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Links 10/1/2024

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A river is pushing up Mount Everest’s peak ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

The Last Hominin Standing Nautlius (Anthony L)

Stem cells reverse woman’s diabetes — a world first Nature (furzy)

Main character syndrome aeon (Micael T)

#COVID-19

Effect of COVID-19 global lockdown on our Moon Oxford Academic (Paul R)

Climate/Environment

Extreme Weather Around the World Risks Boosting Food Bill. Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index on track for 7% monthly gain Bloomberg

US climate change targets threatened by tech energy surge from AI Financial Times. Gee, ya think?

Ocean waves grow way beyond known limits, new research finds University of Manchester (Anthony L)

Switzerland and Italy Redraw Border Due To Melting Glaciers BBC

Central Asia in Search of Water Cooperation Global Affairs (Micael T)

Office Property Slump Makes Climate Upgrade Costs Even Riskier Financial Times

China?

Taiwan on alert over ‘multiple waves’ of missile firing in inland China Reuters

China’s lithography gains a glass half full, not half empty Asia Times (Kevin W)

Africa

Sudan’s forgotten civil war risks exploding into a geopolitical crisis Reuters

European Disunion

The effects of the Greens’ policies lie somewhere between Covid and the Allied bombings Anti-Spiegel via machine transaltion (Micael T)

How Schleswig-Holstein sold their reliable diesel ferry for a song, spent 3.3 million Euro for a new emissions-free solar ferry that doesn’t work, & increased carbon emissions on top of it all Eugyppius. Micael T: “Lately, the Germans havet shown an irrational side that is both highly amusing and deeply worrying. I wonder if they have always been like this.”

Germany to abandon hopes of economic growth Telegraph

Thousands protest in Portugal over surging house prices and rents Retures

Old Blighty

Kemi Badenoch says UK minimum wage is harming businesses Financial Times (Kevin )

Half of Welsh adults likely to ration energy use this Winter amid Rising Costs Nation.crymu

Gaza

IDF announces launch of limited ground raids of Hezbollah sites across Lebanon border Times of Israel. Larry Johnson depicted the idea of a limited invasion as a limited pregnancy.

Middle East on the brink: Israeli tanks mass at the border with Lebanon amid fears of imminent ground invasion – as West scrambles to prevent ‘all out war’ following IDF airstrikes in Yemen Daily Mail

US, Israel agree on ‘necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure’ along Lebanese border Anadolu Agency

Israeli ground attack ‘about saving face, winning political points’ Aljazeera

Netanyahu says killing Nasrallah is key to restoring power balance and recovering hostages NBC. What does Nasrallah have to do with Hamas hostages?

Austria Freedom Party wins. WSJ, Biden hides Ukraine $61B strategy. Switzerland angers Ukraine Alex Christoforu, YouTube. At 21:30, Christoforu shows an image of the original headline of a Jerusalem Post story depicting Lloyd Austin as furious with the lack of notice about the assassination of Nasrallah. Later versions of the same story lowered Austin’s temperature level.

New Not-So-Cold War

Bipartisan report urges rethink of America’s Russia strategy The Hill (Kevin W). Lovely.

Russia Threatens Legal Action Against NATO Countries Over Nord Stream Explosion Dagens.com

Zelensky ready to fire spy chief – media RT

Nagorno-Karabakh Bears the Scars of Azeri Control Jacobin (Robin K)

Imperial Collapse Watch

Did Sabotage Stall the Navy’s Newest Nuclear Aircraft Carrier? gCaptain

Sports betting will do to America what it’s done to Australia. Jacobin (Robin K)

“It’s not election interference when we do it!” The EU and US are getting desperate to subdue Georgia Tarik Cyril Amar (Micael T)

Biden

Hezbollah Reaches Out To U.S. For Advice On How To Govern With A Dead Leader Babylon Bee (Chuck L)

Trump

How Trump distorts immigration and crime data in new attacks on Harris Washington Post (furzy)

See Lara Trump role:

Letitia James May be Winning the Lawfare but Losing the War Jonathan Turley

Kamala

Harris Ignores Antiwar Voters at Her Peril Daniel Larison

We are light on Helene due to how comprehensive Lambert’s post yesterday was. However, some notable sightings:

Abortion

Georgia’s 6-Week Abortion Ban Is Struck Down New York Times (Kevin W)

Georgia Judge Strikes Down State’s Abortion Ban in Stunning Ruling New Republic (furzy)

Our No Longer Free Press

Facebook throttles local League of Women Voters with an election coming up. Kansans, stay vigilant. Kansas Reflector (Robin K)

Reporters Without Borders’ Attack on Sputnik and RT Highlights NGO’s Status as ‘Media Wing of NATO’ Sputnik (Kevin W). FWIW, I don’t recall ever encountering them, much the less linking to them.

AI

AI Data Center Boom Spurs Race to Find Power Wall Street Journal

Cruise Fined $1.5 Million For Failing To Report Robotaxi Crash Involving Pedestrian The Verge

The Bezzle

Google Wins Lawsuit Against Scammers Who ‘Weaponized’ DMCA Takedowns Torrentfreak

Class Warfare

Dockworkers go on a strike that could reignite inflation and cause shortages in the holiday season Associated Press

The Big Shift From Salaries To Bonus-Based Pay Wall Street Journal

Hooters Joins US Chains Hit by Hard-Up Diners, Rising Food Costs Bloomberg

Antidote du jour. mgl” “This is a pukeko (aka purple swamphen, australasian swamphen) & chick. They’re ubiquitous here in NZ.”

And a bonus (a replacement for one Chuck L provided that Twitter removed):

And a second bonus (Chuck L):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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199 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Facebook throttles local League of Women Voters with an election coming up. Kansans, stay vigilant.”

    Facebook is such a scummy outfit as is Zuck himself. The League of Women Voters? Seriously? You know what would be see good to happen. If Trump said at a rally that he will do a third debate with Kamala but only if the League of Women Voters do the moderating this time around. Are the Democrats going to the attack this idea and this organization – which would mean about half the voting population? Might be fun to find out.

    1. Ken Murphy

      Well, at least the LWV used to include all of the candidates appearing on the ballot, not just the two country club candidates. Those were some much healthier debates.
      I remember going to the library back in the 80s to get the LWV Voter Guide, which would include info on all the candidates for each position, even Wiccan or Constitutionalist.

      1. rowlf

        Huzzah! In Georgia the Democratic Party is trying to limit third party candidates from having votes for them counted.

        My opinion is all four hundred or so people who apply to run for president every presidential election cycle should be on the ballots with no restrictions.

    2. timbers

      Good idea, but might Trump win more votes if promised to jail Zuck? Honest question. Broken laws can always be found…just look at Assange.

    3. Tom Stone

      During the 70’s the FBI infiltrated the League of Women Voters looking for Russian Agents.
      All part of CoIntelPro’s efforts to protect “Our Democracy”.

  2. Xquacy

    Re: Hezbollah Reaches Out To U.S. For Advice On How To Govern With A Dead Leader- Babylon Bee:

    As of publishing time, Hezbollah announced they would be asking the U.S. to send over Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib to replace Nasrallah due to her extensive experience running Hezbollah in America

    The difference between Babylon Bee and The Onion, is that The Onion never makes ludicrous insinuations.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Want to hear something also ludicrous? So there was a protest in Melbourne over the Israelis slaughtering so many civilians the other day and some raised the yellow Hezbollah flag. Now the leaders of both main political parties have their panties in a serious twist and want to enact all sorts of penalties and new laws about this. Dissent will not be tolerated by either party who compete in the who-can-suck-up-to-Israel-the-most Olympics-

      https://theconversation.com/hezbollah-flag-carriers-investigated-by-police-as-government-appoints-envoy-to-combat-islamophobia-240114

    2. Kilgore Tex

      Babylon Bee like all right wing “humor” usually ends up unintentionally parodying itself. They lack restraint.

      1. John Steinbach

        The reason the Bee is so spot on in it’s humor is that it takes on the party in power. Let’s see how they deal with the Trump administration/Republicans when they take power. IMO, the Bee is more true to the spirit of former great comedians like George Carlin & Richard Pryor that the Onion.

    3. Belle

      I think it was in the Atlantic interview when they made a joke about Democrats praising Soleimani.
      In reality, not only did no Democrats (except perhaps Tulsi) seek to even investigate his assassination, but there was a memorial service for him led by the pastor of the Evangelical Church in Aleppo. Apparently, the Babylon Bee was more than willing to mock the man who helped protect thousands of Christians (to say nothing of Muslims and others) from the tender mercies of Daesh.

    4. Earl

      To Xquacy: You are misinformed. You do not know the difference between Hezbollah and your Hamas.

  3. IM Doc

    The port workers are now on strike.

    In yet another classic Biden Administration PR bad look, we had the sitting Secretary of Commerce tell CNBC just yesterday that “she has not been paying attention to that”.

    The Secretary of COMMERCE!!! Is not all the merchandise being shipped in actually COMMERCE?

    Good luck with that.

    I have the memories of all of my family union elders lining up to canvas, support and vote for Dems. Those days are long gone. The massive political realignment is really happening. And almost all of those old Dems are now Trump voters in my family. As now all of the PMC and the spy and military people are all Dems, leaving the GOP in droves. The thing is that those longshoreman actually do meaningful work unlike 90% of the PMC and all the layers of our govt.

