The Case of the SS Stalingrad, the Polar Bear and the Barrels of Siberian Honey. Breaking the Fetters
Climate/Environment
The energy transition is powered by — wait for it — coal Bloomberg
Another private equity group is buying an Ohio coal plant. Will anything change? Ohio Capital Journal
US power system becomes more fossil-dependent than China’s Reuters
AI’s thirst for power keeps coal fires burning bright The Register
The future of coal country: The landscape of energy Montana Free Press
Pandemics
CDC sends help as more WA egg farm workers test positive for bird flu Seattle Times
Africa
The end of Mozambique’s two-party system? Africa Is A Country
India
Supply of arms to Israel case: Pro-corporation judgment misses the ‘human’ element The Leaflet
Startups: Pushing India towards $10 Trillion Economy Open Magazine
Stalinist CITU shuts down Samsung India workers’ militant strike on orders of DMK government WSWS
The Koreas
Samsung Electronics Union strikes a chord with South Korean society East Asia Forum
Japan
Two key elections chart the U.S.-Japan alliance’s future Tokyo Review
Japan election: stagnation continues The Next Recession
China?
China industrial profits extend drop as deflation takes toll The Business Times
Is US trade policy reshaping global supply chains? Journal of International Economics
US approves $2 Billion arms deal to Taiwan Defence Blog
Why Taiwan Should be Disheartened by Iran’s Missile Strike on Israel The Diplomat
Old Blighty
Britain is Owned System Change
In Britain, Palestine and climate activists face an ‘unprecedented’ wave of criminalisation Middle East Eye
O Canada
Zionist lobby organizations openly seeking fascism in Canada The Canada Files
A dark future for Canadian drug policy is being designed in the prairies The Breach
European Disunion
Bulgarians head to the polls to vote in seventh general election in three years Euronews
The European Dream is Fading in the East Counterfire
How Europe’s New Political Class Began Rejecting Reality Glenn Diesen, Glenn’s Substack
Germany’s Greens need to be denazified The Electronic Intifada
Syraqistan
‘The Entire Population of North Gaza Is at Risk of Dying’: UN Relief Official Common Dreams
Israel’s obstruction of aid doesn’t end at the border Polygraph
Former British special forces poised to deliver aid to new Gaza ‘gated communities’ The Telegraph
Rewriting Resolution 1701: Hochstein’s diplomatic cover for Israeli expansion The Cradle
War crimes court replaces judge in Netanyahu arrest case on health grounds Reuters
Palantir’s Israel contracts prompt $24M Storebrand divestment over rights concerns Ctech
***
Israel strike crippled Iran’s missile production, sources say Axios
Why Did Israel Just Launch a Tiny Attack on Iran? Three Major Possibilities Military Watch
Satellite Photos Show Israel Hit Iran Former Nuclear Weapons Test Building, Missile Facilities Asharg Al-Awsat. Commentary:
I suspect that what actually happened in Iran last night was an aborted attack. The IAF’s initial SEAD strikes with long-range missiles, meant to pave the way for what was probably an F-35 strike package with conventional bombs, clearly failed. Thus they scrubbed the strike.⬇️… pic.twitter.com/5QToCiESki
— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) October 26, 2024
It would demonstrate that the IAF can’t actually hit Iran in any significant way without flying manned aircraft “downtown,” likely because their stock of real standoff weapons is very low.
And that the F-35 is a failed design, because this was precisely what it was designed for. https://t.co/KmpUPD0EBC pic.twitter.com/y1djMTXoTq
— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) October 26, 2024
Iran Says ‘Entitled’ to Defend against ‘Aggressive Acts’ after 4 Dead in Israeli Strikes Asharq Al-Awsat
Iran’s Khamenei seriously ill, son likely to be successor as supreme leader – NYT Jerusalem Post
Israel-Iran escalation prompts Turkey to launch talks with PKK Middle East Eye
New Not-So-Cold War
SITREP 10/26/24: Zelensky Begs Grid-Strike Trade as ‘Dark Winter’ Looms Simplicius the Thinker
South Korea has decided to openly fight with Russia?! Marat Khairullin Substack
How Russia Is Overwhelming Ukrainian Frontlines Moon of Alabama
***
Exclusive: Europe seeks to underpin Russia sanctions, fearing Trump overhaul Reuters
Don’t Rely on Sanctions Alone: Ways of Facilitating Regime Behaviour Change The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies
Joe Biden’s big blunder: how the war in Ukraine became a global disaster Simon Tisdall, The Guardian. Not as sane as the headline makes it sound. The deck: “Failure to contain the conflict has led to huge suffering and geopolitical shifts. Why didn’t the US commit to Nato?”
2024
In key swing states, the lines at food banks are growing longer NBC News
BLUE STATES GAVE TRUMP AND VANCE AN OPENING The Atlantic
Trump on Joe Rogan: Biggest WH mistake was hiring ‘disloyal people’ Al Mayadeen
Patrick Lawrence: Harris Comes Out of the Closet on Israel Patrick Lawrence, Scheerpost
“No more Gaza war!” protester yells.
Speech momentarily stops.
When it resumes, Harris says:
“…we must end that war and bring the hostages home. But now I am speaking about 2024.” pic.twitter.com/j9luDCeP2g
— Azi™️ (@Azi) October 26, 2024
Immigration
Border911: The misinformation network profiting off the false invasion narrative Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
Groves of Academe
Faculty Members Suspended From Harvard’s Main Library After ‘Study-In’ Protest The Harvard Crimson
Our Famously Free Press
You know I think we should really lament the resignation of a man who cheered on a war that kept American men and women rotating overseas for 20 years because he said we all needed ‘the stomach’ for democracy building and that only the US could do it. And then it failed. https://t.co/DOMWvP3xyS pic.twitter.com/NflSFBD0as
— Kelley B. Vlahos (@KelleyBVlahos) October 25, 2024
Imperial Collapse Watch
The times are a-changing and the BRICS Summit is a major factor Gilbert Doctorow
Factors Underlying Sino-Indian Rapprochement At BRICS – Analysis Eurasia Review
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Inside the U.S. Government-Bought Tool That Can Track Phones at Abortion Clinics 404 Media
AI
U.S. MILITARY MAKES FIRST CONFIRMED OPENAI PURCHASE FOR WAR-FIGHTING FORCES The Intercept
$142 million AI drone warfare contract from ‘Project Maven’ was silently erased from public record All-Source Intelligence
Microsoft fires employees who organized vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza AP
The Bezzle
Nvidia overtakes Apple as world’s most valuable company NBC News
Antitrust
‘We took on Google and they were forced to pay out £2bn’ BBC
Class Warfare
A Win for the Poor Counterpunch
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
LIKE IT SHOULD
(melody borrowed from Something Good by The Monkees)
Every couple years they sell better times
They want some votes from me and mine
But potholes are sitting unpatched in my neighborhood (Woah yeah!)
Voting doesn’t work like you think it should
(Voting doesn’t work like you’re thinking)
A couple private clubs pick a couple guys
Like that’s our only choice—but we’re gettin’ wise
Any damn fool can see voting does no good
(We can see that it does no good)
Voting doesn’t work like you think it should
(Voting doesn’t work like you’re thinking)
(Ahhhhh)
You say you don’t want a war or two
Donor cash says war is what we do
Money rules like hands in gloves
There’ll be no olive branches or flying doves
(No olive branches or flying doves)
No candidate can win without cash in hand
Citizens United rules this land
Corporations can spend if their money is good
(They will spend where it does them some good)
Voting doesn’t work like you think it should
(Voting doesn’t work like you’re thinking)
(Voting doesn’t work like you’re thinking)
(Ahhhhhh)
(musical interlude)
All this private cash ruins all our plans
This is how we get more Afghanistans
Voting is for human beings — ain’t that understood?
(For human beings, ain’t it understood?)
Voting doesn’t work like you think it should
(Voting doesn’t work like you’re thinking)
Voting doesn’t work like you think it should
(Voting doesn’t work like you’re thinking)
Like it should, oh yeah, like it should
(Voting doesn’t work like you’re thinking)
Like it should, like it should . . .
I like your verses – but the original was by Herman’s Hermits. Speaking of which, the lead singer, Peter Noone, has recently performed a Buffalo Springfield/Rolling Stones pastiche with The Weaklings.
The Weeklings feat. Peter Noone “Mr Soul Satisfaction”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CabTrgq9nM
Thank you.
The original was the soul version by The Cookies.
Written by Carol King
Today’s antidote: a comment on the Pentagon gives OpenAI contracts article?
Except the bear would be on acid.
That’s a raging, Stalinist bear, that is!
Russian bears don’t seem to be like American bears-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq-FMIuVd2I (32 secs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsl-jKOVw3o (1:07 mins)
Must be the Vodka.
Thank you for that!
I’d seem that first clip before and wondered if it was a female bear.
Bear clips are a guilty pleasure of mine.
Bears make plans.
Here’s a bear with a plan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xApoL_UdFvM
“South Korea has decided to openly fight with Russia?!”
And if the South Koreans actually sent an entire squadron of F-16 fighter pilots to Romania to be used over the Ukraine then, as The Duran points out, that bogus story of North Korean troops going to Kursk makes sense – kinda. The backers of this war will try to make that story stick and then say that as the North Koreans are fighting in Kursk, it is only fair that South Korean be allowed to take part in this war by flying over the Ukraine in F-16s. Do they really think this one through? The South Koreans I mean. They are poking the bear with a pointy stick and think that they can get away with it. But the Russians have entered into an alliance with North Korea and China is now on friendly terms with them as well. I would guess that the North Korean economy is about to get a massive boost and the days of people starving because of UN sanctions are over. More to the point, the North Koreans are about to have their military get a massive, modern upgrade which will drive South Korean leaders nuts. The stupidity of it all – it burns.
As so often these days, the Theme From M.A.S.H. plays in my mind
If the South Koreans adapted F-16 indicators and signals to their language who the hell will be manning those antiquities?
Putin should tell South Korea that he invoked Article #4,624,987,596 in response. Russian media should headline that for a few days and crow about Russia one-uping The West, the same way the disarmed euro rats brag and bluster and threaten with Article 4. RT & Co. remain silent on what the article means. Let’m guess.
The guys at The Duran were saying that Putin was messing with the west by talking about Article 4 with the North Koreans because NATO is forever talking about Article 5 and Russia.
SK president Yoon has record low approval ratings, even worse than Biden. …but 100% a Trans-Atlantist.
non-zero chance he tries to prove he’s a tough guy by sending weapons to UKR, even though he is term-limited and can’t run for re-election.
I think I read somewhere that according to a recent poll only 12-13% of South Koreans approve military aid to Ukraine, whereas 75-80% oppose it. Seems like a liberal democracy in action to me.
Recall that Yoon’s path to power was bizarre.
He came to prominence as the right hand man to Moon and the chief archiitect of the lawfare that brought down and imprisoned Park through irregular means. Things get messy here because people label Park “rightist” and Moon “leftist,” but these labels are actively misleading in Korean context. Basically, Park was both color revolutioned and Trumped, in multiple senses.
Yoon proved how meaningless the “Left-Right” distinction in South Korea is by getting into a public dispute with his boss, jumping ship to the allegedly “rightist” party, and lining up the support of the
South Korean PMC to win the presidency in a confusing race (in which a more established “rightist” candidate–again, a misleading label–was forced out through shady means to make room for him). Not exactly a shining example of “democratic process,” unless Tony Soprano was running it.
Do you have any thoughts about who engineered this course of events? Do you think it’s coming more directly from the US, South Korean official deep state, or South Korean major business interests? Really curious about the power dynamics there.
