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Links 10/26/2024

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The first marine fish driven to extinction by humans BBC (Robin K)

The fermented crescent aeon (Anthony L)

1st wheel was invented 6,000 years ago in the Carpathian Mountains, modeling study suggests LiveScience (Kevin W)

Spin the 17th-Century Death Roulette Wheel & Find Out What Would Have Killed You in 1665 Open Culture (Micael T)

The deadly plants hiding in your garden BBC (Dr. Kevin)


‘And You a Catholic!’ Commonweal Magazine. Anthony L: “Evelyn Waugh – and, if they haven’t fixed it – he is pictured at birth…”

Srinivasa Ramanujan Was a Genius. Math Is Still Catching Up. Quanta Magazine (Anthony L)

#COVID-19

UConn Keeping Air in Connecticut Classrooms Safe UConn Today (Carla R)

Climate/Environment

Some wildfires grow twice as fast as they did two decades ago New Scientist

China?

Record Defaults Hit $800 Billion Chinese Municipal Debt Market Bloomberg

Huawei uses TSMC loophole to bypass US chip ban Asia Times (Kevin W)

Chinese EV battery maker SVOLT to shut European operations Nikkei

Chinese blockade would be act of war, Taiwan says Reuters. Let us not forget how few countries recognize Taiwan and what pipsqueaks they are.

American views of China hit record low, poll finds, as animosity grows Washington Post

Argentina plunged into recession as Milei’s government imposes drastic budget cuts France 24

European Disunion

Eurozone PMI remains in contraction territory as ECB considers pace of rate cuts Think.ing

France follows Germany and reinstates border controls due to ‘serious threats posed by terrorists and migratory flows Daily Mail

Riots rock Lisbon after police shoot a Black man dead LeMonde

Under Far-Right Pressure, Bulgaria Scraps Child Refugee Shelters Ahead Of Key Elections Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe

Old Blighty

Rachel Reeves will change debt rules to free up £50bn in borrowing The Times

Shoplifting offences in England and Wales at highest level on record, ONS figures show Guardian

Utterly unsustainable’: Homelessness in London at highest level on record Big Issue

Israel v. The Resistance

Israel announces start of attacks against ‘military targets’ in Iran Anadolu Agency

Live: Israel attacks Iran, sound of explosions heard near Tehran Aljazeera

* * *

Yemen’s Houthis Dig In for a Long War Shujaib Almosama, DropSite

* * *

Hezbollah proving a formidable foe against Israeli forces in Lebanon Washington Post

* * *

EU ‘neglects’ international law, maintains trade with illegal Israeli settlements The Cradle (Kevin W)

New Not-So-Cold War

Why Did Iran And Russia Punt On Strategic Partnership? Are North Koreans In The War? Mark Sleboda and Jamarl Thomas

South Korea vows response to North Korea bolstering Putin’s forces: ‘We won’t sit idle’ Independent. Sleboda above (and Douglas Macgregor Larry Johnson and no doubt others independent media type) have debunked the claim that North Korea is providing forces to Russia’s military (Russia has long had some training programs for North Korea and the two countries have engaged in joint exercises). Sleboda argues that this is a disinfo operation to get South Korea to send F-35 pilots to Romania to fly the planes into Ukraine. He also goes through the text of the stories and explains how the headline claims are not substantiated.

Britain and Germany sign new defence agreement as Ukraine tensions rise Reuters

Syraqistan

Turkey strikes more targets in Iraq and Syria after several killed in Ankara ‘terror attack’ Sky

BRICS

HSBC Hong Kong joins China’s alternative to Swift global payments system Financial Times

Russia in talks with BRICS over precious metals exchange Reuters

Imperial Collapse Watch

F-35’s Ascent and Nosedive: Costliest Weapon in History Hits Fresh Turbulence in Damning GAO Report Sputnik (Anthony L)

G20 vows to resist protectionism ahead of U.S. presidential election Kyodo News

Trump

Tucker Carlson frames Trump as America’s abusive dad in disturbing speech MSNBC (furzy)

Kamala

2024

Russia and Iran may fuel violent post-election protests in the US, intelligence officials warn Associated Press. See Taibbi’s post-election crackdown piece (linked further down)

People in Washington Are Fleeing Town for Election Day Politico

EXCLUSIVE: Meet the Pro-Trump, Pro-Netanyahu Donors Who Have Funded Pro-Israel Democrat Ritchie Torres Zeteo

A judge orders Virginia to restore 1,600 voter registrations purged ahead of the election Associated Press (Kevin W)

What the list of mysterious deaths in the Clinton family has to do with the US election Anti-Spiegel (Micael T)

Our No Longer Free Press

Washington Post reels from Bezos decision to not endorse The Hill. Not that we have any specific insight re Bezos, but well-connected sources have told us of a big shift among Silicon Valley squillionaires against Team Dem. Some of it was due to Biden’s decrepit state, but another big driver was the Trump lawfare, particularly the New York records case, which based on the line of questioning by appeals court jurists, looks like the odds are good of being reversed.

LA Times editor quits after Harris endorsement blocked RT (Anthony L)

Note On The Washington Post’s Non-Endorsement Matt Taibbi (KLG)

Patrick Soon-Shiong: the billionaire LA Times owner who blocked Harris endorsement Guardian

Note this piece launched just as the Post made its announcement: Uh, Oh: New York Times, Washington Post Signal Post-Election Crackdown Matt Taibbi

Almost anything goes on social media — as long as it doesn’t make billionaires feel even a little bit unsafe CNN. Paul R: “Pretty edgy headline considering it’s CNN.”

AI

Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity promote scientific racism in AI search results ars technica (Paul R)

AI decodes oinks and grunts to keep pigs happy Reuters (Dr. Kevin)

Class Warfare

50 years of tax cuts for the rich failed to trickle down, economics study says CBS. Paul R: “Will wonders never cease.”

The Math Says It’s Getting Harder to Break Into the American Middle Class Bloomberg (Micael T)

US Consumer Watchdog Cautions Businesses on Surveillance of Workers Wall Street Journal

Spirit AeroSystems weighs hundreds more furloughs or layoffs if Boeing strike goes beyond Nov. 25 CNBC (Kevin W)

EviCore, the Company Helping U.S. Health Insurers Deny Coverage for Treatments ProPublica (Robin K). From earlier in the week, still germane.

Antidote du jour. Timotheus: “Seagulls at Lake Erie’s Headlands Beach State Park (Ohio)”

And a bonus (guurst):

A second bonus:

Yet another bonus:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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293 comments

  1. Antifa

    October 26th

    The Israelis sent jets and they did it
    After all Iran’s threats to just quit it
    Did their Iran attack
    But said ‘Don’t hit us back’
    Now Iran decides if they’ll permit it

    The Israelis pretend to play fair
    While they’re flailing around in despair
    Wars on all seven fronts!
    Don’t these silly, uh, grunts
    Care to salvage their own derrier?

    ‘Bomb Iran’ is a routine occurrence
    Israelis want back their deterrence
    But this war of attrition
    Has exposed their condition:
    Israelis don’t have the endurance

    Bibi’s selling a pig in a poke
    Telling lies, making hasbara smoke
    He’s offering peace
    With bacon grease
    His goal is to push and provoke

    Tel Aviv is chock full of spooks
    And there’s Bibi’s collection of kooks
    If Zion must fall
    Most of them will call
    Upon Samson for suicide nukes

    Reply ↓
  3. The Rev Kev

    ‘Trump War Room
    @TrumpWarRoom
    REPORTER: What do you say to Americans who think you need to focus more on the economy?
    KAMALA: “One of the things that I love about the American people is we can hold many thoughts at once.”‘

    Hmppphh! Most Americans can hold many thoughts at once. Kamala is not one of them.

    Reply ↓
    1. Ben Panga

      I am seriously starting to think she is disintegrating in front of our eyes. The answers are getting worse. The eyes look more terrified. The days off taken this late in the campaign are curious.

      I suspect she will be relieved to lose. She must know the job is much too big for her?

      Reply ↓
      1. Another Scott

        I’m not sure that she is disintegrating as much as people are seeing her up close for the first time. This is the same person who dropped out of the Democratic primary four years ago despite having all of the money and name recognition from being senator from the country’s largest state. Harris has won elections before, but those were Democratic primaries in California, which seem very unusual compared to those in other states.

        My guess is that the short election cycle provider her best chance of winning the election as the more the spotlight is on Harris, the more her flaws are exposed. Had she run in a competitive primary, the results might have been very different with the Democrats having a stronger candidate (maybe even Harris herself). So perhaps, unlike 2016, shifting the attention to Trump really is the Democrats’ best chance.

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        1. NotTimothyGeithner

          It’s the Clinton campaign without Bill. Harris has never been as good as presenting as Hillary.

          I suspect the inner circle is way more right wing than Harris (Walz over Shapiro was a big deal) and interested in penning scripts for The West Wing, feeding her consistent nonsense as a result.

          One thought is they are trying to get her to speak like Obama ignoring Obama’s inate charisma was what people liked versus the pablum he usually spouted. Obama rarely came under scrutiny. His interviewers are Chait and The Boss.

          Harris isn’t strong enough to reset and direct the advisors. I applaud the VP choice, but getting to Walz and Shapiro as choices with the current news is a result of bad staff work. Shapiro can only hurt.

          The Lynne Cheney thing may fluff Harris’ ego, but the Cheney spawn has no popularity outside of the Morning Joe cast. Staff work is at play there. The Spawn didn’t help Team Blue during the Jan 6th hearings.

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      2. Randall Flagg

        If she loses afterwards she can go hang with Sarah Palin and the rest of them, hoped never heard from again.

        Reply ↓
        1. The Rev Kev

          Don’t say that. I thought that Dick “Dark Lord” Cheney was long gone and forgotten and yet it was the Democrats that dug him up again and pushed him forward to show how much he supported Kamala. Did they really think that he was so popular and beloved by Americans?

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          1. Mark Gisleson

            In the third movie, long after DIckula is safely dead and burned to ash by exposure to direct sunlight, Liz slashes her palm with a dagger once owned by Ayn Rand, then mixes her blood with Dickula’s ashes, resurrecting the undead CEO of Halliburtylvania.

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      3. griffen

        I’ve increasingly thought during the year, even with Joe Biden still in the race, that our country is for a satirical, farcical ride in this election cycle. Like as in Blazing Saddles territory.

        These candidates make the governor William Le Petomayne look credible by comparison. ” harrumph, harrumph! Gentlemen we must protect our phoney baloney jobs!..”. And most American citizens are firmly in the camp of being much like Jim ( amazing portrayal by Wilder of course )…We need all the help we can get.

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      4. Carolinian

        Seems the theory was that anyone could beat Trump as long as it wasn’t Biden. And so Harris eagerly jumped at her chance to be anointed and some even claimed she was part of a kind of coup to make Biden quit. The skeptics. including people like Kirn. rightly wondered whether she had the grit to go the distance, even if shortened.

        Maybe she still will win but if it is based on inevitability that’s sinking fast.

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      5. Pat

        As someone who saw one of her very early events heading into the primary for 2020, she has always been pretty bad. Give her a mapped out appearance and she is at best adequate. Once the questions were asked, and yes her staff tried to control them, she started her off key riffing and attempts to deflect on many of them. And they were pretty easy not out of left field questions. Stuff she should have had a reasonable sounding pat answer for. I give you it is getting more obvious, but the fence around had to be lowered it was getting too obvious they had her cocooned.
        For the record, Mayor Pete looked erudite and capable by comparison and he was clearly an empty suit.

        Reply ↓
  4. Ben Panga

    It seems the Israeli strikes on Iran were far short of the devastating attack promised by Gallant. One wonders if there is another shoe to drop, or if this is it.

    Curious to see how Iran will respond. If they can sell it politically, perhaps they are better off not responding directly thus avoiding a much bigger Israeli escalation (possibly including more direct US involvement)?

    Maybe there is a way out of the WW3 death spiral.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      I think that this attack reveals something else that is important and that is the power relationship between the US and Israel. Consider. The BRICS conference has just wrapped up and it was an enormous success though there was a lot of sour grapes in the western media and downplaying the whole thing. Suddenly there comes this long awaited Israeli attack which has just pushed the BRICS conference out of the news. And I, for one, don’t believe in coincidences. So did the US get the Israelis to schedule this attack to deliberately push the BRICS conference out of the news? It would be petty if they did which makes me believe all the more that this came out of the Biden White House.

      Reply ↓
      1. ChrisFromGA

        It’s hard to say. The attack also pushed the lame “Gaza ceasefire talks back on” story out of the news, too, which hurts Harris. And its sure to remind Muslim voters that Israel is the US little rabid pet.

        My best guess is that the WH tried to temper Israel’s response because they don’t want a big attack threatening to spiral out of control on the eve of the election. But it’s just a guess.

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        1. John k

          First, I’m not sure Biden wants Harris to win. Plus, maybe trump seems sure to win and, as suggested, maybe Biden wants to force trump to support any escalation israel wants.

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          1. John Wright

            Biden (or Jill) may prefer the candidate that will make the Biden term look better in historical terms.

            Trump is a wildcard and could eclipse Biden’s image.

            Harris may be the president that Biden wants because she is so lame.

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      1. Polar Socialist

        Yes, instead they had a military training together with the Saudi navy. Probably a bigger strike on the US-Israeli aims in the region than hitting Israeli airfields again and again.

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        1. Phenix

          I saw that one too.

          I am amazed that MBS is secure enough to hold joint drills with Iran. I suspect that he rolled up many if not all of the extreme clerics/followers in the Kingdom. I find it hard to believe that he would be able to pull this move off with out a severely weakened wahhabist movement in the region.

          Or Iran killed enough that they needed to accept detente–>peace since their shock troops are no longer available.

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          1. ilsm

            Wahabbists are CIA running dogs. They are holed up in Idlib, getting on Erdogan’s bad list.

            While the Sunni part of Iraq is down and out.

            Time for the Sunni royals to leave Israel behind.

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        2. NYMutza

          I’m guessing that men in dark suits carrying briefcases visited the Ayatollha and explained how any Iranian response to Israeli aggression should unfold. In other words, there will be no meaningful response from Iran.

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      2. Mikel

        The world seems content to watch them play Battleship while huge numbers of people die between their exchange of volleys.

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        2. ChrisFromGA

          And don’t forget – fraudulent, never-intended-to-stop-the-killing pretend cease-fire talks involving that disgraced Blinken and Bill Burns piling up frequent flier miles, while accomplishing nothing except being a beard for Bibi’s killing.

          World, you suck.

          Reply ↓
    3. vao

      One wonders if there is another shoe to drop, or if this is it.

      Perhaps this was a “test run” for the Israelis, probing the anti-aircraft defenses of the Iranians and the logistical issues on the Israeli side, so as to organize a truly powerful attack later. See the announcement above of a whole pack of air-refuelling aircraft from the USA making their way towards the Near East.

      To me, it looks as if the Israelis want to make sure that their actual retaliatory strike does not fail, and this may well imply that the USA will directly support them in the act — unlike what happened with the Israeli strike on Yemen in July.

