Dear patient readers,
I hope you can provide input on some iPhone anomalies.
1. I bought a Faraday bag for my phone since I have long known that switching it to Airplane Mode and then off is still less than perfect protection. However, I just got a text beep while the phone was in the Faraday bag (Airplane Mode off) and properly sealed. I was worried that a Faraday bag would not work as advertised and I managed to buy a Faraday fail.
How do I get a reliable Faraday bag? They are get good reviews so it’s not as if I can verify them that way.
2. I have also had the phone get texts when in Airplane Mode (this was Bolt with what they considered to be an urgent matter). I verified that it was in Airplane Mode yet a second text arrived very shortly thereafter. I read later that this could happen if you have WiFi calling turned on but I never can be bothered so it is always off. So this was a creepy anomaly, sort of like Bolt breaking into my phone.
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It had to happen sooner or later – the level of freak out in these patients has just been something to behold. It appeared to be getting better.
Then today happened –
XX year old woman was found dead in her deceased mother’s home in New York City. GSW to the throat.
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Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus. This looks like an annoyed beg:
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A second bonus:
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See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Simple faraday bag test: 1) put phone in a bag. Try to call it from another phone. If it rings, fail.
2. Wear Bluetooth headphones or buds and Olay music from the phone. Put phone in bag. If music continues, fail.
I have a very old filmsafe lead-lined bag and it works great. Message app on the iPhone doesn’t use SMS unless you only have a cellular connection. So if you enabled Wi-Fi but had it in airplane mode, you can still get a text.
Radiation does not pass a closed conductor envelope (which is what a Faraday bag really is). So no cellular, no Wifi, no light should pass.
Your leadlined bag seems like the real thing. Or an old-fashioned tin can.
One may cheat: a metal mesh will filter out certain frequencies, but not all (eg light still passes), so you never know what gets through.
Actually, it’s okay to have holes as long as they are smaller than the wavelength of the radiation you are trying to block. We have “screen rooms” at work that will block phone signals, but you can see through the walls okay (light has a much shorter wavelength than phone signals).
No harm in having an envelope that is opaque to light, but it’s not strictly necessary.
FWIW, it’s actually fairly difficult to block all signal energy from reaching something like a phone. Somehow, the signals manage to worm their way in there! One experiment is to just wrap your phone in many layers of aluminum foil and see if that is an effective Faraday cage. Many times it isn’t!
The message apps can add do also use the Internet over Wi-Fi. Iiuc airplane mode turns off only the cellular network.
The Faraday bag may not be working. I’ll try to think of an easy empirical test for you.
Find an app that you can use to reliably use to make notification sound on your phone, e.g. WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, FB idk by sending a message from a separate account you logged in to on your computer. Turn in airplane mode. Test the Faraday bag by comparing it with a) the phone in no enclosure (the baseline), and b) the phone in a cocktail shaker or similar (metal cookie tin, fridge).
When I looked into Faraday bags for phones a few years ago I was not very convinced. I ended up not using one. But we keep car keys in a Faraday box at home after some weird stuff happened in our car parked on the street.
Yes, I noted I was aware of that and I did not have WiFi enabled. I never enable Internet over WiFi except when using the phone as a hotspot (basically never since I have a freestanding hotspot that I use when my regular service is down and it works very well).
Sorry. You said WiFi Calling, which is a feature separate from the WiFi network connection itself. If WiFi network was turned off then I wonder if an app may have been behaving in a confusing (i.e. buggy) way. An app might have been supposed to deliver a notification at one time but didn’t and did so only later. Scheduling on phone OSs can be hairy – the apps are supposed to sleep when not in use and are supposed to wake up in the background for certain things and you know what the IT support meaning of “supposed to” is like.
I’m not sure if this explains it but if WiFi network is off and airplane mode is on then I don’t think the notification arrived over the air. I might have come out of the past, so to speak, i.e. it was delayed. But it’s just about possible that the airplane mode was on in the user interface but the software hadn’t managed to turn off the cell radio, i.e. another kind of bug.
I was quoting a Reddit thread. I did not even know until now that there were two settings, first to gain access to a particular WiFi network and then after that to enable WiFi calling.
The Bolt text I got was as I said when Airplane mode was on. And since I have not just turn WiFi on but then also select a network and give a password, which I have NEVER done, I can assure you that the WiFi was not in the mix.
