Smelling Something Dangerous May Put The Immune System on High Alert Science Alert
Private Equity Investors Account for 40% of US Deals Bloomberg
Climate/Environment
Atmospheric rivers are shifting poleward, reshaping global weather patterns Down to Earth
Microsoft Azure CTO: US data centers will soon hit size limits Semafor
Extraction, Exploitation, and Religious Surplus in the Capitalocene Religions
How the Warmth Underground Could Heat and Cool Your Home CNET
Going off grid is a financial win for some, but it’s a threat for poorer families and the environment The Conversation
***
FEMA makes “operational adjustments” in hurricane response as threats spike Axios
Top U.S. housing official visits Asheville as advocates call for a rent, eviction freeze Asheville Citizen Times. ‘Housing Authority CEO Monique Pierre said that residents who have “experienced a hardship” due to Tropical Storm Helene would “immediately” have rents taken “down to zero”…She clarified later, via email, that “hardship” referred to a loss of income and that residents can request a rent adjustment. What that meant for potential future rent abatement or forgiveness was unclear.’
As many as 100,000 people in Western North Carolina don’t have running water after Helene Asheville Citizen Times
Pandemics
Africa
Congo Launches Strategy to Diversify Mining Investments Beyond China The Deep Dive
Uganda, U.S. -Heading for Divorce? African Stream
India
In India, the World’s Deadliest Industrial Disaster Has Outlived Itself Inkstick
China?
China launches military drills around Taiwan Channel News Asia. Commentary:
China confirm what many of us have long suspected: there is no plan to invade Taiwan; rather the plan is to blockade the island. Not remotely clear how America would respond to this given that they lost against the Houthis. 🇨🇳🇹🇼 pic.twitter.com/sysq7fcXPy
— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) October 14, 2024
Congress’ tough stance on Beijing to continue: Ex-AIT director Focus Taiwan
GT Exclusive: Latest report shows US cyber weapon can ‘frame other countries’ for its own espionage operations Global Times
Marshall Plans Phenomenal World
Old Blighty
How to Support What Remains of Russian Civil Society The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies
Alex Salmond. Always My Hero Craig Murray
Syraqistan
Israeli Defense Officials: Gov’t Pushing Aside Hostage Deal, Eyeing Gaza Annexation Haaretz
Israel ‘wiping out Jabalia’, killing hundreds of people in north Gaza The New Arab
The Israeli army bombed the tents sheltering displaced people inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital. pic.twitter.com/LLncNpv4rJ
— Gaza Notifications (@gazanotice) October 13, 2024
Rashid Khalidi: “Israel Is Acting With Full US Approval” Jacobin
***
Four soldiers killed, seven seriously hurt in Hezbollah drone strike on military base The Times of Israel
15 UN peacekeepers injured after Israeli forces destroy main gate of UNIFIL compound in Lebanon Euronews
UN Troops in Lebanon Can Shoot Back at Israel Consortium News
US ‘training & equipping’ Lebanese Army is worst kind of déjà vu Responsible Statecraft
***
Iran blasts latest planned EU sanctions DPA
Adaptation in the Sanctioned Economy Phenomenal World
Why a Liberated Palestine Threatens Global Capitalism Jason Hickel, Transnational Institute
The great emigration: Israel sees an unprecedented number leave the country Jerusalem Post
Big investors leaving Israel’s real estate market Globes
***
Statement by Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder on the Deployment of a THAAD Battery to Israel US Department of Defense. With boots on the ground. Biden in 2024 SOTU: “No U.S. boots will be on the ground.” Commentary:
A single THAAD battery has 24 “hit-to-kill” interceptors. This means it can attempt to intercept a grand total of TWELVE incoming missiles.
