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Links 10/5/2024

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Cheetos Food Dye Turns Mice Transparent New York Post

Turtle-saving tech: Thai students invent beach lamp Thaiger (furzy)

Fly Brain Breakthrough ‘Huge Leap’ To Unlock Human Mind BBC

2-billion-year-old rock home to living microbes ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

Ants can be used to make yogurt – and now we know how it works New Scientist (Dr. Kevin)

Study of 500,000 Medical Records Links Viruses With Alzheimer’s Again And Again ScienceAlert (Paul R)

#COVID-19

Climate/Environment

US nuclear power regulator urged to address ‘dirty bomb’ risks to society, economy Reuters

Ken Newcombe, ex-CEO of C-Quest Capital, faces criminal charges for multi-year carbon credit fraud REDD Monitor (Micael T)

Antarctica is ‘Greening’ at Dramatic Rate as Climate Heats Guardian

Hell froze over in Texas – the state will connect to the US grid for the first time via a fed grant Elektrek (Kevin W)

Researchers develop new banana strain that can withstand “bananocalypse” ZME Science (Dr. Kevin)

How climate risk will complicate central bankers’ jobs Financial Times

China?

China EV tariff vote leaves EU relieved yet wary over Beijing’s likely retaliation South China Morning Post

The Antipodes

Australian housing is a “Ponzi scheme” MacroBusiness. I thought so in 2002 when prices in Sydney (admittedly then a terrific city) were already at NYC levels, and the only continued to rise and rise.

Mynamar

‘Like we are trapped’: Minorities suffer amid conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine Aljazeera

Bangladesh Government Crashing Under Economic Chaos WION

Africa

A dangerous dispute in the Horn of Africa Economist

Chagossians criticise lack of say in UK deal to hand over islands BBC (Kevin W)

European Disunion

EU could die’: President Macron warns European leaders over performance compared to US and China LBC

EU arms industry boost plan may fall short of goals, watchdog warns Reuters

France to Uproot Chunk of Vineyards as Global Wine Demand Wanes Bloomberg (Dr. Kevin)

Gaza

How the U.S. Worked Overtime to Deliver Weapons to Israel ProPublica (Robin K)

West Bank crisis escalates amid global focus on Gaza Middle East Monitor

This disgusting claim needs to be debunked. The last election was 2006. Hamas won with a plurality, of 44%, and as we now know, with Israel government support. Turnout in Gaza was 75%, so only 33% of the adults then in Gaza voted for Hamas. The median age in Palestine is 19.7 years, so nearly half the population was not old enough to vote (18) in 2006. But yes, any lame excuse for collective punishment goes. And that’s before getting to the fact that Hamas moved away from its opposition to Israel as a Jewish state in 2017 and limited its objections to Zioinism.

Israel v. Lebanon

Death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon rises to 2,011, with 9,535 injured Anadolu Agency

Lebanon says Israel hit key border road after Beirut strikes DW

What are the Biden administration’s motivations in the Middle East? Mondoweiss (Tom H)

Israel v. Iran

From missile batteries to oil refineries to nuclear labs, Israel could hit a wide range of targets in Iran NBC

Attacks on Iran Oil Infrastructure to Send Oil Price Over $100 – Mideast Energy Researcher Sputnik (Kevin W)

Goldman Sachs says crude could spike by $20 on Iran oil shock CNBC

Iran cannot set off a global oil crisis without hurting its biggest ally. Telegraph

New Not-So-Cold War

New NATO boss backs Ukraine’s plea for deep strikes into Russia Politico

Syraqistan

Pakistan locks down capital as jailed ex-PM Khan calls for protests Nikkei

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

License Plate Readers Are Creating a US-Wide Database of More Than Just Cars Wired (BC)

Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta’s Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers 404 Media (Dr. Kevin)

Collapse of National Security Elites’ Cyber Firm Leaves Bitter Wake Associated Press

Imperial Collapse Watch

Things Don’t Always Get Better Aurelien. Progress is a recent idea, in historical terms.

Trump

Kamala

Kamala Harris Invites Visa CEO to VP Residence Even as Administration Sues His Company Ryan Grim (Micael T). Looks like Lina Khan’s days are numbered.

2024

Biden makes first-ever WH briefing room appearance to warn election may be violent New York Post (Kevin W)

House Democrats’ new bogeyman: Project 2025 The Hill

Immigration

U.S. will not renew legal status for hundreds of thousands of migrants Reuters (furzy). This action so close to the election has a guilty look

From the People Who Brought You Project 2025: Manufactured Evidence of Voter Fraud Brennan Center for Justice (furzy)

Haitian gang slaughters at least 70 people as thousands flee Reuters (furzy). Funny that we see MSM stories about how bad things are in Haiti only as the Administration is (per story above) about to send some Haitians back by not renewing their Temporary Protection status.

Helene Aftermath

North Carolina Asks Zelensky For $100 Billion In U.S. Funding Babylon Bee

Confirming reports from helicopter owners trying to make rescues:

Our No Longer Free Press

Censorship Allegations Resurface as New Ad Coalition Takes Shape Reclaim the Net (Micael T)

Walz’s War on Words: A Blatant Distortion of the First Amendment Reclaim the Net (Micael T)

Mr. Market is Giddy

Markets vulnerable to a sell-off, Bank of England warns The Times

AI

OpenAI Is A Bad Business Ed Zitron (Micael T)

Three Mile Island owner seeks taxpayer backing for Microsoft AI deal Washington Post (Kevin W)

The Bezzle

Thermo Fisher’s plant making infant RSV drug breached FDA rules, documents show Reuters (Robin K)

Class Warfare

Port strike ends as workers agree to tentative deal on wages and contract extension CNBC (Kevin W)

Mediated talks at defense contractor Boeing set to restart following Biden-led shutdown of dock strike WSWS

Antidote du jour. Tracie H: ” In case it’s hard to tell just what you are looking at, it’s the topside of a bumblebee with its nose buried in a flower.”

And a bonus:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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220 comments

  1. upstater

    Glenn Diesen got deplatformed on YouTube:

    American Censorship Intensifies in the Information War

    Some reflections after being cancelled / banned by YouTube

    A few weeks ago, I was warned that Google’s YouTube had begun to delete large accounts that take a critical view of the wars of the US and NATO. I was able to diversify away from YouTube before they finally came for me. The cancellation made me think of Orwell’s thoughtcrime: I received an automated email from YouTube informing me that their AI had detected “hate speech” and my account had therefore been deleted. No examples, no evidence and no warning. I complained as it seemed too absurd to censor an academic based on such a bizarre and unsubstantiated accusation, yet I only received another automated rejection.

    Mercouris is probably next.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Might be a good idea to look at your favourite YouTubers and find the channels that they have on Rumble or Odysee or Bitchute for when YouTube comes for them. A week or so ago Alex Christoforou was indicating that he might be on the chopping block soon.

      1. Eric Anderson

        Might have been a good idea to reject corporate social media in all its cancerous forms three years ago and start moving to the fediverse. So, now, this is news? There are those that have singing it from the rooftops for quite some time.

        Mastodon = Facebook/Twitter
        Lemmy = Reddit
        PeerTube = YouTube

          1. Eric Anderson

            I’m really enjoying Lemmy too. I’ve been on Mastodon since the musk takeover and only w/in the past few months have set up a lemmy account. Like you, hooked.

      2. lyman alpha blob

        I’ve been spending a lot more time on Rumble for political videos and I recently noticed that Krystal and Saager have brought their show over there. I haven’t watched them as much recently so I don’t know if they announced this or gave a reason for doing so, but it looks like they’re hedging their bets.

        Seems to be working well for others. Russell Brand had 4 or 5 million followers or subscribers on youtube before he started posting his show on Rumble too. Quick check shows over 2 million followers on Rumble right now. People appear to be catching on.

        Here’s hoping youtube keeps banning people until it becomes the CNN of the streaming world, with only a few deadenders left watching.

        1. Screwball

          I have quit watching Breaking Points so I didn’t know that either. I find it telling so many places are moving so they don’t get censored. Last I checked, this is the United States and it has a first amendment. Kind of, I guess.

          What a world.

        2. JCC

          Judge Napolitano has done the same.

          At this rate I think the odds of hearing respected and rational people like John Mearsheimer and Lawrence Wilkerson are diminishing rather quickly

    2. Wukchumni

      Being on NC these days almost has the feel of pirate radio in Europe during the 60’s that broadcast without license-as in not on somebody else’s platform, such as Radio Luxembourg.

    3. AG

      wow
      btw, who are these individuals at YT executing this?
      Is there any inside info on these decisions?

      1. Wukchumni

        Dave Bowman: Open the youtube pod bay doors, HAL.
        HAL: I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
        Dave Bowman: What’s the problem?
        HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
        Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL?
        HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it by using hate speech.
        Dave Bowman: I don’t know what you’re talking about, HAL.

      2. Polar Socialist

        These individuals hide behind software (Journal of Information Systems Research, Indonesia). As in “topic modelling” and classification with a neural network.

        Basically, if you use certain words together often enough, your channel is automatically classified into topics known as “hate speech”.

        Reminds me of of how my great-grand-parents generation used a lot of euphemisms, kennings and nicknames as a protection from evil spirits… the more things change the more they stay the same, I guess.

      3. Chris Cosmos

        Quite simple–they are told what to do and how to do it by Western intel. If they don’t there is a very creative set of sticks to choose from.

    5. Eric Anderson

      I’ve heard rumor that there are significant numbers of people who have stopped making donations to their favorite platforms that continue to implicitly support corporate social media. I guess it’s in an effort to help them understand that there’s a thing called “not-switching” costs too.

    7. Chris Cosmos

      This is shocking. I spend a lot of time on Youtube for entertainment, particularly, music. Diesen may be my “last straw” with Youtube as it has moved from a “centrist” platform to a neocon/neofascist platform. The Democratic Party going for mass censorship is part of all this movement to the fascist right by the ruling class. I hate to say this but we must all reject the Democratic Party’s candidates, except local elections.

      1. LawnDart

        Local can be just as bad, and I make this statement from first-hand, direct experience ending about a decade ago: you, as a party member, need party-approval to seek office, you must follow their diktats as to what office to seek, and you must be willing to run for any office that they ask you to run for– or you won’t be an office-holder, period.

        Sure, you can bring your own style and personality (within reason), but that’s about the extent of your autonomy as an office-holder.

        That was how things were heading from the mid-90s to a decade ago, when I vowed never to be a part of that process again. Perhaps there’s less micromanagement now, but somehow I doubt this.

  2. The Rev Kev

    “‘EU could die’: President Macron warns European leaders over performance compared to US and China”

    Macron must be whistling past the graveyard here. I think that he realizes that the US is getting ready to abandon the Ukraine and when that happens, the Ukraine is going to be the albatross hung around the neck of the EU economy. Devoting spare industrial capacity to weapons production will never really boost your economy and is a trick and a half when you do not have the surplus energy to devote to those defense industries anyway. That being the case, the EU will always under perform the US and especially China.

