Links 9/24/2024

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1. Antifa September 24, 2024 at 7:00 am

   THE CHOSEN RACE
   (melody borrowed from Put On A Happy Face  by Tony Bennet, from the musical Bye, Bye Birdie)

   Things won’t get too severe ’cause we are the Chosen Race
   Yahweh will always hear us, and offer us His grace
   Faith is a rare and special strategy—it takes a while
   It’s understood when things get bad we will smite and defile

   We live by our big rule book that says we’re bound to win
   Letting in any doubt is surely a mortal sin
   Those Arabs keep claiming our space–
   These people don’t know their place!

   (musical interlude)

   Arabs must always fear us until they’re all replaced
   Conflict can only steer us to lay their lands to waste
   We like the world to watch in apathy as we run wild
   Our nationhood relies on tragedy for the gentiles

   Shia or maybe Sunni, whatever creed you bring
   We’ll treat you all as loonies—we’ve got the real thing
   We Jews define the one Chosen Race
   The rest of you have no—have no place

   You Arabs have no—have no—have no place
2. Psyched September 24, 2024 at 7:15 am

   On “A little history of the anchovy”; They mention the Glutamate in anchovies as being the source of Umami, but there are two other players needed for the savory flavor; Inosine monophosphate (IMP) and Guanosine monophosphate (GMP).

   https://www.cspinet.org/article/inosine-monophosphate-imp-disodium-inosinate

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami

   I cannot eat these additives since they make my mood disorder worse.
3. Mikerw0 September 24, 2024 at 7:17 am

   I could not disagree with Turley and his defense of Roberts anymore strongly. Two of the most powerful institutions in the US, SCOTUS and the Fed, are fundamentally the least democratic. Yet, they act with impunity and without even the most basic accountability.

   Due to the weird, elitist motivated, anti majority rule and anachronistic Electoral College the Supreme Court majority was installed by Presidents who did not receive a majority of the popular vote. They are opaque and operate in secret. They produce head scratching opinions that distort power relationships (e.g., Citizens United, Presidential immunity, etc.) and then say they should not have a code of ethics. Spare me. They don’t even care about optics anymore – as their power is absolute.

   Roberts is clearly throughout his career pro corporation and anti citizen.

   The Fed, as is well documented on NC, behaves the same. It serves a narrow interest not the general citizenry.

   But, why should we expect anything else as long as narrow interests and our elites are getting what they want.
   1. chris September 24, 2024 at 8:15 am

      SCOTUS is bad because we have a legislative branch that’s decided to abdicate their responsibility. But, why the hate for the EC? Do you want the entire country to be run by elites in California, New York, and Chicago? Or, sorry, i used the wrong phrase, “the dynamic growing places in America”? The EC was originally, and remains, a way to balance the concerns of the rural and less popular areas against the concerns of the states with larger populations. Given the situation we’re in, where people from California are all too happy to send people from Indiana to go die in a sandbox, I think we still need it.
      1. t September 24, 2024 at 10:30 am

         People often say Land shouldn’t have a vote. I think it should. Obviously this attempt at breaking up the mob has practical limitations – elites starve a state until they are begging for fracking jobs and most east coast cities already ship their household garbage far away to landfills in other regions but I don’t know what else we can do to break up the mob.

         (Gerrymandering is another beast entirely.)
         1. jrh September 24, 2024 at 11:42 am

            Why do you think Land [sic] should have a vote?

            From what general principle(s) can you derive this position, and what would it even mean?

            And who exactly is “the mob”?
         2. Wukchumni September 24, 2024 at 11:51 am

            ‘Gerrylandering’
         3. Kouros September 24, 2024 at 4:45 pm

            Land doesn’t vote. The diminishing number of land owners do… especially with their wallets.
      2. curlydan September 24, 2024 at 3:01 pm

         I am in Kansas and disenfranchised at least when it comes to electing the President. Since I won’t vote Republican, I get zero say (not even one-millionth say) in the election of President. Even my third-party vote is essentially useless other than to give a tiny finger to our duopoly.

         Also, there are millions similarly disenfranchised people in TX, CA, NY, and FL–just because they’re in the wrong party in that state. I’m confident the Founders never envisioned a system where the candidates for President would only need to campaign in 10%-15% of the states while completely ignoring all the others (except to funnel donations into those 5-6 swing states). Yet that’s where the electoral college has led us. It’s a broken system in serious need of fixing.
   2. jefemt September 24, 2024 at 8:17 am

      Sure seems like this could go into the all-time comment section, if such exists.
      Timeless institutions, timeless observations.
      1. JMH September 24, 2024 at 9:47 am

         The power of the court is not absolute. Read Article three. Congress can mess with the Court in substantive ways. That said a constitutional amendment that limited justices to a fixed term of years or limited their tenure by some other formula would not be a bad idea at all. This court has published decisions that I consider destructive. Whatever was Justice Kennedy thinking when he opined that it would be neutral in its effect. Out of touch with reality does not begin to describe it. But, look back to the Warren Court and all of the civil rights decisions. They were deprecated in much the same way. Impeach earl Warren billboards were common especially in the states that had formed the Confederacy.

         At present abolition of the Electoral College would empower “Blue Archipelago”, the east and west coasts and a few interior islands in a sea of red. At the presidential level it would appear to insure election of a democrat to the White House until demographic shifts say otherwise. Is this a good solution long term? I do not have an answer and amending the constitution to abolish the College is effectively impossible barring a solution that I cannot even imagine. Is there a workaround acceptable to all parties? There have been suggestions, but none were acceptable.

         US politics are a mess. Are they even politics? What have you heard from the candidates that inspires you to vote for any of them. Tariffs and bluster from DJT, feel good and more of the same from KDH. My focus is foreign policy, geopolitics. Each supports the genocide and population removal policies and actions in furtherance of those goals by the government of Israel. KDH: more of the same vis a vis Russia and China. DJT: a degree of change as to Russia but hammer and tongs after China. Both support the crackpot notion that the US must be the unchallengeable unchangeable hegemon … forever. This is simply foolish, stupid, and unrealistic. This is not 1945 or 1960 or even 1990. I look at them and from my point of view cannot determine which might be the greater evil.
         1. t September 24, 2024 at 10:33 am

            US politics are a mess. Are they even politics?

            Going with a no, here. What are they? Shambling hybrid ogliarchical monarchy that a lucky few can bootlick there way into?

            I don’t know.
            1. Kouros September 24, 2024 at 4:48 pm

               Greeks called it demagoguery (Anglicizing the word here), I think…
         2. Oh September 24, 2024 at 3:31 pm

            FWIW, there is one candidate who’s different – Jill Stein.
            1. juno mas September 24, 2024 at 9:54 pm

               Yes. And if enough people vote for her she could impact the election in November and beyond. If you’re not getting in the street for change in America, then at least vote for someone who is.
            2. Lazar September 25, 2024 at 6:57 am

               Yea, different.

               US Green Party candidate Stein calls Putin ‘war criminal,’ clarifying stance after controversial interview
               https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-green-party-candidate-stein-214836439.html
   3. JTMcPhee September 24, 2024 at 8:25 am

      This ties, in my mind, to the American Conservative “awakening:” “The US Hurt Itself With Russian Sanctions.” Reification and anthropomorphization are always in play for pundits. It’s such an easy shorthand. “The US” is not an entity, certainly not one “awareness.” There’s a lump of power, military and monetary and ‘real economy,” that gets pushed around by individual people whose positions and interests are pretty much immune to “hurt.” They have no loyalty to “the US” and thus there’s never going to be the recognition of pain that might lead to some different outcome. And of course it’s ever clearer that the “foreign policy” of this lump is pretty much controlled by the puny asp of a place that does have a power structure that adheres to a self-definition, an evil and destructive one but manageable by a cynical and heedless set.

      Just annoys me that discourse includes these broad statements about “the US” doing or feeling or experiencing this or that. Of course, writing detailed descriptions of the actual players and powers is a dying skill that does not pay and increasingly subjects one to the battering the oppressive parts of the lump now openly administer.
      1. juno mas September 24, 2024 at 9:56 pm

         Love your insight, JT.
   4. ilsm September 24, 2024 at 11:25 am

      Your democracy has no foundation in the U.S. constitution. The input of the people is the House elected under suffrage law.

      The Senate is elected by the people, but was originally appointed by states.

      I wonder why you think judiciary, and bank regulators would benefit from rule by demos?