So … if the Iranians launch a strike package of, say, 240 ballistic missiles … well, do the math. 🤦♂️ https://t.co/e1gAkDneTu
— Will Schryver (@imetatronink) October 13, 2024
US military strikes ‘multiple’ Islamic State group camps in Syria France24
New Not-So-Cold War
US tees up Ukrainian and Syrian extremist proxies in fight against Russia The Cradle
Germany halts heavy weapon deliveries to Ukraine, Bild reports — but that’s not the full story Euromaidan Press
Ukraine’s deficit grows while intergovernmental aid stagnates bne Intellinews
B-a-a-a-a-d Banks
Woke guns? Banks want weapons badged as a social good Politico
Spook Country
It’s FBI vs. CIA in Michigan’s US Senate race. And the gloves are coming off Bridge Michigan
UFO drones are surveilling America’s most sensitive military sites — and the Pentagon says it can’t stop them New York Post
Trump Assassination Attempts
Man with guns arrested near Trump rally in Coachella; Riverside sheriff says they stopped assassination attempt The Press-Enterprise
Trump
Can Schedule F Save America? The American Conservative. The deck: “Trump has a plan for the deep state. Is it enough?”
Kamala
Harris’s Chance on Trade Zephyr Teachout, The New York Review
Is Kamala 2024 Clinton 2016? Jacobin
I’m still baffled that Harris at Univision town hall kept touting her endorsement by Bush’s AG Alberto Gonzales (who resigned in disgrace) as though that would mean anything to the audience. Kinda sums up how well this catering to the center right is going
— Luke Goldstein (@lukewgoldstein) October 13, 2024
GOP Clown Car
Steve Bannon Has Called His “Army” to Do Battle—No Matter Who Wins in November Vanity Fair
Democrats en Déshabillé
Whitmer apologizes for how Dorito video was ‘construed’ The Detroit News. The video:
How else can this be interpreted other than mockery of Catholics and the sacrament of Holy Communion, not to mention the distasteful pornographic innuendo? Gretchen Whitmer is only the latest example of the gross anti-Catholic bigotry festering inside the Democratic Party. pic.twitter.com/KG1BmHYkJM
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) October 10, 2024
Imperial Collapse Watch
America’s Midas Touch Scott Ritter Extra
The Univocal, Non-plural West Denies Itself Pluralia
U.S. Shipbuilders Falling Far Behind Navy’s Demand For New Nuclear Attack Submarines Military Watch Magazine
AI
Generative AI, the American worker, and the future of work The Brookings Institution
As AI takes the helm of decision making, signs of perpetuating historic biases emerge Minnesota Reformer
The Bezzle
A crypto king is now the prime minister of a tiny country Quartz
FBI created a cryptocurrency so it could watch it being abused The Register
Class Warfare
When Populists Rise, Economies Usually Fall Harvard Business Review. Confuses stock markets with economies.
California pledged $500 million to help tenants preserve affordable housing. They didn’t get a dime. Cal Matters
To Tackle Housing Crisis, These Organizers Want to First Change How City Hall Works Bolts
Tracking Marx’s Capital The Next Recession
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
JEWISH FANTASY
(melody borrowed from Memphis Tennessee by Chuck Berry but Johnny Rivers owns this song)
(Might as well put the YouTube link on Loop—we’ve got enough verses here to sing it twice)
Yeah, Israel’s a nation lost in their own history
Living in the Bronze Age but with modern weaponry
They go from dumb to dumber with their murder free for all
‘Cause they only know aggression—they’re as crazy as King Saul
They believe God gave them this land in antiquity
Back then he wasn’t God but just a tribal deity
So nowadays they twist that tale to add a sacred tinge
Yet all of them believe it, so their minds have come unhinged
(musical interlude)
‘The river to the sea’ is now the Jewish battle cry
An ethnic state is what they seek beneath the desert sky
But when the final tale is told, when Palestine is free,
Zionism will be called the Jewish fantasy
Their apartheid nation treats their neighbors pretty bad
With billions from America—our backing’s ‘ironclad’
Since stupid is as stupid does in Washington DC
We back these silly people and their Jewish fantasy
(play it again, Sam . . .)
They’ve raised whole generations narcissistic as can be
Raised on pure malarkey they can’t see reality
This world has slept and slumbered while they worked the Wailing Wall
But we’re waking to the wreckage they have caused to one and all
Cold elimination of a people guarantees
That you will stand alone—that’s clear from Nazi Germany
You can’t do genocide—it truly makes the whole world cringe
Murder with a smile marks you as lunatic fringe
(musical interlude)
The nation you foresee will wind up standing high and dry
On an endless losing streak unable to get by
A thousand years it will be told across all seven seas
That Zionism’s not a faith it’s simply a disease
Bloodlust and elation and the terrors by Mossad
Pulling on the trigger only kills the world you had
A people with no heart make rape official policy
‘No stone atop another stone’ the Jewish fantasy
Zionism’s not a faith it’s simply a disease
Turned on my phone yesterday evening to find Images of a child and mother in a tent burning in raging flames. We don’t, however back these silly people and their Jewish fantasy, no nothing silly about them, evil is as evil does. A disease has no moral agency/content, these “Zionist” are much worse than a disease.
