SpaceX launches rescue mission to return stranded astronauts Phys.org
The lonely Lake Superior caribou and a lesson in limits The Narwhal
Climate/Environment
At least 64 dead and millions without power after Helene’s deadly march across the Southeast AP
Aerial footage captures the extensive flooding in Asheville, North Carolina, as Helene submerged buildings. pic.twitter.com/15R89vWTvf
— AccuWeather (@accuweather) September 28, 2024
Four ways climate change likely made Hurricane Helene worse Yale Climate Connections
Pandemics
A “Biosafety” Organization Partnering With Dr. Jay Bhattacharya To Guard Against Viruses Is Like A Zebra Teaming Up With A Lion To Promote Vegetarianism Science-Based Medicine
Africa
The Lobito Corridor: Washington’s Answer to Belt and Road in Africa Geopolitical Monitor
Japan
Japan’s new PM may have a bone to pick with the US Responsible Statecraft
Ishiba: Asian NATO Must Consider Introduction of N-Weapons, Japan-U.S. Treaty Should Be Pact Between ‘Ordinary Nations’ The Japan News
China?
Tian Xuan on Beijing’s dramatic week of econ policy intervention Pekingnology
EU Plans Oct. 4 Vote on Tariffs on Electric Vehicles from China Bloomberg
Unveiling the Remote-Poaching Model: Taiwan’s Strategy to Limit China’s AI Chip Progress The Diplomat
***
Troops from Taiwan training at Michigan base: Former U.S. diplomat Focus Taiwan
Harpoon land-based anti-ship missile systems arrive in Taiwan Taiwan News
Syraqistan
Israel ‘on the verge’ of Lebanon ground invasion, says US diplomat Middle East Eye
Hezbollah Strike Destroys Israeli David’s Sling Air Defence Battery as War Enters New Phase – Reports Military Watch
Lebanon locked down to prevent Hezbollah from rearming, IDF says Ynet News
Is Lebanon part of Israel’s promised territory? The Jerusalem Post
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend the interview by Julian Assange with Nasrallah from 2012.
Nasrallah believed in achieving a One State Democratic Solution in which all people, Jews, Muslims, Christians and others would share the land and exercise equal rights, freedom… pic.twitter.com/pYY0be2caQ
— Ousman Noor (@ousmannoor) September 28, 2024
Who is Hashem Safieddine, the new Hezbollah leader? BNE Intellinews
In Lebanon carnage, Biden deepens US ‘obligation’ to Israeli aggression Aaron Mate
***
IGRC general died in Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah leader, reports say New Arab
Iran calls for emergency UN Security Council meeting after Nasrallah killing AFP
Pentagon chief Austin tells Gallant US committed to deterring Iran Times of Israel
Exclusive: Iran’s supreme leader taken to secure location, sources say Reuters
Israel Has Called Iran’s Bluff The Atlantic
Is Iran’s Khamenei Dead Man Walking? Is Erdoğan? Michael Rubin, Middle East Forum
Israel’s Short-Lived Glory Celebrated by Kneejerk Polemicists, + Ukraine War Updates Simplicius the Thinker
Israeli economy in ‘serious danger’: Washington Post Al Mayadeen
Old Blighty
Labour: the resignations begin Funding the Future
European Disunion
The EU as an existential threat to Europe Thomas Fazi
Thuringia Parliament: Opening Session Descends Into Chaos The European Conservative. The deck: “Mainstream parties are threatening to ban the AfD for adhering to parliamentary rules.”
