Ancient Hawk-Sized Birds With Raptor-Like Feet Discovered in Montana SciTech Daily
The Forgotten War that Made America The American Conservative
Explosive pollen wars: Plants fight for pollen-space on pollinators Phys.org
Climate/Environment
Tax on Europe’s frequent flyers could raise €64bn a year – study The Guardian
A Carbon Tax Alone Will Not Solve Climate Change Dollars & Sense
Nuclear power could solve US electricity needs. But at what cost? Floodlight
Water
Fears over looming water shutdown in Joburg Sowetan Live
Less than 40% of Europe’s surface waters are healthy: Report Down to Earth
Pandemics
REVIEW: Stanford’s “Pandemic Policy” Conference Pandemic Accountability Project
Africa
Cementing US-Angola ties: the significance of Biden’s visit Institute for Security Studies
When justice means impunity Africa Is A Country
Canada-India Row
Did India back Poilievre for CPC Leader after Brown criticized Modi? Dougald Lamont’s Substack
The India-Canada-US triangle merits an honest political dialogue Indian Punchline
China?
China urges India to handle Taiwan issue cautiously after Mumbai office opening Channel News Asia
China’s Cautious Moves in the EU Tariff Conflict The Diplomat China’s Cautious Moves in the EU Tariff Conflict The Diplomat
***
Market unsatisfied with Beijing’s 6 trillion yuan stimulus Asia Times
Concerns And Prospects of the PBoC’s Market Engagement – Analysis Eurasia Review
China boosts funds for housing projects to support embattled sector Reuters
Syraqistan
U.S. strikes Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen NBC News
Use of B-2 bombers against Yemen shows US panic: Yemeni source Al Mayadeen
***
No Gaza ceasefire talks for weeks, says Qatar’s PM Doha News
Biden envoy told aid groups Israel too close an ally for US to suspend arms Politico
Netanyahu’s Likud Party Issues Invitation to Event Titled ‘Preparing to Settle Gaza’ Haaretz
CAN BIDEN REIN BIBI IN? Seymour Hersh
Topsy Turvy in the Middle East: The Case for Total Victory The Gatestone Institute
No More Texts From My Sister, A Doctor in Gaza Murdered by Israel Common Dreams
***
‘Israel can always rely on German arms deliveries’: Scholz The Cradle.
“That’s what Germany stands for”:
💥 La sinistra europea è attraversata da fratture sempre più insanabili. Qui la ministra degli Esteri tedesca, Annalena Baerbock, dei Verdi, un movimento verde sempre più legato all’establishment conservatore e liberista, in crisi nei consensi, di fronte agli attacchi israeliani… pic.twitter.com/TcRm6arR9P
— Paolo Mossetti (@paolomossetti) October 15, 2024
***
Resistance Pact Signs Israel’s Death Warrant Global Delinquents
***
Did CIA help in the assassination of senior Hezbollah official? Ynet News
Netanyahu: ‘State-of-the-Art’ Russian Weapons Found in Lebanon Asharq Al-Awsat
Israel bombs south Lebanon municipality, kills mayor during relief work meeting The Cradle
UNIFIL says Israeli tank fired at peacekeepers watchtower in Lebanon Al Jazeera
16 EU countries in UNIFIL urge ‘utmost pressure on Israel’ ANSA
Hamas Network in Europe Exposed European Leadership Network. Good to know that these pro-Israel outfits are looking out for these “threats” to Europe.
Old Blighty
Russia suspected of planting device on plane that caused UK warehouse fire The Guardian
UK troops placed on standby to defend Estonia against Russia under new pact The Independent
Over half of London working parents use food banks, survey finds: ‘Is this the country we live in?’ Big Issue
European Disunion
Global Chip Stocks Erase $420 Billion After ASML Sales Warning Bloomberg
“ASML faces more restrictions in China as Dutch government gives in to US pressure” Bits & Chips. From Aug. 29, still germane.
Serbian protestors rally to oppose Rio Tinto’s lithium mine project MINING.COM
Is Europe not the West? Landmarks: A Journal of International Dialogue
New Not-So-Cold War
The Grand Poobah’s Not-So-Grand Victory Ploy Unveiled Simplicius the Thinker
Ukraine – The Real Story Of High Disability Numbers Moon of Alabama
US to focus on training of young Ukrainian pilots in its F-16 pilot training program – WSJ Ukrainska Pravda
Australia gives 49 aging Abrams tanks to Ukraine ABC News
US announces additional $425 million military aid for Ukraine SEMAFOR
The Great Game’s other principal presenter: Dmitry Simes Gilbert Doctorow
B-a-a-a-a-d Banks
Why ‘Good Enough’ Isn’t Winning Banks’ Fight Against Fraud PYMNTS
Trump Assassination Attempts
Man arrested with guns near Trump rally sues sheriff, says he was falsely called a threat Palm Springs Desert Sun
Kamala
Harris’ Bizarre Hawkishness on Iran Eunomia
Harris seeks to lure winnable Republicans in Fox interview Deutsche Welle
Democrats en Déshabillé
Antitrust
What do pork, quartz and saline solution have in common? Art Cullen’s Notebook
Blue Cross Blue Shield To Pay Largest Settlement in U.S. Antitrust Health Care History: $2.8 Billion HEALTH CARE un-covered
AI
AI-Powered Social Media Manipulation App Promises to ‘Shape Reality’ 404 Media
Driving automation on the farm: Self-driving tractors look to fill agriculture’s labor shortage Agriculture Dive
Boeing
When will Boeing’s Starliner fly astronauts again? NASA still doesn’t know Space.com
Imperial Collapse Watch
U.S. Navy Demonstrates Game-Changing Underway Reload Technology That Could Redefine Naval Warfare gCaptain
U.S. Air Force Continues to ‘Flip-Flop’ on its Leading Hypersonic Missile Program Military Watch
Groves of Academe
FOIA Files: The University of California Racket News
The University of California: At War With Its Own Proud Speech Tradition Matt Taibbi, Racket News
The Bezzle
Trump-Touted Crypto Website Crashes as Token Sale Goes Live, With Just 1.7% of Target Sold Coin Desk
Class Warfare
The Call Is Out for Mass, Simultaneous Strikes in 4 Years Workday Magazine
Aggression, Capitalism, and International Law: Missed Opportunities or Structural Constraints? Current Legal Problems
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
206 comments
Comments are closed.
UNITED KINGDOM
(melody borrowed from Maxwell’s Silver Hammer by The Beatles)
Life’s unlivable, Parliament is risible
I can’t heat my home
Radiator covered in ice cubes (Ohh oh oh oh)
I’m a specimen! Skinny as a Bedouin!
Belly to backbone
Maybe I’ll find comfort in Scriptures—N o o o . . . (oh oh oh)
The Devil keeps it warm down below . . .
They’ll welcome me, I’m sure!
There sits Margaret Thatcher with Satan’s crown on her head!
Handing every soul in Hades a meager crust of bread!
Happy filling in, always snogged on too much gin
Her heart’s a black void
Hissing at young boys so unpleasantly (ee ee ee)
‘Face the facts’ she’ll say, ‘You have done no work today’
‘Your crust is declined’
Adding to her crimes like a proper pol (oh oh oh)
A stingy maniac, hoi polloi
Have no worth to her mind
There sits Margaret Thatcher with Satan’s crown on her head!
(Doo doo doo doo doo)
Handing every soul in Hades a meager crust of bread!
(musical interlude)
Here’s Beelzebub over from the country club
Standing by her throne
Showing her colonial prisoners (Ohh oh oh oh)
‘Count their calories! Tax back half their salaries!
Landlords absentee!’ (Landlords absentee)
‘Charge them each a fee so our profits grow!’ (Ohh oh oh oh)
They pick out Margaret’s favorite whips
Austerity in mind . . .
There sits Margaret Thatcher with Satan’s crown on her head!
(Doo doo doo doo doo)
Handing every soul in Hades a meager crust of bread!
(Whoa whoa whoa ohhh!)
Margaret Thatcher lives!
Wild applause!
Can Biden rein Bibi in?
I’m going with Betteridge’s law of headlines.
Biden keeps on issuing those blank checks and Bibi keeps on cashing them. But the way that Israel keeps on escalating and doubling down time and again, it is really starting to sound to me like a pyramid scheme. We’ll see how Project Greater Israel turns out.
I’m going with Biden is a fictional actor and anyone who thinks he is actual at the “reins” is delusional. I guess the works of writers/researchers like Peter Dale Scott are never meant to be absorbed by the masses.
Speaking of Biden, there are some clips going around Twitter of Biden, Obama, Pelosi, and others at a funeral. One in particular is one of Biden and Obama talking. It doesn’t look like Biden is too happy. Would love to be a little bug on the wall to see what that was about.