When I think about it, modern South Korea is just such a crazy, impossible country. Basically an island with a 70 year hostile ongoing conflict with its only neighbor, occupied by an insane number of US troops (seems like every US Army personnel I ever hear about has done a tour or two there), strict Confucianism overlaid with evangelical Christian cults, forcibly alienated from its historical backer of China and to work closely with their historical Japanese oppressors. It was such a poor land that no Western imperialist even bothered to visit it in the 18th and 19th century, but now arguably a far more dynamic economic force than Japan (but also crazy).
Sorry to be such an orientalist and imposing my own imagination on the situation, but RoK is to me the far more interesting and paradoxical Korea.
It’s hard to tell: the coalitional dynamics in SK have always been a bit too messy, in a manner that didn’t easily fit the stereotypical “left-right” dimension (or, for that matter, how outsiders imagine Korea is like.) For example, there has always been a mixture of “pro-business,” “pro-American,” and “sovereigntist” wings in the “right” of SK politics and who’s who was hard to tell apart, especially since the three were willing to cooperate for short term gains in a manner that didn’t fit neatly into their “role.” (old President Park, for example, the father of former President Park Geun Hye, had a strong sovereigntist streak who’d constantly get into fights with successive US administrations, but that didn’t keep him from sending troops to Vietnam–but he forced a lot of concessions out of US while doing so, for example. The young President Park, if only because of her heritage, drew strong support from the SK sovereigntists, something that others in the SK “right” has not been able to do.) The “left,” likewise, still has kernels of old dissidents, but is largely made of PMC types nowadays, people who may have had some connection to the old protesters in the last days of the military dictatorship but are long past that, but still imagine themsleves the “dissidents.” Many left wing politicians are deeply corrupt, no less than most of their riight wing counterparts, but worse, think themselves entitled to their corrupt gains because they are “righteous” people–something else that makes them like US PMC. The working class in SK, especially the young males, are deeply discontented but are deeply distrustful of politics of all stripes.
I’d have likened Yoon to be something a lot like Kamala Harris if she went all the way and publicly broke with Biden and formally joined the Republicans with the blessing of the likes of Dick Cheney. I guess she is more than halfway there herself, but she’s still officially a “D,” while Yoon went all the way (but he was also a much more prominent member of the alleged “left” in SK, too.)
I don’t think RoK is necessarily more paradoxical than DPRK–both Koreas are weirdly paradoxical. I always found it amusing, for example, that DPRK has two separate words for “comrade”: Dongmu is for regular comrades; Dongji is for your elders–the whole idea subverting the very notion behind using the term “comrade” in the first place. Both Koreas are like that: they are “classicist” in the mechanical sense, except they don’t really believe in classism either. (They really believe anyone can be raised to or reduced to any class–Medieval and early modern Korea, supposedly, practiced rather strict class based social structure, but, since “slave/untouchable” status was assigned to the families of those convicted of “treason” (basically, that means they lost out in the power struggle), even royalty could be reduced to “slavery” overnight by fiat, while those, even of “untouchable” status, who “won” in the power struggle could be raised to nobility overnight also. (Now, one might note that some successful Japanese warlords, like Toyotomi Hideyoshi, came out of humble background–but there’s a reason why he could never take the title “Shogun.” The Chinese, on the other hand, didn’t care so much–no one batted an eye when Zhu Yuanzhang, coming out of humble background, became emperor. Contrast that to medieval/early modern Europe, where the nobility and the commoners found guilty of treason had to be executed differently.) So one paradox is that the Europeans really believed in the “form” of class structure, while the East Asians, in their own ways, simultaneously did and didn’t practice class structure–it was a means to organize politics and punish enemies, where it was convenient and useful, but not a fundamental social force. But the forms they took differed from country to country, and, Koreans were much more, eh, convenient about such things–thus the paradox when you look for consistency within. My hunch is that they could manage to do so because of socio-cultural homogeneity and extensive social networks underneath all those: everyone knew the unspoken and informal rules of hte game so they didn’t really need to abide by the “written rules” that undergirded the official institutions. The formal superstructure was mostly for the outsiders who didn’t fit in, so the contrary perceptions by people who are actual foreigners, people who are actual insiders, people tho are not really insiders but have partial connections, and so forth.
Very interesting comments, thank you!
yes, thanks!
the extent of my knowledge about either korean society comes from tv(parts of “Lost”, for instance.).
i checked out K-Pop, when Lambert was all hot and bothered about it…and wow.
i understand Klingons better.
<"It was such a poor land that no Western imperialist even bothered to visit it in the 18th and 19th century"
There was an incident that resulted in John Rodgers, US commander of its Asiatic Squadron being sent to Joseon in 1871, resulting in the battle of Gangwha Island in the Han estuary. The fighting itself was inconclusive but eventually led to the negotiation of the Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce and Navigation between the US and Joseon in 1882.
I have read some accounts that Queen Min (later referred to as Empress Myeongseong) was attempting to improve relations with the US to reap technology benefits and help Joseon distance itself from Qing China (a major internal political battle in Korea). From these accounts this resulted in Japan becoming wary of what was happening and ordering her assassination in what would eventually lead to the first Sino-Japanese war.
Oh, there were a few more incidents besides that. Prior to 19th century, there were about 2-3 dozen Europeans who are recorded to have arrived in Korea. The first was a Spanish Catholic priest who accompanied Catholic daimyo Konish Yunkinawa in 1592. He proselytized somewhat while in Korea, especially among the Koreans taken captive by the Japanese. One of the “Japanese” saints was, in fact, a Korean woman taken captive brought to Japan during this war. During 17th century, a number of shipwrecked Dutch sailors arrived in Korea, one of whom, a certain Mr. Hamel, escaped to Nagasaki after having been stranded in Korea for a few decades (foreigners who arrived illegally in Korea were not allowed to leave–basically everyone, including most Chinese and Japanese–except a handful of traders and diplomatic missions (who were necessarily limited only to Chinese and Japanese) who had permission to do their business at specified locales and times.) He reported that the Japanese traders were doing good business in Korea (they were allowed to trade at ports of Busan, Ulsan, and Masan) with Dutch goods and the Dutch actually considered sending a trade mission to Korea–but the Japanese threatened to revoke some of Dutch privileges at Nagasaki if the Dutch tried something like that, so the idea got shelved as the Dutch decided that Japan was much better market for them than anything they might get in Korea. Finally, starting in mid-/late-18th century, Catholic missionaries started arriving in Korea and they, along with Korean Catholic coverts, were persecuted horribly, with big repression coming in mid 19th century, which led to a French naval expedition to Korea a few years (1866) before the American expdeition (1871).
The US expedition of 1871 was preceded by a SS General Sherman incident, in which a US merchant ship, the SS Sherman, sailed up the Daedong River to the city of Pyongyang. The timing was bad (the French naval expedition was taking place the same time) and, apparently, the American sailors behaved badly, in a very high handed manner, when their demands to trade were refused (the Korean records basically describe them as priates). The ship was destroyed and the crew killed. The US squadron’s mission was to find out what happened to SS General Sherman and, if necessary, seek redress. Needless to say that things did not go well.
These are pretty much the only contacts Korea had with the “West,” at least in Korea, prior to the official opening of the country in 1880s (technically, Korean opened itself to Japan in 1876–an interesting formality on the part of Japan, which basically decided that the old agreements between Korea and the Shogun and the feudal lords of the Bakufu era were no longer valid–but the first Western country that it treated with was US in 1882.)
The politics of 1880s-1900s Korea are, eh, a bit complicated, much more than just Empress Myeongseong wanting to “modernize” Korea. A lot of factions involved, with strange coalitions in play. One thing for sure is that she was one of many Korean politicians who, in some cases, very shrewdly, wanted to play various foreign powers against one another (there were many who wanted to play Japan and China against each other. Others sought to bring in more distant powers as chess pieces (reminiscent, in some sense, of Zelensky, in a way) and some of them were very successful, as they were indirectly responsible for causing the Russo-Japanese war. Alas for them, their champion (Russia) lost and the chief among them was forced to be the man who signed Korean sovereignty away to Japan in 1905 (Japan formally took over Korea 5 years later, but the real deal was done five years prior, as soon as Russo-Japanese War was over. I think Japanese leaders took great delight in making sure that it was specifically his signature that was on the treaty–for which, ironically, he came to be remembered in Korea, unjustly, really, as a “pro-Japanese” traitor.)
I don’t know if there is an “insane number of troops”. It’s basically a division with augmented fires (artillery and air/missile defense). Two maneuver brigades, a combat aviation brigade, and an artillery brigade. One maneuver brigade is “rotational”, currently the 3rd Cav Regiment from Ft Hood.
to add another bizarro-world fact about RoK… in 2023, more babies were born whose parents are legal resident aliens living in South Korea than babies born to South Korean citizens.
that fact gets buried under the lede when one sees all the headlines about low fertility
We know three Korean sisters. Their parents emigrated to the US. The three sisters are all professors, Ivy League or equivalent abroad. They have one marriage (to a non-Korean) and one child between them. :-(
Wow, I’ve heard stories, but didn’t realize things were that bad! :O
Does anyone know what’s going on with Consortium News?
I have a link on my phone which now takes me to an architectural firm. Going via Google has the same result.
They posted on Twitter:
“Our web host has confirmed seven recent data breaches and now it appears that our site has been totally replaced. We have been hacked.”
https://x.com/Consortiumnews
Thanks Ben. Infuriating.
Consortium is the granddaddy of dissident websites to me and it has a special place in my heart being the first site I adopted after Propornot. I enjoy the irony every time I go there (daily).
Let’s hope they’re back soon.
To expand on Glenn Diesen’s article above: if political reality is to be constructed, then alternative voices must be purged.
Just tried it here in Oz and found the same thing. Hmmmm.
the page you land on is trying to track users, fwiw.
That ‘architectural firm’ is actually WordPress’ 2024 default theme. Really dumb, makes your new site look insta-hacked AND leaves a bunch of artifacts you then need to clear out to start fresh. Stupid stuff from a different stupid vector. /grr
Thanks for asking what I was just about to do. I saw this the other day.
Didn’t the French try something like this in Vietnam? Or we could just call it what it is, a concentration camp proper. The cynical marketing of this as a high end apartment complex is likely to mask the true plan for a dirty open air camp more resembling Schindler’s List than a timeshare.
And of course all the mercenaries will be ex-IDF or dual citizens anyway. A cutout of Israeli state control.
These methods never work against insurgencies but it depends on how depraved the Israeli forces become. Will babies be permitted to be born for example?
Not just the French. The “strategic hamlet” program was a significant, and significantly unsuccessful, part of US strategy as well. Sounds about right.
Balan Aroxdale: These methods never work against insurgencies
You couldn’t be more wrong, according to the real-world history.
The US used ‘these methods’ in Vietnam precisely because they’d been the successful British playbook during the so-called Malayan Emergency of 1948-1960, when the imperialists put down an insurgency fighting for independence for Malaya and a communist state there. (This at a time when the British had war debts to pay the US and profits from Malayan rubber were higher than profits from all British exports to the US.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayan_Emergency
Among British policies in Malaya that the US tried to replicate in Vietnam were internment camps (‘strategic hamlets’.) —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayan_Emergency#Internment_camps
‘500,000 people (roughly ten percent of Malaya’s population) were forced from their homes by British forces. Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed, and many people were imprisoned in British internment camps called “new villages”. During the Malayan Emergency, 450 new villages were created. The policy aimed to inflict collective punishment on villages where people were thought to support communism, and isolate civilians from guerrilla activity.’