Germany: Thuringia lawmakers pick CDU speaker, rejecting AfD Deutsche Welle
Austria: stuck in the middle The Next Recession
UniCredit’s pursuit of Commerzbank reflects a watershed moment for Europe — and its banking union CNBC
Norway to end automatic asylum for Ukrainian refugees AFP
EU Approach to Russian LNG Remains Fractured as Dutch Imports Increase High North News
New Not-So-Cold War
Russian Forces Hit Base of Western Foreign Fighters in Odessa Military Watch
Zelensky’s Trump meeting reveals futility of ‘victory plan’ Anatol Lieven, Unherd
The fog of war is lifting in Ukraine Indian Punchline
Blinken says China’s talk of Ukraine peace ‘doesn’t add up’ Deutsche Welle
Russia on track to set new military spending records The Bell
2024
Just Follow the Money Dollars & Sense
Project 2025: The Quickest Way to Decimate Medicare HEALTH CARE un-covered
Hillary Clinton defends ‘deplorables’ comment: ‘Too kind a word’ for some Trump supporters Fox News
Changing demographics and the political calculus of anti-immigrant rhetoric in swing states Arizona Mirror
Kamala
Kamala Harris stays quiet as California voters threaten to roll back sentencing reforms Semafor
Campaigning in Arizona, Kamala Harris pledges to “work across the aisle” to expand border police WSWS
Trump
Trump pounds immigration message after Harris’ border visit Axios
Immigration
JBS accused of abusing immigrant workers at Colorado beef plant Agriculture Dive
America’s largest corn company, Corteva Agriscience, pledges no supply chain abuses. It’s hired a repeat offender in Iowa for years. Investigate Midwest
AI
AUTHORS SUING OPENAI WILL GET TO SEE ITS SECRET TRAINING DATA IN HEAVILY LOCKED DOWN ROOM Futurism
TSMC execs allegedly dismissed Sam Altman as ‘podcasting bro’ — OpenAI CEO made absurd requests for 36 fabs for $7 trillion Tom’s Hardware
Why Taiwan and Its Tech Industry Are Facing an Energy Crisis Yale Environment 360
Imperial Collapse Watch
Why the U.S. Can’t Build Icebreaking Ships Construction Physics
Supply Chain
The Scourge of the Long Train Boondoggle
Our Famously Free Press
John Kerry calls for a Ministry of Truth:
“The 1st Amendment stands as a major roadblock for us right now” pic.twitter.com/1mtpjjxeM7
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 29, 2024
My Twitter Ban Is Political Ken Klippenstein
Groves of Academe
Cornell Under Fire as Suspended Pro-Palestinian Student at Risk of Deportation Common Dreams
Class Warfare
The California Ballot Measure That Could End Forced Prison Labor Bolts Mag
Sports Desk
White Sox Are Officially The Worst Team In Baseball History After 121st Loss Block Club Chicago
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“Ishiba: Asian NATO Must Consider Introduction of N-Weapons, Japan-U.S. Treaty Should Be Pact Between ‘Ordinary Nations’’
So Liberal Democratic Party President Shigeru Ishiba wants to turn Asia into a copy of Europe complete with nukes because, you know, it has really worked out well for the Europeans. An article I read today said that Europeans have spent the past several hundred years at each other’s throats and twice now it brought in the entire world into their fights. And that Asians are looking at their history and their wanting to bring NATO into Asia and are saying nope, no matter what some leaders want.
But Eurination has worked out really well for “the right people,” and would work out just fine for the Ishiba set who control “policy.”
Hard to get over the quaint postulate that rulers and their government shells and shills exist to “serve the public.” Bears remembering that the operative model has long been characterized by the unofficial motto of the rulers of one notably corrupt entity, the city of Chicago and its nest in Cook County:
“Where’s Mine?”
The sad thing is that the Japanese will very likely keep voting for the LDP, even as the leadership openly plans to sh*tcan the Constitution, eliminating Article 9 (to clear the way for those nukes), and getting rid of all that pesky “human rights” and “citizens” language, so that there are only imperial subjects. In effect, the LDP wants to reinstate the Meiji Constitution. Along the way, LDP members have also been ogling the Western MIC gravy train… and they want to be gravy train riders too, like in a norumaru nation.
EU Plans Oct. 4 Vote on Tariffs on Electric Vehicles from China Bloomberg ********* It’s heart warming to see Western leaders working so hard to lower mine and others standard of living by making everything we need more expensive, but why not instead a tarrif on billionaires? Tax their energy use at 20x what us Little People pay. I know it can be done. Many states give lowered energy rates for low income or those on government assistance. Would love to Bill Gates monthly electric bill for his masion in Seattle.
