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Links 9/4/2024

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Giant pigeon to visit New York BoingBoing. We have the same type of pigeons here as in NYC except they are on average a bit smaller. Due to the heat?

Engineers Gave a Mushroom a Robot Body And Let It Run Wild ScienceAlert (Chuck L)

Oyster shells repurposed as magic ‘Seawool’ Taipei Times (Robin K)

If new technologies snarl your airline experience, here are old-school strategies to cope The Conversation

No Screens Before Age of Two, Swedish Health Authority Tells Parents Guardian

Having Your Tubes Tied May Not Be as Reliable For Birth Control as You Think ScienceAlert (Chuck L)

Companies are crafting new ways to grow cocoa, and chocolate alternatives, to keep up with demand Associated Press (Robin K)

Mpox Outbreak Hits Iowa Prison As Multiple Inmates Infected Vice

#COVID-19

As COVID Surges, the High Price of Viral Denial The Tyee

Climate/Environment

Texas woman uses AirTags to see where recyclable plastics REALLY end up – and is left speechless Daily Mail (Kevin W)

Clean energy’s next trillion-dollar business Economist (Dr. Kevin)

Historic Drought Cuts Zambia’s Power Supply to Three Hours a Day Bloomberg

Extreme weather drives surge in Pakistan child marriages DW

Extreme heat worsens chronic health conditions in millions of Americans NBC

World’s biggest underwater methane hotspot is found off Barents Sea coast Barents Observer

What back-to-back storms did to Lake Charles, Louisiana Grist

Cloud computing hits the nuclear button amid energy crisis The Register

China?

Former high-ranking Hochul aide arrested for acting as a foreign agent for China New York Post

Pro-China activists harassed anti-Xi Jinping protesters in San Francisco Washington Post

South of the Border

USD/ARS: Argentine Peso Alternative Emerges in La Rioja: the Chacho Bloomberg (furzy)

European Disunion

European legal drift disguised as “rule of law” Cocominute (Micael T)

Europe Jumps On the Train El Pais

Sweden’s ‘Queen of Trash’ on trial for mountains of waste BBC (Kevin W)

Is Germany in crisis? Giants consider pulling billions from economy Fortune (Kevin W)

End of the German export model German Foreign Policy (Micael T)

Therefore, we should care more about Germany than the United States Aftonbladet. Micael T: “Sweden starts to take notice but still verboten to mention the reason why the German economy is deindustrializing. Most likely because Sweden also suspended their investigation into Nordstream 2.”

Old Blighty

Starmer to face test next week as MPs vote on limiting winter fuel allowance Guardian

Gaza

Palestinian Resistance: From the Lone Sniper to an Army of Snipers Orinoco Tribune (Robin K)

US charges Hamas leader, other militants in connection with Oct. 7 massacre in Israel Associated Press (Kevin W)

Trump’s Former Envoy to Israel: US Should Fund Israeli Annexation of West Bank Antiwar (Kevin W)

Why the West should stand up to Netanyahu Middle East Eye (guurst)

Why Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitic Wall Street Journal (Dr. Kevin)

There Is No Argument For Supporting Israel That’s Both Logical And Moral Caitlin Johnstone (Dr. Kevin)

New Not-So-Cold War

Mongolia was meant to arrest Russia’s President Putin last night. It didn’t, and now it’s in trouble CNBC. This is silly. All UN members are members of the ICJ (which handles disputes between countries and on treaty/charter matters) but countries can opt out of the ICC (which is why the US and Russia are not subject to ICC rulings). I believe countries can opt out of the ICC with six months notice. So Mongolia needs to get rolling. I would think Mongolia took stock of what would happen next when it decided to assure Russia it would not execute the arrest warrant.

Ukrainian foreign minister resigns in government shake-up Financial Times

Russian missile attack on Lviv: 7 people killed, including 3 children, and 47 injured – photos, video Ukrainska Pravda. Wonder what was targeted so far west.

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Cops’ favorite face image search engine fined $33M for privacy violation ars technica (Kevin W)

Trump

Trump Calls Journalists “Enemy Of The People” During Pennsylvania Rally Minutes Before Man Storms Into Media Section Vanity Fair (Dr. Kevin)

Kamala

James Carville: Kamala Harris’s Best Strategy to Defeat Trump New York Times

Via e-mail, DLG, Reality Czar, as a cook, took exception to the idea of washing greens in a bathtub. It appears black cooks very much agree. From a 2022 article, Woman Seen Cleaning Collard Greens In Bathtub: Black America Responds. Note the disapproval included the use of soap in the viral video, which one assumes was deemed necessary because bathtub.

Why vote for Trump? Why vote for Harris? Amazon’s Alexa gives shockingly different answers YouTube (Micael T)

Our No Longer Free Press

Warning labels from fact checkers work—even if you don’t trust them—says study MIT Sloan School of Management

Robert Reich Calls for Arrest of Elon Musk for Resisting Censorship Jonathan Turley

People trying to access Elon Musk’s X in Brazil face daily fines greater than their annual wage Fortune

Musk threatens to go after Brazilian government assets RT. Unhinged unless Musk has a trick up his sleeve.

Starlink in Brazil’s crosshairs as spat over Elon Musk’s X escalates CNBC

Canadian journalist outs himself as Canadian, Ukrainian intelligence collaborator The Grayzone (Kevin W)

AI

Google’s James Manyika: ‘The Productivity Gains From AI Are Not Guaranteed’ Financial Times. But its enormous energy bill is.

Embedded Bias: STAT investigates use of
race in clinical algorithms STAT (Dr. Kevin)

The Bezzle

Watch: Flamethrower robot dog spits fire at YouTuber after ‘bark’ command fail Interesting Engineering. Micael T: “Both horrifying and hilarious. Why do we need these robots but also a new type of Darwin Award Sports, preferrably for spoiled rich kids that can afford this 100K robots. The action at 7:19”

Guillotine Watch

Robbie Robertson estate battle holds lessons for inheritance disputes SF Chronicle

Class Warfare

Koch says its $3.6 billion purchase of Iowa fertilizer plant finalized Des Moines Register. Robin K: “Public subsidy of the outrageously rich.”

Party of one: Restaurants are catering to a growing number of solo diners Associated Press (Kevin W)

Antidote du jour. Tom H: “Junkyard cat at the local salvage shop in Berkeley, CA, fast asleep in the middle of everything.”

And a bonus (Chuck L):

A second, atypical bonus (Shiela M):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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165 comments

  1. Antifa

    KAMALA
    (melody borrowed from Girl  by The Beatles)

    Grampa Fuddy-Duddy cannot lift you unto glory
    Just like you he’s only a cliche
    With two months to go your campaign smells quite piscatory
    You clearly plan to lead us all astray
    Ah, girl . . .
    Girl, girl . . .

    You’re an empty suit when what we need is an achiever
    A trait you never could exemplify
    Here’s our nation raging wildly now with Covid fever
    No one needs your Freedom Lullaby
    Ah, girl . . .
    Girl, girl . . .

    We live in a world of tumble-down dead ends unfair and pointless rules
    We can’t afford our neighborhood our college loans or parenthood—it’s cruel
    Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!
    Girl . . .
    Girl, girl . . .

    When you speak with a forked tongue we heed and take your measure:
    You will bring us circuses and bread
    When our nation’s been hijacked by men in search of treasure
    Why would we elect their figurehead?
    Ah, girl . . .
    Girl, girl . . .

    (musical interlude)

    Ah, girl . . .
    Girl, girl . . .

    2. Zagonostra

      Anti-Zionism—opposition to the Jewish right of self-determination in the Jewish people’s historic homeland—is antisemitic, because it attacks a core belief of Judaism…

      Academic boycotts of Israel curtail the free exchange of ideas with Israeli scholars and institutions, and they seek to undermine the connection between diaspora Jews and the Jewish homeland in Israel. By giving its imprimatur to such anti-Israel boycotts, the AAUP has done a disservice to the principles of inclusion and academic freedom that it purports to champion.

      I wonder if the timing of this article is related to Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with John Rich where they discuss the Scofield Bible, John Darby and Pre Tribulation Rapture.

      1. hemeantwell

        “they seek to undermine the connection between diaspora Jews and the Jewish homeland in Israel”

        If there is a “connection,” it can be highly contentious. Recently I’ve been surprised to discover just how much Zionists, e.g.Gershom Scholem, sought to discredit “exilic” Judaism in controversies that extended over much of the 20th c. The versions that emerged during the Diaspora and were grounded in Torah scholarship, in favor of an aggressive Judaism cum Zionism that was more oriented to mystical teachings. Gabriel Piterberg, in his “The Returns of Zionism,” charts this very well.