“GT Exclusive: Latest report shows US cyber weapon can ‘frame other countries’ for its own espionage operations”
That’s not an exclusive. When Edward Snowden had all those files released about a decade ago, there was mention of one program where through the use of timestamps, a foreign word, etc. they could make an intel file appear to come from Iran or China or Russia or any other country. In fact, I have seen this technique used when an intel file is supposed to be Russian as the timestamp shows that it was created in daytime in Moscow or buried in it will be the name of a famed Russian spy like Beria. It’s old hat now.
Re: UFO drones are surveilling America’s most sensitive military sites — and the Pentagon says it can’t stop them (NYPost)
Here’s the original WSJ reporting the NYPost piece is based on. Much firmer linkage to China than most UAP stories. The type of incident is also more prosaic-sounding than most of the stories coming out in the post-2017 ‘Disclosure’ push.
Both the House (scheduled for November 13th) and Senate (November reported keeps getting pushed back) could be having UAP hearings between the election and inauguration dates.
Still intrigued where this is going, but still viewing through a cynical info-hazard protection filter.
Somehow I am expecting an unveiling of new wunder-waffen at the end of this.
“Four soldiers killed, seven seriously hurt in Hezbollah drone strike on military base”
A newspaper headline I saw today described it as a “horror strike”. No self-awareness about the fact that they were a legit military target being enemy soldiers while the IDF commits horror strikes on defenseless civilians each and every day of the week.
And before I forget. Something that really bugged me was when the Israelis wounded a coupla UN personnel. But when it was on the TV news, they refused to say the word “wounded” but used the word “hurt” instead like if you tripped over a hose or something yet. And yet the viewed TV report said that those UN troops were injured. Our media sucks.
Our media sucks
That is an understatement if ever there was one…also, you have to qualify the “our”, it’s “their” Media, bought and paid for in dirty lucre of blood, bribery, and blackmail.
InBritain, the mainstream news bulletins named the four individually, stressed they were teenagers just innocently eating a meal and showed some of them in civilian clothes. Meanwhile barely a mention of the latest tented hospital attack by the Israelis that burned alive numerous bedbound patients.
In Ireland, a zionist spokeswoman has berated the Irish for supporting Palestine, and hinted at blackmail, in that Israeli investors and tech companies with a presence in Ireland could leave the country if the Irish did not mend their ways.
Will the Irish have to tug their forelocks as well?
In the past 48 hours, Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza and burned a bunch of people alive, bombed UN Aid workers, and forced the UN to halt polio vaccinations:
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-lebanon-iran-gaza-attack-10-14-24-intl-hnk/index.html
We should have a contest to see who can write a sentence in the most hilariously passive-voiced manner that exculpates Netanyahoo.
Here is mine:
“Metallic objects traveling at a high velocity emanating from the general vicinity of someone who might be related to a certain country founded in 1948 pass through skull of young terrorist (age 3.)“
I thought I heard the Israelis (Netanyahu himself?) say that they will regard any ambulance in Lebanon as belonging to Hezbollah because everybody knows that the secretive Hezbollah forces always travel around in white marked vehicles that have lights flashing and a siren going.
>How to Support What Remains of Russian Civil Society The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies
Reading through this article, for Sh**s and giggles, I substituted the US, instead of Russia every time. Seemed to work pretty well.
Apropos, “substituting”, I was recently listening to some interviews of Yuri Bezmenov from 1984. if you substitute “Soviet Union” and “Marxist Leninism” in his description you get 2024 “collective West.”
Fascinating parallels. But the Soviet Union collapsed without much violence, the same doesn’t appear t hold as U.S.S.A unwinds.
“The Israeli army bombed the tents sheltering displaced people inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital”
Starvation, destroying infrastructure necessary to life, deliberately killing and maiming innocents, and now cremating the living as they lie in their tents at night. Just stone cold murder. Compared with the savage barbarism of the Zionists and the forces complicit in their crimes, including the Congress, the UK Parliament and the EU Commission, the Nazis were mere dilettantes exercising in the school playground.