Also, ‘Hearts and Minds’ —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts_and_Minds_(Vietnam_War)
‘The phrase “hearts and minds” was first used in … counter-insurgency warfare by British General Gerald Templer in February 1952 …(During) the Malayan Emergency, Templer said that victory in the war “lies not in pouring more soldiers into the jungle, but in the hearts and minds of the Malayan people.” The British in Malaysia …. undertook …social and economic programs to protect the populace, isolate the rural population to reduce their supply and support of the insurgents, gather intelligence about the insurgents’ organization and plans, and ensure that government services were provided to rural dwellers.’
*’British action and policy in defeating the Malayan counter-insurgency became a paradigm for future struggles with insurgents, including the U.S. war in Vietnam.’*
And so on. Nor was this a one-up. A similar British playbook was applied in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion or Kenya Emergency of 1952-1960 to put down the insurgency there. Again successfully.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_rebellion
Again, internment camps —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_rebellion#Detention_programme
Again, hearts and minds —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_rebellion#Interrogations_and_confessions
‘Most detainees confessed, and the system produced ever greater numbers of spies and informers within the camps, while others switched sides in a more open, official fashion, *leaving detention behind to take an active role in interrogations, even sometimes administering beatings.*
‘The most famous example of side-switching was *Peter Muigai Kenyatta—Jomo Kenyatta’s son*—who, after confessing, joined screeners at Athi River Camp, later travelling throughout the Pipeline to assist in interrogations.’
The Romans probably did something similar. But the old adage ‘Know your enemy’ applies. Counter-intersurgency war requires learning to understand the insurgents’ psychologies and also that of the native population the insurgents move among. That’s why it didn’t work for the US and why it almost certainly won’t work for the Israelis.
Dien Bien Phu? That was a sort of “gated community,” wasn’t it? Or, was it Stalingrad?
“Rewriting Resolution 1701: Hochstein’s diplomatic cover for Israeli expansion”
Former Israeli soldier and now US rep Amos Hochstein had better pull his finger out and get a move on then. I heard today that the IDF is going to pull out of Lebanon in a week’s time as they keep on losing soldiers, tanks and bulldozers to Hezbollah for virtually no gains. And when that happens Amos boy loses all leverage with the Lebanese and will be on the back foot. They know that Israel covets their country and the US wants to help them take southern Lebanon. No matter how much money they are offered or how many sticks that they wave at the Lebanese, they will not agree to be made helots in their own country and the rest turned into Gaza North.
File this under bad campaign work.
Kamala Rally Descends Into Complete Chaos As Beyoncé Doesn’t Perform
https://modernity.news/2024/10/26/kamala-rally-descends-into-complete-chaos-as-beyonce-doesnt-perform/
Yet another own goal by the Kamala team. They should have offered her a million bucks to sing just one song to give a good vibe as it would have been money well spent. Did they try to chintz on her? She came out, read off a teleprompter (I think) for about a minute and then left. This was not what people were promised. I seem to recall that Kamala was supposed to have another celebrity team on stage a few week ago but after differences with Kamala’s team, bailed on her that night. I am beginning to think that with those political consultants, that they have their own culture and celebrities are thus ‘not in their world’ which creates conflict.
The WAPO headlines for 3 days were Beyonce with Harris in Texas. It is obvious from the videos that the vast majority in attendance at the rally came in expectation that she would perform. It is equally obvious that the Harris people counted on this to create the illusion of a massive turnout in support of their candidate. Own goal indeed, but don’t expect the MSM to take note.
This was not what people were promised
Bait-and-switch. It’s the Democrat way.
So they got their pics of a packed Harris rally, and they infuriated thousands of people, who are probably all over social media this morning talking about it. At some point, the marks get tired of being conned.
Oops. Just saw Carolinian’s comment below. Snap
Source seems a little schechey. Article written by Paul Joseph Watson at modernirty.news seems to be a MAGA website. Take info with a lot of salt. Or find a more reliable source.
From wikipedia (yeah, I know)
Paul Joseph Watson from wikipedia (yeah, I know)
Paul Joseph Watson (born 24 May 1982)[1] is a far-right[3] British YouTuber, radio host, and conspiracy theorist.[8] Until July 2016, Watson embraced the label “alt-right”, but he now identifies as part of the New Right.[9] In May 2019, Facebook and Instagram permanently banned Watson for violation of hate speech policies.[10][11]
Here is a link about this from the Daily Mail-
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14005397/beyonce-performance-kamala-harris-houston-rally-texas.html
And the New York Post-
https://nypost.com/2024/10/26/entertainment/kamala-harris-mocked-after-beyonce-fails-to-perform-at-her-texas-rally-baited-people-with-a-free-concert/
I should have mentioned that when I went looking for links about what happened at that event, Google News only came back with feel good articles from all the major publications. I had to adjust the search terms to come up with those two links about what really happened there.
The issue for the main stream media is we now have Twitter –
I am seeing all kinds of videos of the crowd leaving in disgust after the Beyoncé disappointment. And no matter how hard they try to lie – the people were promised a concert – there are copies of articles all over Twitter. They got Willie Nelson instead.
There are also multiple videos I have seen of Kamala being heckled from the crowd in Houston. And the entire hauling doctors up to support abortion is yet another “stupid human trick”. I said this about doctors getting vaccinated on social media a few years ago and was thoroughly lambasted – but just look how things have turned out. In communities across the country, doctors that were militant about the COVID vaccines and mandates are at times having a difficult time retaining patients. Abortion is one of those things that really should not be celebrated like this. It should truly be a decision between the doctor and the patient. No matter how I feel personally, I agree it should be legal up to a certain point – and I am very OK with 3 months or so – just like it is in Europe. But that is not what is being promulgated by these people. If I was in Houston, I would have been taking down names of those physicians to never send my patients to.. I just do not want to engender controversy with my patient care. And you just have to trust me, I am by no means alone. You hear about OB GYN being run out of rural America because those states have outlawed abortion. Unfortunately, that is half the story and largely very inaccurate. In many cases, this is happening because the doctors have been so ghoulish in their pro-abortion behavior in courtrooms , etc. that people refuse to go to them as physicians. This is happening everywhere.
And indeed this AM – there is a very fresh video of Kamala being booed multiple times during a talk she is giving at a historically Black Church in Philly. Of course still being censored by our media is what happened in the Atlanta church last weekend – where person(s) were hauled out by the cops. This did not go over well with church-going America – Black or White or Hispanic..
Yes, anything and everything online can be altered and clipped conveniently; however, there are enough of them out there that it is clear something like this is indeed happening.
In a few of them, she is shown struggling to get through her speech this morning.
What I am finding interesting is how many people are having “medical emergencies” at these rallies. I remember this happening very occasionally to almost never. It is now happening to both candidates at almost every rally.
They got Willie instead? Obviously didn’t appreciate their great good fortune!
Did he do any of the songs his character from the film “Wag the Dog” is supposed to have written for the war effort?
Somehow, I don’t see much of an overlap between a Beyonce crowd and a Willie Nelson crowd.
Willie Nelson is more my taste, but pulling a bait-and-switch is pulling a bait-and-switch. All this just seems made to make their potential supporters angry.
Regarding OBs getting run out of practice: OBs have had the highest malpractice insurance rates of any other area of medicine — even more than anaesthesiologists — for decades. The perverted logic of the actuaries is that “well, the more babies you’ve delivered, the more likely you are” to screw up and get sued.
This has been a particular scourge of rural communities, who cannot hold on to ANY kind of medical practice for long because Private Equity sucks all the blood out of them. Nowadays people living in small towns and rural areas are likely to have trouble finding a nurse practitioner to go to, much less a physician. A specialist? Out of the question in most small towns out here in Flyover, and has been for decades already.
Does this count as a case of blue balls?
I’d say YES, it does. Joker that was a good one. Needed a laugh.
Maybe at her next rally Kamala can have Taylor Swift come out and not sing–bring her cat. This bait and switch use of celebrities has a certain Potemkin Village quality about it. One suspects that should Kamala be elected her presidency would be similar. Hollywood would man the galleries at the State of the Union.
I’ve been reading The Eagle and the Hart–the book about Richard II talked about here the other day. Richard’s downfall and almost universal rejection by the English public came from his sense of entitlement after being anointed with holy oil as God’s representative. The actions of today’s current leaders such as Zelenski, Netanyahu, Starmer and the leading Dems have an amazingly similar tone. Perhaps arrogance will always be the Achilles heel of power. As Adlai said, “yes, but I need a majority.”
She learned the bait and switch from Biden who still owes us $600 bucks. Hollywood? I think her campaign already looks a Saturday Night Live skit, and a bad one at that.
Biden and Harris both learned from Obama, who promised health care and instead gave us more private insurance company bureaucracy, promised a path for people to keep their homes and instead paid the banks to foreclose, promised peace and instead gave us drone murders, etc.
The Democrats have become the party of bad faith, period full stop.
Good point, I didn’t go back far enough.
While I cannot dispute the second point entirely I feel the need to point out that healthcare was not even on Obama or Clinton’s agendas when the primaries began in 2008. They never mentioned or talked about it or about the growing income inequality in America until Edwards wiped the floor with them in Iowa and New Hampshire. The success and resonance of his Two Americas campaign was a huge shock to the selected ones. So much so that they both had to address some of it, most obviously the healthcare items. It was always a throwaway and an issue he hated getting stuck with. But people did hope for more. “How is that hopey changey thing working out…”
I say this as someone who still mourns 2008 Edwards and 2016 Sanders. No matter what happened with them I truly believe both actually recognized how bad things were becoming for most Americans. (And I really would have liked to see a President Edwards even with the mistress. And Elizabeth would have been around for most of that term and she was pretty damn formidable.)
But that “English Public” was the PMC of its day. A young Richard was sympathetic to the peasant revolt of his early reign. And he wasnt as keen on perpetual war as his uncles would have liked.
such bizarre choices mae by the Harris campaign team…
if Beyonce was revealed to be a surprise MC, the crowd would have gone wild. but someone had to leak rumors and create unreasonable expectations. no one learned from the Bryonce kerfuffle at the Dem. convention.
Maybe Kamala can try a different heritage tack and go with a Bollywood star that nobody has ever heard of in the USA?
Name me a Bollywood ‘star’ that has been heard of in the United States?
Speaking of “defensible positions,” this would be the perfect opportunity to trot out a “Dollywood Star?” “Mind the Gap.”
Name me a Bollywood ‘star’ that has been heard of in the United States?
Sunny Leone
I must not get out much anymore. I had to look that person up on the Google.
Interesting life story.
Now that Bombay has become Mumbai, shouldn’t that be Mollywood?
Mummywood?
But if they kept it a surprise, she wouldn’t have gotten photos of a packed stadium. And that’s all this was about because I guarantee Kamala wasn’t going to pack that room by herself. Plus they can respond to this by saying “we didn’t bill this as a concert” even though they encouraged everyone to think it would be, just like the $2000 checks thing.
Stupid move, especially if they are serious about trying to win Texas.
“Firstly, you can’t hear a word she’s (Beyonce) saying.
What’s so difficult about taking a direct feed from the microphones? It seems some outlets got the feed but others didn’t. What a mess….”
Maybe they should have made sure Beyonce performed. The sound engineering would have been better.
The the staging and tech requirements of a Beyoncé performance would have run into the hundreds of thousands if not the millions for a venue like that. That’s probably why she didn’t perform.
Very true that. But she could have sung just one of her big songs and asked that all the people in the audience sing along with her. They would have gotten a buzz out of that and all those people singing would have covered up any faults in the sound system. Everybody would have gone home happy with that.
Why would the Harris campaign think Beyonce speaking and not performing was the way to go with this?
To put it diplomatically, public speaking has never been Beyonce’s strong point.
(I’m leaving the floor open for the jokes about Harris’s ramblings.)
How vacuous is this country that 30k people waited in line for a free concert. I dunno. Another super spreader event.
and remember, Beyonce is from Houston.
she’s a big deal there.