    I am not sure how this will all play out. But we do live in interesting times.

    1. Zagonostra

      Unfortunately this “massive political realignment” feels more like a slaughter pen where there are two loading chutes or slide gates going to the same destination. A real realignment probably could only come about if a viable 3’d party threatened status quo, one that forced the existing parties to respond to people’s every day needs and end the forever wars.

      1. i just don't like the gravy

        Brilliant metaphor Zag.

        I am reminded of Temple Grandin’s effective strategies for handling livestock before slaughter, in order to keep them placid and complacent…

      2. albrt

        Why can’t you deplorables understand the obvious? You should vote for the loading chute that was designed by noted expert and frequent NPR guest Temple Grandin.

      3. Mikel

        “Unfortunately this “massive political realignment” feels more like a slaughter pen where there are two loading chutes or slide gates going to the same destination.”

        That may be applicable to the global political realignment, too. Time will tell.

      4. vao

        Just as a complement to this cattle-related remark: in German, there is an old, famous saying about rigged electoral systems:

        “Nur die allerdümmsten Kälber wählen ihren Metzger selber.”

        An appropriate translation would be: “Only the most stupid sheep select themselves their butcher.” (Kälber means calves, but in the context I find the English word sheep to be more adequate).

        1. Jester

          On a sidnote, Jimmy Dore’s sidekick is Kurt Metzger. Now I will find him even funnnier, knowing what his last name means.

      5. Anonted

        You sir, lack imagination. Stagnation has its own evils. Conflict, though painful, is progress. Eg. Israel’s display of resolve has pushed me to become a bit of an accel… Boltonist. Did you see Bibi’s Hasbara for the Persian West? He wants to throw Iran a pizza party. Go team.

        1. Offtrail

          That sounded like some circa 2016 alleged Russian social media post aimed at bewildering people into not voting.

      6. Mark Gisleson

        I think we have an opportunity to realign the parties. RFK Jr overseeing intel and the military with Tulsi Gabbard on board? That’s realignment. Hell, any meaningful oversight of intel and military is groundshaking.

        Trump can be as bad as he likes but so long as he makes some good personnel picks we’ll be better off. The Blob is exceptionally vulnerable to facts. The facts are that Russia has built the world’s most deadly military for a fraction of what the Pentagon throws away each fiscal year. RFK Jr can highlight those numbers before Congress in public testimony. That changes things.

        Perfection is the big lie of neoliberalism: that some people are simply better than others by virtue of not having made any mistakes. Not doing anything is a virtue, screwing up while trying to fix something is career-ending. The best leaders learn from their mistakes and Trump has made plenty, ditto RFK Jr. Still not planning to vote but if Harris looks viable I will put a √ next to Trump’s name.

      7. Young

        The PMC’s first line of defense:

        Trump always lies.

        For the sake of argument, let’s say he doesn’t always lie. So, maybe he could stop writing check to Z to prevent WW3.
        WRT to Israel, since he thinks he is the boss, he may stop Bibi to slaughter the rest of the Palestine people.

    2. flora

      The Dems walked away from blue-collar and union workers. B smashed the railroad strike. Why would they pay attention now? “For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia,” – Chuck Schumer.

      I bet that’s what they see here – union workers – not the commerce. Commerce just happens, because markets. right? / ;)

      1. flora

        Any word from our Sec. Transportation Pete Buttigieg? Besides him subbing as JDVance for Tim Walz’s VP debate prep work?

    3. doug

      This am on the local news in NC: ‘The port strike is going to delay help in western NC.’ is one way it is being played. They never made the tenuous connection, just stated as fact. Capital, not labor, owns that TV station.

      1. Carolinian

        That Asheville TV station is owned by the ultra rightwing Sinclair Broadcasting. They are so cheap that when they bought the station they turned down the power of the transmitter atop Mt.Pisgah so over the air me can no longer receive.

        1. carolinus

          I knew they would do this when I saw the strike was on. If I knew where to get in front a camera, i’d make it known that if they can’t get it together to help us with what can be rounded up somewhere in the surrounding area, then we’ll continue to figure things out on our own. I still have no power and no water (hearing it will be weeks for water to come back in asheville), my parents and brother are still cut off from a bridge collapse, and I stand with the striking port workers. The sinclair affiliate is fawning over the business response, which is surely helping some, but is woefully inadequate for the scale of the disruption around here.

          1. upstater

            CSX donated $100,000 to the Red Cross. That is less than 10 minutes of their annual profits. It’s the thought that counts!

    4. Lena

      This is true for my union family members too. They used to be rock solid Democrats going back generations. Now they do not recognize the current Democratic Party, it has changed so drastically. It no longer represents them. It represents corporate power. As does the Republican Party unfortunately.

      I recently saw a late 1800’s US census form with my great-great grandfather’s household on it. He was born in SE Ohio in 1840. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the Civil War, the census listed his occupation as “Teamster” meaning he drove a wagon pulled by horses or oxen. Other male family members were listed as “Ironworker”, “Ditch Digger” and “Meat Cutter”. I am proud to come from this line of working people.

    5. Steve H.

      > I am not sure how this will all play out. But we do live in interesting times.

      “Depressions are how we harvest the wealth accumulated by the lower classes.”
      [nakedcapitalism.com/2020/02/to-tackle-inequality-we-need-to-start-talking-about-where-wealth-comes-from.html#comment-3297050]

      Forced ARTificial Scarcity.

      Federal Funds Effective Rate. The last year looks like a West Virginia mountaintop.

      Which makes this the perfect time for a strike. Daggett has that cold. My concern is the players betting on a more rapid collapse.

    6. Bugs

      The Sect’y of Commerce is now mainly tasked with sanctions promulgation and enforcement against the Official USA Enemies™ Russia, Iran, Cuba and the DPRK; scolding China for being good at making stuff, and subsidizing Tesla and Intel.

      Big job as it is so no wonder consumption-paralyzing strikes in the run up to Xmas are off her slate. She referred the matter to Mayo Pete btw.

      Real piece of work, Ms. Raimondo.

      2. CA

        https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1767208007136665831

        Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

        This is absolutely crazy (and desperate): US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says “US will ‘do whatever it takes’ to curb China tech”.

        Any pretense of morality is gone: straight up, “we’ll do all it takes to prevent the development of 1.4 billion people”.

        Source: https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-11/us-may-further-curb-china-s-access-to-chip-tech-raimondo-says

        11:16 AM · Mar 11, 2024

    7. CanCyn

      I totally understand the people abandoning the Dems. What I don’t understand is why anyone would think of Trump and/or the Republicans as any kind of viable alternative. Here in Canada, as a lifelong supporter of the NDP (as close as we have to a left party, but not really, for the last couple of decades anyhow), I’ve always had a choice against our Uni party. I do understand that I am mostly just throwing away my vote, as the NPD rarely comes to power (once provincially in my lifetime, never federally) but at least I am voting for something. I don’t think I would vote at all if I couldn’t vote for the NDP, choosing the lesser of two evils doesn’t sit well with me.

      1. The Rev Kev

        It may be a case of not so much the people abandoning the Dems as the Dems abandoning the people. Democrats want to vote for classic Democrat candidates but these days the Dem candidates sound like they are to the far right of Reagan’s Republicans of the 80s. Same here in Oz where I no longer recognize the Labour party from when I was younger. I expect the same too in the UK for those who supported the Labour party over there as well.

        ‘I never left my party – my party left me.’

        1. CanCyn

          I hear dat RK, the Dems indeed abandoned the middle class long ago. When I hear Hils doubling down on her deplorables statement, well, I have no words. There is no point in voting for something that no longer exists. That still doesn’t explain voting for Trump. Not Timothy’s point below is well made. I’d take it a step farther – Blue White House and Red congress or vice versa – everyone who matters to the pols wins. And we all know that us mopes are not the ones who matter to team Blue or team Red. I dunno how we break and start to fix the system but voting Trump into the White House again isn’t going to do it. Just look at the lengths the Dems take to ignore the policies that would engage hearts and minds and in fact the lengths they go to ignore peoples’ material needs. When they lose it is the fault of us stupid deplorables, not the fault of their own actions and policies.

      2. NotTimothyGeithner

        Don’t underestimate the importance of churches in many areas. The only community groups are churches in much of the US.

        Why the GOP? It’s not any different than why do people like Don Corleone.

        Then of course, there have been attempts to change the party. At some point, people grow tired. Wiping out Team Blue seems like a more viable alternative. The Democrats see a Blue Whote House and a Red Congress as great because they can gripe about the GOP, not be responsible, and still have policies that make the rich richer. Until Blue districts are in danger, they won’t do anything.

        1. Carolinian

          However bad Trump may be he’s not as bad as Biden/Harris. Personally I can’t believe the country will vote to have four more years of this.

          Of course for the elites it’s the best of all possible worlds (Candide may need a B’way revival) but they are by definition the one percent or maybe the ten percent.

          1. t

            Sometime it’s as if people want to feel they’ve made a decision more complex than lesser of the two evils.

            People in solidly blue cities or who don’t have much day to day, face to face experience with fundies and the extreme right wing seem quick to overlook the extra horrors on the R side when the tax policies and foreign relations and service to oligarchs are the same for blue and red.

            I dunno. Maybe they just like winding us up.

