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Links 10/12/2024

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Physicists Generated Sound Waves That Travel In One Direction Only ScienceAlert. Oh, great. Expect better sound weapons.

The new science of death: ‘There’s something happening in the brain that makes no sense’ Guardian (Chuck L). From April, still germane.

The Crackdown on Compounded GLP-1 Meds Has Begun Wired

TikTok Execs Know About App’s Effect On Teens, Lawsuit Documents Allege NPR

Climate/Environment

Clean Energy Transition Faces Looming Metal Supply Crunch OilPrice

Dramatic images show the first floods in the Sahara in half a century Guardian (Kevin W)

China?

China to Boost Debt Quota in Bid to Stimulate Economy Wall Street Journal

China is not coming to rescue the global economy this time Financial Times

Philippines confronts China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet France24

North Korea says it will permanently ‘shut off’ border with South Independent

Africa

Sudan’s RSF accuses Egypt of involvement in air strikes on its forces Aljazeera

European Disunion

Viktor Orban’s exchange of pleasantries with Ursula van der Leyen in Strasbourg yesterday Gilbert Doctorow (guurst)

EU weighs creating migrant ‘return hubs’ to speed up deportation Radio Free Liberty

The EU is helping Turkey forcibly deport migrants to Syria and Afghanistan Politico

Europe must unite to avoid financial crisis, IMF managing director tells Euronews EuroNews

France Hits Big Firms, Wealthy to Trim ‘Colossal’ Debt Pile Bloomberg

Old Blighty

Gilts Risk Buyer Strike If Borrowing Surges, Citi Economist Says Bloomberg

Britain’s workforce faces the crisis of its life as productivity has fallen to Victorian-era lows and youth worklessness spikes Fortune

Israel v. the Axis of Resistance

U.S. Journalist Arrested, Charged In Israel Glenn Greenwald

Israel has displaced 3 million people since Oct 2023 Stephen Semler

“Land and conquest.” The Floutist (Dr. Kevin)

Scholz announces further arms exports to Israel Tagesschau via machine translation (guurst)

* * *

Gaza like Japan after nuclear bombs, says Nobel Peace-winning group head Anadolu Agency

UN says no food has entered northern Gaza since start of October, putting 1 million people at risk of starvation CNN (ma)

* * *

Two Lebanese soldiers killed in Israeli airstrike hours after UN peacekeepers HQ fired on Guardian (Kevin W)

Iraq’s resistance enters the war with new targets, advanced weapons The Cradle

* * *

We discussed in a recent post that Israel has gotten itself in a position that if it can execute it, an overwhelming pre-emptive strike would be its best play. We discussed the possibility of using nuclear weapons, including as an EMP (I had a discussion with a top technologist who is nuclear physics adjacent who disagreed pretty forcefully that this would represent a big leap and was beyond what Israel might try. I need to get more detail). But give the Galant maintaining that Israel’s attack will be “lethal, precise, and surprising” could point to a different sort of WMD deployment, say operatives somehow gassing underground bunkers for the nuclear program or for Iran’s leadership.

Iranian lawmakers ask the National Security Council to authorize creation of Nuclear Weapons International Affairs (Micael T)

Iran’s Quds Force commander Qaani under investigation for suspicion of espionage Shafaq

New Not-So-Cold War

Russian Iskander Missile Strike Destroys Shipboard Western Weapons Arriving in Ukraine – Reports Military Watch

UK could send troops to Ukraine on training mission The Times

Despite Chrystia Freeland’s denials, her grandfather was complicit in the Nazi genocide The Breach (Anthony L)

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

” rel=”nofollow”>Hacked Robot Vacuums Across the U.S. Started Yelling Slurs Gizmodo (Paul R)

What we know about the Internet Archive cyber attack Kim Crawley (Allen K)

Old devices, idle servers can be turned to spy on us, China’s top security agency warns South China Morning Post

Imperial Collapse Watch

Biden’s Intent Is To Sow Chaos – Netanyahoo And Zelensky Are Working For Him Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)

Monbiot is right about the wickedness of capitalism. Yet he acts as its propagandist Jonathan Cook (Chuck L)

Putin first promised this capability, IIRC in 2018:

Biden

Blinken’s sad attempt to whitewash Biden’s record Responsible Statecraft

Trump

‘The Apprentice’ director talks Donald Trump’s portrayal in film NPR (furzy)

Read the JD Vance Dossier Ken Klippenstein (furzy)

Trump fans not giving up. Watch out for your cats:

Kamala

Kamala Harris featured on cover of Vogue in glowing profile: ‘National rescue’ Fox (Kevin W)

Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff doesn’t deny bombshell stories he slapped his ex and got his children’s nanny pregnant Daily Mail (Li)

Obama faces backlash for comments toward Black men The Hill

2024

DOJ sues Virginia over alleged voter roll purges too close to Election Day WRIC

Our No Longer Free Press

Elon Musk’s X Engaged in a ‘Pattern of Election Interference’ to Help Trump: Reports New Civil Rights Movement (furzy). I fail to see how what Musk does is any different from what other medias moguls have done, notably the Murdoch and the Sulzbergers, save that Musk is more crass. The real issue is not “election interference” but that Musk is a publisher via exercising editorial influence, and therefore X and Facebook (which does the same thing but less obviously) should lose their Section 230 liability waiver.

Trump Camp Worked With Musk’s X to Censor My Reporting Ken Klipperstein. Per above, like the mainstream media on the Hunter laptop. But again, they are publishers….

Flyover Watch

US local news 2024: On the front page frontline BBC. Bernard M: “Ys PRINT newspapers. A fabulous investigation of several papers in tiny rural enclaves.”

Iowa steps in to feed 1.3M chickens after company files for bankruptcy Des Moines Register (Robin K)

Judge: Tyson supervisors ‘unprofessional’ but not abusive to USDA inspector Iowa Capital Dispatch. Robin K: “Nevermind unsanitary conditions, a corporate nonce says an inspector cannot ‘stop the line’.”

Mr. Market is Giddy

Central bankers left holding the baby Think.ing

Beneath the Skin of CPI Inflation: “Core CPI” Accelerates for 3rd Month on Sharp Flip of Used Vehicle Prices, Sticky Services Inflation. Gasoline Plunged Wolf Richter

Class Warfare

Boeing to cut 17,000 jobs as losses deepen during factory strike CNBC

Antidote du jour (via):

And a bonus (Chuck L):

A second bonus (Chuck L):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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195 comments

  1. Antifa

    IN THE CHURCHYARD
    (melody borrowed from Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You into Heaven Anymore  by John Prine)

    (In the hills and riverside towns of western North Carolina, many of the older churches have—um, had—a small cemetery alongside for family burials, some gravestones dating back to colonial times. Hurricane Helene, that once in a thousand year storm, brought landslides and floods that rearranged a lot of the buildings and landscape around here of late, and now making arrangements for ‘reburials’ and ‘refunerals’ are part of conversations down at the general store)

    Corporal Johnson’s had a long rest since he died in the Civil War
    When our Baptist church was a shepherd’s shack with a blanket for a door
    Well, Helene blew through with a big landslide and we found him sittin’ in a field
    Cookin’ biscuits beans an’ bacon sauce pickin’ worms out of his meal
    Seems our family tree ain’t buried in the churchyard any more
    Ain’t a one of ’em that doubted they’d be back to the ground floor
    Uncle Jack’s back to distillin’ Lord, he begs for one sip more
    And our family tree ain’t buried at the churchyard any more

    What was all that fuss and mournin’ for old Grandma Slattery?
    Showed up at the club with a ticket stub dated eighteen ninety three
    Well, I know the Good Book’s holy writ, and I can see she’s truly dead
    But she’s never danced all night at a bar so we took her into town instead
    Well, our family tree ain’t buried at the churchyard any more
    Ain’t none of ’em still shrouded since the river leaped its shore
    Some have wishes they’re fulfillin’ some are at the liquor store
    Lord, our family tree ain’t buried at the churchyard any more

    Once the coffin lid is nailed on scalawags they’re history
    Once the preacher says those final words they meet infinity
    But if you don’t breathe you cannot drown you can ride the tide instead
    If you try the Promised Land and get banned head back to the old homestead
    Seems our family tree ain’t buried at the churchyard any more
    Auntie Em still has the gout and now she’s knocking at our door
    Since the rivers took to spillin’ we’ve got relatives galore
    And our family tree ain’t buried at the churchyard any more

  2. The Rev Kev

    “Frozen Russian assets and EU’s loan to Ukraine: What’s at stake?”

    Looks like the EU are really serious about this idea though I think that originally they wanted to raise a €50 billion loan but I suppose that €35 is not to be sneezed at. If the windfall profits generated are between €2.5 and €3 billion a year, then that would mean that it would take about 10-15 years to pay back those loans. Of course I expect the Ukraine to renege on all such loans not far down the track and declare bankruptcy. The EU will never see that money paid back. And of course Russia might wait till the end of the war to take these legal and financial shenanigans to court as well as the original $300 billion being frozen. That could be fun and games. Alex Christoforou jokingly said that that $300 is probably already gone and spent and since the wheels are falling off the EU project, they may very well swipe it to solve some of the severe problems that they have – plus 10% for the Big Woman of course. :)

    1. bertl

      The Old Order is collapsing under the weight of cowardly complacency, stupidity, and an unrealistic sense of their intelligence and selfworth, and it’s “leaders” believe they have found a fail-safe way to make a quick buck out of Russian frozen assets by ignoring the aquis and allowing the EU’s basic institutions to decay.

      Both of Orban’s EU speeches, one as the President and the other as Hungary’s prime minister. were spot on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXAn6bwkW8o and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-k737ZhP3Q

  3. BillS

    Re the sonic circulator article. This is very interesting, but is a well established feature of wave mechanics. Electromagnetic circulators have existed for nigh on 100 years and are useful for such things as antenna duplexers and isolators. A sonic circulator may be useful for similar tasks in sound comms applications or sonar systems. I wouldn’t see anything nefarious in it.