      Enlightenment men were familiar with Thucidides history of the Peloponnesian wars.
   5. PeasantParty September 25, 2024 at 10:45 am

      I agree to your summation on the current situation. However, their power is NOT absolute. They have you believe that, render you helpless, and preserve themselves out of fear. The mind shift from decades of propaganda have the masses locked into a funk where we think we have only the choice of Coke, or Pepsi, and everyone wants to vote for a winner. Break that shit up, let go of those boundaries, and stop being stuffed in a box. I’d like to suggest a book that will give a few REAL alternatives, and steps to attain them.

      https://www.amazon.com/True-Reform-Restoration-Jess-Money-ebook/dp/B07QCS7J1H/ref=sr_1_3?crid=R1M32MHH2XSZ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.LFabxR2kAi5HVn94Rk6R5dZ45k1mVN239HbWFR9Vb1P0h4gXuMh3uIlEIoydQiuMCXUidNETGGqWZkS-FF8xBTYysjTwC29AeEDc2g6H0IXhtgXiU15JoD5xISjk_CjFrSTe2tS8QK6BIJRx3gj91AKB5FAYYsKtJXUAzmZz7Bns9mkZ9jEn929jYM4Qg55SZwqUWEJQVm_K-P_0TmPAgukA5cXDDY_Ftly6MkoNK3E.SMuAqpyHAa37D8vu15TVLJ9MPn7_Y3mZphIoJq3TWzs&dib_tag=se&keywords=Jess+Money&qid=1727275121&s=books&sprefix=jess+money%2Cstripbooks%2C88&sr=1-3
4. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 7:24 am

   ‘Tameem | تميم
   @TameeOliveFern
   I present to you Israel’

   Can’t see what follows in that tweet but came across another article about it a little while ago. It gets worse. When she was suspended the students were celebrating and taking pictures while chanting ‘Am Yisrael Chai (the nation of Israel lives)’ and others were chanting ‘May your village burn.’ How did it start? There was a class discussion about the present war and when she showed concern about Palestinian children, they went feral on her and her teacher threw her to the wolves. This does not bode well for the future of Israel-

   https://www.timesofisrael.com/beersheba-girl-suspended-from-school-after-voicing-concern-for-gazan-kids/
   1. Chris Cosmos September 24, 2024 at 11:02 am

      This is what Israel has become thanks, in large part, to American Zionists (Jews and Christians). It is now living in the day so the Old Testament when “God” (who bears no resemblance to the Christian God in any way shape or form) ordered Israel’s military to slaughter non-Jews and, in some cases, even their animals.

      There is no possibility that the current push for a “Greater Israel” can be turned back considering the mood of Israeli citizens as displayed in the story mentioned above.
   2. Es s Ce Tera September 24, 2024 at 12:58 pm

      I was that kid, once. It’s hard, very hard, to be moral and principled, to stand for your beliefs, in the face of such blind rage and hatred. She’s hurting but this will probably be VERY formative, life changing.

      I have nothing but awe and respect for her. She seems connected with an inner truth, a sense of fairness and justice, and she obviously has amazing courage. Perhaps one day she’ll be a great leader.
      1. Kouros September 24, 2024 at 4:54 pm

         Nicely captured here:

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaQFsqLgRE0
5. Zagonostra September 24, 2024 at 7:30 am

   >A little history of the anchovy Engelsberg Ideas (Anthony L)

   I love anchovies…when I can get them on my pizza I do, although when in polite company I try restrain myself…I’m always reminded of a poem I heard on the Writer’s Almanac many years ago.

   Puttanesca
   by Michael Heffernan

   Before I gave up wondering why everything
   was a lot of nothing worth losing or getting back,
   I took out a jar of olives, a bottle of capers,
   a container of leftover tomato sauce with onions,
   put a generous portion of each in olive oil
   just hot enough but not too hot,
   along with some minced garlic and a whole can of anchovies,
   until the mixture smelled like a streetwalker’s sweat,
   then emptied it onto a half pound of penne, beautifully al dente,
   under a heap of grated pecorino romano
   in a wide bowl sprinkled with fresh chopped parsley.
   If you had been there, I would have given you half,
   and asked you whether its heavenly bitterness
   made you remember anything you had once loved.

   https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate=2010%252F03%252F10.html
   1. mrsyk September 24, 2024 at 8:42 am

      Thanks for the poem. Now I’m sad and hungry (again), and ruminating on the perfect cheese match on an anchovy pizza.
   2. DJG, Reality Czar September 24, 2024 at 10:38 am

      Zagonostra: Wonderful poem.

      And to highlight the continuing weirdness of the Undisclosed Region, I pull this observation out of the article about the history of this glorious little fish: “In the mid-15th century, impoverished young Alpine villagers in Piedmont began making annual treks to Genoa along the ancient Salt Road to bring back salted anchovies to their native hills and valleys, where bagna cauda, an anchovy-infused dipping sauce, first developed. The call of one of these itinerant traders ran: ‘Anchovies of Malaga, of Setabal, buy them, eat them, and they will keep you warm all winter!’ “

      Even in Italy, with its long coastline, fish simply doesn’t travel well — or it didn’t till recently. So any inland region traditionally uses preserved fish. In the Undisclosed Region, that means plenty of robust anchovies, tuna in oil (ventresca!), and baccalà.

      The Italian champions of baccalà, though, are the Venetians. If BillS is reading,, he may regale us with his recipe for baccalà mantecato.

      That’s my daily report. I, too, have a little tin of anchovies in the fridge. Off to do infernal U.S. paperwork…
      1. Xihuitl September 24, 2024 at 1:31 pm

         Made a Caesar salad for dinner last night. Contains four umami ingredients: anchovies, parmesan, toasted bread, and Worcestershire sauce, which is a form of anchovy sauce or fish sauce. (Use Vietnamese fish sauce on my risotto and pasta in place of hard-to-get garum, the ancient Italian version.) In the south of France I learned to cook and eat brandade, the French version of baccala. Been eating a lot of salt cod lately here in Houston, where there’s a Venetian restaurant down the street that serves baccala mantecata. Note that cod is a North Atlantic fish, and my understanding is that traders used the dried, salted cod as a kind of currency. Which is why there are salt cod dishes all over the world.
         1. Ignacio September 24, 2024 at 2:55 pm

            Many went far to fish them (cods) and salting was the way to conserve them during the journey when refrigerators/freezers weren’t still available. For Instance Basques and Portuguese in Terranova or in Svalbard. In Spain the anchovy paradise is Santoña, a village west to Bilbao where they prepare the best semi-preserve anchovies. Best quality are those with fish bones removed manually. Expensive delicatessen they are. Most of the spring anchovy production goes to semi-preserve preparations then in summer more is sold as fresh product. Go to Santander and try “bocartes” (fried anchovies) in summer. In the Mediterranean coast the semi-conserve is done mainly in Girona if i recall correctly. There is a variation to the traditional salty semi-conserve which is cooked and conserved with vinegar. Delicious too!!!
         2. Martin Oline September 24, 2024 at 8:51 pm

            The wonderful book Salt A World History by Mark Kurlansky informs that Mediterranean fish are oily and will not dry in a way that keeps. Cod, on the other hand, is not as oily and once salted and kept dried will keep for a very long time. The church forbade the eating of meat on religious days and fish was not considered meat. The market for dried marketable fish was huge, so long before the pilgrims and likely before Cabot’s voyages, the Basque, Portuguese, and others went to the waters off Newfoundland. Like all good fishermen, they kept their fishing spots secret. Their trade with the natives there likely introduced European diseases, prompting large epidemics and clearing the way for the Pilgrims to settle.
         3. Carla September 25, 2024 at 9:12 am

            Mark Kurlansky wrote a whole book about cod, entitled “Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World.”
      2. BillS September 25, 2024 at 5:03 am

         Hi DJG!

         Your infernal US paperwork must be that infernal reporting to the IRS that even non-resident citizens must complete. I can relate!

         Our fave version is baccalà mantecato alla vicentina – an easy recipe that reminds you of the fine line between gastronomical and sexual pleasure! My wife goes crazy for it! A good recipe can be found here. We will usually add a bit of lemon as well..not too much, mind you. Serve with polenta brustolada or, better still, crostini di pane. Il pane non deve mancare mai! It can also be used as a condimento for pasta, but we see that as a bit of a waste, as it loses that consistenza libidinosa.

         Other news from the Veneto highlands, I see that Meloni has been honored by that NATO cutout, the Atlantic Council, perhaps for her continued support of the Ukraine debacle despite the wobbly support among the electorate. I found it amusing (in a macabre sort of way) that Elon Musk was the presenter. Marco Damilano missed the point entirely in his piece yesterday, ranting on and on about Musk’s supposed far-right leanings instead of his MIC connections.
   3. barefoot charley September 24, 2024 at 4:31 pm

      Lovely poem. Not all readers may know that the name roughly translates as ‘whore’s sauce.’ I’m told it kept the girls on the street warm at night, as it certainly does us at table.
6. Es s Ce Tera September 24, 2024 at 7:34 am

   re: Sri Lanka elects Marxist-leaning Dissanayake as president to fix economy

   As with “Cultural Marxism”, I find “Marxist-leaning” to be puzzling. What is that, someone crtical of capitalism? Someone who believes there are class differences, e.g. rich and poor? Someone who believes in equality and human rights? Who thinks employees and employers negotiate wages, the value of labour?
   1. John9 September 24, 2024 at 10:25 am

      I think Marxist leaning means someone about to be couped by US/CIA color revolution machine.
      1. Kouros September 24, 2024 at 5:14 pm

         https://indi.ca/the-ruling-left-in-sri-lanka-who-are-akd-and-the-jvp/
7. Zagonostra September 24, 2024 at 7:42 am

   >UK: Labour Party bans words ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’ from conference

   In the land of George Orwell, my how far we’ve come…

   “It’s a beautiful thing, the Destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well. It isn’t only the synonyms; there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word, which is simply the opposite of some other word?