It might be worse than you think. When the Nazis were slaughtering the Jews in WW2, you didn’t see the major countries like the US, UK, France, etc. shipping the Nazis weapons, ammo and money to finish the job while providing them political cover in the League of Nations and pretending to be helpless in stopping them.
Some countries did help the Nazis–Ukraine, Romania, Finland, and Vichy France were part of the Empire. I’m stretching it, but really Israel is part of the Washington Empire so its natural that the vassal states in Europe are part of the war-effort against those parts of West Asia that don’t genuflect towards Washington though the Gulf States are not genuflecting as vigorously as, say the Jordanians and Egyptians. This is part of the endless war that is Washington’s relentless effort to expand and secure its borders.
I usually am loathe to ascribe too much to individuals, but I think much of this is Biden didn’t tell the Israelis to make a deal around Nov 1st. Everyone with two grey cells knows Israel has to jump when the US says jump.
Netanyahu wants to look tough and have the US come to the rescue. It’s just Biden besides his disdain for non whites can’t comprehend Netanyahu’s tough guy routine is the same as Biden’s.
Groups like AIPAC were simply let off the leash, and they are run by people with religious fervor. Now everything has spiraled out of control because Israel’s economy is dead for a generation. Israel can’t fold now because they are too small to function cut off from trade.
Much of this stems from Biden not understanding for the US Israel is a dog that you let the leash go a bit and put back.
That “savage barbarism of the Zionist and the forces complicit in their crimes.” has been in our midst, lingering just below the surface for a long time. From the birth of this nation to the Rheinwiesenlager and Gaza, the blood and suffering of innocents cries out for the good to do something, but nothing is done and the killing continues unabated.
At a fall festival this weekend in my small hometown in Central, PA. I visited both the Kamal/Trump tents. I did not mince my words in either on the savagery you allude to…walked away leaving the nice ladies hawking their campaign paraphernalia somewhat disturbed…
I know many people find it difficult to believe outside of NC readers, but this is a world on the edge of collapse. Most US politicians cannot imagine decline. But having observed the collapse and decline of many imperial powers during my lifetime, some politicians have managed decline much better than others. I think particularly of De Gaulle, Macmillan and Harold Wilson.
I suspect Trump and Vance are the only two national politician’s in the US capable, not only of understanding and accepting decline, but of managing it successfully and turning America’s withdrawal from many parts of the world as a profoundly positive experience for the US polity and economy, and, while it is happening, all those nice ladies in Central, PA, will be cheering it on because, for the first time, the US will be giving up it’s imperial powers and bringing the potential for freedom and democracy to it’s former playthings.
De Galle was outside power at the point and saw the US in its hey day. He had real credibility, fighting for France when officialdom surrendered. He could do what Madison and Hamilton could do, reform society on their credibility without a full blown crisis (I know Algeria was part of France).
MacMillan and Wilson had Ike telling them what was what, knew the UK didn’t run India, and could do basic math. Then they had a large veteran population to answer to as well.
This is more akin to pre-World War relations between the US and the colonial powers. The US had surpassed these countries but couldn’t control them. Xi can’t tell us what to do. I’m reminded of the British refortifying Quebec City after World War I to protect it from the US. Like Taiwan, the US can’t win that fight even 30 years ago without a full nuclear strike. The Russians might be Getmany, but they aren’t overextended.
Trump has made noise about rebuilding the aurarky status of the US, but his presidency demonstrated he won’t do that and will mostly look for fights on twitter.
re. Harris’s Chance on Trade Zephyr Teachout, The New York Review
I like Teachout, but this is hopium of the worst sort on her part. Harris has said or done nothing substantively as outlined by Teachout. It is completely fair to judge Harris by the company she keeps and it is a redux of Clinton and Obama. Been there, done that.
My NYS ballot arrived; the only legitimate third party that made the cut (thanks to Cuomo’s COVID election reforms) is a LaRouche candidate for US senate. One has to write in Jill Stein (GPNY petitioning was a hopeless clusterf*). Just remember, democracy is on the ballot!
