In pictures: Northern lights dazzle during solar storm CNN
What happens to dead whales? How their humongous carcasses create a whole new ecosystem that will last for decades Discover Wildlife
TD Bank to pay $3bn in US case over money laundering lapses FT
Climate
Family who sheltered in Disney World during Hurricane Milton reveal what it was really like Daily Mail
Hurricane Milton carves scar across Florida. At least 11 dead, 3 million without power Miami Herald
A visual guide to the damage caused by Hurricane Milton Guardian
Florida’s home insurer of last resort is in serious trouble. Will Milton put it over the edge? CNN
* * * FEMA official details federal response strategy after 2 major hurricanes (transcript) PBS
Federal Flood Maps Are No Match for Florida’s Double Hurricane Bloomberg
* * * Declines in Plant Resilience Threaten Carbon Storage in the Arctic (press release) Ohio State University
Disappearing Winter Lake Ice Has Broad Socioeconomic and Environmental Impact (press release) Southern Methodist University
Is it true that Earth’s magnetic field occasionally reverses its polarity? USGS
* * * The shady origins of the climate haven myth Vox
Hot days and methamphetamine are now a deadlier mix Orlando Sentinel
Financial interactions with ecosystem tipping points UCL (PDF) Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
Syndemics
China?
China’s real intent behind its stimulus inflection FT
Chinese Stock Market Sets New Record for Single-Day Net Stock Purchase via Margin Financing YiCai Global
Blinken condemns China’s ‘increasingly dangerous’ sea moves Channel News Asia
CCUS: a viable business model in Asia-Pacific? S&P Global. Carbon capture.
India
Ratan Tata’s vision should still be India’s Channel News Asia
Syraqistan
Biden and Netanyahu closer to consensus on Israel’s plans to attack Iran Axios
‘We have to attack Iran,’ says Israeli economy minister France24
The West is sleepwalking into nuclear disaster The Telegraph. The deck: “Our leaders must let Israel eliminate the menace of Iranian atomic weapons for the longer term”
Iran Could Build a Nuclear Weapon Sooner Than You Think Foreign Policy
Soviet-Supplied MiG-29s Guard Iran’s Capital: Could They Repel an Israeli Air Attack? Military Watch
* * * U.S. special ops flights to Israel from UK’s Cyprus base surge under Starmer Declassified UK
* * * The unravelling of the Gaza ceasefire talks FT
U.S. Sees Opening to Sideline Hezbollah Politically in Lebanon WSJ
Israel’s Paradox of Defeat Foreign Affairs. The deck: “How the Country’s Military Success Is Producing Political Failure:”
* * * ‘Unacceptable’: World reacts as Israel fires at UN peacekeepers in Lebanon Al Jazeera
Atrocity Inc: How Israel sells its destruction of Gaza Max Blumenthal, MR Online
American journalist disclosed secrets during Iran attack, police says Ynet. Commentary:
Jeremy Loffredo's last report before the IOF kidnapped him. https://t.co/zRfvsIKi7O
— Ⓐ ☭ Resistance Axis supporter 🔻 #LandBack (@nodealfornature) October 11, 2024
Africa
Martinique authorities ban protests following deadly riots over rising prices France24
New Not-So-Cold War
Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov issues ominous warning as he returns to Moscow Daily Mail
NATO to begin large-scale nuclear exercises on Monday Ukrainska Pravda
The West, including Israel, should help Ukraine fight Russia in Syria The Hill
* * * Meeting of Western Leaders on Ukraine Is Postponed, a Setback for Kyiv NYT
What will it take for Ukraine to ‘win’? The Hill
* * * SITREP 10/10/24: From Bad to Worse for Ukraine Amid New Surge of Russian Advances SImplicius, Simplicius the Thinker
The Russian ‘Steamroller’ in Donbas Gilbert Doctorow
How Ukraine Defeated a Major Russian Assault: Tactical Analysis of the Battle of Kupiansk Kyiv Post
Ukraine could hold territories Kursk Oblast in Russia for many more months BNE Intellinews
* * * Ukraine’s Minister for Recovery reveals the impact of Russian attacks on ports, vessels and grain storage facilities over past few months Ukrainska Pravda
Victims of Communism memorial faces call to remove over 330 names linked to Nazis, fascists Ottawa Citizen
South of the Border
The Dangerous Radical on Our Southern Border The American Conservative
Biden Administration
The Double-Edged Sword of Semiconductor Export Controls CSIS
2024
Bracing for a More Insular America: Japan’s Take on the US Election Nippon.comd
MMT
Venezuela, the Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe prove MMT is true Funding the Future
Digital Watch
Elon Musk unveils Cybercab at Tesla robotaxi event BBC. Commmentary:
As Tesla unveiled its future robotaxi today, a reminder that robotaxis have been a reality in China for more than a year already with millions of rides completed 👇
So Telsa and by extension the U.S. are far behind in this regard, all the more because Musk said people will have… https://t.co/Fvag4yBY0U
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) October 11, 2024
Realignment and Legitimacy
Group puts up fence, claims ownership over 1,400 acres of Colorado forest, sparking outrage Colorado Sun
Class Warface
Strike referendum at Amazon Poland Worker’s Initiative
Balancing the Books: Five Novels that Explore the Complexities of the Stock Market Literary Hub
France and the Tyrant of the Sea Big Serge Thought
Antidote du Jour (Wikimedia);
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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PALESTINE’S AGONY
(melody borrowed from Dear Mr Fantasy by Steve Winwood and Traffic)
Jewish brutality’s so opportune
Soldiers and settlers dance clapping
Always seeking for some more living room
Before long where you are’s on their mapping
They come with guns cut your village in half
Chain link now defines their new frontiers
A Brooklyn want ad brings settlers stark raving mad
These theocrats think they are pioneers
(musical interlude)
Palestine’s agony, sorrow, and gloom
Gaza has nothing left but shabby
Mountains of concrete are family tombs
They are gone. They died hard. Bombs came smashing.
(guitar solo)
There’ll be no amnesty for Jewish goons
Raping our menfolk and then laughing
Sewage and garbage and cadaver fumes—
Here we stand, every scar makes us savvy
We live on food that comes once in a while
But no one saves our children from raw fear
How can a people be killed without trial?
These twelve months past have cost us many years
These twelve months past have cost us many years
In so many ways: Lost friends, estranged family, loss of any residual faith in American “democracy,” respect for religious organizations (specifically Catholic Church), respect for the Jewish faith/tradition, Muslim world (Jordan, Egypt, SA, Turkey and all the supine countries in the region), the EU (nothing but vassals of the Hegemon) disgust with musicians once idolized in youth (though some remain, Rodger Waters, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison), Academia, Unions, environmental and other advocacy groups, etc…but the death, pain and suffering of the innocents slaughtered and on going genocide, has cost me any glimmer of hope that progress (ratio of evil to Good) is in the offering for humanity.
Zagonostra: Back to Gramsci, always back to Gramsci:
From this long article,
https://thevision.com/cultura/antonio-gramsci/
part of paragraph:
Da una lettera dal carcere a suo fratello Carlo, in cui Gramsci scrive: “[…] l’uomo ha in se stesso la sorgente delle proprie forze morali, che tutto dipende da lui, dalla sua energia, dalla sua volontà, dalla ferrea coerenza dei fini che si propone e dei mezzi che esplica per attuarli – da non disperare mai più e non cadere più in quegli stati d’animo volgari e banali che si chiamano pessimismo e ottimismo. Il mio stato d’animo sintetizza questi due sentimenti e li supera: sono pessimista con l’intelligenza, ma ottimista per la volontà. Penso, in ogni circostanza, alla ipotesi peggiore, per mettere in movimento tutte le riserve di volontà ed essere in grado di abbattere l’ostacolo. Non mi sono fatto mai illusioni e non ho avuto mai delusioni. Mi sono specialmente sempre armato di una pazienza illimitata, non passiva, inerte, ma animata di perseveranza”.
How I translate the last four sentences:
My state of mind blends these two sentiments and overcomes them: I am a pessimist with intelligence, but an optimist by will. I consider, in every circumstance, the worst hypothesis, so as to set in motion all of the reserves of my will and to be in a position to knock down the obstacle. I have never held any illusions and I have never had disappointments. I am armed especially, and always, with an unlimited patience, not passive, or inert, but animated by perseverance.
never held any illusions
Were that only the case…mine have been fraying at the edges for years, but only recently has Maya made herself known…
“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.” — Antonio Gramsci
Sing it.
“What happens to dead whales? How their humongous carcasses create a whole new ecosystem that will last for decades”
If you ever have to get rid of a whale carcass yourself, for god’s sake don’t try to blow it up. You’ll end up blubbering-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6CLumsir34 (3:24 mins)
BBC did what i think is (if memory serves) almost an entire episode complete with under water film footage of a decomposing whale resting at sea bottom and the ecosystem it creates. Part of Planet Earth series.