I’ve been wondering who is really running the US for over awhile now. I really doubt that it’s uncle Joe.
Reminds me of a song by David Crosby, back in the early 80’s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a0rDLlSGSo
Bibi, of course. We are all zionist jews now.
Biden envoy told aid groups Israel too close an ally for US to suspend arms
there ya go. If you lookup the phrase “Hidebound stooge” online, the result ought to return a picture of that WH envoy.
Well, for a while there Biden envoys would have told aid groups that Ukraine was too close an ally for the US to suspend arms. But of course when you have JHV holding your back in addition to the US it’s a whole new ball-game!
I got that question in the subject of an email from Sy yesterday and it annoyed me. In principle, yes Biden can rein in Bibi. The question I care about is not what can be but what will it take to change WH policy and rein in Bibi and Israel? Public opinion won’t affect policy unless it’s expressed as mass popular protest, and that possibility was successfully stamped out. There is no electoral choice in this matter. So then what?
Hi Tom. Agreed but it’s not happening. Why? My thoughts are that every dem I know is beyond scared of Trump. They are literally will to accept genocide, war crimes and potentially WWIII let alone the Ukraine issues all because Trump.
I’ve tried to talk to a number of Dems and I’ve brought up the genocide issue, they all get very quiet and change the subject.
And a big part is the media for downplaying all sorts of things. Like the death toll in Gaza, which numerous organizations have placed closer to 120-200,000 vs the 42,000.
How much difference would that make? And we can go on and on and on.
Same is true for Ukraine war with the death and wounded numbers. If it showed the probable 700,000 dead would that change the narrative?
Then you have Harris who’s been asked dozens of times over the last 2 weeks “what will you do differently “ and she comes up with nothing. Nothing, even on Fox last night she offered up nothing as best I can tell.
Yet I read more often than not in letters to the editor about why we need to vote harris that she’s actually going to stop Israel. I think she’s an open book, and is telling us the truth about her stances.
It’s a line I can’t cross. If harris had been forcefully in her language about many changes , Ukraine, Israel etc I could have considered her.
What a crazy time.
MicaT
I suspect you and I both agree the actual numbers (if reported by media) wouldn’t make a difference to Dems. I cannot cross that line either.
There is a radical legacy here in Oakland, many of us across the age spectrum despise Harris, her record as a cop in general, her homage to genocide in particular. Then there are people (also Black and Brown) new to the struggle here, who might have supported the teachers strike and opposition to school closures who are team Harris. Those who I know studiously avoid any mention of Gaza.
Crazy time indeed.
Dems are horrified by Trump, yet his foreign policy was indistinguishable from Biden’s – if anything Trump might have been a little better. The thing I remember about Harris is when asked about the relationship with Israel last month her response was “We have a deal”.
I thought Trumps visit to North Korea was brilliant. From here in the cheap seats it looked like he took the establishment by surprise and it was a refreshing example of diplomacy.
Of course the Media had kittens over that instance and now they’re going wild over “Putins North Korean minions in Ukraine”.
Andrew:
That wasn’t diplomacy, it was PR stunt.
Diplomacy requires months of serious planning, and further months of follow-up “diplomacy”.
US does not do diplomacy, only PR stunts, which they know impresses the knowledgeness US public.
I will concede that it wasn’t “Diplomacy” but it was a brilliant gesture none the less. Meeting Kim on the 38th parallel was more diplomatic than anything from washington in forty years. As a bonus he tweaked a lot of noses in the establishment media, the North Koreans and the rest of the world appreciated it.
|Well, thank God the long nightmare of potential peace and harmony in the Korean peninsula is over!
The Democrat party getting ignominiously defeated in presidential election and losing control of both House and Senate might be a start.
But indeed, as MicaT says above, the Dem cultists are all scared sh*tless of Trump.
They would prefer that genocide continue than deal with moar Trump. Smh.
Ukraine is the the main issue. Nuclear holocaust and the end of sentient life on earth is more important than Gaza, the economy or anything else.
We are one launch order by a regional commander in Ukraine from that.
Now the PMC Toilet Paper of Record is advocating Ukraine join NATO for “victory,” meaning Putin heads to the bunker and everything you know ends.
Harris is an incompetent charlatan who will probably destroy the earth with her continuation of their Ukraine war policy.
At minute 20 of the interview last night, she’s apparently ready to turn over our entire military to Israel to continue the slaughter in Gaza.
Trumps a clown and will be a disaster for the environment. However, looking back at his four years, instead of what Democrats predict he will do, we have no choice but to vote for him. That’s based on his stance on ending, best case scenario–another losing war in Ukraine, at worst, ending the biosphere.
One of my Blue Maga friends is just terribly upset that Trump would just “hand the Ukraine to Putin”.
I’m thinking we could have something along those lines, or we could have ten more years of grinding horror , with the added ramping up of nuclear threats, then the Russians win.
Neither is good. One is preferable.
Israel et al are also nuclear AND nuts. How did we get on team creationist?
It didn’t happen in 2016, it won’t happen in 2024. FDR was an outlier- the Democrat party is fundamentally the party of Andrew Jackson and Franklin Pierce and they’ve finally reverted back to their baseline.
Trump won’t rein in Bibi and Israel. You can’t vote against war and genocide in the USA except with a protest vote or withholding your vote.
When people are being bombarded with hysterical fear about Trump by the Dem side, it’s because his side must have the goods on a whole lot of high ranking Democrat donors and their security details (the 3 letter boys).
We call it down here ‘knowing where the bodies are buried’, not sure if that is common parlance.
How many Dem donors and their coterie(politicians, business, security detail) know they are in for an uncomfortable time at the least where their rivers of gold are cut off. And probable jail time.
what will it take to change WH policy
Quick question for you:
Israel is believed to have around 200 nuclear weapons, what makes you think that they’re in Israel?
The Israeli submarines.
Why said they were? To be effective, boomer subs need to disappear. Therefore I assume they could be almost anywhere, although Israel’s strategic interests likely narrow that down a bit.
What’s the point you’re trying to make?
The Israeli submarines are not “boomers.” The Israeli Navy “Dolphin” class is diesel electric powered. Their nuclear capability is with sub-launched cruise missiles.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin-class_submarine
Still a formidable deterrent, or a theologically driven Gotterdammerung tool.
Can he? Probably.
Will he? Probably not.
Frankly, I have come to the conclusion that the only moral choices for an American voter are either Jill Stein, whatever her limitations, or to not vote at all. The uniparty candidates are transparently unhuman in their regard for non-Americans. As someone who last voted for a uniparty candidate in 1976 (!-Carter), this course of action allows me to sleep at night knowing that I have not supported evil.
Cornel West is also on the ballot in several states.
Not voting is a vote for whoever wins.
I suspect that if everyone who either doesn’t vote in disgust or feels they have to vote for the lesser evil of Harris or Trump rather than ‘throwing their vote away’ on Stein actually voted for Stein the result would surprise eveyone, and even if she still didn’t win she’d gain enough ground to be a serious contender next time.
If there is a next time.
And yet, many USians will vote for one of the genocide supporters. That right there is one of the core moral issues the US has that is hardly ever discussed.
Betteridge’s Law applies if that’s the right question. Hersh assumes the tail-wagging-the-dog theory of US-Israeli relations. The US, cum Biden or otherwise, has no interest in calling a halt to the Israeli’s proxy warfare. Hamas’ 10/7 raid provided the pretext for wiping out Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and expansion into Lebanon.
Neocons situated in the State Dept. will keep things on track. AIPAC is Neocons’ blunt intrument for keeping Congress in tow and otherwise smothering criticism of Israel under the blanket of alleging anti-semitism whenever and wherever criticism arises.
Check out Dima’s interview with Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff in which Hudson outlines how Israel in the ’70s became a platform for US engagement in the ME (https://www.youtube.com/live/G9wi2b3nSqY?si=lI7dOPAQmlpIzsW1). Israelis are implementing US policy aimed at control of ME oil. Palestinians are pests who are simply in the way. The “final solution” is underway.
Kontrary Kansan
“blunt instrument” very apt. Concur that US in complete agreement with Israeli proxy war aims. I imagine Aipac a precaution to subvert any america first thoughts might crop up in Congress’ collective head. Should Israel’s post Al-Aqsa Flood decline continue apace and the US cut and run Aipac will need to be shown the door in some way, my humble opinion.
“UK troops placed on standby to defend Estonia against Russia under new pact”
‘Some 1,000 British troops are already deployed in Estonia…Army brigades differ in size, but as many as 5,000 troops could be placed on standby under the pact, which will begin in July 2025.’
So, how does that stack up against the present size of the Estonian military?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia#Military
Never mind. And last I heard, the Brits had about 5 days worth of ammo to shoot and then they would be back to ‘Fix bayonets!’ And should it be mentioned that the supply line from the UK to Estonia would stretch to over 1,600 miles/2,570 kilometers?