            2. Randall Flagg

              >I dunno. Maybe they just like winding us up

              Of course it’s what they want and while we’re all distracted watching each other go at each other’s throats, TPTB just go on strip mining this country bare.

          2. Bsn

            Carolinian, I agree. The difference, and I thin it’s big, is the company each candidate brings with them. Trump = RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard et al. Harris = Blackrock, Cheney, et al.
            Quelle différence?

        2. Henry Moon Pie

          “Don’t underestimate the importance of churches in many areas. The only community groups are churches in much of the US. ”

          Don’t forget volunteer fire departments. Nearly 50 years ago in Albemarle County, VA, the North Garden VFD was the only integrated citizen group in that rural area. An African-American was elected chief because he was the most qualified.

          Not so the churches which were among the most segregated of institutions. My spouse and a couple of other people organized a “Church Visiting Day” that encouraged whites to attend black churches and vice versa. It went pretty well except a number of the African-American participants fell asleep in the pews because white church was so boring.

      3. Bugs

        I got an absentee ballot for my home sweet home state of Wisconsin (go Pack go) in the mail yesterday and I can’t figure out who to pick for president. I was going to vote for Jill Stein but I saw a couple recent interviews where she came off as totally unprepared for basic questions and (sad) kind of a space case. I like what she says otherwise, but what if she actually got the job? After reading a bit more yesterday, I learned that Cornel West (who I find a bit of an egomaniac) has been married 5 times? what’s up with that?

        I know it doesn’t matter, but I need to choose someone. I’m actually leaning towards Claudia De la Cruz. She’s at least a real person.

        If anyone has an opinion, I’m officially an undecided voter™

        1. JMH

          None of the above. I shall not vote for candidates supporting genocide.That takes care of Harris and Trump without even looking farther. The rest: I have tried the third party protest vote route, Anderson in 1980, Perot in 1992. It accomplishes little or nothing. I live in a state 99.9% certain to give Harris a majority, what is the point? Civic duty? Good point but my civic duty requires reciprocal governmental responsibility. It requires that the government actually be responsive in some measure to the expressed will of the people. Neither party cares a damn about the will of the people because the people who pull the strings of their office holder puppets do not care a damn about the will of the people. Evidence for that: Where is universal health care? Continuing to shovel support to the “Ukraine project” … talking cease fire in the Middle East and shoveling arms to keep the carnage going. They lead the US down the road to ruin and tell us the Big Rock Candy Mountain is just around the bend. Liars and overweening hypocrites. Yeah sure, all politicians are liars. Ours seem not to know that are lying or alternatively they are parroting the lines fed to them by these pulling their strings. I was born into a more or less democratic republic. I did not sign up for a rapacious oligarchic emerging authoritarian s–t show and now I am too old to vote with my feet.

          2. Not Qualified to Comment

            Not voting because “what’s the point?” is voting to accept the status quo.

      4. Dr. John Carpenter

        I’m not sure how much of an alternative people think Trump/Repubs are. Sure, there are true believers, always have been and will be. But if you want to participate and you only have two options and the options are the side who call you deplorable and openly root for your downfall and the side that will at least pay lip service to your plight, which are you going to choose? Personally, I choose neither, but I think there’s a greater chance Trump might accidentally do something useful than there is that Harris will accidentally or on purpose.

        1. Grumpy Engineer

          “might accidentally do something useful…”

          Or at least not do something harmful. When both parties seem to come up with actions that do more harm than good, it may be best to pick the party that will take fewer actions. And this is not the Democrats. The list of things they want to “accomplish” is extensive.

          We often like to complain about “do nothing” politicians, but when our politicians seem to be ever more incompetent, we might be better off avoiding the ones with deep ambitions on changing everything.

          When I think of Obama and Biden, I can come up with a pretty large list of things they did that ended up being actively harmful. The list for Trump is shorter.

        2. Lena

          I cannot vote for a candidate who supports genocide. So it’s neither Harris nor Trump for me. I may vote third party or not vote at all for the first time in my life.

          Trump is going to win my state anyway so my little vote doesn’t even matter. The only plus I see regarding Trump is that he may end the gravy train to Ukraine. That’s not enough to get my vote but as I said my vote isn’t worth jack anyway.

      5. Socal Rhino

        Yesterday, CNN (Dem party corporate media) had a segment analyzing polls showing that Harris is at all-time lows among union members and graduates of trade schools overall and among blacks and latinos. For example, a group that Bill Clinton won with a 49% margin were showing a 9% lead for Harris. This is a huge shift in support for Trump personally, not Republicans generally. Meanwhile, long time Republicans like Dick Cheney have shifted support to Harris, a Dem, and RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have joined Trump’s campaign. Some resorting is happening at least temporarily.

        They may well be disappointed if Trump wins, but I’d wager a lot of people look at Biden’s record and hope Trump will address some of their concerns that Biden has not.

      6. Pat

        I have voted third party in the last three presidential elections. And once before that. And I have been a registered democrat for almost fifty years. Though I must admit that if my state didn’t have closed primaries I would have registered as an independent a decade ago. And yet even having been in the same room as Trump far too many times and knowing what he is, I might be voting for him this year. Why you ask. It id Because my state Democrats worked very hard to make sure there were no unapproved third parties on the ballot.
        Sometimes in America Your choices are limited to the two major parties, leaving the ballot line blank, writing in someone or just not voting. And sadly the last three options are not counted and/or ignored.

        1. Wukchumni

          Once again I will cast my vote for Wink Martindale, and you get a game show host and an NFL defensive coordinator all in one name.

      8. bdy

        We are Republicrats one and all. I think there may be an element of sour grapes at play. Dems have betrayed us, so we feel betrayed. Trump gets surveillance state Dems’ panties up in a bunch, so he must be doing something right? (Puh-leeze he’s a loathsome wanna be dictator whose favorite activity is “you’re fired”).

        It’s frustrating that so many disenfranchised voters agree on so many key issues — peace, climate, healthcare, on-shoring, education — and can’t see beyond the red blue or not-at-all election frame. So be it. There are worse and better ways for an ecosphere to go than temporary shutdown by over-teched primate. But that’s the path we are electing one way or another.

        I live in a battleground state and will proudly waste cast my vote for Dr West.

      9. Roland

        Trump is the peace candidate. Trump is the anti-establishment candidate.

        These things are not difficult to understand. You say that you don’t understand, but I think what you mean is that you don’t like it.

        Why has a billionaire celebrity become the world’s last chance for peace? I think it’s easy to answer that question, too. The answer is apparent when we consider the political career of Donald Trump.

        What sort of anti-establishment candidate could survive the unremitting onslaught of establishment media hostility and legal action, unless they were already possessed of great wealth and public prominence?

        And even then, Trump’s perseverance is testimony to great strength of character. Few people could take it the way he has, for over eight years.

    8. Louis Fyne

      I’m guessing that winter cough medication is shipped by boat (acetaminophen, guaifenesin, a good nasal decongestant that isn’t phenyl ephedrine–the one that you have to show you ID for)

      Gonna (reasonably) stock up on that w/some extra to pass out to extended family/friends. …because for the last couple of years, I’ve noticed that you can’t expect to drop at the Mega-Lo Mart and expect OTC cold medication to be on the shelf.

      1. aletheia33

        FWIW i have not had a cold or any other respiratory infection since i started masking in interior spaces in january 2020.
        i know i’m not the only one who can report this.
        i used to get such infections often, as i have some immune vulnerability, and one could last for 6 weeks. i am so happy with my N95s!
        …i think i will stock up a bit more than usual on them.

    10. Randall Flagg

      >In yet another classic Biden Administration PR bad look, we had the sitting Secretary of Commerce tell CNBC just yesterday that “she has not been paying attention to that”.

      The Secretary of COMMERCE!!! Is not all the merchandise being shipped in actually COMMERCE?

      Honestly, this is the second time this numbnut Secretary Ramano has exposed herself as being clueless to goings in if the agency she is supposed to lead. The first was the jobless revision during the DNC Convention when she was interviewed on ABC

      https://www.foxnews.com/media/commerce-sec-doesnt-believe-news-grim-job-revisions-because-trump-said-it-im-not-familiar-that

      And the Trump Campaign deserves to lose if not using these kind of things in commercials slamming Biden/Harris’s administration in managing this nation. Can you trust Harris to not keep people like this in her administration, yada, yada. Incompetence from the President on down

    11. TomW

      WSJ

      “Dockworkers typically earn a six-figure annual salary because of work rules and overtime requirements. In the financial year that ended in 2020, more than half of 3,726 dockworkers at the Port of New York and New Jersey earned more than $150,000, according to a report by the port’s regulator. About one in five dockworkers at the port earned over $250,000 that year. ”

      They are demanding a 70% raise and rules suppressing further automation. Shortages will start costing the public at the end of the month.

    1. JohnA

      Road signs are in both Welsh and English in Wales. A few years ago, a local authority sent an email to their Welsh translator asking for the Welsh wording for a road sign. An automated out of office response came back and the local authority simply used that for the bilingual sign. This was in south Wales which is mainly English speaking hence the inability to spot the automated response.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7702913.stm

      1. The Rev Kev

        Look you, boyo. It’s hard enough to spell Welsh than to just translate it. And pity the poor buggers that live in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch-

        https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/small-town-with-big-name

        Not to be outdone, Thailand has a town called Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphopnopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharnamornphimarnavatarnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit.