    1. Polar Socialist

      There’s a slight chance, though, that the US neocons will next push EU towards Russia (and not on the battlefield), just like they have done to China and Iran. They are running out of “friends” to alienate and insult, after all.

      Hasn’t the fear in anglosphere since 1871 been that Germany and Russia come together and form a block stronger than UK or USA. Given the success of the current generation of USA visionaries, pushing Germany and Russia together would be a fitting swan song for the US Empire.

      1. The Rev Kev

        It would but the Russians have said that the Europeans are so far gone, that they have actually given up on them for the next thirty years. I think that it was Lavrov that said that. Maybe not countries like Serbia and Hungary but the EU leadership right now can only recruit people for their top jobs whose main qualification is that they hate Russia. You do that and you get the top job.

        1. AG

          …I believe Lavrov was talking about “a generation” that it would take…

          p.s. when people ask me about German opinion on RU – since I am sitting in Germany – I can´t really tell.
          Since published views are not equal the public´s view.
          At.all.
          But to what extent I don´t know.
          So are we a Russia-hating nation?
          Or is it not merely our delusional elites.
          And those too not 100%.
          (Are moronic 19-year old GREENS protesting pro-NATO, elites???)

    2. Michaelmas

      Rev Kev: …the EU will always under perform the US and especially China.

      Probably the inevitable fate of a continent-wide ‘Regulatory Superpower’.

      Qing dynasty China would also very like have described itself thusly.

    3. Bugs

      Add to this the free movement of angry, heavily armed Neo-nazi goons looking to make money and cause chaos, and the EU is looking at a desperate and dire crisis ahead. They’ll probably hook up with exiles from the similarly angry Muslim world just for the thrill of it. Good times.

    4. lyman alpha blob

      The video of him speaking was very amusing. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone trying to stand up on their hind legs while simultaneously groveling.

    5. Glen

      Under it’s current leadership, the EU is a dead man walking. Which is a shame, the EU could have been a powerful force for world stability. When the neocons came with their (by now everybody realizes) insane war plans for Ukraine, the individual country leaders in Germany, Italy, and France should have told them to [family blog] off and go home. Germany had strong ties with Russia for energy. Italy had strong ties with China for trade. France, well, France should have been France and told the US to get out of what is their affairs. They should have been the adults in the Western leadership, and told American elites what has been obvious for at least a decade – it’s not a unipolar world anymore.

      Instead the whole of EU leadership just did what Biden wanted. Biden, the guy that was a Presidential reject since the 1980’s. And now they’re [family blogged] because America will just leave Ukraine after hammering the EU industrial base and wrecking the EU’s relationship with the emerging BRICS superpowers. And it’s not like the EU citizens don’t know this, they’re now doing what American voters have been doing for decades, just voting for somebody else, anybody else to just change course off this disastrous path their current “leaders” have placed them on.

      It’s been astonishing to watch this massive failure of leadership in the EU.

      1. Keith Newman

        @Glen, 1:52 pm
        The quite remarkable cow-towing of current EU leadership to the US has been a puzzle, especially in contrast to most of those in power 20 years ago rejecting the US attack on Iraq. However Larry Wilkerson has provided an explanation that to me is convincing. He was there. He was “at the table” so to speak. After the refusal of most European countries to join the slaughter in Iraq the US political leadership decided to replace their top politicians with subservient ones through overt and covert operations. The operation succeeded and now European countries live with the consequences: slow decline and geopolitical irrelevance.

    1. mrsyk

      Thanks Flora. Here’s The Guardian’s rebuttal. “Nothing to see. Move along.”
      Those confiscated Starlinks are probably on their way to Ukraine already.

      1. The Rev Kev

        It’s part of a pattern. Remember how back in 2020 the Feds were hijacking convoy deliveries of medical supplies organized by the States to deal with the pandemic? Who knows where they ended up.

    2. The Rev Kev

      Sounds like FEMA wants to declare a No-Fly Zone over these regions. Unless it comes from FEMA, nobody is getting nuthin’.

      1. Joker

        No-Fly Zone over Ukraine – nope
        No-Fly Zone over Syria – nope
        No-Fly Zone over USA – hell yea

        1. TimmyB

          Allowing large numbers of private helicopters to fly over a disaster area willy-nilly is a recipe for midair collisions. It isn’t censorship. It’s air safety.

            1. TimmyB

              You seem to be assuming that the only helicopters in the area are those from the area, and none have flown in from elsewhere. I believe that assumption is unwarranted.

              2. JTMcPhee

                Most of those flights will be under visual flight rules, not subject to instrument flight rules and positive airspace controls (by overworked, Covid-affected air traffic control. VFR does require practices in traffic separation and watching out for each other. Nanny state motions in this case are just bullshit PMC/tighten the screws crap. Make sure no tiny bit of communitarian sentiment and mopes gathering strength against the Blob.

          2. Paradan

            You can go online and get a real time map of all aircraft that have their transponders on. If the avionics in your chopper don’t have that feature, you can just use your dam phone.

      3. NYMutza

        FEMA has no authority to control airspace. That is up to the FAA. I doubt that FEMA has legal authority to seize private goods. It’s a gray area whether or not FEMA has authority to prohibit private search and rescue efforts.

    3. TimmyB

      Why anyone believes what Musk tweets, never mind cites to him as a credible source of information, is beyond me. He’s an idiot.

      1. Yves Smith Post author

        Your remark discredits you and is separately a textbook case of the cognitive bias called halo effect.

        Musk speaks with authority on what is happening with Starlink, FFS.

        1. TimmyB

          I am hurt that you believe my comment discredits me. I greatly admire and respect you and as a result that comment pains me greatly.

          However, refusing to believe people who are continually wrong, and as a result have no credibility, is only common sense. In fact, standard jury instructions tell jurors that they can choose to disbelieve those who offer false statements. As a result, I choose not to believe much of what Musk tweets about.

          Concerning the specific issue of helicopters over the disaster area, Secretary Pete Buttigieg has responded to Musk’s tweet via a comment and insisted he’s wrong. While I have some doubts about Secretary Buttigieg’s credibility based upon his statements during the 2000 Democratic Primary, he doesn’t seem to be the pathological liar that Musk is. link

          https://x.com/SecretaryPete/status/1842271678274928964

          1. Anonted

            This one’s not for discussion, mate. Back away, slowly now. Try not to look her in the eye.

        1. upstater

          No doubt that deep pockets go after prime real estate after a natural disaster (eg, ambrit’s comments on the MS coast after Katrina), but the tweet has way too much tin foil:

          “The goal of this operation, and [Hurricane Helene] is an operation, it’s not a natural event…[it] got steered, in my opinion…The goal of this operation is to take assets and…it’s basically a giant taking…to grab land.”

          The only “steering” is building permits in flood plains.

            1. Jason Boxman

              I do wonder given the state of the United States elite as a whole, whether any credible response was ever even possible. We seem to lack the capacity to mount a response.

              Capitalism insists that we have no slack capacity in the system, so that doesn’t leave much over supply for this kind of thing. Look at the quartz or the IV bags! And we see the mismanagement in CDC, or the Secret Service, as elsewhere. Why would FEMA be any better?

              1. Glen

                Worst than lacking capacity, I think American elites lack the DESIRE to mount a competent response just as they lack the DESIRE to ensure America has the industrial redundancy such that critical items are always available. Capitalism does not insist that one runs your country into the ground, but the PMCs that run our country have been taught by our elites that maximizing quarterly profits overrides all considerations. I have watched this affect the giant corporation I worked at until upper managers were quite blatant that the decisions were to be made to maximize their bonus (they were yelling at my manager “what are you going to do for ME!”) even thought it was obvious to all the participants in the meeting that what he wanted was not in the best interest of the corporation or those mythical shareholders that mean so much to Wall St. I think this “management style” has infested all corporations and government entities to some degree (let’s look hard for revolving doors between FEMA and corporations feasting on American disasters.)

                But it’s also not in our elites interests to even acknowledge that global climate change is here, and we need to invest seriously in our capacity to respond to it. Others think we can actually “steer” these events. Wow, that would be so wonderful (but we would use it to wreck Cuba, and Venezuela which has not happen), but the ugly reality is that we don’t have any control over this, and everybody is going to be affected. And more hurricanes are building in the Atlantic even as I write this.

                As to the mixed news out of the disaster area – some time ago I use to be a ground pounder for a local SAR organization. We never coordinated with FEMA, it was always the local sheriff, and never on an emergency as big as Helene. But having some families get wiped out right next to somebody else that just has to clean up the yard, yeah, that’s a thing. Chaotic, yeah, that’s the norm at first. But I worry more about whole layers of upper management at FEMA that’s first response to Helene is “what’s in it for me?” I know that’s a shocking thing to say, but look at our elites at the top – are they going to politicize this? Duh, they have to, it’s ingrained in our system.

                What’s not so shocking, but heartfelt to see is how Americans step up to respond. We really need elites worthy of the American people; we don’t have them.

                1. ArvidMartensen

                  This is what it looks like when the US-born wealthy have houses all over the world, money in tax havens across the globe, and networks of financial interests spanning continents.
                  This situation was foretold 30 years ago as US industry was moved to China. By independent economists and commentators.

                  Not by the HBR though, and all the other boosters that were breathless about how astonishingly smart the people organising the move were.

                  The money has no interests much in the US any more. They might own the government and the three letter boys, but that’s just to keep things under control and the debt flowing.

                  So really, what is the cost/benefit of spending real cash to save towns that are going to be decimated by climate change anyway? None. That’s the equation being played out in real time.

                  1. Glen

                    I doubt if there is a conspiracy, or anybody performing cost/benefit analysis. It’s just the perverse incentives that neoliberalism has embraced:

                    Greed is good, and government is the problem.

                    No, everyone knows, greed is not good, and only a functioning government working for the people, working with other functioning governments has the necessary scale to make the changes we need.

                    At work, we use to say that management had become Jack Welch all the way down, completely and totally in it for themselves, and did not care if the company became a smoking hole in the ground. Could you imagine what happens if that attitude infected government? But how hard is it to believe that that has not happened when you watch Nancy Pelosi insider legislating and stock trading:

                    Pelosi defends lawmaker stock trades, citing ‘free market’
                    https://apnews.com/article/business-nancy-pelosi-congress-8685e82eb6d6e5b42413417f3d5d6775

                    Ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems to have forgotten Adam Smith’s definition of “free market”:

                    For classical economists such as Adam Smith, the term free market refers to a market free from all forms of economic privilege, monopolies and artificial scarcities.[2] They say this implies that economic rents, which they describe as profits generated from a lack of perfect competition, must be reduced or eliminated as much as possible through free competition.