The Bolt text was fresh and the second came in about 20 mins later, which seems unlikely if a delay (as in you’d expect them to have been dumped out of a weird queue at around the same time.
It’s really quite mysterious which means we’re forced to consider spooky explanations, e.g. the cell network connection wasn’t really turned off even though airplane mode was on in the phone settings. If that wasn’t bizarre enough, it happened once with a Faraday bag and once with airplane mode. A Faraday fail immediately followed by a phone settings fail is eyebrow-raising coincidence.
You could try running tests with a friend sending you SMS texts but that wouldn’t be quite the same since security related messages from your service provider might be different.
Is it possible that your messaging app is generating these texts internally and not using a network at all? I doubt that other apps in the iPhone could do this but the messaging app would certainly be able to.
Thanks but I don’t use messaging apps. I have only one installed that I have never used, as in not set up a personal ID or contacts in it. I even had my tech woman rip out a lot of the Apple pre-installed apps that spy, like its fitness app.
The phone messaging app could be generating the messages internally without using any network.
Mass text messages or multimedia messages typically require a data plan turned on to receive. Lots of people don’t keep these plans on and don’t receive such messages. If I were a messaging app developer, I’d offer a workaround to ensure they appeared on customer phones, regardless. Each time I update my messaging app, it would contain relevant messages from any other app stored on the phone. Might even charge for the service….;)
Surely a bad Faraday bag has to be the partial explanation. Snowden kept his phone in the microwave (no really) so a cheap microwave oven and just make sure you don’t plug it in (kidding?).
I recently was given an iPad and if Location is turned on then it knows where I am even if the radios are turned off. It does this by comparing nearby wifi beacons (the signal they send while unconnected) to a database of known beacon names. Funnily the iPad thinks I live next door where the neighbors have a strong and longstandingly named network. Should the black helicopters show up they will have the wrong house.
Apple corp is at least more upfront about how this works and supposedly if you turn off Location as well as the radios it won’t work. As for texts…???
A Faraday bag greatly attenuates cell signal, it isn’t perfect blocking. Texting doesn’t take much signal compared to a phone call. I would try double bagging the phone.
Exactly, also different bag materials/constructions may be better at blocking different frequencies (wifi vs cellular vs bluetooth). And depending on how the bag closes it may leak signal. An ungrounded Faraday cage merely attenuates the signal, it does not block it. So material thickness matters.
You can buy conductive fabric and thread that’s better than the materials used in most of these, or if you really want to be sure, have someone build a small box using welded copper sheets and connect it to an independent ground rod. Just make sure there are no gaps. Box closure should have tight contact between unpainted/unsealed surfaces.
This makes sense, thanks!
Need a big 2nd innings from you!
That tests the cell network and the Bluetooth but we also need to test the WiFi.
Yes but stores here won’t let me test them and the one that failed was an Internet order on a model that had gotten good reviews. So I am looking for a recommendation.
Very odd that a shop won’t let you test the bag! Were you at Pantip Plaza? Perhaps there are some dodgy sellers there.
You have to open the packaging to test. Their view is that if you do that, you own it.
I did research a couple of years ago when I was looking for something for my car key (I know, better to have a plain key!)…the information I found was that fabric-based bags may work initially but usually eventually fail (whether because the metal fibers bend and eventually break or seaming issues from use) and that I would be better off with some kind of rigid box (and indeed some of these are manufactured for purpose). But I never ended up buying anything myself and I don’t remember whether I was convinced that the box’s closure would be impenetrable.
A box like this might be worth a try:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/266649011944
Decades-old memories of E&M instruction suggests to me that for time-varying electromagnetic fields, the shielding cannot be perfect, and the shielding effect can be expected to be worse for higher-frequency radiation.
I have no experience of this for shielding phones, but if you can find bags with accurately measured attenuation ratings, this would permit comparisons among bags.
It might be that nesting two or more highly-rated (by “rated”, I mean “measured signal attenuation”, not “user feedback”) bags, oriented such that the closures of the bags point in opposite directions, would increase the EM quietness in the interior of the innermost bag.
This isn’t a recommendation of “make/model”, but it may provide a procedure for comparing options.
There are claims that two layers of aluminum foil with plastic wrap in between would attenuate 60-80 dB of frequencies above 100 MHz. If correct, one should be able to cut the signal to 0.0000006% (?) of the original with simple kitchen disposables.