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      1. Michaelmas

        To me, it looks as if the Israelis want to make sure that their actual retaliatory strike does not fail, and this may well imply that the USA will directly support them in the act

        Almost certainly, that’s what the Israelis are planning towards. Very likely, they’re aiming for that strike to occur after the US election when the new president will be more tractable, in the sense that right now with Biden the Pentagon has been able to dig in their heels, frustrating Tel Aviv’s campaign to draw the US in.

        But as far as the Israelis’ “actual retaliatory strike not failing”?

        We’ll get Western propaganda that this current strike on Iranian military targets or whatever was a roaring success. But even from the little preliminary real-world evidence out there now, forex —

        https://sonar21.com/i-have-video-evidence-that-iran-stymied-israels-attack/

        –it looks like the Iranians’ native air defense systems and the Russian ones performed better against the Israeli attack than the Israeli systems did against the earlier Iranian missile attack. And then what? Iran has its missile arsenals in silos a hundred-meters deep under the mountains and deserts of its very large land territory. Basically, even with the US drawn in, Iran is too big and too capable for any Israeli conventional “actual retaliatory strike” to be effective enough against Iran so Israel won’t get flattened in return.

        Which suggests the actual Israeli retaliatory strike may be unconventional as per Gallant’s words, some kind of decapitation attack. (Maybe with Yves’s idea of an EMP not out of the picture, since Gallant used words to the effect that the Iranians will not know what hit them, even while this is happening.)

        We will see.

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          1. Don

            Thanks Ben Panga. Excellent discussion.

            I especially liked the point that cellphone video recorded missile after missile striking the ground in Israel on October 1 whereas all the cellphone video of this attack only shows all the Israeli missiles getting knocked out midair. If there had been successful strikes that actually hit their targets in Iran, someone would have recorded at least some of them.

            The truth is that Israel attempted a major strike using 100 aircraft and appears to have been thwarted by Iran’s air defenses.

            This is quite embarrassing for both the US and Israel and is doubtless making others like the Saudis much more eager to become allies with Iran.

            And it’s definitely going to make countries choose Russian air defense systems over the ones on sale from US companies!

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      2. Ex6

        Given the current state of reporting, it seems like the smart bet would be that Israel will attack after the election, yes?

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      4. Yves Smith Post author

        Brian Berletic (who has been relentlessly tracking the state of US arms supplies) says it was limited because Israel and the US simply do not have enough firepower to do all that much (ex nukes), given the size of Iran (more than 2X as big as Ukraine).

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        1. Safety First

          I agree that Israel does not have the resources to trash the entire country, even with significant US support. Indeed, I remember in 2006 there were questions as to what the full might of the US military could accomplish against Iran without resorting to “bunker buster” tactical nukes. [Which…were not actually delivered until around a decade later, but details.]

          On the other hand, to escalate the conflict, Israel would have just needed to hit one or two strategic targets fairly hard. For example, the refinery at Abadan (~20% of their total refining capacity), or some other comparable location. They certainly have the firepower for that, even assuming layered air and missile defenses, since some percentage of the missiles will always get through. I suspect that this is what the White House or the Pentagon has been trying to prevent, at least until the election is over.

          Furthermore, I do not know if the Israeli leadership adequately appreciates Iran’s capabilities. Settler colonialism pretty much goes hand in hand with racist and racialist propaganda, and after a few decades of said it is pretty easy for everyone in power to start believing it. In other words, there is a chance that the Israeli cabinet believes it CAN turn Iran into Gaza, provided the Americans provide sufficient support (e.g. the tankers). Would not be the first time that a government acted based on assumptions about the world that bordered on lunacy.

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          1. Not Qualified to Comment

            assumptions about the world that bordered on lunacy.

            Or on Biblical prophecy, in the case of this bunch of morons drunk on their own kool-aid.

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    4. marcel

      I haven’t seen a “final” writeup about what got destroyed. Apparently two Iranian military died, so there was some damage.
      I have also two writeups that makes one wonder what good options Israel has left.
      One states that Iran attacks with million-dollar missiles, while Israel needs to fire “billion-dollar” defense stuff. And inversely, Israel needs to attack with billion-dollar equipment (lots of planes, being refueled in mid-air, expensive stand-off missiles sent from outside Iranian airspace..) against million-dollar defenses.
      So dollar-wise, Israel cannot win.
      And Larry Johnson states that Iran shot down anything that Israel sent them. So Iran can penetrate Israel’s defense, but not the other way round.
      We’ll have to wait until the dust settles.

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        1. skippy

          This is highlighted by Russia’s MIC Mfg being non profit and audited by Government vs the investor driven for profit model and contractor servicing [waves at Bush Jr] because ideology!!!!!

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      3. hk

        Curious how many F35s and, possibly, F22s got taken down. (Obviously, not Israeli–I have the notion that US was a direct participant. All the more reason we’ll never know what really happened.)

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          1. Felix

            yes. I believe Berletic stated they used F15’s and F16’s, the missiles don’t mount on F35’s so the F35’s were combat protection.

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          2. hk

            Jordan, probably, although that’d be pretty long range if they were going for anything in the interior of Iran! I suppose that’d have required use of F15s (plus minimize need for aerial refueling) but that seems awfully inefficient, as missiles with that long a range in Israeli inventory would be likely few and wuite vulnerable to countermeaures. Thay’s why I assumed that they would have used shorter ranged ordinance and stealthy aircraft.

            On a different note, would they have gotten any advantage overflying Syria rather than Jordan, though?

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      4. XXYY

        Iran should respond by sending 100 missiles targeted on the site of Netanyahoo’s house, the goal being to make a deep crater on this spot. Then repeat each day to enlarge the hole. The Iranian military can send out daily updates about how the project is coming along.

        After a few days, much of the planet will be checking in (the web site can sell t-shirts). Netanyahoo will become a worldwide laughing stock, yet there will be no civilian casualties.

        After the zi*nists are driven out, the crater can become a new holy site.

        Reply ↓
    5. Mikel

      Why would this be the stopping point for Israel when they see how much land can be grabbed and sold or used for their purposes?
      Israel wants a Greater Israel and to feel secure in a Greater Israel. The supremacist attitude is also a fearful attitude.
      When there aren’t bombings in Iran, the assassinations will continue. Sometimes both, sometimes one or the other.
      Iran doesn’t have to respond for them to eventually be attacked in some way or the other by Israel. A pretense will be found (if they get pressure that one is needed) – nuclear weapons, sending aide to others in the region trying to protect themselves from Israel, whatever…a pretense will be found.
      And counries like Jordan have leaders that can live anywhere in the world. Ultimately, if more uncontrolled chaos develops, they could sell all the way out to Israel.

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    6. Es s Ce tera

      Could it be the strikes were successful but we’re yet to see the results, as in perhaps it was a biological or chemical attack with delayed results? We’re looking for infrastructure damage, puzzled by the lack of it, but perhaps the real damage will not be to infrastructure. This would be consistent with Gallant saying they won’t know what hit them or how, the reason we’ve been pondering the EMP possibility, but I don’t think we considered biological/chemical.

      Reply ↓
      1. Michaelmas

        I don’t think we considered biological/chemical.

        I have. You don’t use a delivery system of one-hundred-odd aircraft — even as a diversionary smokescreen — to carry out a bioweapons attack.

        You need a disease vector to deliver the virus. For example, rodents used as a vector to deliver hantavirus against Russian troops as Ukraine-US have done. See these 2023 reports —

        https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/21/europe/rats-and-mice-swarm-trenches-in-ukraine-in-grisly-echo-of-world-war-i/index.html

        https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/ukraine-claims-mouse-fever-outbreak-reported-in-russia-troops-eyes-bleeding-101703086182055.html

        Now see from early 2022 this Russian ambassador to the UN complaining precisely that US-funded biolabs sited near Ukraine’s border were developing hantavirus stores —

        https://russiaun.ru/en/news/110322n_u

        Also from 2022 a US denial via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists —

        “Experts say the documents that the Russian military allegedly acquired show that labs in Ukraine were working on public health research and aren’t evidence of a weapons program. Some of the Russian claims, at least, come from publicly available sources. At the heart of the allegations are dozens of labs in Ukraine. They are not a secret; they’re run by Ukrainian officials and partner with the US government on health research programs, for instance, surveys on natural exposure to endemic pathogens like hantavirus….”

        Your US tax dollars at work.

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    7. .Tom

      Two of the reports in Links today are about the US moving lots of assets, including 12 or 16 tankers and lots of F16s. So I wonder if what happened yesterday is another step towards something bigger.

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      1. NYMutza

        It could just be a bluff. The United States does a lot of bluffing, especially when it comes to military action. Aircraft carriers are a bluff. Just an example.

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    8. Lefty Godot

      If it follows the pattern of the previous tit-for-tat moves, Israel’s next step will probably be more assassinations, in Iran if they can figure a way to pull it off. But maybe after the US election. It looks like everyone over there is temporarily trying to titrate the responses so as to avoid a full regional war, despite the bipartisan American leadership lusting after that. Because “we” don’t care how many civilians get killed and countries get wrecked, as long as “our” side gets to brag about taking out the leaders that “we” have a grudge against.

      On a side note (following Austin’s and Biden’s rhetoric), “ironclad” must be ready to join “baseless” as a Word of the Year candidate.

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      1. Michaelmas

        Attaching this here at the tail of the Iran-Israel comments so far . From the FT —

        Iran signals it will not retaliate immediately after Israel attack:
        Armed forces say Tehran will respond at ‘appropriate time’ but emphasise importance of Gaza and Lebanon ceasefire

        archived:- https://archive.ph/vbMRL

        original: – https://www.ft.com/content/e1c7eaf5-834a-4819-bf9b-a39b51e2e8a9

        ‘Iran’s military has signalled that Tehran will not retaliate immediately after Israel launched air strikes on the Islamic republic, escalating the conflict between the regional foes and stoking fears of an all-out war in the Middle East….

        ‘Rather than vowing revenge, the statement said Iran’s emphasis was on supporting a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon where Israeli forces are fighting Hamas and Hizbollah respectively; the militant groups are backed by the republic ….

        ‘The Netanyahu government remained on the whole silent about the attack, including the prime minister, who banned his ministers from granting interviews on Saturday.

        ‘Even far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir issued a short statement backing the strikes but hoping it was just an opening gambit against Iran. Instead, the IDF was left to describe in vague terms the “precise strikes” on missile production sites and air defences, and issuing warnings of future attacks if Tehran retialated….

        ‘On Saturday, in telephone conversations with his Egyptian and Qatari counterparts, foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said that “Iran will not hesitate to respond decisively and proportionately to any violation of its territorial integrity,” but added that any response would come at “an appropriate time” ….

        ‘Iranian state television minimised the impact of the strikes on daily life. In street interviews, residents either reported not hearing any explosions or downplayed the significance of the event.
        The coverage — which often serves as an indicator of the Islamic republic’s messaging and strategic intentions — praised the country’s air defence systems, framing the incident as a victory for Iran and failure for Israel.’

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    9. Ben Panga

      https://archive.ph/FzCBR

      The Blob gives it’s version in the NYT citing 3 anonymous Iranian and 3 anonymous Israeli sources. Lots of detail in the article; obviously the veracity is dubious.

      Israel Struck Air Defenses Around Critical Iranian Energy Sites, Officials Say
      Israeli attacks hit air-defense systems around important energy sites but avoided the facilities themselves, Iranian and Israeli officials said. The United States had urged Israel not to strike energy and oil facilities.

      Reply ↓
  5. Balan Aroxdale

    Washington Post reels from Bezos decision to not endorse The Hill. Not that we have any specific insight re Bezos, but well-connected sources have told us of a big shift among Silicon Valley squillionaires against Team Dem. Some of it was due to Biden’s decrepit state, but another big driver was the Trump lawfare, particularly the New York records case, which based on the line of questioning by appeals court jurists, looks like the odds are good of being reversed.

    I was going to add increased government pressure for censorship, but in the case of Bezos this counts less. Bezos is likely far more concerned with China trade barriers, but then why back Trump?
    I think the most obvious answer here is that the writing is on the wall and the tech executives are trying to get in Trump’s good graces before he has a chance to rove a vengeful eye in California’s direction.

    Reply ↓
    1. IM Doc

      There is also a very practical thing going on. All of these editors and writers are leaving. It may have been the best way, although maybe accidental, to rid the paper of the dead weight wokism and neoconism that has absolutely plagued it lately. I am a subscriber for a very long time. I read the Michael Dirda book column and a few other things – the news and opinions have become the comic section. Horrifically bad.. Taylor Lorenz left a few weeks ago – and now all of the ones I have seen leaving are going to be like dead weight coming off the entire institution. And these people are so arrogant, they think their little hissy fit is going to do anything. I have news for them. For every one of them resigning, there are probably 5-10 journalists waiting in line for a paying job.

      And as I said the other day – one of the lessons I learned early in life working in fast food as a teenager was that no matter how stupid – you are living by the rules of the boss. It is upon you to figure out how to navigate that the best for your personal life and your peers. Obviously, these tantrum throwers have never had to do that – they have been handed the silver spoon and the Ivy League educations and have virtually no real life experience like the rest of us.

      With this exodus – and all these people cancelling subscriptions – good riddance. The paper will likely be much better going forward with some different viewpoints. And maybe just maybe the readers cancelling on them may find much better news and less misinformation elsewhere. Bezos may find out just like Musk did with Twitter – the next few months may be an absolute nightmare and financial bloodbath – but the end result may be a much better product, and may one day be atop the media world. Who knows?

      Reply ↓
      1. Carolinian

        Would the Post even still exist if Bezos hadn’t bought it? Before that they were trolling for government subsidies in the name of “journalism.” Doubtless the people who work there now see themselves as an extension of government, blob division.

        Whereas Bezos undoubtedly bailed them out to stay in the good graces of the government and if that’s going to be Trump his decision is obvious.

        It’s different with the NYT which is still profitable and has a much larger local market. They no doubt see themselves as extensions of the people who are really running the country–Wall Street.

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        1. Mark Gisleson

          The WaPost still exists? I know I still have a link to them somewhere but honestly can’t remember the last time I clicked on it.

          Reply ↓
          1. .Tom

            Yes. The WaPo is like the protestant hymnal that the faithful sing from. I guess that makes NYT RC? Hm. Simile needs work.

            Reply ↓
            1. Giovanni Barca

              There are so many species of Protestant. Just find two particularly smug clueless and dwindling deniminations that split over a trivial ecclesiological issue and your metaphor will work flawlessly

              Reply ↓
      2. mrsyk

        There is much speculative unpacking to be done over the non-endorsements from wapo and the LA Times. The one thing that can be said with certainty is that it’s bad news for Harris from every angle. After that things become a bit more opaque. There’s a couple very wealthy men trying to shore up some influence and not come off like fools. As much as I wish it were so, an improvement in integrity and journalism seems a stretch.
        About that bad news, I’d wager both papers have (or have access to) private polling. I imagine that the tea leaves they’re reading are not good for Harris.