I’m actually comfortable with the fact the UK armed forces are utterly useless.
Getting pasted in an attempted intervention might be the best thing ever. It did for Anthony Eden. We need more cluster family blogs.
Plus it’ll cement the change in views round here in a central England marginal constituency: Starmer in 100 days went from saviour to a word more despicable than the c word used about a woman’s bits. My mother has showed me what is being said on local Facebook. Nothing is repeatable.
The guys at The Duran did a demolition job on him in a video recently called “UK Starmer, unpopular and without a program”-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7h4IGWSZ-Q (13:41 mins)
The guy reeks of corruption. At least Larry the Cat remains as popular as ever and I suspect will outlast Starmer as PM.
Yep. My constituency has a lot of older people – the group who turn out to vote. They’re currently ripping Starmer a new a-hole on Facebook. My constituency has Labour first, Tories second and Fascists third. They’ve already decided that those top two are useless. People have long memories and the Lib Dems can kiss their deposit goodbye. Greens are disorganised so are regarded as a joke, despite the fact, deep in their manifesto, have progressive stuff like MMT, land value taxation and financial reform. But their candidates are as popular as Jehovah’s Witnesses.
In 4/5 years time we’ll have a hung parliament with Labour unable to govern without some sort of agreement with a fascist party (either Reform or the Tories under someone like Badenoch) calling the shots.
Banana republics where we can’t even be sure the nukes work. Note to self: renew Aussie passport. Aus may be as messed up as UK but it has amazing beaches…..that are not covered in sewage.
“We’ll save Australia.
Don’t wanna hurt no kangaroo.
We’ll build an All-American amusement park there.
They got surfin’ too!.”
“Political Science” Randy Newman (1972)
HMP!!! Best wishes!
From yesterday, “Mysterious black balls” close 2 popular beaches in Australia, CBS.
The Duran is unfair. Two Tier Kier has a programme. He believes in the rule of law.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/17/keir-starmer-beliefs-attorney-general-rule-of-law
This article in today’s Guardian is fascinating. Clearly it is an attempt to make lemonade from lemons but it is inadvertently very truthful:
– Starmer has no vision other than the status quo.
– Starmer believes in legalism over democracy
– Starmer will spend five years tied up casuistry to defend his every action, from arm’s sales to Israel to freeloading off donors and celebrities, because he cannot conceive of a world in which the facts cannot be fitted to the loophole.
Starmer clearly cannot believe in the rule of and the bigger moral picture because he gaoled Assange. This government will not impose any new vision of morality or political economy because these stand outside the law for him. We will work with what we have in our managed moral and economic decline….
The budget on 30th October us going to be a car crash. They are now floating trial balloons of raising £45bn in new races, presumably so people think they got off lightly with £20bn, but the electorate and the markets can see that the next five years are zombie years of stagnation.
Is Starmer Andropov, Brezhnev or Chernenko?
More of a Yeltsin, deeply corrupt authoritarian running a clown car economy into the ground.
One of the things I find fascinating is that aside from being a complete idiot, Liz Truss’ demise was largely due to a proposed budget that is likely going to turn out to be not much worse than Starmer’s proposed budget in terms of cuts to services.
It will be interesting to watch this play out.
Starmer’s pet journal, the Guardian, totally lost whatever credibility they maintained during the Max Gogarty scandal. I was fortunate enough to be reading the original post and comments in real time. FUNNIEST AFTERNOON EVER.
Believe me, you’d have to be sure the wayback machine was 100% up to date to see the truly hilarious yet monstrously disgusting and nepotistic nature of the Guardian to see what comments were put up there before the hopelessly inept Guardian moderators could delete them.
THAT was the moment I realised that the Guardian is no better than the Daily Mail. Indeed, Yves has mentioned that the DM health coverage is often pretty good. You can’t say that of the Guardian with their Islingtonistas who like healing stones and cut ties with notable evidence based scientists like Ben Goldacre.
Starmer’s “programme” cuts against English and Scottish legal traditions in every direction. Another way of headling the Guardian article is, “Law not Liberty”. With a majority of that size based on so little electoral support, it means the country is ripe to take on the characteristics of a legal dictatorship, not unlike the Third Reich which was very finicky about the application of law without exception, unless the exception was incorporated into law. Seems that Carl Schmidt has become the dominant ideologist of the Labour Party. Anyway, it was not the greatest news to read whilst eating my corn flakes. Maybe the Guardian should focus more on what a snappy dresser he is…
Always easier to be a snappy dresser when somebody else is paying for your extremely expensive tailored suits. :)
Is dissenting like that on Facebook legal in the UK?
Apparently so. Huge vitriol. The only thing that worries me is that whilst I think our MP is a moron, like me he is gay and his membership of the “Labour alphabet mafia” could end up with people like me getting beaten up by association.
I’ve already endured abuse for wearing a mask in the shopping area of our suburb. Bleak times….
This is not about fighting. NATO is drifting into the picking-up-the-pieces stage of the crisis now, and the competition is on to see who will have how much influence on the “post Ukraine” work which has apparently already started in Brussels. To have influence in that debate you have to show that you still have some military capability left. Many NATO nations have lost what little capability they had, and the UK deploying like this is a way of underlining the fact that, although weakened, it is still capable of sending a Brigade abroad under national control. Not many other European states have this capability now, and just talking about expanding your forces, increasing your defence budget and buying lots of stuff with money you don’t have, doesn’t magically provide it.
You gotta love ‘forward defence’.
Estonia might think it is being protected from those baaaad Russians, but it’s a bit like ‘come into my parlour said the spider to the fly’
LOL — it’s been a one way ticket to decline for the UK since Suez. This is just the latest embarrassment.
Re: Vox on the Democrats
I seem to remember Democrats having control of all branches of government and not doing anything to codify Roe v. Wade or pass universal healthcare or raise the minimum wage or make unionizing easier. There will be obstacles and many actions might be struck down, but that shouldn’t keep them from trying and passing the legislation.
And we know from experience that when push comes to shove, when the Democrats really believe in something, it will pass, witness the billions that are sent to Ukraine. The Democrats could do the same for their economic and social policies, that is unless they don’t really care about women, the poor, and healthcare and their stances are don’t reflect their actual beliefs and priorities.
With all due respect, I think you meant to say when the democrats are really paid for something… at least at national and statewide levels.
Wasn’t that around the time Obama said Dems really needed to “reach across the aisle”? Good times.
Come to think of it, maybe that could be a reminder to the current DemParty fans.
I mean, Saint O. could never be wrong, could he?
Re Russia suspected of planting device on plane that caused UK warehouse fire The Guardian
The usual baseless smear article from the British intelligence house journal. Working on the classic principle that more people will only read the heading, a few will read the intro, but even fewer will read the entire article.
Namely: Buried in the body copy is the following:
‘The parcel is believed to have arrived at the DHL warehouse by air, though it is not known if it was a cargo or passenger aircraft, nor where it was destined for.’
So it may have come via DHL, may have been cargo or passenger plane, no idea of the ultimate destination, but lets point the finger at Russia. They are the eternal evil wrongdoers.
More, British investigators suspect that the incendiary device is part of a wider campaign that Russian spies have been carrying out across Europe this year, which has been condemned as rash and careless by spy chiefs in the UK and elsewhere.
So, “Russian spies” are “rash and careless”.
I like this bit, Any plot that would have led to the bringing down of a plane would have attracted widespread international condemnation. Am I sensing disappointment? I’m reading “false-flag opportunity”.
Well the “rash and careless” dovetails very nicely with the public inquiry that opened this week into the alleged novichok death of a substance addicted middle-aged woman several miles outside Salisbury. She died a couple of months after the weekend the Skripals collapsed on a park bench in the centre of Salisbury. The British government wants to pin her death on the two ‘rash and careless’ ‘GRU operatives’ that were spotted on various CCTV systems around the city, albeit none near the Skripal house, while footage from the CCTV in the city centre where the Skripals collapsed, is unavailable.
Indeed, and no surprise to long time readers as The Skripal affair was much discussed here at the time.
It’s a good thing that the Skripals were found on that bench by the chief nurse of the British Army. How is that for good luck and timing?
Indeed — had she not been there, the Prime Minister would not have been able to hold her Salisbury Victory Parade just before losing the General Election.
At least fewer Brits were killed than on the first day of the Somme. But they’re working on that . . .
Luck? Luck? We are credentialed PMCs here. Luck has nothing to do with it. /s
It is even luckier that the ambulance man accidentally administered atropine rather than naloxone, which saved him. Allegedly.