    1. steppenwolf fetchit

      There is certainly nothing nefarious in the intent of the people creating and designing this technology.
      But I wouldn’t be surprised if nefarious people find out about it and say to themselves: ” neat-o. A sonic laser to use against demonstrators or to make someone appear crazy by sonic-beaming voices just to him/her specifically so he / she can say ” I hear voices” and everyone around them can say: ” voices? what voices? we don’t hear any voices. you must be crazy.”

      Nefarious people can nefaritize the most innocuous technology. And when they realize they can, they will.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Anybody know why those robot vacuum cleaners have speakers in the first place? To make special effects noises? I assume that they have a microphone in them as well so conversations can be sent to some server along with commands if voice activated.

      2. Zephyrum

        If they wanted to be clever, they could use the speaker as a microphone. If the audio driver were in an IC package it would be difficult to trace this by inspection, unless you start decapping the ICs.
        There are two truths about modern electronics:

        – You are probably not being monitored at the moment, but
        – You can be monitored at any time–possibly even retroactively

    2. Trees&Trunks

      So where is the movement for cancelling robovacs? After all, It screamed familyblogging n-word. Where is woke army when you actually need it? In one swipe they could free the world of these surveillance tools, but no…

  5. The Rev Kev

    ‘ChenKojira 🇨🇳
    @ChenKojira
    🇨🇳 China has completed the world’s first fully unmanned paving construction project
    Unmanned construction drone swarms paved and rolled across a 157.79km stretch on the Beijing-HK Expressway, completing the world’s first fully unmanned road paving project⬇️’

    When I stop to think about it, this was the sort of advanced engineering that Japan was doing all the time when I was a teenager and even when I was older. You don’t hear about them doing this sort of stuff anymore and it looks like the lead has passed to China for this sort of advanced practical engineering. It makes a contrast to when my wife and I pass a crew working on a road around here. It always seems that there are more people standing around than doing any actual work on the road.

    1. SocalJimObjects

      It’s a natural progression of what they’ve been doing with highway maintenance, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7eoQ7rX8M0

      If you read some of the comments, the world was brighter then with some people expecting younger Chinese to retire by the time they reach 40 years old, in practice though China has just raised the retirement age for everyone. By the time true AI arrives in China, most people will be working as delivery drivers like Hiro Protagonist in Snow Crash, except they will be working for the Chinese Mafia and not Uncle Enzo.

      1. Emma

        China still has amongst the lowest retirement age in the world. The low retirement age, which at one point was under 50 for women, reflected a kludge for dealing with the economic dislocation when China entered the WTO and caused mass unemployment in areas of the country and certain industries. The lowered retirement age was a way to force older workers to leave the limited number of job positions open for younger workers and to ensure at least some basic protection for the mass unemployee. As the demographics shifts and China move towards less physically demanding labor, a lift of retirement age was pretty inevitable.

        China is already moving pretty quickly into autonomously driving vehicles and delivery droids. So if you want to imagine some AI hellscape there (as opposed to what hellscape our clearly predatory and incompetent elites are preparing for us) you might need to look elsewhere.

  6. ciroc

    I was curious about the community note, so I looked into whether baby giraffes really ride on their mothers’ backs, and I was convinced that all such videos are AI-generated fakes.

  7. Mikel

    Britain’s workforce faces the crisis of its life as productivity has fallen to Victorian-era lows and youth worklessness spikes – Fortune

    First line of article:
    “A staggering number of Brits either cannot work for health reasons…”

    Near end of article:
    “Experts suggest that addressing productivity doesn’t have a one-shot solution. It will take years of deliberate efforts….and access to health care for the next generation of workers…”

    They’re going from providing health care to citizens to “access to health care”.
    Just noting that neoliberal economics language.

    1. Colonel Smithers

      Thank you.

      A former chief economist at the Bank of England raised the alarm as covid receded, but was rebuffed. I don’t name him as I know him and know he still wants the top job.

    2. Jester

      Productivity growth in the U.K. has flatlined since the Global Financial Crisis and has now been reset to levels of growth not seen since the 1850s

      Crimean War 1853 – 1856

      You can’t teach Old Blighty new tricks.

      1. Revenant

        I think an element of low productivity in the UK is people checking out of the rat race because the threshold above which it is not economically rewarding to earn more is getting lower and lower. I don’t think productivity problem is purely down to Covid and longterm sickness or supply side failure of planning and public investment.

        There’s a huge national mood of “what’s the bloody point, I don’t benefit from my work, it all goes to corrupt buggers who cannot mend the roads or send the police round, just gives the money to Ukraine and LGBTQIA2S+ immigrants”. It’s like being back in the 1970’s of national decline with the PMC wokistes playing the role of the unions.

        The UK’s post-transfer taxation of the middle classes has to be seen to be believed: France has much higher headline taxes but more allowances and more cash universal benefits and – important – much higher quality and quantity of public services. So the UK middle classes pay as much or more cash tax and gave much higher costs of living *well*. Roads are poor, rail is poor in parts (actually more extensive provision than France but slower and more expensive) and other local public transport outside London is terrible, the NHS is in permanent crisis, schools are terrible, socual care for the elderly is terrible etc.

        If you want to substitute private solutions for state provision, you need to pay £6k p.a. for family healthcare and £20k p.a. per child for schooling, soon to be £24k with VAT added. Retirement or nursing home places are £4k-£5k pcm, £50k+ p.a. if they are any good (the state pays providers much less but you have to be on benefits without savings to qualify for state provision, the system runs on cross subsidy from private payers).

        Then there is the structure of the tax system:
        – £12.5k income untaxed, personal allowance
        – next c. £27.5k taxed at 20%, I.e. £12.5-40k
        – next £20k taxed at 40%, I.e. 40-60k
        – next £40k taxed at 40% but child benefit withdrawn, I.e. 60-100k
        – next £25k taxed at 40% but personal allowance withdrawn, making marginal rate 60% between 100-125k.
        – everything above this taxed at 45% and remaining allowances (for example pension contributions) also progressively withdrawn
        – a number of badly design interactions with benefits eligibility can push your marginal tax rate above 100% at various earlier points….

        So you can receive a payrise from £99k to £126k and receive posttax increase of £11,150. The numbers are even worse for graduates with student debt, whose repayments top-slice their income and are collected through the tax system.

        There’s not much point trying to earn more than about £60k per parent in a typical couple if you want to maximise post-tax income. A single earner couple would need to earn £150k+ to equal this after child benefit withdrawal (although they would benefit from a stayathome parent providing free childcare for pre-school children).

        Since there are not many such jobs where a single earner can keep a middle-class household, a lot of couples are both working 4 day weeks to keep their salary c. £60k. This is rife in the health service, where most GP’s are part time working mothers, in the civil service, in teaching etc (it’s not a public sector issue, just these employers offer flexible working to make up for below market salary). It’s also visible in the out-of-office replies from large retailers, professional services firms, financial services etc.

        People under 40 find it very hard to buy a house through saving out of income but this is because of land prices and 20%+ deposit requirements and high interest rates and student loan repayments being in priority, so working marginally harder will not help.

        A lot of people are prioritising their time over money and relying on inheritances to enable them to sort their finances out before retirement. Or even gamblimg on remaining so poor that they qualify for full state support in retirement (pension, housing, healthcare, retirement home etc).

        Many of these people are not forming households or having children, I.e. they are “unproductive” in ways beyond GDP (although they may be doing valuable work socially or culturally).

    3. Neutrino

      Cold winters in the north of England and elsewhere due to fuel subsidy cuts, and some more food insecurity, shades of the hungry post-War years.
      Add health access to fuel, food and public safety access. :(

      1. The Rev Kev

        When I was traveling through England in the cold, it was not so bad. But if it was a damp cold, forget it. It sucked big time. The Tories and the Labourites are winding back the clock to the 1930s so I feel for the older people having to try to keep warm in that cold. It will be brutal and many will not be here this time next year.

  8. Carolinian

    Re the Gilbert Doctorow and now MOA thesis that current events are all part of a big plan I don’t buy it. Chaos is not a plan and flirting with nuclear winter is not a plan unless one is of the “sure we may get our hair mussed” persuasion. While super villains are a movie staple, history says that the lust for power is an irrational impulse since, long term, it is almost always self defeating.

    Then there is the plain fact that Biden has dementia and so personalizing it to him implies that this too is all an act. Of course profs like Tooze are big on trying to think up theories to suggest the irrational is rational since that’s why they get paid the big bucks. But more practical people know that in the real world emotion rules as much as thinking and humans are fallible and prone to mistakes and especially humans of the low inborn ability variety. Obama got it right when he said his veep is someone prone to endless poor judgment.

    1. The Rev Kev

      I think that you may be right. There was a plan which was to use the Ukraine to cripple Russia, get regime-change and then put in somebody like Navalny as President so that it could be looted while on the way to the next target – China. Everything that we have seen since with all the irrationality by major leaders is because that plan failed catastrophically and like you say, emotions are running rampant. I’d go so far as to say that much of what we see is the result of second-rate people in charge acting emotionally and who refuse to do the pragmatic thing like keeping channels open with Russia like Orban said. They are too emotionally invested in what they want to recognize what they really need.

      1. Chris Cosmos

        What to you mean “pragmatic” thing? For Washington you need to look at what the focus of us foreign policy is, i.e, “full-spectrum dominance” of the world–can anything be more obvious? For them, destruction and chaos are the methods they use to destroy what they can and then rebuild along the lines of USA uber alles. So things that may appear to be unrealistic have to be seen within the context of US ideology which is a kind of upside down Trotskism.

        1. Michaelmas

          This all only works — is pragmatic — only as long as Das Homeland remains untouched.

          Hence, the freakout after 9-11. It’s been a quarter century and TPTB have done their best to forget that lesson, however. .

          The thing is, the U S is massively vulnerable and cheaply too. A series of pathogen releases, no attribution possible and possibly natural, would do the trick. The US is 4 percentof the global populationbut 16 percent the COVID deaths.

          1. Trees&Trunks

            China could stage a safety protocol to inspect every ship heading for the US and withon a few weeks you would see stuff tumbling down.

