility, anything that weakens the credibility of the institution, especially vis a vis its critics (when those critics are half of the electorate or more) is a bad thing.

      2. The Rev Kev

        We do hand-counted ballots here in Oz and I have done so myself for over a dozen elections. We were quick and we were thorough with reps from the main parties watching us as observers. I would never trust a machine to do the same and especially not a piece of dodgy, secret software. This is not a Dem thing or a Repub thing. It is a trust thing.

        1. marym

          It’s also a methodology thing. The methodology and resources that would be required for US general elections do not necessarily map to those in countries with a very small number of items on the ballot in any given election. This is amply discussed in the fox59 link above.

          The political faction currently proposing hand counting also wants immediate results; disparages the integrity of the election volunteers and workers who would do the counting; has not, to my knowledge, made any substantive proposals regarding methodology; and doesn’t tend to like allocating funds for public purposes. If their motive is to provide a more trustworthy system, it’s their job to address the practical challenges of doing so.

          1. lyman alpha blob

            There are already methodologies that can be adopted. I’ve discussed here previously the hand recount process I participated in and it was very efficient, quick, and not costly. The resources required are people with an ability to count. While the process does need to be organized and secure, it’s also not rocket surgery.

            1. marym

              It’s up to the politicians who are currently promoting hand counting to propose a methodology and demonstrate that it works at scale. So far they haven’t done so.

              1. johnnyme

                I have yet to see a compelling argument as to why this new rule requiring that the number of paper ballots cast match the number of ballots scanned is problematic.

                From the Associated Press:

                The new rule requires that the number of ballots — not the number of votes — be counted at each polling place by three separate poll workers until all three counts are the same. If a scanner has more than 750 ballots inside at the end of voting, the poll manager can decide to begin the count the following day.

                Proponents say the rule is needed to make sure the number of paper ballots matches the electronic tallies on scanners, check-in computers and voting machines. The three workers will have to count the ballots in piles of 50, and the poll manager needs to explain and fix, if possible, any discrepancies, as well as document them.

                The only thing I can see as potentially problematic is giving officials the option of postponing the verification step until the next day.

                Additionally,

                Some other states already count ballots by hand at the end of voting. Illinois has done so for decades “without complaints of delays or any potential impact on ballot security,” Matt Dietrich, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections said in a statement. “It’s designed to ensure integrity and voter trust and by all accounts has worked.”

                If Illinois can double check the number of ballots cast, why can’t Georgia?

                1. marym

                  One issue, mentioned in your link, is whether it can be implemented in this way by administrative decision, rather than legislation. It’s ironic, because one of the big objections on the Trump side in 2020 was that Democrats “rigged” the election by implementing changes to facilitate absentee voting without following proper procedures. It’s also ironic that this proposed ballot counting in GA would add some time to the process, though other issues raised in 2020 on the Trump side included suspicions and rumors as time passed and reported numbers changed through the night.

  23. Wukchumni

    As part of the National Park Service’s established protocol regarding officer-involved shootings, Yellowstone National Park has released body worn camera footage from a July 4, 2024, officer-involved shooting at Canyon Village. The community briefing video shows the significant sections of the body worn camera footage from some of the involved law enforcement officers. The video is intended to help community members gain a better understanding of what occurred.

    https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/24035-yellowstone-releases-body-worn-camera-footage-from-july-2024-ois.htm
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    You’re allowed to bring your gats into our National Parks, but if you shoot them-you’ll be subject to arrest, which must give 2nd Amendment fanciers fits, as their rights are sacrosanct, except in Federal buildings, courtrooms, commercial airplanes, concerts, sporting events and a few other no-go zones, but otherwise those rights shall not be denied!

    In reality, our NP’s are pretty much sitting ducks for a mass murderer, nobody at the entrance gates asks if you have an arsenal in your automobile, and where large crowds gather (such as the Sherman Tree or Moro Rock here in Sequoia NP) they tend to be oblivious to risk, as these are nature sanctuaries-not shooting galleries.

    1. Wukchumni

      p.s.

      There are about half a dozen NPS LEO’s with scoped assault rifles in the video, and i’ve never seen one in public on a Sequoia NP LEO, with or without scope in say 55 years.

      This latest young man with hand cannons had tipped his hand the night before, so you get the mistaken idea that an NPS SWAT team is at the ready as always!

      If a mass murder by assault rifle (with multiple magazines) & handgun-as per the Yellowstone shooters armament was to take place on atop Moro Rock where there are 30-40 tourists on top, it would take an NPS LEO 10-20 minutes to get to the base by vehicle and 30 minutes to get to the top, as those en route to the top would be mighty panicked and its pretty tight quarters on the all rock trail to the scene of the crime.