Cookie tins work fine. Buy butter cookies for Xmas in metal tin, get free Faraday cage.
The simple answer: Turn The Phone Off. And put it in a working Faraday bag. You can tell if the bag is working if the Find My app can’t see your phone, on or off. The bluetooth chip is alive even when the phone is powered down and no other network interfaces are active.
I do not use Find My App. I have had my tech woman disable ALL cloud services to make sure all the ones that need to be off are indeed not-operative. I can’t stand how much Apple wants to spy on me.
The phone was accidentally on and in the bag when I got the text beep that showed the Faraday bag was not working. As I said, its normal state is off.
I don’t have any real reason to care, but it drives me nuts and I did everything I could to avoid it, until I put GPS trackers on my dogs.
Still have wasted who knows know much time but not clicking on YouTube surveys and never “chosing” my “ad experience.”
My car dealership sends me an email at least monthly about the service being disconnected.
The difficulty of opting out is an insult.
Re: Faraday bag, try using a metal box, like a tool box. Put the phone on a rubber or plastic mat, something non-conductive so that no part of the phone is touching metal. That should isolate it from electromagnetic signals.
I will have to find a small one to carry around. There might be something the right size for sewing gear.
Would something like a Blockhütte Stainless Steel Lunch Box work? I’ve never used one but it looks promising and they come in several different sizes.
What about a metal bento box? They have to seal tightly pretty tightly to survive child’s backpack. When the boys were little their teacher would have to pry apart the boxes until I found some with buckles to seal them shut.
cigarette box, pen box
Some color pencils come in a metal tin – if you get a smaller set, this will provide a small enough form factor to carry in a purse.
With a box like this you would need to sand off the paint around the lid, as you need conductive surfaces on all parts of the box, in tight contact. Paint breaks the conductivity. You can also carefully bend the lip using a “hand seamer” (a tool for bending sheet metal evenly) if the fit is not tight enough. Loose fit = open path for signals to escape. If water flows out easily, so will the signal.
from Perplexity.ai
Prompt:
What should I look for when purchasing a Faraday cage or bag? Are there any standards [eg ISO] for such things?
Sources
MRI Shielded Room | Faraday Cage – European EMC Products
euro-emc.co
Answer
When purchasing a Faraday cage or bag, you should look for the following key features:
Material conductivity: Choose materials with high conductivity, such as copper or aluminum, as they are more effective at blocking electromagnetic fields
Thickness: Thicker materials provide better shielding effectiveness due to increased attenuation of electromagnetic fields
Mesh size or apertures: The size of holes or openings in the Faraday cage should be smaller than 1/10th of the wavelength of the electromagnetic waves you want to block. For example, to block frequencies of 10 GHz and lower, the hole size should be smaller than 3 mm
Construction quality: Ensure the cage or bag has minimal gaps and a tight seal to maximize shielding effectiveness
Frequency range: Consider the specific frequencies you need to block, as Faraday cages are generally more effective at higher frequencies
Grounding options: While not always necessary, grounding can enhance shielding effectiveness by providing a path for charge dissipation
Size and shape: Choose a cage or bag that accommodates your devices and meets your specific needs
Regarding standards, there are no specific ISO standards for Faraday cages or bags. However, manufacturers may test their products according to various electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards or military specifications. When purchasing, look for products that have been tested and rated for their shielding effectiveness, often measured in decibels (dB) of attenuation across different frequency ranges
It’s important to note that the effectiveness of a Faraday cage or bag can vary depending on the specific application and the strength of the electromagnetic fields it needs to block. For critical applications, it may be advisable to consult with EMC specialists or conduct your own testing to ensure the product meets your specific requirements.
I realize that this isn’t an option with Apple products, but this is precisely why a phone with a removable battery is preferable.
It’s probably also why almost no such devices exist anymore …
Cell phones have 2 batteries, a second small one for GPS. You can see on many prepper adjacent sites that they exist and how to remove them. I am not about to crack open my phone, needless to say.
Airplane mode disables transmission, not necessarily receiving. If the phone is still in range of the last tower it registered with it may still receive from it even in airplane mode.
Also GPS is a very weak signal and devices fake knowing their location by merely remembering where they were last time they got a fix. I once sold a GPS unit on eBay and the buyer complained that it still said it was in my location (20 miles away). I told him to leave it on for 10 minutes with a good view of the sky and it did eventually admit where it really was.