          2. Antifa

            And who will be first to connect the dots between hurricanes Helene and Milton suddenly leaving lots of people without the necessities of life . . . and all those Chinese balloons? (/sarc)

          3. Chris Cosmos

            The Washington-based Empire is international and not interested in the people of the USA nor Canada nor the EU and so on.

      2. Emma

        Second rate? We’re decades past second rate. They really have to scrap the bottom of the barrel hard and filter out anyone with any common sense and decency to come up with the current crop of Western “leaders”. You could staff Western governments with staff from a used car dealership and have more sensible and ethical people.

    2. Mikel

      And the pundits, analysts, and historians are dancing around the fact that the bought and paid for US govt doesn’t do much of anything a corporation doesn’t pay them to do.

      1. Amateur Socialist

        “It is very difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it…” – Sinclair Lewis

        Here’s another one of his I found while confirming that one:

        “Every compulsion is put upon writers to become safe, polite, obedient, and sterile.”

    3. upstater

      Chaos sure is a tactic, if not strategy, of western imperialism and colonialism. Smash any central authority, empower local warlords, destroy cohesion, etc. cf, China’s century of humiliation, Philippines, Vietnam, DRC, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Ukraine and feverish neocon plans to split Russia into 41 fiefdoms (15 republics from the USSR wasn’t enough). Western colonialism and imperialism is 500 years old, chaos was a huge part of making it work. The top dog rotates, but I don’t see defeat.

        1. mrsyk

          Beat me to it. What a fabulously slimy character Littlefinger is. I imagine he runs a vulture fund these days.

    4. MFB

      Tooze is crazy about the US, but he isn’t a hack; he’s a serious historian of Germany even if his world histories are decidedly biased.

      As to Doctorow and company, they may of course be wrong. But it has been very interesting how the language and the political framing has evolved over time to prepare us for bigger and more violent crimes against humanity committed in the name of “responsibility to protect” or “self-defence” or whatever. Maybe our leaders haven’t had a very clear plan about what to do or what would happen when they did it, but I think they have been preparing us to endorse chaos for quite a while.

      1. redleg

        Food for thought:
        Power abhors a vacuum. If the top tier of power and policy in the Biden administration is ineffective (poor leadership, competing factions, etc.) and the overall strategic plan changes with the wind for whatever reason(s), then would the chaos at the top allow barely supervised subordinates with agendas to go rogue and implement their respective agendas to some degree or another?
        In other words, could both schools of thought, plan and chaos, be correct? Something like this makes more sense to me than either one or the other. I haven’t thought of this idea until now.

        1. chris

          I think this is closer to correct. It may be what Putin refers to when he mentions “The Collective Biden”. It would make sense that there are multiple competing factions that have taken control in the absence of an executive and congress who can do anything about it. It would explain the disparity between this administration being helpless in the face of war crimes, while also having people in it like Lina Khan.

    5. Chris Cosmos

      The “plan” has been and is to create chaos around the world as much as possible in the world outside the Empire in order to enlarge the Empire. Remember the US goal is “full-spectrum dominance” therefore conquest of the entire planet–either a country is a vassal state or it becomes an enemy. American policy-makers are convinced, still, that we are at “the end of history” and something like the Western “liberal” democracy should be an international system. The only thing blocking this hope are “authoritarian” leaders (who have to be somewhat authoritarian just to resist US/UK covert operations which is often where most of the effort (to create chaos) lies. This sounds silly but I assure you, this is what people in foreign policy circles think, i.e., if they don’t their careers suffer.

      Part of this reason is the severe (I repeat, severe decline of the US university system which rewards (in the so-called liberal arts) fantasy and ideology over reason. So there is almost no way out of this mess. In addition to all this is the corruption at the heart of the security establishment and, of course, Congress.

    6. ciroc

      The question is whether Israel controls the USA or vice versa. I am convinced that it is the latter. Since Washington is not interested in Israel’s right to exist and wants it to fight Iran on behalf of the USA, like Ukraine, an Israeli-Iranian war will surely happen in the near future and we will see many Israelis die.

      1. Carolinian

        And why do we need a war with Iran via Israel or otherwise? Even George W. Bush wasn’t willing to do it despite the urging of Cheney (Kamala’s hero).

        Plus even if Israel did all the bombing Iran would destroy US bases and personnel throughout the region with its missiles.

        In short there are no rational reasons, only stupid reasons. And that goes for Israel as well since they would never be able to find enough people to fill up their Greater Israel.

        Villainy does come at a heavy price which is the reason irrational power lust is ultimately self defeating. That’s not just a fairy tale although the irrational will always think of reasons to believe it is.

        1. ciroc

          When Trump assassinated Soleimani, was he foolish enough to believe that it could not possibly lead to war with Iran? It is natural to believe that the US had the will to fight Iran directly. And now that Iran’s influence in the Middle East has grown since then, we have a “useful idiot” willing to fight one of America’s greatest enemies. What reason would Washington have not to seize that opportunity?

          1. Carolinian

            Uh, crashing the world and US economy might be a reason. Iran will retaliate by shutting off the oil flow including from Saudi Arabia where US troops are stationed. I read they have already explicitly threatened to do this should attacking planes or missiles cross any of those Arab countries.

            And yes Trump has his own history of ME stupidity urged on by the vile Lindsey among others. The Adelsons gave him a lot of money to show belligerence toward Iran.

            But if Trump wins he won’t need that campaign support any longer and may care more about the future of his hotel business not to mention the ongoing support of the MAGA. IMO we are in far greater danger from Harris.

            1. steppenwolf fetchit

              I believe Trump’s removal of America from JCPOA was at least partly motivated by personal spite at Obama for having made fun of Trump at that White House Correspondents Dinner.

              JCPOA was one of Obama’s few beneficial achievements and therefor Trump cancelled our membership in it to neutralize the First “Black” P:resident’s achievement in that regard.

        2. cfraenkel

          “We” certainly don’t need a war, against anyone.
          The neocons need a war because they’ve collectively built a career on insisting on a war for the last 50 years and can’t let go.
          The MIC needs a war for obvious reasons – more production contracts.
          The real question is what is the motivation of the oligarchs funding the US gov? Some of them are insane Zionists, but surely not all of them?

    7. Steve H.

      M Hudson, from the post on the 7th:

      > The starting point for all the U.S. strategy here was that democracies no longer can field a domestic army with a military draft.

      > in order to have an army that’s willing to fight to the last member of its country – the last Afghan, the last Israeli, the last Ukrainian – you really need a country whose spirit is one of hatred towards the other

    8. Es s Ce Tera

      I think the White House, since Bush Jr or even Sr, including Obama’s, and a large part of congress, has been waging a crusade against Islam and against Arabs. Israel is a willing partner and provides necessary conveniences and cover.

      For me the thesis (US control) is plausible and where we can’t really know or verify the truth (without being insiders), we need to deal with plausibles and probables and likelihoods. So I don’t need to buy it, or believe it, just consider it. And by the way, some things are not provable or too difficult to prove one way or another. This is one of those.

      So, ok, let us stipulate for the purpose of exploration that Israel is the pawn in this US grand machination. For whatever reason, it serves the hegemony to manage and maintain the perception and belief that Israel is controlling the US in the ME even while the opposite is the case. Perhaps because the office of the US president is bound by the whims of congress, which can change, for example war must be authorized, and there are some inconvenient laws on the books which are in the way, such as human rights laws, or laws against genocides, which complicate or prevent any too-overt US moves. Then there’s the US populace, and the US’ own military which would probably not be on board with an overt anti-Islam or anti-Arab cause.

      Israel provides a perfectly useful cover to achieve goals to this end without revealing the cause, which provides as close as a proof as we’re ever going to get.

      Assuming it’s true, what then is the most effective way to disrupt that perception and is it useful to do so? To which I would say yes, because it puts the agency locus of control back onto the US, the US is in the uncomfortable position of being perceived to be orchestrating the genocide, is the conductor. And it effectively is doing an end-run around human rights laws and laws against genocide. The more we emphasize this fact, the more it throws a wrench in the works of the crusade.

      By the way, Biden having dementia is irrelevant, the president is never in control, I don’t think, not since Eisenhower anyway. It’s more like a Parkinson’s than dementia, and the important thing is he’s on board with the plan so can provide the signatures and executive directives as needed and as asked.

    9. pjay

      “Chaos is not a plan…”

      On the contrary. The neocons have been writing, lecturing, and talking about their plans for a “New Middle East” since the 1990s. They wrote out blueprints for the US to follow, and some of the same neocons also contributed to papers for Israel that were elaborations on the so-called “Yinon” plan of the 1980s. Balkanize, weaken, divide and rule, keep ’em separated. Some of us keep saying this over and over, but this was not some sort of conspiracy by a secret cabal. They wrote about it, pushed it, got themselves into positions of power in government, the media, and academia — and then they f**king *acted* on those ideas. Where does anyone think Wesley Clark’s “seven countries in five years” story comes from ? It started with Bush I, continued through Clinton, exploded with Bush II, continued with Obama and Trump, and it continues today.

      There is absolutely no reason to choose between “the US” vs “Israel” as controlling this. There has been a *convergence* of ideological and material interests behind our foreign policy between, for example, neocon ideologues who are Zionists, neocons or neo-fascists who are primarily interested in US geopolitical dominance (like Cheney), the weapons industry, Zionists in Israel, and others. Further, there is no need to see this as a *rational* plan in the long term or broader sense, either with regard to the overall strategic or economic interests of the US as a whole, or with regard to the future of the world. But however myopic, our current chaos has most certainly been “planned.”

      1. Ann

        Read Nut-and-yahoo’s Wikipedia entry. He lived in the US, worked and studied in the U.S. and has ties to many political figures in the U.S. that go back decades.