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1845625939469959344
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
A rare informed take on China’s economy in the Financial Times by @arkroeber, that emphasizes that China’s core strategy is to create a “technologically powerful economy immune to efforts by the US to stunt its rise”:
https://ft.com/content/008443cd-bb44-4b4f-b60e-17894fdba221 *
As I’ve myself often made the point, we’re witnessing a China that’s pivoting its entire model, from the old “made in China” + property bubble to a “designed in China” strategy that is driven by research and innovation and sells products under its own brands (meaning is at the top of the value chain rather than at the bottom), and where “houses are for living in, not speculation”.
This is because, as the article highlights, it’s the only way for the Chinese to “generate high-wage jobs and rising incomes” and also to reduce dependency on an increasingly hostile West: it’s painfully obvious that the US will use any technology that China doesn’t master (like advanced semiconductors) as a weapon so the logical thing to do is to master these technologies…
It also means that those who claim that China should prioritize a “pull” strategy of stimulating consumption first and foremost are getting things wrong: China will remain a “push” investment-driven economy for the foreseeable future, encouraging capital to pile up in its technology buildup, which in turn via higher wages will stimulate consumption.
* China’s real intent behind its stimulus inflection
8:41 PM · Oct 13, 2024
Great comment! I’ll add that this is the focus of the Belt and Road Initiative to increase trade so the areas outside the Washington Empire can thrive along with China to create new transportation networks and infrastructure to increase economic growth in poorer countries so that China becomes the center of the multi-polar world and hopefully stop the Washington Empire in its tracks. This is why there is so much anger and visceral hatred in Washington for China. The FP community sees a multi-generational crusade to “stop” China because they believe that there can only be one ruler of the Earth.
This. The financial press do not understand the point above. For example, there is a guy over at Seeking Alpha who keeps writing that Boeing is going to sell MAX planes to Chinese airlines. He keeps getting disappointed at the small number of actual deliveries.
While they’ve taken a few token deliveries, Boeing’s drama and disarray has given the Chinese C919 manufacturer an opening to start replacing those falling apart planes with homegrown Chinese ones. Next step is to replace the GE engines used in the planes with homegrown ones. Eventually, the entire supply chain needs to be in-sourced to protect against hegemonic and hubristic sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction legal trick-witchery.
‘Philip Pilkington
@philippilk
China confirm what many of us have long suspected: there is no plan to invade Taiwan; rather the plan is to blockade the island. Not remotely clear how America would respond to this given that they lost against the Houthis. 🇨🇳🇹🇼’
Actually Taiwan is screwed if they try to declare independence to please Washington. Turns out that most of their exports go to China and most of their imports come from – you guessed it – China. They are totally meshed in with China’s economy and if they became totally a part of China, then I would not be surprised to see China build a bridge or a tunnel connecting it to the mainland.
I said YEARS AGO that China would blockade, not invade. This was obvious. So were US officials that stoopid or was hyping invasion a MIC enrichment plan?
You may be right. But China has developed a large sealift capacity and a large airlift capacity and has large paratroop and marine contingents. So if they wanted to they could invade. Of course it would be sensible to do so after a blockade had starved Taiwan of fuel and demoralised the population.
They do not need to invade.
Look at Taiwan’s imports and exports.
1. China is its biggest trade partner. The economy depends on it.
2. Taiwan is FAR from self sufficient in food and fuel.
All they need to do is let pharmaceuticals in for appearances’ sake. Taiwan won’t last 3 months with a tight blockade.
And China per its recent international posture is all about promoting peace, so they have geopolitical reasons to avoid bloodshed and infrastructure breakage.
New naval drone technology makes a blockade cheap. No need to send big battleships and such to enforce it. A few thousand naval drones packed with explosives similar to the ones the Houthis used successfully in the Red Sea and Gulf area and it’s “GAME OVER … INSERT COIN TO PLAY AGAIN!”
Alastair Crooke discusses the Hudson-Wolff interview and links to NC today.
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/10/14/israel-does-what-does-was-always-planned-this-way/
(Someone should thank Nima for organizing the Hudson-Wolff interview.)
Thanks for this. I’ll add Crooke’s weekly interview on Judge Nap today which is very good
Covid news from the trades: R&D for Long Covid is Collapsing
From September but still germane (apologies if this has been linked) tl;dr it’s another indictment of the pitiful RECOVER
RE: Can Schedule F Save America? The American Conservative.
Oh brother.