None of the symptoms are consistent with a chemical weapon nerve agent. From Sturgess’s boyfriends testimony, it is slow acting (15 minutes after administering as skin contact spray) and apparently neutralised by washing with soap and water. He thought she was having a bad hangover. He got her out of the bath and administered CPR. He should have died himself from contamination from bathwater or skin contact.
John Helmer insists it was some sort of opioid agent, like carfentanyl. The major symptom was respiratory depression. The other symptoms of nerve agents (uncontrollable fitting, salivating, shaking, incontinence, sweating etc) do not seem present.
The A&E consultants at Salisbury recorded the original Skripal attacks as opioid poisoning. The entire Sturgess evidence has been about attacking this and undermining any fact that casts doubt on “novichok”.
I think Helmet’s theory that Skripal was re-defecting is correct and MI6 intercepted their meeting with GRU and incapacitated them with a fast-acting opioid. The atropine was administered because it would not do much harm, it would look like a mere agent was responsible and, importantly, it would not revive Skripal instantly unlike naloxone (they wanted him incapacitated until they could get him out of public sight). The army nurse was there to oversee all this. Sturgess is a bystander who has either accidentally become a victim or stochastically has provided one, to enable the file to be closed with the correct narrative (because there is no body in the Skripal case and people would ask questions…).
God knows what info Skripal has that is so valuable they pulled this stunt!
Am I sensing disappointment?
Or foreshadowing?
Foaming the runway for yet more hysterical cries of Russia, Russia, Russia!
We’re currently in the Reichstag Fire stage, aren’t we?
Isn’t that what they tried to make the January 6th riots out to be and tried to use it in the same way?
Correct me if I’m wrong here, if my memory serves me well a common theory at the time was that the Skipral affair was orchestrated to preserve the sanctity of the Steele dossier, a laughably impossible task. I guess preserving the sanctity of British intelligence is on the docket now, an equally foolish notion.
Can’t honestly remember the timing myself but just had a funny thought. Can you imagine what would happen if Trump was elected President and the day after Inauguration day his first executive decision would be to pardon all those January 6th rioters that did not use violence at all? The DoJ alone would have kittens.
Lol! I like kittens.
Lots of discovery to be done first. The DOJ has been unConstitutionally stonewalling House investigators who have a damned good idea of what happened but lack actual existing evidence.
The gallows, the pipebombs, the actual number of law enforcement embeds in the crowd: these are truths that need to be brought out into the open.
THEN do the pardons. Possibly on Trump’s first day back in office but only if a miracle happens and discovery is permitted during the lame duck session.
Russia, Russia Russia! All over again. A constant though this time it looks more idiotic than usual.
In the end it becomes ‘crying wolf’ and people become anaesthetised to the hysteria. Happened with McCarthyism.
I just assume that anything that looks callous and stupid enough is just another Ukrainian false flag because I know who and what the enemy is and always will be: https://x.com/aussiecossack/status/1846828439816270330?t=XMrxNUnam1Uw3V9uSQwiMw&s=08
Just thought you all might find this interesting…
Boy or girl? Researchers identify genetic mutation that increases chance of having a daughter
I did not link to the original study since this version is easier to follow and the study is pay walled, but here it is:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2024.1876
Why is this important to me? Because the gene they focus on is ADAMTS14, a metalloproteinase that needs Zinc to function.
https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q8WXS8/entry
Zinc is linked to immune and reproductive health.
The trend of males/females is clearly showing an increase in female births over the last sixty years:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr53/nvsr53_20.pdf (PDF)
Wondering if this could be a good measure of a societies zinc status?
Reminds me of a breeding program for a near-extinct bird species. A population was isolated on a local island, safe from preying invasive species, and provided proper nutrition. After a few years of primarily one sex offspring. Turns out, proper nutrition for all was not a stable strategy for those birds, for whatever historic evolutionary reason. (A tale from Lucy Cooke’s Bitch which I don’t have handy to cite the species and location.)
Gemini chatbot claims it might be Mauritius Pink Pigeon, and that it turned out there was a lack of certain minerals and vitamins in their diet.
Chabot is confusing the birds problem with habitat destruction and the breeding program.
Re: “Imperial Collapse Watch” in general:
My very superficial understanding of history is that after the USSR launched Sputnik in 1957, the US basically made a concerted effort to prioritize STEM education, address (non-existent) “missile gaps”, avoid “Strategic surprise” (ARPA creation), etc. all with a sense of urgency.
The US is now far behind even North Korea and Iran with respect to hypersonics and drones, is clearly deficient Russia in tanks and China in ships, and instead of sounding any alarm, it just sort of dismisses it all with handwaves and headlines. Until maybe a year ago or two ago, the country’s policy was to just pretend that other countries don’t have hypersonics. Even now, none of the realities appear to actually change US policy to deal with underlying realities.
What happened to cause such a huge shift in how to address problems? And is there any possible positive end in sight?
Nestle says its sales are suffering due to Israel boycotts
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/nestle-says-its-sales-are-suffering-due-to-israel-boycotts-7982f5f7?mod=home-page
Hmmm. Seems awfully convenient excuse….and really–a decline in their “internal rate of growth”, a completely self-constructed unpublished company metric?
I mean, it would be swell if Nestle were feeling real pain, but I suppose them claiming this publicly is worth something, if others believe them……..
Old Hollywood Proverb: There is no such a thing as bad publicity.
Nestle is perfecting their Narrative.
“Tax on Europe’s frequent flyers could raise €64bn a year – study”
‘Just over half the benefits in a given year would come from the 5% of people who fly the most, while 72% of people would escape fees by flying once or not at all.’
So how many of that 5% would be business travelers flying for their company? I would assume that those companies would simply pay that extra tax and claim it off their taxes at the end of the year. But here is the thing. Why is there no suggestion by this mob that there should be a tax on private jets? A strange omission that. You have to be pretty wealthy in order to fly by one if not even be a billionaire. So surely they could be taxed an even larger amount to put a brake on their jet-setting around the world. Look how many jets fly in for a big social affair like Burning Man for example. Not hard to collect. If you don’t pay the tax, you get no refueling, no servicing and are not allowed to take off until you do.
I get where you’re coming from. However, the “flights to enable in person meetings” is a real thing. Don’t get me wrong – I think Bezos does NOT need to fly to meet Gates. However, lower level peeps like me did over a 15 year period (2001-2015) really make key connections that led to advances in human knowledge that simply would never have happened in the “Zoom era”.
The key is rationing trips and offsetting carbon or using govt taxes etc to ensure that only the most important trips are made.
I realise this is pie in the sky…but just thought I’d put in my twopenneth.
In support of Terry’s point, my use of our company plane is for the very face-to-face, which Terry correctly observes is more productive than Facetime, or Zoom meetings. But sure, Europe, you guys go ahead and at a time when your Continent’s enterprises are falling behind those of America and China, do what you do best, encumber your side with yet more in the way of rules, regulations, and taxes.
Me? I’m thinking it’s akin to them making their Olympic athletes in the 100m carry a sack of corn whilst competitive runners are unburdened. But what do I know?
These comments bring back memories as a young one of hearing about my grandfather playing many rounds of golf with both current and potential clients, discussing business while hacking away. Of course don’t forget the business lunches too…
Judging by the behaviour of son, daughter and their pals flights are taken:
1) to travel for your new job destination in a faraway city.
2) to visit friends who had job destinations in other faraway places.
3) by Christmases and other holidays return home for a while to recharge (mental) batteries while enjoying Mum&Dad’s cuisine and washing/ironing abilities.
4) their job requires some travelling (uncommon, zoom preferred).
Applying a flat tax for everyone in flights will probably have unintended consequences. I feel sympathetic about this tax. This summer I visited Ireland. Next year I will visit Cerezo de Abajo. In tourism-obsessed Spain there are worries about this tax.
To add on #4 if I may,in my niece’s cohort, they are mostly remote workers so they will fly all over the place, work from the hotel room,or cafe, you name it.
4a) contribute as superspreaders.
I’m very sympathetic to the tax.
Doesn’t the EU have pretty good trains?
The Chunnel is a choke point for the UK, but there are good options there other than flying, no?
Or are you talking intercontinental?
2001-2009 I was UK based but had to make annual trips to my primary collaborator in Sydney.
2009 he head-hunted me but because all the “conferences that mattered” were in North America or Europe I did transcontinental. A LOT. I was flabbergasted to realise that upon applying for full Australian citizenship (as opposed to just permanent residency) in 2014 I’d achieved only 4 years (the minimum) plus one day actually on Australian soil despite it being chronologically 5 years since I moved there.
No wonder my L4/5 disc is beyond repair.
I rode out to the Black Rock City airport a few times to get a feel for the aircraft there, and each time there were about 40 small planes, 35 or so were Cessna 172’s and the like, the others were twin prop jobs, no jets spotted though.
The idea that only Illionaires with 10 figure worth go to Burning Man is what the mainstream media pushes, and gets lapped up as the truth, is what they do.