        1. Ben Panga

          “Thailand has a town called…. ”

          That ‘town’ would be Bangkok. The full name is actually longer: “Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit”

          You can here it pronounced correctly here (I’m sure Yves already has this down pat!)

          It’s normally shortened to Krung Thep

      2. Jeff V

        I guess they didn’t bother to read the Welsh version.

        Most of us South Walians can manage to translate “swyddfa” since there’s a “Post Office/Swyddfa’r Post” in every town. And we’ve all seen enough “No Entry/Dim Mynediad” signs to know that this isn’t one.

        However, a Welsh translator (who presumably deals mostly with people who aren’t fluent in Welsh) having their out of office reply in Welsh only is, unfortunately, all too believable.

      1. MFB

        The best South Africa can do (though it no longer exists, apparently, I mean the farm not the country) is Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskiet.

  5. AG

    Short comment by Tariq Ali on Lebanon containing this bit of info:

    “That Nasrallah was an extremely shrewd tactician and strategist is acknowledged by both his supporters and his enemies. Speaking with Noam Chomsky once in Santa Fe, he confessed that the two most intelligent political leaders he had ever met were Hugo Chavez and Hassan Nasrallah but he couldn’t say it in public. Both are now dead, so I can say it for him. I never met Nasrallah myself, but Chomsky was struck by how knowledgeable he was on Israel, the US and their panders in the Arab world.
    (…)
    Will Hezbollah go in for revenge killings? Very possible, but they will choose their own time and place. Netanyahu remains hugely popular in his own country, and killing him would not be appreciated by too many Israelis. But the mask is off.”

    “Consequences of Nasrallah”
    https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/consequences-of-nasrallah

    1. Xquacy

      A related anecdote: per Finkelstein, Nasrallah inturn benefitted from having met Chomsky. Apparently Chomsky make him see the US-Israel connection for what it is, after which he never again made an error in confusing the true master from the pupeteer. See here and here.

      1. AG

        Ahhh
        “No sir. It is America that controls Israel.”
        He knew.
        Thanks!
        So I am of the same opinion as the late Nasrallah.
        Well, well.

    1. NotThePilot

      If I’m not wrong, it’s more a meme-tastic way of accusing someone of subtle narcissism. They’re not totally wrapped up in their own ego, but they do and say things that are a bit childish, like they think the world is a movie or fan fiction with the camera always on them.

      In a weird way, it’s sort of the complement of being called a NPC, as if one is just acting out a short script and has no thoughts or desires of their own. Someone can paradoxically be both.

    2. New_Okie

      I was struck by this too. It seems to be the shallowness, showmanship and immunity to negative feedback of a car salesman. But I also do not see how this is anything new. And it seems to me there is a limit, as epitomized by Willie Loman: Salespeople compete with one another for our attention and regard. Those who succeed may feel they are invincible puppetmasters but those who lose must adapt or die.

      Ego inflation as a survival strategy has been around for…well I imagine all of human history. Just because some desperate tik tokers think they can inflate their egos to garner clicks doesn’t mean it is new or even more prevalent than before.

      1. t

        The difference is that in the narrative, there is only one character. It’s most striking in YA and chick lit.

        It’s not about a primary character going out in the world among others. The entire world and everyone in it only exists when the single main character opens their eyes.

        It’s similar to the writers’ room comedy where there is no show bible and the various characters just enact barely related jokes for 22 minutes.

        Similar in that it’s profoundly shallow and has nothing to do with autonomous individuals trying to get by in a world full of other people.

  7. Zagonostra

    Alex (Sasha) Krainer
    @NakedHedgie
    The US gifted the Israelis the 83 1-ton bombs to drop on Beirut, and US aircraft directed their delivery. Who is in charge of the US?

    Isn’t that the 64Trillion dollar question? If you can’t answer it, then we are watching nothing more than a spectacle when following the 2024 election. Maybe it’s, as Chris Hedges likes to say, nothing but a burlesque show. If the public pixilated digitized theater is all that’s available what can one do? Local politics/action won’t stop Israel in its genocide, and whoever is behind directing the delivery of these bombs is beyond an isolated individual like myself to do anything about it…I despair for the evil being done.

  8. The Rev Kev

    “Zelensky ready to fire spy chief – media”

    But will the CIA let him? Budanov is “their guy” after all and may want him kept in place, possibly to replace Zelensky himself down the track. Zelensky would be better slipping word to the Russians his location. After all the terrorist attacks that Budanov has committed against Russian civilians, they probably have their own dedicated set of Kinzhal missiles just for him with his name all written over the sides.

  9. AG

    And these two:

    1) Always excited to find something new by him, AbuKHALIL:

    “The author looks back on the slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the times he interviewed him and the impact on the region of his killing.”
    https://consortiumnews.com/2024/09/30/asad-abukhalil-the-middle-east-after-nasrallah/

    2) And some irony and wit by Patrick Lawence:

    “Nasrallah Is Dead But Bibi Hasn’t Won”
    https://consortiumnews.com/2024/09/30/patrick-lawrence-nasrallah-is-dead-but-bibi-hasnt-won/

      3. Carolinian

        Uh, no. Carter was an admirable ex president as though to make up for his kowtowing to Deep State factions and neoliberals while Prez.

    2. Yves Smith Post author

      He is close to outliving Henry Kissinger. Let’s hope he does.

      And this after having cancer! He’s a tough coot.

      I see he’s been in hospice for 19 months. Hospice is intended for those with 6 months or less to go. Hope he has not been in pain.

      But then again, he seems determined to live long enough to cast an early vote for Harris.

      2. Randall Flagg

        I may be naive, but if the measure of the man is what he has done in his private life after his Presidency and what he has tried to do for the world, compared to all those that followed him he is light years better than them.
        Picture Clinton working for Habitat for Humanity? He would be trying to bang anything but a nail.
        Bush 1 or 2 overseeing elections and peace negotiations? Sure…
        Obama doing what the whatever ( shadow presidency?), nothing that begins to help humanity. Unless you’re in that crowd. Maybe Biden’s true boss seeing as that guy should have been 25th amendments out years ago.
        Trump, well besides fighting legal battles at least he hasn’t done much damage. Yet. We’ll have to check back in a decade from now.

        1. NYMutza

          How large a fortune has Carter accumulated since he was POTUS? Is it anywhere near the $200M each that Clinton and Obama have accumulated?

          1. mary jensen

            Picture Clinton writing and publishing “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” (2006). Remember “the poop volcano” (thanks Tom Stone) which ensued?

            (“poop volcano” deserves a registered TM: the Naked Capitalism commentariat)

        2. ДжММ

          It’s been said that, regardless what they professed, Jimmy is the only US President of many decades who is a sincere Christian.

          Alone among them, his actions afterwards show that he truly believes he is doomed to Hell for what he did in power; and furthermore, that through subsequent actions, he still has the hope to be redeemed.

          It’s almost, kind of, inspiring…

  11. Zagonostra

    >Nasrallah as martyr/legend: The lands of Islam get ready to channel their rage – Pepe Escobar

    I’m not sure about the “Axis of Resistance” being capable “stepping up” even if “nothing prevents” them from doing so, maybe their will is not sufficient to the task? I don’t know.

    Israel did manage to find serious breaches in Lebanon’s – and Iran’s security. In the case of Beirut, the whole city is infested with infiltrators. Fifth columnists of all stripes move back and forth doing anything they want. Iran is a much more serious proposition. Even as the IRGC’s Commander Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was also killed alongside Nasrallah in Beirut, the IRGC itself in Tehran may have been compromised…

    Now nothing prevents the Axis of Resistance from stepping up to the next level. There’s simply no diplomacy, compromise, ceasefire, “two-state solution” or any other procrastination tactics in the horizon. Just a do-or-die existential fight against a relentless killing machine exhibiting, to paraphrase (and invert) Yeats, “a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun”

    https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/09/30/nasrallah-martyr-legend-lands-islam-get-ready-channel-their-rage/

  13. AG

    Not yet read, it´s very long, I just saw it:

    It´s German originally, on CJ Hopkins who was found guilty by the Berlin court yesterday after the DA had gone into revision after the last court had claimed the author innocent.

    The very long report is by “Aya Velazquez” who became widely known after her digging into the Covid RKI-Files:

    German:
    “Scandalous verdict: US author CJ Hopkins found guilty”
    https://www.velazquez.press/p/skandalurteil-der-us-amerikanische

    google-translate:
    https://www-velazquez-press.translate.goog/p/skandalurteil-der-us-amerikanische?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true

    1. .Tom

      It’s now widespread that anti-nazi laws are used to enforce the new authoritarianism. The idea that the image promoted neo-nazi politics is absurd and the prosecutors know that very well and they know that we know it. They are making a theater out of Hopkins. They want to 1) frighten people into sheepish orthodoxy and 2) kiss their superior’s and ultimately emperor’s ass.

      1. AG

        Totally correct.
        Which makes it even worse.
        (Think what it means for social interaction.)
        It is outrageous.

        Similiar problem, different scandal, as reported by the remarkable Wolf Wetzel.
        Berlin police was chasing a 10-year old kid with a Palestine flag.

        via Overton-Blog:

        “Clockwerk Orange – Stanley Kubrick in Berlin”
        https://archive.is/lHRDr

        1. .Tom

          In the UK and in Germany (the most loyal US vassals it seems to me) the situation is already at the Stasi level of fear of your fellow citizens. Anyone can report anyone to the cops for something they said or wrote or waved or wore. The cops process these reports according to guidelines that are derived from policy set at the national political level. It’s coming to all Western countries soon, if it’s not already working this way where you are.