Thanks for reminding us of this classic of TV journalism. On the 40th anniversary, the reporter and cameraman reminisced.
As someone who actually lives there, I can tell you I was wrong about Milton. Everyone was. It took a hard right at the last minute and caused Tampa Bay to shrink (negative surge) by 5 feet. Winds were only about 60mph near Tampa. Very minor damage, no big trees down. Power has already been restored in our neighborhood.
However, it remains to be seen what the insurance monsters will do. I would bet that will be the final nail for a lot of people that sends them packing if rates double again next year
So you say you were wrong about Milton because the person threatening to shoot you in the head missed and killed someone else instead?
What exactly were you wrong about Milton?
Someone I know was “wrong” in the sense that, because of the wobbles, their home location had top wind speeds around 40 (despite tornadoes in the vacinity) which gave them less personal stuff to worry about while being on call or on the job having to assist the legit stranded, the same as they provide aid to idiots who refused to go.
As someone timing their holiday in Venice to perfection , I think the NHC guys and gals got it spot on from a week out. Although they say to ignore it, the central plot always had landfall as Venice and at Cat3. OK Siesta Key is a few miles north of Venice island, but it was still good forecasting.
We decided to relocate to Fort Lauderdale for 5 days on Wednesday morning, narrowly missing a tornado on the trip over. Except for shoreline properties, because of no major rivers or canals, Venice seems to have missed the worst of any storm surge and/or fresh water flooding. Power lines down because of tree damage and the remnants of Helene flotsam but water back on.
Tampa mayor’s OTT ‘don’t stay in your coffins’ messaging was misplaced.
As a corollary to “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, “The Storm of the Century Will Not Be Predicted”.
Martinique is not in Africa!
RE: Ukraine’s Minister for Recovery reveals the impact of Russian attacks on ports, vessels and grain storage facilities over past few months Ukrainska Pravda
Contrast with this:
Russian Iskander Missile Strike Destroys Shipboard Western Weapons Arriving in Ukraine – Reports
The insurers for that ship will definitely not be happy and may make them frown at the idea of insuring another ship carrying weapons into a war zone. Who could have ever predicted that?
The European Union is fighting back with harsh language.
P.S. I clicked on the wrong reply.
The EU could always write them a harsh letter.
Well, the EU said the Israeli attacks on the Irish peacekeepers were unacceptable. What hard words will they find in this case? /s
Ah, but was this a ship carrying weapons the way every school, hospital or mosque in Gaza or Beirut is a Hamas/Hezbollah command post?
How many ships go willingly into an active war zone?
How many ships carrying weapons go willingly into an active war zone when the enemy has complete satellite and drone coverage, air and naval superiority and is like to be p****d off at you?
I don’t know if it was carrying weapons or not (tho’ if it was whose and where from? Turkiye? Iran?) Just keeping an open mind.
I didn’t mean to sound brusque. It just reminded me of those ships still making the run through the Red Sea on the way to Israel and just a day or two ago one got hit by a missile. That place is a shooting gallery and yet ships still try to make the run.
No weapons on those ships. Secondary explosions are common to Ukrainian grain.
This is a very tight election. The Dems are losing ground in so many groups – Jews, Muslims, Hispanics, men under 40, even blacks. Margins are apparently really becoming noticeable.
And so now – they seem to be doing their very best to alienate Catholics, Greek Orthodox & quite a few Protestants. –
https://x.com/CatholicVote/status/1844461842535678202
Man, was this ever discussed by the clergy in our meeting last night. This did not go over well. And I can tell from the audience, mostly traditional Dem voters, that they were none too pleased.
When I saw this being played at the meeting last night, I was just gobsmacked – in a way I have never been before. Just not believing they could be so insanely stupid.
Again, it is all about the margins. The Dems seem to be intent upon cutting their margins in big groups in their previous bloc. Many Catholics and Orthodox are going to laugh this off. However, what if 10%, even 5%, even 3%, do not find this funny at all – and change their votes? I definitely got that vibe in the room last night – and it was way more than 10%. How many Catholic voters are in PA WI and MI? How many Catholic Latinos are in AZ and NV?
The incompetence and arrogance is just breathtaking.
Besides being totally creepy ( porn vibes ) – it appears the Dem governor of Michigan with her camo Harris Walz cap on is doing the Eucharist on a young woman in a nightgown – replacing the body of Christ with a Dorito? And to top it all off – as my wife noticed last night – they are doing this in front of iconic CCP Chairman Mao propaganda posters?
I am of the mind that they have literally lost their minds. I am told that this is some kind of meme craze, but as of yet have been unable to find anything to confirm that other than people stating that is so. However, even if this is the case, can they not realize they have just offended large numbers in a huge voting bloc that used to be theirs? What about all the Latino swing state voters that are going to see this and be scratching their heads? It was painfully obvious to me at the church meeting last night – this very likely may sway votes.
If you have the stomach to wade into the cesspool that is r*ddit in the politics forum section, Jill Stein hosted an AMA there a day or two ago and the DNC shills went out to attack her in a truly vicious manner…
The more I learn about American politics, the less I see the US as a serious country
then again, in Canada here, it feels even less serious if that is possible
Another Canadian here. In defence of Canada I don’t think we are a less serious country than the US. On foreign affairs our current government and the other major political parties are pathetic sycophants to the US. Yes, that is true. It has not always been the case. Twenty odd years ago the Canadian government refused to participate in the US butchery in Iraq. But yes our current Members of Parliament are ignorant poseurs who can easily be led to worship Nazis.
However our Parliament does deal with serious internal issues and has passed legislation that will actually help tens of millions of Canadians: cannabis use and possession no longer illegal, publicly funded low cost quality childcare, free dental care for families earning less that 70k (and assistance up 90k), and a start on public universal provision of pharmaceutical drugs (contraception, diabetes) at no cost (law just passed this week, finally!).
Of course the Party of Darkness led by Pierre Poilievre has opposed these measures. But that is its role, to oppose anything that lifts the country out of the 19th century and to convince people that going back there is a good thing.
As a fellow Canadian, I am in full agreement! Especially, “ignorant poseurs who can easily be led to worship Nazis”. Sadly, looks like we may very well get a Poilievre government!
Compared to south of the border, sure; but that’s an awfully low bar to be bragging about. Some progress on health and dental (thank you Jagmeet), but…
– the press and housing ministries are still insisting that investor and foreign buyers have *nothing* to do with pricing housing out of reach of anyone without a bankroll, in spite of common sense and clearly visible evidence. (and also printing stories about Chinese stock market turmoil as the cause of lower than expected condo pre-purchases the very next day, with not a hint of embarrassment)
– record high oligarch grocery profits, every local independent grocery store getting hoovered up, and the best our government can offer is sternly worded concern
– our biggest bank pleading guilty and getting slapped with a $3.5B criminal fine for money laundering with nary a peep from our captured government regulators
– a military that rolls over (twice) and agrees to buying F35 flying bricks that are useless for patrolling the far north just for the privilege of being included in US war games
The list just keeps writing itself…. Scraps for us common folk, but not a word acknowledging the stranglehold old money has on the country, much less doing something about it. (The US is better about that, at least – it’s common knowledge Washington is bought and paid for) Never thought I’d be envious of Mexico’s political system.
Then there is the disgusting anti-Palestinian, “Israel has a right to defend itself” cheer-leading from both neocons and neolibs, the corruption, paternalistic secrecy and deceit of the Liberal Party and fawning support for Ukraine almost all round. The Canadian electorate isn’t articulating it, but the groundswell of support for the repugnant Poilievre and his Conservatives, who who are set to crush the Liberals next election, is above all a rejection of neoliberalism and the repugnant Trudeau, just as embracing Trump is a rejection of Biden, Harris, the Clintons, Obama et al south of the border.
The NDP was formerly (as in many years ago!) an option, but is now no better than AOC, Bernie, and company — a fig leaf for the Liberals — there hasn’t been anyone to vote for in several election cycles.
This is the motivation for our slow-motion emigration to Mexico. I have had it with this country, which is now only marginally, quantitatively, better than the US.
@Don, 5:03 pm
Sadly I agree with you. The only thing that prevents me from hanging my head in shame for Canada’s positions on foreign policy when I travel out of the country is that almost all European countries are no better. When out of the country I keep my head down and mumble where I’m from except in Cuba where many seem to appreciate Canadians, I guess due to not following the US embargo.
Emigration to Mexico: retired US prof Morris Berman left the US for Mexico ca. 10 years ago. His only regret is he didn’t do it sooner. He has a blog (now Mauricio’s Substack, formerly Dark Ages America) you might like to read.