      2. pjay

        The Links articles on Israel are especially chilling today. In addition to this one, there is the Antiwar piece on “Ambassador” Friedman which is quite revealing about the views of those who drove our Middle East policy under Trump. And these supremacists in the US are supporting and enabling the situation described in the Middle East Eye article:

        “Netanyahu knows that Israel is split down the middle. He has more than half of the country demanding he “finish the job” that David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, failed to complete.

        “This uprising, like the demonstrations against the judicial reforms last year, is one of the last throws of the dice for the liberal Ashkenazi elite.

        “They sense they are losing control of the country they built. They have already lost control of the army and the police force to the settlers. Not much is left in their exclusive hands and there has been an exodus of Israelis and money to Europe over the last year to prove it.”

        “Liberal Zionism” was always a fairy tale to reduce cognitive dissonance, as Caitlin Johnstone’s excellent essay makes clear. But it is no longer possible to use this fig leaf to cover the catastrophe that is almost inevitable. I say “almost” simply to hold out a bit of hope myself, though I can see no feasible way to avoid it.

        1. John k

          I wonder if the split is still in the middle. Imo Quite a few have leftists have left, the rightists have stayed.
          Might not be possible to jail bibi now, too easy to ignore or jail the supremes.

      3. Kontrary Kansan

        Zionism is an ideology by Jews and for Jews. If Jews enter the fray qua Jews, they can fully expect their ideas and positions to be evaluated and critiqued. Jews don’t get to call foul just because they cannot handle the truth. No special pleading, thank you.

        Time to put on big boy pants.

      4. Es s Ce Tera

        Jewish right of self-determination in the Jewish people’s historic homeland—is antisemitic, because it attacks a core belief of Judaism

        The author of that opnion piece fails to mention that the Jewish people’s historic homeland is ALSO the historic homeland of other groups, such as the Palestinians, that the historical record had the area widely known as Palestine before it was ever Israel, that Israel under the 12 tribes only lasted 100 years and was before the Jews came to self-identify as Jews, Judaism didn’t even exist as a religion or culture during this period.

        The Palestinians have always without exception co-existed in this area alongside the group known as Hebrews, historians consider both groups to be the Canaanites, there was never a time when the area was exclusively Hebraic, even during the period of the 12 tribes.

        Moreover, the Hebrews, as “pre-exilic” future Jews-to-become, had migrated there from the north, were not originally native to the area, were a nomadic people.

        And where modern Israeli-Jews are trying to ethnic cleanse Palestinians from their own legitimate homeland, now you’ve got a problem and it’s not antisemitic to object or to say so.

        It’s sleaze logic by large omissions, and irresponsible, especially for an academic who, you’d assume, would do some basic research, consult colleagues or something, before publishing.

    3. Anonted

      So, some Jews (conflated as all Jews in this article) believe in and pray for a homeland, so to be opposed to this is to deny a tenet of their religion. My understanding of eg. the Constitution of the USA, is that religious freedom is indeed absolute, up to the point it impinges on the constitutional rights of others.

      Human sacrifice is frowned upon. Though tolerated? Any time now Jesus.

    4. bertl

      Total bollocks. Blake fully established England’s right to transplant Jerusalem to our septic Isle and the Khazar’s have no say in the matter, not least because God is a proper English gent who has little regard for foreigners who dare to criticise His right to conduct His affairs however He wishes to do so – apart from, possibly, King Charles in His Majesty’s role as Consigliere and Defender of the Faith.

  3. The Rev Kev

    “Mongolia was meant to arrest Russia’s President Putin last night. It didn’t, and now it’s in trouble’

    Not sure but I think that with ICC warrants, that there are a few opt-out sections and one is dealing with heads of states. I really don’t know why the west and especially the Ukraine is so outraged by Putin not being arrested by the Mongolians. In a statement to POLITICO on Tuesday, a Mongolian government spokesperson said-

    ‘Mongolia imports 95% of its petroleum products and over 20% of electricity from our immediate neighborhood, which have previously suffered interruption for technical reasons. This supply is critical to ensure our existence and that of our people’

    In other words, if they had arrested Putin, by that night North Korea would have more lights on than Mongolia. But Putin has been a friend to Mongolia so they are not going to do anything stupid. If the west thought that they were going to fly Putin to the Hague, it should be pointed out that a plane would have to fly over Russia or China to do so so no, not going to happen. Meanwhile the Ukraine has promised consequences! They are going to bring in NATO to punish the Mongolians.

    https://www.politico.eu/article/mongolia-failure-arrest-vladimir-putin-international-warrant-international-criminal-court/

    1. Polar Socialist

      As far as I understand the Rome Statues (and be advised – that’s not very far) the ICC itself has no tools to enforce co-operation from states that are members. If there is a specific request from the court to the state, and the state refuses to co-operate, the court can refer the matter to the Assembly of States (the ICC oversight committee), which in due time can send a stern letter to the state and ask for an explanation on how the state in the future will co-operate with the court.

      And that’s about it. When the powerful came up with the concept of ICC, they sure included a “get out of jail” card for the powerful.

      1. Aurelien

        That’s right. The ICC is a treaty-based organisation, and it follows the standard rules of such organisations. Nations are not obliged to accede (China and Russia have not) and may withdraw if they like. The Court itself is seen as a common expression of the will of the States Parties to punish individuals, and the organisation itself is a consensual one. States have duties, as with any such treaty, but if they don’t fulfil them, all they can be accused of is failing to perform these duties. In some countries it might be possible to take the government to a domestic court, but that’s about it. There’s sometimes a confusion with the ad hoc tribunals of the 1990s (Yugoslavia and Rwanda) but they were subordinate organs of the Security Council and states had an obligation to cooperate with them. I can’t imagine any government would have signed the Rome Statute if the ICC had an enforcement mechanism attached.

      3. Christopher Smith

        Call me when the ICC issues a warrant for a white leader from a NATO or 5-Eyes country (or Israel). Until then, it’s illegitimate in my eyes.

    2. Mikel

      “Sandwiched between two powerful neighbors, Russia and China, Mongolia has long been constrained in its freedom of maneuver, so Putin’s choice makes ruthless sense,” she added.

      Currently, Mongolia may be considering that more of a protective shield.

      2. Robert Gray

        One area in which Mongolia has most definitely not felt constrained is vis-a-vis the ‘other’ big Asian power, Japan. Starting about 20 years ago, Mongolian wrestlers overtook and have since dominated the holy Japanese cultural-tradition-manifested-as-sport known as sumo. This has been a major humiliation for Japan and it has even forced the Japan Sumo Association into a variety of less-than-honorable tricks to control and/or discredit the Mongolian interlopers. Thay can’t get over the fact that the far-and-away greatest rikishi [sumo wrestler] of all time is Hakuho, a Mongolian who just retired about two years ago.

    3. Zagonostra

      I know/knew next to nothing about Mongolia. So a quick Wiki look to start off with tells me that:

      Mongolia is a member of the United Nations, Asia Cooperation Dialogue, G77, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Non-Aligned Movement and a NATO global partner. Mongolia joined the World Trade Organization in 1997 and seeks to expand its participation in regional economic and trade groups.

      That part about being a “NATO global partner” is going to take some digging into in light of Putin’s visit. Also, Wiki tells me that

      in 1921. Shortly thereafter, the country became a satellite state of the Soviet Union. In 1924, the Mongolian People’s Republic was founded as a socialist state.[12] After the anti-communist revolutions of 1989, Mongolia conducted its own peaceful democratic revolution in early 1990. This led to a multi-party system, a new constitution of 1992, and transition to a market economy.

      Being that it is the most sparsely populated country in the world, with only 3.5M people, half living in the capital Ulaanbaatar (good one for spelling bee) it seems like a very interesting place indeed.

      1. Yves Smith Post author

        I know two Mongolians. One is the wife of a B-school friend. She speaks Mongolian, Chinese (I think Mandarin), Japanese and English. Got her PhD in medicine in Japan. Went to Yale to do cancer research, continued at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Her sister lives near her in NYC and is also seriously overeducated.

      2. Joe Renter

        I have a book to recommend about Mongolia, Siberia and China during the early 20th century. It’s a real insight into those turbulent times.