I would settle for mid-six figures myself.
Is this Black Rock City of which you speak in any way related to the film “Bad Day at Black Rock?”
Every day is a bad day at Black Rock* for long suffering Bills fans. One week we have an MVP QB suit up, and the next week he turns into a journeyman hack.
* the original name of Buffalo
What? Did Super Quarterback pop into a convenient phone box and slouch back out as Clark Kent, reporter for the Deplorable Planet?
Bad Day At Black Rock Was filmed in the Alabama Hills, just outside Lone Pine California, in the Owens Valley. Mount Whitney can be clearly seen in many shots, and many Tom Mix and Hopalong Cassidy serials were filmed in the area. Black Rock City, on the other hand, is in Northern Nevada.
99% of what we need our company aircraft for happens in and around the SE. E.g. within a few hours of our base of operation (Orlando, FL). So I, or another pilot, plus one to three more souls can depart in the early AM for Ft Lauderdale or Tallahassee, do what’s needed, and be snug back in our own beds that same night – easily.
Conversely, flying commercial would almost to a certainty see us use the better half of a day for travel, maybe engage in our meeting that same day but more likely, overnight before doing that which was our purpose for traveling the next, and then sometimes return that same 2nd day, but often due to scheduling, return on the third day. That’s one heck of a difference in terms of productivity for a business, believe me.
Saying a small aircraft is just as critical as a company truck, a copier, or any other tool used for the conduct of business. It’s down to a company plane being a boon to productivity. And if we needed a larger one, perhaps a Cessna caravan or Beechcraft King Air, then I’d buy it. Or a jet, depends.
For our operation, a Bonanza does perfectly. If you have no clue, eyeball this link for advertisements over the decades as they paint a perfect picture of what this tool is about.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/autohistorian/32721741444
And guess what? Like our B-52 bomber fleet, which is of similar vintage as our Beechcraft Bonanza, it’s similarly still doing that for which it was born 70 years ago! Can you think of another tool of business, which is still in use for the very same purpose for which it was created, the better part of a century after it was produced?
What’s more, with reasonable care (especially as it got a new $50k engine and prop just 200 hours ago), I can think of no reason it shouldn’t still be at work 100 years from now (long after I’m dust and a mere notation within the logbooks).
Bottom line? Anything interfering with business is like a tax, and taxes used for good reason are one thing, the ill thought out are a detriment to our USA.
Sure – but its not a one for one exchange. If the tax on profit is 20 percent, for every extra dollar in sales tax a business pays it still costs them 80 cents in the end after deducting from their taxes
>US announces additional $425 million military aid for Ukraine
Interesting subject verb construction. Who is this magical “US” that can “announce” 425M out of nowhere? Can we ask this “US” to “announce” some money for Americans?
Brings to mind Thucydides’ famous saying that the powerful will do what they will and the poor will suffer what they must…at least nice of them to “announce” it.
I tried to find out how many people in America voted in the 2020 election. Then I was going to multiply that figure by $600 USD for a ‘missed’ American Aid Package and compare it with the Ukraine figure. In that search, I found an article with the title: “How many Americans voted in 2020.” Nowhere in the article is there a single hard number for voters. The purest clickbait headline I have read yet.
See: https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-americans-voted-in-2020/
Going to the Census Bureau website, I find the following:
“More voters (154.6 million) turned out for the presidential election in 2020 than in 2016 (137.5 million), the largest increase between consecutive presidential elections since the inception of the CPS voting supplement in 1964.”
154,600,000 X $600 USD = $92,760,000,000 USD.
The 2020 American Supplemental Voting Stimulus Act (cancelled by Presidential inaction 2021,) would have pumped almost 93 billion dollars into the American economy. Talk about “bang for the buck!”
Stay safe. Try and stay solvent.
>U.S. strikes Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen NBC News
The strikes were the first time the U.S. has used B-2 bombers, also known as stealth bombers, in strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, a U.S. official told NBC News.
“This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified,” Austin said in a statement.
If this “unique demonstration” of using the most sophisticated modern weapons on an undeveloped country on the other side of the globe demonstrates anything it is that the U.S. considers itself the official policeman/hegemon in the region. When Austin says that the strikes are intended “to further degrade the Houthis’ capability to continue their destabilizing behavior” it makes you wonder who can “degrade the US’s capability to continue their destabilizing behavior.”
“… it makes you wonder who can “degrade the US’s capability to continue their destabilizing behavior.”
Given that America has given away both surplus and ‘seed corn’ from out of the strategic stockpiles, primarily to Israel and the Ukraine, it looks like America is doing an excellent job of “degrading” its destabilization capabilities itself.
Policeman of the rules-based order is axiomatic.
IMO the intriguing thing about this report is what it suggests about US lack of confidence that it can safely strike Yemen with non-stealth aviation. B-2 seems to me a very costly way of striking such a peripheral adversary. IMO it has something of the “feel” of a sign of weakness.
I don’t know quite what to think. I have three thoughts:
-this is a PR stunt to soothe Americans who might be starting to wonder why Israel hasn’t just carpet bombed Tehran yet.
-they are worried about retaliation from even Yemeni missiles and do need to use the long distance bombers as our bases are too small to provide defense and run offensive operations.
-its a mix of depletion and overuse of other air assets relative to the maintenance cycle and the environment. Its been hot.
Linking to that Crooked Timber post about how the US had lost the war against Yemen was obviously a bad idea. Clearly the Democrats, like the Republicans, also read Naked Capitalism. In fact, everybody of any importance in the US gets all their news and all their ideas from this site.
So whatever goes wrong, it’s all Naked Capitalism’s fault. You heard it here first!
Back in the day when US was great, B-2s would bomb Chinese embassy just because they can.
On lithium protests in Serbia, the situation is getting murkier and murkier. The municipal council of Loznica, town on whose territory the mine is located, was supposed to meet and pass the necessary zoning legislation to allow construction of the mine. The local government is controlled by the country’s ruling party so it was merely a formality.
Well, that didn’t happen because the president and several members of the council resigned ‘due to health and family reasons’. Now everything is in limbo until the new council president is elected, which is rumoured to happening on Oct. 25. Should the council fail to elect a new president, it will be disbanded and new municipal elections held in two months.
So it looks like the local government henchmen are getting cold feet and are unwilling to take one for the team. This may even be a start of a fracture within the ruling party, local henchmen have been unhappy with centralization of power over the last few years.
The Great Game’s other principal presenter: Dmitry Simes Gilbert Doctorow ****** Based on Doctorow’s interpretation of FBI raids on Simes residence and property, it’s comforting to learn that my “La Farge like” stained glass window of dogwood blooms that might be optimistically worth a few thousand or my small collection of British art deco and American victorian style Seth Thomas antique mantle clocks is me doing “money laundering.” America land of the free. Good thing I sold off my Grandmother’s extensize coin collection when I was a teenager (something I truly regret) because I thought I needed the money.
“Topsy Turvy in the Middle East: The Case for Total Victory”
After reading through this I thought that it might have been released by an Israeli Embassy but in fact in came from Gwythian Prins. So who is he?
https://www.chartwellspeakers.com/speaker/gwythian-prinns/
So he is a serious person that has serious talks with serious people. Seriously. I wondered then what he had to say about the Ukraine and found this-
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/04/brexit-helped-save-ukraine-vladimir-putin/
I honesty think that this guy has a nervous breakdown in his future. The only question is whether it will be caused by the collapse of the Ukraine or the implosion of Greater Israel.
I was assuming Gwythian was a made up name. Those MI6 are a bunch of kidders.
What the hell is the Gatestone Institute? All I could find on their “This is who we are” page was an advert for an article by Alan Dershowitz. Mind you, that told me all I needed to know.
Seriously, though, people like Prins are seriously, seriously sick.
When I first started reading the article, it was so over the top I thought it was a spoof from The Onion.
Once I realized it was too long for The Onion, I thought the author was setting up absurd straw men to later knock down.
But no. The author is completely serious. And completely delusional.
The Gatestone Institute has quite the reputation as well. Here’s its Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatestone_Institute
Here’s the Wikipedia page of Nina Rosenwald, Gatestone’s founder:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Rosenwald
Rich right-wing super-Zionist. Gatestone is known for making all kinds of s**t up about Muslims of all kinds. Gwythian must be a sterling academic.
Didn’t her father also finance Joel Spingarn and the founding of the NAACP?
Nothing like setting up another race to take criticism between you and the majority population. They learned their lesson well in Germany.
You could be right. Her family was involved in a wide range of philanthropic activities and the coordination of funding for such activities (especially from Jewish sources) for a long time. I don’t want to say that these were all tainted or undesirable. Also, the experience of family members in Europe with the rise in antisemitism and Hitler was a legitimate motivating factor. But by the time we get to Nina Rosenwald a few generations later we can see where money plus an increasingly narrow extremist ideology can lead.