   …By controlling the language, Big Brother controls the way that the people think. With a limited vocabulary, the people are limited in how much they can think, as well as, what they think about. In another passage, Syme says to Winston, “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?

   https://theessentialencounter.wordpress.com/2017/05/02/the-destruction-of-language-in-george-orwells-1984/
   1. JMH September 24, 2024 at 9:59 am

      Absolutely. Censor is now moderate. Lie is alternative truth. Client state is ally. Free world is us. the list goes on and on and I have left out some juicy ones that I cannot call to mind. A classic series is panic to crash to depression to recession to downturn.

      How about producing the dictionary of obfuscatory euphemisms?
      1. jobs September 24, 2024 at 4:56 pm

         “Democratic Party”.
   2. Anthony Noel September 24, 2024 at 9:54 pm

      Meh, Orwell was a fraud and an informer who happily worked with the British IRD, a propaganda arm of the British intelligence services, who happily used all those things that George supposedly hated so much. As long as they were aimed at people he didn’t like, socialists, communists, Russians, he was fine with Big Brother.
      1. Captain Obvious September 25, 2024 at 7:27 am

         Meh, what exactly? Zagonostra is not talking about the individual that you may or may not fancy, but about dystopian vision of society that came to life. The world described in “1984” (which is what “land of George Orwell” means) has become an entity in its own right, and you can not just dismiss it by ad hominem. If a Nazi rocket scientist was to put a man on the moon, would you dismiss moon landings?
         1. Anthony Noel September 25, 2024 at 11:00 pm

            Zagonostra is actually. They don’t say Orwellian, but the land of George Orwell, as in the person, not the cultural concept that uses his name. And they are clearly referencing, not the fictional world of 1984, but the UK. See the initial quote “UK: Labour Party bans words ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’ from conference” followed by the sentence “In the land of George Orwell, my how far we’ve come…”. They are clearly indicating that George Orwell would be critical of the acts of the Labor Party because of what he wrote in 1984.

            I point out that this is unlikely. Orwell was quite comfortable with utilizing the very instruments of control now dubbed “Orwellian” so long as they were targeted at the “right” kind of people.

            And I hate to be the one to break it to you but a Nazi scientist did put the American’s on the moon. Wernher von Braun, a Nazi, was smuggled out of Germany via Project Paperclip along with thousands of other “useful” Nazi’s. He and his team were the primary designers of the Saturn series of rockets, which were the rockets used to get Apollo 11 to the moon, and no, despite that fact I don’t dispute the moon landings.

            But that is a far different thing then disputing that a man who, indisputably showed he was fine using methods he supposedly condemned and found distasteful, to the point that his name is associated with their odious use, would probably not have a problem with what the Labor party is currently doing, because they are the “Right” kind of people, and the people censored and removed by the labor party, are the “Wrong” kind of people.
            1. Captain Obvious September 26, 2024 at 8:55 am

               OK, I get your point. I interpreted the post differently. From my (non-western) point of view, UK have always been exploitative, and totalitarian, and stuff. First Dickensian, then Orwellian. I could not interpret “the land of George Orwell” in any other way than sarcastically, especially not as longing for some good ol’ times that never were.

               My point about separating author from the work still stands. That was the purpose of my reference to SS-Sturmbannführer von Braun. I’m not sure if you breaking it to me was supposed to be sarcastic or not. George would probably not have a problem with what the Labor party is currently doing, and Werner would probably enjoy Slavs dying en masse.
8. timbers September 24, 2024 at 7:48 am

   “Zelensky is now touring ammunition factories in Pennsylvania and attacking President Trump and JD Vance in American media outlets. A foreign leader is essentially campaigning for Harris on American soil.” *********** Yes, but which candidate is Zelensky helping?
   1. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 7:59 am

      I’m trying to think of a western leader who has buddied up to Zelensky but who has not suffered bad political misfortunes sooner or later. None come to mind. If he gives Kamala a big hug in public then you can stick a fork in her. She is done.
   2. ca September 24, 2024 at 9:21 am

      Lindsy Graham, and all those senate, house and governor Zelenski kissers are still in power. The Zelenski curse seems to work on a presidential/prime minister level.
      1. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 9:29 am

         Maybe. But Mitch McConnell has glitched out a few times. ;)
   3. Bugs September 24, 2024 at 9:21 am

      If Shapiro goes down for autographing artillery shells under the watchful eyes of Big Z, it will be a blessing for everyone. How PA got cursed with both him and “let Gaza burn” Fetterman is crazy, but remember who ran against them, and the possibilities of even worse are mind boggling.
   4. Jester September 24, 2024 at 9:41 am

      Support for Harris is the only thing that Zelensky and Putin openly agree on.
9. Zagonostra September 24, 2024 at 7:51 am

   >Trump Shows Signs of Strength in Sun Belt Battlegrounds, Polls Find New York Times

   Both candidates are viewed more negatively than positively in the three states…

   I noticed about 12 lawn signs for Trump this past weekend and 1 for Kamala. I’m in a small town not far from State College, PA. I’m not sure if ratio would be the same in larger PA cities like Philly or Pittsburgh, but it seems, based on just looking at yard signs, Trump has the advantage in small and rural areas of PA.
   1. Enter Laughing September 24, 2024 at 10:14 am

      The sign count in my corner of rural southeast Michigan is running about 15-20 Trump lawn signs to every one Harris sign. Granted, I live in a reliably Red county, but I am seeing far, far more Trump signs this cycle.
      1. Bsn September 24, 2024 at 11:28 am

         We live in a confused, but Democratic leaning area. We went to the Dem. office and got a Harris/homme boy sign. We changed the (wanna be) vice prez name with “Cheney”
         Then, over both of those 2 candidates we placed a red null sign.
         No Harris/Cheney
         Looks real professional – we’re proud of ourselves.
   2. Wukchumni September 24, 2024 at 11:46 am

      We are pretty evenly split here in Tiny Town, Obama won by 1 vote in 2012 and Trump triumphed by 4 votes in 2016, with Biden killing it by 175 votes in 2020.

      This one rancho deluxe place with a dozen horses that I’ve never seen anybody on top of one in a saddle in my score so far here, has a Trump flag right underneath old glory, kinda gives it this ersatz legitimacy merely by placement.

      Haven’t seen a sign of Harris yet, maybe 5 of those Trump flags.
   3. nippersmom September 24, 2024 at 3:33 pm

      On my morning drive in a red county in Georgia, I pass 7 houses with individual Trump signs, one with a Trump sign plus a banner, and one with a whopping three Trump signs plus a Trump flag (also flying just below Old Glory). By contrast, there is one Harris sign on my route.

      I have also not seen any other Harris signs in my general travels, but did come across a cluster of 4-5 Trump signs all in one yard the other day. I also encountered a pick up truck with two Trump flags flanking a confederate battle flag, and a third Trump flag next to an American flag on the tail gate.

      I realize my area is not representative of Atlanta and other urban areas in the state, but I nonetheless think Georgia is not as close as the polls would lead one to believe.

      (As an aside, I always marvel at the cognitive dissonance of people who simultaneously fly American flags and confederate battle flags)
   4. kareninca September 24, 2024 at 7:50 pm

      I’ve spotted no presidential election signs whatsoever here in Silicon valley (there are a vanishingly few local politician signs).

      All of the quasi political signs (e.g. black lives matter), which had been around for a while, seem to have disappeared.
10. SocalJimObjects September 24, 2024 at 8:00 am

    AI Snake Oil. I am kinda surprised that the authors didn’t touch on the subject of self driving vehicles, or at least that’s my impression after seeing the figure included in the Eric Topol’s article.
    1. Jester September 24, 2024 at 9:45 am

       Self driving/flying/sailing vehicles of kamikaze variety are the killer app for the AI.
    2. PlutoniumKun September 24, 2024 at 10:12 am

       Oh, I remember those long ago days when it was predicted we’d all have a self driving car by 2021.

       That said, it does appear that a 2.0 version of self driving cars seems to be emerging from the ashes of all that VC money, and may have some sort of limited commercial applicability.
       1. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 10:22 am

          I’m still waiting for my own personal jet pack. Saw one at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney in the 60s and have been waiting ever since-

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBgZh7v2nao (28 secs)
          1. Michael September 24, 2024 at 12:21 pm

             Does it come with a valet? Or must one summon one upon landing?
             1. Ignacio September 24, 2024 at 3:02 pm

                I would love to see one of those self-driving cars trying to survive in… for instance, in Palermo, or crossing a bus in the costiera amalfitana.
                1. tegnost September 24, 2024 at 11:16 pm

                   hanoi
                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=203&v=UzKw4O9qOZo&
    3. Mikel September 24, 2024 at 10:46 am

       It’s a global hallucination.
       The AI Snake Oil is a lagging indicator that American influence hasn’t collapsed, despite all claims that it’s on the way out.
       1. cfraenkel September 24, 2024 at 12:59 pm

          Bitcoin is still kicking around, even though it’s now widely known to be an energy guzzling con with no practical use.