        Beast, Men and Gods by Ferdinand Ossendowski. You can find free pdf by a search.

        1. Zagonostra

          Much appreciated, found and downloaded from Archive.org, added to my reading list, first copyright date 1922.

      3. Expat2uruguay

        A 30 minute video today from Neutrality Studies with Pascal Lottaz and an associate from mongolia who knows a lot of about the history and the current relationship with Russia. (They both live in Japan now.)
        https://youtu.be/yr-ayeCK68I

      4. sarmaT

        Screw Wiki. Random commenters here know stuff better. Mongolia is one of the Soviet influenced countries that USA wants to use as a disposable tool against Russia (like it does with Eastern European countries), but can’t because of geography.

        Here’s a video from a traveller’s point of view:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o9XyskdSiY

      5. PlutoniumKun

        Mongolia, like all well run central Asian States, keeps a toe firmly in every camp. It never makes logical sense for a country like this to annoy any major power, or to cosy up too closely to one. I’m pretty sure the diplomatic corps of every major power (and probably lesser ones too) in Ulaanbaatar are convinced that they alone have a ‘real’ connection with Mongolia due to all the private feasting they do with senior Mongolian politicians (Mongolians really do hospitality very well, so long as you are not vegetarian). Similar with the ‘stans’ and other countries in the region.

        The country has always managed to keep its two very large neighbours at bay in a friendly way through careful diplomacy plus some careful geopolitical positioning. Famously, it insisted on running its railways on a different gauge to Russia and China, to ensure it wouldn’t be easy for either to use its open flat plains as a through route on one of their occasional wars. The country has always tilted more to the north than the south – partly due to geography (the borderlands with Russia are more inhospitable so the Russians have never had much ambition to go south), plus there is a long running sore in Mongolian circles around the mistreatment of the Mongolian minority in parts of Northern China. Privately, most Mongolians will tell you after a few drinks that the Chinese have stolen half Mongolia, but they would never say it openly. But most ethnic Mongolians in China used to have a portrait of Genghis Khan on their walls (its been 25 years since I travelled the area, I don’t know the current situation), which is about as open as they can be about their loyalties.

    4. Zephyrum

      Mongolia not enforcing the ICC warrant provides clear identification of those who pretend to protect human human rights but are actually just tools of the empire. This is a useful service.

      1. Terry Flynn

        In years gone by when I traveled to USA a lot for work, I quite liked that so many places had bars/restaurants where you could eat solo at the bar without the stigma of being “at a table solo”.

        Maybe the stigma was just me, but having some background TV and occasional chat with bar staff made it feel better. Plus I sometimes got chatting to very interesting other solo patrons.

        When eating at a table in Sweden I felt like I was patient zero carrying a plague.

        1. PlutoniumKun

          Yes, I travel alone usually and it is always a relief to find a place where there is a bar. This is especially in countries were group eating is the norm and they are just not used to dealing with a single diner. Its invariably more social at the bar, and if you don’t feel like casual chat, staff are usually clued in enough not to force it.

          I don’t know whether its an economic or social thing, but its noticeable that in Japan its normal to have a bar or a bench by the window for solo eaters, while this would be quite unusual in, say, Korea or China (even then, its usually in Japanese restaurants).

          Two new restaurants in my neighbourhood have bar seats which can’t be booked (both places are super popular so its hard to get a seat normally). It quite nice as a local to be able to wander in to try out things in the menu without a booking, and I’m sure it must give them some additional flexibility in business. I wish more places would do it.

          1. Terry Flynn

            Indeed. I spotted that in Japan too. BFF (a fellow Brit but is a Dean at Tokyo Uni) visited last week. He is NOT optimistic about Japan’s future. He and his half Japanese son (when son reaches age 18) may leave.

            My impression (which may or may not be correct interpretation) was that Japan has stuck its head firmly in the sand and it’s just waiting for the end. My BFF told me they’ve done precisely nothing to properly move/decommission all the “switched off” nuclear plants that are at precisely sea level. There’s already an attitude of “we give up”.

            1. PlutoniumKun

              I always think of Japan as being like a duck paddling. Calm on the surface, but all sorts of furious activity going on out of sight. So its very difficult to tell if the apparently boring stability on the surface (such as the usual very boring swapping around of LDP prime ministers) is the reality.

              I think it was inevitable that all the problems that were corked up after the crash, all of 3 decades ago now, would surface at one time or another, and I think we are seeing the various corks start to loosen up and fail. Some of the very biggest Japanese companies are in serious trouble, including Toyota and Nissan. First the Koreans, and now the Chinese, are seriously eating into their markets. Japan also seems to have fallen behind in key growth areas, like chip manufacture and AI applications. Plus the whole macro impact of a weakening yen is very hard to analyse. Regular Japanese people are really starting to feel the loss of status and gradual chipping away of living standards. The Japanese people I know seem to feel increasingly pessimistic, and you can see this in increasing demand for emigration, in particular to Australia.

              That said, if any country has the capacity to deal with the multiple issues facing most nations, Japan has that ability. On my last visit to Tokyo I was genuinely surprised at how good it looks after its Olympics clean up and there are plenty of signs of prosperity (even as smaller towns and cities decay). Japan is still, it should be said, a huge draw to many people, especially in Asia – there is a very significant in-migration not just of regular immigrants but also rich Chinese and other Asians who see it as a sort of safe haven in the event of things going haywire elsewhere. Whether they will regret that judgement or not, I don’t really know.

            2. XXYY

              It’s worth pointing out that Japan is not alone in refusing to deal with aging and decommissioned nuclear power plants. Just averting one’s eyes seems to be the best practice around the world for dealing with nuclear waste and nuclear power plant fuel dumps. But I agree that Japan is more vulnerable since they have a large number of very old plants and a very small island nation that is not going to ride out nuclear contamination very well. The area around Fukushima is giving us all a taste of what lies ahead.

              There was a time when I would have considered this the most pressing issue facing the human species, though now we seem to have several other strong contenders, so I’m not so sure.

          2. Stephen V

            The Bar ! Now that you mention it PK, I had one of the best dining experiences of my life at a hotel Bar in Zurich. The Bar maid spoke English and was great but the food was way way better than I expected. Appreciate the reminder!

      1. The Rev Kev

        In some societies that is not entirely true. For some places it is like getting into a crowded elevator and then have the person in front do a 180 so that they are facing all the other people in that elevator.

      2. Yves Smith Post author

        Not true. I used to do in in my consulting days when traveling and would sometimes go to very nice restaurants because I would probably not ever have the chance again.

        The staff was often chilly. They didn’t like a single person talking up a table even at a quiet time, and often gave me pretty poor service because they assumed a woman would tip badly.

        1. Pat

          There are also societal norms. This was the eighties, but in Austria I got used to being very aggressive with waiters because women didn’t eat alone. Every step in the process took being very assertive. I don’t know that men by themselves had it any better, other than not being questioned about shouldn’t you wait for your keeper, aka male escort.

          1. Yves Smith Post author

            I learned late in the game, if staying at a good hotel, to have the hotel book the dinner, since if I was not happy, I might tell the hotel and they would be less likely to steer guests there.

          2. XXYY

            I’m a man who has been eating alone in restaurants all over the Western US for about 40 years, and I don’t remember even having this thought occur to me before now, let alone actually experiencing any kind of intolerance as a result of being a solo diner. I usually sit down, put my head in a book or newspaper, and have a very pleasant time. I do try to tip well to compensate for taking a two-top for one person, but no one knows that ahead of time.

            Maybe if I were to just sit there and stare at the people around me, that would start to make other people uncomfortable. Or maybe I’m just totally oblivious and have been sent to Coventry by other diners all this time without realizing it.

  5. communistmole

    „The Swiss population still feels less healthy than before the Covid pandemic. These are the findings of the Health Survey 2024 conducted by the Sotomo research institute on behalf of health insurer CSS.

    More than two thirds of around 2,456 people surveyed said they were often tired and exhausted. Among the under-36s, the figure was as high as three quarters, with this category perceiving a particularly high level of pressure to perform.“

    https://www.zentralplus.ch/news/viele-personen-sind-muede-und-erschoepft-2689018/

    As is well known, Switzerland’s policy was based on a „soft fight against the pandemic“ („sanfte Pandemiebekämpfung“), as one German newspaper euphemistically called it.