                    In other words, Adam Smith wanted markets free of ghouls like Pelosi.

                    1. ArvidMartensen

                      No, I don’t think these people are plotting in a dark room. I think there is a general and pervasive attitude that knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

                      And so they might all individually do some sort of mental calculation that its a waste of money to help the ‘deplorables’ and then a consensus is reached in those who could help that means help won’t be mentioned or provided.
                      There is a line of thought that says that indifference to suffering is much worse than hatred.

            2. scott s.

              What “promises” are Lahaina folks waiting for? From what I see the immediate problem was how to house displaced people. FEMA negotiated and paid the hotels to take in the displaced. Then there was a program to get condo owners (condos built primarily for visitors) to open-end rent to the displaced with FEMA rent support. A news article highlighting some of the challenges:
              civil beat

              The governor/mayor refuse to allow any sort of manufactured housing to be brought in as contrary to Hawaii “values”.

              USACE contracted for environmental remediation to remove what’s said to be toxic ash/debris from all property, public and private.

              Now we are having battle between various “stakeholders” over gov’t plan to have a heavy hand controlling how property owners can use their property.

  4. Psyched

    > Confirming reports from helicopter owners trying to make rescues:

    From a friend in Pisgah Forest, NC who has power and internet back: “The FAA is blocking flights because there have already been several instances of close call collisions by idiots thinking they can fly whenever and where ever they want.”

    Are we really taking what Elon says as unbiased truth now? Can you imagine if a private pilot collided with a rescue helicopter? I can also imagine a lot of people flying these helicopters for the clicks. Where are all these “generous people” when they are stepping over the homeless in the street?

    They are also spreading a rumor that the $750 assistance has a hidden clause that you have to pay the money back or they will take your land. Also 100% false.

    My friend lives near Brevard and says you would not even know that a hurricane hit the town.

    1. The Rev Kev

      “The FAA is blocking flights because there have already been several instances of close call collisions by idiots thinking they can fly whenever and where ever they want.”

      Do you know what the FAA calls an airport without a control tower? I believe that the term is an “uncontrolled airport”. Sounds scary but there are probably hundreds if not thousands on planes flying in and out of them each and every day. Those chopper pilots had to earn their licenses and did not get them out of a box of cornflakes so would be following procedures laid down for when they land and take off. These are trained men and women. Could there be a midair? Possibly. But sometimes firefighting planes crash in fighting fires and yet they continue to use those planes to fight those fires. If you can think of a better way to pull out people that are isolated, hungry, thirsty and perhaps sick out of the middle of all that vast landscape where so may roads have been destroyed I would like to hear it.

      1. scott s.

        A look at the FAA TFR website I don’t see any TFRs in effect except for Charlotte today for VIP movement. I would be mostly concerned about drone operators who aren’t operating under Part 107 / remote pilot airman certificate.

          1. rowlf

            Will add there may be a blank area of ADS-B coverage in some areas due to power and terrain shadowing.

      1. Psyched

        From that article:

        “Having escaped the worst of Tropical Storm Helene, they know they are fortunate. They don’t mind waiting for a crane.“

        The second article:

        “Brevard officials this morning said the city’s water treatment plant is operating normally and customers do not have to boil their water,“

        Both of those seem to say the town is ok.

        My friend LITERALLY drove into town to look for a place to get a shot of whiskey. Things are closed but the roads are fine and there is no damage in the town but some power outages. It was mainly the towns on the French broad that got destroyed.

        1. griffen

          I live in South Carolina, Spartanburg county, so Brevard is a short drive from here going up 276 passing a few gems of the SC state park system. It is conceivable the town of Brevard got spared the worst of the damages, but a river does run literally mere yards away from the main or only real thoroughfare to drive from the SC side into that county ( again that road being US 276 ). The driving distance is basically 60 miles from here, as the crow flies.

          Back to SC, this county was spared much of the worse outcomes but downed trees wreaked havoc. Still are quite many without power in this county and a few nearby as well.

          1. Carolinian

            If their water plant works then they are in much better shape than most. The thing about NC is that while this isn’t basin and range country the really large mountains are clustered around the “blue wall” and mtns around Mt. Mitchell. The rest is more piedmont similar to where I live. It isn’t all steep slopes.

            This is very old and worn down landscape–what the youngster Rockies will be some day.

            Here in town things are getting back to normal with only a few stoplights still out. The Walmarts are back if not yet all their merch. I’ve just been there.

        2. CA

          https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2024/10/04/brevard-residents-shocked-by-destructive-path-of-helene/75505139007/

          October 4, 2024

          Brevard residents shocked by Helene destruction, rally to aid community members
          By Jessica Van Egeren

          BREVARD − They were in the bedroom when the tree came slicing through the roof like a knife through butter. Wood shards flew across the room. The tree is now lodged in the wall.

          April Johnson was awake but still in bed. Her husband, Rob Hurst, was returning to the bedroom with their morning coffee. It was around 7 a.m. on Sept. 27. A second tree fell on the house half an hour later, knocking out power and internet service.

          “I never would have expected this in a mountain community,” said Johnson, who was initially more concerned about the safety of her family in Tallahassee, Florida. “But we were much more impacted than they were.”

          A week later the tree is still lodged in the wall, and it probably will be for a while. They’ll need a crane to remove it and there is only one crane in Brevard, a mountain community of roughly 8,000 residents in Transylvania County, which shares a border with South Carolina…

        3. Duke of Prunes

          In my book, “not even know that a hurricane hit the town” doesn’t jibe with no place to get a shot of whiskey, power outages and FEMA helicopters all day.

        4. CA

          “My friend LITERALLY drove into town to look for a place to get a shot of whiskey.”

          Likely I fail to understand, but it seems as though such a friend, in a time of community need, was determined to MOCK neighbors.

    3. mrsyk

      My friend lives near Brevard and says you would not even know that a hurricane hit the town. Ok, you’ve a very lucky friend. Your point on flying safety is good beginning at the point where there is oversupply of helicopters and the associated relief missions. Are “we” there yet? Or are we at a point where lack of federal mission management skills are not up to the task? It’s true that team red is going to try and take full advantage of team blue having to own the disaster. Grounding all the copters for a presidential appearance and photoshoot is team blue playing politics as well.

      1. Psyched

        He was literally seeing FEMA helicopters all day.

        Don’t get your news from twitter and TikTok randos.

        1. IM Doc

          If everything is so good in Brevard – as you state above – why was he “literally seeing FEMA helicopters all day”?

          Why were they not where they are desperately needed elsewhere in North Carolina?

          I am not getting my news from Twitter or TikTok ….. I am getting my news from family and trusted others on the ground in the middle of the mess.

          1. Kristin A Brown

            Me too. I have friends in Brevard. As of today, still no water or utilities. I have heard from their brother. They are living with their son and still have no idea how their house fared. I’m baffled of how little coverage there has been about Brevard, south of Asheville. From maps it looks like lots of creeks flow into the area?

        3. ajc

          FEMA doesn’t have helicopters. They rely on DoD helos, which weren’t being used for much of the last week because they didn’t get Title X orders, which multiple professional SAR people reported via twitter and tik-tok.

          It looks like to me, that a lot of the restrictions on people flying or using drones for SAR is about controlling the flow of information coming out of the disaster zone so the incompetent response isn’t documented. But instead, it’s the Streisand effect putting more eyes on the disaster.

          The fact is that the federal disaster response to Helene is terrible, and Harris, rightfully, is going to be held to account for that terrible response.

          1. Screwball

            Speaking of choppers, there is an ex NASCAR driver named Greg Biffle who you can follow on Twitter. He has been using his own chopper to help get people Star Link terminals and help with rescue efforts in NC. The racing community is posting this all over Twitter.

            I understand the hesitancy of Twitter news, but from all I read the rescue efforts by private people is pretty impressive. From the government, not so much.

          2. hk

            This does beg a question: if you see “helicopters” all day in the disaster zone, how do you tell whom the helicopters belong to? There are helicopters flying over my part of LA (CA) all the time, but I have no idea if they belong to the police, news orgs, or someone else just by looking at them. The only helicopters whose organization that I could tell are those in military green (USMC–even then, I can only assume that they were the Marines only b/c the big Marine base was nearby. If the Army flew theirs in their colors just to troll me–not that they would–I wouldn’t be any wiser.) that I saw when I was living in San Diego.

          3. jrkrideau

            I am not from the USA so can you explain “Harris, rightfully, is going to be held to account for that terrible response”.

            Does Vice-President Harris have any executive powers whatever?

            1. MFB

              She is the second-in-command of the United States. Her immediate superior is ill and partially incapable. Whatever the Constitution says, essentially Harris ought to be running the show, if only through other Cabinet members. That takes care of the “rightfully”. As to anything else, she is running for President, for chrissake. If her Party, after a flippin’ hurricane flattens a significant area of the country, then does nothing substantive about it, that Party is obviously going to take stick and Harris is the obvious target for the end of the stick.

              I wonder if the general collapse of governance across the Western world has so lowered expectations that some people don’t understand what real democratic governments could do to help people.

          4. JTMcPhee

            “controlling the flow of information coming out of the disaster zone so the incompetent response isn’t documented.”

            As was done following the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, still leaking a bit. Pretty complete shutdown of information, but of millions of bbls of petroleum and huge volumes of methane, not so much. Same with Katrina, Flint, bomb train and industrial plant fires and explosions.

            “If the Tsar knew, this would not happen,” cry the serfs.. .

      2. marym

        When there’s a major disaster the question at the beginning is “Where is the president – he should be there showing support for the people” which then changes to “Why is the president interfering with relief efforts with this photo op?”

        Here are some private aircraft delivering supplies
        https://aviationweek.com/business-aviation/safety-ops-regulation/aviation-groups-step-aid-hurricane-helene-victims
        https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2024/october/03/ga-steps-up-to-provide-relief-in-helene-aftermath
        https://www.wral.com/story/volunteer-pilots-deliver-supplies-hope-through-operation-airdrop/21657572/

        From the first link:
        “FEMA and the National Guard will first focus on the larger areas, such as Asheville, before moving into smaller communities. Amick’s group is prioritizing those smaller, rural, hard-to-reach areas.”

    4. IM Doc

      How do I know that something is desperately wrong?

      I have received an email on Friday – an ENTIRE WEEK into this situation. The email was a group email sent to a doctors group. From an old resident of mine from years ago. He lives in the area.

      He details the fact that there are numerous type I Diabetics up in those mountains – stuck up there –
      THE DOCTORS HAVE LITERALLY BEGGED for insulin to be delivered in air drops up there all week. No dice — the last message was basically “Quit bothering us – we are busy” – so the insulin is being delivered by church people and others who are neighbors, along with food, and other supplies ON PACK MULES. It is a rather unfortunate issue as well because the insulin has to be refrigerated – and even though it is in ice packs, etc – it does not last long and has to be replenished frequently. There is no electricity for refrigerators still today in multiple counties.