      2. pjay

        On this subject, I just saw a very interesting interview by Larry Johnson of Gary Vogler, who served as the Pentagon’s Iraq Oil expert and Iraq “oil minister” in the early Iraq War. He discusses the centrality of oil to *Israel* as part of administration strategy in Iraq, and how Wolfowitz kept some of these machinations secret even from major international oil companies. I’ve only had time to skim the (very rough) machine transcript, but there is a lot of useful info here regarding – as I say – the convergence of interests between Israel and US Zionist neocons, even to the detriment of other US actors or at least outside of their awareness. They also get into how the “chaos” in Syria benefited Israel via the flow of Syrian oil to Israel via our Kurdish proxies.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trdwaWELwpc

        Now, did neocons like Wolfowitz work to siphon Iraqi oil to Israel because it was in the “US” interest to feed its “aircraft carrier”? Or was Wolfowitz and other neocons in power using their control of US policy as agents of Israel? Or is this even a coherent question?

      3. Antifa

        Well said. It’s like watching two separate ships full of berserker Vikings landing on the English coast, looking around, and then heading for the nearest place that looks worth looting.

        Which leaves one to examine their methods; their motivation being plain. The fact that Vikings will go a-viking en masse is no surprise.

      4. John k

        Divide and rule may have been the plan, but at least 4 Muslim countries have united to resist Israel, and 2 major players, Jordan and Egypt, are sitting on a very unhappy street.
        Kinda like the goal of keeping Germany and russia separated pushed the more dangerous combination of Russia/China/iran together. Plus Iran/saudi making nice.
        Granted, our oligarchs are doing quite well with all the chaos, maybe that’s the main objective.

      5. lyman alpha blob

        Exactly. I remember an interview with neocon Prince of Darkness Richard Perle back during the W years. The interviewer mentioned to Perle that his critics would question whether his true loyalties were with Israel or the US, given his unwavering support for Israel and his own Jewish heritage. Perle replied that of course his loyalties were with the US, but that it just so happened that Israel’s interests were US interests.

        My recollection was Perle saying this with a pretty sinister grin, but I couldn’t find a link to it just now and sinister may very well be his normal mien. While looking for the link, I was extremely disappointed to find that Pele is still fogging a mirror.

        1. IMOR

          I recall the appearance as well, but might it not have been testimony given to Congress while he was in the Reagan Admin? Maybe in the contratemps surrounding Jonathan Pollard? That’s where my slightly fading memory pegs it.

      6. Don

        Best headline of the week? Of the war? Ever?

        By Caitlin Johnstone:
        Israel Arrests US Journalist, Fires on UN Peacekeepers, Bombs Beirut, Kills More Kids, Etc

        Best lede?

        For the above article:
        The U.S. State Department did not hold a press briefing on Thursday, which is understandable, given the difficulty of keeping up with — much less justifying — the criminality of its ally Israel.

    10. hk

      I’ve always thought that the “control” comes from the US side, but it’s not necessarily the “US” that’s in charge of things. That presupposes that United States has a coherent and unitary leadership with a clear goal and that usually is not the case. Specifically, I think it is the “neocon” faction that uses Israel as its henchman, but that Israel extracts a very high price for its activities. While the neocons have enough influence to control a lot of resources–enough to pay the Israelis what they demand–they are not in control of all the resources that they want, at least not on consistent basis. US politics does have many players and some or even many of them object to the neocons for one reason or another, at least some of the time. So, for example, neocons might be able to use CIA or other government assets to do dirty tricks; might be able to cut a deal with Pentagon to borrow the military for some things; or use the resources they can control more reliably to hire foreign mercensaries, so to speak. But, even here, the catch is that these “foreign mercenaries” do have their agendas and they will charge a price geared towards their goals (so not always easy to tell who’s in charge.) Further, the less able the neocons are to manipulate other US factions to join their agenda, the higher the price demanded by “foreign mercenaries” will get.

      So, what are the neocons’ goals, in short or medium term as opposed to the long term (that we know all too well)? I think MoA and Doctorrow are right that they want to spread chaos. It’s a trick to force other US actors to join their agenda: Pentagon may not want to, say, go to war with Iran, at least not now, but, if there is enough chaos going around, even if they know who was responsible to causing all the mayhem, they have no choice but to intervene–in a way, the same trick the neocons pulled on Russia, except, in this case, they are doing the same to the Pentagon, and again, they are using foreign mercenaries (Banderites then, Israel now) as their tool, and the foreign mercenaries join the neocons because it suits their agenda, too–provided that the neocons can indeed bring the rest of US in and the adversaries turn out to be weak enough to be beaten by the now-dragged in Pentagon (or whoever). Risky business all around, but radical extremists don’t win unless they take big risks… (although that will far more often bring everyone and everything down)

  9. AG

    re: Will Schryver
    “I often wonder how Israel would have turned out had Yoni lived to guide them. I suspect things may have turned out very differently.

    We’ll never know …”

    Yeah, well we know, nothing would have changed. Or was Golda Meir any better? Or Gurion?
    Nope. All racist terrorists. Wonder why Schryver fails here.

    Interesting period/action piece on Entebbe btw.:
    “7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE – Official Trailer [HD] – In Theaters March 2018”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuTBea8_-LY

    1. The Rev Kev

      Wikipedia had something interesting to say on Yonatan’s death. It said-

      ‘The commonly accepted version of his death is that Netanyahu fired on Ugandan soldiers, and was shot in response by a Ugandan soldier from the airport’s control tower. His family refused to accept this verdict, and insisted instead that he was killed by the German commanding the hijackers.’

      In other words, the Netanyahus could not accept that some random black dude shot him dead but wanted to believe that the leader of the terrorists had killed the leader of the Israelis. Like in the Bronze Age when you might have the general of one army fight in mortal combat the general of an opposing army to the death.

      1. AG

        Absolutely.

        It ´s what I´d call “narrative-ist” mindset.
        Everything that happens has to contain an intriguing storyline.

        Along: “There are no coincidences.”
        And a former Nazi´s kid and a Jew? Fighting each other?
        Sure as hell.

        (Or as it is put in the excellent thriller about banks and the arms industry “THE INTERNATIONAL” (2009) – there former Stasi-officer Wexler says: “The difference between fiction and reality is former must make sense latter doesn´t have to”. Which is why people in crises come up with nonsense like the case at hand.)

        p.s. one of the Germans in Entebbe – who the Netanjahus might have been referring to – was Wilfried Böse (“böse”=”evil” in German 🤣)

        Wiki collected this nice info:


        “Popular culture: Böse is played by Helmut Berger in the 1976 film Victory at Entebbe, by Klaus Kinski in Operation Thunderbolt (1977), by Horst Buchholz in Raid on Entebbe (1977), Aljoscha Stadelmann in Carlos (2010), and by Daniel Brühl in Entebbe (2018)”

    2. vao

      A better comparison would be to another Israeli military officer who was experienced, daring, tactically skillful, and very successful in accomplishing the combat missions entrusted to him.

      He was also a ruthless, murderous enemy of Palestinians, whom he despised (while being wary of them).

      His name: Ariel Sharon.

      There is a fallacy to ascribe qualities like political acumen, long-term vision, or empathy to military personnel who has proven to be “professional” and actually victorious on the battlefield.

      2. AG

        Exactly who I had to think of too.
        Ariel Sharon: Educated at Staff College Camberley, Surrey, GB.

        And this is how narrative and politics change:
        Germany´s most important news show TAGESSCHAUl in 2014 titled on Sharon´s death:

        ” Porträt zum Tod von Ariel Scharon Kriegsverbrecher oder Nationalheld?”
        “Portrait on the death of Ariel Sharon War criminal or national hero?“
        https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/scharon-ts-102.html

        War criminal. They actually wrote that. It doesn´t change the big picture re: Palestine.
        But today that very headline could never be reproduced!

        Now the $64.000: Why is that?
        What happened that this changed?
        The same country.
        The same media.
        Different “views”.

    2. Yves Smith Post author

      IM Doc’s wife falls into gales of laughter with these. Apparently Trump sings in a very high class Beijing accent while Kamala use multiple country rube dialects.

    1. Trees&Trunks

      Is this WEF-neoliberal science preparing us for „you will die and you will like it“?

      Isn‘t this what erotic axphyxiators are doing?

  12. MicaT

    Oil price.
    There is a lot of misleading information.
    Copper is not used in electrical transmission. It sounds like they mean the conductors which use aluminum and steel or carbon fiber, but it could be they mean the transformers, which yes does use copper.

    Cobalt and lithium are also just part of the current battery tech which is already moving on to iron phosphate which is getting really close in energy density for cars and sodium ion the next step which is already happening.

    Sodium is being using for storage as its energy density isn’t as good but then space isn’t a big deal, eliminating lithium and graphite altogether.

    Battery tech is moving faster and faster.
    Driven by lower cost demands and easier access materials as well as end of life and fire safety

  13. Colonel Smithers

    Thank you, Yves.

    Further to the link about Yoni Netanyahu, British journalist and historian Max Hastings was asked by the family to write a biography of the late soldier. When interviewing the family, he was horrified by their racism, including towards Arab Jews. Hastings is not surprised how history turned out.

  14. Joe Well

    Was the AI giraffe tweet embed deliberate? If not, feel free to delete this comment after deleting the embed of the tweet.

    Watching AI videos makes me feel like Decker in BladeRunner…good intellectual exercise, though. Maybe a links section of “is it AI or real?” We could all test our detection skills in comments.

    1. Louis Fyne

      with accounts now potentially monetized, you always have to cynically assume that perhaps you’re getting click-baited purely for $$$

    2. Yves Smith Post author

      No, Chuck L, who is a reliable reader (and an engineer!) sent it, and when I went to the tweet to get the embed, there was no note. But I did think it was awfully unusual.

  15. Captain Obvious

    Clean Energy Transition Faces Looming Metal Supply Crunch OilPrice

    Clean energy metals, not to be confuse with clean metals. For some reason, people with potential lithium mines in their backyards are not so enthusiastic about clean energy transition. I’ve heard about Elon being into mines in South America. Not so much about the Northern one.

  16. Mikel

    RE: Armchair Warlord

    An “international order” that believes its rules supersede the laws and regulations everyone else has to follow sounds like some secret society type of mess.
    Just sayin’…

  17. Zagonostra

    >What we know about the Internet Archive cyber attack Kim Crawley (Allen K)

    The Internet Archive is one of the most important computer technological projects ever. Its existence exemplifies the hacker ethos: knowledge should be free. The Internet Archive is a way to preserve the world’s vast knowledge and culture. The late Aaron Swartz died for these ideals.