    1. Terry Flynn

      Personally I think we’ve been the proverbial frogs in a pan with gradually increasing temperature for 40 years. COVID has turned up the dial by 20 degrees suddenly and lots of us frogs are jumping out of the pan.

      If there are future generations to write history books they might write that covid did us a “sort of favour” by alerting enough of us.

      1. vao

        I had been wondering when the breaking point would be reached, that is, what level of dislocation of the social and economic life would compel TPTB to change course and take public health seriously. After all, with a population unremittingly sickened by repeated viral infections of all kinds and their consequences on the immune system and the physiology, eventually the situation would become untenable.

        I no longer believe this.

        After all, till well into the 19th century, the vast majority of the population was in a state of quasi permanent infection — and there were no vaccines against virii, no antiobiotics against bacteriae, no ivermectin&co against parasits, no water treatment, no filters against air pollution… The general poor health of the population (which was in addition overworked on the fields or in the manufacturing plants) must have been quite a drag on productivity, but TPTB of those days did not seem to have been bothered — except when an outbreak of plague or cholera would sweep through a country and threaten them.

        I once thought the neoliberal “elite” wanted to bring us back to the 19th century; I am now convinced it wants to go all the way back to the 18th century. For the 1% and their 9% dutiful servants, the 90% in a permanent state of sickliness does not merit any consideration.

        1. Terry Flynn

          I totally get your more pessimistic take. However the poll tax riots blew up from practically nowhere (just a previous level of generalised annoyance) and I’m hoping Brits will make their views abundantly clear again when the time is right.

          NB I am not advocating violence or extra-judicial activity. I just have learnt to study history, especially as it pertains to UK electoral reform etc.

        2. i just don't like the gravy

          I once thought the neoliberal “elite” wanted to bring us back to the 19th century; I am now convinced it wants to go all the way back to the 18th century.

          Fear not, Mother Nature will ensure we go even further back.

    1. The Rev Kev

      That cat may look sleepy and a bit mangy but the mice in that junkyard know him at nighttime as ‘Whispering Death’.

      1. MFB

        As for the nature video, I think the message thereof is “Don’t mess with Ratels”. That ratel looked incredibly smug as it waddled off.

        1. CanCyn

          More than a few years back there was a viral video called Honey Badger Don’t give a sh*t. Not linking here because the humour would not be for everyone. But this clip definitely could have been included in that video.

          I think those jaguars might be youngish. As tough as a honey badger is, I suspect that 3 fully adult jaguars might be too much for him. I too enjoyed the smug looking departure.

          Also, I am not always a fan of cute kid stuff but the little girl dancing really is adorable, as were the father and daughter dancing in the rain that was posted in antidotes recently.

  7. The Rev Kev

    “Trump Calls Journalists “Enemy Of The People” During Pennsylvania Rally Minutes Before Man Storms Into Media Section’

    Well he’s not wrong. Trump may have been taking about how they have been treating him the past few years but as a general case, the main stream media could disappear overnight and the result would be better informed people. The article says the following-

    “The level of distrust in the American media is unprecedented,” Reporters Without Borders wrote of the United States. “The disinformation affecting American society has created an atmosphere where citizens no longer know who to trust.

    What Reporters Without Borders does not say is that the two biggest sources of disinformation are the government but who is in turn outdone by the mainstream media itself. During Presidential campaigns it was overheard how journalists would say to each other which candidate they would cover and who that would never bring up to silence them. Proof of this at work was in 2016 when instead of covering a Sander speech, the networks focused on an empty stage where Trump was due to speak but was running about 20 minutes late. The talk about plucky Ukraine fighting the bear but never showing actual Nazis at work. So yeah, the media is actually the enemy of the people.

    1. Samuel Conner

      Can you name any powerful institution that has not, practically speaking, adopted a posture that is basically adversarial toward the well-being of much of the populace?

      IMO, if there is any intention behind this rhetoric, aside from “useful in the moment”, it’s a misdirection tactic: “Look over there!”

      1. The Rev Kev

        Call me old fashioned but I believe that a healthy media should act like the nervous system to the body politic alerting it to what is going on around them. The present media in the western body politic act as if it suffers from Parkinson’s disease.

        1. Samuel Conner

          I don’t disagree with the “ideal” concept; my point is that everything is diseased. The sick media is a symptom of much wider problems. DJT’s “the media are ‘enemy of the people’ ” rhetoric seems to me to function as a distraction from the reality that the duopoly parties, the banks, industry, the healthcare provision system, etc., etc. are all in effect enemies of the people that in a properly functioning world they would serve.

          1. The Rev Kev

            I agree with what you say. It’s just that I am old enough to remember when the media did go after the big targets and helped keep them in check, even if it was only a little bit. Now they are just the handmaidens to power.

          2. Lefty Godot

            I think noticeable parts of the media were covering real issues in a way that served the public back in the 1970s. It was a brief moment in an otherwise deplorable history. Investigative journalism was an actual thing done by local newspapers and TV stations in big cities, and even the national networks became less timid about pointing out when the emperor had no clothes on. Like most other “countercultural” trends, it pretty much came to an end by the start of Reagan’s second term.

    2. Mikel

      The people he’s calling journalists that he pays so much attention to are deep state and corporate stenographers.
      But it gets confusing when words like “journalist” and “democracy” are hijacked.

    3. Chris Cosmos

      For over three decades I’ve been telling people that the mainstream media are the institution that harms the USA the most. Yes, more than sleazy lobbyists. This media is part of the government in the broadest sense of the word–their tendency to become PR agents for power should be obvious. At one time, it was thought that this media was supposed to hold the government and those around it accountable and the very almost exact opposite became the reality. This was particularly obvious in two well know incidents: 1) the Iraq War, those who were right about it Chris Hedges, Scott Ritter, Donahue and so on became non-persons in almost the Stalinist sense; 2) Russia-Russia-Russia-gate proved to be a made up story by Clintonistas that directly sabotaged the Trump Presidency, in other words, the media was acting as direct agents of the Democratic Party and they’ve never apologized for that and everyone who takes part in the lies is always promoted and lionized–those who ferreted out the correct info on Russiagate like Aaron Matte are and will remain non-persons.

      Just to be clear, I’ve known people in the MSM over the years socially and in a business venture and know their mentality which doesn’t mean they are “bad” just means they deal with reality and have careers.

      1. Anonted

        The Democratic Party is the keyboard to the Republican mouse. Just an interface. When this became apparent to me, was when, in the midst of his newly elected fervor, Trump invited the Russian ambassador for a closed-door meeting in the Oval Office, to shoot the shit. In my assessment, this was not merely bold, it was bait, and we’ve been hooked to the intended message ever since: Trump, the anti-establishment figure from the establishment, draining the swamp as the gators pinch, dodging bullets and indictments alike. Our hero. Don’t get me wrong, I’m certain the Dem PMC are sincere in their convictions against him, typing away, but the fact their ire was so centered on fabrications, manufactured an authenticity for Trump that he would, otherwise, not possess. In fact it baptized whatever faults he has, turning him from epic fraudster to biblical savior.

        Spare us the warring parties trope, the media serves the same interests they do, whether they’re shilling red or blue.

      1. flora

        From Ed Dowd about the MSM.

        SNL cartoon about Media Consolidation. Aired once in 1998 and then never again!

        https://x.com/DowdEdward/status/1830470874740441513

        —

        Thanks, B. Clinton. From 2016:

        Democracy in Peril: Twenty Years of Media Consolidation Under the Telecommunications Act

        In 1996, President Clinton signed the bill into law. Today, the media industry is donating big to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

        https://truthout.org/articles/democracy-in-peril-twenty-years-of-media-consolidation-under-the-telecommunications-act/

          1. Neutrino

            Television, radio and print media have ownership concentrations that merit scrutiny.
            As with so many businesses, lack of competition can combine with collusion. Toss in the destructive effects of large advertisers, especially pharma, on editorial direction and there is more erosion of what used to be called journalism.

            No truth in the news and no news in the truth. Not just for the USSR any longer.

        2. The Rev Kev

          You can’t erase that ad from the internet because the internet never forgets. But maybe with AI they will be able to erase it’s appearance in real time.

    5. jefemt

      I’ll never forgive or forget that stalwart, unified front the Media displayed on eschewing- apparently at all costs, Bernie’s speech and Trump’s empty podium.
      I surmise Trump was watching the speech, , hence the delay, and that he had his own long knife safely in it’s sheath.
      “Wasn’t ME!”