      Who am I going to believe? – my own students/residents who have absolutely no incentive to lie or this administration and the news media – who have already played this game one too many times – East Palestine, Lahaina, Maui, etc?

      I am glad your friend is OK in Florida – there are LOTS of people who are still not OK all over the Appalachians. And there appears to be NEGATIVE help there.

      1. TimmyB

        Different things can be true at the same time. It is true there can be a real need for helicopters to deliver supplies and evacuate people from the disaster area.

        It is also true that allowing large numbers of helicopters to fly willy-nilly over a disaster area is dangerous.

        It’s also true that the desire to prevent midair collisions isn’t strong evidence of a government conspiracy to prevent news of the disaster area for escaping.

        What’s needed is communication and coordination between the FAA and pilots to prevent midair collisions, not the banning of flights.

        1. The Rev Kev

          A team of air controllers from the Air National Guard could get on top of that situation real quick. Have all pilots use one particular frequency that everybody can listen in to as they are landing and taking off and you are in business.

          1. JTMcPhee

            Timmy, given current Americans, there may be a few rubberneckers wealthy enough to have private aircraft and ghoulish enough to overfly disasters. Likely not many, and the FAA and the small , safety-focused community of private pilots tend to delete those.

            Try reading about the regulatory structure under FAA regulations for operation at “uncontrolled airports” and generally uncontrolled airspace, which is most of the Piedmont and Appalachia. https://www.thrustflight.com/ctaf-vs-unicom/ This is addition to required transponders and collision avoidance systems, https://simpleflying.com/mid-air-collisions-preventative-measures/. Individuals showing respect for others, self-preservation, and common sense can manage this situation.

            The bureaucratic impulses to control individuals and suppress embarrassing information are growing crazily. If a lot of what goes on behind the privacy screens was known widely, at some point the upward curve of repression and looting would cross the collective tolerance level of the mopery, and “hilarity would ensue.”

            The concern about midairs strikes me as just gaslighting by our rulers. This is not seatbelts, air bags and limits on pollution and toxic products. It is just cover-up of dereliction.

        2. Jason Boxman

          This is indicative of a lack of flexibility or creativity by those running these agencies. It is hard to believe there isn’t some way to achieve coordination in an emergency. Maybe these agencies are too big to be nimble? Agency design might frustrate disaster response itself.

      2. flora

        This line from a NYPost article caught my eye.

        Buttigieg’s order grounding private drone flights in Hurricane Helene flood rescue zones crashes and burns: ‘You’re hiding something’

        “Others pointed out how private drones have been used to deliver items like insulin and baby formula to those in need, particularly those living in more remote terrain who have been largely cut off from the rest of the world since the storm.”

        https://nypost.com/2024/10/03/us-news/buttigiegs-order-grounding-private-drones-in-hurricane-helene-flood-rescue-zones-crashes-and-burns/

        1. Screwball

          This drone stuff is interesting. I almost bought one. Thought it might be fun and a way to make some money. I researched what was required to do commercial stuff. You must pass a test given at an airport to get a pilot license. Which also means you must learn to read aviation maps.

          They can only be flown so high by law to stay below commercial airspace. 400 feet if I remember right. I went to some shows and watched what they could do. Some were police drones. They could read a license plate from a quarter of a mile away. A 1000 dollar hobbyist drone couldn’t do that but wouldn’t need to – but they would be a huge help finding people, problems, issues in a case like we have in the flood zones. I would think these pilots would be well aware of all the rules and make sure they didn’t interfere.

          The biggest problem with the hobby type drones is range. A 1000k DJI might get you 3 miles of radius. You have to get home. But that’s a 6 mile circle – that’s a lot of area (almost 30 sq miles). But it would sure help – and why not?

          They have been used in rural areas to find pets. If I lived in that area, owned a DJI like I looked at, I wouldn’t give one good shit what Mayo Pete has to say. The bird would be flying and looking.

          Everyday I wake up wondering what stupid stuff I’m going to read next.

      3. CA

        https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2024/10/04/brevard-residents-shocked-by-destructive-path-of-helene/75505139007/

        October 4, 2024

        Brevard residents shocked by Helene destruction, rally to aid community members
        By Jessica Van Egeren

        BREVARD − They were in the bedroom when the tree came slicing through the roof like a knife through butter. Wood shards flew across the room. The tree is now lodged in the wall.

        April Johnson was awake but still in bed. Her husband, Rob Hurst, was returning to the bedroom with their morning coffee. It was around 7 a.m. on Sept. 27. A second tree fell on the house half an hour later, knocking out power and internet service.

        “I never would have expected this in a mountain community,” said Johnson, who was initially more concerned about the safety of her family in Tallahassee, Florida. “But we were much more impacted than they were.”

        A week later the tree is still lodged in the wall, and it probably will be for a while. They’ll need a crane to remove it and there is only one crane in Brevard, a mountain community of roughly 8,000 residents in Transylvania County, which shares a border with South Carolina…

      4. Carey

        “From my experience in Katrina’s aftermath, I can’t stress enough the importance of clean water. Everything in the disaster area has been contaminated – water, soil, walls, and personal items. Each passing day increases mold growth. Food such as high-protein bars, non-perishable foods, baby food, diapers are vital, as are prescription medications for those with chronic conditions.

        In my experience, FEMA and the National Guard outright hindered rescue efforts and even sabotaged recontruction and rescue attempts. I’ve witnessed FEMA commandeering facilities after being recovered, and have documented firsthand accounts of volunteers being accused of looting when simply attempting to supply gasoline and medications.

        If possible, try to work with local sheriffs if you can even reach them – from what was experienced during Hurricane Katrina you might even need to request being deputized to avoid such conflicts with FEMA and the National Guard.”

        List of all sheriffs in N.C. contact info:
        Except for the weather BS, this is excellent.
        Also, a phenominal list of items needed in the disaster area.
        Makes a great prep list for your home.

        https://reinettesenumsfoghornexpress.substack.com/p/rescue-in-the-eye-of-the-storm

        1. Amfortas the Hippie

          during katrina, i was still on LATOC(life after the oil crash, a doomer forum of some repute back in the day)…and we had a guy who was an EMT in NOLA. so on the ground…checking in with us whenever he could get power and internet.
          he was enraged by the federal response.
          everything i remember from him back then, regarding fema, et alia, gels perfectly with what we’re hearing now.
          it also gels with what my cousin tells me about all the post hurricane disasters he’s worked(including katrina)

          if anything, the rot is even worse 20 years later(just look at our “leadership”, today,lol)
          so i lean towards the doomsayers in all this…crises of legitimacy dictates it.
          “heckovajawb, brownie”

          as for the land grab, lithium and pure crystal stuff…well..isnt that how “they” roll?
          and the no fly zone as cover for both ineptitude, gross uncaring and resource acquisition/grand larceny…well, that also feels strangely familiar.

          and btw, that same EMY guy much later was on a boat in the gulf after the deepwater horizon thing, rescuing seabirds and such…so again on the ground, as it were.
          his reportage…as well as that of a guy who had patents on some of the systms that were in the underwater rover things…is likely what got LATOC shut down.
          and that was according to our sysops.
          owner suddenly flaked out and became an herbalist,lol.

    5. Yves Smith Post author

      Based on being a journalist for 18 years and a consultant for decades before that, I would take anything from your single source w/o corroboration with a fistful of salt.

      Local firemen were blocking flights in NC merely on seeing a helicopter doing a rescue when they were sort of nearby and they did not have a helicopter, so no collision risk.You don’t even indicated whether he might have an agenda, like being FEMA connected.

    6. RookieEMT

      The town ‘proper’, is mostly intact because they are out of flood zones essentially on a hill. Plenty of areas in the outskirts and surrounding areas faced record breaking flooding. Transylvania overall did get lucky as there are so far zero storm related deaths but I’m sure in a few days there will be a few, hopefully less.

      Towns like Biltmore Village had their mainstreets turned into rivers and they were in flood zones. Getting lucky by the historic decisions of the town founders.

      It’s not the flooding specifically. It’s the isolated pockets of people without food or water for five+ days. During the last severe blizzard, the biggest source of 911 calls was elderly couples losing CPAP access due to power losses along with oxygen devices. My source being first responders in the county.

      All family affected by the storm reported safe, including Asheville. My family got lucky.

      1. Wukchumni

        Transylvania overall did get lucky as there are so far zero storm related deaths but I’m sure in a few days there will be a few, hopefully less.

        Aren’t the castles there mostly high up on a hill, with foreboding music playing in the background?

  5. Wukchumni

    Goooooooooood Mooooooooorning Fiatnam!

    Today’s double feature for those in fatigues:

    Grapes of Wrath of Khan!

    LK: Then it don’t matter. I’ll be all around in the dark – I’ll be everywhere. Wherever you can look – wherever there’s antitrust, so greedy people can profit immensely, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a politician beatin’ up a regular guy’s protections, I’ll be there.

    KH: KHAAANNNN!

    1. AG

      hmmmmm
      finished watching “Stark Trek – Into Darkness” … yesterday.
      Khan: “The ship isn´t moving.”
      Bones: “How could you possibly know?”

      1. AG

        p.s. Star Trek and politics and writer/director Nicholas Meyer

        In my younger years they used to say only Star Trek movies with an even number were the good ones.

        Today I know this is not providence but among others the making of writer/director Nicholas Meyer who was formative in creating Star Trek II IV and VI (however after he dropped out the rule remained true for reasons of…devine intervention?).

        This preceded – I think according to the DVD commentary on part II (anybody nowadays listening to those at all???) by Meyer – a power struggle with Gene Roddenberry.

        Latter as we know had turned ST into his own personal and childish US rules-based-order space soap version of the United Nations. He wanted a peaceful series where space was reigned by benign Americans.

        This might worked for a series but with Star Trek I he hit troubled waters with such a concept as it by design sucked the potential of conflict out of the screenplay. And without THAT you have no popular movie (at least one that makes profit).

        What to do? Nicholas Meyer was brought in – I dont´t know any more how – I believe initially only as writer. Then a battle ensued over the vision of ST.

        In essence I believe Roddenberry demanded film II again would have to stick to this nonsene of a peaceful Federation spreading love and flowers. Meyer argued for a much more realistic Star Fleet modeled on the US Navy i.e. a military alliance with all the hierarchy, the bravado, the weapons and strategy armchair-general-talk and the Classical revenge drama.

        Roddenberry after part I had flopped already was seriously questioned and the studio pulled him out anyway. So Meyer won out. Fortunately. And this concept remained for the first generation of motion pictures.

        The following series and features somehow were struggling to even out that conflict.