        Reply ↓
      3. pjay

        I don’t mourn for the Establishment apparatchik TDS sufferers who are jumping ship. Nor will anyone else outside their steadily shrinking PMC readership. But I see no reason whatsoever to think this will lead to “a much better product.” Under Bezos? No, it’s simply a pragmatic political calculation about the current electoral contest. Adjusting to which faction of the Uniparty is in office and which propaganda narrative is popular is routine. After all Taibbi has experienced and documented, he actually hints in the short piece above that things could possibly change. Anyone who has watched this game for, say, the last 50 years can only laugh at such a suggestion. Maybe we can get back to the days of Watergate, when The Press were truly heroes! Isn’t Woodward still around? Maybe he can lead us!

        I’m sorry for my cynicism. But the only thing I’ve learned in this long life of observing this crap is that whenever I think I’m being too cynical, I always – always – find out that I was not cynical enough.

        Reply ↓
        1. JBird4049

          I’m sorry for my cynicism. But the only thing I’ve learned in this long life of observing this crap is that whenever I think I’m being too cynical, I always – always – find out that I was not cynical enough.

          Oh, yes to this. In the past few years, the faster I become more cynical, the further behind my cynicism gets.

          Reply ↓
              1. Captain Obvious

                Looks can be deceiving. The end is different. It’s I against l. It looks identical because this typeface uses same glyph for two different characters. If you put code tag around, you get:
                I against l
                5tlfTaFJTZl vs 5tIfTaFJTZI

                P.S. Similar technique is used by scammers to make people click on fake links.
                P.S.2. Bonus song, that fits the theme.
                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n_de7Ieoh0

                Reply ↓
      5. Big River Bandido

        Taylor Lorenz left the Post, huh? That’s definitely an improvement. If we’re lucky, she’ll be unemployable.

        Perhaps Bezos is deliberately attempting to purge the liberal authoritarians from the editorial page, but I doubt it. More likely, it’s strictly a business call and the resulting effect on the content of the Bezos Daily Shopper is merely a salutary coincidence.

        Reply ↓
      6. Michaelmas

        IM Doc: … as I said the other day – one of the lessons I learned early in life working in fast food as a teenager was that – you are living by the rules of the boss. It is upon you to figure out how to navigate that the best for your personal life and your peers.

        Yeah. There was much bitching in the US media some months back about most of the major US media outfits now being given over to UK-born chief editors to run, with Will Lewis’s appointment at the Washington Post then.

        https://presswatchers.org/2024/06/beware-the-tory-takeover-of-the-washington-post/

        I’ve worked both sides of the pond. In the UK, the mindset is that you might have gone to Oxford — or, yes, the Ivy League — but if you’re working in journalism, you have not undertaken a sacred calling but become just another of the ‘miserable ink-stained wretches of Fleet Street.’ Very simply, you’re working in a business where your job is to deliver eyeballs and, thence, profitability. Thus —

        WaPo boss sounds alarm over dwindling audience in heated staff meeting: ‘People are not reading your stuff’
        https://www.foxnews.com/media/wapo-boss-sounds-alarm-over-dwindling-audience-heated-staff-meeting-people-reading-your-stuff

        “I Can’t Sugarcoat It Anymore”: Will Lewis Bluntly Defends Washington Post Shake-Up
        https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/washington-post-shakeup

        And if you have illusions otherwise, you are held in contempt as unprofessional — and the UK editors at US publication I know not infrequently do hold their US subordinates in contempt as unprofessional — and you’ll be out the door sooner or later unless you’re very clever or there’s some other reason to tolerate you.

        So I’m fairly certain, for instance, that when Lee discussed with Bezos the WaPo not endorsing Harris, one thing they were counting on as positive was that a number of current employees would resign.

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    2. NotTimothyGeithner

      I tend to think the Bezos decision is less an immediate decision than recognition that Team Blue isn’t going to have the conditions to produce Obama where he can let anything go.

      Harris either keeps Lina Kahn or starts her presidency with the prospect of a wave in 2026. Team Blue is too weak to do much but stumble forward, but the GOP will pick winners and losers.

      Reply ↓
      1. MicaT

        When did it become normal for papers of record to endorse candidates?

        I’m presuming it’s not always been the case?

        Reply ↓
        1. Stephanie

          Since at least 1860 and Lincoln’s first run, as The Atlantic endorsed him at that time. It’s my understanding that 19th century U.S. newspapers were much more explicitly partisan than they evolved to be in the 20th, and papers were in the habit of endorsing the candidates in line with their own party views.

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          1. lyman alpha blob

            They were partisan, they admitted it, and there were a lot more of them. Many writers used pseudonyms and they were often very nasty, making some of the stuff coming out of Trump’s mouth look positively tame in comparison.

            Infamous Scribblers is a great book about the early days of US journalism. If you lived in a sizeable city and didn’t like what you were reading in the paper owned by one robber baron, you could always read others owned by different plutocrats instead.

            Going by memory here, but one of my favorite anecdotes from the book was regarding the Alien and Sedition Act. Adams jailed many political opponents under the act (put political opponents in jail and is today highly regarded as a Founding Father and not a “threat to our democracy” – imagine that!). The acts were highly unpopular and when his rival Jefferson won the presidency he repealed the Act, but not before he threw one of Adams’ people in the clink briefly, just to give him a taste of his own medicine.

            Those who try to claim that Trump is some unprecedented danger really ought to crack open a US history book sometime.

            Reply ↓
          2. Jason Boxman

            Yep. In Duel by Thomas Fleming, he recounts the partisanship of the media in the fight between Burr and Hamilton.

            The whole “unbiased” media thing is a recent creation, and I think it’s always been a lie.

            Reply ↓
            1. Bsn

              As opposed to “unbiased” is the concept of “controlled”. In the past. a newspaper was controlled by one person, Hearst for example. Today, the main n’papers are controlled by the blob (CIA, FBI, Wall St. and surveillance Corp. in general). The blobs pockets are much larger even than a Hearst or Luce. Much more control and less bias.

              Reply ↓
          4. flora

            Indeed they were more explicitly partisan, and at the same time there were many more newspapers. Any town/city of some size might have 2-3 newspapers. Locals could read pros and cons for candidates in the GOP or Dem or independent leaning newspaper outlets.

            Now every thing in corporate media has consolidated to the point that only one viewpoint is published or broadcast by the MSM. My take is that the current MSM references only itself, and itself has become a closed, airless, monotone bubble, where “everyone says so” only means all the other media “we”/they care about says so. No wonder the alt media like substack — where I can read both old-school liberal Matt Tiabbi and old-school conservative Andrew Sullivan — is gaining readership.

            Reply ↓
            1. flora

              adding: I still enjoy reading the WaPo’s George Will editorials because:
              1. He’s a very good writer, though I never agree with him.
              2. He make’s a good argument for his side, and
              3. It’s fun to spot the point in his commentary argument where, in polemical terms, he ‘zigs instead of ‘zags.

              Good for the ol’ critical thinking skills, etc.

              / :)

              Reply ↓
    3. Duke of Prunes

      I think it’s a symptom of how screwed up every thing is when a non-endorsement is widely perceived as an endorsement.

      Reply ↓
      1. Kouros

        So true. Even the billionaires are stating that is a clown show and both candidates are bad. And of course is not their fault, they are washing their hands of all this nonsense. All the while asking for more AI, that is uncontrolled and unregulated AI…

        Reply ↓
    4. Mikel

      And now the LA times…not only one editor leaving since the RT article posted in links:

      https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-10-25/latimes-no-presidential-endorsement-decison-resignations/
      “Editorials Editor Mariel Garza resigned Wednesday as a result of the decision. Editorial board members Robert Greene and Karin Klein tendered their resignations from The Times the following day. Greene won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 2021 for his writing about criminal justice reform.”

      No telling what the the number of resignations will be by the end of it all.

      Reply ↓
      1. Dr. John Carpenter

        So let me get this straight. Someone who won a Pulitzer for writing about prison reform is resigning because the Times didn’t endorse a candidate who kept people in jail to use as cheap labor?

        Reply ↓
      2. Randall Flagg

        I don’t think those handing in resignations at the LA Times or WAPO are a big deal. Good. Get out and don’t let the doorknob hit you where the good Lord split you. Honestly, they get to act all morally superior, remain heroes to the PMC class, and now go to cushy teaching jobs, hack consultant jobs, write books that hardly anyone will read and worst of all, go to some Think Tank and get paid big bucks for churning out their BS (I bet where Kagen will land, right next to his warmonger wife). Maybe all of the above.
        As someone said above, probably a dozen others waiting to take their job. Most average workers can’t express their outrage as they really need the job if it’s covering their monthly nut.
        Yawn. Here’s a quarter, call someone who cares.

        Reply ↓
        1. Mikel

          “Most average workers can’t express their outrage as they really need the job if it’s covering their monthly nut.”

          Some of the people quitting these journalism jobs may have already had other offers lined up. I wouldn’t be surprised. Greene, for example, is also a lawyer. And no doubt they all have other money set aside.

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      3. urdsama

        While it may not truly represent her father’s views, his daughter Nika Soon-Shiong posted a thread on twitter about their apartheid experience in South Africa (where they are from) playing a key role in not endorsing either candidate. She especially calls out the genocide and Israel waging a war on children.

        As with most things, it may be more complicated: there are criticisms of her father wanting to curry favor with Trump and Nika being involved with the editorial direction of the paper despite not being an official employee.

        https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/la-times-presidential-endorsement-decision-owners-daughter-weighs-in-1236045376/

        In any case, at least they are giving some type or reason rather then the Washington Post’s “returning to our roots” nonsense.

        Reply ↓
      4. Katniss Everdeen

        As Glenn Greenwald discussed on his show last night, The Hollywood Reporter, jeezus h. christ, reported on the LA Times’ refusal to endorse. The article quoted Nika Soon-Shiong, daughter of the paper’s owner:

        In a thread of social media posts on Thursday, Nika Soon-Shiong attributed the decision to an opposition to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ position on the war on Gaza. She wrote that her father, a South African transplant surgeon, had worked as an emergency surgeon at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto during apartheid. “For my family, Apartheid is not a vague concept.” Maintaining that the decision to endorse was one made by the Los Angeles Times editorial board, Nika added, “This is not a vote for Donald Trump. This is a refusal to ENDORSE a candidate that is overseeing a war on children.”

        She continued, “I’m proud of the LA Times’ decision just as I am certain there is no such thing as children of darkness. There is no such thing as human animals.”

        WRT the wapo rag, he highlighted a tweet from joan walsh, former editor of salon.com, saying that she cancelled her wapo subscription and everyone else should too. When a commenter said it may be more “effective” to stop using amazon, she replied “much harder” but “considering.”

        OK. I guess “democracy” is not as important as next day, free shipping. Everything, including “outrage” would seem to be relative.

        https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/la-times-presidential-endorsement-decision-owners-daughter-weighs-in-1236045376/

        Reply ↓
        3. AG

          re: amazon

          Not of serious relevance but I like the coincidence.

          My friend´s neighbour is never at home and constantly she has to accept his mail which amounts to tons of amazon packages he is ordering. But why then is he never at home???

          So just last week she found out that he is one of Germany´s top amazon staff.
          She never saw the guy. Probably never will (as it is with millionaires and their various apartments.)
          But why those deliveries? She now figures he is actually controlling his underlings.

          Reply ↓
    5. JustTheFacts

      Newspapers shouldn’t be endorsing anyone. They should be reporting the facts to the best of their ability. If that makes their employees resign, good riddance, they can’t have been any good at their job anyway.

      Reply ↓
    6. Lee

      Upon considering the prospect of a second Trump term, Eric Posner provides a dose of antidotal sangfroid for TDS sufferers. “It takes more than a bad president to destroy an empire.” In this we may take comfort….or not.

      Freakonomics Radio, Season 14, Episode 8

      The title features betting markets. The Posner interview is at the start.

      Reply ↓
  6. JOHN E HACKER

    “50 years of tax cuts for the rich failed to trickle down, economics study says CBS. Paul R: “Will wonders never cease.”
    I’ll keep adblocker in place, when I Googled that statement: “90% 50 years of tax cuts for the rich failed to trickle down, …
    CBS News https://www.cbsnews.com › MoneyWatch
    Dec 17, 2020 — Tax cuts for the wealthy didn’t boost the economies of the U.S. and 17 other countries — but they did worsen income inequality.
    No news like old news

    Reply ↓
      2. Hastalavictoria

        The only thing that ever trickled down on us in the underclass since Thatcher espoused this phrase was warm, yellow and wet!

        Reply ↓
      3. spud

        remember free trade was sold as trickle down also.

        https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/09/free-market-genocides-the-real-history-of-trade.html

        ”
        “Historian Mike Davis reports Brit-ruled Indian famine deaths at 12 to 29 million, in his book Late Victorian Holocausts. He explicitly blames the “imposition of free-trade,” noting that these millions were killed “in the golden age of Liberal Capitalism.” The first public reports in February 1878 by journalist Robert Knight declared British officials were guilty of “multitudenous murder.”

        “The most seductive and super-poisonous flavor of this greed-washing is preached under liberal-beloved “win-win” rubric whereby elite-fattening market-greed is sold as lifting millions out of poverty. As Phillipe Alston, ex- UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty has written, this rhetoric has really been used to redefine “the public good as helping the rich get richer.” Far from being one of the “greatest human achievements” this “win win” narrative has been a “convenient alibi” for guilt-free greed. ”
        ——————————

        https://www.policymagazine.ca/the-tragic-legacy-of-bill-clintons-china-doctrine/

        “As he outlined the arguments in favour of the most potentially consequential step toward the integration of China’s economy into the rules-based multilateral system since Jimmy Carter’s normalization of relations with Beijing in 1979, Clinton portrayed the decision, to use a term favoured by the party of the second part, as a “win-win”.

        “Membership in the W.T.O., of course, will not create a free society in China overnight or guarantee that China will play by global rules,” Clinton said that day. “But over time, I believe it will move China faster and further in the right direction.””

        Reply ↓
        1. AG

          One thing I never figured out why Mike Davis was going along with the Holodomor narrative?

          Was it because he possibly was not an expert on the area?

          He transferred his insight on the Anglo-American sphere to the Soviet which makes little sense.
          Or am I missing something?

          Reply ↓
    2. griffen

      Just a minor item to quibble with on the source, but the datestamp of that column is from December 2020…So it is likely ( my two cents ) the inequality referenced has only ratcheted higher. I’ll add a tangential observation. It gets mentioned a lot how the Obama administration, and the application of the Holder doctrine after the Great Recession and Financial Clustermess, that many elite and wealthy, connected individuals and institutions alike , we’re able to avoid the absolute worse outcomes. Thanks to the rule of law for thee, and not for me of course. Widespread securitization fraud, accounting / control fraud, foreclosure fraud…hey it’s a trifecta.

      For the record it’s a soothing, warm trickle but it ain’t water! \sarc

      Reply ↓
    3. Neutrino

      Fifty years ago I heard some high school debaters laughing about that old trickle-down economics. That was too soon after the Powell Memo to take the full force and effect of that infamous returns-to-capital-vs.-labor graph. Even then, while Vietnam was almost exited and Nixon was, too, some cracks in the wall of official pronouncements were visible.