    What does this have to do with a Twitter clip I watched yesterday of a German policemen dragging a man sitting at at an outside café into a paddy wagon because he was wearing a Palestinian flag on his T-Shirt. Well, I think they are connected. The “Powers that be” don’t like Archive.org. It functions as a (re)source for the free dissemination of information. Of course content creators have the right to profit from their creation, but the public also has the right to access information and knowledge that makes them better, more virtuous citizens. Crazy notion, but the Telos of the state should be to ensure, to the extent possible, that the conditions for the majority are such that they have time to pursue knowledge, the arts, and their religion without being unnecessarily impeded, as well, and here is the rub, being able to express their views without fear.

    1. The Rev Kev

      If it is a common, it must be destroyed and privatized. It has been this way for centuries since the elite in Britain seized the common lands of the people and added them to their estates.

    2. cfraenkel

      TPTB are probably much more against the archive because it acts as a limit to how much they can rewrite history.

      1. JBird4049

        Memory is the basis of knowledge, which can lead to wisdom, and that is power or at of least self control.

        The funny thing about rewriting history is that doing too much of it creates anti-memory, which leads to ignorance, then unwisdom, and finally the loss of power and self control.

        In the short term, making us ignorant is profitable for the elites, in the long term, it is suicide.

  18. Jester

    EU weighs creating migrant ‘return hubs’ to speed up deportation Radio Free Liberty

    Radio Free Liberty, also know as Radio Free Liberty Svoboda.

    1. mrsyk

      Gizmodo slur vacuum link There’s literary magic in the air. Sounds like the title to an unreleased Captain Beefheart lp.

  20. Mikel

    Just spitballin’
    Northern Lebanon/Southern Lebanon. Maybe the US and associates are thinking they can at least arrive at that destination. They could possibly live with that like they are able to live with North Korea/South Korea.

    1. The Rev Kev

      If that is the aim, then Israel would want a foreign force to occupy southern Lebanon on their behalf. The UN wouldn’t touch this idea with a ten foot barge pole and since none of the local Arab countries or most Global majority countries would take part either, it would fall to Western Collective countries to do so – but then they would be fighting Hezbollah who would probably clean their clocks. In short, can’t work.

      1. Mikel

        Despite all the protests, Israel still has more support than say…Ukraine.
        And Israel and the US wouldn’t be doing what they are doing right now without some support from other countries in the Mid-East.
        Lastly, they could expect to sow enough division in Lebanon where a “foreign” force wouldn’t be needed.
        Jury is out.

  22. Captain Obvious

    A Sarmat 2 can hit the US from the South… pic.twitter.com/o9jlMM2D5a
    — Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) October 10, 2024

    Yet another 3D animation by people that have no idea what they are doing. Reminded me of one where the whole cartridge (bullet + casing) was depicted flying towards the target, instead of the bullet.

    P.S. Also, it’s not Sarmat 2 nor Sarmat Satan 2, but just Sarmat or Satan 2 (regular Satan being R-36M),

    1. cfraenkel

      Sure. Plus they show it flying horizontally, like an aircraft. And leave out the minor detail that the existing ICBMs can’t be stopped either. The Sarmat was more intended to drive the point home that investing $$$$ in ballistic missile defense was just throwing money away. That and propaganda purposes. And perhaps attempting to slap some sense into the crazier lunatic fringe in DC.

  23. NotTimothyGeithner

    Sharon started dismantling settlements. He could see the writing on the wall especially after the 2006 debacle. The advances that allowed colonialism were shrinking. Israel was going to have become a responsible neighbor or go full Netanyahu which it won’t ultimately survive.

    At the time, there was a great deal of discussion of the relative values of the post 45 settlers and the “native” Israelis. The settlers are nothing short of nuts, and they came in droves AFTER each conflict.

    Netanyahu projects an iron man image, but he’s not a celebrated hero. Sharon displaced him just by showing up. Besides his criminal problems, Netanyahu knows he’s at risk of being ousted as too soft or replaced by someone from the later settlers. Netanyahu is very much their creature having sponsored them to avoid being supplanted again. Even then he was briefly replaced.

    Partially Netanyahu is racing against the inevitable collapse of support from DC. It’s why he’s not giving Biden any wins. A win might give Biden courage to demand more. Unlike Biden, Netanyahu knows who Ike is, and Ike put his foot down, not just with a crummy country of hokey shrines but London and Paris.

    Israel doesn’t have the manpower or resources to launch these greater Israel initiatives. All they can do is kill and cut themselves off from world trade. They just shelled Irish UN peacekeepers.

  24. timbers

    “Dog warns owner”. In my neighborhood, it’s common to let dogs out in the fenched yard or tied up in fenceless yards. As I walk my dog (which appears to be unusual in this neighborhood) we generate a chorus of barking dogs serenading us as we proceed. But yesterday, I observed something I hadn’t noticed before. As 2 dogs next to each other barked at us, I looked at the closest dog making eye contact, smiled, and waived to him. He briefly wagged his tail and a made a muffled grunt or bark. Then I watched him turn around to face the second dog and proceed to bark at him, the dog, not us. I think he was telling his companion to shut up so he could become friends with us.

    1. Bsn

      Yep, when I was a paper girl as a 5 – 6th grader, a few vicious dogs attacked me (on different occasions). I got down on one knee and said things like “good boy, come, he’s a good boy”. They (3 different times) got to me with tails wagging noses sniffing. They (sometimes) can be really loving a heart. Police dogs however, I’ll bet, have that trained out of them in favor of their trainers/owners.

  25. deedee

    R.e. cats and dogs. Remember Trump’s quote:

    “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” said Trump. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

    The video proves that Haitians eat cats. Dogs less so. OK, are Haitains eating the pets in Ohio? Are they eating the pets of people who live in Springfield? This video does not prove that.

    1. IM Doc

      There is currently something very wrong with the hive brain in the Democratic Party. They have become so enmeshed into their own little bubble and their righteousness that they can no longer relate to anything happening in the outside world. One of the things that happens in the outside world every couple of years is POLITICS – often hardball – often embellished – often hyper-real.

      This cats and dogs things has focused a huge huge segment of the population not in the Democratic Party on the whole issue of wide-open immigration. The pets have become a touchstone, a symbol of the problem. The Dems seem to be blissfully unaware of this transformation.

      And unfortunately for the Democrats in the bubble – who feel like everything has to be done according to their rules – this entire strategy has really gotten the attention of all kinds of independent voters.

      And yet they still sit around and nitpick about it. This constant nitpicking just keeps it alive.

      This tactic has been done for time immemorial in American politics.

      Think about Dukakis in the tank, Bush I at the grocery check out, Kerry walking through the forest in his camo, Kerry and the swift boat, etc etc etc. All of which were embellished. All of which brought attention to some kind of issue.

      The difference between now and then – fire was often fought with fire – I no longer think the Democrats have anything to offer that makes sense – just pure Trump hatred. The fire seems to be being sprayed on members of their old coalition.

      1. deedee

        Interesting points but I don’t see any tangible connections to my comment.

        I’m simply pointing out that this video doesn’t prove that Trump’s comments suggesting that Haitian immigrants were eating people’s cats and dogs in Ohio. Not sure how that’s connected to Dukakis in the tank.

        Are you obliquely suggesting that my pointing this out is due to pure Trump hatred, or that my comment proves that I’m living in a bubble? Is it nitpicking to point out that this video actually doesn’t address the logic of the argument?

        I don’t disagree about your observations regarding the bubble mentality of Dems or the efficacy of using BS to make points. But if we’re going to use comments as a leaping off point to make grandiose claims about people we don’t know based on assumption, here’s mine: I find it really strange that anti-authoritarians circa 2024, many of whom may or may not have come from the left, often feel a need to overcompensate when it comes to Trump. Strangely it’s not cool to diss Trump. There’s a lot of this going around among the anti-authoritarian punditocracy or what passes for it.

        I have deep distrust the entire political spectrum, and while I also despise the Democratic party, my deep distrust and loathing extends to Trump.

        1. Yves Smith Post author

          In fact, if you were paying attention to the uproar over the Springfield Haitians, it was both specific (there were no verified incidents of pet eating reported) and general (ZOMG how dare you accuse Haitians of doing that sort of thing?) It turns out the general picture is accurate with respect to cats, and even not unheard of with respect to dogs.

          And IM Doc is further pointing out that the Kamala campaign has lost the plot, that harping on Haitians is backfiring, and it’s now becoming clear they have no understanding of voters, witness the manly men ad.

          And WTF does IM Doc’s comment have to do with dissing Trump? His comment is consistent, the Dems are out of touch with how non-Dem loyal voters see things. But you project onto him that his comment is about dissing Trump, when it is not. He’s making a point about effective messaging and marketing, and also that the Dems are seriously embubbled as to where the social values center of gravity in the US is (and it sure isn’t Doritos communions with kneeling Goth-y penitents).

          1. deedee

            You are missing my point entirely.
            Maybe my point wasn’t clear but I was accusing him of making oblique comments to guess the intentions of someone he doesn’t know based on a misreading of their comment.
            Something you are doing now.
            Genuinely disappointed in you, Yves.

            1. anahuna

              Deedee, I read your comment about “overcompensating” as “not being willing to diss Trump.” (Something I have noted in those who are -rightly — furious with the Dems.) Is that what you meant?

              If so, I agree.

              1. deedee

                Yes Anahuna, that is exactly what I mean. Thank you for restating my convoluted point more clearly.

                I feel utterly betrayed by the Dems but I also can’t stand Trump. If you want a simple label for it, call me a “Double Hater.”

                FWIW I also think a lot of the people posting these Tik-Toks feel the same way. They aren’t from the right or the left. Just pissed off and disaffected.

          2. deedee

            How about addressing my original point? This video doesn’t prove that Trump’s claims were true.
            Haitians eat cats. OK. Some of us actually already knew that.
            Where is the proof that Haitian immigrants in Ohio ate “people’s” cats?