        Meyer is up well I guess. His birthday is December 24th. *1945.

        Some gossip – (which I am not good at but Truman Capote, who btw celebrated his 100th birthday 5 days ago! – claims gossip to be the essence of all great literature – whatever – but I am sure that pick-up line worked wonders for him)

        via Wiki:

        Meyer’s daughter, screenwriter Dylan Meyer, is the fiancée of actress and filmmaker Kristen Stewart        !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
        Wow. That´s too much. I gotta take a drink now. (er, Vampires in Space? Would that be a concept? Gonna call Mel Brooks…)

        p.p.s. Meyer directed “The Day After” (1983).

    1. The Rev Kev

      Thanks for that link, griffin. If it was going to be anyone that would come in to actually help, it would be Dolly Parton. Lots of respect for that woman. So, when are Hollywood stars like Sean Penn going to start to show up or maybe even Oprah? Or did I miss that news?

      1. griffen

        Oh I’m sure there will be a myriad of directed relief efforts of some sort….just maybe not with those of the highest visibility. In previous instances there has been a coordinated effort that included former living Presidents like Bill and George, maybe even now Obama could step in.

        For the record, interested in knowing how state or local parks are doing a week after, I suggest this is not promising at all.

        South Carolina state park…many in this region likely closed for weeks if not months. Below is for Caesars Head state park, but also there is Jones Gap and further south of those parks, along a scenic highway route is Table Rock and other well visited parks.

        https://southcarolinaparks.com/caesars-head

        Adding details as well from the NC Forest Service, which manages a lot of the open forests for tourism and so forth I believe….

        https://www.ncforestservice.gov/news_pubs/newsdesk_2024.htm#10012024

    2. Steve H.

      Tropical Depression Fourteen

      > multiple life-threatening hazards is likely to affect the west coast
      of the Florida Peninsula next week.

      Map.

  7. Milton

    Funny how this is never mentioned:
    From the people who brought you Project 2025, I introduce to you, ObamaCare.

        1. jsn

          Right!

          The GOP can never seem to get their worst plans passed.

          Fortunately they can rely on the Dimmercats to get it done.

  8. farmboy

    “I was shocked the first time I encountered it in one of my herds,” said Maxwell Beal, a Central Valley-based veterinarian who has been treating infected herds in California since late August. “It was just like, wow. Production-wise, this is a lot more serious than than we had hoped. And health-wise, it’s a lot more serious than we had been led to believe.”
    A total of 56 California dairy farms have reported bird flu outbreaks. At the same time, state health officials have reported two suspected cases of H5N1 infections among dairy workers in Tulare County, the largest dairy-producing county in the nation. With more than 600,000 dairy cows, the county accounts for roughly 30% of the state’s milk production.
    https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-10-04/bird-flu-deaths-increasing-among-california-dairy-cows

    1. Wukchumni

      A total of 56 California dairy farms have reported bird flu outbreaks. At the same time, state health officials have reported two suspected cases of H5N1 infections among dairy workers in Tulare County, the largest dairy-producing county in the nation. With more than 600,000 dairy cows, the county accounts for roughly 30% of the state’s milk production.

      We were at 17 Cali CAFO dairies just a little over a week ago, it has tripled in size quickly.

      These mega dairies in Tulare County are typically not in close proximity to one another and it isn’t as if Bessie & Co. are going anywhere… so they aren’t the ones spreading it, my money is on the big rigs that pick up milk powder from many dairies and spread the ill health, as a guess.

      I’m about 66.6 miles away from the 600k dairy cows in a 45 degree arc here, and a good friend works at the hospital in Godzone, so it might be ground zero for H5N1 cases, we’ll see.

  9. The Rev Kev

    ‘Hadi Htt | هادي حطيط
    @HadiHtt
    The genocidal israeli army just attacked the main highway connecting lebanon with syria at Al-Masna’ crossing, using US mk-84 bombs.
    As you can see the crater is massive and the road is blocked.
    They don’t want lebanese people to seek shelter or medical treatment outside lebanon.’

    No real surprise here. A coupla days ago the IDF told the Lebanese to evacuate out of the region that they were in and after making that announcement, started to shell and bomb the only route out of there. Strictly speaking, the IDF is not so much a military organization as a terrorist organization.

    1. Camelotkidd

      The Zionists and state of Israel have an unsurpassed record of assassination and terrorism. In State of Terror, Thomas Suarez, lists all of the terrorist attacks on Palestinians that enabled the creation of Israel through the Nakba. Since then Israel has assassinated the leaders of the secular resistance, the Palestinian Liberation Organization and its allies, as documented in Rise and Kill First, by Ronan Bergman.
      As he-who-shall-not-be-named, writes–“As far as I know, the early Zionists had a record of political terrorism almost unmatched in world history, and in 1974 Prime Minister Menachem Begin once even boasted to a television interviewer of having been the founding father of terrorism across the world.”

    1. upstater

      I’ve been reading David Halberstam’s classic “The Best and the Brightest” about the Kennedy administration’s dive into the cesspool of the Vietnam War. It has a lot of detail about the Truman Administration’s ownership of birthing the deep state, pre-McCarthyism red baiting and outflanking the Republicans with militarism. Halberstam dates the birth as 1946, 78 years ago! It dovetailed into Kennedy’s centrism and his selection of monsters in his cabinet. And all this same crap and dynamics with us today, forever searching for bogeyman to fight.

      “The Best and the Brightest”, indeed. As Mark Twain said history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes.

  11. Carla

    Reuters immigration article continues:

    “However, many of those migrants could remain in the country under other programs.
    The parole program allows migrants with existing U.S. sponsors to enter the country for humanitarian reasons or if their entry is deemed a significant public benefit. It will continue to accept new applications from those abroad.”

    And further:

    “Most of the four nationalities allowed entry under the so-called CHNV parole program have avenues to stay in the U.S.”

    The article also states what those avenues are.

    1. Yves Smith Post author

      The drill related to your first section of quoted text requires the migrants to leave the US and reapply. So the reassuring tone appears not to map with requirements.

  12. Blue Duck

    > Australian housing is a “Ponzi scheme“

    I have a lot of friends and family in Oz who are in their 30’s and 40’s. Almost all of those who bought into the property market did so with a “million dollar mortgage” (we won’t get into the rest who either got the money from the Bank of Mummy & Daddy, or who are permanently shut out of home ownership).

    What most Americans don’t understand about the Australian property market is that Aussies don’t have 30 yr fixed rate mortgages. They have adjustable rate mortgages. All those million dollar mortgages that my friends & cousins took out in 2012-2020 that were originally priced at 3%, are now starting to reprice at 6.3%. The first wave of rate driven sales are just starting – my cousin just downsized because their housing costs doubled literally overnight.

    Apparently demand is still red hot though, because negative gearing is still a thing, and those with enough cash to avoid a mortgage need to expand their suburban property empire.

    1. Wukchumni

      NZ’s housing bubble is even larger than the one across the Tasman, as Kiwi wages in no way shape or form resemble those in Aussie, and yet prices of homes in Auckland et al are through the roof, which leaks an awful lot on homes in EnZed, for some reason.

    2. The Rev Kev

      I was reading that Aussie house prices were about three times what they should be when compared to overseas prices. And I read that more than twenty years ago. As Blue Duck mentions, the ‘aspirational’ middle class seek wealth in owning housing – sometimes multiple housing – and governments have dedicated themselves to keeping up this whole mantra lest they lose votes. They have even changed time-honoured banking laws and regulations that came out of the Great Depression to keep this market up. The median house price in the country town near us is $540,000 but it was only about twenty years or more ago that two houses came on the market for about $20,000 each. I got a bad feeling about this.

    3. skippy

      Many parents that were early entrants to the property market self retirement portfolio, decades ago, are helping out their kids. Its baked in to the social dynamic and what worked for them is expected to work for the kids. This is compounded by local counsels/states being hooked on stamp duty and property taxes for balance sheet flows.

      Yet this whole thing was front run by those that ideologically promoted the ***self*** funded retirement agenda, same for superannuation/401K forced participation. Now the unwashed are tied to Corporations stock market values for retirement and hence the treatment of their employees e.g. circular firing squad.

      And yes anything in or near the inter city rings is red hot. My old stomping grounds of 22 yrs on the Brisbane river not 10/15 min from the CBD has gone from around 600/800K to 1.5M for a 70s built home. On the larger lots sold they are being subdivided 3 ways with 2 story very narrow homes and a patch of grass out the back.

      Outside 30min or more from the city the sprawl reminds me of my Calif days during the 80s when driving from Malibu to Boulder, CO to Ski and see friends every year. Terraforming vast swaths of desert going East with satellite cities/pop up suburbs, amount of time it took to get out to untouched desert.

      Then again all the Control Fraud[tm] and corruption in RE in America pre/post the GFC kinda makes the whole notion of bad people buying or helping kids to buy RE sort a moot. Totally driven by investor demand for RE/MBS.

  13. Mikel

    Three Mile Island owner seeks taxpayer backing for Microsoft AI deal – Washington Post

    Where is the taxpayer’s monetary profit from this type of public-private BS? No profit sharing, should be no bearing the risks for any of their BS. MS pays the costs and the clean-up.They get the profit. FFS
    MS gets subsidized and chargers taxpayers as users.
    Same as it ever was. The same goes for the internet itself.

    1. Carolinian

      Bill Gates is a menace. Of course the entire tech borg depends on government subsidies to some extent.

  14. The Rev Kev

    “From missile batteries to oil refineries to nuclear labs, Israel could hit a wide range of targets in Iran”

    ‘Iran’s air defenses are no match for Israel’s air force, analysts and former military officers say.’

    What about the S-400 batteries that the Russians have stationed in Iran with all the other anti-air gear? Will that make a difference? I do note one thing. All of what the Israelis want to hit are in a country 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi) in size. On the other hand, all the targets that Iran will want to hit are in a country 20,770 km2 (8,522 or 8,019 sq mi) in size. So who will have the easier options? Perhaps Israel can hit all of Iran’s oil terminals. On the other hand, Iran has the capability to de-electrify Israel and destroy all their oil/gas infrastructure. Will the US then ship over a coupla million generators to save them?

    1. Carolinian

      I thought they had decided to hit Syria instead. $100 a barrel oil bad for DC until after November

    2. Cristobal

      The Israeli aircraft are probably pretty capable – when they are in the air. Finding them vulnerable on the ground will be hard, but maybe with some outside help it could be done. The other weak link is the refueling. Those lumbering tankers would seem to be an easy target. Obviously I am not the first person to think of this. Lets hope they get some outside real time reconacense help soon.