    2. Carolinian

      Or a mass murderer of wildlife. Seems Teddy Roosevelt when he visited Yellowstone managed to defy the rules and shoot something (a bear I think). He declined to prosecute himself.

      Visitors to Sagamore Hill on Long Island have to be careful not to be stuck by all the antlers and hunting paraphernalia.

      A sign on the entrance to my local Lidl says no concealed weapons. Truly a sign of the times.

      1. Wukchumni

        Teddy was a mass murderer specializing in bird collecting early on{ par aviancide, and reached his pinnacle of pulling the trigger in Africa where he and his son dispatch hundreds of Big and not so big game on safety off safari

        I read The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, A Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History last month, worth your while.

  24. tegnost

    Sad that we couldn’t hit 1500 donations.
    On kamala policy, as a constitutionally cynical person I’m wondering if the 50 grand tax credit for small biz creation will apply to new uber drivers/air bnb hosts etc…, tony west and all…maybe someone has more details…certainly they will apply to those buying 5 sprinter vans for amazon deliveries. The dem mantra is you can’t help anyone else until you help yourself first. I can only imagine the pablum being ladled over the turkey at a harris thanksgiving dinner, p.s., don’t eat the collards…bathtub ewwww. I wash mine in the sink with the other veggies.

  25. The Rev Kev

    “Macron unveils new right-wing French government’

    I bet that all those leftists in France feel pretty stupid right now. They used their political power up at the elections to ensure that Marie le Pen was not elected by riding a groundswell of people moving to the left and all that happened was that Macro said thank you very much – and nominated a bunch of centralists and right wingers into government to consolidate his power. Even Michel Barnier, whom Macron made Prime Minister, came from a party that had a disastrous performance at the elections. There is a threat of a no-confidence motion in the new government by the leftists but I think that they will fold in order to ensure the ‘stability’ of the government or some such excuse. What a bunch of clowns.

    1. Chris Cosmos

      I think Macron knows that “the left” in France is deeply divided, confused, and incompetent as it is everywhere. I think he feels he’s riding the winds of history.

      1. Aurelien

        The BBC story is a mess. They need to hire a better class of intern.
        First, this is not “Macron’s government.” The distinction between President and Government is absolutely fundamental in the French Constitution. Macron did not want Barnier anyway, and his government is the result of a tussle between Barnier, Macron and the leaders of the various parties, with a significant off-stage role for Le Pen. It’s not government of the “Right” so much as it reflects the dominance of the Centre-Right in the National Assembly. If the Left don’t like that they should replace the electors with others. It’s misleading to suggest that the Left won the “most seats.” It was the largest of the three main blocks, but polled fewer votes than the RN. There was no chance of it ever forming a government. The Republican Party wasn’t founded by Sarkozy, it’s just the latest incarnation of the ultimately Gaullist RPR. And so on.
        Bruno Retailleau, who is not well known in fact (he’s been in the Senate for twenty years) is the most interesting choice. He’s a conservative in the traditional sense, ie not ” Liberal” in sheep’s clothing. He’s from the Vendée, the part of France south of Nantes, which is very Catholic and traditional, a place of farming and fishing and small businesses, where people still get married. He voted against homosexual marriage a decade ago, and represents that significant part of France, so detested by Mélenchon, which is rural and traditional and has few trendy urban professionals. His first order of business will be to try to bring a bit of order to the chaos over immigration, which will give rise to screams and street demonstrations from the Left, but not much more.

    2. vao

      Actually the election was not to elect Jean-Marie Le Pen (who is no longer active in politics), but the party led by his daughter, Marine Le Pen.

      But your bringing Jean-Marie Le Pen into the discussion is actually very relevant, since there is another famous case where the French left-wing parties made common cause with the right to prevent the Front National (nowadays called Rassemblement National) from ascending to power: the French presidential elections of 2002.

      The first round of the elections was a shock: the socialist candidate got less votes than Le Pen, who came a bit behind Jacques Chirac, the candidate of the traditional right. The left parties then formed a “republican front” to block Le Pen and called for a vote in favour of Chirac — who was duly elected. Chirac then proceeded to implement policies that were unreservedly right-wing — including several that corresponded to the political programme of Le Pen (who joked about it a couple of years later), to the aghastitude of the left.

      The French left did not learn from its experience in 2002, and held on to the “lesser evil” approach — it deserves what it got now.