@cfraenkel, at 2:12 pm
Yes it’s a very low bar. And I don’t disagree with anything you say. I’m certainly not bragging and I hope I didn’t give that impression. My point was that some serious internal issues ARE being dealt with. Certainly the Liberals are the party of the FIRE sector (finance, insurance, real estate) and the Conservatives the party of Big Oil. The NDP: who knows any more it’s so timid. Believe it or not at one time it was in favour of nationalising the banks and oil industry. It does at least want to improve our social programs. In today’s world of unbridled neoliberalism at least that’s something.
I never had the impression that in Canada citizens are truly asked what they think. It is a top down approach. The first thing is that foreign policy debate for elections rarely is allowed to be discussed. Then, through MSM, Canadians are told pretty much what is the proper position on any particular issue. And then the government decides what to do. Right now, with Gaza and Palestine, it is really, really hard to keep all those dead hidden. It is true that Polievre, the goy from the preeries seems to not care…
I have a theory that the outcome will come down to the voters feelings, i.e. the zeitgeist.
To the extent that voters feel relaxed, happy, un-serious, and careless, Harris is going to have the advantage.
To the extent that voters feel anxious, stressed, angry, or fearful, Trump is going to have the advantage.
There is evidence in both directions. For Harris:
+ A stock market blasting to new highs, in a “what, me worry?” fashion;
+ Despite the very real risk of an actual nuclear war breaking out both from Ukraine and Iran, nobody seems to be digging . This looks like a classic example of simply ignoring a fat tail risk.
+ Deliberately dissing religious groups, as you point out. This could be a “dog whistle” to elites on both coasts. During serious times, people turn to religion – they don’t diss it.
For Trump:
+ The failed Gaza peace deal
+ Ukraine looking like another failed project similar to Vietnam, Afghanistan.
+ Storms due to climate change act as a reminder of how paying lip service to human induced global warming has failed (thanks, Obama!) and virtue signaling doesn’t accomplish anything but feel-goodism
Is this a serious timeline?
The more exposed people are to Harris the less likely they will be to vote for her, it’s my opinion on this. I think she will loose quite badly.
FWIW, “the more people know Harris, the less they like her” is pretty much what sunk her 2016 run. I haven’t seen much to show that’s changed this time around. The short election cycle she entered has helped her, but has it helped her enough?
Err…I meant 2020. Math are hard.
Don’t feel bad – it does seem like recent history has morphed into either before or after COVID. Everything else kind of blends together.
Still waiting for “after COVID “
The economics for a majority of Americans aren’t great; To the extent that this was better under Trump for whatever reason, advantage: Trump.
Jason Boxman, at 11:05 am
Economy “better under Trump”. Hmmm… In what way? Grammar challenged labour economist Dean Baker reports today that “..by any historical standard the labor market is doing pretty damn good. It could be better, but a low unemployment rate and rapidly rising real wages is a better story than any incumbent administration could tell since – 2000…”
(https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/10/11/should-harris-be-celebrating-the-labor-market/)
Low unemployment, but shipping in immigrant workers to staff underpaid factory labor. Rising real wages, but no mention of what the wages at the top and bottom of the distribution are doing. Averages hide a multitude of sins. And rising wages that still aren’t rising as fast as groceries and housing.
If you’re in the bottom quintiles, sliding down a 40 year long slope, a ‘hot’ economy still translates to ‘its not getting bad quite as fast as before’.
And I can’t tell if you cut off that quote sarcastically or not, but we all remember what happened after 2000.
@cfraenkel, 2:25 pm
I cut it off to shorten it, not for any other reason.
In Canada between 2019 and 2024 the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. For the bottom two income quintiles in Canada, “small increases in income were not enough to counteract the effect of inflation on their purchasing power”. Unsurprisingly those in the top quintile experienced a considerable increase in income. (ref.pp 6-7 and figure 2)
No breakdown is available within the highest quintile, e.g. the top 1%.
See the distributional study for 2019-2024 by the Parliamentary Officer at https://distribution-a617274656661637473.pbo-dpb.ca/6edb20c1acaacc6cdcdfae3d8cd266902d19d6592d3d3292b2543848006d92d3)
I have been living on a small fixed income for the last few years and my purchasing power has declined by a little more than 30% since Genocide Joe took office.
I have a lot of company.
So sorry to hear that. Unfortunately the same is happening in Canada but less than 30%.
(see my previous comment)
Raised a Catholic, attending Catholic school for 12 years, I switched from listening to Bishop Barron to Chuck Baldwin’s homilies. The latter goes straight to the duplicity and evil of both Christian and Jewish Zionist while the former, eschews and skirts around the ongoing genocide in Gaza. I have also been listening to Dr. E. Michael Jones and reading his books, though I strongly disagree with this Catholic Intellectual on many grounds, if you go to his wiki bio you’ll see that he is smeared as a anti-Semite, but on Gaza he is spot on.
The caption on the Instagram account indicated that the idea was to make a political statement in support of the CHIPS Act, the 2022 law funding the domestic production of semiconductors.
“If he won’t, Gretchen Whitmer will,” said Ms. Plank on Instagram. “Chips aren’t just delicious, the CHIPS Act is a game-changer for U.S. tech and manufacturing, boosting domestic production of semiconductors to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers! Donald Trump would put that at risk.”
For me you’ve got to be deliberately looking for offense, in order to interpret this as some kind of intentional slight against Catholicism. Especially given that there is a pre-existing Tiktok meme that has nothing to do with religion.
And that opening show at the Paris Olympics also had nothing to do with religion either I guess. Sorry but everybody can see it and recognize it for exactly what it was. How stupid is she for putting something like this less than four weeks before a Presidential election? Why would she do that? What is she going to do next? Set up a blazing cross in her front yard?
There are all kinds of methods to support legislation. Doing ridiculous things like this is not one of them.
And I am sorry, if you cannot understand how a Catholic 70 year old who does not do internet memes would not find this instantly revolting – well, that is on you, not on them. That is so much of the problem these days – a complete lack of empathy. Normal people normally schooled in the culture around them would recognize the insulting nature of this. But apparently not the MSNBC or PMC crowd.
When I was doing my research on this last night after it was shown in my church, I saw repeated comments that only social media mavens would ever see this – so no worries – no one will be offended.
WRONG –
I have just learned from a family member – a member of a church in one of our big blue cities in a swing state that this has gone viral among the members of her friends in her big church. Shall we say – this is not going well at all among her peers either.
Complete and total incompetence. And this is on the heels of last Sunday – Michaelmas – when Donald Trump put out the St Michael’s Prayer on Twitter – and the responses from not just the hoi polloi Dems – but the actual leaders were among the most toxic expressions of hatred I have ever seen. And this hatred was not just directed at Trump – it was directed right at the beliefs of these people.
People in these churches – at least enough of them to matter – are becoming more insulted by the day. The “stick your head in the sand” approach is not going to work. These DNC/PMC/MSNBC tribes are out of control and have forgotten some of the most basic tenets of politics – one of which is to ADD to your coalition – not to SUBTRACT.
I agree with your sentiment, but isn’t this sort of public performance theater where we are now? Particularly in the land of politics? Oh yes it’s offensive. Anybody here remember Andrew Yang’s whipped cream fetish?
Of course it’s insulting! That’s the whole point. It wouldn’t be a meme if it wasn’t.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Whitmer campaign leads were this clueless about internet culture, but the creative folks filming and editing the bit sure aren’t, seeing as how carefully they staged it to press all the hot buttons. Probably laughing into their sleeves the whole time.
I think people who want to be insulted can easily find sources of insults to outrage them. And I don’t think anyone’s voting choice is going to change. The government media is always finding things coming out of Trump’s mouth to fume about, and only viewers with TDS care to have hissy fits about them.
Religion matters to people more than you may understand. The history books are full of evidence for this.
idk…i was unaware of the context…and am not even a xtian, let alone a catholic(altho wife and her familia were/are, as is my youngest)..so just the video, alone…as a blank slate.
and i immediately saw how it could be offensive to many folks i know very well.
i mean…would a chyron providing succinct context be all that hard?
and the kneeling chick receiving a flat breadlike substance from a standing authority figure?
jeez….and the ecstatic glow upon having said crackerlike thing placed upon her tongue?
at best, it says, “we dont take you seriously>” to a whole lot of people.
it is, i suppose, at least more subtle than ripping up a picture of the pope, a crucifix in urine, or kirk douglas using paper from a bible to roll cigarettes(Scalawag)
I’m sorry, what?
So now corporations are kneeling at the feet of government officials for funding?
While I don’t dispute what this was aimed it, this only demonstrates our elected officials are idiots and feel the voters are equally idiotic.