          I fear too few of us are brave enough, like Jeremy Kauffman here, to continue to speak our minds, defend our rights and suffer the consequences.

          https://x.com/jeremykauffman/status/1835782658091102608

    2. lyman alpha blob

      Thank you for that update on Hopkins. I’m sure all the freedom loving US elected officials will jump to Hopkins defense any time now…

      As one of many frogs in the warming pot, I can testify that’s it’s getting awfully hot in here and I’m ready to jump before the boiling point. However all the nearby landing areas appear to be other boiling pots.

  14. The Rev Kev

    “How Schleswig-Holstein sold their reliable diesel ferry for a song, spent 3.3 million Euro for a new emissions-free solar ferry that doesn’t work, & increased carbon emissions on top of it all”

    Not so hard to find stories of green idiocy and virtue signaling – like when Germany shut down all their nuke plants at the beginning of a severe energy shortage. But near the beginning of this post was something that made me sit up. Remember that election in Thüringen the other day when the “wrong” party were winners. Well this just happened-

    ‘In not-so-good news (but as I predicted), the state constitutional court in Thüringen ruled in favour of the CDU last Friday. The other parties were able to change the procedural rules in the Thuringian parliament and exclude the AfD not only from the office of president, but also from the entire executive committee of the Landtag. The “democratic” parties have also altered procedural rules to reduce AfD representation on parliamentary committees, effectively preventing the strongest party in the Landtag from exercising their blocking minority there.’

    Saving ‘our’ democracy.

    2. Paradan

      They didn’t just shut down the reactors, they poured concrete into critical parts so they couldn’t re-started again.

  15. FreeMarketApologist

    Meanwhile, Dems sue to block the hand counting of votes in Georgia (the hand counting to verify that the number of votes cast by machine matches the physical votes, not to verify the actual candidate tallies).

    While there may be good reasons for this (that elude simple little me), this seems like something that could blow back badly in the future. Why does everybody hate hand counting?


    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/30/us/politics/georgia-election-board-hand-counting-ballots-lawsuit.html?unlocked_article_code=1.O04.wKDe.jphsGwUiVn1L&smid=url-share (unlocked article)

      1. lyman alpha blob

        The video cites a 2014 article that says the CEO of the law firm DLA Piper was on the voting machine company’s board. Doug Emhoff apparently joined DLA Piper in 2017 and resigned once Biden won in 2020 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Emhoff If Emhoff was on the board himself, the video doesn’t say.

        That doesn’t mean there isn’t a connection, but that video doesn’t show it well. I tried looking up board members on Smartmatic’s own website but they didn’t list them there.

        Years ago after Biden was picked as Obama’s VP, I tried doing some research connecting Biden to some dirty dealings in central Asian countries. It was extremely difficult to pinpoint anything with certainly because it turned out pretty much ALL of these [family blog]ers were connected to each other somehow.

        That being said, I don’t trust these companies any farther than I could throw one of their machines.

    2. Pat

      Any checks on the machines make it harder to game the system. And yes the old adage works, he who counts the vote…

      But it is really hand in glove with the Democratic Party’s war on Democracy and the Constitution. They are deliberately limiting access to the ballot, attacking freedom of the press and more importantly citizens’ right to free speech and to dissent, and yes undermining the check and balance system. They truly are the bigger threat to Democracy, and it isn’t as if the Republicans are its biggest supporters.

    1. bertl

      The Anti-Spiegel link offered some interesting points about the adoption of green innovation and contrasts the German Green’s experimental gamble with their people with the Russian government’s prudence:

      ‘Five years ago, Putin said at an economic forum in Yekaterinburg: “Blind faith in effective but not efficient solutions leads to problems. I mean, for example, ideas such as completely abandoning nuclear power or fossil fuels and relying exclusively on alternative energy sources. Do people really want to live on a planet covered in wind turbines and several layers of solar cells?’

      Good points, well made as one might expect. And then the other points about Germany:

      ‘Many people no longer heat their homes even in winter, wash less often and save on food. And rapid deindustrialization has set in in production. Large and small companies are going bankrupt and closing down. Even Volkswagen, the pride of the German car industry, has announced that it will close two plants. Many companies have announced that they will relocate their production to the USA or China.
      ‘This is the natural result of the hasty green transition in Germany, when the economy fell victim to the stupid populism of the Greens and the catastrophic unprofessionalism in their ranks.’

      The only bit I object to is the use of the word “populism” which is often used as a derogatory term but has a honourable meaning when applied to politicians like highly skilled orator and three times Presidential candidate, William Jennings, Bryan, the high minded but utterly ruthless Huey Long and, in the UK, the high minded but lacking in ruthlessness Jeremy Corbyn. The German Greens offered the populism of highly credentialed middle -class, and ignored the kind of populist policies needed by working people and the poor in their benighted country.

      1. steppenwolf fetchit

        What’s the opposite of ruthless? We need a word for that.

        Ruthfull? Lessruth? Something . . .

  17. NotThePilot

    Extreme Weather Around the World Risks Boosting Food Bill

    Just a little bit of HUMINT from my corner of the world, but the other day, I visited one of the established bakeries in my small city. We usually get chocolate whoopie pies when we go, but they only had a yellow sponge version this time. When I asked if they had sold out for the day, they said they had discontinued the chocolate version indefinitely; the cost of cocoa is too high now for the recipe to pencil out.

    C’est la vie, in the 21st century :/

    1. t

      The selling of dark chocolate, a type of treat that can mask a multitude of sins, has contributed to the coco shortage and, pre-Covid led to higher prices because of higher demand.

      Boiling the earth hasn’t helped, either.

      Good on your bakery for not using some coco and lots of chocolate flavor.

  19. Wukchumni

    Sports betting will do to America what it’s done to Australia. Jacobin
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The man in the irony mask passed away yesterday, he seemingly was the only person singled out for what is now oftentimes a gambling contest with sport overtures, the game being important to the standings of the punters.

    Inevitably a major scandal will break out, as pro athletes aren’t immune to the charms of advertising, where a $5 investment will net you $200 according to the myriad of houses of chance tv commercials, this despite their salaries being so highfalutin that they have no need to gamble, but will anyhow.

    Pro sports are too slow for young adults and maddeningly, there is no reset button if the action isn’t up to snuff, so add gambling to the mix to attract them, yeah that’s the ticket.

    2. Zagonostra

      Journalist, ambulance drivers, hospitals, UN schools, churches, mosques, innocent pedestrians, women and children huddled in churches, raping prisoners, etc…I don’t think that Scott Ritter’s and others cautioning against taking the “bait” is doable, can anyone standby and let themselves and those they love be murdered? Maybe it’s strategically sounds and logical, but not sure it makes moral sense.

  21. pjay

    – ‘Bipartisan report urges rethink of America’s Russia strategy’ – The Hill (Kevin W). Lovely.

    Lovely indeed. The so-called “Helsinki Commission” is now simply a “bipartisan” Congressional platform for pushing anti-Russian propaganda. The author of this article, Laura Kelly, is a neocon hack – a former “Security Fellow” at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (the Israeli propaganda factory – I mean “national security think tank”), which explains the language and “tone” of this piece. It is significant, though, in showing the level of insanity that exists within Congress and held by some of its prominent members.

    1. Jester

      We have two parties here, and only two. One is the evil party, and the other is the stupid party. Occasionally, the two parties get together to do something that’s both evil and stupid. That’s called bipartisanship.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Check this quote out-

        ‘In an interview, (former Zelensky adviser Alexey) Arestovich quoted US textbooks on information warfare. “Do you know how information and psychological combat works? The first page of the US textbook on information and psychological warfare, the first chapter, says – I quote: the main task of information and psychological operations is to take over the agenda. That’s it, after that you can just relax and do nothing.”’

        After reading it, I realized that so long as those that were really in power could choose which candidates were allowed to stand for political office and no one else, they too could relax and do nothing.

        1. steppenwolf fetchit

          They worked very hard to un-choose Sanders, for example. And they succeeded. They un-choosed him.

  22. The Rev Kev

    “Sports betting will do to America what it’s done to Australia.”

    ‘The saturation of advertising for gambling companies on TV is total, far beyond anywhere else in the world, to the point that there is now serious pushback on just how much content is chucked at the average person every day. Watching the news? Reality TV? A nice nature documentary? Expect to be bombarded by such brands as Sportsbet, Ladbrokes, Neds, and TAB.’

    Yeah, it was like a sudden deluge of all these betting ads on TV out of nowhere. They were all over TV and including the net. Of course the government was totally helpless to do anything about it because they had no power but as of last year, those betting ads are supposed to contain a warning. But it will be something obscure like ‘Chances are you’re about to lose’ or ‘What are you really gambling with?’ That totally helped.

    1. Wukchumni

      A bad alcoholic or drug addict typically look the part, but gamblers addiction being action in lieu of something ingested leaves them looking perfectly normal, no telltale signs aside from say robbing Paul to play Peter’s parlay, or using next month’s rent money on a sure thing that didn’t turn out as hoped for.