Lol! Thirty seconds into the Beyoncé speech video, “It’s impossible not to feel the energy here tonight”. I can’t stop laughing.
“… but to anyone out there thinking about sitting out this election or voting for Donald Trump or a third-party candidate in protest because you’re fed up: Let me warn you, your rage does not exist in a vacuum.
If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage. So are you as men prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children that you love and tell them you supported this assault on our safety?”
– Michelle Obama
Both Obamas now voter shaming third party voters and dismissing the many, many valid complaints against Democrats as sexism. She represents the rot of the party so well.
Im Doc is right, it’s time to put the party down or send it into the wilderness.
I saw that Michelle Obama speech earlier. It’s an insane tactic. It reminds me of a controlling-abusive parent/partner resisting the reality that their victim is no longer obeying (and yes, I say that from 1st-hand experience). The abuser will plead, threaten, bargain more and more desperately. When the victim finally leaves they will resort to bitterness and recrimination (see: Clinton, HR).
So are you as men prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children that you love and tell them you supported this assault on our safety?”
I look into the eyes of women and children dying in Gaza everyday on social media, and I note your candidate supporting this assault on their safety.
These people have nothing – no policies, no morals, no soul, no integrity, no capacity for self-reflection. They are empty psychopathic shells.
“Think of the children!”…but not the ones in Gaza.
Not the ones here, either. Doubling of childhood poverty under Biden and liberal Democrats.
“I look into the eyes of women and children dying in Gaza everyday on social media, and I note your candidate supporting this assault on their safety.”
This was exactly my thought as I watched the Michelle Obama clip on the news last night. Women and children! Somehow the certainty of such a lecture by a charismatic Obama (whether Barack or Michelle) makes the hypocrisy even more disgusting to me than when voiced by less certain, non-charismatic Harris. After all, the wishy-washy Harris did sort of admit that some potential voters care about genocide – though they also care about the price of groceries, so vote Democrat anyway!
Well, I wouldn’t say they have nothing…
They do have stage 4 TDS…
Stage One: uncontrollable salivation when hearing his name
Stage Two: going to gay bars in a rainbow hoodie to show solidarity
Stage Three: praying five times daily to the Kamala. Or the Michelle. Or the Hillary.
Stage Four: bleeding from eyes while ‘educating’ random strangers about him
Stage Five: Showing up outside his rallies armed to the teeth
Stage Six: cannot give clear details, but it is one of the circles of Hell
The Democrats had 50+ years to make Roe into law of the land and didn’t, because they preferred to electioneer and fundraise off of PMC morons on it. Really god level gaslighting.
Have the white men come around yet and embraced the Democrats’ man-hating campaign? Maybe it’ll just take another six months.
it is kinda funny. the Obama legacy getting rejected 2x. and would be ironic if Obama was the harbinger of doom for the DNC
Rolling out Michelle reeks of desperation in my opinion, and so does the messaging trying to scare people out of their skin. But it’s working. My social media feed is filled with people begging, pleading, and warning everyone they MUST vote for Harris/Walz or it’s the end of the world. Period. Conversations are the very same.
I worry what will happen after November 5th. Funny date too.
‘Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot; for there is a reason why gunpowder and treason should ne’er be forgot.’
I should have remembered that quote. You seem to be coping a lot of flak lately so I had an idea. For your own mental health in the next few weeks, have you ever thought about learning about cricket?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket
So how it works is this. You quickly learns the basics from that page and whenever somebody comes to you about Trump or Kamala, talk enthusiastically about your new interest in cricket instead. So if somebody says that Trump did something, you would reply ‘Well that’s a bit of a sticky wicket that – which is a term from the English game of cricket which is played between two teams of eleven players…’
Or if somebody comes to you about Kamala, you say that ‘That is a bit of a googly that – which is a term from the English game of cricket which is played between two teams of eleven players…’ Pretty soon they might ignore you and you haven’t actually insulted either side and can afterwards put that interest in cricket down to the stress of the elections. Might just work.
It’d really put them on the back foot. In fact I think you’d be bowled over by the results. Beware though, some people might think that it’s just not cricket, and tell you to just play it with a straight bat.
Howzat!
Aside: cricket-based comedy gold from yesteryear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68AgSIcuFxA
Thanks for this Rev.
I sure will be glad when it’s over. I talked to my 2 younger kids last night. They live about 2 hrs away. It was great to talk to them as usual, but then things turned to politics…You can’t get away from it right now.
Stay safe all
Has anyone ever considered the possibility of how much better the world might have been had Guy Fawkes succeeded?
Good idea, but don’t try it on Indians unless you’re prepared to talk about it for the next hour (which might still be preferable, I guess).
Thankfully social media is not the real world. I think the phrase “terminally online” might apply to many of these people.
The only ones this will affect are those already voting for Harris. Anyone who has issues with genocide is not going to be swayed by this type of BS and i feel confident they have heard it all before.
When you say “it’s working”, I interpret this in the sense that it’s successfully keeping all those Long TDS sufferers amped up and hysterical. Does it actually move the needle or convince voters? Probably not the way they’re hoping. The Democrats have been hemorrhaging men, white voters, working class voters, Muslims, and Sanders supporters for weeks, months, and years on end. It’s a peculiar thing, but voters just don’t like being insulted and vilified. Who knew? I wouldn’t be surprised if there were plenty of white women who don’t like seeing their husbands or brothers or fathers being scapegoated.
Yes, that’s what I mean. I agree with the rest of your post. I can’t say it was at this level of hysteria in the other elections. Given what I hear from people in person and what I read online, the hysteria is off the charts this time. People are getting more pushy about shaming people on how they vote, and the wild accusations are worse than ever.
As we speak, Jill is trending on Twitter and they are going after Stein voters for helping Trump.
The problem is, in today’s world you can’t have a conversation with so many people. I tried to tell some people the Liz Cheney thing was not good. She could end up in a cabinet position, and perhaps Secretary or War.
Wow! I shouldn’t have done that. They defended Liz to the end of the earth, and said we have to fund the war machine or Putin will take over Europe. Dummy me.
Wonder where they got that idea?
I can. I recall distinctly all the bedwetters in 2016. This year’s entire campaign has seemed distinctly familiar, even before but especially since the Party Central Committee replaced the candidate supposedly chosen by the voters with one who’s never even faced them.
And the hysteria was unabated in 2020.
I should note that Michelle is assuming that all of the enraged Demexiters are male, just like when they manufactured the misogynistic Bernie-bro meme.
I would also note that she sleeps with a man who joked about being good at droning wedding parties.
“She?”
The Dark Right is full of this meme. It’s about as believable as the “Orange Haired Fuhrer” meme. Which doesn’t mean that it lacks a certain, gravitas.
“There is no dark side. It’s all dark.”
I find your lack of faith disturbing. Someone just had to….\sarc
Something something….the imagination of both those from the super far right fringe and likewise, those super PMC brunch enjoying neoliberal ( or neocons too ) are equally worthy of being ridiculed. Wonder where Mr. Obama, our 44th President, stores his pitchfork these days. Probably not necessary or useful anymore, not to him or to Eric Holder since the Citigroup(s) of the investment finance industry were spared from their looming death spiral beginning in circa 2008 or onward.
Thought I was reading something from Hillary Clinton there, rookieemt. It was so frightening I choked on my coffee! But Michelle is a good stand in! Deciding which mansion to redecorate, how many glib bumper sticker thoughts you can recite, it’s all relative. Did she forget to recite all the felonies her rival has committed or how much democracy he has overturned or even his praise for that guy with the little mustache? Poor thing she has such a collection of gotchas that it overwhelms.
Speaking of “deplorables”…
Whatever “The American Dream” meant in history, it means something new now: To be rich enough to do whatever you want, go wherever you want, and say whatever you want. I submit to you that the present embodiment of that dream is Donald Trump. He does whatever he wants. He goes wherever he wants. He says anything he wants. By being rich enough, there are never any bad consequences for him. His own party won’t say it. But if they were to say it, the Republican platform could consist of one sentence: “Be Like Donald!” And, of course, they don’t have to say it. All those alienated young men understand it completely.
Rebuttals welcomed.
For more on how the meaning of “The American Dream” has changed over the years, read this:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/behold-america-american-dream-slogan-book-sarah-churchwell-180970311/
Hunter Biden. One reason Biden was appointed to the board of directors for an energy concern located in Ukraine circa 2014 to 2016 was due to his training as a lawyer. Nothing to see otherwise of course, just his Dad was the sitting VP. And further to the purported laptop from hell that was not a misinformation campaign..no matter the 47 or so signatories who were in full support of the aforementioned effort to be true.
Be like … someone who is not Trump. As a video clip for the support of DJT illustrated well, you’re not choosing if you go to an evening meal with the R candidate.
And to add, his legal challenges in just this year amount to what someone might call hurdles or obstacles to overcome…just possibly.
“…or send it into the wilderness…”
Amfortas issues an anguished “Noooo!!!”.
now that ive seen a lot more video of her actually speaking, i have rescinded the invite.
unless she’s good at dishes or something.
which, upon reflection, is doubtful.
the chick i used to roll around with that K reminds me of was much smarter, and even with the excessive pot use, could hold a more or less coherent thought in her head long enough to finish a sentence.
if that woman is the best the dems can come up with, they’re not long for the world as a party.
worse than the andropov/chernyenko period,lol….getting into yeltsin territory.
I smell desperation.
(Didn’t see Screwball already sensed the same when I wrote this)
$142 million AI drone warfare contract from ‘Project Maven’ was silently erased from public record – All-Source Intelligence
No doubt so much more.
The military has secret locations and stockpiles.
Hey you’ve got multiple seasons of the X Files that always point out…The Truth is Out There, or the alternative tagline, I Want to Believe.
Or from noted poet and guitar playing metal maniac Dave Mustaine, “… military intelligence, two words combined that don’t make sense…Hangar 18 I know too much..”
Remember that article about “CIA Democrats” in links the other day?
It’s not just limited to Democrats, it’s old news, and it gives space for “secret” appropriations.
That quip has been around for awhile. I first heard it from George Carlin: “Military Intelligence is a Contradiction in Terms or an Oxymoron”
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/10/02/oxymoron-intelligence/
..and speaking of Carlin, here he is at his anti-war best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN_39sXdrog
One of my all time heros. Wonder if he’s hanging out with Elvis and Zappa theses days.
Most of my best ideas are someone else’s. A good question is worth a thousand answers. Here’s a good question from Rebecca Lissner:
Of what effects is grand strategy the cause?
Substituting an object of inquiry for ‘grand strategy’ proves fruitful. For example, ‘space aliens’ would challenge our very cosmology. But what effects have space aliens had? None that would provide extraordinary evidence. Unless there’s some real that gets declassified. But until then, I see little in peoples daily lives, nor the relations of nations.
But try ‘Neoliberalism’. Whoa! Tent cities. Crapification. Death care. At the deepest level, massive inequality. Yes, Neoliberalism has been the cause of much effect.
Neoliberalism is just a slow motion Jackpot.
This does not count as giving enough rope to hang themself, because there’s not enough rope.
US has recognized the PRC as the sole China.
US has not recognized the Republic of China (ROC) occupying Taiwan as a country.
In the past US military sales were squeezed through a “Taiwan cultural” entity in DC. Otherwise the “administrative rules” for foreign military sales were somewhat followed.
Letters between US government “controllers of the military sales” and the customer were always the “Taiwan entity” when the letter written by US government and the replies were always Republic of China (ROC) written by the Taiwan side.
I wonder if this has changed since 2009?
Trends in the unelected running the US!