“Slow down services,” “less prepared,” “ERODE TRUST IN GOVERNMENT”?????
Where has this guy been? Oh, right, in the “senate.”
Can’t believe he didn’t say it will mess up the stock market and everyone’s 401K, since the “creation” of government jawbs is always a big driver of the monthly “jawbs” report that sets off weeks of claims of a “robust” and “growing” economy and “justifies” stratospheric stock “valuations.”
“Man with guns arrested near Trump rally in Coachella; Riverside sheriff says they stopped assassination attempt”
This is kinda bizarre. So this guy turns up at a rally with fake ID coming out the kazoo and several weapons as well. With two attempted assassinations attempts on Trump’s life, the local sheriffs were taking no chances so busted him and took him to the local jail. Fair enough. But then he was released Saturday on $5,000 bail. Seriously? Did the judge believe the guy’s story of being a Trump supporter? Did anybody offer bail to Lee Harvey Oswald? Did the FBI and the Secret Service not want to have a serious question-answer session with him?
Evidently there were no charges for the “multiple phony passports and driver’s licenses, and fake license plate.” Only the gun charges, for which he was allowed to post a relatively modest bond, in spite of being from out of state. Bianco, the sheriff, said “if there are any further charges, they would come from the federal government.” I bet if you got popped by your local PD with multiple fake driver licenses they wouldn’t wait on the feds to charge you.
Meanwhile, Routh and “Crooks” have gone down the memory hole. Nobody seems to want to talk about them anymore.
If he had multiple phony passports, was he planning to do a runner overseas? Use one passport to fly out to say Mexico and then dump it. Use the second to fly from Mexico to another country and then dump that one. When he is at his final destination he would only have the final passport with him which would be his new identity.
And who is this Routh and Crooks of whom you speak?
While you two are scouring the memory hole could you have a look for Sean Combs?
re. Can Schedule F Save America?
Unfortunately Van Buren neglects to discuss the implications on policy for the 40% of civil service employees that are NOT the “60 percent of whom work for the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security”.
My brother worked for US Fish and Wildlife for 38 years in Alaska, starting as a temp, then at Arctic Refuge on the north slope and eventually becoming a refuge manager in several locations. A refuge manager, regional director or similar positions in the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, EPA, etc, are “civil servants are in positions “of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character”. Think of the Environmental Impact Statements for the Ambler Mining Road or mining around Bristol Bay.
The pressures on these people to facilitate resource exploitation or develop regulations is intense, even with civil service protection. Making these positions “at will” political appointees will create a policy management industry hacks that will spin in and out of the revolving door.
I’m all in favor of culling the deep state. But slash-and-burn for the environment is NOT a good thing. Firing a couple hundred managers in USFWS or EPA is easy; getting rid of tens of thousands of well-connected bureaucrats at DOD, “intelligence” or DHS is a completely different animal. Van Buren doesn’t get it.
“The great emigration: Israel sees an unprecedented number leave the country ”
For what it is worth, don’t forget to read the comments at the bottom of this page. Lots of huffing and puffing about this happening by the locals. Israel may very well find that it is the brains that are leaving the country and the author Robert Heinlein pointed out the example of how last century Germany lost a key war by chasing out a mere handful of specialists.
I give Rieger credit in “Extraction, Exploitation, and Religious Surplus in the Capitalocene” for a reasonable holistic presentation of how human commercial activity (in this case specifically as arranged under capitalism) is embedded in the operations and limits of the biosphere, including his observations of how non-human and human reproductive processes are exploited for the benefit of capital, a process which is partially hidden by an economics which (bizarrely in logical terms, but more legible as propaganda) treats these fundamental inputs rather as “externalities.”
I don’t see any evidence, however, that Rieger’s framework considers religion before the European medieval era — at least I can’t recall seeing any reference in this paper to earlier religions or civilizations. And I can’t help but recall from my years (4 decades ago?) reading English Romantic poetry Blake’s less than complimentary references to “priestcraft.” I don’t see any acknowledgment on Rieger’s part the role that religion has played (for thousands of years) in justifying exploitation and extraction. I am not suggesting that religion cannot play a constructive role in shaping a better dispensation for labor (and unpaid human reproductive work), just that it seems to me that in order for it to credibly do so some accounting for its failures in the past in this regard is in order.