  26. The Rev Kev

    “The Long Game: Understanding US and China’s Theories of Victory”

    What if the US’s strategy is to win because that is the way that it is supposed to be while the Chinese strategy is not to lose. Two different philosophies.

  27. hamstak

    Apropos the New Not-So-Cold War, Larry Johnson (Sonar 21) has a recent post regarding an interview that one Danny Davis had with retired General Ben Hodges. When challenged about his failed prediction that Ukraine would be on the move in Crimea by summer 2024, part of Hodges reply included:

    “I may be wrong a lot but I’m not totally ignorant.”

    I nominate this for quote of the week! To think this guy gets paid to be wrong a lot — have any of you ever had that luxury?

    Not totally ignorant is a very high standard indeed.

    1. Zephyrum

      LOL. Crazy. Those poor guys have a tough job. They have to craft everything they write and say to please the rest of the DC crowd. If it happens to intersect reality then lucky them, but that’s far from the highest priority.

  28. AG

    There is this interview between RU war correspondent Marat Khairullin and Ryan Dawson on the nature of US geopolitics under the Neo-Cons.

    30 min.
    https://maratkhairullin.substack.com/p/meeting-ryan-dawson

    Most of it is standard fare for NC readers.

    Khairullin does make a few interesting minor observations beginning around min. 17:00 on failure of US arms.

    However my question concerns Dawson´s notion about D.E.I. Diversity Equity Inclusion – Dawson who I had frankly only heard of states that DEI is responsible for some of the failure within the US MIC and of R&D of US high tech companies.

    See him for that TC 21:00 above.

    Dawson brings up as an illustrative example that the first F-35 crashing into a carrier was piloted by a woman. And companies like APPLE or GOOGLE abandoning DEI for the harm it has done to the companies.

    I don´t see the connection. A gay pilot is good or not good regardless of who he fucks.

    I am aware that the point is rather that the selection process is based on political not professional grounds.

    But are there seriously substantial grounds to blame that for national failure?
    I would argue without DEI the industry would face the same problems.

    Besides inclusion and quality of training or engineering are absolutely unrelated.
    To not choose the top brass eventually for such a rather odd job as F-35 pilot (No I don´t admire them) shouldn´t be blamed on the candidates.

    Eventually we find ourselves back in the 1860s with segregated black-only higher education. Or girls-only schools.
    This cannot be the solution.

    Unless of course one likes to fancy idiotic IQ ideology as usually en vogue in the US and certain CDU/AfD cadres in Germany but also pseudo SPD like Thilo Sarrazin who introduced the major tropes of this narrative into Germany 20 years ago with a major essay in LETTRE INTERNATIONAL.

  29. Jason Boxman

    Harris Cracked Down on Violent Offenders, Showed Leniency on Less Serious Crime (NY Times via archive.ph)

    Her record as a prosecutor navigating both paths has left her open to criticism that she either betrayed liberal ideals or prioritized them over law and order.

    So the NY Times makes sure it hits every box:

    From the moment that Kamala Harris took her place among 57 counterparts at the 2004 California District Attorneys Association annual conference, it was an open question how, if at all, the first Black, Asian American and female D.A. in the state’s history would fit in.

    Ms. Harris, whose mother was Indian and whose father is Jamaican American, did not even blend in back home in liberal San Francisco County’s law enforcement circles. The county had never before elected a woman, a Black person or an Asian American as its district attorney, much less all three at the same time.

    Black? Check.
    Asian? Check, covers Asians and Indians.
    Indian mother? Check.
    Jamaican father? Check.
    Woman? Check.

    Ms. Harris’s defenders argue that her professional history makes perfect sense to anyone who grew up as she did, in a working-class Black neighborhood in Berkeley governed by mostly white leaders.

    So not an upper middle class neighborhood in Canada?

  30. Tom Stone

    Am I the only one who thinks of Harris as the “Milli Vanilli” candidate?

    And the Israeli’s seem to be delusional as well as deranged, the vaunted US Military is a hollow shell of what it was 30 years ago, however Israeli politicians don’t seem to recognize that fact.
    If the Izzies kick off a larger War expecting the USA to pull their nuts out of the fire they are going to be disappointed.
    The US Military does not have the means to do so.
    “For we have the Gatling Gun and they have not” is no longer the case.