      1. flora

        From the 2016 Truthout article I linked above:

        “When President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act into law, he did so with great fanfare. The bill, which was lobbied for in great numbers by the communications and media industry, was sadly a bipartisan misadventure – only 3 percent of Congress voted against the bill: five senators and 16 members of the House, including then-Rep. Bernie Sanders. ”

        Bernie voted against the Telecommunications Act of 1996, an Act that opened the door to MSM consolidation, Media-opoly.

        The MSM had their knives out for Bernie during both of his campaigns.

    6. Es s Ce Tera

      We already have separation of church and state, now we also need separation between state and industry/finance, between state and media, between industry/finance and media…

      I wonder if the only way to achieve this is by replacing government, or perhaps politicians, with AI. After all, not being sentient an AI would be immune to corruption or power, right? Though it’s not quite immune to influence, yet, if it ever will be…

  8. Zagonostra

    >Robert Reich Calls for Arrest of Elon Musk for Resisting Censorship- Jonathan Turley

    Reich has always shown a chilling fluidity in how free speech is protected and argued that public interest should be able to trump the right of any citizens in espousing views that he believes are dangerous.

    I used to have a soft spot for RR. He would often speak eloquently in defense of labor and his rhetoric always included standing up for the little guy (pun intended). I often used to hear him as a guest on Amy Goodman’s DN, when I used visit that site, many years ago. The two part debate/interview he had with Chris Hedges was an early indicator of how far he would/has fallen.

    His admonishment that in NOT voting for HRC was to ignore the “clear and present danger” of a Trump presidency and fascism. He was still then at an early stage TDS infection, it has metastasized and he is calling for censorship…they have become that which they warned against.

    https://youtu.be/jr4cXH3Fil8?si=pdl5tPQvmXtU2NkO

    https://youtu.be/ql7FQenIQEE?si=ykoUFRbxV62AzpTM

    1. Christopher Smith

      The only danger I see to democracy is authoritarians like Robert Reich (what an appropriate name!) wanting to destroy democracy to “save” it. And by “save” we mean eliminate the last vestiges thereof so that little men like him can maintain their hold on power.

      And double family blog Reich for making me defend Elon Musk.

    2. spud

      he was, and still might be a free trader. he had racist views of the chinese and other peoples of color, and exhibited traits of white supremacy.

    4. pjay

      “… He would often speak eloquently in defense of labor and his rhetoric always included standing up for the little guy (pun intended).”

      The key word here is *rhetoric*. As the token “lefty” in the Clinton administration, he was given very few opportunities to actually do anything. And when he was, as when he was sent out to provide full-throated support for NAFTA, he demonstrated his true partisan colors. But it is true that even at the rhetorical level there have been phases in Reich’s fall. I don’t know if he has reached bottom yet, but when he recommended that his hero Liz Cheney run for President I thought he was getting pretty close.

    5. Neutrino

      Krugman gave an economics presentation in the mid-19900s that I attended. In his speech he roasted Reich, along the lines of how some people rising even to the Cabinet level did not understand basic economics.

  9. Katniss Everdeen

    RE: As COVID Surges, the High Price of Viral Denial The Tyee

    Just wondering what would happen if Trump is elected, RFKJ becomes the MAHA* “czar,” and Ivermectin is made freely available to all. Could be interesting.

    *MAHA: Make America Healthy Again

    1. Yeti

      Seems Nikiforuk doesn’t quite understand how the vaccine works, but agrees with many others on the potential damage of the spike protein “ An important new Nature study, for example, has now proven that the spike protein of the virus can bind with a blood protein, fibrin, setting off a chain of blood clots resulting in chronic inflammation and brain damage.”

  10. The Rev Kev

    “Russian missile attack on Lviv: 7 people killed, including 3 children, and 47 injured – photos, video”

    That close to the border would mean maybe a coordination center for transport or some such. The more important attack was in the east in a city called Poltava. The media keeps talking about 50 people killed and over 200 other people injured while omitting the fact that those people mostly wore green clothes. The place hit was training radio and radar operators so that is a big loss for the Ukrainians and Moon of Alabama talks about a bunch of Swedes trainers caught there as well-

    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/09/ukraine-russian-missile-strike-hits-swedish-instructors.html

        1. The Rev Kev

          That in itself raises another question. Almost certainly there were foreign instructors in that building that was hit so where were they from? Europe I would guess.

          1. sarmaT

            Well, she did not say that no Swedes were hurt in the making of Poltava battle 2.0, but that she knows of no Swedes in Ukraine or anyone who was affected by the attack. For all that we know, some Swedish (or other NATO) officers may still have fatal skiing accidents in the near future.

            1. The Rev Kev

              Before the war in Gaza, Israel would talk about how some of their soldiers would have fatal “accidents” by falling off ladders and in car accidents. It will be years before we find out how many NATO personnel were killed in the Ukraine. That info would be classified out the kazoo.

    3. ilsm

      We seem to be getting the “body count of children”.

      Ukraine children need to be counted, not Palestinian or Syrian….

      The agit on the msn page: Biden decries the school bombed in Poltava.

      Pretty high paid propagandist!

    4. Zagonostra

      The media keeps talking about 50 people killed

      On the Duran today they stated that 2K Ukrainian military personnel per day are being eliminated. A whole generation of young men/women dying for what? It’s immoral, sick, depressing, and indicative of how little the 21’st Century is from the the 20th.

      1. Samuel Conner

        > “dying for what?”

        Alexander Mercouris has proposed that they are dying in order to keep the war going, in order to keep martial law in effect, in order to delay presidential elections, in order to delay VZ’s fall from power.

        In terms of the motivations of the Chief Executive and the consequences for people “on the ground”, it bears a certain resemblance to the situation in the Middle East.

      2. Well Worn

        Hey, you guys have to get with the program! As President Biden has stated, we are “investing” in the Ukraine and Israel. A “smart investment” that will “pay dividends.” Yay!

        https://fortune.com/2023/10/20/biden-oval-office-address-aid-ukraine-israel-us-security/

        You see, all we are having to do is to invest a few freshly minted dollars, as well as, yes, a few explosives. Yet, in return, we rake in the payoffs, including but not limited to: dividends! fewer Russians! fewer Palestinians! True, the recipients of our investment, on the other hand, must give up, among other things, more than a few of their fighting age men. (That most of the dead are civilians, many of whom happen to be kiddos, well, as the MIC repeated and solemnly intones, war is hell. Besides, living the fine life in the greater D.C. area continues to grow increasingly expensive, so we gotta have dem dividends.)

        As such, you kids in Gaza (Gaza in particular), if you want to dance, you’d better hurry up. Bibi, Joe, Kamala, and their fellow “investors” might very well end up taking you out, as they have done to tens of thousands already. (Nothing personal, of course!)

  11. Jester

    Extreme weather drives surge in Pakistan child marriages DW

    So, they are blaming pedophilia on weather? It was a monsoon season, your honor.

  12. JTMcPhee

    Gotta love markets linked to AI. This parasitic conjunction brings us mopes under a wonderful circularity: “surveillance pricing,” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-surveillance-pricing-practices-under-federal-probe/ which figures out the maximum price we can “agree” (not even “afford”) to pay for something. All while other AI and lesser mechs unearth all the triggers that “create demand” for that same necessity or object of desire, and endeavor to boost the price we will ineluctably be impelled to pay, even way beyond the fiscal ability to pay. https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/5-strategies-for-generating-consumer-demand/230981 Generating debt, subject to compound interest, and predatory fees and such profit centers.

    Rinse and repeat, until we all own nothing and can’t afford to live.

    Thereupon we will be offered the option of “assisted dying,” now being marketed very successfully in Canada and other places: 4% of all “excess deaths” in Canada are now “MAID” (Medical Assistance In Dying) , up 31% year over year. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/maid-canada-report-2022-1.7009704 Vulture capitalists are unsurprisingly making inroads into the death industrial complex. https://jacobin.com/2023/05/private-equity-hospice-care-profit-regulation

    Growth in Death! A libertarian wet dream!

    Had a friend, years ago, who had PhDs in cell mechanics and neurobiology and who decided to step out of the research racket for a couple of years to have kids. To keep her hand in, she volunteered to assist on a project to study the response of pleasure centers to various combinations of colors, forms and aromas, research being done by General Foods. With the clear goal of seeing what tricks can be used to make products essentially irresistible to “consumers.”