Given the politicians are pretty much included in the lists of corporate assets, and the corps have the whip hand, it does matter if a little white-party play is performated to titillate those who follow such things.
Whitman could just as well be in the communicant position. Fungible players in the Great Imperial Fake-Off.
i dont think it was an intentional slight. i even think it will go over very well with certain chronically online young people. (i sent to the clip to my sister, who is the prime demographic for that clip. we shall see what she thinks.) the issue is not the intention, it is more that politicians tend to focus more on chronically online tiktok memes instead of actual policy that speaks to real people. focusing on the symbols over material reality. it’s the same with harris talking about her glock- she is trying to gain support by displaying symbols of the right. issue is, people who are really into guns like that are also chronically online types of another flavor – techbros instead of women who work for NGOs. and being really into symbols of a subculture is something that can only really happen when your other basic needs (housing, food, etc) are fulfilled. ie, it’s something only the wealthy can do. but political analysts are so insulated in their little bubble that they continue thinking that these symbols mean something to the average person. in order to think the clip of governor whitmer is funny, you have to understand a lot of inside jokes. in order to understand the inside jokes, you have to have a lot of free time.
anyway. im not on tiktok so i don’t get the reference but it might somewhat be a play on ‘all women do nowadays is be bisexual, eat hot chip, and lie.’ and also just the general pornification of the internet.
also. i think intent matters less than what the actual effects are. and if the actual effect is alienating voters: it was a counterproductive move.
I agree, it is likely not an “intentional slight against…” anything; it’s just so incredibly stoopid, tone deaf — and contemptuously so.
Marie Antoinette likely did not intend to mock the starving peasants; she probably just thought that they were too dumb to figure out that they could eat cake when they were out of bread — sharing her bread/cake insights, so to speak.
This was intended as a reply to OnceWere, but it had a mind of its own and jumped down the comments thread.
There’s no evidence she did say it. The phrase was actually used by Rosseau in a book some twenty-odd years earlier, attributing it to “a great princess”. Whether it was later taken up and attributed to Marie-Antoinette maliciously or mistakenly as the Revolution gathered steam, it was certainly an effective slander.
Your argument here, which I have seen elsewhere online as well, is a perfect indication of just how marginalized Christians are in the Democratic party and among the left. And this response: https://x.com/feministabulous/status/1844507433512919164 (“Weirdos chill out”) is sick, sick, sick. The “TikTok meme” has NOTHING to do with people kneeling while another person places a wafer on their tongue. Whitmer and Plank twisted/expanded the “meme” to mock the Eucharist. Perhaps it was intentional, perhaps not, but it was definitely political malpractice. I lean towards intentional maliciousness, based on the follow-up name-calling of labeling Catholic critics “weirdos”. I’m not a Catholic, but even I can see that. And to call Christians “Weirdos” who should chill out at the intentional twisting of a meme that promotes mockery is beyond the pale.
I don’t know about anyone else, but it did cost Harris this vote.
Meaning, supporting genocide is acceptable but tasteless mockery is not?
Straw. Camel’s back.
I’m not a xtian, but I was surely offended by the clip. The only thing is, why does everybody assume this was made by the Democrats? My first thought on seeing it was “AI fake.” Has Governor Whitmer admitted she made it? Has the Democratic Party in Michigan owned it?
“For me you’ve got to be deliberately looking for offense, in order to interpret this as some kind of intentional slight against Catholicism.”
It’s an expression of contempt for all Christians who take communion, which is not just Catholics and the Orthodox; most Protestants take communion as well.. My denomination is a rare exception, as we take communion inwardly and spiritually rather than outwardly, but I nonetheless also see the clip as an expression of contempt for people of faith.
Even weirder is that this was to promote the CHIPS Act, based on this screenshot – surely, there were at least 150 better ways to promote the Act?
Chips
This is a gap between neoliberal obsessives of The West Wing. They understand it, so in their minds normal people will get it too.
As a practical matter, these are the Republicans of yesteryear with a few mostly cosmetic changes.
The GOP is so out of touch its hard to notice, but these aren’t really that different from Republican stunts to appeal to young voters without addressing issues.
If this was 1993, it would be a radio ad with Whitmer “rapping,” “the c to the h to the I to the p is what the kids are saying, gee. I’m the no da master G:. Then they would gripe about the kids and regret not shutting down indie labels.
In Futurama, Nixon’s head is back, and you can see him politicking on occasion trying to act normal to fit in. Once I understood what I was watching on this clip, I can only see Nixons head.
This Catholic says thank you.
“This Catholic says thank you.”
Surely, gratefully so. Also, beyond the distressing symbolic meanness, the Chips Act has so far had no effect on lifting US manufacturing productivity.
Manufacturing productivity has actually ceased to increase and has rather been slowly decreasing since 2011 or over the last 12 and a half years. This is unprecedented, since manufacturing productivity before 2011 increased at a yearly rate over 2 percent:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=m2mB
January 30, 2018
Manufacturing Productivity, * 1988-2024
* Output per hour of all persons
(Indexed to 1988)
ive never thanked you, CA, for your contribution.
i do so, now.
you rock.
Thank you.
This was a reply to IM Doc’s report. I note the unease here, too.
I watched it yesterday because it was trending on Twitter. The comments were not kind by any stretch of the imagination. But it fits for PMC dems. The ones I know bash religion constantly, especially the evangelicals on the GOP side. They seem to hate everyone but themselves.
As far as Whitmer goes, she is a democratic tool dictator wannabe. Trump called her that women from Michigan so she wore a shirt that said “that women from Michigan” next time she had a chance to be on TV. Many in the state were not at all happy with her draconian lock-downs during COVID. She was vetted for the VP slot if I remember right, which tells you all you really need to know about her. A pure snake IMO, and I live next door in Ohio.
My PMC Michigan friends think she is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Of course they would.
If the democrats were not tripping to war over Ukraine SSR borders and Zion w/o any respect for human life much less nuclear exchange, I would still have difficulty with CRS and woke!
Refusing truth with camp imagery is not a good policy.
I will vote for no democrat for any office.
Conventional wisdom, for what it may still be worth, has held that Democrats win on turnout, particularly among groups who aren’t dedicated voters, so just depressing turnout, without even converting votes, could be fatal.
Imo the problem is that dems are selected first and foremost for loyalty to donors, evidenced by dnc requirement of spending 4 hrs/day talking to them (groveling?). Independent thinking is not something donors look for in their ‘yes’ men/women. Kamala is simply another dem hack that donors approve of and who, in 2020, had the correct sex and skin color, in spite of being so unpopular with voters she didn’t win a single delegate. So it’s unrealistic to expect intelligent action in a close election when pressure, anger and fear are rampant.
But this election may be becoming less close ever since the euphoric peak when Biden was dumped. Dems will take MN and NV, but the other swings may be moving out of reach, and the storms and fed storm responses aren’t helping.
Don’t attribute to insanity what can be attributed to incompetence + a social media manager being in their own bubble since age 15.
If you want to see more cringe, this alleged Kamala campaign ad is going viral ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk4ueY9wVtA ; https://nypost.com/2024/10/11/us-news/pro-kamala-harris-spot-targeting-real-men-ripped-as-cringiest-political-ad-ever/ )
I can’t tell if it’s a genuine real advert as it’s not on the Harris-Walz youtube channel….maybe it’s from the official Harris-Walz tiktok
jeez.
that has to be a parody.
the sheep, when i polled them a minute ago, refused to give a statement…or were otherwise uninterested.
geese, the same(theyre over there in her garden, mowing for a month)
her chickens and guinneas werent interested, either.
i’ll poll my birds in a bit.
The Might Wurlitzer is starting to play wrong notes on Lebanon. Here is a liveblog from the BBC International Editor (i.e. somebody who would set the editorial line, not merely follow it).
It’s linked below but on an annoying infinite scroll so I’ve pasted the text in too.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn0ew4egegpt
What is Israel’s strategy, and what are they trying to achieve?
published at 10:00 British Summer Time
10:00 BST
Jeremy Bowen
International editor
Image of a damaged street in Beirut. A woman on the right carries bread as several people behind her look on. At the rear of thew shot, two men are on mopeds.
Image source,EPA
I was in Beirut throughout the 2006 war and do not remember Israel targeting the centre of the city.
They levelled areas of the southern suburbs, but in the centre we felt quite safe. So this is different.
The question we need to ask is: What is their strategy and what are they trying to achieve?
Israel says it is trying to return its citizens to their homes on the northern border with Lebanon, but the scale of what they doing suggests more than that.
Israel’s tactical successes against Hezbollah have encouraged some to think that there is a chance to reshape the region by severely damaging or destroying all Israel’s enemies.
This is an enhanced military operation – one that is likely to lead to a longer war and possibly even an occupation of southern Lebanon – and it is not clear how this is in the interests of Israeli civilians trying to get back to their homes.