      Reply ↓
      1. Old Jake

        Agree – my social studies teachers in the mid-sixties taught that “trickle-down” was discredited by the Hoover administration’s use of it as the Great Depression began. FDR put the nails in the coffin. Apparently Powell disinterred it and released its undead golem on us.

        Reply ↓
        1. eg

          It’s even older than that — “trickle down” is a reworking of the 19th century “horse and sparrow” economics.

          Either way it’s excretion …

          Reply ↓
    4. Glen

      I hesitate to point this out, but if you really want to make America great again you would raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations:

      Davos 2019 Michael Dell about taxes
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDn0uFeBnso

      Back in that mythical time when America was great, the top marginal tax rate was about 90%, and the corporate tax rate was about 42%.

      Either side of the uniparty could get votes by just stating these facts, and say trickle down never worked, and they’re going to raise taxes on the wealthy. But neither side of the uniparty can actually do things which are popular with all of the voters:

      Study: Politicians listen to rich people, not you
      https://www.vox.com/2014/4/18/5624310/martin-gilens-testing-theories-of-american-politics-explained

      American elections have devolved into figuring out which side will screw you the least. And if that’s the calculation you have to make as you mark your ballot, then you KNOW your country is still going downhill.

      Reply ↓
  7. The Rev Kev

    “Yemen’s Houthis Dig In for a Long War”

    ‘The group has also shown a remarkable ability to endure. Since taking power following a popular revolt against the country’s Saudi-allied government in 2014, Ansarallah has withstood military assaults backed by Emirati and Saudi Arabia airpower, firmly entrenching itself in the country.’

    Those were not the only counties that Ansarallah were fighting but the west as well. If you look at the ‘Main Belligerents’ section of the following page you will see countries like the US, UK, France, Canada, South Korea, Malaysia and Australia listed. For some time there was even an Australian commander on the ground there-

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemeni_civil_war_(2014%E2%80%93present)

    So Ansarallah are not overawed by what the west can come up with now. Which reminds me. A coupla months ago the US had a supercarrier in the Red Sea – the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower – when for some reason they took off north. Sputnik is reporting that this was a result of a missile that splashed down only 200 meters away from that carrier. This was reported in an article in the October issue of West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center Sentinel journal. Only 200 meters? No wonder they did a bolt. What if it had hit the open deck while it was loaded with aircraft waiting to take off for a mission?

    https://sputnikglobe.com/20241022/houthi-missile-plunked-down-200-meters-from-us-supercarrier-in-red-sea-us-army-journal-reveals-1120644295.html

    Reply ↓
  8. LawnDart

    Re: Death Roulette

    ☠️ I died from “Scalded in a Brewers Mash, at St. Giles Cripplegate” in the week of February 14th, 1665.

    Damn… that really doesn’t suprise me.

    Reply ↓
    1. griffen

      I was thinking about that article…let’s see and just for starters, lack of or just an overall poor sanitation leads to plagues spreading and then all the general diseases absent any plague. Say for a different example as a young whippersnapper in London, one joins up to serve for Crown and Country and become an aspiring sailor in the British fleet. Congrats, you might die at sea just not in battle!

      I had once worked with a young man who was born in Cameroon, later moving to the US in his teenage years. His summation of malaria, just a reference to add on, is that it sucked.

      Reply ↓
      1. britzklieg

        I was impressed, and not surprised, that “teeth” figured prominently as a cause of death in all the lists. Nor am I surprised that “dental insurance” is so woefully inadequate in the US and for no good reason absoutely separate from health insurance. The famously dentured George Washington, whose teeth problems began early in life, died of sepsis resulting from an abcess in his throat/mouth that was likely related to his lifelong struggle with dental disease.

        Reply ↓
        2. amfortas the hippie

          just th other day, i remembered that i have stepdad’s great pile of fancy hardwood that he used for handles when he was making knives.
          then yesterday, waiting for birds to go in for the night, and mindlessly tongueing the gap where my 4 bottom front teeth used to be…the two things converged in a perhaps not quite hegelian manner: i should dig out the dremel and fashion my own damned Bridge…what could be more American?!
          and since all that wood is between tan and black, it would be a political statement, as well.
          theres mahogany, i know…but i dont remember the others…nor do i know if any of them ar toxic.

          Reply ↓
          1. griffen

            Bad teeth anecdote…my late father smoked Chesterfield cigarettes up until his mid 50s I think, and his front teeth bore the stain of that. Smoking two packs a day for 30+ years will definitely help ruin the smile of most I would assume. He did somehow manage to ultimately quit before all the chewing gum alternatives were prevalent.

            Reply ↓
        3. Ann

          “Teeth” continue to kill people. One of my grad students worked in the ICU and they had a homeless woman admitted about once a year with pericarditis. Like any good nurse, she *asked the patient* what she thought was causing this. The patient pointed to her teeth. The decision was made to pull all of her teeth and give her implants, all in one surgery. She never again got pericarditis.

          The lymph drainage from your mouth goes directly to the superior vena cava and thence to your heart. This is often bad news. Take care of your teeth, folks.

          Reply ↓
          1. amfortas the hippie

            the $17k that was supposed to cover the whole thing took care of the pericarditis(up to me to keep it at bay, going forward)…extracted the problem bottom fronts and all the wisdom teeth, injected zombie bone paste where it was needed…and then they ate all the rest with repeated cleanings.
            so instead of my teeth being green, they were orange,lol.
            now, they’re brown….no matter how vigorously i brush(and, yes, i use baking soda, because its cheap, and i am poor)
            so 4 mahogany teeth wont stick out too much, i suppose, on the very rare occasion i leave the farm.
            and anyhoo, i’ve learned long ago to smile closemouthed.
            if i ever visit a dentist/periodontist again, it will be in Mexico(or Cuba), and i’ll have all of them pulled(what i asked for when i had the sudden $), and get dentures.
            stick em in a jar at night like my great grandma did.

            USA dentistry is a crock…and a mafia…

            Reply ↓
  9. MikeX

    EviCore, the Company Helping U.S. Health Insurers Deny Coverage for Treatments

    I guess “EvilCore” was too on-the-nose for a company name?

    Reply ↓
      1. Ben Panga

        I listened to the first hour. Trump came across pretty well IMO. I found myself almost liking him at points. The weave was there but less rambling than some of the rally stuff. The tone/tenor of voice was gentler. He managed to sound like a human with some empathy.

        I thought Rogan did a pretty good job.

        There’s a bunch of AI-made transcripts about. This one seems true to the original from the little I checked (and from my memory). It has the original audio synced to the transcript (via the player at the bottom) which is kinda cool

        https://turboscribe.ai/transcript/share/8052436133745838085/eQ5vQfeXHbb91e9oU4BX17eXbzaiiSbhFHAhWYHo4RM/full-transcript-donald-trump-and-joe-rogan-2219-https-youtu-be-hbmopuaelny

        Reply ↓
        1. KLG

          I listened to the first hour, too. And then Freddie Freeman hit his grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning and the game (on mute) was over. Trump was lucid, even if as full of “stuff” as ever. Rogan didn’t push back on what he said were legitimate environmental concerns about fracking and drill-baby-drill, and I doubt he did later.

          Yellow waders not necessary ;-)

          Reply ↓
          1. Mark Gisleson

            I made it an hour and a half and then it was like that point in every Cohen Brothers movie when you dive into a surreal sidebar episode that makes you forget what the movie was about.

            Trump is not senile, he just has bad/”good” media habits. Repeating yourself a lot is good repetition as Harris recently noted, no doubt after being briefed on how Trump uses repetition and how she could use his use of it as an excuse for her use of repetition to stall for time while the teleprompter reboots.

            Early on both Rogan and Trump reference “the Weave” a few times as Trump never quite gets around to answering Rogan’s questions. I was reminded of Twain’s epic story on old age, Grandfather’s Ram.

            But mostly Trump was Trump. Rogan did let slip a few f-bombs letting viewers know it was an adult conversation and not “professional” journalism.

            Reply ↓
        2. flora

          Rogan is good at pulling his guests back to the point of his questions if they ramble too long on presenting wider context or anecdotes before getting to the point.

          Reply ↓
          1. urdsama

            I might be missing something (including snark), but what was great about her speech?
            Telling voters if elected she will fix an issue the Democrats created in the first place?

            Might as well vote for Stein as she has just as much of a chance as fixing it as Harris.

            Reply ↓
            1. Screwball

              Because it’s Kamala – that’s all you need to know. I should have added a sarc tag. I only knew of this because my MSNBC liberal friends told me so. Everything team blue does is great according to them. Everything.

              Reply ↓
      2. Tom Finn

        70’s liberal: 3/4’s of an hour in…not terrible, not surprising not too bombastic. Be interesting to hear from knowledgeable sources how much is false.
        Rogan has a way of having “Everyman” conversations regardless of the guest. He, Rogan, does tend to suspend disbelief or acquiesce rather than be confrontational with guests.
        Waiting to see if it gets uncomfortable for Trump as to the wars. (My big issue)

        Reply ↓
      3. outside observer

        I listened to the whole thing on accelerated speed. I learned nothing new, but laughed out loud several times. For example, at his dealings with N Korea, and the description of his incredibly good looking pilots. Trump never got around to really answering any question, and although Rogan tried to lead him back from tangents, more often than not they both got lost in the ‘weave’.

        Reply ↓
      4. lyman alpha blob

        I’m about an hour in and agree with others’ take on it – nothing earth shattering, and Trump certainly does not come across as a deranged fascist hell bent on dictatorship – far from it.

        What I did like was how Rogan started off by talking about Trump’s appearance on The View during his first campaign. Whoopi and Behar loved the Donald back then, thought his campaign was a real hoot. After he actually won though, they apparently got their marching orders from the network and then he became gropey Hitler.

        Reply ↓
        1. Pat

          Oh no, it wasn’t marching orders. When he was first on the View, he was the guy Hillary and Bill picked so she could have an easy win. He was doing it on a lark. The coronation was all systems go.
          Like many of our PMC, media “liberals”, they not only hated that he won when he was supposed to lose, they hated that they looked like fools for not realizing how that a large portion, half, of America hated HRC and were able to say “No, it’s not her turn.” One of the few times I liked Giuliani was an appearance on The View where he dismantled their whole it shouldn’t have happened rant by asking how they, and Clinton, missed that the electoral college was the method by which we elect Presidents for over 200 years.
          For the record, whenever someone talks about a Trump supporter being unhinged almost foaming at the mouth I wonder if they have ever watched clips of Behar going on about Trump.

          Reply ↓
      5. Pat

        I don’t know if you need the waders now, but I would keep the transcript handy because you know someone is going to give something he said the Pelosi treatment.

        Reply ↓
      1. anahuna

        I’m usually the first one to shrink from sexualized attacks, but wow — as noted a few comments back — Trump’s hard-on for those “incredibly good-looking pilots” is almost as obvious as his lust for Ivanka. And I detect more than a whiff of the same manly sentiment in his praise of cops.

        Never actually lived on the street, still fantasizing about being a tough guy?

        Reply ↓
      2. spud

        agreed,

        its far more dangerous to be a working stiff, than to be a cop.

        https://financesonline.com/top-10-most-dangerous-jobs-in-the-us-its-not-police-officers-firefighters-who-have-the-most-risky-career-path/

        and just check out the pay before benefits and overtime the cops get, vs. the average working stiff that have far more dangerous jobs than the cops.

        https://www.indeed.com/career/police-officer/salaries

        https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-nyc-police-overtime-pay/

        over time pay for cops, just increases police brutality for petty crimes that should just earn a ticket, instead of a arrest, thats many times is quite violent.

        Reply ↓
    3. chris

      I think this is another stunt that is going to pay off for Trump. He is funny and engaging and clearly lucid. Joe asked him all kinds of questions.

      I think this is a case where Kamala made a mistake. If she could have performed well under those circumstances it would have been impressive.

      Reply ↓
  11. SocalJimObjects

    Chinese blockade would be act of war, Taiwan says.

    In other news, I went to the city (Taipei) today to attend the annual Pride Parade, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpW-sqmmhY4. There were quite a few attendees from neighboring Asian countries including visitors from Japan and South Korea, some of whom dressed up for the occasion in ornate and/or scantily clad costumes. The Western expat population was out in force because it’s probably Taiwan’s biggest party and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. For a little while, it’s actually possible to forget everything that’s going on in the world and that’s a good thing IMHO.

    Reply ↓
    1. PlutoniumKun

      It sounds fun. Better than Hallowe’en in Tokyo which my friends there are grumbling online that it has been cancelled by Tokyo police.

      On my first visit to Taiwan, I was kindly shown around by some cycling contacts, a lesbian couple. I was quite surprised at how open they were as I’d been told Taiwan was pretty conservative.

      Reply ↓
      1. Tokyognome

        Better than Hallowe’en in Tokyo which my friends there are grumbling online that it has been cancelled by Tokyo police.

        Yes, and rightly so, after dangerous overcrowding of the Shibuya station area and recurring rowdy behavior in previous years.

        Reply ↓
  12. The Rev Kev

    ‘Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸
    @jacksonhinklle
    🚨🇮🇱🇯🇴 BREAKING: JORDAN reportedly allowed ISRAELI FIGHTER JETS to pass through its airspace.’

    Looking at a map, they must have went along that thick wedge of Jordanian land that goes east. But then that means that they would have had to go over Iraq to get to Iran. The people there will not be happy how the US has deliberately made them a party to this war. Iran has promised to pay back any countries that let their airspace be used to attack Iran through so we will have to wait to see how they respond. They won’t attack Iraqis themselves as they know that the people there are on their side. But what they might do is to give some of their allies in Iraq better weapons to attack US bases in Iraq with. Those would be considered fair game as the US has proven that they are a party to this attack. I do wonder though. The US flew in at least a dozen US Air Force KC-135 tankers to support this attack. The F-16 fighters from the 480th Fighter Squadron would have been to only protect the tankers from being shot down. Point is, did the Israelis have a number of their own tanker aircraft damaged in that Iranian attack on that Israeli airbase and they had to ask the US to make up the numbers?

    Reply ↓
    1. LawnDart

      I’m curious as to whose airspace the refueling took place in. And yes, it appears that Jordan may have placed a bull’s-eye on itself: if true, if Jordan allowed Israeli use of its airspace, Iran has no choice but to respond to this as it must protect its credibility if nothing else.

      To hazard a guess, Jordanian air traffic control centers might be a tempting target, and it would only take a few missiles to get the message across.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        ‘I’m curious as to whose airspace the refueling took place in.’

        Probably Iraq. I was just listening to Brian Berlectic’s video on this attack and he was saying that Iran is so huge, that even from outside their borders those missiles would be at maximum range so probably Iraq.

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      2. Lefty Godot

        I guess “color revolutions” only happen in states whose leaders got on the bad side of the CIA. Otherwise I would think that Jordan is ripe for one of those. If Israel is within the reach of Iraqi and Yemeni missiles and drones, then Amman must be, so it may be only a matter of time before someone aerially takes out Jordan’s top echelon of US aid recipients.