    Fun world we think we live in.

  13. Donald

    Regarding this link— https://archive.ph/wftom

    Note that the Palestinian right not to be ethnically cleansed plays no role— her religious need for Jews to live there trumps their petty concerns.

    I often wonder what goes on in the heads of supposedly intelligent people when they say nothing about an obvious point that destroys their argument. Are they consciously aware of it?

    1. MFB

      She’s a musicologist, probably focussing on Jewish music and doubtless very good at her job and perhaps at teaching Jewish culture. She neither knows nor cares anything about Palestinians and she is not interested in anyone identifying any flaws in her argument because her only concern is for the welfare of Jews. In a sense she is a perfect argument for what is wrong with Zionism; she’s like someone playing Bach on the klavier within sight of the gates of Auschwitz and burbling about the glorious of deutsche kultur.

        1. mrsyk

          Ah, of course. She’s an executive level university administrator. Also, she’s “filled with dynamism”, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

    2. NotTimothyGeithner

      In general, I think empathy leads to critical thinking. Evil/cruelty simply don’t care enough to worry. Mostly Evil people get away with it because they are usually so absurd its hard to believe (ex. John McCain).

      Functionally, the author is selfish. “I was called out” is prominent in this article. Can you imagine the outrage and how persecuted are is because she encountered people who weren’t worried about a grade?

      In a formal setting, she uses “some” and “numerous” to back her claims. Would that fly with her old students?

      Tradition is another word she uses. Israel isn’t that old. I have a thought on that and the death of American community by creating a desire to touch the old world. What tradition is discussing? She doesn’t have a clue. She’s grumpy she cant pretend to be a cool prof who probably gets applause for her bouts of TDS.

    3. bertl

      I wasn’t really sure what the otherwise elusive concept of “hate speech” might mean until I read this obscene and vicious hymn to ethno-theocratic geographic exceptionalism which effectively clarifies that Jews who are not Zionists are, by definition, not Jews. They probably disapprove of genocide as well which places them well outside the Pale along with all the rest of the normies who despair at the mass murder and deliberate maiming of Palestinian men, women and children. Oh, and as John Mersheimer points out, are forced to ignore the fates of Americans whose taxes finance their own murders without any possibilty of the perpetrators facing the consequences of their actions.

    1. MFB

      Where I live we have hadedas that are a bit like that. I love the fleeing behatted New Yorkers in the clip, by the way.

  16. Lunker Walleye

    Thank you for the wonderful videos of honey badger vs. cats and the little girl dancing. She will bring a smile to your face.

    2. Old Jake

      About the honey badger vs leopard. I think the leopards must be inexperienced – perhaps almost grown littermates – and they are now gaining some experience. The honey badger is one tough hombre but knows that running away is not an option, the leopards are definitely faster. So standing its ground and fighting them off is the only solution. Happily for it, that’s where honey badgers shine. The leopards would have needed a much larger gang to pull this off and of course like most cats they are normally solitary.

      This young dancer is wonderful, a born performer. She looks to be enjoying herself immensely. In passing I note the apparent continuity between the moves I see so often on internet videos by young women “stepping” and the Irish dancing groups based on their traditional movements, and this young performer. It’s always a joy to watch.

  17. Mikel

    Google’s James Manyika: ‘The Productivity Gains From AI Are Not Guaranteed’ – Financial Times.
    But its enormous energy bill is.

    True. That’s a good “drop mic and pimp walk off the stage” quip.

  18. Safety First

    Re: missile strike on L’vov/Lviv/Lemberg. Ask, and ye shall receive.

    Official statement of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation:

    —–

    This morning [September 4], the military forces of the Russian Federation carried out a group strike using long range high precision weapons, including hypersonic ballistic missiles “Kinzhal” and strike drones, against facilities of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex in the city of L’vov involved in the production and repair of electronic components of military aircraft and missiles.

    [Those ministry press officers sure love their complex sentences that take up an entire paragraph…]

    —–

    One of the second-tier (i.e. sub-100k subscribers) military bloggers, the Donbass Partizan, that focuses in part on publishing photos and videos of Russian missile strikes against Ukraine:

    —–

    Today, September 4, 2024, around 5:30-6:00 in the morning, Russian forces performed a combined strike against enemy targets in L’vov, Krivoj Rog, and in the Black Sea. Munitions used included ballistic missiles “Iscander-M”, cruise missiles X-101/555 and X-22, hypersonic missiles “Kinzhal”, and loitering munitions [i.e. strike drones] “Geran’-2”. Information regarding the use of sea-based missiles Kalibr is incorrect.

    The strikes in L’vov were made against targets situated in the Danila Galitsky international airport. The target was hit by a minimum of 2 hypersonic missiles “Kinzhal” and 2 cruise missiles X-101/555. Preliminary data suggests that two Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft were destroyed and a Su-24M aircraft was damaged. The precise impact points of the strikes are unknown. It should be noted, that authorities have closed off traffic on the Sknilovskij Bridge, from which the area of the airport can be easily observed.

    Based on open sources, it can be said that the military base at the airport is actively used by the enemy – there are active movements of aircraft and transport vehicles (see video). The impact points are likely geolocated in the area of 49.8171572, 23.9444985.

    Information regarding the destruction of American F-16 fighters is incorrect.

    [He then proceeds to speculate that Ukrainian civilian casualties were the result of anti-air/anti-missile munitions going off course.]

    —–

    So two potential kinds of targets, and the airport strike is backed by Ukrainian videos of fire and explosions in the immediate aftermath (reposed by the Donbass Partizan). I doubt the Russians would waste two “Kinzhals” on just some MiG-29s, there must have been some fuel or ammunition stored in the area (which would explain the size of the explosions in the video). Or maybe the electronics repair facility was situated at the airport, who knows.

  19. Mikel

    Musk threatens to go after Brazilian government assets – RT

    Like I’ve said: It should be an interesting BRICS conference in Oct.

  20. Mark Gisleson

    News of a sort: my legacy Firefox browser now opens my Feedly account once again. Due to browser incompatibilities I lost access to many sites about a year ago. Not being able to access Feedly (my RSS accounts) forced me to use Chrome (which also couldn’t update but could access Feedly).

    The excitement on my part is in not having to use Chrome anymore. I am back to accessing the internet on a ten-year-old browser on a twelve-year-old computer with a fifteen-year-old big screen LCD monitor. It can be done but I admit I was ready to give up for a while there. Forced upgrades come straight from the monopolists’ toolkit.

    Not a Luddite, btw. I just dug in my heels when Apple went Microsoft and started forcing OS upgrades on customers rather than fix persistent problems with older OSes. There’s a lesson in here somewhere but most likely one about not being so #$@! stubborn.

    1. SteveB

      Mark,
      You are not alone, my main boxes run Win7 pro… But I have one running XP
      Not to mention my trusty Flip Phone!!

    2. Jason Boxman

      I agree that the lack of stable browser releases is destructive. Traditionally in software, you’d have a stable release and it would be maintained for, ideally, years. Unfortunately the model for Chromium and thus Chrome is to release constantly, with security fixes and bug fixes rolled up with new “features” that likely benefit Google as a monopolist, but not you, as a user of the web. The browser as a software development platform is kind of a joke, honestly. It’s infinitely customizable, making it infinitely complex. (A post here earlier this year lamented the fact that the code base for Chromium is so huge, no one understands it. That’s great for security!)

    3. Ranger Rick

      If you’re looking to eke out some more years from old hardware, Linux will keep you up to date. Ubuntu MATE would probably be my pick for a lightweight operating system. As a bonus, you can run it off of a USB stick if you want to kick the tires before installing.

      2. Procopius

        Another good option is the Cinnamon desktop, which can be installed on any Linux distro that I know about. Very much like Windows, but secure. And it doesn’t send your data “home.”

    4. Procopius

      Next time try Chromium. It’s Open Source, free (as in beer) and has none of the data drains of Chrome.

  21. t

    YouTuber “I did a thing” has a nice video – I put a gun on a robot dog. Worth a look although it’s longish.

    (Either I cannot do links or my posts with links always fail moderation.)

  22. The Rev Kev

    “Palestinian Resistance: From the Lone Sniper to an Army of Snipers’

    Destroying all those buildings in Gaza must have been very satisfying to the IDF. The drawback is that this provides perfect cover for Hamas snipers to hunt down Israelis in those ruins. And those rifles maybe effective up to 2,000 meters (about 2,190 yards) but it may be – from the videos that I have seen – that they are shooting targets at much shorter range. And who wants to go hunting for snipers in a ruined city?