The Israelis will argue very strongly that they are trying to defend themselves, but what their escalation has done is inflame the whole region.
Let’s be clear here–we need to see the overall purpose of Israeli and US policy. Israel want to expel/kill all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza–this is real–what they don’t want to do is to “live in peace” they want to live in peace because they want ALL their enemies dead and to expand into some version of Greater Israel. The goal of the Washington Empire is to conquer and dominate the entire world, not to “live in peace” except unlike Israelis, most Americans do not want to pay for an the Empire but they also know that their interests are systemically ignored no matter who is elected to political office. Unless we face these basic facts we cannot understand international affairs.
the globe(of the earth, not the moon globe) in my Library, over there(gestures offhandedly) has had a rather large rayon scarf of the american flag from the 70’s draped over it for about 22 years, now.(i last wore it as a do-rag to a protest by the local demparty(!!!) at the local library against bush2, torture, war, etc…i was on the cover of the san antonio paper wearing it(and a just say no to fascism tshirt))
sadly, only one person besides wife has noticed or asked about it.
Shh! Or you’ll let the cat out of the bag…
Sounds like Isr’s version of Lebensraum.
“‘We have to attack Iran,’ says Israeli economy minister”
There seems to be a vibe in Israel that they will finally be able to use this war to defeat Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc. and finally establish Greater Israel. The Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich was talking about these thoughts too-
https://thecradle.co/articles-id/27227
The past two Iranian attacks on Israel demonstrated that the Iranians can hit whatever they want in Israel but these government ministers are ignoring this lesson and can only say that Israel has to destroy Iran and that Iran does not get to have a say in the matter. Their egos are writing checks that even US armaments will not be able to cash for them.
Not to start a flame war, but, as Israel occupies additional territory what means do they have to defend their position absent continuous, irrevocable, unquestioning, Western support?
None. And the West should end that support.
One wonders if the Israelis have succeeded in smuggling some of their nuclear bombs right into Tehran and Bushehr and other nodes. They did it with pagers and radios. It was an option the US considered, to stage false flags like a Tom Clancy novel. Certainly cheaper than missile delivery and much more certain to hit the target. Consistent with Yahoo’s latest threat, that his attack will be “lethal and surprising.”
It’s not like there aren’t pro-Israel factions and quislings in Iran and IRGC, no security is secure against all Trojan horse attacks.
Increasingly looks like the war of all against all.
And Leviathan is a Hebrew demon.
I think all these fantasies about israel nuking Iran are a bit nuts.
Has anybody ever thought about how Iran would react afterwards?
Iran has made clear that ANY strike by Israel will produce a crippling response. Israel has so many points of vulnerability (its electrical grid, its oil and gas facilities, its desalination plants) that Iran would not even have to destroy all that much to make the country largely uninhabitable (for those who like European level lifestyles) over a pretty short horizon.
A diplomatically connected contact told me this evening that Ansar Allah’s attacks on the port of Eliat, which was the main point of entry for imported food, is causing shortages. Israel had created a land bridge (IIRC though Jordan) but 2 or 3 Israel border personnel were shot, so that’s been closed. My contact said Israelis are seriously worried about food supplies.
So why should Israel do anything less than try to deliver a decisive pre-emptive strike? It’s either that or not attack Iran, and the government seems too deeply invested to walk away from that.
Disagree on this very minor point: “Certainly cheaper than missile delivery and much more certain to hit the target.” Not even close. Considering the number of people, bribes, and complexity of a smuggling operation, a missile is a much cheaper and orders of magnitude more reliable and accurate. The only real advantage to such a concept is you wouldn’t see it inbound on radar.
Doesn’t matter, the whole concept is nuts, but the forces making decisions in Israel have shown themselves to be equally insane, so we’re doomed to suffer whatever comes this way.
And if it goes wrong, you just handed your opponent a functioning nuclear bomb.
Seems to me more like “these government ministers are ignoring this lesson and can only say that the US has to destroy Iran, and that the US does not get to have a say in the matter.”
And as Biden et al seem to be incapable of recognising humiliation as it paints clown’s faces on them, the rest of the world can only shake its head as the US grovels obediently.
Bonus antidote: Aurora + photo-bombing dog
https://social.coop/@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social/113285406863685601
Bonus story. So Zelensky went to visit Starmer at Number 10 to probably get more weapons and more money from the Uk. But when the door was opened for Starmer and Zelensky to go in, Larry the Cat shot outside not being willing to get the infamous Zelensky curse-
https://www.rt.com/news/605516-zelensky-visit-uk-cat/
Its recently been remarked that Larry is the only sentient being in no10.
Cats are so incredibly intelligent as well as beautiful.
“Gatto va bene, tutto va bene”
Cheers Larry!
That is such a beautiful photograph, diptherio! Thank you for sharing it. Dogs are definitely my superheroes!
Blinken condemns China’s ‘increasingly dangerous’ sea moves Channel News Asia ****** “Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Beijing’s “increasingly dangerous” actions in the South China Sea as he met leaders of the ASEAN bloc in Laos on Friday” ****** If the location the article writes about is where a group of Phillipinos set up camp in an area China claims for the purpose of antagonizing China (wonder who’s funding them?, no mention of this is made in the article because I guess this is China just being the bully she has always been. Why can’t China just get along with The West and do responsible perfectly acceptable, normal things like drone bomb her neighbors nuclear power plants? It’s not like we will ever know where the drones came from, so no one will ever know China did it. And Loas? Antony Blinken is really slumming it. The smell of desperate reeks from his after shave colonge.
Blinken condemning you is a sign from God, that you are doing something right.
Kamala is Hillary, minus the warmth and charm.
The dogs aren’t eating the dog food.
Thank you for the laugh.
If we can recall 2020, Biden largely won a surge of involvement from minority voters. Black Lives Matter was a major movement in 2020 (it disappeared after Biden won the election), and there was so much talk about registering Black voters, and we had a lot of dialogue about how the real problem with COVID was that it harmed African Americans more than Whites. Biden was going to be LBJ and unleash a new great society.
But then the past four years happened.
The Democratic party leadership of course has no idea why anybody would be unhappy.
I think that what also got him over the line was young voters as well. After the past four years, it will be interesting to see if they come out and vote for him again.
This was the narrative at the time, but is interestingly and demonstratively false. Biden gained support with white men in 2020 vs. Hillary in 2016. Trump gained with every single minority group, and women, only losing support amongst white men. You can easily confirm with a quick search. The story was that women and minorities supported Biden, but in fact Trump gained ground with all of them from 2016.
Then, after running the gauntlet, the spray-tan toupee is resurrected, just in time to radicalize the malnourished Democrats and sate the Republican faithful, with yet more promises to restore the regime’s street cred through sweeping reforms, shrewd business dealings, and *checks notes* nuclear war! The constitution does it again folks, another four years for the blessed Union, and remember, we choose this.
As an aside, how funny is it Russiagate got recycled? Who writes this stuff?
Yes, especially when all Obama ever does in front of Black audiences is scold and lecture them.
The man is an insufferable fraud, and should go back to wind surfing with Richard Branson, where he is obviously more at home.
He’s our first black Bill Clinton. / ;) (Play on an old saying then about Bill being “our first black president.”)
Thank you so much, Flora!
I thought Bill was “our best Republican president” or some such. Frankly I think the much maligned Republican Warren Harding did less damage to the country than any of Clinton, Obama, and Biden.
Kind of comical; Under Trump, enough minorities did well that they voted for him in increasing numbers in 2020, and his support has swelled further in polls for 2024. So Obama comes out and castrates young black men for not supporting Harris. Yeah, that’s gonna work!
Trump is seen as having offered a better economy; What’s Harris offering so far? The Opportunity Economy!
Trump suggesting an interest deduction for vehicle purchases is at least a material benefit this go around.
Misspelling of “castigate” or did you really mean “castrate”? I wonder, because the latter actually makes sense in a way given the context.
Barack the bubble-mouth ventriloquist for the bubble-head dummy.
File under class warfare. From Scheerpost, Chris Hedges and George Monbiot.
The Secret History of Neoliberalism (w/ George Monbiot) | The Chris Hedges Report
https://scheerpost.com/2024/10/09/the-secret-history-of-neoliberalism-w-george-monbiot-the-chris-hedges-report/
“Democracy is a problem for them.” The next time I hear the MSM write or say, or a politician write or say the US Constitution is a problem, I’ll know they are neoliberals to their core.
As for chaos making the rich richer, does that explain FEMA’s disaster response?
And yet Monbiot is happy to keep shilling for the neoliberal, pretend to be left of centre Guardian, and was very happy to support the war on Iraq and similar NATO ventures, and not least, the pile-on against Corbyn which Monbiot played a big role. Hypocrite moi??? Absolutely, and every other Guardian stenographer now bemoaning what Starmer is doing.