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    2. Joe Well

      I know that terms like “homophobe” and “Alex Jones supporter” and “rage bait” and “whack job” and “grifter” have been hollowed out by the Democrats and their minions, but Jackson Hinkle reeks of all that.

      Disappointing to see him embedded here, especially since, unlike a problematic figure like Gonzalo Lira of blessed memory, he brings nothing unique, no value to offset all that. In particular, the tweet embedded here mentions no sources, which is a big deal because Jordan denies allowing the flights. Where is the “breaking” news?

      I’m hoping this was just a mistake.

      Reply ↓
    1. Neutrino

      Blighty Commemorative Album, including Galloway takedowns and pronouncements from over the decades. That could be popular.

      Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Reading that article, it could be all three at once. If the Israelis had any brains, they would label this attack a success and then say that they consider the matter closed. Instead they are saying that this is the beginning.

      Reply ↓
    2. PlutoniumKun

      It’s early days, but my guess is that a complex deal was done whereby Israel was allowed a face saving swipe at Tehran in a way that didn’t threaten a loss of aircraft for them. There have been rumours for some time that Israel has a number of air launched missiles that could hit Tehran from outside Iranian airspace. The US supplying air tankers and the Jordanians (and maybe Iraqs) turning a blind eye could have been part of the deal. If so, it could be part of an attempt by most parties to de-escalate. A full on war isn’t really in anyones interest, except Hamas.

      If it’s true that the Iranians intercepted most of the incoming missiles that is big news. Thats technically very difficult and indicates that apart from the new S-400 their domestic missiles are pretty decent.

      Reply ↓
      1. Aurelien

        Yes, I suspect a deal was done, in order to prevent what would have been a catastrophic full-on conflict. But I’d be extremely surprised if there was any US participation: the tweet has not been picked up by any source in the region that I can find, and in any event Iran would regard such an involvement as a casus belli. In both photographs, some of the aircraft (it’s not clear which is which) seem to be turning for home. This would be consistent with an exercise designed to see if the US could project forces into the region if things deteriorated. In addition, air-to-air refuelling is tricky and sophisticated, and the pilots on both sides need to have compatible equipment and to have trained together. Is there any sign that has happened? If not, it’s hard to see that despatching tanker aircraft the afternoon before the operation in case any-one needs a fill-up would be very effective.

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        1. Polar Socialist

          Israel has it’s own fleet of US made air tankers, so they likely have the compatibility and procedure issues sorted out between the two. That said, it seems more likely Israel used only a limited number of fighters, launching the missiles from Jordanian airspace.

          Patarames seems to think that the purpose was to demonstrate to Iran that Israel is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead with pretty good accuracy anywhere in Iran, if the need be. As Iran has also demonstrated that it can destroy most of Israel at will, if the need be, both sides can now move on to the next phase of the regional power/security calculus.

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          1. Aurelien

            True, they are generally credited with 7 elderly US-supplied tankers (B707 variants as I recall) and so the aircraft should be technically compatible, although Wikipedia (!) suggests that the Israelis have substantially modified the refuelling system. But in any event, I can’t believe that either party would want to carry out such an operation, at night, over potentially dangerous territory, in different languages, without having rehearsed it pretty thoroughly first. I strongly suspect this was a purely national operation using a small number of aircraft.

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          2. NYMutza

            Unless Iran declares itself a nuclear power Israel would be absolutely insane to launch a nuclear strike against Iran. That would very likely cause Israel to be targeted by Russian nuclear forces. The United States got away with striking with nuclear weapons a non-nuclear power, but that can never happen again under any circumstance. In case it’s been forgotten, the United States is no longer the capo di tutti capi, and neither is Israel despite its bellicose talk. The men in the dark suits carrying briefcases may need to pay both Biden and Netanyahu a visit.

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            1. Procopius

              The usual reason given for nobody ever using a nuclear weapon is that such an action is insane, and every other nuclear power must assume they are going to be subject to a first strike attack. I’m not so sure that’s rational in the case of Israel, which has a (relatively) small number of warheads and has never bragged about being a super-power. I think if Israel nuked Iran, India, Pakistan, North Korea, China, Russia, and the United States would go to DEFCON 5, but wait to see what Israel did next, trusting to their defense systems to at least let them fire their missiles before the incoming warheads struck. Maybe I’m giving the powers too much credit for sanity. I’m pretty sure if everybody fired their missiles it would produce a nuclear winter that would last for years, killing most life on earth (I think cockroaches would survive).

              Reply ↓
      2. Joe Well

        So Iran’s military just got free training in how to defeat an Israeli missile attack? Or Israel probably wasn’t sending the good stuff anyway?

        Reply ↓
        1. PlutoniumKun

          I don’t think Iran would necessarily be in on the plan, although certain things may have been ‘suggested’. Although I wouldn’t rule out that the whole thing was deliberate theatre that satisfied both sides.

          At the ranges involved, only the newer, very secret (there are no known photos) missiles Israel has could have reached that range, so it wouldn’t be a case of Israel using old stock to make some fireworks. So if there were interceptions (the videos I’ve seen aren’t very convincing), then its extremely bad news for Israel.

          Reply ↓
    3. Louis Fyne

      imo, peeps are overthinking this..IDF A ir Force launched (in their view) a major strike.

      Iran air defences intercepted the missiles (as IDF will not risk a closer stab)

      Bibi in the bunker looked ashen as if he was staring at failure

      Reply ↓
      1. Don

        I agree, Louis Fyne.

        100 jets is not a “tiny” attack. Iran easily thwarted the attack, to the embarrassment of the US and Israel. Simple as that.

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    4. redleg

      If that’s all there is, the best Iranian response might be to blow raspberries from the battlements and taunt them.

      Reply ↓
  15. The Rev Kev

    “LA Times editor quits after Harris endorsement blocked”

    Does anybody care that Mariel Garza quit her job? Call me old fashioned but wouldn’t it be great if newspapers just reported the news and did not feel compelled to support one political party or another? Yeah, a real naive idea that. Certainly labeling people who did not vote for one particular candidate as being ‘sexist and racist’ is something that is not flying so well these days. Does vote shaming even work?

    Reply ↓
    1. Neutrino

      Cue HR for the complaint fallout, add some safe spaces and counseling and… oh, wait, that is so 2016.
      Maybe some AI twist and a voucher for Twizzlers? Or a free subscription? /s

      Reply ↓
    3. Wukchumni

      When I last glimpsed the once a day habit that taught me to read in between the lines, with the lead story often hidden away on page 9 of the first section, next to the advert for Du-Pars restaurant, it was stark to see it in hospice as the old medium had lost a lot of heft, coming in at 27 pages, slimmer than the giveaway Big Nickel newspaper.

      Kinda how you know your cat is on the way out when it all of the sudden is a lot less than it used to be.

      Reply ↓
    4. ChrisRUEcon

      Democrats sowing: We can totally let these benevolent billionaires take over media! It’s a necessary counter to the Murdoch empire!

      Democrats reaping: ErrMaGerrd! How dare you not endorse our anointed one?!

      Narrator: There is no honour among thieves

      Reply ↓
  16. TomDority

    Last night I heard on the News that many polls say the race is a dead heat.
    I guess the networks are devoted to fair reporting so its got to be 50-50 lest they incur the wrath of the PR folks and the betting communities who want no meaningful reporting.
    My thinking on the election is that the two most import issues have been completely left out.
    1) Huge corrupting influence of mega cash in politics – how to turn that back?
    2) Are candidates, up and down ticket, against genocide and human rights abuses or are they against genocide and human rights abuses with exceptions for? please specify exceptions?

    Reply ↓
    1. lyman alpha blob

      There’s a referendum question on the ballot in Maine about getting big money our of politics by limiting the maximum contribution to a PAC to $5K. Sounds nice, but if I remember right, PACs came about as a way to get around limits on donations to individual candidates. If it passes, I suspect some other campaign financial mechanism will be set up to bypass the $5K limit. And does anybody actually enforce these limits to begin with? There are always loopholes – bundlers, etc.

      The only way to get money out of politics is to either publicly finance all campaigns with each candidate receiving an equal amount of money, or tax the [family blog] out of the corporations and squillionaires so they don’t have enough money to buy up government in the first place. Of course the people who don’t want big money out of politics are the politicians, so any real reform is unlikely.

      Reply ↓
    2. Lee

      Harris slightly favored in polls, Trump favored in betting markets. FWIW:

      Predicting elections: betting markets vs. polls Nasdaq

      Historical accuracy of both methods:

      So, which method is more accurate in predicting election outcomes? Historically, the polls have correctly predicted the outcome 78% of the time, while the betting markets have been accurate 77% of the time. This is a tight race, and it’s clear that both methods have their merits and limitations.

      Reply ↓
      1. Big River Bandido

        A sense of uncertainty over the outcome would of course benefit Nasdaq. But I’m not buying the premise.

        Reply ↓
  17. Mikel

    “Russia and Iran may fuel violent post-election protests in the US, intelligence officials warn Associated Press.’

    For crying out loud, the rhetoric used by the election circus is already designed to do that. But it helps to be able to point the finger somewhere else. The goal has always been more excuses for crackdowns on ANY opposition to the establishment.
    Russia and Iran have more immediate threats to worry about than a circus that comes to town every four years in the USA that keeps the essentials of the same foreign policy – no matter the outcome.

    Reply ↓
    1. mrsyk

      Not used to it yet? Russia, Iran, and China will be blamed for any and all things that go “sideways” until further notice.

      Reply ↓
  18. chris

    Taking the collection of articles regarding the election on 11/5 from the today and the prior days it appears both sides are preparing for violence. It will be interesting to see how each sides spins the coming days as a defense of democracy. My bet is still on a majority of the violence coming from the Democrats. They’re acting like rats backed into a corner. But I could be wrong! And of course, whomever is elected inherits a world on fire, a springtime full of economic hardship, and maybe another pandemic?

    I really wish this was all some crazy TV show instead of real life.

    Reply ↓
    1. Screwball

      Reading the tea leaves I am worried about the post election too. Violence? Wouldn’t be surprised at all. Depression – without a doubt. Add in an economy that seems to be heading the wrong way and all the pieces are there for some bad things to happen.

      My PMC friends have entered the foaming at the mouth stage, hoping for something to cure the TDS pain they are suffering from. Anything, they don’t care. Watched a fight over the latest groping charges by a women from 31 years ago. She must be believed says so many. One guy pushed back because it was 31 years ago and comes out 2 weeks before the election. Does that pass the smell test? How dare you not believe the women, you sexist POS. So we should believe Tara Reade? Crickets…

      One of the other hot topics is moving out of the country. If Orange Hitler wins our country is over, done, kaput. They are trying to figure out what country they want to live in next. I think Sharpton, Maddow, Donny D, and others have said Trump would jail them if he won – which my PMC friends believe without a doubt – maybe even them too. It is truly the end of the world for them. Anything could happen, and most of it not good. They are that afraid and unhinged. Many should seek help, and probably will.

      Reply ↓
      1. IM Doc

        Do you find it interesting that in the midst of all this moving to Canada talk…….Justin Trudeau went out of his way this week to announce that the immigration into Canada would be seriously curtailed – “we have to let our economy catch up” and all that.

        I found the timing very interesting.

        Reply ↓
        1. Sub-Boreal

          Trudeau’s reversal on immigration has nothing to do with the U.S. election, and everything to do with his government’s unpopularity in the final year before the next Canadian federal election.

          Immigration numbers have been at record levels recently, and this has put strain on housing, healthcare, and schools. Those problems aren’t solely due to immigration levels, but it has been a multiplier of legacies created by past austerity, amplified by uniquely Canadian jurisdictional dysfunctions (e.g. healthcare is run by the provinces, but the feds control immigration, subject to some exceptions carved out by provinces that whine loudest, i.e. Quebec).

          And any Americans planning to move up here, imagining that we’re some kind of ecological reserve for endangered liberalism, obviously aren’t paying attention — the most likely next federal gov’t will be Conservative, led by a poisonous little turd of a RW political careerist.

          Reply ↓
      2. chris

        A possibility that appears to be gaining traction in my opinion is, Trump wins, Biden resigns, Kamala is installed during the lame duck period, and then President Harris addresses the nation with all the gravitas Hollywood can muster when she declares Trump as an enemy of the state. All hell breaks loose then.

        Reply ↓
  21. mrsyk

    Re the Clinton family hit list, this still shocks me no matter how many times I’ve seen it. There are not many plausible reasons for a cluster of suicides as dense as this. Is Sean Combs next on the list?

    Reply ↓
    1. flora

      You doubt a person can commit suicide by both hanging himself and shooting himself with a shotgun at the same time? tsk. / ;)

      Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        I know, I know, yet it seems so hard to do. I guess Mark Middleton was a samurai and had a “second” to help perform the act.

        Reply ↓
      2. pjay

        In a discussion above about the Bezos non-endorsement I commented that it is impossible to be too cynical about US politics. That observation is very applicable here as well. By the mid-1990s I was already a strong critic of the Clintons’ neoliberal policies and destruction of the Democratic Party. But still I thought – in fact I “knew” – that stories like this were wild partisan propaganda churned out by “vast right-wing conspiracy” mongers. Later, of course, I learned that they were almost all true. I say “almost” because of the uncertainty about many of the deaths. But the events with which they were associated, from MENA to Whitewater to the many Clinton affairs and on to Epstein, were all true. As I said earlier, whenever I begin to think I am being too cynical about our political system, I *always* discover that I was not cynical enough.

        Reply ↓
  22. Pedro Silva

    Riots rock Lisbon after police shoot a Black man dead

    1- they were not ” riots” in the sense of what an actual riot could be.

    2 – They were not done in Lisbon, but in the outskirts of Lisbon – “the poorer neighborhoods ” are precisely located near Lisbon, where people who, for the most part, work in Lisbon, but have to live in expensive houses in terms of rent payments – lots of them – or are paying to the bank loans on houses that they acquired 1 or 2 decades ago.

    3- The ” riots” were caused by the extreme incompetence (let´s stay with the word incompetence on this one…) of the local police, who were in a specific neighborhood conducting a traffic control . They stooped the person called Odair Muniz depicted in the sloppy piece of news, published by Le Monde, and the person evaded the police. They chased the man in to another ” barrio” called ” Cova da Moura” where he went with is car against a wall or something and then exited the car.

    The reason why he tried to evade the traffic control was due to the fact he was under the influence of alcohol and did not ant to be arrested/fined. According to the police.

    All of this happened at 5am.

    Then things got complicated – according to the police version (that i personally don´t believe at all…) that the so called intoxicated person exited the car and and attacked the 2 or 4 policeman ( this was not clear from the start in the police report) after hitting a wall.

    And then one of the policeman shot to the air and miraculously some bullets find their way in to the body of the Odair person killing him on site.

    Due to the fact that this sort of things or others similar are regularly happening specifically related to a police precinct in an area called “Alfragide” , that supposedly supervises the neighborhood area where all this happens and the problems with them and – to be nice – their lack of professionalism are systematical and constant.