          Even VR is still kinda alive, in it’s assorted niches where it makes sense. (just don’t expect to find it anywhere on Meta’s PR. : )

          So AI won’t collapse anytime soon, it takes time to burn through that big a pile of cash.

          And now that anyone can download and mess around with working models on their laptops, someone is bound to stumble upon useful things to do with them. Just not VC sized $$$ payoffs. So maybe it all works out in the end.

          (surveillance capitalism/adtech/big data/censorship-intel business model/cancer is another story. That shows no sign of slowing)
       2. Captain Obvious September 24, 2024 at 2:36 pm

          Being on the way out implies not completly collapsing yet. “Despite” does not fit in between.

          Empires operate on their own timescale. If a regular man can see an empire collapsing in front of his eyes, that means that it’s gong down pretty fast, but it does not necessarily mean that he will outlive it.
11. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 8:07 am

    ‘Science girl
    @gunsnrosesgirl3
    You would not believe what this transforms into’

    Hey, China. We developed this cool idea called a pop-up restaurant. What do you think?

    China: ‘Hold my beer.’

    I have the idea that this sort of think could be put to other uses as well. Pop-up meeting halls? Pop-up conference centers?
    1. .Tom September 24, 2024 at 9:24 am

       Before the tables went in I thought it was going to be a bowling alley.
    2. ambrit September 24, 2024 at 9:58 am

       Pop up euthanasia parlours.
       “Welcome to the Jackpot Inn. We’ll put the lights out for you.”
       1. Carla September 24, 2024 at 11:31 am

          Oh, ambrit, I LOVE this one!
    3. Eric Anderson September 24, 2024 at 10:12 am

       You forgot pop up landfills.
       We’ll surely be needing more of those.
       1. JTMcPhee September 25, 2024 at 6:26 pm

          Already got ‘em. Behind every less-used or abandoned building, down the end of every dirt or gravel road, alongside every street, alley, boulevard and highway. And as “environmental enforcement” has gone the way of the slipper ships and dodos, “Fracking ‘water’” and pipeline breaks and tank car derailments and turned-off air source controls and unregulated surface discharges add to the filling of land with all the worst shite us humans generate for fun and profit.
12. MartyH September 24, 2024 at 8:09 am

    My wife and daughter bought “I’ve been to Los Alamos and I glow in the dark” tee-shirts when we were there. And now they’re complaining? That was 1988 or so.
    1. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 8:45 am

       Maybe you can take your mobile or tablet and open up this page ready to go-

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WahfwuW76o0 (25 secs)

       Tell her that you downloaded an app that lets you detect for radiation because of that article and start ‘scanning’ her while playing that page. Be sure to show serious concern and bafflement as you move closer to her and then maybe start backing off. Hopefully your wife will be a good sport.
    2. Polar Socialist September 24, 2024 at 3:12 pm

       My friend’s kid sister was a high school exchange student in Nevada 1986-87. She said one her teachers there with all seriousness claimed that the high local cancer rates should be blamed on Chernobyl disaster (only some six months before). Almost 40 years ago a 17 year old foreigner knew it was due to all the US bombs tested there.
       1. juno mas September 24, 2024 at 10:28 pm

          That must have been a Las Vegas high school. (The Tonopah Nuclear Testing Site is but 60 miles to the north) In 1986 the whole state had less than a million residents (~800,000) and was 48th (of 50) in per student funding. So you can imagine the CV of the instructor. Believe it or not, the federal recompense for the medical consequences (personal injury) of the above ground tests ended just last year.
13. SteveFromNJ September 24, 2024 at 8:21 am

    When I click the “Hezbollah ‘enters battle of reckoning’ with Israel…” link I get directed to an article about the Russian Nuclear industry.
    1. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 8:35 am

       Working link for “Hezbollah ‘enters battle of reckoning’ with Israel as world powers urge restraint” article at-

       https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/22/hezbollah-enters-battle-of-reckoning-with-israel-as-world-powers-urge-restraint

       Say, do you guys remember the time back in WW2 when the Luftwaffe bombed London – and all the other nations urged restraint? I don’t.
       1. JTMcPhee September 24, 2024 at 9:06 am

          But London back then was populated with WHITE PEOPLE… and a lot of Brit elite and business types in the US were firmly on the side of the Germans. As then, so now…
       2. Captain Obvious September 24, 2024 at 4:28 pm

          Luftwaffe should bomb London now, for science. We need to verify if all the other nations will urge restraint.
          1. bertl September 24, 2024 at 8:59 pm

             I doubt if the Russians will want to wait in line if there is any attempt to use a British spitball to land on Russian soil after Der Starmer’s attempt to convince the US to “Please, please, P_U_LE_E_E_E_Z”, sob. “let me give permission to Ukraine send a Storm Shadow to Russia as a special gift from Britain’s Metrosexual Labour loving élite, ‘cos Putin’s a scaredy cat and he won’t retaliate. Honest”.
             1. Joker September 24, 2024 at 9:39 pm

                Herr Starmer called for ‘return of the sausages’, so he wants ze Germans.
14. MartyH September 24, 2024 at 8:21 am

    “US supreme court rulings will affect response to threats like bird flu – experts Guardian (Dr. Kevin). Headline seems to understate the case. Looks to severely weaken an already crippled public health system.” … which did itself no favors during COVID and smells just as politicized today.
15. SocalJimObjects September 24, 2024 at 8:23 am

    Ancient settlements show that commoning is ‘natural’ for humans, not selfishness and competition.

    That’s why they are ancient settlements.

    Gaza, the bonfire of all human illusions, is a joint effort of people from the Western world and the Israelis, no one says that you can not employ common methods to achieve selfish means.

    Hundreds of years from now, if there are humans left to excavate Gaza, they too would find that “commoning” is ‘natural’ for humans.
    1. Hickory September 24, 2024 at 8:45 am

       Actually, “commoning” as they call it, is still natural for humans, but it is very hard to do in cultures with rulers. When humans live in cultures without rulers, they maintain economies that reward sharing rather than profit. These are called gift economies.

       When rulers take over, and impose law on everyone else, rulers also impose some variation of a profit economy, rewarding selfishness and greed. Societies with rulers – that is, societies where one or a few people impose law on everyone else – commonly have corruption, hatred, economies based on greed and profit, racism, sexism, child abuse, disconnection from nature, and other troubles. Rulers educate people to think that living with rulers is the only potential way to live, so that few people know another way is possible.

       In societies where humans live without rulers – the normal way humans lived until recent millennia, and the way some humans still live today – they maintain a baseline of mutual respect for everybody, no exceptions. They encourage solidarity, sharing, pleasure, deep connection with the earth, and integrity. Healthy cultures might fight each other, but internally, they maintain a baseline of mutual respect. I call these “healthy cultures” because, without rulers, they also live without child abuse, racism, sexism, and so many other troubles.

       I recently published a book called One Disease, One Cure which describes all this in detail, giving many vivid examples of both healthy and unhealthy cultures. Humans are capable of living in profoundly beautiful cultures, even today in 2024. I spent almost a month with such a beautiful culture of thousands of people in 2015 and it changed my life. The book contains many concrete lessons for how humans trapped with rulers can free themselves and live in cultures of mutual respect again, including a case study of a revolution where the participants didn’t install rulers afterwards, but created a culture that maintained a baseline of mutual respect up to the present day.

       Living with a few people imposing law on everyone else is not normal for humans; for hundreds of thousands of years nobody lived this way. Corruption, propaganda, discrimination, genocide, police, prisons, and greed are simply symptoms of a single cultural disease – when some people rule over and impose law on everyone else, and the rest come to accept that state as legitimate. For anyone interested, the free book is available at 1disease-1cure.com.
       1. lyman alpha blob September 24, 2024 at 10:19 am

          I recently read James Scott’s book The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia and he discusses how various ethnics groups formed in the Asian highlands into egalitarian societies after they fled from the lowland ‘civilizations’ that were more oppressive. In some societies, if a person even tried to become a leader, the rest of the group would just kill them before they were able to start dominating others.

          I’m currently reading another book about the more recent history of that same area called Narcotopia which discusses the Wa people who have basically carved out their own small nation within the borders of modern Myanmar. They have an army of tens of thousands and are largely financed by producing mountains of methamphetamine. About a third of the way through and I was struck by one passage where a Wa guide takes the Anglo author to his hometown, and he notes how all the houses are packed very tightly together. He said they continue to live that way because it makes them feel comfortable. No McMansions for them.

          The more I read about this area of the world, the more attractive it seems.
          1. Ben Panga September 24, 2024 at 11:03 am

             “if a person even tried to become a leader, the rest of the group would just kill them before they were able to start dominating others.”