Re the Doglover video. As has been often said – we don’t deserve our dogs.
Oh, I don’t know. Those dog clips a lovely but I bet they are well looked after.
I’m worried about that cat, though. Kinda looks like he’s having a seizure.
Re: iPhone, my understanding is that despite what the iOS UI indicates, Airplane mode is not immediate but may take 20-30 seconds to go into effect. So, you could switch to Airplane mode, the iPhone shows you that icon, and then 15 seconds later you receive a message, because in fact it wasn’t yet shut down when the message came in.
Next, Airplane mode does not disable WiFi, and that network operates at different frequencies. Is the Faraday bag designed for the cellular network, as well as the three different bands (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz) that iPhone WiFi could use?
If you have WiFi enabled and your iPhone is set to automatically connect to a network, you can receive text messages — even in Airplane mode. I assume(?) you’re using iMessage, in which case messages in a blue bubble mean they are usual iMessages which can come via WiFi. If the messages are in a green bubble, that means they are sent via MMS/SMS.
I have never tried using a Faraday bag, but if I were to do so, I would get an app like Opensignal and empirically test signal strength with the phone inside the bag.
Also, for use with a Faraday bag, even if it works, I would still make sure to turn off everything (cell+WiFi+Bluetooth) and ensure all networks are really off, because otherwise the iPhone will step up to the highest transmission power to try and “get through” the artificial interference presented by the Faraday bag (something similar happens inside a car), and this will cause the phone to heat up and also run down the battery.
Thanks but this was not in 15 seconds. I barely use my phone and it is nearly always turned off. I was disconcerted to hear the text noise and double checked that it Airplane Mode was ALREADY ON when I received the text, as in pulled it out of my purse to see WTF was going on. Then a few minutes later with my not having changed the settings on the phone, a second text from Bolt came in.
OK, how about WiFi? I believe it is not a matter of the WiFi Calling setting under Phone settings, but the general top-level Wi-Fi setting, which must be completely off.
Yes, I never have that on. I don’t even know where the second setting you are talking about lives.
On an iPhone, it’s Settings>WiFi. It is right below Airplane Mode, which is the very first setting and so impossible to miss.
Well, I thought it might be worth ruling out a Settings issue — and there could also be a problem with installation of iOS (itself pretty complex) —, but now we seem to be heading into Edward Snowden territory.
Agree with @BillS, below. A Faraday bag is not going to provide a complete shield. Others have suggested an actual metal enclosure. There are some flip wallets like the DefenderShield EMF Protection case, but it doesn’t completely enclose the phone, so I would think a complete metal enclosure could work better.
If I were crafty, and I couldn’t connect to a device I’d already corrupted, I’d have it periodically ‘deliver’ messages, encouraging you to reveal it while you check. Would have the added effect of defeating your faith in the Faraday solution as well, though that is worth measuring (a simple process, per the above…). I’m sure others have conducted more scientific tests somewhere on the internets for your model bag.
If it has a processor, and you don’t have a team of people actively running security, assume it is compromised.
That’s a nice theory but the Bolt texts were genuine. They thought I had a safety problem based on making a complaint, so we had some back and forth.
Intercept. Delay. Crafty. Alternately there could have been some delay caused by the phone software itself… just a bug that caused the alert to engage long after the message was already received. iOS eg. has a feature that silences specific types of notifications, and aggregates and delivers them all at once at a scheduled time, typically daily.
Yves, where were you when it happened? And were other people nearby? Wondering if a high powered cellular transmitter was nearby, or alternatively if some signal was leaking and other nearby cellphones were acting as carrier. Also, is the inside of the bag lined with plastic or some material that keeps the phone from being in contact with the metal of the faraday cage? I’m wondering about wear and tear too. This is a very interesting topic, actually, would be informative if we could learn what’s going on here.
I don’t think I am near any strong towers. I am either in my apt (moderately high floor in a residential complex, lotta tress in the complex but admittedly high density ‘hood for this city all around, but nothing like Bangkok) or at a gym or in transit.
The Faraday bag is very new.