    It looks like a “test drive” in “muscular law” enforcement that it is a test here – at this location – by that precinct (but not the only one” for the last 3 decades).

    Now the resentment of the local people is starting to boil and coming to the surface.

    4
    The ” media” did their worst regarding the coverage of this.

    In the first day – 21 October – when all this happened they went along with the initial story about a vicious criminal that evaded the police , attacked them and was killed.

    Small legions of specialists in verbal shit (pardon my french) were summoned to explain to the innocent bystanders citizens that there is no disproportionate use of force when a police officer accompanied by another or plus other two (the police was not clear on this) shoots against a citizen supposedly armed with a knife.

    The next day – as soon as more details emerged and videos, (but no the imaginary knife) the same specialists from the day before were busy in contortion words to adjust the new speech to the new details that indicated that the police had screw up badly.

    By then small armies or people irritated against the continuous pressure that the police exerts over this neighborhoods and discriminatory behavior etc started burning cars , and other social equipment’s and fury and irritation of what as perceived has a completely arbitrary behavior by the police.

    This went on for 2 days in areas around, only Friday -25 October – things calm down.

    5
    The political woke brigade of the place – a thing called Bloco de esquerda/Left wing bloc – stupid as they came – immediately started to push the racism card, to the huge delight of the extreme right, a political thing of the worst kind called Chega/ Enough that, delighted , with the stupidity of the woke idiots , immediately started their usual speech based on hate, ” let´s give more force to the police”, the police needs to start shooting people more often and the lot…”

    The political woke brigade stated to became apoplectic.
    Now – today – a demonstration was scheduled to an area of central Lisbon by the woke brigade and the rest of the left concerned.
    The Chega supporters immediately summoned a counter demonstration – at the same hour and located near the first one, and the administrative authorities that permit this things did not understand – the lack of brain cells in this people is remarkable – that after 3 days of convulsion – this could be dangerous.

    One of them finally woke up from the coma and rescheduled the two demonstrations to different hours and different locations.

    6
    At the 3º day the media started to implement a hybrid logic. Criticism on the institutions and the police, but also highlighting that the person that was killed had a criminal record (from 20 years ago…)

    Small numbers of specialists in verbal shit (pardon my french) were summoned during 3 days to spew their verbal theoretical conceptual frameworks about things that they know nothing about, since that, for the most part , they all live in good areas of Lisbon in private condos or subtracted to the problems of the ordinary citizen other areas, but nevertheless they never miss an opportunity to state some bullshit idiocy about cases like this.

    7

    The audiences in the tv´s were high. People were fed with images of pure chaos induced and that´s how the circus is on the roll…the only thing that was missing was an Apache attack helicopter…in the speech of the ” journalists” covering this…

    So in short this was what happened.

    But the title of Le Monde was a sober “Riots rock Lisbon”.

    A “riot” is so much better for a lead title and it looks good as an decorative object.

    Reply ↓
    1. Vandemonian

      Thank you, Pedro, for your comprehensive explanation of these events. You have also provided a clue about why so many of us no longer trust the mainstream media, even for reporting of local events. Well done!

      And thank you as well to NC for providing a forum in which a global audience can read a detailed report of events far away which resonate with what we are seeing at home.

      Reply ↓
      1. Pedro silva

        To CA and Vandemonian (and others who read this) in the following replies to my comment

        One correction

        in point five i wrote this:

        ” and the administrative authorities that permit this things did not understand – the lack of brain cells in this people is remarkable – that after 3 days of convulsion – this could be dangerous.

        One of them finally woke up from the coma and rescheduled the two demonstrations to different hours and different locations.
        ——————————–
        Find out late in the afternoon after my comment was written here that it WAS not the administrative authorities that moved the time table and location of the demonstration.

        It was people from the left wing demonstration that had the common good sense to change the place from where the manifestation would start, not the authorities from the police.

        Latter on, the police issued a statement completely imbecile and provocative stating that they were happy with the civic values demonstrated and the “no problems” during the demonstrations .

        This, after authorizing 2 competing manifestations in the same location, from people who really don´t like each other.

        The 2 officers that participate in the shooting had respectively 21 years and 27- the one with 27 years old was the shooter. But only has one year of service as policeman.

        – Attendance or the woke brigade demonstration – between 30 and 40 thousand
        – Attendance of the Chega/ right wing demonstration – around 70 people. The numbers varied between 70 and 300.

        Odair Muniz was portuguese by nationality and lived here since 22 years, if i read correctly is bio.

        As a young person here he did commit some crimes ( irrelevant regarding what happened here in the last days) , but he was 43 old , two kids and worked as a cook.

        Reply ↓
    1. .human

      My Senator Blumenthal is a frail, old man who hasn’t had an original thought in years. I’ve met and spoken with him on occasion. He just spouts D talking points.

      Reply ↓
          1. Polar Socialist

            I don’t know… If somebody told me four years ago that by now there will have been a global pandemic with millions dead, a huge war in Europe, genocide in Middle East and Global South telling The West to go pound sand, I would probably have thought there’s something fundamentally wrong with them.

            Reply ↓
            1. The Rev Kev

              Got the same feeling myself. Even if I could go back to 2020 and tell myself what was going to happen I would not believe myself. As I said in an earlier comment, we are living in a 1990s Tom Clancy novel.

              Reply ↓
            3. Joker

              Nothing has fundamentally changed in the Empire. It keeps on doing the same things, becuse that’s what empires do, till they collapse.
              .

              Reply ↓
  24. Neutrino

    My friend’s brother was on the Killary detail, got himself transferred as soon as he could, then left the Secret Service for a safer career. The brother maintained radio silence.

    Reply ↓
  25. bobert

    A brief excerpt of a talk between Mearsheimer and Hedges about Israel and the ramifications of it’s actions in the region. One notable point: Mearsheimer discusses the fact that the Sunnis and the Shiites are moving closer together as a result of Israel’s atrocities:

    Prof. John Mearsheimer Believes Israel and the Biden Administration Will Face Consequences

    https://youtu.be/RmSqUu9onGc?si=KVC1Ib_5AmNmvB_u

    Reply ↓
    1. flora

      Thanks for the link. So, the B admin has managed to bring RU and China closer together and bring Shiites and Sunnis closer together. That’s really something.

      Reply ↓
      2. amfortas the hippie

        yeah. the latter is almost worthy of a nobel peace prize.

        only America(and its dog) are indispensable enough to unite a fractured Ummah.

        Reply ↓
    2. begob

      Hedges’s simple questioning made Mearsheimer a little less convincing than when he appears on Napolitano – lots of talk of ‘trouble’ in his answers, but without specifying the mechanisms. Hedges seems to have a lingering conviction that the psychos in the US and Israeli governments will retain their staying power come what may. I get that sense from Aaron Mate too.

      p.s. I base this on the full interview.

      Reply ↓
  26. Clwydshire

    On animosity toward China. I just received a flyer from my local congressman (Nebraska 1st district) whom I will call “Mike the Fool.” Starting on the address side: Mike the Fool, “Standing up to the Chinese Communist Party. Defending Nebraska. #Fighting to keep Chinese technology off American cell towers. #Stopping the CCP from buying Nebraska farmland. #Protect Americans from Chinese spying and cyber attacks.” All this above a picture of Mike standing in front of grain storage facility firing a very large long barrel revolver (gun BIG in the foreground) towards us and into the air. Reverse of flyer: “The Chinese Communist Party is our ENEMY… Plain and simple. #Hacks American computers. #Buys land near military bases. #Spies on our armed forces, even in Nebraska…” etc.

    So, a whole flyer devoted to China, from a congressman who voted “yea” on the 60 billion dollar Ukraine aid bill back in April. The mindless bellicosity of our elites is staggering, and it is bound, one day, to find its punishment.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisRUEcon

      Ask the Congressman to go through his abode and dare him to not find one thing with a “Made In China” label. Then ask him if China is such a dangerous enemy, then why are so many large and important companies (via uschina.org) allowed to establish presence there and trade?

      Reply ↓
    2. CA

      “Standing up to the Chinese Communist Party. Defending Nebraska. #Fighting to keep Chinese technology off American cell towers. #Stopping the CCP from buying Nebraska farmland. #Protect Americans from Chinese spying and cyber attacks.

      “The Chinese Communist Party is our ENEMY… Plain and simple. #Hacks American computers. #Buys land near military bases. #Spies on our armed forces, even in Nebraska…”

      Thank you so much for this Congressman’s flyer.

      Reply ↓
    2. AG

      Yes. On the other hand you did have non-embedded serious reporters like Fisk, Hedges, Lawrence, Hersh, Nairn.
      Others will come up with many more and better fit names.
      And these people were core to their papers product.
      It´s not sexy to say it but I would guess it really depends on the particular conflict. And the Ukraine War is probably the worst reported on.

      On female war reporters (my examples are all men):

      THE GUARDIAN 2011:

      According to a survey by the European Federation of Journalists, the average number of women journalists in European news media in 2006 was almost equal to that of men: 47.7%. And significant numbers of those women were reporting from the heart of military conflicts. Before 1970, less than 6% of newspaperwomen were foreign correspondents; today, there are almost as many women’s bylines as men’s attached to reports from some of the world’s toughest assignments, and in television news, the flak-jacketed correspondent shouting over a son et lumiere of missiles is just as likely to be female as male, and knows, more keenly than Bennett ever could, that “Journalism is not a game, and in journalism there are no excuses.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/apr/16/women-war-reporting-annalena-mcafee

      Reply ↓
  28. Wukchumni

    Goooooooood Moooooooorning Fiatnam!

    The Tit For Tat Offensive had erupted out of nowhere, if you could call the Holy Land that.

    Glad to be part of the Zionsist movement here camped on BLM land near Bears Ears NM & Canyonlands NP, far away from atoms splitting furiously above our position.

    Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          p.s.

          Hope to be in Monument Valley when WW3 officially starts in a few days, I’ll be John Wayne in a Butterfield Stage, er F-150.

          Reply ↓
  30. Tom Stone

    I find it curious that when it comes to the danger posed by HPAI no one is talking about immune dysregulation caused by Covid.
    I learned what it means to have a damaged immune system while undergoing Chemo, I lost 8 pounds of meat in two days and spent the next 4 days in ICU.
    There are hundreds of Millions worldwide with immune systems that are damaged, the healthcare system was in no shape to deal with this before Covid and given its current condition it could totally collapse in short order when HPAI adapts to Humans.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisRUEcon

      This is the worst and most infuriating part of the Covid-19 cover up. I immediately switch off anyone talking about “immunity” or “endemicity” because of it.

      Reply ↓
  31. Lefty Godot

    It’s Getting Harder to Break Into the American Middle Class

    And it’s getting easier to fall out of the American middle class. An economic game of musical chairs. When asset inflation is the chief engine of wealth creation, this seems to be the inevitable result. The housing market needs to crash at least 50%, but as long as people keep buying that isn’t going to happen. It’s not even like the automobile market, where they add all kinds of features you don’t want to justify the price increases on new models. The exact same house you saw for sale at a little over $200,000 seven years ago is now over $400,000. Insane.

    Reply ↓
    1. Jason Boxman

      And neither candidate is offering squat on this.

      Harris, in addition to her housing policies, has touted a $6,000 child tax credit to help parents cope, a cap on child-care costs for working families at 7% of income, and a $50,000 tax deduction for people starting small businesses, all ideas that would take the cooperation of Congress to implement.

      LOL, I guess if you have kids congrats, you matter a tiny bit to the Democrat Party. Those of us without kids, well, too bad.

      I guess I can go eat opportunity!

      Harris has focused on what she calls an “opportunity economy” meant to bring down the barriers to joining the middle class and building wealth. She has promised to provide first-time homebuyers with $25,000 in down payment assistance and to spur the construction of 3 million additional new homes in her first term in office.

      Joy, and how does that help with the monthly payment? LOL. Meanwhile, in Trumpland:

      Trump’s broader economic sales pitch depends heavily on voters’ memories of pre-pandemic times when costs were lower. His plan hinges on juicing growth in the US by repeating his first-term agenda to reduce taxes and slash regulation while attacking imports with tariffs designed to bring overseas factories home to the US. His supporters argue that approach would mean higher incomes and an easier economic path forward for everyone. Even if he has offered only vague promises on the specifics to address things like health and child care costs.

      I guess we’ll see; if you make so little you don’t pay income tax, doesn’t necessarily help.

      My favorite about tax cuts is, despite all the bleating about taxes by the Republican party, never has the big FU when you jump from 12% bracket to 22% bracket been addressed (previously 14 to 24, so just under Trump they could again have fixed this). Instead of adding a bracket or 3, you get the big FU if you hit “middle class” income, going up to 22%.

      What a joke.

      Didn’t wake up to WWIII today, at least, so there’s something!

      Reply ↓
      1. Screwball

        opportunity economy

        How tone deaf. Let’s saddle up the mule and go plow. People are already plowing, and many not doing so well, and can’t afford feed for the horse. Words, political BS words. Like hope change opportunity fighting etc. Stop, just stop with all the crap.

        Reply ↓
    2. Wukchumni

      A single family home in an ok neighborhood in LA fetched $100k in 1980, and now the same tired home is a million bucks.

      Reply ↓
      1. amfortas the hippie

        most of the “improvements” to our 20 acres were built by me…in my own distinct style(Landfill Chic)…and yet the evaluated Value of the whole 20 acres has gone from 150k,35 years ago, to almost a million.
        and this while mom hasnt paid a dime in property taxes in more than 20 years:Don was fully disabled vietnam vet, and so exempt, which exemption passed to her upon his death…it will end with her, of course.
        mind…this isnt due to any objective “improvements”(if we sold…all but impossible now that its finally in a Trust…any buyer would simply bulldoze everything ive built, save maybe the Cabin, and perhaps the Big Greenhouse)…it is entirely due to shenanigans by the appraisal guy, as well as the stupid rich paying inflated prices because they can.
        i can see all the new hillforts from where i’m sitting now…some miles distant.
        (and at the same time, this 38 year old trailerhouse(my Library, with holes in the floor and almost no running water) keeps appreciating, according to the appraisal people(they blame it on their algorithm,lol)…unless i go down there and bitch them out every july.
        taxes out here are still relatively low, compared to even 60 miles away…and we’re(hopefully) far enough away from civilisation, still, to limit the ingress of idiots with lots of jack.
        last i looked, our tax bill, if we paid one, would be around 3k per year…and once mom’s gone, i’ll go down there and yell at them people and get it lower…even if i hafta declare the entire place religiously exempt, due to it being a Druid Sacred Space(and dare them to tangle with me…they know i’m a persistent sob,lol…once paid an illegal tax on vehicles in 10 feedsacks 3/4 full of loose pennies…tax was repealed soon after)

        Reply ↓
      2. NYMutza

        If you do the math you’ll see that going from $100K to $1,000,000K in 40 years isn’t really that big of a deal. Doing it in 5 years would be.

        Reply ↓
    3. Don

      I have a solution to this problem — just do what the political elite do in Canada: Call the working class the middle class, and few will want to break into anymore. It’s like popcorn sizes at the movie theatre — there’s Large, Extra-Large, and Jumbo, or as Starbucks would have it, Tall, Venti, or Grande: Regional terminology may vary, but the point is, there is no Small.