            1. Anonted

              Americans eat people. There have been numerous high profile cases of Americans engaging in cannibalism. In circumstances ranging from rituals to bath salts. Where is the proof that Americans in New York eat people?

              I bring this up to make the point, that we’ve truly lost the ball here. Haiti is burning at our behest, yet we are fighting about the tokens we let in to make complicit and soothe liberal consciences? Elon sitting on 200 billi yelling ‘we coup who we want!’, and we’re arguing over dog whistles? Is this the commentariat born out of Occupy?

            2. Yves Smith Post author

              Another straw man. That was never my or IM Doc’s point. It was that the Dem messaging on this and other matters is backfiring outside their bubble.

      2. deedee

        One more thing. From an optics perspective, I would argue you’ve got this entire cats and dogs thing backwards.
        Immigration is a thing and I think people already get it.
        Trump’s comment about dogs and cats became a meme because it was hilarious. It was an unhinged WTF moment that everyone could laugh at.
        The ones trying to do the ‘splaining in this case are on the Trump side of things.
        Hence this video that doesn’t prove anything.
        The Trumpers are the ones keeping this alive.
        What they are doing is actually akin to trying to prove that Dukakis looked cool in the tank, Bush Sr did know how a scanner worked, Kerry looked cool in the camo, that the Swift boat was a hit job.
        This is the cope that comes after the Tik-Toks have gone viral.

        Again, my pointing this out doesn’t make me pro-Kamala.
        It also doesn’t mean that your larger point about Immigration becoming a major talking point across the spectrum is wrong because it isn’t. You are right that even libs are starting to see that. But I would argue that cats and dogs is just silly fluff.

        1. Yves Smith Post author

          Sorry, the cat humor memes were even more from right wing as left wing Twitter accounts. They were hysterical. The right wingers went the Improv route: take the idea and exaggerate. The classic is the Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE

          One of my right-wing readers similarly sent me a raft of cat-consumption-inspired tweets and Tik-Toks.

          So the right had fun with it while the Dems got all scold-y. They aren’t ‘splaining. That Haitian video is an exception. If they were ‘splaining, you would have seen something like that within days. Now that the furor has cooled off, this is another way of extending the shelf life.

            1. Yves Smith Post author

              That is a twofer violation of our written site Policies, a straw man and an assignment.

              Nevertheless, Citizen Free Press (very pro Trump right wing link site with enormous traffic) featured quite a few links to Springfield-themed cat humor.

              I trust you will find your happiness on the Internet elsewhere.

        2. IM Doc

          Sorry – never meant to cause a dust up – and certainly nothing was meant personally. I just really believe the Dems are so stuck in their bubble they cannot see anything else. Their marketing people the past few cycles really have demonstrated complete incompetence.

          Just this example today – of yet another fail. It is Walz trying to appeal to the manly men out there – the problem is he is obviously has no idea what he is doing. This is the time of year for hunting. I hunt every year. Regardless if anything is bagged, it is a ritual of life for men both young and old.

          Here, he is trying to show his hunter bonafides. Unfortunately, if anyone went out in the wild with hunters all around, dressed like he is – it would be a good way to get killed. You see, everyone else has orange on – and lots of it. He has a small orange cap – trust me – not good enough. When there are lots of hunters in smaller areas, everyone must be wearing lots of bright orange, to not do so is to invite death.

          In other words, he is trying to model manly behavior, but actually he is modeling very dangerous behavior. Yet another backfire. This is why in my world the elders sit all the young ones down and we go over this all the time. There are hunters that go into deep green and brown camo – but that is for remote areas and lots of experience. In my state, you show up like he is dressed today on a common public hunting area, you are likely to be ticketed by the game warden if caught. I just cannot believe the self owns that are just flowing like a river.

          https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1845176588645827054

          I simply do not understand why these politicians feel they have to pretend to be He-Man or something – just be yourself. Be genuine. Tell the truth. Then you don’t have to remember all your lies – and you actually appear to be a real human being.

          1. deedee

            Thanks for that IM Doc and sorry if I overreacted on my end.

            Now I understand the connection you were making to Dukakis and Kerry’s cringe moments.

            I agree that Dem handling of politics is woefully (and often hilariously) out of touch. They are especially terrible at trying to be “folksy.”

            As I’ve said, I’m a double-hater. I certainly have no interest in defending Dems but in my own way I’m trying to call ’em the way I see ’em.

          2. IM Doc

            Now more footage of his hunting event is coming out. He did fix the orange covering issue. But now it is even worse.

            Please in the second set, see how he is handling the weapon. I think he is trying to load it, but I am not sure. Either way, it is clear he has no business doing this if he has ever done it at all. He says this is a gun he purchased, but he has clearly not bothered to train himself how to use it safely. I will put it this way. I would NEVER EVER allow my sons to take a rifle or shot gun and handle it like that with people all around. I would never put a gun like that in the hands of a beginner with people all around the area. Nor would anyone I know. I am deadly serious. All kinds of tragedies can happen with this kind of behavior. I see it all the time in the ER during hunting season. All of my uncles who taught me when I was young would be having seizures if they were out there and another party was doing this.

            https://x.com/shawnamizelle/status/1845136534766239825

            1. IM Doc

              Seriously, folks, I thought Governor Walz was in the National Guard. I am not sure what part of this I find more scary.

              1. JBird4049

                >>>…was in the National Guard.

                I hadn’t thought about that fun bit.

                Learning the rudiments of safely handling guns is easy enough. If even I can do it, just about anyone can. What an instructor teaches you, it is just common sense codified so that even people who are klutzes and physically morons (people like myself for instance) can follow it without thinking too hard. And not getting anyone, including themselves dead, which is a good thing, yes?

                This bit is just restating what Im Doc and others have said, but the whole is just so puzzling. What I mean is just why did Tim Walz, or whoever was directing him, not go over how to handle his weapons (or would that be his acting props)?

                Clearly, basic sense, not to mention political ambition, would be just to go over the whole who, why, and how of it all. If you were going to use a new, unfamiliar gun, why not spend several days just handling and using it until you were comfortable? Or just use something old, boring, and familiar instead of new, cool, and uncomfortable?

                Or are they trying to lose the election without appearing to want to?

            2. skippy

              Old weapons specialist/instructor here, IM Doc. Concur on the absurd handling of the Shotgun. The angle of the weapon whilst loaded and awkward hand manipulation is a sight to behold. If it went off there would be no control whatsoever, both him and the weapon would go flying. Not to mention who goes hunting in running shoes – ?????

              Ha … would love to put him in a bullet proof glass room and watch him bring the hammer back slowly on a loaded 1917 Winchester pump 12 gauge shotgun [grandfathers WWII buy from Gov after discharge]. On the other hand shoulder GF’s double barrel goose neck 8 gauge Damascus steel shotgun, everyone for miles knows when that goes off …

              1. IM Doc

                Let me ask you a question then that has been bothering me since I saw that film clip.

                I am not a forensic gun guy – but I think looking at that Beretta – that is a 20 gauge shotgun. I could very easily be wrong – but I think that is correct.

                He states that he was an old guy and that gun was hurting his shoulder when he was shooting trap with that weapon. I am mystified how you could do that with a 20 gauge shotgun. The only thing I can come up with was when he was doing trap – he was holding it wrong.

                I know this is out in the weeds for folks – but that is an incongruence. This guy seems to be a confabulist – and I am just wondering if he just made up that story on the fly along with other things like Tianamen Square.

                1. skippy

                  Agree the whole thing is seriously off IM Doc. His whole body language and handling of the weapon, reaching underneath awkwardly with his left hand and cycling[?] it over and over. BTW the A400 family is both 12 and 20 gauge, top of the line semi auto, prices go for over 3k to 2k USD.

                  I will say that heavy skeet shooting by anyone not working out regularly, with age, can impair their favored shoulder after time e.g. musculoskeletal i.e. tendons harder and shorter.

                  Well holding it wrong shooting trap is nothing new as people just rock up and start as part of a social thing. Then you have repetitive shocks with semi’s when taking a second shot after missing or multiple clay’s are used. Basically he does not look fit and his body language and hand control shows.

                  Agree its all a PR show for the folks watching – not a regular hunter that has been instructed properly from a young age. Agree with your perspective about bringing up kids or older sorts right with weapons. My GF was one not to disappoint and I had to earn the right to hold and shoot a weapon. Did so from my early teens on his farm, so much so that I was allowed to use that trench shotgun for Turkey hunting or Deer with slugs at 14 yrs old. Yet my favorite was his old 22 cal 410 gauge over under for around the farm.

              2. Ann

                IM Doc, have you read “Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War” by Joe Bageant?

                https://www.amazon.com/Deer-Hunting-Jesus-Dispatches-Americas/dp/0307339378/ref=sr_1_1?crid=25H6DVMAE17E8&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.DJ1-0CA1sJ4pXIUQAnZ2jhbSuDUdJINWGQkiQPzMQXPnO6U_Jh2UIte6g5ahwUlWnzh64L25eqqyjWqqt7M8Xg.LFfnePGf9pK_rmTWrmM70ASVOnM9eye9Xx8n4E6TJoI&dib_tag=se&keywords=deer+hunting+with+jesus%2C+by+joe+bageant&qid=172874303&sprefix=Deer+Hunting+With+J%2Caps%2C1335&sr=8-1

                He talks about this very thing. I read it again when I want to laugh and cry at the same time. His descriptions remind me of going deer hunting with my grandfather in Arkansas when I was about 9 years old. But my grandfather used deer hounds and didn’t hike all over creation to bag his deer. It was a ritual like I’ve never seen before or since.

      3. CA

        “IM DOC

        There is currently something very wrong with the hive brain in the Democratic Party. They have become so enmeshed into their own little bubble and their righteousness that they can no longer relate to anything happening in the outside world…”

        The governing party, the administration party now is Democratic, and what I find is support of wars and genocide. This to me is morally-ethically intolerable, beyond supportable. A governing-administration party of wars and genocide is beyond my acceptance.