Radio engineer here. If the phone is not inside of a sealed metal box (with soldered seams) some signal will leak in and out. Faraday bags are absolutely not perfect shields. In fact, if it is fabric with metallic fibers woven in, the attenation can be pretty crappy. Snowden’s microwave trick is pretty good for wifi but may or may not be so good for LTE or 3G signals on other bands because the door seal is tuned for 2450MHz. Just be careful not to activate the microwave with the phone in it!! ;-) Best to switch off the phone and remove the battery, depending on the paranoia level. For really sensitive situations, better not to have the phone with you at all. If you have a friend with a spectrum analyzer, you can easily verify that the phone transmitter is really off when you switch off the phone.
Alas, cannot easily remove the battery from an iPhone.
oh god
how does jordan petersen get called “serious”?
He is a quack. He has a “truth”……yeah right. He is looking for a paycheck.
Once he goes into the complete fiction of Moses, and other stories from religions who have literally made up stories for thousands of years; he ceases to be anything anyone can call informed.
there was no moses
there is no reality to the divinity of jesus
These are just stories people made up, and have been making up for a long time.The only real story of religion, is that people have been making it up, and people have been believing it forever. Too bad AS a group they don’t have one story, but tens of stories, all conflicting with each other…
so your god “of the universe” is here in this valley, and their “god of the universe”, is from this side of the mountains….
I mean really
Calling him a quack is a disservice to quacks. His idea is that talking in long, convoluted sentences using obscure verbiage makes one look smart and that if he spews 15 tons of bullshit a minute nobody will call him on it. He also has severe mental illness that is probably made worse by his media exposure.
He is one of the what I like to call Gish Gallop righties, him, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Dave Rubin, Stephen Crowder, etc. It’s the Rush Limbaugh school of debating, talk fast, be loud and opinion trumps facts.
Your list of names suggests a political bias but I see this kind of addiction to media attention from all types. I’d rather not name names because I think we can all identify these people even if we are sympathetic to what they might say.
With the way media is working these days it’s common that these people have to fill a relentless schedule of videos, tweets, etc. So there’s a structural incentive towards bs.
Being mostly incoherent, Peterson, of course, fails to raise to the level of intellectual lightweight. I find it endlessly funny that people find his styling (clothing, hair, striking poses and of course everything about his voice) sufficient to turn his nonsense into deep meaning for his audience. Does Rogan still have him on regularly?
He was on Fox news recently. One of the evening talk shows, I think.
@rob, voislav & .Tom — All I see in your comments on Jordan Peterson are substance-free ad hominem attacks. Why do people hate Jordan Peterson? Because he committed sins against their progressive orthodoxy.
Peterson’s first sin was to try to help young men. His basic message to them, from what I could gather, is: “Young men, stop wasting your lives playing video games, doing drugs, watching porn — instead make your bed, learn a skill, work out at the gym, read the classics.” But when some young men actually listened to him and straightened up their lives, this was absolutely unacceptable to the progressives. Peterson didn’t understand that any attempt whatsoever to help or benefit men as a group will be viewed as a heresy (if not an existential threat) by the woke left.
The next sin of Peterson was to come out publicly against identity politics and trans-genderism. In the future dictatorship of the Woke, Peterson would speedily be burned at the stake for this heresy. But for now, he’s still out there, speaking on talk shows and writing books. The horror.
To be honest, I’m not a Peterson fan — but not a hater either. I am, however, a fan of what he was trying to do: to help and guide the younger generation of men towards self-improvement. Rock on, Jordan Peterson.
Sorry, I am not buying this. I cannot remember the particulars, but I saw a long discussion between Camille Paglia and Peterson on trans and identity issues. Paglia was insightful, nuanced, yet still not on board with trans. Peterson came off like a self-important dogmatic nutter.
Re: Jordan Peterson
About two years ago my Youtube recommendations were jam-packed with his videos and I had never even heard of him. I am still baffled as to how my internet, Youtube history or personal life (other than being a SWM) triggered the algorithm to feed those videos. My cynical view is that is Exhibit A for big tech driving culture war issues.
The Bible lectures from years ago are actually not bad. It still strikes with me the section of the snake, and the painting with Mary holding the baby Jesus above her head, with the snake at her feet, compared with the hominid mother doing the same in Africa…
I think you do a disservice to humanity, by denying virtue in storytelling. History is Chinese Telephone writ large. I won’t defend Peterson, or the Bible specifically, but I don’t consider my intellect so superior as to negate the lessons such tellings may impart. That they are employed by the wicked is a concern, but is not the matter.