             Interesting….
             1. Lefty Godot September 24, 2024 at 1:02 pm

                I believe that happened to one of the most successful of the Gaulish commanders fighting the Romans. After a string of victories, he proclaimed himself king of the tribes. And they killed him.
                1. Not Qualified to Comment September 24, 2024 at 9:09 pm

                   And of course the Romans themselves killed one of their number who (they thought) aspired to crown himself king of Rome.
          2. Kouros September 24, 2024 at 5:34 pm

             In “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” the authors interpret ascene on some prehistoric site from northern Africa where a group of people were spearing another one as exactly the same thing…
       2. Jason Boxman September 24, 2024 at 10:19 am

          One advantage that people had in the distant past that isn’t available today is the opportunity to simply leave. If you don’t agree with American neoliberalism today, you can’t just move. Where would you go? Everywhere virtually you’re subject to some sovereign or another. Of course this ignores living somewhere without permission of the sovereign, which entails its own risks.
          1. Polar Socialist September 24, 2024 at 3:22 pm

             Weeell, on 19th this month president Putin signed an ukaz allowing citizens of listed neoliberal countries to seek asylum in Russia. Basically anyone in The West can apply for three month visa to Russia, and then apply for residence permit without language test or bypassing any quotas.

             Of course, Russian understanding of neoliberalism is not as much economic, as it is about sexual morals and “militant atheism”. They are not looking for Real Left, but True Conservatives, I guess.
             1. caucus99percenter September 24, 2024 at 5:55 pm

                And for affluent transplants with school-age children, the prerequisite private school where English is the language of instruction:

                https://mcs-school.ru/en/
                1. ДжММ September 24, 2024 at 10:52 pm

                   What kind of monster would hamstring their children so? To move them to a different land, only to deny them the basic fundamental opportunity to assimilate? Condemning them to grow up isolated?

                   i mean, it is an english school. So there’s a hint…
                   1. Lazar September 25, 2024 at 7:41 am

                      That looks like a school for Russians that want to become British, not for Brits that want to become Russians. :)
          2. Michaelmas September 24, 2024 at 5:32 pm

             Jason Boxman: One advantage that people had in the distant past that isn’t available today is the opportunity to simply leave.

             Anthropologists and archeologists have come to understand that from the early walled city-states scaling up to contexts like the Wall of China, those walls were built as much to keep as large as possible a population of proles and slaves inside and producing surpluses for elites, as to keep barbarians out.

             (James C. Scott’s Against the Grain is good on this.)

             Today’s elite promotion of the idea that cheap immigrant laborers by the millions must continually be imported across borders to service national GDP is exactly the same deal, driving towards the same end: larger surpluses for elites. We really haven’t progressed much at all.

             Jason Boxman: If you don’t agree with American neoliberalism today, you can’t just move. Where would you go?

             Almost anywhere else. You’re still suffering from US exceptionalism.The US is just one geographical portion of the planet and while it retains some influence once you get outside you’ll find that, firstly, it looms less large globally than Americans imagine and, secondly, that few other places and cultures are as uniquely vile, violent, and stupid as the US has become

             Believe me, I left and I know.
          3. Paul Simmons September 24, 2024 at 9:50 pm

             A result of overpopulation on a massive scale.
       3. LawnDart September 24, 2024 at 10:57 am

          This quote from the article,

          “selfishness and competitiveness are only dominant today because we live in a system that rewards those attributes”

          was, in my opinion, well-supported by the examples laid-out by the author.

          In my experience, adversity often brings out “every animal for itself” behaviors, and growing adversity is a certainty for all of us.

          Within a land governed by “rulers,” as ours is, I am uncertain as to how much separation from their “selfish and competitive” system is possible, as taxes must be paid, and we are bound to this system in a myriad other ways as well.

          I would agree that for most of us, the system that we live under isn’t working in our interests, or for our benefit. This leaves us at the age-old question: what is to be done?
          1. Paul Simmons September 24, 2024 at 9:49 pm

             Nothing. Sadly, we cannot go back. The San peoples apparently had no chiefs, no bosses, and shared the kids, and the wives, freely. They have been essentially destroyed. They also kept the group size very small, 20-30 people. Not eight billion.
             1. Hickory September 25, 2024 at 3:22 pm

                Chapter 40 of One Disease One Cure discusses the Zapatistas, who led a revolution in southern Mexico in 1994 that lives on today and has maintained a culture of mutual respect for 30 years. The chapter is one of multiple case studies for anyone that wanted to do the same thing in their region.
       4. Chris Cosmos September 24, 2024 at 11:13 am

          I recommend the work of Iain McGilchrist who in his analysis of right/left brain functions connects with the I Ching philosophy of the “superior man/inferior man” idea where both of these men function best when each is in their proper place. Thus right-brain should use the left-brain as its servant when the way is the other way around we get the contemporary world. I saw this magnify in intensity over many decades in the USA and my stay in the Washington DC milieu. This is why the West, particularly the US/UK has become an ideocracy in many ways–deranged robotic human beings bent on destroying everything by their single-minded crusade to make Washington the New Rome without, sadly, the philosophy that sustaine Roman virtue.
          1. Anonymous 2 September 24, 2024 at 11:59 am

             Yes. IM is a fascinating writer. I try to tie his ideas together with Daniel Kahneman’s fast and slow thinking and ideas about the unconscious (e.g. Wilson’s Strangers to Ourselves) to get an understanding of what is going on in people’s minds nowadays (including my own).
          2. lyman alpha blob September 24, 2024 at 1:52 pm

             Is it this book you’re referring to? – https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300245929/the-master-and-his-emissary/ I put it on my list a while ago and haven’t gotten around to buying it yet, but I will move it up the list and get it if it’s the one you’re talking about.

             I might argue a bit about the supposed Roman virtue. Pax Romana came about after they’d slaughtered everyone in the surrounding area who tried to resist. As the Roman historian Tacitus quipped. “They make a desert and call it peace”.

             Here’s one I’d recommend on the virtues, or lack thereof, in ancient Rome –
             A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
             1. Anonymous 2 September 24, 2024 at 4:45 pm

                If you read the Master and his Emissary, persist through the first hundred pages on the biology/functioning of the brain. Although it is necessary to understand what follows it is heavy going. After that, the book becomes much easier reading.
          3. Giovanni Barca September 25, 2024 at 5:32 am

             Roman virtue? Roman society was savagely plutocratic, sex slavery was rampant, their sports make American football and MMA look like ping pong and the whole edifice rested on slave labor. And that’s the Republic! Tertullian said of the Empire Regnum Caesari regnum diaboli. Caesar’s realm is the Devil’s.
    2. matt September 24, 2024 at 11:16 am

       i think commoning is natural – but there’s a split between the ingroup and the outgroup. the commons are shared property, sure, but shared property of an ingroup, likely all in the same family/clan/whatever. multiple commons will still conflict on the grounds of group v group conflict. ‘whoops i killed your son’ and now the clans are warring. commons can only form when people have close knit ties that bond them together. thats why we cant really have them in the highly individualized united states.
       1. juno mas September 24, 2024 at 10:46 pm

          Commoning is difficult in a culture of celebrity.
16. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 8:30 am

    “The Disturbing White Supremacy in Visuals of Arab Suffering’

    There is all sorts of way that you can bias visuals. One type of example you see in eastern Europe where if the media is going to interview someone against the government, they will choose a young, attractive girl who speaks English while if they interview somebody that supports the government, they will interview women in their 60s and 70s who don’t. You see that technique used in places like the Ukraine and Georgia. Remember this girl?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvds2AIiWLA (2:04 mins)
    1. pjay September 24, 2024 at 9:57 am

       I didn’t see your comment before I posted mine below, but first I want to know if this is really true about “social media” activists. What sources or samples are the referents for this author? Because his observations do not ring true at all for the alt media sources I follow every day. What is he looking at to make these claims? Looking at the two photos posted, the vast majority of victims I’ve seen depicted look like the woman on the left – i.e. with “semitic” features. He scolds the activists for not recognizing their own “internalized” white-supremacism. I guess they should just shut up and go work on their own cognitive biases then.
    2. Jester September 24, 2024 at 9:58 am

       I haven’t seen that video earlier, and it looks like run-of-the-mill NGO junk. With little editing it can be reused for many colour revolutions. Those involved in production of this stuff should be replaced with AI for better results.
    3. bertl September 24, 2024 at 9:13 pm

       It’s a common technique much loved by the Beeb and other broadcasters and says much about the magic of the green screen. And the best way to work on our cognitive biases is to recognise that we all have prejudices which we may not be aware of and we just have to make allowances for other people and wonder what it might be like to walk a mile in their shoes. Of course, if they are Zionists…
17. .Tom September 24, 2024 at 8:35 am

    As I read the news from west asia and central europe this morning I can’t get out of my mind the leading headline in The Independent today “Biden will use last speech to UN to say he has restored US leadership on world stage”. Yup. That’s what US leadership looks like.
    1. lyman alpha blob September 24, 2024 at 12:21 pm

       RE: “…has restored US leadership on world stage…”

       Which is true, if only because Biden can’t find his way off the stage by himself any longer.

       Let’s go Brandon.
18. Jon Cloke September 24, 2024 at 8:42 am

    Re ‘The Disturbing White Supremacy in Visuals of Arab Suffering’, this article suspiciously refuses to cite sources or actual sources and fails to mention the cultural prcatices of skin-lightening which are common across the MENA and South Asia.

    It may gain clicks to blame this on white supremacy, but if you look at this article – Skin-lightening patterns among female students: A cross-sectional study in Saudi Arabia (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352647519300395) you then have to explain why a massive, historical cultural bias in favour of ‘fairness’ has arisen in countries with little or no experience of ‘white supremacy’.