I’m not normally one to dunk on the DEI stuff but this is a doozy. (NYT via archive.ph). If this is your priority response to intelligence reports you are not ready for leadership.
Paging through intelligence reports just weeks after she was sworn in as vice president, Kamala Harris was struck by the way two female foreign leaders were described. The reports used adjectives that, in her view, were rarely used to describe male leaders.
Ms. Harris, the first woman to hold her office, ordered up a review that scrutinized multiple years of briefing reports from various intelligence agencies, looking for possible gender bias.
The study found some questionable word choices but no widespread pattern, according to a senior intelligence official, one of five who requested anonymity to discuss the review. (None would disclose the words flagged by Ms. Harris because the reports were classified.)
Still, the exercise had an impact: Intelligence officials added a new training class for analysts on how to judge and assess female foreign leaders, according to another official.
Ben Panga: Never fear. The whole “woke” “intelligence” “community” swamp has been diagnosed and satirized by the timeless influencer ShoeOnHead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CRk_GddN7c&t=25s
And she’s using real CIA videos. Yikes.
Harris’s career here as an Oakland aDA and SF DA was characterized by rarely being in the office and hard to locate, or so I’ve heard. she may have found a project and had someone else do the work for her, which resulted in an impact she could take credit for.
Ashamed as I am to do anything which could be seen as coming to the defense of this joke of a candidate, i have to support this particular action: ordering reviews like that can be of great value. In archeology, a male-dominated field was misinterpreting history for years before women looked at the evidence from another angle, literally. Aplologies for lack of citation, I am on the move. Certain carvings which had been found had crossed lines on them, which male archeologists took for broken spears; when people with a different perspective took a look, they appeared as bundles of wheat, changing entirely the interpretation of prehistory in the area in which the objects were found. Harris is a fool, certainly, but this specific action was a worthwhile investigation, in my view.
My tepid response to this is not as historical asVicky Cookies was. Nor am I saying a full study was necessary, possibly just a firmly worded memo issued with corrections to be done immediately for current reports.
But phrasing matters. Back in the seventies I was listening to a news report about Connecticut. The first mention of the governor was correct – Governor Grasso, CT’s first female governor. Every other reference was Mrs. Grasso. Today we all know the correct honorific remains Governor no matter how you might feel about a female holding the job, but then it was new territory and the subtle but very real cut and disrespect of a woman holding the job was not recognized as that, or if it was it was denied and passed off as no big deal. I had a heated discussion with a male I worked with who thought I was seeing a put down that just wasn’t there. I finally got them to recognize she was being treated differently when they got to hear NY’s male governor repeatedly called Governor in a similar news story a few days later and I asked why they got the title rather than Mr.. and then added that it was even worse than just dropping the title for Governor Grasso as Mrs. still denoted property of the husband for too many people.
I honestly believe in most cases the majority just don’t realize the subconscious implications. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t done intentionally and shouldn’t be corrected.
“The European Dream is Fading in the East”
Lots of interesting things that they had to say about Moldova but then I came across this-
‘Joining Romania had been ruled out permanently: that country doesn’t recognise minority languages and would never agree to carry over the Gagauzia deal, because this would then force them to open a similar deal for their own Hungarian minority.’
Whoa! Was not expecting that. So Romania is in the EU but they are allowed to suppress minorities and their languages. Is that more of those EU values that they keep on talking about? The Moldovans had better fight being brought into the EU as it is a prison. Would the EU send soldiers to suppress those Moldovan minorities if they were forced into the EU? Would you have guerrilla operations breaking out? Better to be a backwater than a battleline.
The thing with EU is that most countries suppressed minority languages before EU became a thing (Switzerland and Finland being among the few exceptions), so some leeway had to be allowed for the less advanced Eastern European members where “nation state” had emerged only after the collapse of three empires at the end of the WWI.
During the WWII many of these attempted to clarify the issues of ethnicity by use of organised violence, but the process was then hindered again when the “ein volk, ein reich” party lost the war (thanks to Patton!). EU and NATO expansion have now thankfully made it clear that minority rights – and indeed human rights – apply only selectively and to say otherwise is pure putinism and against the European Dream.
Sometimes you just have to destroy the moral high ground in order to save it.
Sort of like ‘When they go low, we race them to the bottom.’
and keep the mineral rights! /s
Oh, well-played!
Sorry mate, but Romania, as a nation state, appeared on the map of Europe before Germany or Italy or Ireland or Greece, etc…
Well, a very different shaped Romania, which had not been awarded a large chunk of Hungary, appeared earlier.
Ireland was on the map from the beginning though (from 1171, the date the Pope granted it to King of England as a fief; clearly it existd before that) and only ceased to be a self-governing polity with the 1801 Act of Union and even then retained a Parliament, with more or less independence of England depending on the date.
I’m not going into argument with you on an issue you obviously feel much more strongly about. Apparently I’m using the term differently from you.
In any case my original intention was to point out that in western and central Europe the ethnically homogenous states are merely a result of purposeful ethnic cleanings and forced assimilation done in the 19th or early 20th century. I really wasn’t talking about Romania at all.
I was going to comment on that because part of it is an outright lie.
The rights of ethnic minorities are recognized in Romania, full blown, except territorial autonomy (just local autonomy, municipal, communal, etc.). I am from a city with maybe 1/3 ethnic Hungarians. As such, not reaching the 50%, there is no administrative recognition & autonomy with the language of administration being both Romanian & Hungarian (or if the population is in the let’s say 90% to 100% full Hungarian use of language). I am talking about local administration and documents, etc.
Nevertheless, plenty of newspapers and journals in Hungarian, TV Chanels, theatre with plays in Hungarian, High schools, education k-12 in Hungarian, the whole shebang.
In my primary school I had 5 classes with kids Romanian, and 2 classes with Hungarian as education language, for each year of study. I was in 1, then 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 E and the kids in the F & G classes studied in Hungarian. My best friend Joseph studied in Hungarian and he polished his Romanian with me.
However, Romania is a unitary state and does not recognizes territorial autonomy, and will never recognize that. Nevertheless, the Hungarian party (one or two) have always been part of coalition governments. As with thieves in Romania, it is hard to find gangs that are not ethnically mixed, including some Hungarian in that particular gulash receipe. Heck, I am 1/4 Hungarian after my mother’s father.
The article is also very skittish on providing the briefest of histories of R. of Moldova and that territory, but insits on the fact that was part of USSR until 1991. It even witholds information on the size of Moldovans/Romanians in Moldova (“The largest ethnic group in the state is Romanians”) and compares Moldova a bit with Lebanon. 75% are of Romanian ethnicity, and if we disconsider Transdnistria, in the historical part of that territory that used to be part of Principality of Moldova, the percentage of ethnic Romanians is even higher. And they are all orthodox, like their brethren in Romania (there are 4.5 million Romanians that consider themselves Moldovans as well).
Now for 70+ years, Moldovans in Soviet Moldova, and even after 1991, were gaslighted that they are not Romanians and they have a different history, culture and language. This is utter nonsense. While there are dialects in Romania, I, from the westernmost part of Romania, had no problem at all marrying someone from the south, and working all over the place in Romania, in the countryside as forest management planner. And I had colleagues that conducted similar planning exercises for several years in R of Moldova after 1992 and they also, lodged in various villages, had absolutely no problem with the language.
In my family, I am pro-union, but my sister is adamantly opposed to it. She deems it unsafe with the whole lot of ukrainian and russian led gangs penetrating in Romania. I think if they wanted, they are already there. 50% of R of Moldova population already has Romanian passports. Given this statistic, the very tight results should not come as a surprise.
And the latest poll I have seen, prior to 2022, indicated that over 50% of Moldovans wanted re-union, while 75% of Romanian wanted re-union.
It is Ukrainians that supress minorities, particulary Russians, but Hungarian and Romanian ones as well, as well as the Baltic states. There is no suppression of minorities in Romania. The Magyars might say otherwise, because they want territorial autonomy, the better to ostracize the Romanian minority there (there are 2 and half counties with Magyars in the center of the country and for a short period of time, due to the 10 years Soviet occupation after WWII, they had an autonomous region). Romanians will eat, drink, and fuck with anyone willing to share the table and bed with them.
‘And the latest poll I have seen, prior to 2022, indicated that over 50% of Moldovans wanted re-union, while 75% of Romanian wanted re-union.’
Are you sure about how good those polls are? In the election the other days 400,000 Moldovans in Russia were denied their vote by having only 2 polling stations opened up for them. Maybe it would be better if the only Moldovans that can vote in Moldovan election are those that actually live there because, you know, it actually effects them.
Most of Moldovans that took a Romanian passport and move to work in EU, went to be able to send money home, to spouses with kids, parents left to take care of grand kids, etc.
Why should they not have a say in the trajectory of their country, when they return?
Because if Moldova is pushed into an Anschluss with Romania and forced into both the EU and NATO with the place being turned into a forward nuclear missile base for the US, then it will be no skin off the noses of those Moldovans that do not live there, that’s why. If they really want to vote, then tell them that they have to take a day or two off from work and make the trip back to Romania to vote in an election station there. Would that be so hard? You and I both know that the only reason that Sandu is President is through the votes of Moldovans that do not actually live in Moldova. The woman is a fascist.
Re the stories on private equity buying coal mines and AI’s thirst for energy. Here is great strategy for taking over the energy markets:
1) Demonize fossil futures
2) Enact laws outlawing fossil fuels at some point in the future.
3) Buy all the fossil future infrastructure for cheap because they seemingly have no future value
4) Repeal the fossil fuel bans once all the infrastructure have been secured.
It looks like the “AI Thirst” will be the impetus for step 4 (after 3 is complete of course). I predict too that the EV mandates will be dialed back soon too “to be more realistic” so that AI Thirst doesn’t need to compete with EVs for electricity access and price.
5) dump eternity costs on the taxpayer
Yup and hit taxpayers up for subsidies to “rescue” fossil fuel companies as “critical support for the resilient national energy strategy “
A Planned Economy with No Central Planning Authority
By Tom Wetzel
October 24, 2024
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-planned-economy-with-no-central-planning-authority/
Key swing states and long lines at the food banks. Call it the line of the proles, perhaps , and the precarious circumstances these families find themselves in our wondrous US economy. Hey, let’s run it back with the Democratic party for another four years. What isn’t there to like about the unicorn that draws adulation and praise named Bidenomics, looking at you Krugman, or Noah or hell now I’m going to group Mark Cuban in that elite mindset. Jimmy Carville too.
Sorry no can do. And for our Madame VP Harris, where in the hell were you the past 2 or 3 years? This is not exactly to assign 100% of the blame ( pointing the blame cannons at national leaders is easy of course ), but just to highlight my humble thoughts on assigning credit or blame, be that positively or negatively, to any administration….Jimmy Carter inflation redux 2.0. This economy under Biden and Harris has held up better than I might’ve thought after 2022, but this is really not a highly preferable combo of lower ( restrained? ) inflation and increasing wages style economy
Que sirraH sirraH
Whatever will be will be
The future is not hers you see
Que sirraH sirraH
I saw what you did there.
Hmmm…. So, according to available evidence, Madame Veep is the “invert” in the relationship? Sounds like an added chapter to the “Story of “O” Politico.”
“The whippings will continue until my arm gets tired.”
Oh. Amfortas, are you now regretting rescinding the invite?
Ha! :)
We shall see …
“Joe Biden’s big blunder: how the war in Ukraine became a global disaster”
I take a sense of satisfaction in reading this article by Simon Tisdall. The guy is normally a full-bore neocon but it seems that he has read the tea leaves and found that Russia is winning the war in the Ukraine at a rapidly increasing rate. The guy is having a nervous breakdown about the whole thing here and I look forward to what he writes when the Ukraine finally capitulates.