I agree. I’m an overly educated recovering evangelical Christian so I have little time for any litteral interpretation of the Bible. However, I appreciate much of what Jordan has to say because I view his approach as one of being overwhelmed by the needs of humanity. How do you address the psychological suffering of humanity on a large scale? That he goes the route of Bible stories is, for me, secondary to the fact that I think he’s desperately trying to help people. I might judge his efforts as imperfect but I still see substantive value. For instance, Peterson’s observation that mental health is less about what’s inside the brain and more about the environment we place ourselves in has great value .
So , you think someone spouting Fiction as fact, while promoting a political “silo-ization”, based on fairytales of both spiritual nature and current events, while wanting to be thought of as “conservative”…. is somehow helping?
As what, A foil to an actual thoughtful person?
And then goes and defends the Paretto distribution…
Paretto distribution
I don’t think I am discounting the telling of stories in any way.
Like I said before, the history is the stories, and that people believed them, and wrote other stories.
The reality is that ALL these stories were made up, woven of bits and pieces of actual memory, and wholly made up” inspiration”. The editors over the millennia, have included human frailties, traits, expectations, etc.
The fact that people are storytellers, never really excuses anyone in the 21st century to tell, or in any way promote these stories as “facts” upon which to base one’s opinions.
What does intelligence have to do with it? Even my muddled intellect can tell BS… is just that; BS.
No fan of Peterson, though I’ll refrain from trashing his hermeneutics until I’ve had a look at his book, but these “fairytales,” which some of us call “myth,” have their purposes. Take the second Genesis myth, for example, the one about Adam, Eve and the snake. Now I’m happy enough with what I think is still the majority opinion on this, and attribute this story to Ezra and his scribes after Artaxerxes sent Ezra back to Jerusalem to get the YHWH cult going again.
Whoever put it together, it’s such a well-conceived myth that it’s still used today to describe our situation. It’s about human hubris–wanting to be gods–and it’s as apt when applied to our climate predicament as it was to whatever Ezra had in mind.
Myths are a way for us to talk about things that can’t be described by an equation or formula, and there remain many worthy subjects of inquiry, many of which involve the word “why,” for which a myth may be the best starting point.
Sigh. Or Groan…
Hubris, in this context, would involve defying the orders of an inscrutable authority. Does that really classify as hubris, particularly in the context of the readily observable effects of climate change.
And then there’s that unfortunate, inevitable accompaniment: woman is weak and easily led into
temptation, therefore Adam (all men) must assume authority over her.
I’m deeply fond of myth, story, anecdote, but not at all sure of the beneficial effects of that particular foundational myth.
(Myself, I’m partial to Lilith).
Yes, and Kali!
She wears a necklace of demon heads because her big job is killing them after other gods stupidly set them loose.
Of the two, women are in fact, physically weaker, and in some material interpretation, more effectively coerced. This necessarily translates to the spiritual; as to how, I have only anecdotes, but enough for me to sprint with my biases.
Being an unabashed heretic, I’m not fond of how it’s communicated in the Bible, but there’s more to that myth than your pride allows. We tend to take the fundamentalist perspective, because it is convenient, being the most offensive, but violent masculine dominance and totalitarian subjugation of feminine will is not the myth’s intent… a woman could see it as infantilizing (and a man, empowering), yes, but in all your wisdom, superiority to, and ‘liberation’ from the Word; how do you account for the state of affairs?
I find it striking listening to mature feminist intellectuals walk back much of the progress of the past 30 years, despite the personal implications, because they recognize modern feminism, though a boon for themselves in the minority female elite, has produced unrewarding lives of hardship for the majority of women who do the things only women can do.
That’s not an indictment of feminism, per se, as that was always rooted in necessary change; but an acknowledgment of its short-sightedness in engineering society. Like it or not, Bible go long.
Sorry, it might pay for you to actually read feminist literature from before the 1960s. Nearly all women had “unrewarding lives of hardship”. My mother hated being a mother. She was not alone among her friends.
Interesting, so it’s a rejection of femininity (given that reproduction is the function of the binary). Can’t help you with that… seems… counterproductive… but then so is forcing parenthood on people who loathe it… either way, I am thankful for both your Mom, and that you have the time to do what you do Yves, so seems there is more to the Spaghetti Monster’s plan than our satisfaction.
I suppose the difference between now and then, is the absence of community. Your mother had friends. We mostly have opportunities. At some point we traded fellowship for earning power, and the results are stark.