      We’re creating vast legions of young adult gambling addicts. who will be tantamount to invisible wrecking balls to family & friends.

      When I was in the prime years of my addiction, I was also travelling to Australia a bit, maybe 5 or 6 visits in the 1980’s, and for a gambler i’d never seen such a have-a-go go country, you could phone in bets fer crissake!

      My favorite was going to the horse races and you could either gamble on the tote board odds, or place a wager with on course bookies who were typically a 3 man operation, the bagman-with a large almost oversized purse who handled the do re mi, the guy taking the money and the odds maker changing the numbers as needed on a chalkboard that offered their services to the public.

      There would be half a dozen licensed bookies to choose from…

      1. The Rev Kev

        ‘We’re creating vast legions of young adult gambling addicts who will be tantamount to invisible wrecking balls to family & friends.’

        That’s the big worry, isn’t it. Teaching young adults to be gambling addicts for fun and profit. They are setting up a whole generation for failure.

        1. Wukchumni

          Gambling was quite rampant in the run up to the revolution in France… so we’ve got that casino in common, although the goods are odd-the odds are good there will be a similar outcome, with a percentage of adult males (never-ever is a female spokesperson seen on Fan Duel et al tv commercials, its primarily retired pro stars pitching to punters) having nothing left yet to lose, right?

        2. NYMutza

          Isn’t Wall Street a casino? Heck, aren’t businesses large and small casinos? It’s very common to hear business executives use phrases such as “we’re betting on” this or that investment to bring large returns. Life in general is a gamble. Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg all hit the jackpot. Many others roll snake eyes.

      2. Pat

        My mother gave up drinking and walked into a casino. She died deeply in debt to the banks and the government.
        It was a huge shock going back to say goodbye and handle what was left, helping my stepfather sell the house etc. while there were a few middle class areas of the small city where she lived, it was mostly rundown with closed store fronts. The payday loan places were thriving and everywhere though. And billboards offering help for gambling problems were on every major thoroughfare. Comes from being within a half hour of three Native American casinos.

        And that was well over a decade ago. The expansion of online gambling is going to be a disaster.

        1. lyman alpha blob

          Indeed. I listen to sports radio pretty often and they were humping for New England states to legalize the betting, and now since that happened, a significant portion of their programming is dedicated to betting.

          I do like betting myself, but there’s a big difference between playing poker with friends or taking the occasional trip to Vegas and putting a betting machine in the palm of every single person’s hand. The latter is not going to end well.

          1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

            Same here in Louisiana.

            Normal Sports Talk has devolved into Gambling Gobbledygook and bs numbers.

  23. Jester

    Did Sabotage Stall the Navy’s Newest Nuclear Aircraft Carrier? gCaptain

    Putin weaponizes shoddy workmanship.

    P.S. Grinder and paint make me the welder I ain’t.

  24. Captain Obvious

    Reporters Without Borders’ Attack on Sputnik and RT Highlights NGO’s Status as ‘Media Wing of NATO’ Sputnik (Kevin W). FWIW, I don’t recall ever encountering them, much the less linking to them.

    https://rsf.org/en/rsf-launches-propaganda-monitor-investigative-project-geopolitics-propaganda
    “The launch of The Propaganda Monitor is the culmination of Reporters Without Borders’ work combating all types of propaganda from the world’s most authoritarian regimes through our international network. While the project’s first season focuses on the Kremlin’s worldwide propaganda campaign, RSF is well aware this phenomenon is not limited to Vladimir Putin’s agents. Our goal to expose the tactics that spread propaganda far and wide lies at the heart of RSF’s mandate: ensure every citizen, wherever they may be in the world, has access to reliable, independent and pluralistic information. The Propaganda Monitor’s investigations, major interviews and analyses of the geopolitics of propaganda will be the cornerstone of this mission.
    Thibaut Bruttin
    Director General of RSF

    It’s all Putin’s fault.

  25. Wukchumni

    Dog whistle notes from the underground…

    Haven’t heard much regarding Commander lately, although there’s a rumor he was rehabilitated back to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

    In his time off for bad behavior, he learned how to read lips-in particular those of his master, and Commander related that after the festivities in Lebanon got kicked off, a jubilant Joe kept repeating this phrase:

    ‘Four More Wars, Four More Wars, Four More Wars, Four.More.Wars.’

    1. ChrisFromGA

      Back in the 80’s, dad took me to a few Sabres games at the old Aud.

      After the local team would score five or more goals, the crowd would chant:

      One! Two! Three! Four! Five! We want six! (seven, eight, etc.)

      I can almost hear the chants in the Beltway haunts, among the Gucci-clad war machine lobbyists:

      One! (Ukraine … bit of a quagmire)
      Two! (Gaza)
      Three! (Yemen … not going so well)
      Four! (Lebanon)

      We want Five!!

      1. Wukchumni

        Back in the 80’s, dad took me to a few Sabres games at the old Aud.

        After the local team would score five or more goals, the crowd would chant:

        When the LA Kings would skate against a quite balding Harold Snepsts sans helmet back in the day who was playing for Vancouver, anytime he touched the puck, the faithful @ the Fabulous Forum would yell in unison…

        ‘Har-Old’

        If he’d been named Jerry or Fred it would have never happened…

        As far as future wars go: some odds

        Iran: 3 to 2
        Bhutan: 2,500 to 1
        Venezuela: 5 to 2
        Bahamas: 800 to 1
        China: 4 to 1

  26. The Rev Kev

    “Did Sabotage Stall the Navy’s Newest Nuclear Aircraft Carrier?”

    ‘some of the welds in question were made by welders who knowingly violated weld procedures’

    It probably is not sabotage at all. A very long time ago I read how the USAF had a coupla of their fighters crash and after investigating the wreckage, realized that it was due to a construction flaw. So they went to the actual factory where these fighters were built and tracked it down to this one guy. They demanded to know why he was ignoring the special instructions on how to build those planes and the guy curtly responded that he had years experience building planes and that the instructions were not the way that planes were built so he ignored them.

    2. scott s.

      Typically the criticality of the weld determines the amount of NDT required, with radiograph being at the top. After problems with submarine welds years ago the navy developed the “subsafe” program to create a better paper trail over QA.

      Don’t know nowadays how much welding is by machine and how much by hand.

    3. Raymond Sim

      In the late 70’s a guy working at Electric Boat told me about the same shoddy practices in welding the hulls of submarines.

      1. rowlf

        From a good guy who went from EB to Boeing and liked to have a rant now and then years ago:

        A long time ago in a place very very far away, I designed and built Nuclear Submarines. Now, here is the deal: If I looked at a valve welded into a pipe run, I could tell the following (with a little research)

        • Who made the valve?
        • Who tested the valve and to what Standard?
        • When and where was it tested?
        • What material(s) was the valve made of?
        • Who manufactured and certified the material(s) and to what spec?
        • When was the valve welded in the system?
        • Who welded it and to what weld specification?
        • Who certified the welder?
        • Who inspected the weld?
        • Who certified the credentials of the inspector?
        • Etc, Etc, etc

        Now, the Nuclear Navy didn’t follow this procedure because they had nothing better to do, they did it because of the Thresher (SSN-593), which brought home in the worst way possible just how unforgiving the deep ocean is.

        So EB and the Navy always knew whose cow it was. And I mean always.

  27. Eclair

    October 1 is the start of bow-hunting season here in New York’s Chautauqua County. This year I enrolled in the Hunter Education Course, read the manual from cover to cover, did the required ‘homework,’ and attended the day long class, held at the local rod and gun club’s 300 acre preserve. Me and 30 Amish kids, aged eleven and up. The instructor told me, when I had passed the final written exam and received my official, signed and dated, certificate, that in his twenty years of teaching I was the oldest person who had taken the course.

    The next week, I trotted over to the town office to pay for my official NY State Hunting License, plus apply for the two Deer Management Permits that owning more than fifty contiguous acres of land, entitled me to. Plus a small fee. The DMP’s, which are transferable to other licensed hunters, allow the harvesting of additional ‘antlerless deer.’ Our region has an overpopulation of deer, who wreak havoc on food crops and, worse, prevent natural forest regeneration by browsing down all the tree seedlings, especially the native maple and oak. The additional DMP’s available this year attempt to control the population by encouraging the removal of additional females. This has the additional benefit of making more food/space available to the remaining deer, who will be larger and healthier. (And the males will have bigger antlers :-))

    I am transferring one of the DMP’s to my neighbor, who lives to hunt, and one to an Amish friend. My neighbor will probably harvest enough deer on his own license, to keep his freezer stocked. Any additional does, he will field dress, then take to a local processor, who will butcher and package it, then distribute to local families. The processor’s costs will be paid by a regional charity, the Venison Donation Coalition of the Western and Central New York Pantry Project. The Amish friend, and his extended family members, will process, dress, and preserve the venison from all the deer they harvest.

    My neighbor, with his cross-bow, texted me at 7 am this morning (sunrise was at 7:15, so he could legally hunt starting at 6:45 am,) saying there was a 4-point buck (young’un) 10 yards from his stand. We texted back and forth for a bit … he is only ‘looking’ this morning …. about the ‘cruelty’ of ‘nature’ and wild animals and me, waking to the knowledge of what has happened in Gaza and Lebanon, and bracing myself for another day of gut-wrenching news and photos, texted back that humans are so much more cruel than animals. They don’t drop 2,000 pound bombs on apartment blocks or imprison and torture other animals. Or force, through economic means, their brothers and sisters to labor on slaughter house processing lines, ripping through bloody flesh and bone, so other humans can consume cheap meat, neatly plastic wrapped in your supermarket refrigerated case. And so keep their hands and their consciences clean. All of us have bloody hands at this point.