Let’s start a betting pool on the first headline asking, “Ukraine: Stabbed In The Back?”
I really liked the end of the article:
So the problem isn’t NATO enlargement, it isn’t even the corruption in West MIC that as result can not deliver functional army. No, the problem is that Biden didn’t send Putin letter worded strongly enough. I guess if you are pundit and all you have is a pen, everything, including how to defeat nuclear super power in proxy war, looks like essay/speech assignment.
It’s all in the delivery. Squared shoulders, firm jawline, steely-eyed glare. Let Putin know in no uncertain terms whose dick is the biggest. Then he’ll back down for sure.
Simon Tisdall apparently took “the pen is mightier than NATO” to the next level.
Did you notice they’ve finally changed Tisdall’s photo on the byline and he now looks all of his 71 years? I was so confused as it looked like a different person.
Saw that too. Either they updated his photo finally or else the news from the Ukraine and Trump is really ageing him fast. :)
We’ve visited a bunch of Native American wall art on our trip to Southern Utah, and such variety here with 4 different epochs represented over the past 3 or 4 thousand years, my favorite being the Lone Warrior painting in the San Rafael Swell circa 1,000 BC, that bears a strong resemblance to Batman, that is if the caped crusader wore an ocher colored suit.
Newspaper Rock is quite the testament to time with a mix of different eras, including men on horse that are definitely post Columbian.
We will leave comparatively little for mankind to find in say 4238 aside from our massive dump sites, that’s how we roll
Awesome. Link showing the wall painting:
https://www.roadtripryan.com/go/tripimage/maxwidth?id=qXPj&size=600
“Zionist lobby organizations openly seeking fascism in Canada”
Just had a thought earlier. We see this trend to fascism and censorship in a lot of countries and just not Canada. Could it be that in a lot of countries, the plan was to slowly turn them into authoritarian countries over time to consolidate power among the elite and their political puppets. A sort of turn-key fascism. But because the way that the war in the Ukraine has blown up all sorts of expectations and planning, that a lot of their countries are now trying to rush through these authoritarian practices which is making it obvious what they are doing?
It is not only due to the avowed Zionism that the Canadia elites suffer, but also, deep economic and political conservatism, and given the coming apart at the seams of the social fabric of the country due to economic pressures (housing and healthcare being huge problems, with little infrastructure of any kind being built – include here schools, teachers, docs, nurses, judges, never mind housing) all the while 400,000 new immigrants are brought in the country each year. As such, fascism, the bad dog of capitalism, is replacing surely liberalism, the good dog of capitalism…
‘Max Tani
@maxwelltani
Scoop: Washington Post editor at large Robert Kagan confirms to me that he resigned from the Post following today’s decision not to endorse in the presidential race.’
Good riddance to bad rubbish. ‘Nuff said.
I read that he was offered the top job at the “Ukrainska Pravda.” Reportedly he is taking over the whole “Mockingbird Journalism Apparat” with him.
(If you don’t recognize that as ‘snark,’ then I don’t know what else to do. Maybe guide you to a nearby FEMA Re-education Centre.)
“Creepy” Joe Biden will then say, “Heck of a job Bandra!” When aides remind him that Bandera has been dead for years, he will reply that, “Here’s the deal. I’ve been dead for years, and nobody has noticed yet.”
Indeed. Furthermore, it appears that Robert and Victoria have been taking out their angst at the trough, as they look like a couple of piggies
I like the idea of them living long lives after they have both seen everything they fought for fall apart, and then, when they’re judged by whatever gods will claim their souls, they can both rot in some eternal inferno where they are forced to eat the debris of all the wars they supported in life.
Mr and Mrs Jabba the Hutt
He and the wife certainly look well fed, don’t they Rev. Just sayin…
They are simply displaying to the younger generations of the USA how to bulk up their bodies such that they won’t qualify for military service.
Then, like the Kagans, the “out of shape” can get think tank jobs mand encourage others to “fight for democracy, the American way”.
The elites of the consulting class, as I like to think of them collectively, don’t miss many meals it seems. I have applied this trope as well, to the highly partisan “Repub” clown acts writing up the Project 2025.
They won’t ever starve or perhaps be homeless, sleeping in a tent or their car as a last resort. Collectively it’s simple to just call the lot of them pure assholes. Now I’m thinking about, what is say Robby Mook up to lately? Has he set another pile of money on fire ?
My first thought too.
If you started with the Kagans and then tried to make a list of who in the US Govt would need to resign or drop out of political life to excise the neocons steering the ship of state into this eternal maelstrom… You’d need to replace the entire government. You’d need to remove every person with ties to Kagan, Pelosi, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden, Schumer, Schiff, Mancin, McConnell, Thune, Ernst, Capito, Graham, and Grassley. You’d need to completely bar AIPAC and the EU from lobbying or donating to any government representative or PACs. You would need to eliminate nearly all staff positions in the DHS, NSA, CIA, and the attendant think tanks and NGOs. US AID would need to be completely rebuilt. Then we could have a discussion about reality and not how well a certain proposal meshes with the existing ideology.
It would be easier to dissolve the country and restart under a different charter than to change the system we have. It would be easier to end this experiment than to find a way to continue without our current war driven supreme world power focus. This is a clear example of the purpose of a system is what it does. Our system is designed to go to war anywhere on the planet in order to force access to whatever resources the people in charge of our government think they need. This system lasted a while and would have lasted much longer except the people involved got too damn greedy. As has been said here many times, the Hamptons are not a defensible position. The first corrolary to that is, you can’t make enough stuff to win a war on a cost plus basis. The second corrolary to that is, no matter how smart your tools you still need bodies to win a war.
–It would be easier to dissolve the country and restart under a different charter
This is what I think will happen, except it will be multiple countries with multiple charters.
Nazi “gore” in UKR.
‘Junger,’ ‘Steiner,’ and ‘Terror’
The neo-Nazi ‘Special Forces’ that recaptured a ‘Russian stronghold’
Moss Robeson
Oct 25, 2024
https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/junger-steiner-and-terror
Robeson is good but not perfect. Some thing I believe he doesn´t really understand. Or why else would he write this illogical conclusion (what are the RUs supposed to do in his view?):
Almost every day, it becomes more plain to see that there is a neo-Nazi conglomerate in the Ukrainian armed forces, but for those who think that justifies Russian military aggression, you might want to consider how “deNazification” went for “Steiner,” or exiled Ukrainian Nazi collaborators after World War II. Even in the worst case military scenario for Ukraine, its neo-Nazi special forces will probably have plenty of dirty work to do for NATO countries and criminal enterprises. This could give them more time and resources to pursue their real interests, such as building international neo-Nazi networks.
“Almost every day, it becomes more plain to see that there is a neo-Nazi conglomerate in the Ukrainian armed forces…”
Like since day one.
I don’t disagree with him, though. It’s the same kind of thinking that led the US to invade Iraq and Afghanistan to ‘defeat Al Qaeda’, or Israel to bomb Gaza thinking that they could eliminate Hamas.
All the other reasons for the SMO seem reasonable enough to me, but the neo-Nazi movement in Ukraine has done very well out of the war from what I can see.
Azov admitted today that over 2000 of them were MIA after the battle of Mariupol, and if I recall correctly, over 2000 surrendered there. So, one could say that the surviving neo-Nazis are so far doing well.
You do know the story how Ukrainian conscripts were so reluctant to fight the civil war that Ukraine ended conscription and put uniforms on the neo-Nazi paramilitaries instead. That was the army that started the shelling of Donbass in February 2022. That was the army that Russia rolled over in 2022, and it was replaced by actual volunteers that were thrown against Russian defenses in 2023.
Even Ukrainians admit that of the people now “recruited”, only one in twenty wants to fight, the other 19 either run away or surrender if they survive their baptism of fire.
Even Zalushny, now (safely) out of Ukraine, seems to be buddies with Arestovych who recently had a change of heart and thinks now it was really stupid of Ukraine to fight their Slavic brothers.
True, it’s a mixed bag. I was thinking of all the good Western press and reputation laundering they’ve received, with all the ‘heroes of Mariupol’ speaking tours and the like. It doesn’t seem likely that Western Ukraine is going to stop hating Russia even if it’s completely overrun, and Nazism seems to be one of the most popular variants of ‘hating Russia’ thanks to the Banderite legacy.
On the other hand, a lot of them have been killed as you say, and it’s probably becoming harder to believe their own propaganda and ignore how the West hung them out to dry. I could see it going a number of different ways, but it won’t be as simple as “kill Nazis until they’re all gone”. It never is.
Patrick Lawrence on Kamala as warmonger and advocate of genocide: As ever, Lawrence is insightful and well organized. I recommend the article. I doubt that she truly has “come out of the closet,” though. For the following reasons:
The quote that Lawrence presents: “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating … We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”
This bloviation by Harris is bad faith. She is pretending to be motivated by human feeling of horror at a massacre. She isn’t.
In this time when we have to listen to a whole bunch of miscreants blabbering about misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and malinformation, let’s recall some basic sins: Bad faith. Lies. Bullshit. Propaganda.
The above quote happens to be all four, rolled into one ooooshy enunciation of rancid emotion.
Note in the article Lawrence’s assertion about overthrowing the government of Lebanon by the U S of A and Israel, a possibility not to be ruled out.
Note the “friends I greatly respect” paragraph, in which Lawrence talks about how Harris will hire advisors who will shape her policies (curb her lazy vices?). Somehow, someone who advocates genocide on the campaign trail will turn to making s’mores and holding hands with Lebanese children on life support. Sheesh.
Fatto Quotidiano just published a long interview with Judith Butler in which she does the same “friends I greatly respect” crap. The goes nuts about Trump, and then she insists on voting for Harris who can then be re-shaped by pressure after the election. Anyone as political stupid as to repeat the old “pressure X to the left” scam is plain stupid, probably too stupid to be writing big books about gender, too, ne.
“goes nuts about Trump, and then she insists on voting for Harris who can then be re-shaped”
Yeah I just had an argument last night.
It´s Ukraine all over again.
This time no beard but as big a smile.
And a bit more sun-tanned (to paraphrase Berlusconi´s comment on Italian soccer player Mario Balotelli who, well, did not need to go to a tanning salon.)
Blinken’s reported remarks about Lebanon are either wrong, or show that he is the most ignorant foreign minister to ever walk the face of the earth. Anyone who knows the country even slightly would realise that there is no “régime” to change and anyway there’s no government. I hope Lawrence was just confused.
Kamala is like Lewis Carroll’s Walrus: never mind the copious tears — just as all the oysters get eaten, all the Palestinians die …
#BRICS #Doctorow
> Several of the most visible and important invitees to Samoa, like President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, had decided to skip an audience with the King and instead to join the court of Vladimir Putin this week.
Times are indeed a changing. I remember – decades ago now – there was a Commonwealth heads-of-state gathering on the African continent IIRC (if I remember correctly). An article I read at the time threw cold water on the significance of such events, because for all the bally-hoo about independence from the crown, it had been observed that several African heads of state had been arguing about who got to stand closest to the queen.
Ghost of Leni Riefenstahl spotted near 7th and 31st…
I spent some time this morning thinking about the people I have encountered who have stage 4 or 5 TDS and where I have encountered similar behavior.
It was with people who are Bi Polar and in the manic stage and with suicidal drunks ( I have talked two of them down).
The manic stage is both addictive and to an extent contagious, it is a very high energy state and maintaining it for any period of time is exhausting, and not in a healthy way.
People in these states are extremely sensitive to fear and rage and they can sometimes be talked to when they start to come down if the person trying to talk to them is genuinely calm.
I believe that those suffering ( And they are suffering) from this self inflicted harm are a danger to themselves and in some cases, to others.