We had neoliberalism, with its worshipping of money and negation of humanity, imposed on us all. Most people have had lives of hardship in some form, but how many societies have been as atomized as ours is?
Interesting you say this JBird, in my years of immersion I’ve observed numerous cultural perversions, that amount to adaptations to economic crises, yet masquerade as spontaneous virtue. The food quality, ‘hustle’ culture, neolib girl bosses, stratifying labor using superfluous degree requirements (the information economy, you see) justifying persistent unemployment for one cohort and debt peonage for the next, the entire healthcare system… which is to say, little of this is accidental. Felicidades. May you own nothing, and be happy.
Are you really asserting with certainty that religion is nonsense? That there is no spiritual realm? How do you know that? Even when I was an atheist (raised by atheists), I did understand that many people who were much smarter than me (and I am smart) had had particular experiences and were believers as a result. What would be your counter to them? Just that you “know” that it’s all nonsense?
The idea that humans have the capacity to understand existence is hubris. We lack the intellectual ability. Whether is a spiritual realm or other planes of existence is therefore an open question. The belief in a spiritual realm is an admission of our limits.
Yes, I am asserting that religion is nonsense.
And No, that doesn’t have anything to do with spirituality or what in fact may be realities we cannot experience or understand when we do.
I am talking about religion. Dogmatic, top down religion. Especially, judaism, christianity, the catholics and the protestants, and the newly minted like the mormons, etc.
I would consider myself more of a taoist.. but loosely… in that I am open to what the natural world may be…. but you want proof.
Here it is. It is called history. And if you want the particulars…. go look for yourself. Find all the bastions of these religions. Look at how they conduct themselves in this world.
If there was a god of the bible….. he would be pissed and would have smited all of them. Or at least they would all know, that hell is real… and they will suffer eternal damnation for what they are doing right now.
So be it , war, genocide , starvation of others, crime, corruption, infidelity, betrayal, lying, abusing the environment/ god’s creation, humanity, their children, other people’s children….etc.
You have to be able to tell, that at the highest levels of all the “bought and paid for” religions….. they really Can’t believe what they say, AND act like they do.
And if that isn’t bad enough…. we have the history of the last couple of thousand years which prove, the worst people rise to the top of all food chains. They are unencumbered by morality, fairness, and humility. They embrace the reality of their “schtik” by their actions
I could go on…. but why?
My advice to those who have had “experiences”…. and I do know some… Is that they ought to judge a tree by it’s fruit. The business of religion, is one thing. it shows itself to be what it is.
And then, who knows what may have cured their cancer… a demon can perform miracles too…. if one were to look at the literature…and spirits were discussed long ago…. someone’s Djinn… is another persons demon… or angel…. or even someone’s intelligent entity behind the UAP/ USO phenomenon.
I am open to the possible scenerio’s.. and even the impossible ones.
That is spouting a healthy level of vitriol and absolute spite in the face of many believers of varying stripes and creeds.
Faith is a substance to be accepted or believed, and just like any broad sampling of corporate leaders, by example, who aren’t all crooks & thieves then likewise all believers are not absolute fools for their beliefs. I grew up in fairly rigid settings so I know what I speak about.
You lay it on pretty thick though. I get it that non believers just don’t or won’t accept a power or that many faith followers are humble, kind, helpful to those in need but however, those who stand on corners proclaiming that a God hates this that or other are not adhering to the New Testament necessarily.
“That is spouting a healthy level of vitriol and absolute spite in the face of many believers of varying stripes and creeds.”
No kidding. Fortunately I’m obliged to turn the other cheek, haha!!!
After all of the praise and vitriol sent Peterson’s way, I decided to read “12 Rules for Life.” Interesting, but nothing special to my mind. But it left me puzzled by the strong reactions so many (such as yourself) have for the gentleman.
I’ll give Peterson’s fans this: they readily explain what they see in him in specific detail. The detractors on the other hand, usually call him a “quack” or the like but never engage with the substance of his writings in even a perfunctory way. rob, you have sort have done the same thing here. I get that you disapprove of treating ancient religious texts as accurate history. But aside from that, what is it about his program or philosophy that you find objectionable and why? Put another way, what about his methods or ideas make him a quack to your mind?
The ABC of Childhood Tragedy is both hackwork and strange. It’s a quick read and will make you wish for Edward Gorey to rise up and get to haunting.
Give it a look if you want a crash course in Peterson.