Yes, he has a definite tic there. However, I think his basic historical analysis of neoliberal thought and intent is good if you leave out his preferred personalities finger pointing. He can’t seem to finish his own line of thought applied to current events. But, I guess he has bills to pay and an employer to keep happy. I think that’s called ‘spin’; demonize conservatives even after saying earlier in the talk all major liberal and conservative parties in the US and UK and most of the EU are neoliberal now. He’s fence sitting when it comes to current politics. / ;)
Monbiot is also big on technological hopium to resolve climate change, especially nuclear power.
Here is Johnathan K. Cook at TwitterX tearing strips off Monbiot & The Guardian :-
https://x.com/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/1844454240955334988?t=_C7ByHhMEE_aCzrgp1OZUA&s=19
I hope many of you were able to see the aurora last night. It was unreal and directly overhead in North central MT, with the red and pink colors clearly visible to the eye.
We were socked in with clouds here in Hanover so I missed it but my mother on the southern shore of Lake Ontario got a good shot from the driveway. I couldn’t believe how strong it was.
I spoke to one of my sisters who lives outside of Kansas City, MO last night. She was sitting on their deck out back watching the light show. She said it was intense and spectacular. We saw a little bit of aurora action this far south in the more rural parts of Mississippi.
Waiting for another Carrington Event.
If we had another Carrington Event, you wouldn’t be able to tell anybody about it on NC as we would be all busy learning how to make wax candles. :)
On the upside, no CBDCs or Digital IDs. / ;)
Hmm. No Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat. In fact no social media at all. People like Bezos and Zuckerberg would become broke. The surveillance state would disappear and the only businesses that would survive would be those that could actually make physical things. Amazon would have to go back to mail-out catalogues like they did in the 19th century. NC could survive by reforming as a subscription based mail-out newsletter. Almost sounds like a fair trade to me.
If Amazon would make the catalog two ply it would be very popular shiterature.
And soft. . . .Cottonelle soft . . . Hold the staples.
i reckon everyone would be broke.
isnt most “money” non-physical?
only things id really miss(aside from y’all, of course), are the well pump(*) and the fridges and freezers(*)…well, and the 18 or so gigs of music on this here machine.
(*–are there spare parts one can keep to get such things up and running after an EMP, Carrington or otherwise?
like the coils in old cars?)
If there was any warning of an actual Carrington level event, immediately unplug everything you can reach. At least then your local data and equipment should be safe (ish).
Won’t be of immediate use, as there won’t be line AC for a long while, but at least the equipment and data wouldn’t be fried.
what about an eventual solar/wind array?
cant exactly put them in a faraday cage.
You wouldn’t need to make many candles. I figure about 1/2 of the Western world would be dead within 90 days of a Carrington like event, from lack of necessary medicines, lack of potable water, injuries sustained due to accidents or rioting/looting, and wholesale murder / war on a scale not seen since the Eastern front in 1943 or perhaps the Golden Horde pushing through your town. How will people act when they realize that NO more food is coming to the store, ever?
To paraphrase Full Metal Jacket and Blood Meridian, “I wanna be the first kid on my block to get a scapular.”
” damn…i wanted to get me an ear”-Jayne, firefly
and “when Gengis Khan shows up at your door, offer him a beer”…which is the subject of a lot of discussion with my eldest when he drinks beer with me,lol.
when the warlordism i expect finally arrives, i hope that i am able to take a few scalps for establishment purposes, and then leave off that kind of thing.
i havent looked forward to that stage of crumble for 30 or so years.
a kinder, gentler warlord is what i will strive to be.
Not much of a show on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, but what a display of fall colors, the Aspens are amazing
Beautiful in the southern interior of British Columbia!
Green, pink and red. No purple. I was hoping for purple.
Thank you, Lambert, particularly for the Big Serge link.
Readers interested in this sort of thing may be interested in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grand_Port. An ancestor and his brother, both from Saint-Malo, fought there. Since then, my family have served largely under the Union Flag.
The descendants of Robert Surcouf’s sister, also Malouin, still live in Mauritius.
“The descendants of Robert Surcouf’s sister, also Malouin, still live in Mauritius.”
Wow, I grew up with those two French swashbuckler films where Surcouf was “Napoleon´s Corsair”. Or something of that sort….
A reminder of how malleable “nationality” used to be at one time? I always found it funny that Count von Luckner (a German naval officer famous for commanding a sailing ship that served as a raider during World War I–an early 20th century version of the swashbuckling buccaneer) is a descendant of a Marshal of France (who lost his head during the Revolution) and his noble title is Danish. (Or, I suppose, that Count von Rumford, an American by birth and an Englishman by choice, was a German count)
One of the defining qualities of national romantic era is that the intellectuals in most cases had to teach the very concept of nationality to the great masses. People, of course, had a name for themselves and concepts of “us” and “them”, but these not define their loyalty to any particular rule. It’s not a coincidence that the emergence of elementary schools all over Europe happen at the time people “need” to understand that they belong to a nation.
About the Big Serge link, during a quick perusal I didn’t see the Westphalian system mentioned once, even though this particular era was exactly the time when European powers had found a functioning balance in the “security competition”, as Glenn Diesen calls it.
I tbought this was a useful addedum to Col. Smithers’ ancestors having been in the French Navy during the Napoleonic era, before becoming English. Not too far from von Luckners’ examples, period wise.
Never interfere with an enemy while he’s in the process of destroying himself.
Also, the headline is an admission against interest that the territory is impossible for Ukraine to hold long term. In other words, it was a blunder.
I’m watching Dima’s latest video and its falling apart quickly for the Kursk adventure. The territory under Ukrainian “control” keeps shrinking. The geography of that area is bad for holding ground. Lots of open fields, and now the leaves are falling off the trees.
Looks more like maybe weeks, to me, before it gets cleared.
I recall one senior US military saying after the Battle of the Bulge something like: they could have hunkered down behind the Rhine and we would have had a hell of a time, instead they came out in the open and we killed them, all of them…
This is a serious question: Was Ukr ever meant to win or only to continue acting as a money laundering conduit for US/UK/EU?
The latter seems to keep momentum in the system. I guess the question is “Would there still be a war in Ukraine if there was no money laundering conduit?”
Borrell’s jungle vs garden remark is the story. In short, the second tier whites were supposed to impress the sub-slavs with their whiteness whereby the little people of Russia would be relieved they could have proper administrators overruling them. The first tier whites would be praised and given tribute of oil and other natural resources!
Everyone and their uncle brought up a no fly zone as if t could simply be instituted because of movies like TOP GUN. Its just eventually the officers are the Pentagon who have to make everything work pointed out the combat zone is outside the range of the airbases they need to operate, the Russians would bomb the build up of forces needed to institute a no-fly zone, and virtually every operation world wide would have to be scrapped to consider achieving this.
Social media had boasts about how the Russians would all get shot down on an equal playing field. That was part of the elite consensus. When the oligarchs didn’t arrest Putin and so forth, they really didn’t know what to do. They also expected a world wide rally to the side of “white”, and they did things like scrap Switzerland’s neutrality.
Its a byproduct of what to do. I think the EU power brokers grossly mis underestimated Biden’s foreign policy knowledge and the state of the US (they see the head line numbers but not the two Americas). The US can’t outbid China anymore or offer exclusive products anymore.
The first person to break will be labeled a traitor and ostracized. People in this mindset are already lower tier intellects, so its going to take a while for anything to get through.
As somebody, somewhere just said: The Kursk operation started with a bunch of surprised Russian conscripts managing to stop the best troops Ukraine has – armed with the best weapons they have and with the best intelligence they could have – way short of their targets. And it has been pretty much going downhill from there.
Yeah, but the rasputista comes in late October (usually), and covers all of Western Russia. That’s why the Nazis reaching Moscow was such an achievement. I agree with your assessment, but it’ll probably be next Spring before the Russians clear the UkroNazis out.
China’s real intent behind its stimulus inflection – FT
Chinese Stock Market Sets New Record for Single-Day Net Stock Purchase via Margin Financing – YiCai Global
The West criticizing a stock market pump? Imagine…
What’s upsetting to the global financial status quo is that China’s government is in control and is trying to keep their financial sector from being an out of control vampire squid.
Time will tell if it works or if adopting any type of financial machinations from the West eventually leads to them down the same rentier roads.
“Group puts up fence, claims ownership over 1,400 acres of Colorado forest, sparking outrage”
Trying to claim the commons of a National Forest all for themselves and putting up a barb wire fence to show everybody that it is theirs? Yeah, nah! These sort of mobs you come down on like a ton of bricks. Let me illustrate how this could play out-
-The State accepts the Free Land Holder Committee claims.