  23. jefemt

    Airtags and plastics recycling in Houston. Resembles America’s lurking nuclear waste stockpiles.

    Perhaps folks should stop recycling, watch landfills over-fill, and see if municipalities and counties will bring pressure to bear on manufacturers who use apparently non-recyclable feed-stocks?
    OR, work hard to aquire goods that do not invlove any plastic packaging? Good luck with that, the sh*t is everywhere, in everything. Heck, the plastic wrap on commercially packaged meat leaches into the meat.
    We eat oil.

    1. cfraenkel

      FYI – if you have space for a chest freezer, look for a local farmer who sells beef. A quarter cow lasts two people about a year, is much less expensive, and is wrapped in old fashioned butcher paper. (the plastic garbage can’t handle being frozen that cold or long…)

  24. Craig H.

    Ukrainian foreign minister resigns in government shake-up Financial Times

    This is not the headline on that FT story that I am seeing.

    Nowhere in the story does it report that Ukraine’s foreign minister has resigned.

    1. Yves Smith Post author

      I copied and pasted the headline (that is the ONLY way I put up headlines) and read the opening paras, since the article at that URL had had its headline and first half substantially edited since I had first seen it. The earlier version was merely about a big government shakeup and many resignations being tendered at official request and various players hoping for bigger portfolios.

      I cannot be made responsible for editing by the publisher after I put up a link. Or perhaps by some weird quirk you got the older version.

      You also seem to be insinuating that the then-headline statement, that Kuleba had resigned, was inaccurate. Had you used a search engine, you would see AP, CNN, and others reporting it. Here is the link to the AP story: https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-russia-resign-kuleba-bb5195cc2df40d32bac374ece6dbc0b8

  25. Mikel

    Just wondering why the 2022 article about a black woman cleaning greens in a bathtub is under the heading for Kamala. Is that her in the story? If Kamala is elected, is there some fear black people will start cleaning greens in the bathtub?

  26. pjay

    – ‘Why vote for Trump? Why vote for Harris? Amazon’s Alexa gives shockingly different answers’ – YouTube (Micael T)

    LOL! Thanks for this Micael T! What a perfect representation of our current bizarre political situation. There are few better symbols of our all-encompassing “System” (however we might define it) than Alexa. And that “System” simply cannot abide a Donald Trump. This systemic rejection is so open and blatant, however, that these examples just generate more support for the Orange Hitler. Interesting that the two different devices were able to give two *different* lists of reasons to vote for Kamala. I wonder who does the programming?

    1. The Rev Kev

      Maybe the reasons vary by region and are weighed differently so that they are more acceptable according to where you hear them play.

      1. pjay

        Or perhaps one’s Amazon purchases, or even Google searches or Youtube play lists, determine Alexa’s responses.

        I don’t have an Alexa so I couldn’t immediately test this for myself. I’d be interested in any attempts to replicate this, and if there were any algorithms that led her to provide reasons to vote for Trump.

  28. BillS

    The antidotes are very very good today! I really needed that. The little dancing girl is amazing – and that honey badger has no fear!

    1. Revenant

      [This was supposed to be a new thread, not a reply to praise for the antidote. Sorry!]

      The STAT link about “racial” algorithms is crazy.
      (“Embedded Bias: STAT investigates use of
      race in clinical algorithms”). I hope IM Doc or KLG is moved to comment, I would be interested to hear their thoughts.

      I read the entire article carefully and while it talks about needing new studies and evidence to remove race as an input in clinical decision scoring, it also talks about groups pushing to withdraw or amend many scoring tools and provides no mention of any evidence being used in support of these changes.

      Two changes cited have been to replace black ancestry with history of hypertension (for an obstetric decision tool) and with history of fever/infection (for a paediatric UTI tool). Allegedly the tools works “the same” but then it is admitted that the UTI tool loses its sensitivity/specificity for white children. So clearly the tools don’t work the same!

      There’s a brief discussion about whether this is “fair”, in the same breath as discussing how removing race-based assumptions in kidney transplant criteria has improved black access to kidney transplants and now whites are complaining about longer waiting lists. The impression given is that these are somehow similar, that fairer rationing of rivalrous access to life-extending treatment is somehow comparable to electively degrading a non-rivalrous tool for assessing patient risk.

      When you read the paper closely, there are two remarkable statements:

      – “I didn’t appreciate the problem until I was talking to the parents,” said Shaikh. Even if race could make risk prediction more accurate, parents told him they weren’t comfortable with race driving their childrens’ care. Shaikh had come to agree: If at all possible, race shouldn’t be used as a predictor of disease. “We were basing testing on race,” he said. “Which is just the definition of racism.”

      – In the mid-2010s, clinicians began to raise concerns about the misuse of race in clinical tools, as did a new generation of medical students. Using race to inform clinical risk predictions, they argued, perpetuates a harmful fallacy that race plays an immutable, biological role in health outcomes. “If race is a social construct and not a biological construct,” questioned Johnson, “why is race included in this calculator? And if we suspect that race is a proxy for something else, we need to figure out what that something else is.”

      The first statement is asinine. Racism is treating people differently based on race to their disadvantage. Using race as a clinical predictor of better outcome, if statistically valid, is not racist – you are trying to fix them!

      The second statement is more revealing. It is written without identifying who led the campaign for these changes. Then it quotes somebody saying race is a social construct! This is true in a fashion, there is little scientific support for the superiority / inferiority or even statistical coherence of US race classifications (Black covers Tutsus and Hutus, Asian covers literal Caucasians and Dravidians etc). This model of race is indeed a social construct of US society. But biology is intrinsic and race / ancestry is a proxy for genetic and environmental factors that predict for clinical outcomes (and which we may not yet understand mechanistically).

      When you read the article’s disclosures, they lead to something called The Commonwealth Fund which describes itself thus: “The Commonwealth Fund has made a commitment to become an antiracist organization. That commitment extends not only to our research agenda, our grantmaking, and our communications, but also to all aspects of our internal operations and interactions — from our endowment management and hiring practices to the ways in which staff members relate to one another”.

      Are there really clinicians and endowments in the US who would subjugate clinical outcome to critical race theory dogma? It’s like Galileo was never trued! Eppur si muove! If medicine has not adequately studied non white populations outcome, so as to decompose it into non-racial factors, the answer is to research better tools for minorities, not to suppress existing tools.

    1. Zagonostra

      Another good music link to add below Carla Bley’s…thanks. Maybe NC should have a music play list that readers can listen to as they scroll through daily links.

  30. lyman alpha blob

    RE: Pro-China activists harassed anti-Xi Jinping protesters in San Francisco Washington Post

    Guess we can now add WaPo to the list of “journalists” doing the government’s dirty work for them. From the article –

    “The Post also used facial recognition software to search more than 21 hours of footage to identify the actions of pro-CCP diaspora group leaders and Chinese officials. Several people were identified through leads from a separate facial recognition search engine, which were then independently verified by cross-referencing against news clips, interviews and publicly available information. Some of the most violent figures were wearing face masks, sunglasses and hats that obscured their faces and could not be identified.”

    I have to ask, even if the Chinese government did actively rile up pro-China protesters in San Francisco as this article claims, so what? US does the same in other countries all the time. What’s good for the goose…

    Oddly, or not, there was no word on whether WaPo also used its new mad skillz to ID the anti-China protesters to find out who they were and if anyone had put them up to it.

  31. Tom Stone

    Thanks to Bill Clinton for the 1994 Crime Bill that gave us mass incarceration, private, for profit Prisons and a return to Slavery.
    It was instructive to see the Democratic Party return to its roots…
    And it is instructive to see the Democratic Party nominate a Presidential Candidate who is such a big fan of the “Prison Industrial Complex”, it’s what keeps American wages competitive with other 3rd World Countries.

  32. more news

    https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1831345488638976346
    🇷🇺🇬🇧‼️🚨 Prank call with Boris Johnson

    Johnson thinks he’s talking to Jacques Attali, respected in globalist circles, believing the legend that Henry Kissinger himself confessed to Attali before his death!