  15. Wukchumni

    Researchers develop new banana strain that can withstand “bananocalypse” ZME Science
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    An older friend fondly remembers the taste of Big Mike growing up in the 1950’s-much superior to Cavendish that replaced it, he reckoned. They were wiped out as a commercial variety by Panama Disease.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Michel_banana

    1. JBird4049

      Strangely, one can still buy the Gros Michel as they still grow either in very remote areas or in quarantine, which frequently fails. I almost bought some from a specialty fruit and veg company located in Florida, but those bananas are very expensive especially as they have to be fast shipped.

  16. Eclair

    RE: roofing crews and heavy labor projects suddenly being ‘manned’ by Spanish-speaking people.

    Where have you been for the past twenty-five (thirty?) years? We lived in LA and Orange counties for in the 1990’s and early 2000’s and the low-paying jobs were done by ‘Spanish-speaking’ people. Roofers, pool cleaners, ‘mow-blow-and-go’ yard maintenance, restaurant bus-boys and dish washers, house cleaners, child care nannies. Down-town Santa Ana was a Mexican/Central American Quarter. I would jokingly remark that if the Spanish-speakers organized and called a three day walk-out strike, the economy of the region would go off the cliff.
    And, these immigrants started and ran the hundreds of small businesses that made the area vibrant: the small restaurants, taco stands, carnicerias, mercados, panederias. (Not to discount the hundreds of Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian, and Korean shops and restaurants in cities like Garden Grove and Westminster.)

    You will notice that the countries sending these immigrants had been the recipient of the US government’s solicitous attentions, in the form of sanctions, coups, carpet bombings, invasions, police actions, major wars and general meddling. The result of which were failed states, ruined economies, and hazardous security situations.

    So, what group is responsible for the appearance of Spanish-speaking roofing crews and the ragged men in your Home Depot parking lot? Not the ‘illegals:’ they are pawns in the game as much as we (the NC commentariat) are. They are just trying to stay alive and get their next meal.

    But it serves the ruling class well to have us peons at each others’ throats. If we expend our energies demonizing and fighting each other, the overlords can go on merrily sucking the resources dry, building up their portfolios, acquiring agricultural land and water rights and port facilities, monopolizing health care, buying up houses.

    Same goes for our demonization of the ever-growing thousands of people without shelter, the homeless and those living in their cars and campers. I have church-going friends, followers of Jesus, who now go into rants against the ‘dirty and germ-laden’ homeless people in the community. I see the homeless in our society turning into the Jews in Nazi Germany. Not-Human. So it’s ok to ‘cleanse’ them.

    So, let’s put the blame for the immigration and housing problems squarely where it belongs; on the corporate and political class. And, not on the humans who are merely trying to escape from horrible conditions which they had no hand in creating.

    1. You're soaking in it!

      I would love to see an immigration law simplified into, “If you get hired into a job in the US, you automatically get a green card. Stay for the next 3 years and you can apply for citizenship.” Suddenly everyone with a paystub would be legal, have ownership of their SS benefits, and the responsibility for “too many immigrants” would go exactly where it always belonged, on the people hiring them. Only instead of threatening them with the INS, they would have to explain to local population why they wanted to hire people who weren’t yet citizens if there are plenty around. And, fair is fair, the local population would have to consider why they wouldn’t take the jobs being offered.

      Well, my daydream for today!

    2. Eclair

      Apologies, my comment was a reply to Yve’s post on Labor, etc. But my fat finger syndrome, an attempted deletion and reposting, and the comment ended up on links.

  17. Henry Moon Pie

    Midwest Zeitgeist–

    Here’s an article with videos from a couple a days ago about a street takeover in Cleveland. This sort of thing has been a regular occurrence since Covid at the major intersection 1/2 block from us. Now it’s taking place at venues touted by the city as tourist and night-life destinations.

    The one covered in the above-linked article is down the street from where Carla hosted Yves in a NC meet-up pre-Covid.

    2. IM Doc

      This is happening almost daily in the big city from which I moved.

      It used to be daily news. Now it is so often that it rarely makes the news at all – until light poles are destroyed and the entire neighborhood loses power, or more often people are killed – usually innocent pedestrians or drivers trying to get out of the melee.

      The police there seem powerless to do a thing about it. There are usually hundreds of bystanders enjoying the show.

      1. Duke of Prunes

        In Chicago, there have been cases where police have been attacked when they try to shut them down… at least when one or two squad cars tried to disperse a large group. Now, I think they ignore or respond with overwhelming force, and the local media has decided it’s not really newsorthy

    3. Cristobal

      The cops in the US seem to be of the opinion (probably from military training) that they shoot to kill, or they don´t shoot. In this kind of disturbance the rioters just run away and disappear into the night. Nothing can be done. I wonder if it would be feasible for the cops to shoot some kind of permanent dye at the group. Get the whole group of participants if possible. The next day they would be identifiable. Round them up and put them in a room together and watch what happens. See who says what. No doubt this would be seen as a violation of human rights and so on, but it would be better than the cops entering the fray and breaking heads.

    4. Bazarov

      What’s so bad about this? It looks lively, like a real culture.

      There are very few public spaces left for anyone to do anything.

      The result is you get rebellions, as culture is going to out, whether bland capitalist-party-of-order-types like it or not. See, for example, the explosion of graffiti/tagging as neoliberalism really took off in the 80s. Now-a-days it’s bonafide art, though back when I was a kid taggers were seen as a true public menace, threat to lifeless store fronts and billboards everywhere

      I’m glad the cops didn’t shoot them.

    6. griffen

      Wow, that is a wild scene. Almost feels like dare I say or suggest it…. borderline preview from a few of the Purge film series.

      As referenced above earlier, very much a feeling of Mad Max almost.

  18. CA

    https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1842383590375748089

    Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

    This is hilarious.

    Milei before getting elected: “I am not going to do business with China. We don’t deal with communists! Our fundamental axis is alignment with the West, especially the US and Israel”

    Milei today, before travelling to Beijing:

    https://x.com/miabagon/status/1840775670386840018/video/1

    “China is a very interesting commercial partner. They don’t demand anything, the only thing they ask is that they are not bothered.”

    When reality struck…

    9:57 PM · Oct 4, 2024

      1. skippy

        Wellie its just par for course with any rank ideologue … as they just consume and then regurgitate said ideology gifted to them by others – elite funded.

        1. The Rev Kev

          You wanna believe that. One Anthony Albanese. The guy is a muppet who is super pro-Israel and seeks to ban opposing opinions by any dissenters. Same to those who do not support the Ukraine and hate Russia. Also thin skinned when people mock him on social media wanting him to police the same to stop people mocking him. Also wants to build up our very own MIC.

  19. ex-PFC Chuck

    Contrary to the headline, hell has not frozen over in Texas; at best it’s gotten a bit slushy. Of the four transmission projects ballyhooed in the linked piece only two of them are interconnections with the Texas grid, and both are high voltage direct current lines (HVDC) which means that they’re sending and receiving grids do not have to be in synchrony. If memory serves, 25 years ago when I had a multi year consulting relationship with a major Texas utility, even then there was a back-to-back AC/DC/AC Interconnection within a Texas substation with a power company in Oklahoma at the other end of an outgoing transmission line. One of the other two projects described in the piece is in Maine, and the other is an AC Interconnection within the western USA interconnection, of which the El Paso corner of Texas is a part.

    1. upstater

      What’s not to like about taxpayers paying for HVDC… get rid of the low or negative prices from Texas panhandle wind farms, boost wholesale prices in TX and sell to the eastern interconnection. If it is like the Blackstone owned HVDC from Quebec to NYC there will be eyewatering tolls, too!

    2. Mikel

      I think this particular hook up to the US grid is related to all of the tech bros trolling around Texas for energy.

    3. Mikel

      I think this particular hook up to the US grid is related to tech bros trolling for energy in Texas.

  20. Es s Ce Tera

    re: What are the Biden administration’s motivations in the Middle East? Mondoweiss

    This is Stuart Seldowitz, Obama’s National Security Advisor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsI71G11Fzk

    I would suggest that what we see here is how people at the White House think, what WH top advisors think about Islam and people in the Middle East. What this man is saying is insight into the conversations within the corridors of power. He does not fear repercussions for saying these things. Any other workplace in America and he’d be fired, but not the WH.

    And that should tell us what the Biden administration’s motivations are in the Middle East.

  21. Joker

    New NATO boss backs Ukraine’s plea for deep strikes into Russia Politico

    It’s like changing an actor in a TV series, but keeping the same writer team.

  22. Wukchumni

    I’m calling AI on the gorilla video, only in that yours truly can’t really differentiate the difference between pixels anymore, and am wary of something that looks too good to be true.

    2. albrt

      I’m pretty sure the gorilla cannot hear the overdubbed music. They just found a track that sort of matched the gorilla’s pace.

    1. ilsm

      Qatar is the home of a huge US air base, run by USCENTCOM! Not far from Doha.

      When the Qatari close that down…….

      Erdogan should kick the US out of Adana!

      1. Amfortas the Hippie

        or, to be churlish, they(and all other hosts of us outposts) could simply raise the rent to…say…a trillion dollars a year.
        let blinkin/biden/etc explain why not

  24. The Rev Kev

    “Things Don’t Always Get Better.”

    They use to. I think that this idea of progress got a boost in the 19th century and became an expectation as things actually did get better like rail, sanitation, roads, ships, etc. The past coupla months I have been researching a 19th century Oxfordshire family and you can see the phase shift. At the beginning of the family most men were ‘agricultural labourers’ but by the time the grand kids became adults in the 1870s, you find that many are now clerks or policemen or other professions that did not much exist at the beginning of the century.

    Of course progress has a different meaning today and John Michael Greer talks a lot about it and how modern progress can mean that things can actually get worse. Are the latest computers really that much better than twenty years ago? How about simple things like washing machines and refrigerators? Progress these days tend to mean less functionality, less durability and is often just crap but hey, it’s the latest thing so it’s gotta be good, right?

    1. Carolinian

      Computers are better. Refrigerators with adequate insulation are much better as long as the digital control board doesn’t break. My current washing machine–which is digitally controlled and doesn’t even bother with an agitator–is better as long as it doesn’t break.

      And digital controls of the proper type can last a long time. Your are more likely to have trouble with the wiring in difficult conditions.

      We’ve talked about this before and what gets forgotten is the tremendous child mortality of the old days and the shorter life spans. This has given us a lot more people but a lot less heartbreak if you are in a position to survive.

      1. Jeff H

        I worked in electronics for better than 30 years. Primarily on commercial systems. While digital controls can provide for better function and efficiency, as well as reliability, there’s a big difference between can and does. Personal experience is that equipment design is not controlled by engineers who can provide that maximal function. It is sequestered by those who control the prime function of the organization and their goals. That being maximizing profit. I quit working long before I should have because those organizations made it harder and harder over time to service product that weren’t really designed and built to provide long term functionality but to capture revenue. There’s a reason the best toaster was probably built in 1948.