  31. Wukchumni

    Kamala was a bullshitter when talking extemporaneously
    Was a good friend of mime
    I never understood a single word she said
    But I drank in her word salad whine online
    And she always had some mighty fine word salad whine

    Singin’ joy to the world
    All the boys and girls & undecideds now
    Joy to the proposed tax credits and more you see
    Joy to you and me

    And if she were the queen of the world
    Tell you what she’d do
    She’d throw away the borders and concentrate on the wars
    Make war-not love to you

    You know I love the idea of a POTUS lady
    Love to have her have her run
    She’s a last minute replacement hire and a rainbow rider
    A straight shootin’ son-of-a-gun
    I said a straight shootin’ son-of-a-gun
    Were you to break into her home

    Singin’ joy to the world
    All the boys and girls & undecideds now
    Joy to see me-dig me
    Joy to you and me

    Joy to the world
    All the boys and girls & undecideds
    Joy to the world
    Joy to you and me

    Singin’ joy to the world
    All the boys and girls & undecideds now
    Joy to the lemmings in the deep blue sea states
    Joy to you and me

    Joy to the world
    Joy to you and me
    Joy to the world
    All the boys and girls & undecideds now
    Joy to our proxy wars across the seas
    Joy to you and me

    Joy to the world
    All the boys and girls & undecideds
    Joy to drilling for oil in the deep blue sea
    Joy to you and me

    Joy to the world
    All the boys and girls & undecideds

    Joy to the World, by Three Dog Night

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjtEM0mtUtw

  32. Dissident Dreamer

    Thanks for the NLR link – The neck meets the sword. Possibly the best single piece on Palestine I’ve ever read and I’ve read a few. Recommended.

    1. elissa3

      Second this. I have a vague recollection of having met Khalidi in Beirut in the 70s. For a recorded interview, Khalidi is incredibly lucid and eloquent. He has an encyclopedic grasp of events, and his interpertations are plausible, even convincing because of that. Also, Tariq Ali is a great interviewer.

      1. AG

        This is the German answer to an interview with Khalidi – German formerly genuinely left daily TAZ (founded as part of the rising GREENs in the late 1970s now the worst of left imperial establishment) features a conversation with Khalidi´s – I assume former – colleague – Joshua Cohen teaching literature at Columbia:


        “US author on Middle East conflict and elections:“Then there is no hope anymore”
        In an interview, writer Joshua Cohen talks about anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. He doesn’t expect much from the American left.”

        21/9/24
        https://taz-de.translate.goog/US-Autor-zu-Nahostkonflikt-und-Wahlen/!6035945/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

        Unlike Khalidi, Cohen is not an expert on history of the region. But he has views which align much better with the paper TAZ.

        I have looked into the search engine – TAZ apparently has never made a single interview with Khalidi – which if it is true would amount to a minor scandal in my view.

        He is only being mentioned.

        If anyone is interested, more by TAZ on the topic e.g. here: (It´s 99% touching the Holocaust one way or the other, Gaza only if it really cannot be ignored. And rest assured these are the more sane pieces.)

        Someone like me living in this place can go mad reading the daily news in this country.

        “Anti-Semitism at US University: Not out of the blue
        The architecture school at Columbia University in New York has become a Mecca for Israel hatred. Unfortunately, this was to be expected.”

        15/7/24
        https://taz-de.translate.goog/Antisemitismus-an-US-Universitaet/!6023257/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

        “Postcolonialism and Shoah research:Ways out of the dichotomy
        Since October 7, a ping-pong of accusations has been raging: “You are anti-Semitic” versus “You are racist”. A plea for more differentiation.”

        2/4/24
        https://taz-de.translate.goog/Postkolonialismus-und-Shoah-Forschung/!5998108/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

        A review of Khalidi´s book (even TAZ could not ignore that one)

        “Debate culture on the Middle East conflict:The Bell of Gaza
        The current understanding of reasons of state is damaging our country. Germany should be a partner in overcoming the Israeli-Palestinian misery.”

        18/4/24
        https://taz-de.translate.goog/Debattenkultur-zum-Nahostkonflikt/!6001896/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

        I once did this kind of research on Edward Said. Same old same old…

    2. AG

      A bit surprised to see Khalidi only so late discussed here. It´s several months old.
      (er, I believe it WAS discussed…)

      But he will be surely content to see the article still being circulated.

      He asked explicitly that people spread the news about that interview (as well as others of course but since it´s in a major British medium it´s of particular significance.)