Was the NAACP a bad thing to found?
I still have no idea who Simplicius is, and while I don’t agree with a lot of his worldview (or writing style), he (she? they?) definitely has a really sharp analytical mind, at least when not going off too far into conspiracy-land. That said, I picked up on a possibility in this article that he just dismissed as morale-boosting.
Specifically, what he calls Zelensky’s 5th point that Ukraine’s military personnel will be the most experienced in Europe with modern weapons. When I saw that, I actually read it as a veiled threat towards Europe, as in: “Look at how gnarly and experienced our few long-lasting veterans are. If we lose and stop fighting Russia, I wonder who else they might attack…. *wink, wink*”
As someone that’s actually skeptical of constitutions, written laws, etc. in general (maybe call me a “policy nominalist”), I find all the liberal acknowledgments of the Constitution’s limitations pretty unserious. Why? Until they’re willing to take it anywhere near its logical conclusion, it’s all essentially whining.
The Constitution allows for being totally rewritten, but all those mechanisms are blocked by our current political dynamic… which has mostly emerged from lots of choices all permitted by the Constitution. What that means though is that the only behavior that breaks the cycle is extra-constitutional, i.e. rule-breaking, “force and fraud”, etc. And that leads to the scary thing. It seems to me that while there are other groups forming, some of the dumbest and meanest sections of the right (probably because of the tribalism and meanness) have a head-start on genuine street-power.
>>>>U.S. Navy Demonstrates Game-Changing Underway Reload Technology That Could Redefine Naval Warfare
newsflash: The US Navy has basically sacrificed its unsexy ships (oilers, minesweepers, ice breakers) to fund their expensive siblings.
take your pick….what will the US run out of first in WW3: ammo, jet fuel, airframes, public legitimacy? place your bets!
Last, first.
Two questions came to my mind after reading that article. First one – what happens if the seas are running high? Would that be a good time to move explosive missiles? The second is that they will need to modify present ships to use this system but how many will they budget for? Two? One for the Pacific and one for the Atlantic. Your mention of the sacrifice of oilers, minesweepers, ice breakers is spot on. So why would these ships be any different?
SIngle points of failure… hmm. If I were a Russian subs captain, which ship I would target…?
I interpret this to be a military version of “speed-up” management on the factory floor to compensate for insufficient production capacity.
There may not be enough ships in the fleet to rotate out ammo-depleted warships and replace with recently replenished ones. At-sea replenishment mitigates this problem.
On first reading this, my reaction was “why didn’t they develop techniques like this decades ago?” I think that part of the answer may be that it wasn’t necessary when the fleet was larger.
This might be a sign of weakness.
Game-changing, significant breakthrough,
successfully demonstrating, for the first time.
Innovative technology,
enhancing operational effectiveness,
Historic demonstration,
to load an empty missile canister into the ship.
A crucial step towards achieving a key strategic objective.
A key milestone on the path to perfecting this capability.
The implications of this advancement are significant.
The strategic advantage this capability provides.
A big load,
of bollocks.
What next? Let me guess — a floating pier for Gaza?
no no no…
it’s a floating refueler for the f 35
with a room where the dry powder is kept safely away from land…
…and an ice cream freezer because duh…
Next is putting a square canister in a round hole, and giving everyone participation medals.
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/square-peg-round-hole-gm133762934-18245382
Re Taibbi, Racket, University of CA–perhaps the quip needs to be reworked and the new definition of a despot would be a liberal mugged by acquiring power. Suddenly the former outsiders see the merit in keeping down the great unwashed. Of course we, the mostly powerless, understand this a lot better than those with the giant rice bowls. The latter may be the problem but how to put the money/power genie back in the bottle? I don’t think it’s unfair to say that in Kamala we have yet another climber to go with the Obamas, the Clintons etc.These middle class climbers don’t have to worry about noblesse oblige as that’s somebody else’s problem but they do have DEI to pretend to care with no real threat to their money and status. This unholy bargain is very shaky however. You spend all your time worrying about the boogie man, Trump division. Call it the latest wrinkle on America’s paranoid style.
… a liberal mugged by acquiring power. Hello AOC!
“The nightmare facing Democrats, even if Harris wins” — Vox
Thanks, Obama.
Just an FYI of another nightmare that seems to be developing.
The members of the MSNBC delegation that are afflicted with TDS – at least the ones who are not totally brainwashed – are seeing what is happening – realizing that a Trump victory may be likely at this point – and my office has just been flooded in the past 2 weeks with depression, stress, insomnia, and others. I am already hearing many stories of families disinviting the Trump supporters from Thanksgiving and Christmas etc ( the vast majority of the time this does not happen the other way around).
One thing for sure, if Trump does win, and if what I am seeing already before the election continues, we are likely to have a mental health issue in this country the likes of which we have not seen before. I saw this being discussed by someone this week – and I could not agree with them more.
3 weeks out, this is already noticeable and worsening daily. I would call this a true nightmare as well.
You might want to have some copies of The Five Stages of Grief ready to hand out.
As the alt-comedian stated it: Time for me to reread my copy of Son Sue’s “The Art of Woke.” (Not to be confused with the Taschen book of the same name.)
re: five stages of grief. Tucker interviewss Mark Halperin.
Halperin gives his assessment of the likelihood of the left losing it if T wins. This clip starts at that point near the end of the interview.
https://youtu.be/vV_WDBqE8VI?t=6912
Mark Halperin on Why He Thinks Trump Will Win and the Left’s Mental Collapse
Full interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV_WDBqE8VI
I long for the days when everyone’s vote was considered personal business.
After the first Trump victory and widespread panic I saw in my MH job I considered taking the day after this election to just field emergency calls. Now, seeing this level of agitation and “derangement”, I worry about destructive acting out as well (towards self or others).
There is no consolation for them.
I’m a red state eco-socialist insurgent, so I don’t get witness the liberal pearl clutching first hand much. What I do witness is the same might conversely be true. The whispered conversations I overhear from the right are every bit as apocalyptic as those I imagine happening on the pseudo left.
,
From a psychological standpoint; however, it would seem to me the right may be more resilient based on in group cohesiveness that leads to action. “Action” being the antidote to anxiety and depression.
That neither side can be convinced their shared malaise stems from a common source is what breaks my brain. If only we had “billionaires are the problem” psychological interventions we might start making some progress.
We might eventually see “strikes” from both far Left and far Right against the “Billionaire Menace.”
How about air strikes? Put those B-2s and F-35s to good use. Fight them over here so we don’t have to fight them over there!
re: “That neither side can be convinced their shared malaise stems from a common source is what breaks my brain. ”
The duopoly works hard to keep it this way. / ;)
I wonder how much can be attributed to damaged emotional regulation by repeat COVID infections, if any?
It started in 2016, pre-COVID, and just like COVID, the infection has become more and more debilitating over time.
The years of hyperventilating moral panic because of made-up baloney about Trump doing treasonous crimes with the Kremlin was enough for me. Such a drag.
In advance of the 2020 election HR Clinton promised all sorts of protestation if it appears that Trump wins. I fully expect the same plants to kick in if Trump appears to win next month and it to last up to 4 years.
I really don’t know that I have the patience to live in this country through much more of this idiotic alternative to politics.
Mark Halperin made the same prediction at the end of his interview by Tucker Carlson this week:
By the way, I think the Covid response has led to a similar mental health crisis. Many relationships were destroyed as people who refused to take the vaccines were fired from their jobs, rejected by their friends and excluded from public life. The slogan I hear to this day: “never forgive, never forget.” I believe the social impacts and sense of exclusion will last a generation. We have a bit of a preview of what extreme TDS might look like. While that’s an international phenomenon, in America it’s presumably a much smaller, less influential group than TDS sufferers.
that might be the game plan
Well, from here outside the US I’m getting in the popcorn, plumping up my favourite cushions and oiling the recliner. I think it’s going to be more fun to watch than ‘Titanic’, even without Kate Winslet.
I’m also outside the US. Yesterday’s daily paper had an article by the former vice-chancellor of an Afrikaans university telling us that he’s been visiting the US. Apparently the country used to be a shining city on a hill but Trump the racist (we know he’s a racist because he said that Harris was Indian) ruined everything and now the country was doomed unless everybody voted for Harris immediately. Why he’s telling us that when we don’t have a vote eludes me, but I suspect this is a fairly good example of what Democrats are telling their friends abroad. Since our media depends almost entirely on Reuters, Bloomberg, the BBC and the CIA for its material, there is little or nothing to challenge it.