-The Free Land Holders sell the timber in that forest to a logging company to clear out and pocket the profits. One that may have funded them in the first place.
-The Free Land Holders then lease that 1,400 acres to a chemical waste corporation to store their toxic wastes. It’s their land remember.
-Having extracted all value from it, they then move onto their next claim.
If they get their way, then I am on the next flight to America to set up a toll booth on the Appalachian National scenic trail.
The way I read the article is that these people actually intend to preserve the forest even more avidly than the parks service. Note that they said public access would not be impeded but grazing rights (ahem: Cliven Bundy) would expire and not be renewed this year. Ending the free profits not expanding.
I hadn’t realized that Zionists had made it to Colorado.
Now, if they proclaimed that G_d had promised them that particular piece of land ……
A less hagiographic view of Tata
https://x.com/eshaLegal/status/1844732167949091068
The Dangerous Radical on Our Southern Border – The American Conservative
“…Sheinbaum’s potent oratory laid out a sweeping, visionary account of Mexican history. From the revolutionaries to the activists of 1968 to Pancho Villa, Sheinbaum deified a litany of progressive national heroes and symbols. Omitted, naturally, were the symbols and legacies of men who represented what Sheinbaum might call a less-progressed Mexico. King Felipe VI wasn’t invited, after all…”
Despite the “potent oratory”, I thought Sheinbaum still had some neoliberal bonafides, but apparently not enough.
On its own, the comment reminding people the Mexico has a faded monarchy is a bit revealing of some subconscious wishful thinking.
This was hilarious :
The overt praise for the $60 billion remittance flow from the United States to Mexico was jaw-dropping. Capital outflow associated with remittances reduces domestic demand and contributes to American wage stagnation.
Why would the President of Mexico care? Her citizens in Mexico are benefiting
Is anybody aware of the internal politics in the Middle Eastern countries?
What are the odds that Azerbaijan would take part in a joint US/Israeli strike on Iran? How impactful would/could that potentially be?
Thanks.
It would be very impactful on their application for BRICS membership.
… and on their solid relationship with Russia.
Check a map of the area. To the north is the Russian Federation. To the south is Iran. To the west is Armenia which just fought as unsuccessful war with Azerbaijan. To the east is the Caspian Sea which seems to be militarily dominated by Russia.
Russia and Iran are close allies. Iran has been supplying missiles and drones to Russia; Russia is shipping air defence equipment and is, or will be, shipping military aircraft to Iran.
IIRC, the new President of Iran, and President Putin of Russia just had a friendly meeting in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan during some conference.
Azerbaijan has a population of roughly 10.3 million people. Iran has ~90 million and Russia is somewhere in the 145–150 million area.
The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, does not strike me as suicidal. I am sure, he remembers what happened to Georgia. I think it took Russia five days to defeat Georgia’s NATO-trained army.
https://www.twz.com/air/france-confirms-upgraded-mirage-2000s-heading-to-ukraine-in-early-2025
France Confirms Upgraded Mirage 2000s Heading To Ukraine In Early 2025
Donated Dassault Mirage 2000s fighters will be joining the Ukrainian Air Force’s F-16s in the new year.
Germany’s Green Transition Is Faltering
By Sean Sweeney
A decade ago, Germany’s renewable energy transition was seen as a model for the rest of the world. Today much of the working class has turned against all things green. What happened?
https://jacobin.com/2024/10/germany-green-energy-transition-labor
Germany has lost its mind…I was just watching a clip on Twitter of a young man being beating and carried off into a police van by modern day Gestapo. The offense? Wearing a Palestine Flag on his T-shirt. The EU is cooked. Not sure I want to go back for a visit there anytime soon.
Green?
“U.S. Sees Opening to Sideline Hezbollah Politically in Lebanon”
The only reason that I can see why this is being discussed is because of all those political advisers and think tank pundits advising the White House like that Matthew Brodsky. It’s a way of justifying the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Maybe the Israeli idea is that if they kill enough Lebanese, then they will turn against Hezbollah in a civil war enabling the Israelis to go in and set up a new friendly government like they did decades ago. In fact, the Israeli opposition leader has called for the re-establishment of the South Lebanon Army that was used in the 80s. The same one that the Israelis abandoned to their fate when they left that country-
https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-opposition-leader-calls-to-revive-south-lebanon-army-to-assist-with-occupation
Guess which country would be expected to pay for them? Newsflash. Not going to work. All the Lebanese groups like the Shiites, Christians, etc. support Hezbollah in their fight against the Israelis as they know that Israeli wants to occupy their country again and push the Lebanese out so that settlers can come in.
I greatly appreciate your comments, Rev, but please note that, as several people pointed out yesterday, Matthew Brodsky was a Trump adviser. Carolinian (admirably) apologized for the original posting.
True, and no one really expects Trump to do “better” (at least morally) in Middle East than Biden. I will say that, even if evil, Trump and his advisors will be more realistic about things (I maintain that the Abraham Accords were a brilliant diplomatic move, even if the morality undergirding it is despicable.) I think we have better shot at Trump recognizing that Middle East is beyond repair (from the US perspective) and try to extricate what we can (he is a businessman, after all) rather than double down on the ideology.
I still think that trump is still sore at Iran for seizing the american embassy in Tehran in 1979, and holding embassy personnel as hostages for over a year. Don’t kid yourself that this means nothing to him. He wears grudges like old, fat men wear speedos. And all the payments he’s been taking from the adelsons over the years: most likely they’re expecting the big payoff, and a persian rug won’t cut it. There will be blood.
What I should have said was it was bipartisan in that you will find a Matthew Brodsky equivalent on the Democrat side too. The Heritage Foundation is right wing and yet they were the ones that gave Obama, who was supposed to be left wing, that medical plan that became Obamacare. Can you imagine the sort of the advice that Blinken is giving?
I can imagine why they would start thinking in this direction: the deaths of Nasrallah et al would not affect the military competence of Hizb’ullah, but they will erode its political capability quite a bit (in the sense that, among others, Nasrallah has long been the political frontman for Hizb’ullah for so long, when they made such major inroads into both domestic and international political stages, as well as being a very skilled political operative to begin with.) I tend to think that such disruption would have been more likely to take place if Israel stayed quiet: if you’re being bombed more or less indiscriminantly (e.g. bombings in Central Beirut where the residents are of multiple tribes), you’re not going to side with the enemy, whereas, if you’re being merely inconvenienced, you might quarrel with those whom you might regard as “troublemakers” bringing this about.)
The thing is that Hizb’ullah has been instrumental in more or less stabilizing the sectarian politics in Lebanon (hardly the only factor, but, I think an important one), which every political actor in that country would have to appreciate, however grudgingly (they probably don’t like Hizb’ullah much, if mostly as a political rival). I don’t know if the factions that don’t like Hizb’ullah would be too eager to drop the relatively peaceful domestic politics just because HIzb’ullah’s political leadership is in disarray. You will need a lot more “simmering” before there’s any chance of that. but Israel is not big on patience, so they are trying to make bone broth in 10 minutes of very high heat under extreme pressure instead of simmering for 12 hours (one heck of a way to brlow up the pot).
Taibbi/Kirn:
America This Week, October 11, 2024: “After the Edit”
Did something just get broken in a 60 Minutes interview that won’t easily be fixed? Walter and Matt discuss.
Taibbi/Kirn are discussing whether or not “60 Minutes” disproportionately edited an answer by Harris in their latest interview with her, replacing the real answer with one from another part of the interview referring to a different topic.
(Not sure if they do not get hung up on this a bit. But may be it´s justified.
In old-style narrative documentary movies this was being done all the time, but those worked as motion pictures not journalism, so rules may be different. But to assume art/entertainment offers absolute “fact” I find naive. And Kirn himself points out every edit is a choice and alteration. But I would remind this is true for the entire set up: light, position, costume, THE HAIR, etc. Well, I guess there are no absolutes here, no binding norms. Only single decisions for each separate case.)
https://www.racket.news/p/america-this-week-october-11-2024?publication_id=1042&post_id=150074108&r=1i81oo&triedRedirect=true
RE: Balancing the Books: Five Novels that Explore the Complexities of the Stock Market
I highly recommend Hernan Diaz’ Trust. You have to stick with it for a while to figure out what’s going on, but the payoff is worth it. Really takes the piss out of the titans of industry but without getting preachy about it. Hard to say more without including spoilers, so just read it!
‘Part Of The Mechanism Of Genocide In Palestine’: The Complicity Of ‘Mainstream’ Media (Medialens)
Detailed takedown of the BBC’s coverage with details I hadn’t seen before.
I’ve been a fan of MediaLens since 2003.