    Priyanka Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan in India didn’t climb on the skin-whitening bandwagon because of white supremacy, after all, but to make a mountain of money AT THE SAME TIME as deploring skin whitening!
    1. Mikel September 24, 2024 at 9:46 am

       So is the narrative still “trying to prevent a wider war in the Middle East”?
       Keep selling the weapons and say “trying to prevent a wider war in the Middle East”.
    2. PlutoniumKun September 24, 2024 at 10:10 am

       Yes, its a very tiresome and very easily disprovable trope.

       Skin whitening in the Mediterranean and in China goes back to at least the 2nd Century BC. Cleopatra probably whitened her skin, as did Elizabeth I of England, along with many upper class women in China and Japan across the centuries. The presumed reason in many cases was its association with upper class women who didn’t have to spend too much time in the sun. There may also have been ethnic associations too – in India an association with northern upper castes, similarly in South America. In the Philippines/Indonesia it does seem to be associated with people with more European blood, as with Brazil. In parts of SE Asia, it is associated with Chinese/Vietnamese background, which is generally considered desirable (except in Pol Pots Kampuchea, where in Loung Ungs book ‘First they Killed my Father’, she wrote that her mother tried to darken her daughters skin in the sun, as she thought it would make the family less likely to be targeted).

       Its a complex issue, and no doubt modern advertising/beauty standards has a big impact, but to ascribe it to ‘white supremacy’ is just silly.
19. Nordberg September 24, 2024 at 8:48 am

    A second bonus (Robin K):

    Big Spoon always.
20. FreeMarketApologist September 24, 2024 at 8:59 am

    Re “Ronald McDonald will be first against the wall“:

    Hmmm. The situation described in the article is despicable, and both McDonalds and the Alabama government are at fault here. But… I drove by my local McD on Monday at lunchtime – the line of cars for the driveup window stretched around the building, and across part of the parking lot of the shopping center – probably 15-20 vehicles, with more heading that way. Given this, I find it hard to believe that people will turn on their primary source of mid-day calories, even if it’s prepared by slaves. (I don’t think the local McD employs prisoners.)

    At the same time, the local family-run bakery in town was offering a $5 ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, & dressing sandwich with fresher and local (mostly) ingredients, with only a short line. Other than the minimum wage paid to the local staff, almost all of the money raked in yesterday by McDs will leave the area (even the land they’re on is not locally owned). A much greater portion of the bakery’s income will stay in the community, incrementally contributing to the economics of one of the poorest counties in NY state. What does it take to change behavior so we build build and develop the local community, rather than building and developing a slave plantation?
    1. Bsn September 24, 2024 at 11:31 am

       Wow, around here you can’t buy a nice sandwich for under$10. Even a burrito is $9.
       Lucky you.
21. MT_Wild September 24, 2024 at 9:09 am

    Ancient settlements – How much of the “commons” is driven by multigenerational families growing over time and expanding their footprint as they go? People did not move much unless forced by war, famine, etc. So even outside your immediate family, your neighbors were aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Not Strangers, Family.

    You see this in other mammals, with territoriality being moderated by kinship when space is available. Or even territories shrinking and changing shape to accommodate dispersing young.

    Using hand tools, an acre of new ground could take years (if not decades) to be turned into truly productive ground and would be something you’d leave to your children and grandchildren. The same with the stonewalls you built from the rocks and the sword or axe you defended your stuff with.
    1. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 9:27 am

       It can depend on the economies of those settlements. The Bantu of Africa and later the Boers centered their economy around cattle. As their numbers increased, younger generations were always pushing outwards in search of new pastoral lands for their increasing cattle herds. Moving and expansion became part of their culture. We often think of a European farming economy where many were born, raised, married, had children and died while always being in sight of the local church steeple. Other, older cultures would be territorially spread out but annually gathered at a central location for trade, intermarriage, spreading knowledge, etc. There are all sorts of models but in the end it all comes down to what sort of economy those communities have.
       1. ambrit September 24, 2024 at 10:08 am

          Don’t forget the function of wide-spread catastrophes as resetting functions. Think the climate catastrophe of 536 AD or the waves of the Bubonic plague, especially the early 1300s AD era. The massive depopulations caused resets in the social and economic order. Thus, the upcoming Jackpot is but another example of Catastrophic Reset in action.
          Stay safe. Keep those family genetics safe.
       2. MT_Wild September 24, 2024 at 10:29 am

          Absolutely agree that herding cultures are different. Basques, Bantus, Highland Scots, hillbillies, etc.

          I’d guess historically grazing ground becomes limited more quickly than arable land without mechanized agriculture. It’s also a lot easier to steal a goat or cow than several bushels of grain.

          The one example from the article had terraced hillsides that were clearly multigenerational. And looked like they were still in use.
          1. Wukchumni September 24, 2024 at 10:40 am

             On the back roads through the Sierra foothills from Sequoia NP to Grant Grove in Kings Canyon NP there is everything you’d need for 100,000 range cattle, all the infrastructure from the 1930’s to 1960’s is all in place, if rusting out a bit and on the dilapidated side-we’re talking fences, barns, corrals-the gamut. but maybe you’ll see 100 cows in a 25 mile drive.

             They only have reliable grass from say January to June and then everything dries up and you’d have to feed them by hay bale, not to mention being range cattle, they’ll be able to exercise and keep their weight down, unlike the 500,000 Bessies in the flatlands of Turlare County livin’ la vida CAFO (17 dairies here have confirmed H5N1 in their tightly congested herds) in Godzone.
22. pjay September 24, 2024 at 9:26 am

    – ‘The Disturbing White Supremacy in Visuals of Arab Suffering’ – BettBeat

    “Across social media platforms, solidarity posts overwhelmingly circulate photographs of the lightest-skinned children impacted, effectively suppressing and excluding representations of darker Arab victims.”

    “This is not merely an oversight but symptomatic of internalized white supremacist ideologies perceiving white, Eurocentric-looking individuals as more worthy of empathy and grievance…”

    Really? Is this really a thing? I don’t follow social media, but I’ve seen countless photos of Gaza victims from the alt media that I do follow every day. The overwhelming majority of such victims have “semitic” features. Maybe I’m misunderstanding this, but it sounds like two “woke” academics saying “sorry pro-Palestinian protesters, your cause is good but you need to acknowledge your own white-supremacism.” If this is indeed the case then it is a pretty disgusting and counter-productive piece, whether or not there are any facts behind it (and I’m wondering if there really are).

    What the *mainstream* media does do, constantly, is minimize the visibility of Palestinian victims while emphasizing the Israeli victims of 10/7 over and over. And if they happened to have US citizenship then they get special coverage. But this is not the same thing, and in fact most of the Israeli victims also have “semitic” features.

    Again, perhaps I’m misunderstanding this article. This is a blog by two “anti-imperialist” academics. Could they actually be this clueless? Or am I just too hopelessly white to see what they are talking about?
    1. Lefty Godot September 24, 2024 at 1:22 pm

       I think “white” (or even worse, “White”) is just becoming a racial slur at this point, and it’s constantly redefined to exclude or include whatever ethnic group fits the writer’s current diatribe the best. Academics are among the worst and most racially prejudiced of the people throwing the “white” slur around to demonize large swaths of the population, in order to camouflage who the alleged “privilege” really belongs to.
23. mega mike September 24, 2024 at 9:33 am

    Both parties are nothing more than aged, long-in-the-tooth, private businesses that put on desultory shows of competition, but have otherwise no other goal than to grift off the public purse. Their plan seems to be only to stay in power for one or at best two terms, during which time they sock away private fortunes, insider contacts and leverage they can exploit down the road, and then relinquish control after it becomes clear voters are even worse off now than before. Other than commanding party loyalty, both parties have absolutely no interest in the needs or lives of the public, except as targets of fear, uncertainty, doubt, and division.
24. Mikel September 24, 2024 at 9:47 am

    So is the narrative still “trying to prevent a wider war in the Middle East”?
    Keep selling the weapons and say “trying to prevent a wider war in the Middle East”.
    1. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 9:54 am

       Yep. Still “fighting” for. Just like with healthcare and how the Democrats are “fighting for” Americans to have “access” to it.
       1. Mikel September 24, 2024 at 10:12 am

          World leaders are gathering in New York for the U.N. General Assembly. The outlook is gloomy -Associated Press

          “…the spotlight is certain to be on the war in Gaza and escalating violence across the Israeli-Lebanon border, which is now threatening to spread to the wider Middle East.”

          At this point, with people and things exploding in various parts of the region, it’s more like a euphemism for “war with Iran.” And Iran is involved in enough tit for tat to consider that war already started.

          “And the fact that nobody takes even seriously the capacity of the powers to solve problems on the ground,” he said, “makes the level of impunity (on) an enormous level.”

          People eventually stop taking liars and deniers seriously.
25. Jester September 24, 2024 at 10:10 am

    Why does a Bundeswehr soldier have to go to jail for refusing the mRNA vaccination after the end of the obligation to tolerate vaccination? Nachdenkseiten (Micael T)

    The Bundeswehr soldier is now on hunger strike.