        1. skippy

          Drama is CA that the Republicans prior to Obama were the endless war and Corporate neoliberal stake holder democracy mavens. Only now are there any Republicans that present anti war or globalization, yet at home are fine with inverted totalitarianism from an economic sense. Just a a fight between two corporations over how society is administrated in a social context and not economic.

        2. skippy

          Per se I would appreciate your views on the link down thread on Capitalism and the link to a book I provided.

          1. CA

            Important argument to which I will respond:

            Skippy –

            I get tired of the reductive use of ***Capitalism*** in the singular without a more granular definition, due to all the synergies. Just a quick Wiki look shows shows 24 different Capitalist economic systems, not to mention even more economic concepts as schools of thought with dualism or pluralism…

            https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333318259_Cannon_Fodder_for_the_Crown_Europe_1600-1776

            March, 2017

            Capitalism
            By Daron Acemoglu

            With roots extending back to Dutch, French, and English thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the notion of capitalism has an impeccable intellectual pedigree and has been a mainstay of some of the most important philosophers of the nineteenth century, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Karl Marx. Despite this impressive historic cache, it is high time for academics to abandon it (and perhaps polemicists might one day follow)…

    1. Felix

      my thoughts as well. like venting a heated kettle, it will keep the badly simmering economy from boiling over with an additional million immigrants so Erdogan still won’t have to back his words up.

  29. Es s Ce Tera

    re: Monbiot is right about the wickedness of capitalism. Yet he acts as its propagandist – Jonathan Cook

    The problem I have with this piece is can anyone be said to be “outside” of capitalism? Or outside of the capitalism they critique? We all use money, for example. We buy stuff.

    This reminds me of how during Occupy there was a contingent who kept crying hypocrisy because we ate food, wore shoes and clothes, etc., made by *gasp* capitalist corporations. It’s like calling out that you can’t be an environmentalist if you drive a car. You can do all of these things and still think and believe and advocate for better ways.

    That said, yes, Guardian needs to go back to the days when it was anti-war and published the likes of Robert Fisk (who I miss dearly). Monbiot is big enough that he can take his show elsewhere and make a dent.

    1. Kilgore Trout

      Reminds me of the comment, from a source I’ve forgotten, that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. And at this point, it seems likely the latter will, one way or the other, produce the former.

    2. Kilgore Tex

      No disrespect but BULLSHIT on the part about a contingent of Occupy criticizing you for eating food or wearing clothing made by capitalists. Absolute hogwash. Did you encamp next to a few junior high kids ditching school?

    3. skippy

      Yeah I get tired of the reductive use of ***Capitalism*** in the singular without a more granular definition, due to all the synergy’s. Just a quick Wiki look shows shows 24 different Capitalist economic systems, not to mention even more economic concepts as schools of thought with dualism or pluralism.

      Would require at minimum when and where the term came from and then the change it its meaning over the entire timeline.

      Then again some suggest the term should be completely abandoned – Economic Ideas You Should Forget

      Daron Acemoglu

      Abstract

      With roots extending back to Dutch, French, and English thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the notion of capitalism has an impeccable intellectual pedigree and has been a mainstay of some of the most important philosophers of the nineteenth century, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Karl Marx. Despite this impressive historic cache, it is high time for academics to abandon it (and perhaps polemicists might one day follow). How could a notion that is so steeped in ideology be useful for academic discourse? For some, it is an economic system rooted in the crudest form of exploitation, always pregnant with injustice and inequality. For others, it is the unadulterated ideal of efficiency and dynamism, the best recipe for a fair society. – snip

      Shows the weaknesses of various traditional economic concepts and ideas
      Rejects major economic ideas including the Coase Theorem, Say’s Law, Bounded Rationality, Bayesianism, and many more
      Provides a vast overview of the economic profession and currently dominant thought

      https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-47458-8

      Maybe if all the ideology, backed by ego, was removed from many economic schools and informed debate about functional economics could be had …

    2. mrsyk

      Thanks, a great read. This quote pretty much sums up my reality these days.
      I am engaging in float trip semiotics because I cling to float trip memories like a raft in a bloodbath. Maybe that’s not what you’re here for. But I wasn’t here for the plague or the genocide or the vast political betrayal, and I got them anyway.
      One more, Serious warnings are free. A paywalled warning of peril is like a phone sex hotline dressed up as a 911 call. Lol.

    3. Democracy Working Someday

      Sarah Kendzior struck me as an absolute lunatic during the Trump administration, but (as with Ta-Naheisi Coates) she has been rehabilitated for me by her full-throated opposition to US military support for Israel over this past appalling year. I welcome being on the same side as folks who don’t share my political project; as the late Bernice Johnson Reagon of Sweet Honey in the Rock taught, if I’m in comfortably broad agreement with everyone else in my coalition, it’s NOT actually a coalition.

  31. IM Doc

    About the DOJ suing Virginia for the voting issue.

    I may not know much about politics under the hood. But I do understand optics. And this to me appears to be not a good look.

    I have been hearing for the past 2 weeks in whispers that Virginia is actually getting very close, Trump is coming on strong, and is within the margin of error.

    Suing at this late date seems to me that the Dems are indeed confirming this to be the truth. Why else would they do it right now? Why waste resources in a supposedly safe state?

    Furthermore, the wife and I, again historically Dem voters, watched Bill Maher last night. The conversation was between a right wing talk radio host, a Limbaugh clone, and a female CNN celebrity. It did not go well for the progressive Democrat. And I mean in almost every way. It is very tragic. The discussion largely hinged around the working class and toxic masculinity and why men of every color are turning to Trump. In one microcosm, all the sneering condescension was on display. Maher took the right wing guy down once with Trump quotes, but for the most part he was all over the Democratic woman. There was a discussion of a new book that has come out about toxic males – and Maher read off a quote from The NY Times this week by the author. She was pregnant with her son – and was horrified by the fact that she had a male in her womb – a few ounces of the patriarchy. All tidily summed up in one sentence with a bow. And this book is apparently all the rage and a best seller.

    The “Males for Kamala” ad that is going around – at first I thought it was a SNL skit – yes, it is that bad, – men sitting on tailgates with their legs crossed like women, holding guns completely wrong, etc etc etc – a complete liberal parody of masculinity – that is somehow meant to get them to vote for Kamala. I predict what it will do is get a lot of young wives and young women to vote for Trump – they do not want men like that in their life for sure. I teach Sunday School every week to about 50 young men. The world they face is nothing like what I did. Many of them are as lost as they can be. And what they hear from their political leaders is claptrap like this woman on Maher and these ads – and tampons in their bathrooms etc. And they hear constantly that they are “toxic”. They have the media lifting up to them as examples men like Doug Emhoff – credibly accused of being a woman beater and doing things at work that are completely inappropriate. But yet he is a good role model – while all the kids around me are toxic. The complete social fabric has broken down for them. Dating like I did is no longer tenable. All the rules have completely changed. One false move and your are cancelled for life as an ogre. So, they have largely retreated into their own worlds. And anyone who says this is not happening is a complete liar. I see this all the time in my own practice and community. There is a BIG reason they are being drawn to Trump and Vance. They actually talk to them. As a physician, a Sunday School teacher and a community elder, I and many other older guys can help – but this is a very bad situation.

    While watching that program last night, I realized that the Dems no longer give two cents about the working class or the young men in this country. They have nothing to give at this point but Trump hatred – and I am ever more leaning that Trump will likely win. And it will likely be very ugly.

    It was a horrible look – and I can just picture FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, Moynihan, Bobby Kennedy, et al looking down from heaven and shaking their heads in disgust.

        1. Bsn

          Good call. Yes, foreign press can be quite good. Especially if one reads/speaks a second language besides English. Here’s a quote from your link: “However, there’s more beneath the surface of this lucrative deal, especially concerning Doug Emhoff’s indirect involvement. BlackRock, a global investment management corporation with major investments in Albemarle, is a significant player here.”
          And, Harris has Blackrock execs. on her election team (to later be included in her regime).
          Emhoff was also on the board of DLA Piper, which bought Dominion voting systems – the voting machines used in the USA. Info on Emhoff’s time with the company has almost completely scrubbed from the internet and home page of DLA Piper. A link regarding that is here: https://rumble.com/vb4qf9-is-kamala-harris-husband-connected-to-smartmaticdominion-voting-systems.html

          2. marym

            The first screen shot in your link is a 2014 announcement of a new company SGO (some kind of next generation of Smartmatic) saying that the Global CEO of DLA Piper would be on the board.

            Emhoff was a DLA Piper partner from 2017 till Harris was elected VP.
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Emhoff

            In Dominion’s 2021 defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. one of Fox’s lawyers was from DLA Piper.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Voting_Systems_v._Fox_News_Network

            “Dominion and Smartmatic are separate companies. Dominion does not use or license Smartmatic software.”
            https://www.dominionvoting.com/setting-the-record-straight/

            “Smartmatic technology was only used in Los Angeles County, California, in the 2020 election. The system we provided to LA County does not count, tabulate, or store votes. In 2024, Smartmatic technology is also being used only in Los Angeles County, California, for the primaries in March and for the US presidential elections in November. It is the same system deployed in 2020 that does not count, tabulate, or store votes.
            Smartmatic did not and does not provide any hardware, software, or services to Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, or Arizona during the 2020 and 2024 US elections, nor do we supply any other voting technology servicing those states.
            There are no ties between Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic—plain and simple. No ownership ties, no software leasing, no business at all between them. In 2009, more than a decade ago, Smartmatic licensed scanning machines from Dominion for use in the Philippines for a Smartmatic election project.”
            https://www.smartmatic.com/us/smartmatic-fact-check/

            I find no documentation of DLA Piper having bought Dominion.

  32. Jason Boxman

    I love this headline, because it is so entitled: Black Voters Drift From Democrats, Imperiling Harris’s Bid, Poll Shows

    To drift implies that something is off course. Therefore, blacks owe their votes to the Democrat Party, and to vote otherwise is incorrect.

    Ms. Harris is no doubt on track to win an overwhelming majority of Black voters, but Mr. Trump appears to be chipping away broadly at a longstanding Democratic advantage. His campaign has relied on targeted advertising and sporadic outreach events to court African American voters — especially Black men — and has seen an uptick in support. About 15 percent of Black likely voters said they planned to vote for the former president, according to the new poll, a six-point increase from four years ago.