      Of course, situations occasionally pop up where there’s a need to talk about the broken-down, poor-to-the-edge-of-death, drug addicted, underclass; on these occasions, ad hoc descriptors can be used. “Marginalized” will always work, or “the left behind”, “those who have fallen on hardship”, etc., but my favourite is “those who aspire to good, middle-class jobs” — that is, anything more elevated than working in a car wash.

      Reply ↓
    4. NYMutza

      Inflation is not limited to asset classes. Look at professional sports. A top tier quarterback in the NFL gets paid $50-$60 million per year. Unless he’s mostly siting on the bench, a star NBA player gets at least $40 million per year. Baseball too has astronomical pay packages, as does futball. Even professional hockey is getting into the game with $20 million per year pay packages not unusual. The availability of billions of dollars makes these deals possible. For housing there is literally trillions of dollars available chasing housing units. Included in this is foreign money. Middle class people are simply being priced out. This is little different from gentrifying neighborhoods pricing out existing residents. There is no easy answer. Harris will not succeed in making housing more affordable for middle class strivers. No president will be.

      Reply ↓
  32. Jason Boxman

    From The Math Says It’s Getting Harder to Break Into the American Middle Class

    As US Election Day approaches, inflation is largely tamed and wage gains have lifted incomes. Yet the economy remains the most pressing issue in the presidential race for one big reason: Increasingly, for many Americans, the long-standing building blocks of middle-class life feel frustratingly unattainable.

    So we start off on the wrong foot. Inflation may be tamed, or not, but the cost of life’s necessities haven’t and will not go down, save for a depression or price controls.

    So no wonder the blocks of an American “middle class” life are beyond reach!

    LOL. America has no citizens, only consumers.

    Consumers are navigating those challenges at the same time as pandemic-era savings have faded and as a US labor market that recently seemed to have a job available for anybody has slowed.

    …

    It’s not universally bleak for consumers:

    This kind of framing is insulting and disempowering, by design.

    Reply ↓
    1. amfortas the hippie

      re:consumers rather than citizens…aye. when my suegra’s toilet exploded for the second time, due to city idiocy, i went on the warpath…got them to pay(again) for the repairs(just completed before the second fountain), and got the wastewater manager fired.
      they all know how i am, down there…and so were rather fawning and accommodating…the “Customer Liaison”, whom ive known for 30 years, called me often to see if i was satisfied(i told them day of ,that i’d be satisfied, or cnn would be on their step by next week)…and she kept referring to the people of mason as customers…and i kept correcting her…”No, they’re citizens, dammit”.
      just felt wrong…and especially wrong was how easy it was for her to think that way…as well as how hard it was for her to understand my repeated corrections, and why it matters.
      and she is a dedicated public servant…worked for the city forever…takes whatever job needs doing, including dog catcher(for which she is not suited,lol).
      i think that customer idiom is in the training they all get from various quasi official ngo’s and such.

      Reply ↓
  33. Jason Boxman

    From U.S. Consumer Watchdog Cautions Businesses on Surveillance of Workers

    If you opposite genocide, you’re definitely being watched.

    That’s no surprise to Jared Holt, who studies hate and extremist movements at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and closely follows the plans and politics of online radicals. Holt told me that, on the far right, it has become an article of faith that anything in Washington is a deep-state ploy, a honey pot designed by perfidious feds to entrap MAGA believers.

    (bold mine)

    Watched closely:

    As for the scenario of a Trump victory leading to marauding crowds of left-wing protesters, Holt said he wasn’t hugely concerned about that, either. Much of the organized groups’ passion, he said, is tied up in opposing the Israel-Hamas war — an event that has also leant a pox-on-both-your-houses vibe to their understanding of the Harris-Trump contest. “A lot of the radical left groups that I keep my eye on seem to be mutually disgusted with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump,” he said. “That energy has largely been spent elsewhere.”

    (bold mine)

    And who does ISD work with?

    ISD partners with governments, cities, businesses and communities, working to deliver solutions at all levels of society, to empower those that can really impact change. We are headquartered in London with a global footprint that includes teams in Washington DC, Berlin, Amman, Nairobi and Paris.

    Reply ↓
  34. AG

    These e.g. are five of THE NATION´s current headlines. Sound like Trump is about to burn down the House, literally, just the way the Nazis did in 1933.


    Calling Trump a Fascist Is Well Overdue. Why Did It Take So Long?
    Finally, the warnings are coming loud and fast. Will they matter this late in the day?
    Sasha Abramsky
    https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-fascist-well-overdue/

    The Washington Post’s Craven Capitulation to the Billionaire Class
    What the newspaper’s editorial page editor really meant was, “My corporate paymasters want to wallow in Donald Trump’s tax cuts.”
    Chris Lehmann
    https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/washington-post-endorsement-david-shipley/

    Kamala Harris Does Not Deserve The Nation’s Endorsement
    The Biden administration’s action, and inaction, in Gaza—and her support for those policies—should have been enough to disqualify her.
    The Fall 2024 Nation Interns
    https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kamala-harris-counter-endorsement/


    The Kamala Harris Stan Wars Have Reached a Fever Pitch
    The election has turned the Internet into a dangerous battlefield—and nobody, not even a pop superstar, is safe.
    Faith Branch
    https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kamala-harris-online-stan-wars/

    JD Vance Shows That the Future of the GOP Is in Racist Conspiracy Theories
    Trump’s deluded fantasies have now become the GOP gospel.
    Jeet Heer
    https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-vance-gop-conspiracy-theories/

    Reply ↓
    1. lyman alpha blob

      Why did it take so long to call Trump a fascist??!!!??? Clearly the Nation has not been paying attention – https://www.cnn.com/2015/11/24/politics/donald-trump-fascism/index.html

      Still waiting for some example of what exactly Trump has done that would make him a “fascist”. Conveniently, none are ever given and the Woken are expected to take it on faith. Just like the bible huggers they so deplore.

      It wouldn’t be that difficult to find examples – the problem is every other president has done the same things. Glass houses and all, so best not to get specific.

      Reply ↓
      1. AG

        One question just because I got off the phone after argueing over Trump for an hour:
        What is it with the rape charges?

        Because last line of defense of people is
        “You want a rapist in the WH?” (this being Germany).

        And I didn´t follow that trial.
        (My instinct told me it´s baloney but that´s no serious argument.)

        Reply ↓
        1. ACPAL

          Reminds me of a story of a male campaigner accusing his female opponent of being a thespian. There was a big uproar and he won.

          Reply ↓
      2. AG

        It´s worthwhile to actually read “lyman alpha blob”´s CNN link from 2015 and consider the hypocrisy with mass surveillance already in place for 15+ years by then:

        Here the intro:

        ” Conservative warnings about Donald Trump have grown increasingly somber. At first he was just an entertainer; then he became a worrisome distraction, and soon, there was fear that he would permanently scar the reputation of the Republican Party.

        But it was after Trump started calling for stronger surveillance of Muslim-Americans in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks that a handful of conservatives ventured to call Trump’s rhetoric something much more dangerous: fascism.

        Since launching his campaign this summer, the billionaire real estate magnate has regularly deployed inflammatory rhetoric about immigrants – particularly regarding Latinos – and repeatedly raised the alarm about foreigners entering the country. That has escalated following the series of shooting rampages and explosions in Paris this month allegedly perpetrated by ISIS and amid a national debate over accepting Syrian refugees.

        Most striking has been Trump’s aim at Muslims in the United States. He’s been widely denounced for claiming that people in New Jersey — a state with “large Arab populations,” he said — cheered after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. That, coupled with his seeming endorsement of a national registry to track Muslims in the country, has sparked a new level of condemnation from conservatives already on edge about Trump’s endurance.

        “Trump is a fascist. And that’s not a term I use loosely or often. But he’s earned it,” tweeted Max Boot, a conservative fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who is advising Marco Rubio.

        Trump is a fascist. And that’s not a term I use loosely or often. But he’s earned it. https://t.co/KSfADd5Ycq
        — Max Boot 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@MaxBoot) November 22, 2015

        “Forced federal registration of US citizens, based on religious identity, is fascism. Period. Nothing else to call it,” Jeb Bush national security adviser John Noonan wrote on Twitter.

        Conservative Iowa radio host Steve Deace, who has endorsed Ted Cruz, also used the “F” word last week: “If Obama proposed the same religion registry as Trump every conservative in the country would call it what it is – creeping fascism.”

        If Obama proposed the same religion registry as Trump every conservative in the country would call it what it is — creeping fascism.
        — Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) November 20, 2015
        “

        Reply ↓
        1. AG

          Max Boot had signed the 2004 open letter of the Project for the New American Century
          https://web.archive.org/web/20040929083336/http://www.newamericancentury.org/russia-20040928.htm

          Killing 6 mn people in the War on Terror makes you a democrat. Making dumb jokes about women and immigrants makes you a fascist.

          What pisses me off, people in Europe don´t see this (yes, people like my friends…).

          p.s. that letter is interesting as it proves that diplomacy is a joke since war with Russia had been a foregone conclusion as early as 2004 (if not late 1990s). It´s in every sentence. They wanted war then, they got it now. Well done. But to quote Lavrov, you need two to tango (albeit Lavrov said it in a more peaceful context.)

          Reply ↓
      3. britzklieg

        If The Nation‘s editors and most of its regular writers had even half the integrity of its interns (Thomas Birmingham, Xenia Gonikberg, Kelly Hui, Samaa Khullar, and Grayson Scott) I might start reading it again. It’s a powerful essay.

        I suspect D.D. Guttenplan is at the top of the list of its “unsigned” editorial endorsing the killer Kamala. He has brought The Nation to perdition in his short but destructive tenure as editor, especially in its ghastly support for the Nazis in Ukraine as well as the deceased right-wing racist scum Navalny and his living fraud of a spouse who is currently championed there as the one who will regime change Russia (LOL).

        Reply ↓
      4. britzklieg

        I’ll try this again…

        If The Nation’s editors and most of its regular writers had even half of the integrity demonstrated by its interns (Thomas Birmingham, Xenia Gonikberg, Kelly Hui, Samaa Khullar, and Grayson Scott) in the link above I’d probably still be reading the occasional worthy article it too infrequently publishes, I might even donate a few bucks yearly as I once did. Its unprincipled support for genocide via the embarrassing endorsement of Harris which the interns boldly take apart while taking to task the “unsigned” editor(s) who wrote it, is ghastly… as is its editorial support for the Ukrainian not-sees as well as the the racist right-wing bloviations of Navalny and his wife, both of whom have been celebrated therein.

        But at least it was printed, which is a far sight better than the censorship that goes on elsewhere with certain voices permanently moderated in spaces that should reject such actions… and claim to.

        Reply ↓
    3. amfortas the hippie

      all the dems had to do was medicare for all, and let actual democracy do its thing in their own damned primaries(and maybe sorta curtail the neolib corruption a bit…and back off some of the warmongering)…and none of this would have happened.
      but noooo…the AI/demon/stone effigy of locust god down there in the Vault where the Powder is Kept Dry kept telling them to do all these stupid things…and here we are.

      this is almost 1:1 to the same idiots who sent the manufacturing to China(or their heirs) now wanting to go to war with China because they make everything, today.
      Rule#1: dont do stupid shit.

      Reply ↓
      1. ChrisFromGA

        Number one on my list of “stupid shit”

        Accepting an endorsement from a war criminal who slaughtered thousands of the friends and family of a significant chunk of your voters in Michigan. Said war criminal also invented such programs as “rendition” of suspects without due process, interrogating and detaining Muslims (and non-muslim US citizens) without habeas corpus, and encouraging prison guards to sodomize Muslim-Americans with a broomstick.

        Yup, that is OUR KAMALA SHOWING LOVE FOR DICK CHENEY!!

        Reply ↓
      2. ChrisFromGA

        Great Googly-moogly, I could have saved myself the rant above by just observing that the original “don’t do stupid shit” remark by Obama was in reference to Bush/Cheney getting us into a war with Iraq.

        Now we’ve come full circle – her joyness is endorsed by and willingly accepts the endorsement by the same cretin who did the stupid shit … an irony that is completely lost on her.

        Reply ↓
        1. amfortas the hippie

          that was my original…O stole it from me.
          Rule #2,as the boys will attest, is “dont be a dick”, which is something the USA! has had a problem with from the get-go.

          i read Robt Anton Wilson and Phillip K Dick as a late teen/early adult…thought it was fiction. then i started frequenting headshops, and …naturally…gravitated towards the book section.
          what a revelation.
          and then i could sorta kinda back all those crazy assertions up with the 1976 deluxe britannica set i had pestered the folks into getting,a decade before(a pre-internet, if you will).
          then the 3or 4 times dad spoke about his work with the DIA…and then bumping into all sorts of weirdness in my Wild Years….most of it already related, likely over and over, right here on NC.
          The world is not what we have been led to believe…and we…we are not the shining city on the hill, bringing freedom and democracy to the world.
          we are, in fact, quite the opposite of all that…and have been, for a very long time.
          but regular people do not want to think about such things…so much easier to just beat the bearer of such news into submission….
          all of that evil has consequences…the Wiccans talk about the threefold problem.
          thats what we’re fixin to go through.
          and our leadership’s(sic) only cognizant response is to try to shut down anyone even talking about it.
          that speaks whole worlds of confirmation…who killed JFK?….lets start there, Mr Trump.
          open the books…let heads roll where they absolutely must(quite literally)…and issue a general amnesty to all the peons that helped.
          with all of it.
          but dammit, at least begin to acknowledge reality…that reality we share with everyone on the planet, past and present.
          and stop with the wall to wall lying about literally everything.
          —rant end,lol.

          Reply ↓
          1. ChrisFromGA

            Robert Anton Wilson – The Illuminatus Trilogy

            It shaped a lot of my early thinking. Operation Mindfu&k, Eris the Goddess of Chaos and Discord.

            Reply ↓
        2. AG

          “an irony that is completely lost on her.”

          Where you see irony I see opportunity!
          Where you see stupid shit I see mountains of gold!
          Where you see coincidence I see providence!
          Where you see a hurricane I see joy!

          Reply ↓
  35. ilsm

    GAO report on DOD tactical aircraft’s readiness results over 6 fiscal years measures tech performance of aircraft against budgeting on the actual flying.

    Comments on F-35 are accurate. DOD has not identified the efficient mix of production quality, and maintenance responses to the forecast break rate and preventive maintenance actions. IOW DOD has not established what needs to be done, aka maintenance plans for F-35.

    Next GAO said correctly, even if DOD had what is needed to sustain F-35, the contractor government mix of source of support is not rational.

    In short DOD did not have any product support strategy, that they listened to, from its ILS managers.

    GAO criticism should have been resolved in 2006!