I believe that the odds of another serious attempt on Trump’s life before the election is close to 100% and if he wins that threat will stay.
When it comes to the TDS sufferers I would not be surprised to see them act out in a variety of ways from an overpowering sense of fear, rage and despair.
While it is no more than a data point every person I have encountered with severe TDS has been a member of the PMC and the majority are Women.
– ‘How Europe’s New Political Class Began Rejecting Reality’ – Glenn Diesen, Glenn’s Substack
I’m usually a fan of Glenn Diesen, but this essay was strangely unsatisfying. He describes the ideology that has been “constructed” to justify the post-Soviet EU/NATO project. But in doing so he almost seems to give this “constructed reality” its own agency in shaping the behaviors of these well-meaning European leaders who are victims of their own “postmodernism.” For example:
“The European project had the benign intentions of creating a common liberal democratic European identity that would transcend the divisive national rivalry and power politics of the past. The relevance of objective reality is contested, and narratives about reality are believed to reflect power structures that can be dismantled and reorganised.”
And this:
“The moral framing of the world convinced European leaders to support a coup to pull Ukraine into the NATO orbit. It was common knowledge that only a small minority of Ukrainians desired NATO membership and that it would likely trigger a war, yet liberal democratic rhetoric still convinced European leaders to ignore reality and supporting disastrous policies. Common sense could be shamed.”
So the “moral framing” and “liberal democratic rhetoric” did the “convincing” of European leaders? Hmm. Seems to be something missing here. What’s missing are the actual decision makers who knew exactly what they were doing as they expanded NATO to the East. Not only were they knowledgeable about the historical realities of ethnic differences and diverse national interests, but they *used* these differences as leverage as they carried out their project, starting with Yugoslavia. Far from living in some “postmodern” dream world, they epitomized a type of realpolitik that saw an opportunity to expand and consolidate their hegemony in Europe while Russia was weak. They didn’t give a s**t about the “European values” they used as ideological cover, as demonstrated in their actions from Yugoslavia to Ukraine.
What Diesen describes is the legitimating ideology behind these developments. But he does not explain the process by which such deluded “postmodernist” leaders (if they truly believe their rhetoric) attained their positions of “leadership”. And he completely omits the role of the real powers behind this Western project who have never been taken in by the “values” expressed in their own propaganda.
“But he does not explain the process by which such deluded “postmodernist” leaders (if they truly believe their rhetoric) attained their positions of “leadership”. And he completely omits the role of the real powers behind this Western project who have never been taken in by the “values” expressed in their own propaganda.”
In many cases, lots of family ties and then the real powers behind the Western project are the billionaires, oligarchs, and corporations who really want NO government (including the USA) to have power to over them.
“What Diesen describes is the legitimating ideology behind these developments.” Yes. And these other things we’ve mentioned are maybe juice for another article from him.
He’s basically right, from my own observations over many decades, and I’ve said much the same thing in several essays. But the whole article came over as a bit confused.
What he’s trying to say I think is that the European leadership class/PMC has for some decades now accepted a series of normative ideas about Europe and its values that have become almost completely powerful in politics and in the media, and have very largely driven how they see the world and what they decide to do. You can compare it in some ways to the ideology of the CPSU during the Cold War, which of course did drive policy too a considerable extent. Since they have a virtual monopoly of power, albeit formally divided into different “parties” they can ignore reality until (as in Yugoslavia) it finally can’t be pushed aside. Either you have experienced this, in which case you don’t need me to explain it, or you haven’t in which case it’s hard to explain properly, though Diesen does a worthy job of trying.
There are no “real powers”, there never was a “western project” in the singular, and there was no-one who knew what they were doing. I could bore you for hours with stories of the chaos and confusion at the end of the Cold War, but such stories are always less entertaining than myths of hidden conspiracies. If only the decision-makers of Europe were as organised as some people think, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
The watershed year was 2003, when European countries except UK, which is by and large not a European country, have refused to endorse and join in the US attack on Iraq, making this entreprise an illegal war from an internalional UN stand point.
Since then the US has poured enormous resources in grooming future European leaders (and Canadians as well). Scolarships, felloships, all sorts of bribes, all sorts of files for potrntial blackmails have been created for hundreds and thousands of individuals in Europe. This was confirmed to me (because before was just personal inductive logic), by some statements made by Ret. Lt-col Wilkerson, former chief of staff of Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell, statements that confirmed the US efforts for the past 20 years to create a leadership class in Europe that when asked by the US to jump, they will say “How high?!”
Maybe europeans were confused, but sure as hell, Americans were never confused and always kept their eyes on the ball…
The Duran on August 6, 2024 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnPl1ETy_C8, beginning at 41:48.
Lawrence Wilkerson was “at the table” himself, running the State Department, when the decision was made to interfere “overtly and covertly” in European elections.
You keep making this argument. I realize it reflects your own experiences. I understand that everything you say here is true at a certain level. There is no “western project” in the singular. There are multiple material and ideological interests often pulling in different directions. Many policymakers are sincere in their “values,” and they all think they are right. Many don’t know what they are doing. A form of neoliberal globalism has become the dominant ideology among the European “leadership class” as it has in the US, challenged mainly by various forms of right-wing “nationalism” (as it is in the US). I don’t deny any of this.
What I don’t accept is that there are no “real powers” behind the steady expansion of NATO after the fall of the Soviet Union, and I get really irritated when you keep insinuating that this is some sort of “myth of hidden conspiracies.” As I keep saying, there have been identifiable parties all along that have more or less *openly* advocated doing precisely what the US and NATO have done. They talked about it, wrote about it, got themselves appointed to positions of power, and *acted* on their plans. They sure as hell “knew what they were doing,” even if others did not. They were not “hidden.” Among political officials and their ideologists, their arguments were framed as promotion of “democracy” and global economic integration. Among military strategists it was often discussed it in terms of maintaining global dominance and preventing the reemergence of Russia (or another superpower) that could challenge US hegemony (the US being the “indispensable nation” in that role). While there was always resistance to this version of the neocon/”Atlanticist” project (and it *was* a “project”; they discussed it in these terms), both within and outside of government, this resistance was eventually overcome. Interestingly, during much of this time there was a significant segment of the “leadership class” in Europe that still challenged this worldview. What happened to them anyway?
It would be possible to get specific in pointing to evidence for this argument. The role of the US in the Ukraine fiasco alone is so well documented that one could spend pages on it, but you could do the same for the entire post-Soviet period. Again, I’m not saying there were not a lot of other things going on. But for the US, NATO, and eventually Europe as a whole, there has been a consistent policy trajectory emergent since the fall of the USSR that just so happens to mirror the plans that the neocons (for want of a better label) have been writing about since that time. For this to occur out of chaos with no one planning, no powers behind it, or no one really knowing what was going on, would be quite the coincidence. I am also not saying this is a rational policy trajectory, or that it might not itself collapse into chaos. I personally think (fear?) that it will. But there are “real powers” behind it, and it has certainly been planned.
Neocons, atlanticists, globalists… so many names, but the main point of US policy in Europe since 1943 has been to be prevent Europe from becoming a competitor.
In mid-1991 Bush’s administration faces precisely this problem: Soviet Union was withdrawing and the internal chaos there was increasing, Germany had been re-united in 1990 and was looking with France for tighter European integration. The complete change in the security landscape had made NATO basically useless and hard to justify right at the moment USA needed it the most to remain relevant in Europe.
It would have taken somebody of the caliber of John Quincy Adams to turn US foreign policy around, so one can’t really put that completely on the neocons. All factions in US foreign policy circles were for the US domination, so it was easy for the most unhinged actors capture the policy making.
Great responses from pjay and Polar Socialist. Too bad there isn’t a “Buy this commenter a cup of coffee” button.
Does Khamenei have the 5 different kinds of cancer and ALS that Putin is supposed to have? It is amazing that I have seen more recent speeches from this purportedly mortally ill octogenarian than from the supposedly completely healthy and ready to govern Biden and Harris combined.
And, if one can trust the translations, Putin can speak for hours in coherent sentences, without a teleprompter or even notecards, with allusions to literature and history which support his premise.
Our politicians are such low quality that even complete compradors like the Jordanian look like a monumental statesman by comparison.
Anecdata from the field…
Early voting has started in MD, VA, WV, and DE. At my voting location for the well to do bedroom community that counts as a commuter area to DC and NOVA, when I went yesterday there was a steady stream of people. No animosity. Only two people outside the electioneering radius trying to engage people coming to vote. There haven’t been many yard signs put up compared to prior years. Discussions with friends and colleagues are muted whenever it turns to politics. Everyone is kind of holding their breath, waiting for this to be over. They all know we’ll be fine, economically, regardless of what happens. But they also know if Trump wins there will be a lot of personal and political upheaval. And with good friends, when in private, everyone agrees something is terribly wrong with how Kamala got to her position as nominee. There is one issue on the MD ballot regarding a constitutional amendment for reproductive rights that is very broad written, so that I know a lot of people will come out to vote through November 5. I have no idea how successful the measure will be because it looks like it would cover kids getting gender related medical procedures without parental consent. Ditto for abortions. Maryland is still socially conservative enough that a constitutional amendment to that effect when we already have laws protecting access to gender care and abortion is probably a step too far. But perhaps it will pass. If it does, that is probably a very good sign for Ms. Harris. Because it means abortion was enough of a concern to motivate people to modify the state constitution and those people are likely the ones who would vote for her.
Isn’t MD solidly blue? I’m not sure items on the ballot that are adjacent to Harris and her only real winning position means much overall. If a similar amendment was on the ballot in CA, it winning really wouldn’t be a surprise and wouldn’t necessarily mean Harris is in good shape with respect to the Electoral College.
The election, again, really boils down to the battleground states.
> Isn’t MD solidly blue?
I’d say so … :)
But this exchange got me searching … where could I find any early voting data for battlegrounds?
Well, here is PA (via University of Florida – I know … wha???)
All the states are listed here, but not all of them have gathered all the information so far.
Thank you for the useful links.
YouTuber Sabby Sabs was talking about the early voting data in PA (maybe a day or two ago) and mentioned that Democrats needed to have around 550K more in early voter turnout or it would be an issue for Harris. Not remembering how she came to that figure – it was based on previous elections, but I forget the exact details. If it’s still the case the Dems might be in trouble…
It’s not so much UofFL as much as my former colleague Mike McDonald. He just works there. If he goes elsewhere, the data moves with him. ;)
It is absolutely blue, and I have no illusions about it being a battleground state. But my very well off county is purple. I think a lot of my neighbors are tempted to vote outside of the public bias, or just not vote. But the constitutional amendment means they’ll probably vote. Which is why I wonder about it. If they all come out and vote, and are capable of holding their nose for Harris, but not supporting the amendment, then it is reasonable to assume that betting everything on abortion rights was not a good idea.
U.S. MILITARY MAKES FIRST CONFIRMED OPENAI PURCHASE FOR WAR-FIGHTING FORCES – The Intercept
I’ll go out on a limb and say that I expect this to go about as well as the CIA’s mind control experiments with LSD.
Data centers now being direct military targets and unprotected is a feature, not a bug.
Pentatgon chooses most expensive and fragile tech, what a surprise.
https://x.com/simpatico771/status/1850456395650388109
🗣️🇮🇱🇮🇷It’s amusing to see the spate of amateurs who so pretentiously proclaim Israel conducted some sort of highfalutin “SEAD” mission against Iran, destroying AD units like the S-300. These are delusions of grandeur.
Anyone who thinks that happened has no clue what SEAD even is or how it works. Go back to WarThunder and leave the analysis for the experts.