    1. Zagonostra

      All of us have bloody hands at this point True enough, but for those who spill the blood of defenseless innocent children and women “it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

      1. Eclair

        Kouros, that was my first thought, but the locals, many of whom raise grass fed beef cattle, and sheep, were not supportive :-).
        The wolves will probably appear one of these days, making their way down from Quebec, through the Adirondacks, and then traveling west.

    3. B24S

      Eclair,
      Thank you for reminding me to give a ring to my friend that bow hunts on our place downstate (Rockland). I usually get that early AM text/call to let us know how it looks, venison-wise, and sometimes a picture to memorialize the event.

      I keep telling him that I don’t care how many tags he has, kill them all, and (to paraphrase a Vietnam era slogan) let the butcher sort them out. I’ll have to ask if we have a Venison Donation Coalition. I expect there’s at least a doe reduction program, but it changes year to year.

      One question: do they do prion testing in your neck of the woods?

      1. Eclair

        You would mention CWD (chronic wasting disease), B24S. Does NYS (or Pennsylvania, since we share a border that the deer do not honor) test for CWD? Short answer, not routinely. Hunters are advised to save the deer head and pay to have a state lab test it. And not to consume the venison until a negative result is obtained. And, butchering guidelines include the admonition to never cut through the spinal cord. I admit, I am a bit squeamish about eating venison.

        Letting the population density of any mammals (including humans) grow beyond the carrying capacity of their environment, is a recipe for the spread of disease, fostered by malnutrition and overcrowding. So, management of wildlife environments, by planting and nurturing native plant species and keeping down the spread of non-nutritive and invasive plants, is one way of insuring that the local deer population have the best chance of not contracting CWD. And, judicious harvesting of ‘excess’ population, focusing on ‘antlerless’ deer, as the NYS DEC so delicately terms them.

  28. Grumpy Engineer

    Regarding the statement by congressman Chuck Edwards (via Nathanial Horadam via Jesse D. Jenkins):

    There is a high likelihood that the substations are not repairable, and replacement of the substation equipment will be necessary.

    This is not true. The medium- and high-voltage equipment used in substations is built with very large conductor-to-conductor spacings, which means that small pieces of grit cannot get lodged between conductors like they can on the circuit boards found in your computer or phone. Because of this, once the insulators between conductors are cleaned, the equipment can be tested and put back into service. [It’ll mainly be control equipment that truly has to be replaced. But circuit boards are easier to obtain and install.]

    The main constraint here is labor and test equipment. There are very few people who are technically qualified to do the scary high-voltage tests that are necessary to verify adequate cleanliness and to essentially re-commission the substation afterward. And it takes specialized equipment to do so. They’ll have to bring in multiple teams from across the country to work through the 360 sub-stations that are currently down, and it’ll still take weeks. But I really don’t see why we’d have to replace all of the transformers, VAR compensators, and switchgear.

    The substations can be repaired. The real question is “how quickly?”.

    1. Mikel

      “The substations can be repaired. The real question is “how quickly?”.

      After the election?

      Jill Stein and her running mate should try to get down to visit the devastated regions. Maybe they have plans to do this. I haven’t heard.

    2. Pat

      Question, how old is the substation equipment you are talking about? Because many of the regions where this is going on are rural and/or poorer. In my experience, that is a recipe for older and outdated equipment being the norm not the exception. You could be correct for a majority and I really hope you are right for all, but without an accurate overview of the 360 substations, I don’t think you can dismiss out of hand the possibility that some or even many will have to be replaced.

      1. Grumpy Engineer

        The age matters little, as the physical of high-voltage electrical equipment hasn’t changed. High-voltage equipment requires significant distances between exposed conductors. This was true 50 years ago. It remains true today. And the same can be said of transformers, particularly at these voltage levels. The very latest designs from today very strongly resemble those from 50 years ago. It’s a mature technology where the constraining physics that drive the designs remain the same.

        So as long as the insulation systems aren’t degraded, the equipment should be cleanable and re-usable. Only if the equipment was routinely overheated and caused numerous cracks to form in the insulation (such that water-borne contaminants could penetrate and provide unwanted conduction paths) would it need to be replaced. Utilities work really hard to avoid overheating their equipment. And the “scary high-voltage tests” that I mentioned before would detect any insulation that had been compromised this way.

        The only way I could see an entire substation needing to be replaced is if the equipment experienced significant mechanical damage. [For example, transformers literally getting knocked off their foundations and tipped over, or collisions with vehicles pushed into them by flood waters.] If the insulation system is mechanically damaged, then the equipment is toast, and replacement would be necessary.

  29. Mikel

    How Schleswig-Holstein sold their reliable diesel ferry for a song, spent 3.3 million Euro for a new emissions-free solar ferry that doesn’t work, & increased carbon emissions on top of it all – Eugyppius.

    “Genocidal Solutions”
    It could be the name of some of these companies with their ideas.

  30. The Rev Kev

    “Switzerland and Italy redraw border due to melting glaciers”

    That article gave the impression that as the glaciers retreat, you have bodies being uncovered as well as plane crashes but that is not necessarily true. Glaciers can be like slow moving ice rivers so if a body goes in “upstream”, over time the body will be carried downstream until it drops out the face of that glacier. After being crushed up of course. There were once a group of young friends in Switzerland that went on the ice, there was an accident, and a few of them went into a crevice and died. Several decades later these bodies starting to fall out the face of the glacier and one of the survivors – now a very old man – was called in to examine what was coming out and he got very tearful as he identified gear and which of his young friends that it had belonged to.

  31. AG

    Again a piece by JACOBIN to get fussy about:

    “For Ken Klippenstein, Against Censorship”
    By Branko Marcetic

    Twitter’s banning of Ken Klippenstein and suppression of his journalism should be a wake-up call that tech censorship is a threat to press freedom across the political spectrum.

    https://jacobin.com/2024/09/klippenstein-vance-musk-liberals-censorship

    Midpoint comes this part which I don´t know what to make of:
    (I wonder: How would a Patrick Lawrence on this look like.)

    “(…)
    To understand why Twitter’s attempts to throttle Klippenstein’s story here are such a big deal, and why they’re so dystopian, you have to understand the course of events that led him to publish the Vance dossier in the first place. In reality, this and other material has been floating around for months, and was first shopped by the presumed hacker to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico, who proclaimed their refusal to publish it, pointing to its lack of newsworthiness. Several Democratic-friendly journalists were also handed the material and likewise announced they would not report on it.

    And to understand the head-scratching sight of reporters and news organizations uniformly refusing to publish the leaked internal documents of a presidential campaign they’ve been highly critical of, you have to understand what the 2016 election did to the brains of the nation’s heavily Democratic-voting journalists.

    After Trump won in 2016 — a year when suspected Russian government hackers handed highly embarrassing internal Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails to WikiLeaks, which posted them publicly — the American press blamed itself. Rather than Clinton’s hapless and incompetent campaign, or the DNC’s decision to put its thumb on the scales for her in the primary, journalists and newsrooms convinced themselves that they were to blame for Trump’s victory, specifically by doing their jobs and reporting on newsworthy material that was damaging to his rival and therefore playing a role in achieving the preferred outcome of the adversarial state allegedly responsible for the hack.

    “Every major publication” that covered the leaks in 2016 ended up “becoming a de facto instrument of Russian intelligence,” Times reporters astonishingly charged that year. A prominent lawyer urged journalists to “voluntarily adopt a professional norm against publishing the contents of a hack.” A separate Times columnist praised the French press for refusing to write about material hacked from their president’s campaign.

    This is very much the same reasoning that’s been used to justify newsrooms sitting on a mountain of Trump campaign material this year. As Tara Palmeri put it, “I think we all learned a few things from 2016.    ” For Judd Legum, it was the fact that “the materials are stolen, and publishing the documents would be a violation of privacy and could encourage future criminal acts.” (Legum also made clear that part of his motivation was that, as a former longtime Clintonworld operative, his emails to John Podesta were some of those that were published in 2016.)
    (…)”

    Cherry on the top:

    “(…)
    Was this material hacked by Iran, which has its own specific reasons for wanting to damage Trump and let his opponent win? Very possibly — it’s certainly what’s been alleged in a recent grand jury indictment. And is it the case that this material has, technically, been stolen or at least improperly accessed before it made it into the hands of reporters? Undoubtedly.
    (…)”.

    1. ArvidMartensen

      I have wondered if Musk is playing the bad cop in a good cop/bad cop scenario.
      Given that he seems to be embedded within the US military industrial complex, there is no way that he has been an alternative voice.
      Perhaps that routine is no longer needed.