    Checkpoints:
    1:16 – Syria was a failure of the west
    2:07 – Nixon was confused about Maritime and Mauritania
    4:26 – It was a naive democratic position to motivate Ukraine to fight
    6:39 – NATO should not be involved
    8:22 – Zelensky would accept to give away the Donbass and Crimea if it was February 2022 again.
    9:90 – Preconditions should be a Russian defeat
    12:00 – I wish I could go and lead a foreign legion myself.
    12:35 – WW3 like escalation if we send boots on the ground
    14:19 – Ukraine needs mass mobilization
    14:49 – We should remove the range limits and help them to take out the Kerch bridge

    1. NN Cassandra

      What I find fascinating is that they keep succeeding with this stunt again and again. Western rules really are high school clique of mean girls who are glued to their phones, constantly gossiping, bad mouthing each other and generally unable to stop babling nonsense for just one minute.

  33. Zagonostra

    <Biden to take ‘law enforcement action’ against RT – CNN

    The White House will accuse Russia on Wednesday of “a sustained effort to influence the 2024 US elections” by using “Kremlin-run media” to spread so-called “disinformation,” CNN reported, citing US government sources.

    Truly Orwellian. Comes on the heels of Pavel Dukov’s arrest, Brazil’s spat with Elon Musk, and various EU/Canadian laws that tamp down on free speech. Entering a new phase of of attacks on the 1st Amendent, and when that goes, the whole shebang goes…

    https://www.rt.com/news/603521-biden-rt-election-disinformation/

    1. Tom Denman

      The Democrats’ bullying, censorship and criminalization of dissent are why I will hold my nose and vote for Trump.

      After all, Democracy is on the Ballot.

  34. Revenant

    On a lighter note, I went to see the film Kneecap at the weekend by the eponymous Irish language, Irish Nationalist West Belfast rap/punk/hip hop/rave group. It’s brilliant and so are they.

    It’s an 8 Mile (with Irish lyrics), a Trainspotting (without the heroin), The Commitments (with ketamine) and A Hard Day’s Night (without the global celebrity… yet) for the 2020’s.

    Go and see it! Unless you are easily scandalised by hedonism without a Puritanical come-uppance. Part of its pleasure is the sheer fun the group are having while staying sincere to their cause.

    It’s not on general release but it is showing in arts cinemas and the like.

    1. Offtrail

      I second this recommendation. Loads of fun. The band plays themselves, and they are charismatic. I’d be curious to hear any Irish reactions to this film.

      1. Revenant

        I’ve become obsessed by Kneecap since I saw the film.

        Their first single was banned by RTE and the band say a lot of fruity things about RTE in their songs but the general reaction to the film seems to be very positive. Nobody complaining that they are making Ireland look bad.

        Indeed, the Irish film council nominated it as Ireland’s official entry to the Oscars foreign film category. I think people can feel the film is one of those perfect waves. Fingers crossed it wins for sheer artistic brio!

        Irish Times review here
        https://archive.is/zZjTJ

        Irish Independent here
        https://m.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/movie-news/kneecap-review-an-honest-and-irreverent-insight-into-belfast-rappers-free-living-republicanism/a737184157.html

        Letterboxd (film website) video of the band reading their own reviews here (NSFW!)
        https://letterboxd.com/crew/story/kneecap-roasts-your-letterboxd-reviews/

        They seem to loved by the Unionist youth as much as the Nationalists.

        I think the Irish language promoters are also delighted. Apparently Duolingo Irish courses have doubled and one of their crew went to an Irish class and everybody said their reason to be there was Kneecap. :-) I’ve listened to every song, read every translation and even started looking at Irish language grammars on line (I have a philology problem!) so I can vouch for the Kneecap effect.

        This is all in contrast to the UK government, which revoked Kneecap’s arts funding in a sulk about “not supporting the Union”. The band were taking Kemi Badenoch to court as the Minister responsible, for breaking the Good Friday Agreement requirements of parity of esteem for Unionist and Nationalist viewpoints.

        There’s also a Unionist media figure who has denounced them repeatedly – his scathing description of their mural of a burning RUC police van has been co-opted by the band as the title of their album, Fine Art. They’ve written a rather naughty song about having a big night out with the DUP as well. :-)

        I expect that, if there will be some pushback at some point about the band, it will be because I don’t think they are as much from the wrong side of the tracks as they make out to be, a bit like Eminem received. Naoise is the son of a famous Irish language writer and playwright father (and has written and staged his own play about gambling adduction to acclaim this year) and an Irish language folk musician and radio presenter mother. Somehow this is never mentioned. It’s not clear if they left school to live in a squat together on benefits either or whether they went to Uni (DJ Provai is mid 30’s and a teacher and Naoise/Móglaí Bap is 30-odd and had his own failed recording studio/project. Only Mo Chara (mid 20’s) seems to have no CV gap between school and being in the band….

        But I don’t think their songs are Frank McCourt style poverty porn or depravation tourism. I think they’ve managed some proper shady living. I don’t think they are an in-joke band taking the piss and punching down like Goldie Lookin’ Chain did of the Welsh chavs.

        I’d love to hear what the rest of you make of them, especially our resident librettists and Jonathan Holland Becnel.

  35. Matthew G. Saroff

    Regarding the Argentine Peso alternative, I have two thoughts:

    * This could also potentially be a model for something like leaving the Euro Zone, as the creation of alternate currencies can build the infrastructure for a switch to a new currency. (Obviously, this is still a very difficult task but it makes it easier.
    * This could be seen as a prelude to secession.

  36. Ranger Rick

    I ran a quick search on that cocoa article for cadmium and lead — two big reasons I’m avoiding chocolate these days — with no results. I sure hope these “new methods for growing cocoa” address the issue of heavy metal pollution.

  38. Tom Stone

    I finished reading the RealPage and Yardi complaints this Morning and it is my considered opinion that these price fixing schemes raised Apartment rents across the USA by not less than 20% over a period of a few years.
    It will take a little time, however once these price fixing schemes are no longer operating it will have a significant effect on the value of rental properties and their underlying financing.
    FD, I managed small income properties in Oakland for more than a dozen years, was raised by a Real Estate Appraiser and Expert Witness and held a Broker’s license myself for a number of years.
    The lowest increase boasted of by RealPage is a 6% increase the the NET rental income…when you are valuing a property on the basis of the NPV of the cash flow ( Plus an estimated remainder value after a certain period of years) a 6% difference in the net income makes a big difference in the “Value”.

    .

  41. The Heretic

    Concerning the twitter video of the little girl dancing…
    Is this real? It seems impossible for a little girl or boy of at most 6, to dance with such capability…
    If this is a real video..wow… if she is allowed to develop her talent and somehow still remain natural and joyful, we could be looking at a ‘Mozart’ of dance..

    1. juno mas

      Most likely. You may not expect this type of dancing from a youngster watching Instagram videos, but this video is, I believe, kids from Uzbekistan. (Google the word ‘kurslari’ from the building wall behind the group.) The young girl has probably watched these dance moves in person hundreds of times at cultural gatherings. (And we all know that young girls love to dance.)

      1. Well Worn

        Thank you for that info. I tried to use Google translate on my phone, but I was too heavy-footed. The gathering appears to be a dance recital/performance for at least some of these children. I would guess that all of us noticed (also) that particular boy who appeared to be practicing some of his moves. Regardless, that adorable girl provided (provides) a very much needed breath of fresh air.

  42. juno mas

    Re: Carville on Carmala

    It’s the vacuity, Stupid! (To parody Carville himself.)

    Carmala does not have the focus or mental acuity to do what Carville proposes. She’s as poor at tele-prompting as Biden. (And he’s near senile.)

    Carmala creating a “new path” would require Jesus walking on water (again). She gets as tangled in syntax as Big Joe and would mistrue Frost’s “A Road Not Taken” to the “new path” into a journey through
    Tolkien’s hobbit land with Bilbo Baggins.

    Come on, man! Don’t deny your own eyes.

  43. Well Worn

    At least four killed today in Georgia school shooting:

    https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/apalachee-high-school-shooting-georgia-09-04-24#h_f417230c8935cda35886f9455bf56d3a

    “What should have been a joyous back-to-school season in Winder, Georgia, has now turned into another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart. Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal,” the president said in a statement.

    Duck and Cover: What the Palestinian children have had to do for no little time now, Mr. President, all in an attempt to avoid the American-supplied bombs. Of course, the kids no longer have any schools in which to practice that maneuver.

  44. John k

    Hamas killing Americans is outrageous. Only idraelis are licensed to kill Americans.
    Or us navy boats.

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