    Reply ↓
  36. AG

    2006…wow.
    I first read the POGO report 2022…

    here some F-35 stuff from my archive:


    The F-35 and other warplanes descend on Switzerland this spring
    Apr 11, 2019
    https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/04/11/the-f-35-and-other-warplanes-descend-on-switzerland-this-spring/

    Lockheed’s F-35 topples competition in Swiss fighter contest
    Jun 30, 2021
    https://www.defensenews.com/air/2021/06/30/lockheeds-f-35-topples-competition-in-swiss-fighter-contest/

    F-35 Program Stagnated in 2021 but DOD Testing Office Hiding Full Extent of Problem
    Mar 09, 2022
    https://www.pogo.org/analysis/f-35-program-stagnated-in-2021-but-dod-testing-office-hiding-full-extent-of-problem

    The F-35 Program Stalled in 2022
    Feb 23, 2023
    https://www.pogo.org/analysis/f-35-program-stalled-in-2022

    Failing F-35 fighter grounded once again
    A faulty engine caused the $1.7 trillion boondoggle fighter to crash during a December quality check.
    Jan 05, 2023
    https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/01/04/failing-f-35-grounded-once-again/

    F-35: $2T in ‘generational wealth’ the military had no right to spend
    The Joint Strike Fighter had a $200B price tag in 2001, now babies born that year are out of college and the plane is still not ready for prime time
    Aug 20, 2024
    https://responsiblestatecraft.org/f-35-most-expensive/

    (ok this one seemed odd as the true source goes)
    The world’s most powerful electronic warfare system MURMANSK-BN crippled F-35 fighters over the Black and Baltic Seas
    July 30, 2024
    https://en.reseauinternational.net/le-systeme-de-guerre-electronique-le-plus-puissant-au-monde-murmansk-bn-a-paralyse-les-chasseurs-f-35-au-dessus-de-la-mer-noire-et-de-la-mer-baltique/

    Reply ↓
    2. ACPAL

      My job in the military was aircraft radio repair. We were still changing vacuum tubes and the more sophisticated transisterized equipment was just coming in. Four years later my first job out of engineering school was as a flight test engineer (FTE) at Edwards AFB. My boss told me that when he started government FTE’s were hands-on along side the contractors. In my generation we weren’t allowed to touch the airplanes and the F-15 flight computer was being upgraded to 16k of memory (very little software). 28 years later when I retired (I did other jobs in-between) and aircraft like the F-35 were almost all software and far, far more complex than Windows. With contractor management only interested in the big paychecks (like Boeing), disinterested in quality or even functionality, and software being rewritten literally on the fly it’s no wonder they have problems. I doubt that more than a handful of F-35s have the same software on-board leaving the programmers scratching their heads on failures and glitches and pilots unsure which buttons to push. And the software and hardware “improvements” added almost daily to counter what the enemy throws at them gurantee that the F-35 will never be “mature.” And if the historic trend continues the next generation of US military aircraft will never get off the ground. I’ll be interested to see if the next generation of 737 gets off the ground.

      Reply ↓
      1. AG

        But considering that in Germany e.g. F-35s are supposed to carry the “nuclear sharing”-equipment to their targets – the updated B-61s – this is a nightmare.
        And you read NOTHING about these things in our national press.

        I forgot the insane sum Germans are throwing at Lockheed buying those planes. Yet it´s embarassing that I probably by now know more about this (not to speak of engineers like yourself) than our reporters who get paid for writing about these things.
        And this desaster has been in the public sphere for years now.
        I am at a loss of words…

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  37. Jeff W

    A bit more about the relationship between GH Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan in The Conversation: “The man who taught infinity: how GH Hardy tamed Srinivasa Ramanujan’s genius” here.

    Reply ↓
  38. Glen

    Call this the companion piece to “Chinese EV battery maker SVOLT to shut European operations”:

    How China’s EV Boom Caught Western Car Companies Asleep at the Wheel
    https://www.wired.com/story/how-chinas-ev-boom-caught-western-car-companies-asleep-at-the-wheel/

    Japanese teardowns of Chinese electric vehicles by BYD and Nio stun car parts executives in Nagoya
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cNNijh_4tc

    There’s one thing I have to object to in both of these articles- that nobody could have seen this coming. Quite frankly, as an engineer involved in manufacturing over a long career, this result has been so obvious for so long that everybody around me is tired of hearing about it. The people that have the factory, and are making the product are going to become the experts at it. The country that ships it’s factories overseas and quits making things are going to become worse at it:

    Wal-Mart & China: A Joint Venture
    https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/wmchina.html

    And the company that puts CEO and Wall St profits ahead of staying competitive is going to get way, way behind. (A pick up truck that blue collar guys use to buy because trucks were CHEAP RELIABLE transportation now cost more than I paid for my HOUSE.)

    And the next obvious but completely wrong thing we get to hear from American business experts is this is the end of America’s car making industry: We cannot compete! Of course, this is the exact same bunch of Wall St and CEO idiots that got America in this situation while they got extremely rich so it’s just more [family blog] America, I got mine!

    Reply ↓
    1. CA

      “Call this the companion piece to ‘Chinese EV battery maker…’ ”

      Really helpful, working on manufacturing research and development from the existing process is necessary and leaves a legacy.

      Reply ↓
      1. Glen

        If it appears that I am selling China’s accomplishments short, please correct me! What China has accomplished is very impressive. And now that it’s there, we are finding more the true nature of American’s CEO and Wall St capitalists. They cannot compete, they cannot innovate, they can tear down and sell off what those before them have created, but they themselves are NOT able to create. They are parasites, freeloaders, dead weights on a productive society, but they have all the “SCOTUS free speech” money and have bought the political system.

        Reply ↓
        1. CA

          If it appears that I am selling China’s accomplishments short, please correct me!

          [ For me you are describing just what research and development is all about, which is building on process. Not just applied mathematics or science, but theoretical. I think your writing important. Of course, there have to be resources provided for working on technical advance and socially that means either a governing or private (business) body for finance. A business body may turn to finance rather then research and development to gain profit and there we can have a problem.

          China has for many years now been spending twice and more the share of GDP on investment of the United States or European Union countries. Also, education has been emphasized. So, just today I read about a mechanical tomato harvester that “seems” astonishing in intricacy. Then again, Yuan Longping and associates spent more than 10 years on hybrid rice and never stopped working on the rice. ]

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      2. LY

        China first did this in 4G wireless, and then in batteries and cars. Once they’ve they gained the hands-on manufacturing knowledge, instead of playing catch up, they looked forward and invested the next generation of products.

        I think China was going to take maybe another decade to catch up in internal combustion cars (since the auto manufacturers kept key essential knowledge at home), the industry went to electrification. I also think China is at least decade or so behind in commercial aviation, maybe less if Boeing continues to be dysfunctional. For high speed rail, I have the impression China is maybe a bit closer, but still behind France and Japan.

        Reply ↓
        1. CA

          “China first did this in 4G wireless…”

          The applications are even now newly unfolding:

          https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202409/25/WS66f3f9c0a310f1265a1c4d3a.html

          September 25, 2024

          China home to 4 million 5G base stations

          BEIJING – The number of 5G base stations in China exceeded 4.04 million at the end of August, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed Wednesday.

          The figure accounted for 32.1 percent of the total number of mobile base stations nationwide.

          The number of 5G mobile subscribers hit 966 million in China.

          The country has seen its 5G network and commercialization develop rapidly in recent years. Its 5G network now covers every city and town, as well as more than 90 percent of villages.

          China’s 5G standard essential patent declarations account for 42 percent of the global total…

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        2. Polar Socialist

          China has 8 times more high speed rail than France and Japan put together. 2/3 of the world’s high-speed rail is in China, to put it bluntly. I don’t think that is possible if you’re following others, but honestly, I don’t know.

          In commercial aviation China is indeed behind, but it’s really hard to say how much. Before sanctions Russia was in principle a decade or two behind, but now they are only a few years and soon they’re likely to lead. All it seems to take is for the US State Department to say that you can’t lease used Boeings and Airbuses anymore to bring an industrial powerhouse up to speed.

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    2. ACPAL

      How many recall when we considered Japanese stuff as cheap junk? Then they got better and almost destroyed the US car manufacturers. Now it’s China’s turn. Will Russia or India be next?

      Reply ↓
    3. John Wright

      Where I worked in Silicon Valley in the late 1970’s, the contact with manufacturing problems was called “the next bench”.

      A company would learn of manufacturing issues and create products to solve them.

      Moving manufacturing overseas has resulted in losing exposure to the “next bench” for many Americans.

      The silver lining might be the world may eventually be less conflict ridden as the ripple effects of decimating manufacturing on the USA military-industrial complex could restrict the USA’s “democracy spreading” behavior.

      If Germany had shifted its manufacturing far away in the 1920’s, maybe WWII would have been far attenuated.

      Maybe forced peace on the USA is not the outcome many of the elite USA think tankers and financiers expected.

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  39. Tom Stone

    I was looking at pics of Trump today, one with his hand to a bloody ear and one taken at the McDonalds stunt.
    I then looked at a dozen or so pics of Harris taken in the last three months and the contrast is stark.
    Trump is having fun, and it shows.
    Harris looks middle aged and tired.
    And making “Joy” the theme of your campaign when you have the kind of presence and looks that Harris has is jarring.
    And yes, something that simple and shallow can make a difference.
    Trump comes across as genuine ( A genuine asshole, he ripped off an artist friend of mine who ended up suing him in superior court and winning)

    And Harris does not.
    .

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    1. Pat

      I generally read the material, not watch the show that is the Democratic campaign so it had been a couple of weeks since I actually saw video of Harris. The previous campaign event I watched I thought she looked more tired than at the convention, but since she was working harder than she had in the previous three years that was to be expected. But the recent event with Cheney was a stark difference. She looked not just tired but drained, and had aged about 15 years.

      The thing about Trump is he is a salesman and a hustler. To be any good at that you have to be able to both read people and engage with them. And he is pretty good at it. He enjoys it And unlike Harris, Trump actually likes people of all stripes and levels. That doesn’t mean he respects them really, but he enjoys the interplay. The good liberal Democrats don’t like it and wouldn’t admit it but deep down they know that Trump and Bill Clinton have much more in common than just the disgusting horndog thing.

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      1. The Rev Kev

        ‘I thought she looked more tired than at the convention, but since she was working harder than she had in the previous three years that was to be expected.’

        And they say that French is the subtle language. :)

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  40. flora

    re: Taibbi’s “Uh, Oh: New York Times, Washington Post Signal Post-Election Crackdown

    LBJ knew his re-election campaign was lost when serious, respectable businessmen and respectable ladies in good dress were marching against the Vietnam War. He bowed out leaving the party – that chose Humphrey against many objections – to pick up the pieces.

    It would be an almost literary drama plot if today’s Dem estab, born in the anti-Vietnam War, was ousted for its war mongering tendencies now, 50 years later.
    I think the same is likely now. The old neocon and neolib factions are losing in the wide polity. / my 2 cents.

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  41. Jason Boxman

    And as we enter the closing days of the campaign, the pitched fervor that Trump is a fascist and likely dictator is making desperate rounds again.

    Trump Escalates Threats as Campaign Enters Dark Final Stretch

    Top military leaders and high-ranking former officials from his administration have issued warning after warning that Donald J. Trump would rule as a dictator if given the chance.

    And what does America do to fascists? After two assassination attempts, Democrats are continuing their campaign to get Trump assassinated. Stochastic terrorism.

    These are the adults in the room.

    Meanwhile, in four years as president, Trump did not, in fact, rule as a dictator, round people up into camps, have a death squad, or anything else that might imply in a second term, any of this is likely to happen, not the least of which is, the entire Establishment is against him, and he has no effective organized paramilitary organization.

    Really dangerous times, and not because Trump might win!

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  42. MicaT

    One thought I had on Israeli weapons to attack Iran is that they don’t seem to have long range missiles and have to use planes to get their shorter range weapons to work.
    Much more expensive, complicated, slower, not as big of payload and risky due to human loss and expense aircraft.

    It would seem that Iran has the better hand on this front. But maybe I’m missing something

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    1. sarmaT

      Yep. That’s the US doctrine. Airforce centered. Traditionally used to terrorize those that can not shoot back.

      Iran does not have the capability of building advanced aircraft, so they’ve focused on what they could make (loads of drones and missiles).

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  43. Jason Boxman

    Just saved some people staying above me, car stuck in the dark in wet leaves heading up the hill. I don’t really like people. It’s weird being happy to help. Interrupted my movie knocking on my window. Wife was frantic. At least in their fifties.

    Anyway. Since I’m helping I’m giving my default COVID speal.

    Didn’t really talk to the husband. Wife thought as mostly everyone seems to, and she said straight up she’s happily die than miss out on living life. I tried to explain cumulative risk. But not convincing anyone. She hoped that I’d realize life is worth living and to come back into the world. She believed strongly in her faith and God has a plan.

    I dunno. No one turns blue and explodes. At this point no one is gonna convince anyone it is dangerous to get infected. Life experience shows it’s totally okay. Whatever the population level disability statistics may show.

    I can’t square this circle.

    I tried to explain long COVID. But she wasn’t buying. It’s better to be disabled than not live life.

    Was the typical refrain on Dating App as well when I wasn’t just trolled or insulted.

    It’s bizarre that this is going to be the rest of whatever is my life. Who knew apocalypse movies were real?

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  45. Ben Panga

    Researchers say an AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said (AP News)

    “While most developers assume that transcription tools misspell words or make other errors, engineers and researchers said they had never seen another AI-powered transcription tool hallucinate as much as Whisper…

    …Over 30,000 clinicians and 40 health systems, including the Mankato Clinic in Minnesota and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, have started using a Whisper-based tool built by Nabla, which has offices in France and the U.S.

    It’s impossible to compare Nabla’s AI-generated transcript to the original recording because Nabla’s tool erases the original audio for “data safety reasons,” Raison said.

    Nabla said the tool has been used to transcribe an estimated 7 million medical visits…

    …Nabla said that no model is perfect… “

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    1. Ben Panga

      “In an example they uncovered, a speaker said, “He, the boy, was going to, I’m not sure exactly, take the umbrella.”

      But the transcription software added: “He took a big piece of a cross, a teeny, small piece … I’m sure he didn’t have a terror knife so he killed a number of people.”

      A speaker in another recording described “two other girls and one lady.” Whisper invented extra commentary on race, adding “two other girls and one lady, um, which were Black.”

      In a third transcription, Whisper invented a non-existent medication called “hyperactivated antibiotics.”

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      1. The Rev Kev

        I saw that same article earlier today and could not believe what I was reading. How could they be so stupid as to use an AI transcription tool when it is notorious for making stuff up. And this in a medical setting too. This has so many bad outcomes built into it that I do not know where to start. What if law enforcement was going into those records and found that bit about ‘I’m sure he didn’t have a terror knife so he killed a number of people.’ and some hot-shot prosecutor decided to launch an investigation of that person based on that transcript? This is just stupidity cubed.

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    2. Acacia

      I have used Whisper and can confirm that it does this. On average, seems to be one serious hallucination per hour of talk.

      In general, the results can be fairly good, so people are readily impressed and believe the tech is just great. But then you discover these totally hallucinated sentences, and that’s a clear sign that in fact the tech simply has not arrived.

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