  32. Jeremy Grimm

    RE: “Ocean waves grow way beyond known limits, new research finds”
    Reading this link recalled a section in the paper Hansen et al. 2016:
    “Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 ◦C global warming could be dangerous”
    http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/16/3761/2016/

    “4.1.2 Evidence of end-Eemian storms in Bahamas and Bermuda”
    “…large waves, riding on high late-Eemian sea levels. On rocky, steep coasts, giant limestone boulders were detached and catapulted onto and over the coastal ridge by ocean waves.”
    [p.21 of pdf file] …
    “In North Eleuthera enormous boulders were plucked from seaward middle Pleistocene outcrops and washed onto a younger Pleistocene landscape (Hearty and Neumann, 2001). The average 1000 t megaclasts provide a metric of powerful waves at the end of MIS 5e.” [p. 22 of pdf] (MIS 5e: the Eemian or MIS 5e period, the last time Earth was as warm as today [p.20 of pdf])

    Even if sufficient diesel remains available, I imagine oceanic shipping might be adversely impacted in the future by ocean waves growing beyond their known limits. The outsourcing of u.s. Industry and jobs could prove a very bad idea indeed.

    2. judy2shoes

      “That poop volcano was like a visual representation of Bibi’s speech before Congress.”

      Yeah. And Congress lapped it up, too!

    3. Jonathan Holland Becnel

      I hope you don’t mind, but I stole your headline and posted it in r/Stupidpol!

  35. Pat

    Anecdotal but here is another death that might be connected to Covid and immune suppression. I think it fits with IM Doc’s observation of rising unexpected and fast running cancers.

    Broadway Star Gavin Creel dead at 48

    The Tony-winning star, known for his leading roles in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hair and the recent revival of Into the Woods as well as his activism and positivity in the Broadway community, died after being diagnosed with metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer, in July. He underwent treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering before transitioning to hospice care at home.

    Rare cancer, check. Aggressive, check. Fast and fatal, check. Shouldn’t have happened, check.

  36. Jason Boxman

    Not just Trump hinting at extra-judicial action:

    Yet another is to prevent looting, since much of the county is still without power and the public can’t call the police. But so far, there have been no reports of looting, according to Sheriff Bill Wilke.

    “I would caution anybody who thinks they are going to come up here and take things from the residents of this county, they will find themselves in trouble and probably in my jail. Knowing the residents of this county, it could be very dangerous to their health,” Wilke said.

    https://www.themountaineer.com/news/navigating-the-aftermath-of-helene-where-things-stand-in-haywood-and-how-to-get-help/article_f5d74bb6-7ea7-11ef-b352-0384acd7ac66.html

    1. ArvidMartensen

      Looking at some reports from the US on the hurricane.
      As Buffett said, it is only when the tide goes out that you can see who has been swimming naked.
      In this case, only when the hurricane creates devastation can you see how the US has turned into a third world country.
      Back in the day, I used to see these reports from countries in Asia when Asia was the poor area and the west was sending aid. I wonder if Asia will band together to send aid to the US?

      These reports:
      1. North Carolina Dept. of Transportation says all roads in Western NC should be considered closed, even the big ones. “The catastrophic devastation to western North Carolina is like nothing we have ever seen,” the Governor said
      2. Biden on Hurricane Helene: Reporter: “Do you have any words to the victims of the hurricane?”
      Biden: “We’ve given everything that we have.”
      Reporter “Are there any more resources the federal government could be giving them?”
      Biden: “No.”
      3. Hurricane Helene death toll could rise to 600: US homeland security chief
      4. Helicopter pilot Jordan Seidom who is rescuing citizens “was “instructed to suspend operations” by an assistant fire chief from a local fire department, who cautioned Seidhom that he could be arrested for flying his helicopter in North Carolina” https://www.dailydot.com/debug/helicopter-pilot-hurricane-helene/ . Seihom was instructed to leave his copilot and the husband of a rescuee on the side of a collapsed mountainside.
      5. 360 substations out. “We do NOT have 360 substations worth of transformers and other electrical equipment sitting in stockpiles waiting to be deployed. It could take a very long time to restore power to everyone. Are we facing a Hurricane Maria-type impact on grid infrastructure?”
      6. Nothing on the https://www.northcom.mil/HADR/ site about humanitarian assistance since 2022

      What a failed state looks like.

  37. Carolinian

    Hurricane update–my downtown library is now open and I took back some movies. The parking lot was jammed and the lobby had some homeless, and perhaps newly homeless, sitting around on chairs.

    Then I took a visit to a heavily wooded nearby park. The trees down in low areas survived but the damage on exposed slopes is devastating. I’m honestly more upset about this than my neighborhood, which will soon be cleaned up and still has many more trees than those that fell. Here’s hoping the state park outside of town did better.

    If North Carolina looks like my park then it will be years before things return to normal.

  38. Jeff W

    Stem cells reverse woman’s diabetes — a world first Nature

    The article mentions the story of an earlier cure using stem cells in a 59-year-old man with type 2 diabetes (linked to by a commenter, CA, here on this site at the end of May) so I guess it depends how you’re counting.

  40. Es s Ce Tera

    re: One really crazy moment for me 7 years ago researching all this was discovering troves of DARPA grants

    I’ve said this before, during the rise of Occupy, Facebook was the primary method of communication and organization. When you posted to a FB group calling for people to gather somewhere, it instantly went out to all people in the group, many of whom showed up. FB, working with law enforcement fusion groups, came up with an algorithm which limited the reach such that it would only show a post to another 100 users only after it had been seen by the first 100 users, dramatically curtailing instant reach, also dramatically curtailing attendance at events – for the simple reason that the vast majority of a FB group had not yet received the callout. And since OWS had no idea it was even happening, they couldn’t understand why people all of a sudden weren’t showing to their callouts, assumed (incorrectly) that everyone had lost interest.

    Years later, Mike Benz finds DARPA research looking at Twitter and how all of a sudden OWS organizers just up and simultaneously “lost interest”. Wow, someone made some easy money there.

  42. Blowncue

    Well, looks like somebody in Iran stood up and gave the “there is a tide in the affairs of men’…” speech.

  43. Lina

    What’s happening in the middle east right now is seriously frightening. WWIII will be nuclear. Literally.

  44. Pedro Silva

    About “European Disunion”
    Thousands protest in Portugal over surging house prices and rents – from Reuters

    The usual light journalism or yellow from Reuters and similar outlets, originated from a ” local correspondent” – that works for Sic , one of the networks here, who specializes in rivalry with CNN in terms of bullshit journalism.

    A ” news” piece that is soft on the current government; in electoral campaign promised to have build 55 thousand year; now in the news it´s 33 thousand up and until 2300.

    They also announced a spending package of ” x” imaginary euros that come from the kingdom of Narnia , but 2030 is along way from now , and this from a government with relative majority , and who is itching to go to snap elections if the current budget is not approved.

    The article also mentions that the country is :

    ” The housing crisis in Portugal is rooted in a chronic shortage of affordable housing,”

    Origin´s of this: the creation by the former government (same political family of the current government) 2011-2015 – of the gold visas for non residents.

    Subsequently this led to speculation in the prices – that´s what happens when one more million people arrive in the space of 10 years to a country of 10 million people.

    So, move along, nothing to see here, except that the international speculative bubble in real estate is operating also in Portugal.

    The protest and protesters are also feeble and sluggish; not to mismatch with the current lies from the current government, when compared to the electoral campaign.

  45. Raymond Sim

    I think we’re likely past the phase of sending signals.

    Hezbollah’s missile arsenal is Iran’s deterrent against nuclear attack by Israel. Israel has been waging a sustained wide-ranging campaign of aerial bombardment apparently aimed at destroying that deterrent.

    If I were an Iranian decision maker I’d conclude an Israeli nuclear attack is imminent and want to use Iran’s ballistic missile forces to wreck as much of the Israeli air force as possible before it was too late.

    I’d also want to commence construction of fission weapons.

    1. Ron

      “Use it or lose it.”

      That’s what BOTH Israel and Iran are worried about now. Whoever strikes first wins.

      Very dangerous.

      I predict Israel’s “retaliation” for Iran’s missile salvo will be massive and disproportionate. They will once again be bold/reckless and go for a knockout blow. Why not if US by your side?

      1. Yves Smith Post author

        Unless Israel uses nukes, Iran has so much conventional firepower it will come out ahead. This is why Netanyahu has been so desperate to get the US involved. It used to be able to beat Arab states (well Iran is Persian but you get the idea) on its own. Now it needs the US. Even so, in this latest Iran strike, the US was only able to stop, by its own claim, about a dozen missiles out of 200 to 400 launched by Iran. The Iron Dome is not designed to stop ballistic missiles. And we can see how much US and Western tech has had in Ukraine. Plus the US is already very low on Patriot missiles.

        The US invested in the wrong technology. Using airplanes to deliver missiles is like using cavalry instead of tanks. Far less efficient than missile and drone fires.

        1. Raymond Sim

          Over the decades, when I would see Israeli calls for the flattening of Gaza the question in my mind was “Where do you think you’ll get the ordinance?” I didn’t think the US would overtly supply obvious genocide. Obviously I was naive.

          So now, with regards to a nuclear attack on Iran, the only question in my mind is “Do the Israeli leadership and the Zionists in charge of US foreign policy think this would be a good idea?” And I think that yes, they do, as a way to buy time to complete the ethnic cleansing of the territory they control. I also think they’re likely to delude themselves over the extent to which they’ve degraded Hezbollah’s forces.

          For these reasons I think that unless Iran can rapidly and severely degrade Israeli air forces, the Israelis will launch a nuclear strike. But even if the Israeli air force is wrecked, how will Israeli leadership view their options? I’m very pessimistic.

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