First of all, you don’t do SEAD at 500-700km distance. SEAD typically requires the launching aircraft to first detect the air defense assets itself in order to directly lock-on the appropriate anti-radiation munition to that asset in real-time. That means you have to be within range to even detect an AD unit, which is certainly not feasible at the distances Israel timidly launches its ALBMs. That’s because if you can detect them that means they can detect you.
Secondly, you have to have munitions even capable of doing SEAD, which most of Israel’s long range ones certainly are not; Air Lora, Blue Sparrow, etc., these are GPS guided and are basically fired blind at a static target you think was there hours ago. Don’t kid yourself amateurs, that’s not SEAD.
Now the ROCKS allegedly has a rarer version capable of anti-radiation lock-on. The problem is, you’re still not locking the target yourself as the delivery aircraft because at ballistic missile standoff ranges, the IAF is launching these ROCKS first with GPS coordinates based on where they “think” Iranian AD may be located, and then “hoping” that the terminal anti-radiation component takes over in the end, if it happens to detect some radiation.
That’s hardly real SEAD as the delivery aircraft never identifies nor locks the AD directly itself, given that it’s 500-700km away. You’re basically blindly firing a ballistic missile at a static GPS coordinate (where your satellite saw an AD system located perhaps hours, perhaps days ago) and you’re hoping some radiation signal is detected there.
That’s not true SEAD by a long shot, it’s just blindly flinging primitive GPS ballistics and hoping to hit mobile, relocatable targets.
Israel is not capable of conducting real SEAD against Iran because it would require Wild Weasel aircraft to actually get within detection range at which point they would be shot down.
I am hearing all over the news this AM – that based on some national polls coming in ( why do they even report these – it has no bearing at all on the outcome ) – Kamala is starting to crush it.
I think I have made my views clear – but I also know this is a very tight race. And my family and I are going to live with whatever happens. My gut feeling is there are so many consequences coming our way as a nation that we are picking the leader to be in charge as things start to unspool. So be it.
The problem is this is very clearly going to be very close – and I see no way around it coming down to charges of election fraud, etc. I fear that whoever wins – the other 50% is going to go ape. I do not believe for a minute it will go as well as things did in 2020.
One thing is for sure – and I tell my patients this all day and every day. The anxiety level is through the roof. Life long relationships with your family and friends are priceless to you. It will be these relationships that keep us intact going into this coming time. There is absolutely zero reason to throw this out the window on account of these two clowns.
My wife and I saw this day coming those years ago when we made the big move to the hinterlands. We are surrounded by very strong relationships – and all kinds of people who have skills to help us all make it. I am very capable with vegetable and fruit production and preservation. I am spending enormous time teaching teenagers around me how to do this. There are people all around us who are all kinds of builders, tinkerers etc. We all have agreed that it is “all for one and one for all.” I would never dream of risking any of that because someone voted for Trump or Kamala – it may be very soon when we all realize that does not matter.
I feel the same for this community. May God help us all in the coming days.
Only the other 50% of the (admittedly large) minority of Americans who identify with a “team” in the two-party system. Which is already leaving out all the children and non-citizens.
Very far from half the country.
In fact, that may be the biggest divide in the US, between those of us who see the clown show for what it is and those who still have any faith in it.
Yeah. It will be a nail bitter and it will be bitterly contested either way. Kinda feels like Kamala will crawl over that 270 line first. That would be the easiest result to live with short term. I imagine my friends and neighbors won’t lose their mind with that scenario.
The contrarian in me is starting to think that the result will be surprisingly one-sided after all the media propaganda saying it is a nail-biter and you should keep hitting refresh on your internet screen to renew the ads every few minutes.
I don’t know which way the election is going to swing at this point, but I think it will swing one way or the other.
Kagan & Nuland: for the last 20-30 years this “power couple” has been a tag-team for the neocon agenda. While one spouse works in the government, the other works in the concubine media. The WaPo has been one of their favorite troughs, of course, but perhaps that’s ending?
What I find more significant is that with Nuland out after her embarrassing flop in Ukraine and now Kagan leaving Pravda-on-Potomac in a huff — where will they find employment in the case of a Trump victory? Will no one think of the welfare of the poor ghouls and spooks?
He’ll likely join hillary and cookies at columbia
Both are in need of a slimming diet/regime for at least a year… but then, that might prolong their lives, so, I dunno..
Did you just say that they are need of diet/regime change?
What’s most interesting is just occasionally you have what I think Lambert has referred to as “wonderfully clarifying” moments.
As VP, Harris could have gotten the nowadays paltry minimum wage increase to $15, but refused, because norms are more important than working people, and unlike Republicans, Democrats hold the Senate as a sacred space, with norms more important than helping people that Democrats purport to care about.
The same with genocide. There are no Republicans to blame. Any day, any time, Biden can end genocide.
Biden does not end genocide. Nor does Harris call for its end.
There’s no 13th dimensional chess here with Republicans. Liberal Democrats care neither about the struggles of the working class or the lives of brown people in a faraway land.
Full stop. The mask does drop sometimes. And sometimes people notice. When people show you who they are, believe them.
Today is Vasili Arkhipov Day. Considering all the Russia paranoia and ongoing flirtations with potential nuclear conflicts and hearing so few praises of true heroes for our times — our Gotham needs a true hero and reminder of how close we have come and might come to true MADDness.
“Thank you Vasili Arkhipov, the man who stopped nuclear war”
[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-stopped-nuclear-war]
“On October 27, 1962, a man you’ve never heard of saved your life …”
As these dramas [Russian Missile Crisis] ratcheted tensions beyond breaking point, an American destroyer, the USS Beale, began to drop depth charges on the B-59, a Soviet submarine armed with a nuclear weapon.
The captain of the B-59, Valentin Savitsky, had no way of knowing that the depth charges were non-lethal “practice” rounds intended as warning shots to force the B-59 to surface.”
“And an order to launch a nuclear missile against Americans was actually given by the commander and political officer of a Soviet nuclear submarine.”
…
” The launch of the B-59’s nuclear torpedo required the consent of all three senior officers aboard. Arkhipov was alone in refusing permission.”
Link to another story:
[https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/23/how-one-man-held-off-nuclear-war/ ]
So raise a glass today to say “Thank you Vasili Arkhipov”
[second try]
Thank you for this reminder. I was 8 yrs old, yet I recall those three days. Not well, but a distinct impression and knowledge that there was a three day period when many people figuratively held their breath. And watched President Kennedy address the nation at least once, perhaps more than once.
I’ve taken the liberty of lifting your words – with accompanying link – for a Facebook post to remind my friends of similar age what we might have suffered but for the profound sense of duty to humanity this one person possessed.
The podcast “The Couple That Took on Google” [37:32] here on Channel 4’s The Bottom Line on which the article is based is fascinating. Adam and especially Shivaun Raff, the couple that took on Google, are highly articulate—on the basis of that alone, their Herculean persistence aside, I would not want to take them on.
The Raffs shut down their site, Foundem, the shopping and price comparison website at the center of the legal battle, in 2016. Their civil case for damages against Google (which, according to Adam Raff, couldn’t proceed while the EU case was going on because of conflict-of-laws rules) is set to take place in the first half of 2026.
Apropos of nothing, just a yipping thought that needs let out for a walk.
Perhaps it’s been observed elsewhere (perhaps even today in the preceding), but it occurs to me at this moment that the heartbreak occurs at the first meeting, rather than the last.
The first meeting commences the incision, the middle traces the design, and the last renders complete the pattern upon the scarified tissue.
That’s life, i spose.
Powell the Wimp
Sung to the tune of, “Willie the Wimp” by Stevie Ray Vaughan
Jay Powell the wimp was buried today
They laid him to rest in a special way
Sent him off in the finest style
With high grocery bills, he drove inflation wild
Emperor Nero would think of him, often
Talkin’ ’bout Powell the wimp, and his currency coffin
Powell the wimp, and his currency coffin
That coffin was pimped out like a fine Seville
He had a jawboning license and a stack of T-bills
AIPAC was sitting in the driver’s seat
Jay printed fiat for more weapons and his friends on Wall Street
That cat soon had the whole town talkin’
Talkin’ ’bout Powell the wimp, and his currency coffin
Talkin’ ’bout Powell the wimp, and his currency coffin
Ow!
[Musical interlude]
With his monetary cannons, he was a real crowd-pleaser
He left like he lived – an unelected Caesar
With a hundred dollar bills in his fingers, mate
He did a final press conference, at St. Peter’s gates
Fightin’ inflation is just not his problem!
Talking ’bout Powell the wimp, and his currency coffin
yeah, Powell the wimp, and his currency coffin
Powell the wimp!
And his inflation problem
Powell the wimp!
And his currency coffin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI7YYtuKtDw
From Blue States Gave Trump and Vance an Opening
I’ve highlighted the key disconnection from reality.
(bold mine)
So. Hydrocarbons.
And how is that working out for us now? And this leaves out petrochemical derived fertilizers as well.
Why would this persist into the future?
Just saw this pop up from a friend. The link is of footage allegedly showing an assassination attempt on Evo Morales.
I hope Trump has some good protection for the next month. Seems like Blob is getting ready to tale out everyone who it doesn’t like!
Am I doomed to catch covid now? A family with kids has moved into the unit above us. They are spending all their time on their patio, which is directly above our patio. My dogs spend all their time on our patio (fortunately they aren’t barking at the kids; they just seem eagerly curious). I am guessing that massive waves of covid will drift down, and we below are toast. Oh, well, it was a good run while it lasted. I’m putting the dogs on claritin and low dose methylene blue (not medical advice) as a last ditch safety attempt for them.
It is likely that air moves up the side of your building, especially warmer breath, at least in daytime when the ground is warmed by the sun. It seems unlikely that neighbouring children will infect your dogs. Children are not better or worse superspreaders than adult neighbours although there are not many studies. They may have more time in surroundings where they can acquire COVID perhaps.
Are claritin and methylene blue advisable for dogs? They won’t have hay fever or UTI’s at least (and you will know where they peed)!
From the two studies I’ve seen, obese people and elderly people and people who are severely infected seem to be more likely to be superspreaders than young or slim people (https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2021830118) and (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-022-01215-y). My impression is that schools are so bad due to numbers of people and quantity of time of exposure. However, I don’t know if the virus could mutate in a way that would change that. That’s great read breath moving upwards, but it’s going to be a lot of breath over time, even if little humans don’t produce much breath. I don’t begrudge them their patio use, obviously. I hope they get some vitamin D from being on their patio.
Claritin and low dose methylene blue are generally safe for dogs (not veterinary advice), but I do have an email out to our alternative vet to ask about long term use. I’ve been using both long term myself and I haven’t caught covid (not medical advice)(I also mask and use Xlear) and if there is some obscure risk of a long term problem for myself I don’t care terribly since covid itself causes long term problems. In a study done in Korea, all of the dogs infected with covid developed severe neurological damage, so even if there is some small risk to them from preventatives it is likely worth it.
Re: A Win for the Poor: This doesn’t seem like a win at all. Each mobile home owner had to cough up $88,000.00 to get out from under the control of a predatory capitalist. That sounds like more of a ransom paid than an arm’s-length bargain.
The state should have the power to confiscate the land from abusive institutional owners and deed it to the residents in situations like this.
Actually, I think that the state does have that power. Eminent domain allows the govt to seize private land for public use. And thanks to Kelo it can be done for the general benefits the community would enjoy from economic growth qualified as “public use” … a decision that IMO should be reversed.
And in today’s Clown World, the visa for Candace Owens to come to Oz has been cancelled because, well, she’s Candace Owens-
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/extremist-influencer-candace-owens-australian-visa-cancelled-by-immigration-minister-20241026-p5klj9.html
But we are OK with people like Nigel Farage coming to Oz. Go figure.