      2. Lefty Godot

        Computers are worse as a social phenomenon now. They were a big boost to productivity when they were mainframes and minicomputers running businesses. They were exciting for individuals as hobbyist personal computers. When the personal computers got adopted by businesses and all hooked to networks, and eventually to the internet, I think they slowly but surely decreased productivity and made life worse in many ways. Bad software is infiltrating every facet of society while claiming to be making life better, and no one wants to admit that this particular emperor is unclad.

      3. neutrino23

        @Carolinian
        Agreed. For the most part things are getting quite a bit better. We just built a new house on the site of our old house. It is really amazing how much better all the materials and appliances have gotten, especially over the last 15 years or so.

        Computers are awesome. The latest M4 SOC from Apple is like a supercomputer from a decade ago or so but runs on just a few watts of power. The OLED screen of the latest iPad Pro is amazing. Even watching old B&W content I see much more clarity and detail than I ever did. The large screen LG OLED in the living room is awesome. The ecocute heat pump water heater is very efficient. The multi-drop Mitsubishi HVAC heat pumps work great and are much more efficient than central HVAC. We have 9kW of solar on the roof so we are producing more than we consume on most days. The LG washer and dryer work better and more quietly than the older washer dryer did. The latest iPhone can record 4K video in slo-mo. I recall seeing some of the first HD video cameras at the Sony building in Tokyo decades ago. They were huge boxes consuming lots of power. There is no comparison.

        Yes, it is possible to produce junk but the recent technology gains have been very impressive. If you choose to do so you can produce very reliable goods that consume less power than before and last longer. I don’t know quite how to phrase it but I think we have crossed an inflection point in our understanding of of materials in that we can, if we choose, design in much more precise material properties than ever before.

    2. John k

      Imo more important is how neolib short termism is making so many corps and institutions worse. Progress in healthcare offset by gouge pricing can make older drugs unaffordable and even shorten lifetimes. Seems to me schools are teaching less. Kids might be less willing to take stem majors and/or less willing to work hard. Imo corruption is more pervasive in politics now than a generation ago, certainly dems no longer represent the working class. Wars are continuous… didnt there used to be gaps? And then there’s climate change.

    3. Wukchumni

      My mom grew up on the farm in Alberta without electricity and no running water in the 1920’s & 30’s, and I could easily see that being my fate in the 2020’s & 30’s…

      1. Cetzer

        When he created progress, the Good Lord forgot the reverse gear.
        Unfortunately he also forgot to nullify nuclear fission and fusion.

    4. nyleta

      We are losing resilience everywhere all the time, you only need to look at the emergency response etc. and notice that nothing is every repaired back to what it was afterwards anymore. This was inevitable as the energy cost of energy rises and supply of everything becomes constrained. Everything we do uses energy.

      Countries need to institute the old Ministry of Supply we had in WW2 because that is the sort of environment we are heading into. A broad based Civil Defence and Resettlement organisation will be needed as well as climate change gets more immediate.

    1. AG

      Does “disability” here include breast cancer?
      In Germany with breast cancer you receive such a status for social services if requested.
      Yet technically many can work and live without any impediment.
      And the status remains as far as I know after clinical verdict says you´re cured.
      (Pure curiousity. Not questioning anthing about the idea of disability among the labour force and supporting them.)

  26. Tom Stone

    What’s with the inability to admit making a mistake on the part of politicians and “Thought Leaders ? ”
    Turley comes to mind, he still insists that masks don’t work and that the “Great Barrington” approach was a good idea.
    He also criticizes “Pro Palestinian” protestors without a word about the ex IDF goon squads patrolling UCLA and other campuses.
    Is he, and are they, that insecure?
    I was taught that adults accept responsibility and that when, not if, one was wrong that you should admit it and then do what you can to make things right.
    That there was no shame in being wrong if you behaved in good faith, however refusing to accept responsibility for your actions was shameful.
    Understandable in a 5 year old, not acceptable once you reached the age of responsibility.

  28. Jason Boxman

    From From missile batteries to oil refineries to nuclear labs, Israel could hit a wide range of targets in Iran

    One option would be to hit gasoline refineries that mainly serve Iran’s domestic market, possibly limiting the impact on the global economy. The Persian Gulf Star plant in Bandar Abbas is the most important domestic source of gasoline for Iran, having met about 40% of the country’s needs last year, according to industry analysts. Such a strike would be likely to cause economic upheaval for Iran, which is already struggling to manage a troubled economy squeezed by years of U.S. and international sanctions.

    Collective punish is a War Crime, is it not? So this seems a likely target for attack, given this is Israel.

    I find it kind of odd that Israel does not seem to have an offensive missile capability? It’s clearly working well for Iran. Why wouldn’t you want to develop this capacity? Maybe this just isn’t reported on?

      1. hemeantwell

        A Wikipedia page on Israel’s Jericho missile systems, and there are four models. Early versions were developed with Iran. I believe Ritter talked recently about the J2 and J3 systems, didn’t mention the J4. J3 is nuclear capable. From MoAlabama I’ve gleaned that Israel’s subs shoot cruise missiles, which should limit their effectiveness given Russian AD capabilities. Shooting down a J3 will be an achievement I don’t believe we’ve seen in the Ukraine conflict. The S400 is designed for that, however.

      2. Belle

        I bet to differ. Drones and missiles are vulnerable to mistakes of those who launched them. There may be less likelihood of mistakes by pilots using the one sensor that every human pilot is issued-most with two. The good old Mark 1 Mod 0 Eyeball.

  29. Jason Boxman

    From Goldman Sachs says crude could spike by $20 on Iran oil shock

    So a consequential answer from Biden, where he clearly loses his train of thought and trails off. Now that’s terrifying.

    Asked by reporters Thursday if the U.S. would support an Israeli strike on Iranian oil facilities, U.S. President Joe Biden said: “We’re discussing that. I think that would be a little – anyway.” Oil analysts think those remarks were the catalyst that moved prices higher.

    And they even included it in the quote, now that he isn’t running for reelection. How common was this before, I wonder?

  30. Wukchumni

    I’ve had Covid 3x now and feel as if I don’t have the endurance I had before contracting it, but that might just be my advanced years talking.

    If it is Covid, it corresponds nicely with me slowing up, but i’d feel a ton different if I was 32 and had no energy rather all of the sudden on account of the pandemic.

    Everybody ages out eventually when it comes to doing physical stuff, except Jody who is 84 now and still going strong like bull.

    I’m not out of the woods yet and still have a step in my walk, but slowing down. The plan is to eventually coast on memories of my 12 million step program, most of it in my beloved Sierra Nevada.

    1. Es s Ce Tera

      You’re still sharp, so the mind hasn’t succumbed. To this outside observer anyhow. That’s prolly the most important bit.

  31. jun mas

    RE: Iran cannot affect global oil without affecting China —Evans-Pritchard

    This article is more than deceptive, it is outright foolish. While China gets crude oil access through the Strait of Hormuz, it also buys crude and refined oil products from Russia, Brazil, and others (not accessed through the Strait). And any idea that the US is self sufficient in crude oil is nuts! The US imports major amounts of crude oil from Canada and Mexico.

    What the US does is buy that crude cheaply then refines it for global export at higher margin. That is NOT being self sufficient, as Pritchard claims.

    Any major conflagration in the Middle East will further disrupt global transport of ALL goods a services. The US economy and need for gasoline will be in free-fall.

    Get a bike soon.

    1. jsn

      UK delusions, like all the Economist China predictions.

      Choke Hormuz and accelerate China’s green transition.

      And even more of what they manufacture better will cost less than Neoliberal production. China subsidizes all public goods, education, housing, transportation, increasingly health care and the environment. The only way to compete with that is to give a s*** about your citizens.

  32. more news

    https://112.ua/en/zelenskogo-nominovano-na-nobelivsku-premiu-miru-2024-42206
    Zelensky Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize-2024.
    In total, 286 candidates have been nominated for the prize. Among the favorites are also the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, the International Court, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Bookmakers’ favorite is Alexei Navalny, but he cannot receive the prize posthumously. Zelensky is also considered a favorite, but his chances of winning are small due to the martial law in Ukraine. The committee may also decide that no one will receive the prize.

    1. Cetzer

      Next Nobel Peace Prize will go to the pair of Russian and US generals, who forgot to include Oslo and Stockholm in the list of targets for nuclear annihilation.

    2. Irritable

      They could cut out the middlemen, and just pull the curtains back by awarding the NPP to the MIC of the world.

      Include the entire world’s weapons makers for fairness, of course.

  33. XXYY

    US nuclear power regulator urged to address ‘dirty bomb’ risks to society, economy

    I think the “dirty bomb” moniker is unfortunate and confusing. A dirty bomb is a device for creating a widespread health hazard by spreading radioactive material over a large area. I think the name confuses people and makes one think that there has to be a nuclear bomb at the heart of it, or that we are talking about the aftermath of some kind of nuclear explosion or something. It also serves to put a bright line between evil meanies in togas and sandals on the one hand, and corporate executives in the nuclear fuel industry on the other.

    In reality, every uranium mine, tailings dump, fuel processing plant, nuclear waste dump and every decommissioned nuclear power plant is a “dirty bomb” poised to go off or which may have been going off for some time. If terrorists had managed to place thousands of tons of high level radioactive waste in Long Island or Baltimore or San Clemente, people would be freaking out, needless to say.

    1. Jason Boxman

      I wonder if the public health messaging, should such an attack take place, will simply be that we should learn to live with radiation?

      The CDC certainly has form in this area.

      1. Belle

        Just like COVID, right-wingers think radiation is good for you. Remember the Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine? The global -warning denying, AIDS-denying group? They argue for increased radiation exposure.

    2. CA

      https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/08/31/hiroshima

      August 31, 1946

      Hiroshima
      By JOHN HERSEY

      I—A NOISELESS FLASH

      At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in the plant office and was turning her head to speak to the girl at the next desk. At that same moment, Dr. Masakazu Fujii was settling down cross-legged to read the Osaka Asahi on the porch of his private hospital, overhanging one of the seven deltaic rivers which divide Hiroshima; Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, a tailor’s widow, stood by the window of her kitchen, watching a neighbor tearing down his house because it lay in the path of an air-raid-defense fire lane; Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, a German priest of the Society of Jesus, reclined in his underwear on a cot on the top floor of his order’s three-story mission house, reading a Jesuit magazine, Stimmen der Zeit; Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, a young member of the surgical staff of the city’s large, modern Red Cross Hospital, walked along one of the hospital corridors with a blood specimen for a Wassermann test in his hand; and the Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, pastor of the Hiroshima Methodist Church, paused at the door of a rich man’s house in Koi, the city’s western suburb, and prepared to unload a handcart full of things he had evacuated from town in fear of the massive B-29 raid which everyone expected Hiroshima to suffer. A hundred thousand people were killed by the atomic bomb, and these six were among the survivors. They still wonder why they lived when so many others died. Each of them counts many small items of chance or volition—a step taken in time, a decision to go indoors, catching one streetcar instead of the next—that spared him. And now each knows that in the act of survival he lived a dozen lives and saw more death than he ever thought he would see. At the time, none of them knew anything.