    Would he be sentenced for refusing an order to eat?

    On a related note:
    https://www.history.com/news/why-german-soldiers-dont-have-to-obey-orders
26. Wukchumni September 24, 2024 at 10:20 am

    What’ll you do when you get lonely
    And nobody’s wanting to hear your side?
    You’ve been running and hiding much too long
    You know it’s just the media terrified of your word salad tide

    Kamala, you’ve got the DNC on its knees
    Kamala, I’m begging, darling please
    Kamala, darling won’t you ease my worried mind

    I tried to give you consolation
    When your old man Joey had let you down
    Like a fool, I fell in love with joy too
    Turned my whole world upside down

    Kamala, you’ve got the DNC on its knees
    Kamala, I’m begging, darling please
    Kamala, darling won’t you ease my worried mind

    Let’s make the best of the situation
    Before the country finally goes insane
    Please don’t say she’ll never find a way
    And tell me all your votes are in vain

    Kamala, you’ve got the DNC on its knees
    Kamala, I’m begging, darling please
    Kamala, darling won’t you ease my worried mind

    Kamala, you’ve got the DNC on its knees
    Kamala, I’m begging, darling please
    Kamala, darling won’t you ease my worried mind

    Layla, by Derek & the Dominos
27. Carolinian September 24, 2024 at 10:23 am

    Re long ago settlement “commoning” proves that humans are not selfish and competitive–and yet they are. So why? Does the Devil make them do it (a once popular theory)?

    Of course the evolutionary biology crowd certainly does believe commoning exists and E.O. Wilson studied ant colonies which would be the ultimate example of instinctive commoning. It could be that we are both selfish and altruistic as species survival requires.

    And species survival is under threat these days in part by people who think if we just get rid of the “bad guys” like Putin all will be well. These are not brilliant thinkers.
28. pjay September 24, 2024 at 10:30 am

    – ‘I’m spending $200k to be in a sorority but I don’t care – I’ll make ten times that from it’ – Daily Mail

    Yet more evidence for the New Feudalism toward which we are headed. Appearing as it does in the Daily Mail, I wonder what was the purpose of this article? Who was the intended audience, and what was the intended effect?

    Could be refiled under ‘Guillotine Watch’ – which I guess is related to my question.
    1. Mikel September 24, 2024 at 11:04 am

       The young woman in the story is a beauty queen with a team of people that have helped.
       There’s always another hotter corporate spokesperson that will come along.

       But these are the “point out the exception and make people think it’s the rule” kind of BS story.
       Especially popular with the people who need more people on the platform plantation working for peanuts. It’s like the lottery in too many ways.
    2. El Slobbo September 24, 2024 at 7:16 pm

       Even back in the day, Alabama was famous for this kind of thing, to the point where not being in a fraternity or sorority could be seen as affecting your social life.
       But there are other universities where whether you join or not doesn’t affect your standing one way or another, and others where joining is seen as a negative, as in “you’re buying your friends”.
       There are also universities where this system is banned, or severely limited, and despite the gushing descriptions in the article, I get the impression that the number of universities in this category is growing.
29. upstater September 24, 2024 at 10:34 am

    A “scram” at a NPP is a very big deal! Control rods drop into the core to immediately halt the fission reaction. IIRC It degrades and shortens the life of fuel.

    Small electrical fire shuts down Central NY nuclear reactors Syracuse.com

    Around 7:30 a.m. Monday, the fire broke out at an electrical breaker near the FitzPatrick and the Nine Mile Point Unit 2 reactors. Both reactors shut down automatically following an “electrical issue,’’ according to a news release from the plant owners, Constellation Energy Corp. The fire was quickly extinguished by employees.

    The areas impacted were in a confined area of the Unit 2 Turbine Building in the non-nuclear portion of the plant, said Mark Rodgers, a spokesperson for Constellation.

    How “small” was the fire? How old is the breaker causing the fire? Two of the 3 Nine Mile Point plants are Fukushima-type reactors and among the oldest nuclear plants in the world. It is on a 20 year license extension until 2034 and Constellation wants another 20 year extension. Thanks to Cuomo’s $800M annual subsidies, these are the most profitable nuclear plants in the US.
    1. petal September 24, 2024 at 5:14 pm

       Oh man. Could see those across the lake from the beach I grew up on if the day was clear. And spent a lot of time on campus at SUNY as a kid. Those plants are so old. The one, Ginna, a couple miles from my mother’s house, is also still going. It went into commercial operation in 1970. In HS in the early 90s we used to have to do evacuation drills. We’d all get on yellow school buses and head south and then turn around. As if anyone would’ve survived when the darn thing is only 4 miles away. Apparently the license expiration date is 2029.
    2. petal September 24, 2024 at 5:55 pm

       My mother just said she toured Fitzpatrick in her physics class. This would’ve been in the 80s. Thank you for the article. Sent it to her. She hadn’t heard about it.
       1. upstater September 24, 2024 at 6:30 pm

          I searched for news items for more detail… but Constellation PR buried it. It was reported locally bc there are over 1000 workers at the 3 plants. 2100 MW of generation out in a finger snap!

          Those plants have 4x the waste on site that Fukushima had. I live 35 miles SE of there and you know the prevailing winds around here! You can see the cooling tower and plume at NM2 on clear days.

          Back in 2004 all the 3 Palo Verde NPPs outside Phoenix tripped bc of a transmission fault adjacent to the plants. That event was a HUGE deal and that plus the 2003 blackout resulted in the 2005 legislation establishing strict regulations of transmission and generation by NERC.

          Back in the day SUNY Buffalo had a “research” reactor in the middle of campus and would give the boy scouts inside tours, as did the Nine Mile plants. That was before TPTB decided those were not good ideas.
30. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 10:44 am

    ‘Nury Vittachi
    @NuryVittachi
    BREAKING NEWS: THE FBI and western intelligence agencies had a long history of ordering pagers and/ or walkie-talkies from Gold Apollo of Taiwan, it was revealed yesterday.’

    Hezbollah ordered their pagers from a firm that supplied western spooks? Really? They really screwed up here and paid for it big time – along with a lot of civilians. You can bet that Chinese intel are having a good, hard look at this firm and Taiwan’s Shilin District Prosecutors Office have-

    ‘…seized account books, contracts, authorization agreements, and export documents to clarify the manufacturing process of the pagers, as well as actual contracts, royalties, and profit-sharing details between Gold Apollo and BAC’s office in Taiwan.’

    I don’t imagine that their stock prices have done too well and any country that uses their devices are now treating them with extreme suspicion. Are we going to end up in a world where even pagers will have to come with end-user agreements?

    https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202409200001
    1. ChrisFromGA September 24, 2024 at 11:44 am

       Every major nation-state is updating its threat models. Even Borneo, probably.

       Israel’s weaponisation of tech will have ramifications. Nice business you had there, Apple. It would be a shame if it all went away.

       As far as end-user agreements, they’re already there, just carefully buried in pages and pages of legalese that consumers unwittingly agree to when they take delivery of the product. It’s called a “contract of adhesion”

       https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/adhesion_contract
    2. Wukchumni September 24, 2024 at 11:50 am

       Weren’t pagers, er like the bee knees in 1985…

       …who uses ’em aside from pimps and scarlet pimpernels?
       1. ChrisFromGA September 24, 2024 at 12:17 pm

          I briefly carried one in the late 90’s/early 2000’s, and hated the “intrusion upon my seclusion.”

          Being unreachable is bliss.
       2. begob September 24, 2024 at 12:48 pm

          Used in hospitals worldwide.
          1. hk September 24, 2024 at 12:54 pm

             Apparently, including the US. I’ve seen ER doctors with them just some years ago. I remember being surprised by that.
31. Mikel September 24, 2024 at 10:44 am

    China’s central cuts rate to infuse money into markets as growth slowdown worsens – FirstPost

    Propping up stock markets is another multipolar affair.
32. flora September 24, 2024 at 10:50 am

    Jimmy Dore talking with Calley Means. utube, ~14+ minutes.

    Here’s What’s So Messed Up About Bill Gates! w/ Calley Means

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NCsC6UGsNc
    1. The Rev Kev September 24, 2024 at 10:56 am

       How come it only goes for 14 minutes? :)
       1. flora September 24, 2024 at 12:08 pm

          heh.
    2. Henry Moon Pie September 24, 2024 at 1:04 pm

       Glad to see Jimmy take this up. Calley and his sister are fighting the good fight against people like Gates who think they know better than hundreds of millions of years of evolution and natural selection.

       And then there’s American approach to solving problems:

       1) blame the problems on some foreign devil; and

       2) take a pill.
33. zach September 24, 2024 at 10:56 am

    LOL

    “Ronald McDonald will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.”

    John Wayne Gacy lookin’ mf-er…

    Was told this factoid in college biz class or something, that McDonalds has made more millionaires in the US than any other company through franchising. Not sure how you’d go about checking that, but still, Murca.
34. more news September 24, 2024 at 11:17 am

    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/keir-starmer-calls-return-sausages-142756284.html
    Keir Starmer calls for ‘return of the sausages’ in fumbled Gaza conference line
    1. Ben Panga September 24, 2024 at 12:17 pm

       He also made a smirking joke in response to an anti-genocide heckler.