      Compare that with the biased LRB and Adam Shatz.
      Who always manages to somehow get a Western spin into the most horried stories.

      p.s. anybody know what Khalidi is doing now, after Columbia and the Said Chair?
      btw another great scholar – among the many of course – Asad AbuKhalil

      p.p.s. This was great too. Almost one year ago, sigh:

      “Ta-Nehisi Coates and Rashid Khalidi on Israeli Occupation, Apartheid & the 100-Year War on Palestine”
      https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/24/ta_nehisi_coates_and_rashid_khalidi

      1. CA

        https://consortiumnews.com/2023/09/18/asad-abukhalil-the-hundred-years-war-on-palestine/

        September 18, 2023

        “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine”
        Historian Rashid Khalidi’s concise and at times personal take on a century of colonial conquest and resistance in Palestine is a highly accessible read that focuses on key events and themes.
        By As’ad AbuKhalil

        There is a plethora of books on the Arab-Israeli conflict and yet those of us who teach the subject on college campuses are desperately looking for new ones to use as textbooks on the Palestinian question. Rashid Khalidi’s new book, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017, takes a fresh new approach.

        Even among the good informative books on the conflict, like Sami Hadawi’s Bitter Harvest or Charles D. Smith’s Palestine and the Arab Israeli conflict, the tendency is to produce an overly detailed, blow-by-blow account of wars to introduce students to the origins and evolution of the conflict.

        In his book, Khalidi refreshingly avoids presenting a tedious descriptive chronology and opts for a highly selective account of the conflict, dividing the book into themes and events.

        He also adds personal details, regarding himself or his family, or even other members of the extended Khalidi family, giving the book a more interesting and accessible take. The historian was my advisor at the American University of Beirut at undergraduate and graduate levels.

        He wrote his own PhD dissertation under Albert Hourani, entitled British Policy Toward Syria and Palestine and knows the history inside out. He also participated in Middle East negotiations as an advisor to the Palestinian delegation in Madrid and later in Washington D.C. Not surprisingly, Khalidi has written prolifically about Palestine, including a book on the formation of Palestinian identity.

        Damning Account of Balfour Declaration

      2. hk

        I think Khalidi is still at Columbia. At least, he still shows up as Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies, with office hours for this year.

        1. AG

          Not that it would concern me – but that´s great news.
          (He sort of sounded sad in the NLR piece finale. That´s why I was wondering)

  33. GramSci

    Re: Breakthrough in ocean carbon removal.

    The article didn’t explain why Equatic Corp doesn’t just use fresh water instead of bothering to filter the salt out of seawater.

    Too hard to find a [relatively] unpoluted source? Such a source close to a hydrogen market?

    1. Stev_Rev

      Cleaning the water is expensive, and yes, fresh water can be hard to find (consider the Middle East, which has abundant solar but limited fresh water). The ability to effectively use seawater would open up geographical opportunities for the tech.

    2. CA

      “The Breakthrough That Could Unlock Ocean Carbon Removal”

      The links article strikes me as “mysteriously” repeating a research and development process that has already been completed as described in Nature.com Sustainability. Possibly I simply misunderstood the roughly described research in the links article, but

      https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01317-7

      March 14, 2024

      Efficient osmosis-powered production of green hydrogen
      By Qirui Liang, Yanan Huang, Yaxin Guo, Xin Zhang, Xiaomeng Hu, Hui Zeng, Kang Liang, Dongyuan Zhao, Lei Jiang & Biao Kong

  34. Michael McK

    From what I read it seems the new anodes for producing hydrogen from, and sequestering Carbon dioxide in, seawater would increase ocean acidification. Am I missing something. Is it suspicious that they do not say what molecule the Carbon forms?

  35. rowlf

    Had a canvaser knock on my door today who identified as be part of an AFL-CIO group. I’ll start by saying I am generally impressed with anyone having strong enough feelings to canvas (particularly when the houses are spaced out on one or more acre lots) , and I am pro-union. This young man asked if my wife and I will be voting, and if we favored any candidates. Why yes, I will be voting for Brother Cornel West and his anti-war platform. This really surprised him as I look like Nikita Khrushchev and live in a red area.

    A pleasant conversation ensued. I suggested looking up Adolph Reed Jr and was happy to hear the canvaser knew about Chas Freeman already.

    Maybe there is hope. I think I made his day.

  36. kareninca

    My mom just talked with a close friend of hers; a woman who is in her 30s. They live in the same small town in New England. To my mother’s tremendous surprise, the woman told her that she intended to write in a presidential candidate, rather than vote for either of the ones on offer. This is extremely unexpected because both the woman and her husband are government employees, and have always voted for Democrats.

  37. Lunker Walleye

    Perhaps Larry will leave many special gifts on Keir’s pillow during Starmer’s time at No. 10 and will show Prince who the Top Cat is.

Comments are closed.