You mean this one?
https://twitter.com/goddeketal/status/1655658051855065090
I wonder if he claims the electricity used on his taxes on the grounds that this is also his primary office for everything that he runs.
Don’t you know. He is actually benefitting the planet with his carbon offset purchases. s/
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/05/why-bill-gates-and-jeff-bezos-buy-carbon-offsets-how-they-work.html
An ode to Helene will need to be penned. Damn it’ll take a long while for some places to be patched and mended. Caught many off guard even with the proper agencies forewarned and tropical storm warning for all to notice.
I lost really nothing, aside from power and ability to drive easily from here to there, or to easily find gas or a place to eat. This is a damned disaster, and upstate South Carolina is a simple stone throw from Asheville or Hendersonville…
Exclusive: Iran’s supreme leader taken to secure location, sources say Reuters ******* Oh. So it’s (finally) occurred to Iranian leadership that they are targets. Run, Iran, run. That pretend Iranian fake missile attack on Isreal a few months back in which they gave advance notice on intent and probably targets sure is looking like a genius stroke in hindsight. By its own actions for decades, Iran is telling Israel “attack me we won’t do anything to you.” You’d think they would learn, but no.
WOW
So there is a Russian and American going up to the space station,,,, stuck in elon musk’s rocket…
Talk about a trip from hell….. I hope they don’t start talking about politics///
You have to tip your hat to these two and Musk for acting like adults.
“SpaceX launches rescue mission to return stranded astronauts”
SpaceX and NASA having to clean up Boeing’s mess and bring them home early instead of waiting until next February as was planned. I wonder what SpaceX will be getting for this effort. Maybe all those pending environmental charges against them will go away? Meanwhile the Chinese are still pushing ahead with their plans and have just revealed their new Lunar spacesuit-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKBiQ4Varo0 (59 secs)
Why don’t they just take them to Mars and get it over with already?
Perhaps of interest to the NC community: “Remigration:” How a White a Nationalist Threat Spread From Austria to the US
And Putin says in full hubris mode that one goal of SMO is “de-nazification.”
Apparently would be easier to get rid of roaches, bedbugs and herpes.
“Israel’s Short-Lived Glory Celebrated by Kneejerk Polemicists, + Ukraine War Updates”
‘Notorious neocon Francis Fukuyama says Ukraine should begin committing terror attacks against Russia in order to make Russian citizens “feel the war” more’ (see the embedded video)
What a creep and seeing him hang around with Azov wives not that long ago confirmed it. ‘Nazis are our friends!’ By his own logic then, the 9/11 attack was perfectly justified in order to make Americans feel the war more.
Sam Altman, podcasting bro. This stood out, “The NYT claims it discussed OpenAI’s negotiations with nine people close to the discussions who wish to remain anonymous.” Nine seems like a message.
Pretty sure I just heard John Kerry say he would like to hammer us out of existence. BTW, he looks terribly old.
I thought so too. He really should have invested in a Dorian Gray picture. The sooner people like that go the better. He complains that there is no consensus as people do not believe the truth holders such as the main stream media – while refusing to acknowledge that they lie their faces off each and every day and nobody believes them anymore. Are there any other Amendments that he wants to abolish as well? Meanwhile regarding the main stream media, this link never gets old-
https://twitter.com/ModernityNews/status/1748366347036176592#m (37 secs)
Maybe he’s become a poster child for over-consumption of Ketchup (family fortune and all that. )
And speaking of Dorian Gray, apparently, I’m not the only one to notice this:
https://x.com/howlett_shawn/status/1360331742050201603
“Is Iran’s Khamenei Dead Man Walking? Is Erdoğan?” : Jesus H. Christ. Words fail me. A serious proposal advocating for the straight-up assassination of every Middle Eastern leader or cleric, up to and including the President of Turkey and the Supreme Ayatollah of Iran, who has ever given any support to the Palestinian cause. And apparently this orgy of assassination should all be completed before January 20, with the justification that while Kamala Harris might say “naughty Israel”, Joe Biden can be expected to continue signing the transfer orders for bunker-busters even if Israel goes ahead and assassinates the head-of-state of a NATO country.