    Oh noes! They’ve been charmed by the great satan somehow.

    2. Pat

      And a scolding Barack Obama isn’t going to help the matter. I wondered when he was trotted out to talk to the Democrats biggest and most dependable contingent the other day. Someone posted a reaction by four young black men called The Cartiers yesterday. I watched far more of Obama then I would have otherwise to listen to them. Yes they talked over each other and yes they even called each other on certain reactions, but they were very discerning about what they were seeing. It started with them calling out Obama for opening his talk by addressing the viewers as ‘Brothers’. As they so aptly said, he isn’t their brother.

      So yes, I would say that their comfortable ‘we can ignore the Black population and they will always vote for us’ position has crumbled.

    1. flora

      Seems people haven’t forgotten her time as California’s Attorney General. I heard a young black guy on TikTok (I think – can’t find it again) refer to her as Madam Lockup a Brother. ouch.

  34. Pat

    There has been a theory running around the comments about the Democrats trying to lose this race. Personally I have come to believe that the Democrats are both incompetent and captured, not to mention offensively arrogant. But honestly in the past couple of days I have had to reconsider that there was no real evidence of this.
    Between Obama’s appearance, the Whitmer ‘chip’ video, and now the amazingly inept ‘Males for Kamala’ ad, there is evidence that they are deliberately alienating large groups of voters.
    Obama has always been an arrogant son of ****, but he was able to tone that down when necessary in the past. Either he has lost that skill, or has decided that Harris is not worth sucking it up in front of the unworthy for an hour or two. As for the two video pieces, Whitmer is a major component of the campaign and the Males Ad is an official release. There is no explanation for either. Especially since a huge force in the campaign (and in Emhoff’s life) is the entertainment and advertising industries. They have experts on speed dial. And I cannot imagine any major producer or ad exec green lighting either one of those. It isn’t just that they are offensive, they are amateurish and offensive, and as such are going to be of no help to the campaign in any way or form.
    I cannot be sure, perhaps everybody competent has left the DNC headquarters. But day after day it does look more and more like nobody wants to be left holding the bomb that our neocon and neoliberal overlords set in motion and whose timer was accelerated by the last four years.

    1. flora

      Voting has started in many places. Various MSM outlets and Dem pols keep whispering something about a civil war. (They sound like that’s what they want.) So why not antagonize the public, why not make the public even angrier than it is already? They’re idiots, of course. Nobody wants another civil war. One was enough.

    2. flora

      Various MSM outlets and Dem pols keep whispering something about a civil war. (They sound like that’s what they want.) So why not antagonize the public, why not make the public even angrier than it is already? They’re idiots, of course. Nobody wants another civil war. One was enough.

      Of course, now we’re talking about this and not the terrible FEMA response to the hurricanes. Maybe that’s the point. Distraction.

    4. MaryLand

      The Dems can raise a lot more money if Trump is in the Whitehouse. The outrage machine will be in overdrive to gin up contributions.

      1. britzklieg

        Exactly this. If Trump loses the only thing the Dems have remaining now – TDS – is gone, leaving only empty suits scrambling for an actual agenda. I commented a month ago that the Dems better hope to lose because w/o Trump they got next to nothin’. A few attractive intiatives that will never materialize should they win (promise left, deliver right) will show they’re swimming naked when the tide goes out.

  38. none

    ” rel=”nofollow”>Hacked Robot Vacuums Across the U.S. Started Yelling Slurs

    link misformatted and doesn’t work.

    1. Procopius

      Copy the title and search. You can use an anonymous page, if you like. Qwant gave me the correct page.

  39. Wukchumni

    Didn’t see the northern lights from our perch on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, but we still have electricity, take that Carrington!

    The aspens turning fall colors are a constant companion on the drive in, amazing!

  40. XXYY

    Watch out for your cats.

    Honestly, I see no difference between eating dogs and cats and eating pigs and chickens and turkeys and fish and cows. Eating any kind of dead animal seems not only cruel, but terrifically gross. Americans hold no particular high ground when it comes to humane foods; lately there seems to even be a fetish for restaurants serving even more exotic animals, like ostriches, or alligators, or God knows what.

    I like to think the day will come when eating animals will be yet another barbaric practice that humans used to perform but have now evolved beyond.

    1. amfortas the hippie

      when we lived in town for a time, the neighbor behind us had adopted a horse that had been severely abused by its previous owner. dern thing just screamed and jumped around all the time.
      like listening to yer neighbor beat his wife.
      old man who adopted her did his best.
      i suggested, off hand, to wife’s drunk uncle that maybe it would be better if we just ate it, and put it out of its misery.
      …and it was if i had suggested boiling my own children.
      horses, you see, hold a special place in the american mind.
      my point was that…well the french apparently eat them, and i never have.

      all that said, i respect your vegetarian ways,XXYY…but at my scale, meat is essential to the operation of the farm.
      the critters provide services, while alive:chickens are cleaning and tilling the raised beds…ducks are reducing the grasshopper population, geese are mowing mom’s garden without touching the remaining tomatoes, etc…and so on….and the chickens especially convert various waste products into usable protein, and make fertiliser while doing so.
      and as for the killing part…yeah…thats my least favorite chore.
      i do it as quickly and humanely as i can…and out of sight of the other critters.
      theyre all free range…except when i must confine them for some reason(at night, of course, but also for various management purposes)…and seem to live rather happy, productive lives.
      i dont run an industrial cafo,ffs,lol.
      i am intimately involved with all my critters.

      1. witters

        I’m with you. But stylistically, “i am intimately involved with all my critters”, is risky.

  42. Tom Stone

    After the comments here I decided to see if the “Males for Kamala” ad was as bad as reported.
    Whoever put this together deserves to be paid twice.
    Once by the Harris campaign and double that amount from the Trump campaign.

    1. Screwball

      I had to look it up too. I just watched it. Unreal. That sure will change peoples mind. /s

      I also found the video of Walz and his hunting thing. Another oh boy.

      If they can’t make campaign adds any better than this how will they run the country. I think we already know.

      We are so screwed.

    2. amfortas the hippie

      the first guy…the..ummm…portly gentleman…is feeding his chickens grain IN his producing garden beds.
      like he wants the chickens in there.
      i spend a whole lot of time and effort keeping chickens OUT of my garden beds when theyre growing,lol.

      as a whole, prolly the stupidest, and most counterproductive, campaign ad i have ever seen in my life.
      beats dukakis in a tank by miles and miles.

      1. Ben Panga

        The actors are a progressive improv troupe and the director is a young SoCal progressive.

        Reposting from the director’s substack:

        “I think this resonates with people because it’s a view of masculinity we see in our lives but is rarely reflected in the media — especially when some of the loudest voices on the subject are the most insecure and bombastic. Our friends, family, and neighbors are complex men. They can change a tire and enjoy a romcom; chug a beer and run to the store to get tampons for their wives and daughters — the strongest men are the most secure in their masculinity. With the rise of role models like Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff on the national stage, I think the left is finally finding its footing on how to talk about masculinity — I think we’re overdue for a redefinition of what it means to be a man in America and I hope this campaign can start to shape that conversation.”

        These people are divorced from reality. “Creatives For Harris” They are gonna create an even bigger loss for the word salad lady.

        Bonus: a Tim Walz “song” from the same source (via Kirn’s twitter)

        1. Ben Panga

          And if you’re a real sicko read this glowing review and report on the creative process from Fast Company

          My favourite line: “Reed realized the last thing he wanted to do was condescend to his potential audience”

    1. amfortas the hippie

      that was excellent!
      thanks!

      comments are pretty coolio, too.
      and belly laughs were much needed this eve.

      1. lyman alpha blob

        My favorite part –

        “now you’re just leading with your chin in a memetic octagon.”

    2. rowlf

      Suh-weet!

      i suspect they simply have no idea how bad this is or how it’s going to play and every time they get a bad response, they assume that it’s because they did not add enough cringe last time.

      they simply cannot conceive of the idea that if they just explain their ideas to you again that you won’t agree with them.

      this is basically their entire dogmatic foundation. we’re right. we know we’re right. we should not have to explain ourselves to you and anyone who does not agree with us is either too stupid to matter or too evil to care about.

      the idea that a right thinking person could disagree with them is anathema to their entire worldview.

      =======

      they are used to being the only ones speaking. they are used to being the only ones who know stuff. others getting to speak and knowing stuff too seems like wild horror and incredible slant to them as they mistake a return to “equal” from “massively biased” for “biased toward the other side.”

  46. AG

    Obituary for novelist Elias Khoury
    https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/in-defiance

    “The turn of the century ushered in a period of despair for Khoury – the aftermath of the Oslo Accords, the death of Edward Said in 2003, the assassination of Khoury’s close friend the journalist Samir Kassir in 2005, the death of Darwish in 2008. The assassination of Kassir in particular soured Khoury against pro-Syrian parties and politicians in Lebanon, and he became a vocal critic of the crimes of the Assad regime. Yet Khoury remained attuned to the younger generations pushing for social and political change, and was galvanized by the Arab Spring. The October Revolution in Beirut brought him back into the fray of local politics after years on the sidelines. I vividly recall his eagerness to rally popular energies, and to find ways to cohere the mosaic-like Lebanese left.

    On peace with Israel, Khoury was always wary of the lies and false promises of Israeli and US politicians. He regarded the Oslo Accords as ‘a colonial trap’. Yet his opposition to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians did not blind him from seeing a more humane alternative, which he pursued with Jewish and Israeli colleagues. He described his friendship and collaboration with Shenhav-Shahrabani, who translated eight of Khoury’s novels into Hebrew and is at work on the others, as follows: ‘We represent profoundly a real human approach, a real vision that we deserve life, and that life is more important than nationalities, ideologies, territorial borders’.”

  48. Matthew G. Saroff

    As an aside, Chrystia Freeland’s grandfather was not just complicit in genocide. He was a war criminal.

    Julius Streicher was executed by the Nuremberg court for what dear old grandad did.

Comments are closed.