This is what Mark Halperin said in an interview with Tucker yesterday, that Lambert featured in WC yesterday, so interesting that you independently came to the same view. He said it would be as hard for Dem loyalists to process as the death of a child or someone’s wife unexpectedly divorcing the hubby, declaring herself to be a lesbian and running off with her best friend.
Halperin also predicted workplace arguments and even fights. He was much more guarded re larger scale violence.
The Vox article does not recognize how the Senate and H of R came to be this way: the “Connecticut Compromise” of 1787. There weren’t 50 states then and the voting population was east of the Mississippi and more evenly dispersed. And two political parties did not have total control.
These learned statesmen (and they were men) just didn’t think it through. Geography (state boundary) became more important than the number of voters. Back then the landed gentry made the rules; today it’s Supe’s and the Oligarchs.
“REVIEW: Stanford’s “Pandemic Policy” Conference’
After reading this article, I feel I need to take a shower. All those all too familiar names who helped to spread death and misery because they like to play expert. You’d hope that they were all suffering from Long Covid but no chance. No surprise that this was held at Stanford either as after all, this is the same place that welcomes other Nazis. I remember in one of IM Doc’s very early comments how he learned in med school that you can’t have herd immunity with a Coronavirus. And yet this was exactly what these people were demanding and who empowered people like Boris Johnson and Joe Biden to carry that idea out. A Covid on all of them.
Regarding Floodlight’s article on nuclear power:
The most recently started nuclear reactors in the US (Vogtle units 3 and 4) cost nearly $15000 per kW to build and commission. Each reactor took 15 years to complete. But in contrast, South Korea managed to build their entire nuclear fleet for a cost of $2500 per kW, with each reactor taking about 6 years to complete. They were 2.5 times as fast while keeping costs down by a factor of 6.
So the question isn’t “Why is nuclear power so slow and costly?”. It is instead “Why is nuclear power so slow and costly in the US?”
So the question isn’t “Why is nuclear power so slow and costly?”. It is instead “Why is nuclear power so slow and costly in the US?”
Given what has been happening in the UK (Hinkely Point), France (Flamanville), and Finland (Olkiluoto) regarding the construction of new atomic power plants during the past couple of decades, the part “in the USA” appears to be unduly restrictive.
True. Perhaps I should have asked, “Why is nuclear power so slow and costly in the West?”
Replace by “outside of Asia”?
I read a Washington Public Power Supply document from the 1970s that analyzed reasons for construction delays and cost overruns on their plants.
Regulation was responsible for about ten percent of delays. Problems coordinating construction craft work caused about twenty percent, but the biggest source of delays and cost overruns, about thirty percent, was engineering changes.( No doubt, in the 70s, inflation was responsible for a lot of cost increases.) The WPPSS plants were redesigned to increase generating capacity, which likely added costs and construction time.
But — remembering a point made by LJ Hart-Smith’s notorious study of Boeing outsourcing — you have to wonder if they were skimping on investment in initial design (“designing it on napkin”), and back-loading all the real engineering work and costs onto the construction stage.
Harris’ Bizarre Hawkishness on Iran
I agree with this article. Trump is bad but Harris is trying to be worse. But I didn’t see any crticism of Trump’s remark that Israel should bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities (this was reported all over the world). That is unhinged and could result in WW III.
I think that is Trump just shooting his big mouth off. When he was President he had the chance to bomb Iran when they took out a US drone overflying them but the Pentagon had to take him aside and explained in words of two syllables what they would mean and how they would play out. Trump backed down right away. Harris? I’m not so sure what she would do.
He had the chance and he obviously wanted to. Perhaps the Iranian missile strike on Israel has encouraged him in his thinking. He’s a great friend of Israel.
Did this US drone overflight takedown happen before or after the Suleimani assassination?
Looks like about 6 months before.
The military industrial complex gets what it wants. The mistake is thinking this can in any way be remedied through elections, especially the two party system. The election season really has been about Trump and Harris trying to one up each other on who is the most hawkish and most slavishly devoted to supporting Israel.
The idea that the powers that be would let you vote any of this away is risible.
Democracy, at least in the USA, no longer functions well if at all. It all starts with the citizens–they are becoming more stupid, insensitive, and uncaring about the collective virtue of the country. Citizenship is no longer seen as a responsibility to take care of your family, community, locality, and country. The only meaning to life is what I have and want. Democracy is bound to fail without citizens. Americans are now, psychologically at least, subjects who perform meaningless rituals to democracy as a very vague idea that has less and less meaning. Therefore, people blame politicians rather than themselves–how convenient!
The first thing those of us who are dissidents need to do is see the problem–it is us not the politicians. From that knowledge we can begin to heal. As long as we blame the oligarchs and politicians we are going to lose our agency. Having said that it is not the military industrial complex that is the main problem that have the power, it is the finance oigarchs who call the shots at almost all levels of life–they run every aspect of our lives so we have to wake up to that fact and begin to form community since developing and committed community is the only place where we can have agency—as individuals we can do nothing.
I disagree. The citizens of the US are constantly encouraged by the system to be this way. It may be a “which came first, the chicken or the egg” kind of argument, but there are hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars thrown around every election season to make sure voters have a certain set of ideas about politics.
Honestly, there are concrete reasons why not voting is the most popular option in any election. When they are this transparently a farce, can you really blame people for checking out? Maybe we’re the naive ones for taking it seriously at all. I mean, if at most you’re getting to bicker about a few culture war issues wouldn’t your time be better spent doing literally anything else? I struggle to think of a convincing argument as to why getting involved in the political system is one iota more worthwhile than planting a few hydrangeas in a garden or watching football.
The political system is systemically corrupt so it is too late to do much there. However, building community with friends, colleagues, neighbors, relatives wherever you can is the first step–it is not organizing anything at this point, the key is “doing” for each other and developing trust. No sane person can have trust in the current economic and political system. Something else must emerge.
The Kennedy, X, King, Kennedy, etc. assassinations did not start ” with the citizens.” Those assassinations and other such events taught a responsible caring citizenry that they will be permitted no non-violent control over government outcomes at all. And new generations of responsible caring citizens were taught that same thing all over again by the Supreme Court engineering the selection of Bush Junior, Kerry throwing the next election to Bush Junior, the DemParty engineering the artificially contrived defeat of Sanders through two primary seasons, etc.
Not to mention the double-cross, double-double cross, triple-cross, etc. by Clinton and Obama against the people who elected them for good reasons expecting good outcomes.
I don’t blame an “uncaring insensitive stupid” citizenry for this long and thorough engineering of learned helplessness. It sounds like victim blaming to me.
I think it’s because Russia has warned Israel not to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. American politics is that childish.
“Use of B-2 bombers against Yemen shows US panic: Yemeni source”
I took a look at what Wikipedia had to say about how much those birds cost and found this-
‘Ultimately, the program produced 21 B-2s at an average cost of $2.13 billion (~$4.04 billion in 2023), including development, engineering, testing, production, and procurement. Building each aircraft cost an average of US$737 million, while total procurement costs (including production, spare parts, equipment, retrofitting, and software support) averaged $929 million (~$1.11 billion in 2023) per plane.’
There were 21 but now after two crashes there are only 19. My guess is that the USAF used the B-2s to show Congress what a great investment that they were and can they have some more money for the next generation of bombers, please?
The next one looks exactly like the B-2 — “meet the new bomber, same as the old bomber” — but I gather it will cost a great deal more. And will no doubt be able to bomb goatherds in Yemen with complete confidence/
“When will Boeing’s Starliner fly astronauts again? NASA still doesn’t know”
It should be any time soon now. So, does February 30th sound good to everyone?
You should have checked the calendar. February 30, 2025, falls on a Sunday. Better make it the 31st!
“Australia gives 49 aging Abrams tanks to Ukraine’
Great timing guys. Biden has already abandoned the Ukraine and dumped the whole thing on the EU, the Russians are on a tear now and are taking fortress city after fortress city and these old tanks are supposed to do what exactly? Our government here in Oz has gone neocon but whenever that happens in any country, those government leaders drop about 30 worth of IQ points.
Saves on decommissioning costs and maybe America will give you a coupon code on those submarines when you take delivery in 2047.
Why did Australia get tanks in the first place, was it for fighting emus?
Why did Australia get tanks in the first place, was it for fighting emus?
Is this a reference to the Great Emu War?
Nah, that was in the 1930s.
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2016/10/australias-emu-wars/
Spoiler alert: we lost.
The Aussies got the tanks to train with! So they could sneak the tanks and some soldiers into Ukraine (without anyone noticing) ;)
Just on Australia’s neocon embrace, it really bothers me because, though I’ve never been there, I’ve always enjoyed Australian people and love the rock-scene there. Why are you guys so bent on war? Is it because you all worship the USA?
We are not bent on war but our institutions and military have been penetrated and taken over by US intelligence agencies acting through our own intelligence agencies. There was a quiet coup in 2023 after years of preparation with long bought out politicians and media.