Fanciful indeed. If they hit Erdogan, you think that the Turks will keep the oil pipeline going into Israel or cut it and leave them high & dry? Will Turkiye demand an Article 5 be called and if there is no response by the US, then Turkiye will get out of NATO? That would mean that the US would have to shut down their nuke base in Turkiye which is something that they do not want to do. Maybe Turkiye can do the world a favour and decapitate the Israeli leadership if the Israelis tried something like this.
With regard to the Hillary – “They are even more deplorable than I said 8 years ago” quote ———
She even admits in the same paragraph or two that was a big political loser……
I mean this in a totally serious manner…….. I have had the vibe over the past few weeks that the Dems are seriously trying to tank the election.
All in the same week –
We had the absolute most disastrous interview of Harris on friendly terms with MSNBC that I believe I have ever seen in my life from a presidential candidate.
We had Biden going to the UN, doing the best Dr. Strangelove imitation a dementia patient could muster and demanding total war.
We have now had John Kerry – “Who needs a first amendment anyway?” Discussion
We had Kamala Harris visiting the border, saying absolutely nothing of substance, all the while wearing her 70,000$ Tiffany necklace and “looking presidential”
And now this spout off from Hillary – revisiting her worst moment from her campaign – just to make certain it was on everyone’s mind again……
I am not kidding – I get a serious vibe that they know more about the disasters that await – and are trying to tank it – let Trump be the placeholder and we will come back in victory 4 years from now ( with whom is anyone’s guess – the guy I would have looked at Shapiro – has instantly disqualified himself as a member of the IDF signing bombs – the rest of them are a clown show)…..It is always possible that someone emerges from the mist like Obama did in 2008.
I do get that vibe.
RE: Blinken says China’s talk of Ukraine peace ‘doesn’t add up’ Deutsche Welle
IMO, Zelensky almost certainly rejected the Brazilian/Chinese peace plan on US orders. “If you go for it forget about any more economic/war support”. The US does not want any negotiation on schemes devised by any other country— less so if one of these is China.
It has been suggested that Brazil’s Lula wanted a truce so that he could big note himself for such a successful negotiation and stopping a war but Zelensky dumped all over him something chronic. Lula should have known what he was dealing with as he has had bad experiences with Zelensky before.
re: JBS accused of abusing immigrant workers at Colorado beef plant Agriculture Dive
Imo, illegals are the new “near slaves”. Slavery was once very, very profitable in the US. See the history of Yale, of Lehman Brothers, of Brown Brothers, of Chase bank, of the then wealthiest part of the US, the South.
https://moguldom.com/196647/revisiting-lehman-brothers-j-p-morgan-chase-history-with-slavery/
Today, “near slavesery” is almost as profitable, imo, with less financial risk to the importers/traffickers and the corporate employers. The organized importation/trafficking of “near slaves” is backed by large financial interests.
From Scheerpost:
Dennis Kucinich: Mistaking Militarism for Statecraft, Empire for Democracy and Debt for Prosperity
https://scheerpost.com/2024/09/28/dennis-kucinich-mistaking-militarism-for-statecraft-empire-for-democracy-and-debt-for-prosperity/
re: John Kerry. What a doofus. He’s too dumb to be an enemy of the state, I guess. He’s a good weathervane for what the ultra rich are thinking.
adding: If his current gig doesn’t work out he can always try show biz. / ;)
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1f/f6/ca/1ff6cad8498f6369828be39e0841738c.jpg
RE: Israeli economy in ‘serious danger
Interesting punctuation on that one. I don’t read Al Mayadeen all that often, but don’t remember seeing Israel in scare quotes before. Maybe people are getting more comfortable questioning Israel’s legitimacy as a nation. And hopefully Al Mayadeen’s office is out of Israeli missile range.