The Catholics are way too easily offended and seem to project their sacraments and customs onto the wide world of already existing and well understood memes.
I can think of another religious group that can be accused of being too easily offended right now when people call them out for committing a genocide in front of the world. Look what happened to those US university students when they did so.
“Easily offended” is a main byproduct of weaponized identity politics. Ask any professional comedian.
If you’re explaining your meme to millions of Christians, you’ve failed at memes.
I’m an ex-Catholic atheist, and all I see is some kind of dom communion play. I love your framing that it’s the fault of normal people in meat space for not being hip to the in-jokes of your online hothouse.
I’m reasonably sure that the sacrament of the Eucharist predates this “already existing” meme.
Let’s say Catholics “are way too easily offended”. Should you ignore that when looking for votes?
I’m not a Catholic and I was offended. All Christian churches offer their own form of Communion service. That religious imagery aside, seeing a middle-aged governor with a young person kneeling before her and wriggling with delight at being fed a dorito chip (in this current economy) was over the top on many levels. I see memes coming. / ;)
Yeah, that part bugged me even more than the religious dimension. (I am Catholic, but the religious dimension didn’t even occur to me until a few seconds after the initial reaction.)
Non-practicing Presbyterian here, and I thought it needlessly offensive, perhaps a juvenile attempt to be hip.
“All Christian churches offer their own form of Communion service.”
Not the Quakers (and not the Salvation Army (from what I’m reading online)).
Not that that matters; almost all do, and it was really offensive in any case.
Smooth troll, dude. You almost got me.
“What will it take for Ukraine to ‘win’?”
Boris Johnson can tell you the answer to that. Letting long-range missiles hit into Russia, the Ukraine into NATO and oh yeah, about half a trillion dollars to the Ukraine though a trillion would be better. The alternative? Boris says it will be the loss of Western Hegemony and yes, he uses those words.
I decided to read the story. To me it was the usual fantasy of think-tank careerists who are appear to be incapable of the simplest exercise of reason. The Russians will never allow rump Ukraine to join NATO. Everything the fascists in Washington hope for is dependent of the military, political, and economic collapse of Russia. Whereas the reality is that Ukraine has lost so many people to emigration and war that there is no chance for them to recover. Nice to see that the writer at least admits that in the past Ukraine was corrupt and run by oligarchs but they follow the usual nonsense from Washington to how they will be able to “reform” the country like they did in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Meanwhile few of us (unless we’ve been there) know how systemically corrupt Washington is and how we are run by oligarchs.
I was driving for eight hours yesterday, listening mostly to NPR. I was surprised to hear what I thought was a change in tone from my last trip in the late spring.
All Things Considered (?) ran a very sympathetic interview with an Al Jazeera reporter living in Gaza. She is mother of a nine-year old and a one year old, and, along with her reporting on the dire situation in Gaza, she gave glimpses of her daily life: crowded into a small apartment with 24 (?) others, walking a dangerous two kilometers daily to visit her severely wounded colleague, an Al Jazeera photographer, who sounds unlikely to recover, giver the state of medical care in Gaza.
The second interview was with a professor of international relations in Tehran University, who very successfully countered the usual questions thrown at him (in a rather half-hearted and dutiful manner, I thought) by the American interviewer. Why was Iran ‘attacking’ Israel with missile strikes? Wasn’t Iran’s ‘stated goal’ of ‘wiping Israel off the map’ as much an act of violence as US and Israeli assassinations of Iranian politicians, military heads, and scientists? (Duh!) But, then I did not need to be convinced, so I do not know if it would influence the general NPR listener who had been indoctrinated for decades with ‘Iran is evil.’
Have any other comenters observed a change in NPR tone? Or I am simply engaging in wishful thinking.
But I do think it was a change in direction from their coverage earlier in this year, which, on the occasions I listened while traveling, would cause me to throw things at the radio.
I rarely listen to NPR but yes, I detect a slight change in tone but it is across the board in the major media online. I don’t watch mainstream media on TV so I don’t know what the cable channels are doing.
I think what is probably happening is that younger people working in the media who actually are exposed to alternate voices on the internet are pressuring the old Party faithful to accept at least some level of reality.
I’d rather go to the dentist for a root canal than listen to NPR…was constantly tuned in decades ago, along with PBS News Hour…sometimes I wonder who has changed more.
“Have any other commenters observed a change in NPR tone?”
NPR uses what I call a passive voice. Like describing the manufacturing debacle beginning in the ’80’s… “Jobs went to china”, now “The people of Gaza are suffering”
Not that the Feds sold out the working stiffs to the Big Men or that the Feds are supplying the weapons of mass destruction that cause the suffering in Gaza.
This approach of the appearance of compassion while covertly wielding a sword is the operating system of the Deep State. Also NPR, the stenographer of the State Dept. It’s a cunning ruse, a bait and switch, a plan.
Boeing accuses union of “bad faith bargaining”
https://archive.ph/yNnhG
Hmm, sounds a lot like the Union hired Antony Blinken.
From U.S. Sees Opening to Sideline Hezbollah Politically in Lebanon
Nice country that you have there; a shame if something were to happen to it and the people in it, eh?
I suppose this speech was delivered in English, too? (He delivered a similar one, in English, allegedly to the people of Iran.) Like what they used to say about PLO, one should listen to what Israeli pols say in Hebrew, not English (which, I think they do in the MIddle East, incidentally–I believe most Arab media outlets have people who can translate Hebrew very well, that being another Semitic language and all, plus many Palestinians know Hebrew well and they are now scattered all over.)…
Reza Pahlavi also prefers English. :)
https://x.com/PahlaviReza/status/1843292214740521440
Yes, that was commented on by various people after the speech allegedly to the Iranian people. :P
I did see a statement by the Lebanese Army that it would be nice if the population stopped mocking them even if they’re not actually defending Lebanon at the moment. People should think about national unity instead.
I know Lebanon is a very tribal country, but when it comes down to it, nobody likes to be bombed, and the Lebanese are acutely aware it’s not Hezbollah fighter-bombers or artillery raining death and destruction upon them.
Taibbi and Kirn. America This Week, public excerpt. ~30 minutes.
“After the Edit”
Did something just get broken in a 60 Minutes interview that won’t easily be fixed? Walter and Matt discuss. Plus, “After the Ball,” by Leo Tolstoy
https://www.racket.news/p/america-this-week-october-11-2024
=> “The shady origins of the climate haven myth”
I believe the “climate haven myth” is a VOX myth. As for its “shady origins”, I find it difficult to think of a myth orininating from local or locale real estate interests. I have trouble attributing myth-making powers to real estate interests — although the belief in always increasing real estate prices does come close to acquiring the status of a myth.
The Vox supposed “climate haven myth” has been drowned like a sack of kittens by several recent climate events. There has been flooding in Vermont, worse flooding in North Carolina, and scattered flooding all over the u.s. The soon to be climate will be chaotic, featuring droughts, coastal and inland flooding, powerful winds, tornadoes, high humidity and stifling heat, and low humidity and killing heat. There are no havens, only places where some of the features of the Earth’s new climate might be less frequent or less severe than in other areas. There are bigger threats in the soon to be future related to the new climate. The existing housing, roadways, the location and configuration of our cities, towns and villages fit to a very different climate. Consider flooding, for example. Atmospheric Rivers have demonstrated a frightening ability to strike almost anywhere, and strike with growing frequency. Most existing housing, roadways, cities, towns, and villages, were built fit to a more gentle climate, tend to have been built in valleys, often near running water. The existing housing, roadways, cities, towns, and villages, will be flooded.
The transition to a new climate is accompanied by the transitions that attend the exhaustion of fossil fuels. Other resources grow ever more dear and difficult to extract and refine, even were concentrated energy not growing so difficult and dear. The u.s. economy will change radically as a consequence. Long supply chains, just-in-time inventories, and the wide distribution channels at the end of the long supply chains will all collapse and slowly transition as transportation costs increase. The real estate mantra “location, location, location” will derive new consequences. Those long commutes to work and play will become the subject of myths about our past.
The “climate haven myth” VOX supposes has been shattered, but that myth is a pale ghost compared with the “CO2 budget myth” and the accompanying strong suggestions of a relatively gentle linear transition to a new climate of shifted planting zones promoted by the Elites grabbing at the last drops of wealth so they can outfit and fill the larders of their bunker-havens. The Elites sell the “CO2 budget myth” while they buy into their “bunker-haven myth”.
Nima Alkhorshid and Chas Freeman on Dialogue Works.
Amb. Chas Freeman: Israel’s Self-Destruction: Attacking Hezbollah Could Lead to Their Own Downfall!
At about 16:00 Matt Miller of the US State Department steps on his wand.
Wonderful stuff from Nima and Chas.
Pardon the bad link. Try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZXq1B4Qp7w