Couple this with nostalgia about past circumstances in both Israel and the US and here we are. Most people hope we will get away with a bit of sanctioning and posturing and the pollies are all afraid of being Whitlamed. The fly in the ointment is the genocide in Palestine which is sticking in our collective gullets. The Greens here, who are the only real alternative ( we also have a uniparty ) seem to be unwilling to really stick their heads over the parapet although they know their vote tally would increase hugely if they did. They are probably compromised as well.
The last guy to try and buck the US here in Australia was Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, who tried to throw the CIA out of their nest at Pine Gap in 1975. Oops! Turns out the Governor (Queen’s representative) can dissolve Parliament under certain circumstances, and Liz apparently wasn’t keen on the colony getting ideas.
Governor-General. Plumed hat, etc.
“The trouble with this general election is we don’t know which general we’re electing”
The nightmare facing Democrats, even if Harris wins Vox
Interesting article about how any Democrat initiatives will be stalled out and overthrown by the judiciary, even if Harris wins. This would be very inconvenient for the Democrats if the Democrats were actually intent on accomplishing anything (lulz).
Sounds to me like a feature, not a bug.
More fun with Pandemics:
One of the best Twitter threads of the Pandemic, I think. My tl;dr interpretation is we’re all screwed.
Paolo Mosseti’s tweet on Germany and the stance of the so called “greens” about Israel.
I was (gratefully) surprised to understand 95% of it reading in Italian. Interestingly, it starts with the consideration of German Green Party as a part of the Left (Sinistra) though conceding it is now aligned with the globalist (neo)liberals if not fully conservative. So the author calls for drifts and cracks among the left. I would say it in a different way. The remaining Left is now a ghost ship populated with the spectres of former communists. The fissures are among the liberal globalists.
I think there were, when the Green Party started getting itself together in Germany, critics on the right who claimed there was a fascist tendency in the Green Party and, voila or eccola, we have a fully fascist party in the mains sense of the work, i.e., using force in war and to keep dissent down. So I’m not totally surprised. It is quite a contrast to the Greens in the US who are a solidly, in every way, left party.
My guess is that the Greens in Germany have decided to join in the Globalist Imperialist project of the US/EU/NATO to rule the world and impose Green principles etc. on the planet. They think they are doing a good thing for all of mankind always a dangerous concept.
Until Ignacio raised it, I was surprised no-one had commented on Baerbock’s demented nihilism when she did her slightly underplayed Hitler at a Nuremburg Rally impersonation, arguing that civilians can be slaughtered because civilian places (hospital tents set aflame when patients are sleeping?) lose their protected status when Terrorists (by that I think she means the legal resistance against occupation and genocide) abuse it because, well, “That’s what Germany stands for”. And that’s it. Germans should never let a good genocide go to waste. They should pony up, get a good seat, sit back and enjoy the show while it’s still on. And I suppose from her point of view, it is a hell of a good, highly constructive, ultra- Green solution to the environmentally destructive over-population of our planet. Every German should be proud to have such a statespoison dealing with foreign affairs.
Yes, her gestures and expressions did recall — well, not Hitler, he was quite a good speaker, but a bad actor trying to imitate Hitler.
I guess Hitler’s children have all died off, but the Brownshirts (wearing Green lapel pins) go marching on.
re: The Call Is Out for Mass, Simultaneous Strikes in 4 Years – Workday Magazine
Some days my mind resembles a scene in the movie A Beautiful Mind making connections where none exist. That said, I think a mass strike is a good idea. Then I read the DoD issued a directive at the end of September this year allowing US armed forces, not the National Guard, to use lethal force on US citizens in the US. And I remember the Pinkerton Detective Agency and other earlier US quasi military forces used against striking workers in the early 20th Century. (Probably just a coincidence the DoD issued this order now. Is it even Constitutional?)
From Meryl Nass substack:
DOD challenges Posse Comitatus doctrine: issues directive saying the US military can kill Americans on US soil
WHAT?!!
https://merylnass.substack.com/p/dod-challenges-posse-comitatus-doctrine
The PTB need to be able to fight the enemy within
That just happened under the BidenHarris administration.
So much for Kamala’s shrieking about Trump threatening
Americans as “the enemy within.”
re: Man arrested with guns near Trump rally sues sheriff, says he was falsely called a threat – Palm Springs Desert Sun
Thanks for the link. Interesting if true, as they say.
The eagle looks like he’s a speed skating sprinter.
completely aside: growing up in the central-upper Midwest one learned ice skating at a very early age. The best skating was on ponds and lakes when the upper layer of ice froze on a still night without wind. Smooth ice. Rivers less so, more dangers and all. I still remember ice skating back in the day. All this is a lead in to say the Olympic speed skaters take my breath away. I find myself unconsciously leaning this way and that as they take the turns. Amazing skaters those speed skaters. / cheers.
adding as a public service announcement: The first top layer of ice freezing is never safe to skate on until more sub-freezing days have passed to build up the ice layer. Once the top layer freezes it needs to be followed by several, several days of sub-freezing temperatures to build up an ice thickness safe to skate on. One night of freezing temps isn’t enough. It might take a week to build up sufficient safe ice thickness for skating.
Yes, I know most people already know this. My comment is for people who grew up in more southerly climes where ice skating in the natural world wasn’t done. Seeing a skim of ice, or seeing any darkish patches of ice, means the ice isn’t strong enough to hold the weigh of a human. And you really, really, did I say really, don’t want to fall through the ice.
I’m only saying this because I’ve seen many more southernly raised students come to uni completely unfamiliar with real winter weather. No idea how to drive in snow or on ice, etc. They learn. / ;)
OK. I’ll stop now. / ;)
Wait, one more. The above comment does not apply to civic ice skating rinks like the rink at Rockefeller Center and others. Those are great places to learn how to ice skate. There is no danger whatever that one can fall through the ice at a public or commercial ice skating rink. There is no deep water beneath them.
OK, now I’ll stop. Sorry to go on.
Speakin’ of thin ice,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6IsFPRoslY
Holy moly. Dark ice that looks less than an inch thick. omg. Yeah, do not skate on such ice, even if you’re drinking some something. wow.
adding: the some something will not save you. It’s not worth the risk. Really. It’s not.
and adding, and after this I really will stop: you need at least 3-4 inches of solid ice for safe pond or lake ice skating in an area, where a pond or lake might have 4 plus inches of solid ice in a certain shoal or embankment area but outside that area, farther out to the center, maybe only 3-inches or less the pond or lake, not so much. See also, ice fishing.
Laws of physics apply equally to everyone, unlike regular laws. They swing arm/wing backwards because of the angular momentum.
Another major pro-Palestinian outlet in the UK gets the Starmer Jackboots treatment. Only a matter of time before they come for Matt Kennard.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/uk-police-raid-home-seize-devices-eis-asa-winstanley
“British counterterrorism police on Thursday raided the home and seized several electronic devices belonging to The Electronic Intifada’s associate editor Asa Winstanley.
Approximately 10 officers arrived at Winstanley’s North London home before 6 am and served the journalist with warrants and other papers authorizing them to search his house and vehicle for devices and documents.
A letter addressed to Winstanley from the “Counter Terrorism Command” of the Metropolitan Police Service indicates that the authorities are “aware of your profession” as a journalist but that “notwithstanding, police are investigating possible offenses” under sections 1 and 2 of the Terrorism Act (2006). These provisions set out the purported offense of “encouragement of terrorism.”
An officer conducting Thursday’s raid informed Winstanley that the investigation was connected with the journalist’s social media posts. Attempts to reach the Metropolitan Police Service for comment for this story have been unsuccessful.
Although his devices were seized, Winstanley was not arrested and has not been charged with any offense.”
Starmtroopers
More like the Keystone Cops-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Orde7FtHh0 (5:45 mins)
With a search carried out in the best traditions of “The Life of Brian”-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXVN7QJ8m88
I fear this is one area where the British state and it’s current frontman are extremely competent.
Seeming like an actual human, less so.
PBS newshour has become a shameless kamala campaign commercial
Jim Lehrer may be spinning in his grave and if it could be tapped that’s clean energy right there and the current crop of dems can claim 100% of the credit for it…
Not gonna link it here, but there’s video released by the Israelis of Sinwar’s last moments. Quite the image of resistance as he uses his last moment to hurl a stick at the drone.
Not that anyone asked me, but I think the eagle in the antidote is a Steller’s sea eagle. Here is a bunch of images of Steller’s sea eagle.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrFePG9HRJnKgIAAYFXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Nj?p=steller%27s+sea+eagle+image%27&fr=sfp
A Steller’s sea eagle in drifting sea ice off the coast of Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2024/sep/26/comedy-wildlife-photography-awards-2024-in-pictures