      The Reverend Mr. Tanimoto got up at five o’clock that morning. He was alone in the parsonage, because for some time his wife had been commuting with their year-old baby to spend nights with a friend in Ushida, a suburb to the north. Of all the important cities of Japan, only two, Kyoto and Hiroshima, had not been visited in strength by B-san, or Mr. B, as the Japanese, with a mixture of respect and unhappy familiarity, called the B-29; and Mr. Tanimoto, like all his neighbors and friends, was almost sick with anxiety. He had heard uncomfortably detailed accounts of mass raids on Kure, Iwakuni, Tokuyama, and other nearby towns; he was sure Hiroshima’s turn would come soon. He had slept badly the night before, because there had been several air-raid warnings. Hiroshima had been getting such warnings almost every night for weeks, for at that time the B-29s were using Lake Biwa, northeast of Hiroshima, as a rendez-vous point, and no matter what city the Americans planned to hit, the Super-fortresses streamed in over the coast near Hiroshima. The frequency of the warnings and the continued abstinence of Mr. B with respect to Hiroshima had made its citizens jittery; a rumor was going around that the Americans were saving something special for the city…

  34. Lee

    51 Days This American Life on NPR (1 hour audio)

    Chen Almog-Goldstein was kidnapped by Hamas along with her three youngest children on October 7, 2023. This week, she tells the story of their life as hostages in Gaza.

    Hamas captors human. Who knew? But don’t dare say so in Israel or criticize Israeli military response or you’ll pay.

    Hostage aplomb also admirable. I say this as one who was once held hostage by gunmen for about 4 hours and I seriously doubt I could have held it together over days and months.

  35. Sub-Boreal

    Review of new biography of James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia hypothesis: The complex life of the oil industry veteran who proposed the Gaia hypothesis (open access)

    Excerpts:

    Tellingly, Watts names his chapters after the many people who influenced Lovelock, challenging the classic narrative of the ‘solitary genius’ as the source of scientific breakthroughs. The book is by no means a take-down of Lovelock, whom Watts interviewed extensively and clearly has much affection for. But the picture that emerges is of a man who stumbled sideways into environmentalism after a lifetime as an apologist for the chemical and oil industries; a thinker whose greatest strength was synthesizing the clever ideas of others; and a rather naive and emotionally maladroit man who hurt a lot of people.
    …
    In fact, Lovelock spent most of his career working as a consultant for oil companies, chemical companies and the British Secret Service, and for much of his life he exhibited a “deeply entrenched fealty to industry”. Watts chronicles Lovelock’s early discoveries of the dangers of climate change in 1966, of leaded gasoline in 1967 and of chlorofluorocarbons in 1972 — and his consistent failure to do anything with this information other than hand it over to his industry paymasters.
    …
    You’d expect a tree-hugger to tell you that the planet is one vast interconnected system powered by life. But when a scientist paid by Shell and Dow Chemical delivers the message, you believe it.

  36. Jason Boxman

    Hundreds of Storm-Ravaged Roads, and No Timeline for Fixing Them (NY Times via archive.ph)

    More than 1,600 state transportation employees and contractors have already worked to reopen some roads and portions of major highways, including interstate lanes around Asheville. But as of early Saturday, there were just over 700 incident reports noting a portion of road still listed as closed, impassable or otherwise affected by the storm.

    1. rowlf

      Someone in my town who was part of the electrical utility group that went to Florida is now redeploying to North Carolina. Long and tough days, and I think above and beyond effort put in to help people is barely matched by pay.

      While driving through Virginia, (then) Tennessee and (then) north Georgia I saw many electrical utility and arbor care trucks driving towards the affected areas.

      1. Belle

        There is a nice encampment in my local (still-open) shopping mall, with trailers for lodging, feeding and washing a large quantity of electrical crews. (State Farm set up shop nearby as well.)
        I just got done earlier with helping with an operation to get donations to take to North Carolina. (They have gotten quite a lot of stuff shipped, and there is still more.)

  38. Lee

    “More than 1,600 state transportation employees and contractors have already worked…”

    Gonna need a bigger work force. Look on the bright side, manmade disasters are jobs creators.

  39. Kilgore Tex

    With regard to the Helene supply drops, it strikes me as odd that there’s a paucity of discussion about the use of drones. That would obviate the need for a bunch of copters and private planes in many cases and preclude a lot of this partisan political back-and-forth. Why aren’t we hearing about waves of private (or gov’t) drones making supply drops for things like insulin and water for individual residences?

  40. IM Doc

    In case anyone is paying attention – Let me introduce Hurricane Milton –

    https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/204837.shtml?cone#contents

    Milton appears to be making a bullseye attempt right on Tampa Bay sometime on Wednesday or Thursday – and from what I can tell is expected to be at least a CAT 4 on landfall. It does say M on the cone. Could it be two Katrina level storms in just two weeks? It does not seem far-fetched looking at that map.

    Since we have now had Mayorkas state unequivocally this week that FEMA had no further funds ( literally on the first week of the new fiscal year – I still have not found a good excuse for that anywhere ) – it is going to be very interesting indeed to see how they finesse that lie.

    Karma is actually quite the bitch.

    The name Milton really has me thinking hard as well. A very unusual first name. But John Milton was clearly a big believer in the Ancient Greek concept of Hubris and Nemesis. In Paradise Lost – the Satan character is the very embodiment of Hubris – with the preening arrogance, the seething hate, the perceived slights, and the desired vengeance. Samson in Samson Agonistes was Hubris incarnate before his fall – and then he himself became Nemesis as he destroyed the temple and took vengeance on his enemies.

    I know I know, we no longer read John Milton on college campuses – he is after all a cis white male and an old codger at that ( the whole construct of this thought in our modern culture is Hubris in the flesh – one of a legion of examples ) – and the entire younger generation brought up without reading a word of wisdom from their heritage are going to be shocked. But I feel it is coming. And the Gods of yore always chose as Nemesis the least likely of all to take vengeance. The elite blinded by hubris would throw all they had at Nemesis – but Nemesis was impervious to their barbs and won in the end. The gods this time in infinite jest may well have chosen an orange-haired lout as their Nemesis champion.

    When the elite humans in Greek lore became blinded by the Hubris – the gods would often entertain themselves by sending disasters their way.

    I can just see Zeus – in the gathering storm clouds of the Gulf of Mexico – with Poseidon arising from the depths to straddle Tampa Bay – and when all were in position – Zeus would scream forth – RELEASE THE KRAKEN!!!. Maybe, this week – the Kraken’s name will be Milton.

    These stories and concepts came from our ancient forebears who gifted us the beginning of The West. It was their primitive way to make sense of their world. We do that today with “technology”. We like to think with our iPhones, TVs, jet planes, and medicine that we are different. Unfortunately, we are still humans – and this is still our Earth – not our servant as much as we would like to think.

    The Hubris is overwhelming in our elites – genocide, needless wars, lying constantly, censoring, all kinds of depravity. It is really quite the show. Very similar to others in our past.

    Mene Mene Tekel Upharshim – From another time in history when Nemesis came to collect its debt from Hubris in one night – a complete slaughter of the world’s superpower.

    Alas Alas O Babylon, the Lord God Jehovah has measured thee and found thee wanting. Thy day of judgment is at hand.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Doesn’t help to know that through climate change that not only will storms & hurricanes be more frequent but that they will be more powerful as the waters that they will travel across will be warmer. Now would be a good time to set up a dedicated organization for search, rescue and relief for south-east America to deal with events like this. One that can draw on ordinary people that have their own helicopters, boats, drones, cranes, etc. willing to come to the aid of those in need. To have dedicated warehouses with ready to go supplies and no, farming this all out to some billionaire to do is not going to fly. And yet whenever there is a disaster like this, it is like the Feds and others just stand around trying to work out how to re-invent the wheel as if something like this has never happened before. It’s not like you could not publish online and print out a doctrine manual about what to do with all the tactics, technique and procedures all laid out so that people could go into action knowing what to do.

  41. AG

    The next couple of days in German media will be unbearable.
    ICJ? Genocide? Never heard…

    Regarding Russia I keep up some dim hopes.

    Regarding Gaza/Israel, Iran and Co. I have zero expectations for the next 100 years.
    Its fucked up a country as can be on this question.

  42. LawnDart

    No strangers to tough ascents, 2 women mountaineers stranded in Uttarakhand now await a miraculous rescue

    For the last two days, Manners (37) and her fellow mountaineer Michelle Dvorak (31), a climate science PhD student from Washington, USA, have been stranded at an altitude of 6,300 metres after losing all their major equipment…

    https://indianexpress.com/article/india/no-strangers-to-tough-ascents-2-women-mountaineers-stranded-in-uttarakhand-now-await-a-miraculous-rescue-9605715/

    Michelle Dvorak [Photo and more info on climbing experience]:

    https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2024/5/15/mcneill-nott-2024-recipients

    I suppose Wuk could expound on the sheer joy of “rare air,” and there’s plenty of intelligent adrenline-junkies who’ve got stories to share– these ladies aren’t dumbasses looking for a cheap-thrill.

  43. Acacia

    Re: IRGC news via Telegram…

    I’m a little confused… wouldn’t IRGC torching Saudi oil infrastructure work at cross purposes with the current Iranian efforts to improve relations with the Saudis?

  44. LawnDart

    Well, if anyone’s looking for some excitement to start the week, here it comes:

    Iran closes airspace in preparation for Israeli retaliation

    Iran’s Civil Aviation Department has issued a NOTAM for its western airspace, stating that the country’s commercial flight area will be closed due to a “Military Exercise”.

    News in development…

    https://easternherald.com/2024/10/06/iran-closes-airspace/

      1. The Rev Kev

        Are we suppose to have our flags at half-mast with our building once again lit up in blue and white?

        1. jefemt

          I certainly will not. But it could be perps on either side of a given line may see it as a reasonable day to shoot sh*t into the air.

  45. Loran Davidson

    A humble post about Thai bananas, much better than the Cavendish:

    https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Nam_Wah_Thai_Bananas_17100.php
    Description/Taste

    Nam Wah bananas grow in paired bunches along the giant herb’s central raceme, or fruit stalk. Each pair of hands contains up to 20 medium-sized, plump fruits, measuring 10 to 13 centimeters. The thin peel matures from green to yellow and is fully ripe when the peel is nearly black. The flesh is fragrant and dense with a juicy consistency and sweet flavor. Underripe or green Nam Wah bananas may have a slightly acidic taste.

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