       “This guy’s obviously got a pass to the 2019 conference…” and the sycophants guffaw in response.

       Because genocide is effing hilarious /s. Even if they believe that Israel is actually justified, joking about mass death is psychopath behaviour.

       I am really starting to hate the man. Ironically his smirking joke is actually him speaking truth. In 2019 talk of genocide would not have been barred, hecklers wouldn’t be dragged out by the throat, and delegates would actually have some humanity. In 2019 caring about genocide makes you unacceptable to the party, just as it made Declassified UK ineligible for a press pass.

       I am so disgusted by so many in power in “The West”. I should know better, but I continue to be amazed at their soulless depravity.

       I think (hope?) this genocide will blow-back and the enablers are ensuring the destruction of their own societies. The whole world is watching this unfold on social media every day. The depravity is in full view.
35. Wukchumni September 24, 2024 at 11:35 am

    All over Tiny Town you’ll see heartfelt homemade signs thanking the valiant firefighters for quelling the Coffee Pot Fire-now @ 93% containment. In truth the consequences of the fire doing any damage to structures was nil nearly from the beginning, as this was a lightning strike caused conflagration on a nearly impossibly steep ridge in the back of beyond, not a fire flunky within the esprit d’état timber setting fires way up north, like 5 of ’em… Yikes!

    The cost to go to battle was $55 million when I last looked, and must be nearing $60 million now, and i’m all for paying any price to save us from something wickedly hot comes our way, and I’ve never watched the Fire Industrial Complex up close as I did this go round, and just past the entrance to the Fire Camp where firefighters R & R, eat and sleep was a van by the side of the road selling Coffee Pot Fire commemorative t-shirts in about 6 styles for $25 per. He wasn’t exactly an ambulance chaser, more of a hoser truck.

    It kinda reminded me of going to a rock concert back in the day on a weekend and when you went back to school on Monday sporting that Queen t-shirt, you didn’t need to say nothing.

    Validity of working a fire by garb!

    One thing I learned in this non-threatening fire (as opposed to the 2020 Castle and 2021 KNP) was it allowed Sequoia NP in particular to do things in a manner that could never be done otherwise, in that the gloves were off-as far as the mission statement of the Park Service-which is to protect everything within National Parks-which is a bit of a hindrance in this day and age of unruly fires-where much more should be done, but a 6% cut in the NPS budget this year, followed by a 6% cut last year and a 6% cut the year before, these 6 degrees of separation might just add up to no money to do it, as evidenced by our drive to beautiful Cedar Grove (a pocket Yosemite with soaring canyon walls and Roaring River Falls is better than anything in dried up Yosemite right now-a pair of ladies from Kentucky informed me) on the Generals Highway which has about 20 miles of non NP road, where they can do what they want, and every 50 feet or so you’d see these 5 foot tall fire pagodas of sorts, full of downed dead wood waiting for the torch in the early winter months, must have seen 300 of them any where placed from 10 feet from the road to as far back as 50 feet.

    You could see a fair amount of newly cut stumps, in that dead trees were gotten rid of, really a nice piece of work, and then once you get back on the NP part of the road, bupkis-nothing whatsoever has been done, the piles of dead wood lurking not far from the asphalt.

    What the Coffee Pot Fire allowed was the creation of a 10 mile long fire break mostly on the downslope of Mineral King road in Sequoia NP, for anywhere from 10-30 feet depending on factors, and everything live or dead cut down was chipped.

    They also did prescribed burns on a number of frankly forbidden to get to hidden away Sequoia groves that hadn’t seen fire since the Grant administration-the Eden Creek grove in particular, preserving them from future fires for awhile.

    A friend who has been to most of the 75 or so groves calls the Eden Creek grove perhaps the finest of all…

    https://www.americanforests.org/article/sequoia-primeval/
    1. MT_Wild September 24, 2024 at 12:09 pm

       The term of art is “shaded fuel breaks” which means they leave some trees standing if possible.

       I have not looked at Coffeepot, but if you check the strategy on inciweb you can get an idea of the plan. My guess is they had a mixed point-protection/confinement strategy going.

       Confinement is not containment, no back firing to put black up against the line. If it burns over your confinement line, no big deal just pick a new one. This allows for a lot more burning into areas that need it, which is a lot of the west. But it also puts a plan in place for any communities or individual structures at risk. It’s a new approach (in practice), in that dealing with it this year it does not have its own designated symbology on maps yet, and shows up as containment line.

       As an FYI, Forest Service will not hire any non-fire related seasonals FY2025. Was the big discussion last week as to what and how things will get done next summer.
36. Henry D September 24, 2024 at 11:56 am

    Did Janine just legally take over New Zealand? It sounds crazy. I would love to hear comments.
    https://rumble.com/v5f7gl9-the-power-of-affidavits-testimony-of-janine-of-the-house-of-arabella.html?ysclid=m1d92lin2r112117247
37. Wukchumni September 24, 2024 at 12:33 pm

    It’s poetry in motion
    She turned her tender eyes to me
    Smile deep as any ocean
    As sweet as any harmony
    But she blinded me with silence
    (She blinded me with silence!)
    And failed me in rhetoric ability, hey (huh, huh, huh)

    Huh, huh
    When I’m online close to her
    (Blinding me with silence, silence)
    (Silence!)
    I can smell the lack of word wherewithal
    (Blinding me with silence, silence)
    (Silence!)

    Now, it’s poetry in motion
    She turned her tender eyes to me
    Smile deep as any ocean
    As sweet as any harmony
    But she blinded me with silence
    (She blinded me with silence!)
    And failed me in rhetoric ability hey (huh, huh, huh)

    When she’s far distance online next to me
    (Blinding me with silence, silence)
    (Silence)
    I can hear Donkey Show machinery
    (Blinding me with silence, silence)
    (Silence!)

    Ha, it’s poetry in motion
    Now she’s on Oprah talkin’ word salad smack to me
    The spheres are in commotion
    The elements in harmony
    She blinded me with silence
    (She blinded me with silence)
    And hit me with joyous technology

    Hey, I don’t believe it
    There she goes again
    She’s tidied up and I can’t find anything
    All my you tubes and other videos
    And careful notes
    And antiquated notions
    Of what it took to be President

    But it’s poultry in motion
    When she turned her eyes to me
    Smile deep as any ocean
    As sweet as any harmony
    Oh, she blinded me with silence
    (She blinded me with silence)
    She blinded me with

    She Blinded Me With Science, by Thomas Dolby
38. Rick September 24, 2024 at 1:29 pm

    I haven’t seen this show up here, but there’s a great article on our tech overlords published this month in Harper’s magazine:

    The Antitrust Revolution Liberal democracy’s last stand against Big Tech

    This blog has spoken out about this issue on a number of occaisions.
39. Wukchumni September 24, 2024 at 1:56 pm

    Watched Genocide Joe’s UN teleprompter speech demanding peace conditioned upon release of the hostages… you go with the lame duck you have-not the one you want.
40. Tom Stone September 24, 2024 at 2:04 pm

    One thing I don’t see mentioned is that achieving the Presidency would be a guarantee of generational wealth for the Harris family.
    Obama’s book deal alone was $65MM, then the netflix deal and….
    One whole hell of a lot of $.
    I am in the camp of those who believe Trump won’t be allowed to take office again “What ever it takes”.
41. Revenant September 24, 2024 at 6:13 pm

    UK reader here, as of tonight all the instances or archive (.is, .ph, .md) have stopped working for me. :-(

    Previously, .pH had stopped but .is still worked. I did not use .md but the WSJ link above uses it and does not work.
    1. Jabura Basaidai September 25, 2024 at 12:04 am

       try .co
       1. Revenant September 25, 2024 at 5:52 am

          Thanks but I just tried it and got a picture of a cow, nothing further. Adding a URL to it produced not found.

          I have checked on https://www.blocked.org.uk/ and some instances are blocked by Vodafone (reported as “adult”). Other ISP’s are marked as clear but the last checks are up to 6 months old or in some cases marked “no response to enquiry”. So I have reported it blocked and asked to be unblocked. UK law requires me to give an email and real name: I wonder if the whole unblock site is just a honeypot to round up free speech types! I’ll try to post something if the black helicopters turn up but they’ll probably just turn my internet off and put me in digital house arrest.
    2. Yves Smith Post authorSeptember 25, 2024 at 8:24 am

       Use a VPN.
42. ArvidMartensen September 24, 2024 at 9:08 pm

    On the Assange front, he is going on October 1, to Strasbourg to give evidence before the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
    He has been recently been given status as a Political Prisoner by a rapporteur of PACE

    https://consortiumnews.com/2024/09/24/assange-to-testify-at-council-of-europe/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=5403786a-6a67-4e8b-80ec-ebb891f34502 and https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1838609231681065144/

    How safe is he doing this? Will he make it there? Will he make it back?
43. ArvidMartensen September 24, 2024 at 9:30 pm

    For anyone interested, the new theory on dark matter is that it’s made up of teeny black holes.
    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dark-matter-black-holes-could-fly-through-the-solar-system-once-a-decade/

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