In general, not in AbC, he does that thing where you say normal things that everyone says like you’ll probably feel better and have an easier time if you clean your room and your clothes don’t stink, behaves as thought this is a mind-blowing insight he and he alone had had because of being a super genius, and that’s starts talking about how women are just to lazy and to be equal to men.
He a stupid weasel with a horrible voice and a serious drug problem that at one point required some bizarre emergency treatment in Russia, with the help of his daughter.
He likely does have some serious health issue which may or may not help fuel the crazy.
Few years ago there was quite the brouhaha regarding Peterson who I didn’t know much about, so I tried to find out for myself if he had something to say or was a crank. I came across a lengthy discussion between him and Camille Paglia. My recollection was the Paglia ran circles around him and made him look like a lightweight and I quickly came down on the side of ‘crank’. It might have been this interview . It wasn’t so much that she ripped his arguments to shreds – more that she had a real understanding of what she was talking about and he was just trying to look smart and keep up. I’m probably biased though since I was previously familiar with Paglia and have been a fan of hers for years.
Oh, you saw the same interview I did!!! See comment above.
Yes, Pagalia was not even remotely trying to one up Peterson. She was just excited about the topic (as she normally is) and wound up running rings around him
I think at a minimum this says that Peterson is a Potemkin intellectual. Facade looks great but not much behind it.
The quackery of jordan peterson is his attempt to pretend judeo-christians have any values.
What are they?
Is it the genocide the judeo jewish supremecists exibit today in the slaughter and starvation of men,women and children? Maybe it is how the zionists lie about everything, that they are doing. or is it the brinksmanship of political leaders who claim to be christians of all flavors; who are flirting with the disaster of ending all life on the planet, any day now. By fomenting a nuclear war with russia…. for no reason other than arrogance.
Maybe these judeo christian values are something that the church going christians of the southern US exibited when they would have a lynching after church on sundays. Maybe it was the enslavement of people who weren’t white. Maybe it was the genocide of the settler colonialists, the world over… including the US and canada.
For him to trot out the “values” thing… in the same breath of judeo christian…. I mean WTF?
Those nazi’s in germany were the “conservative god fearing christians” , who were upright community members.
I live in the southern US. The bible belt. Quacks like him proliferate in every strip mall church, and wholly oblivious cult followers seem taken by the “schtik”. So, just because he has the “self help” section mantras, in his book; like a million before him,
I can’t really take him seriously enough to waste my time “seeing what he has to say”. There isn’t anything that interesting about his point of view, and on the face of it . It is pretty offensive.
So, going over the christian versions of creation myths, which stole almost all of their motifs from earlier religions,; isn’t really groundbreaking.
Sorry for my rant. As I said. Here in the southern US, I see people everyday excuse the crimes of humanity that are happening every day, with the conviction that they can’t be guilty because they posses judeo-christian values. They really don’t understand that the nazi’s did too.
There are many types of Christians. I haven’t met any Bible Belt Christians, so I can’t assess the accuracy of your description of them. However, the Christians that I know in California and New England aren’t as you describe. Not at all. That makes me think that very possibly not all Bible Belt Christians are as you describe. I’ve met some awful atheists, but I don’t think all atheists are alike.
The Nazis executed priests who tried to protect retarded people from being put to death. I don’t think those priests fit into the description of the religious that you are painting.
It’s almost as calling oneself a Christian doesn’t mean a God damn thing.
Yes, anyone can call himself or herself a Christian. I can call myself a hamster, but it doesn’t make me one. But real hamsters do exist.
maybe real hamsters do exist… but none of them ever returned from the dead, and saved all who believed in them.; either.
I think your quibble is with the people who made up the stories, not those who don’t believe superstitions. We are on the same side. Those among the living. We are those who have all come from the same nothingness, and now we are alive. For now.
You’re just asserting your position. You aren’t proving it. It’s funny that so many atheists think that the religious should prove things, but that they (the atheists) ought to get a free pass when they assert their view of how things work.
well, I’m not asserting “how things work”
Nice try at a deflection… as far as atheists asserting how things work….. ummm you mean science?
But yeah… you do you.. that is all fine and dandy
good luck.
Real hamsters do exist, and have nothing to do with human created organizations.
Your post read:
“It’s almost as calling oneself a Christian doesn’t mean a God damn thing.”
Your post was about individuals. How were we discussing organizations? Are you saying that real Christians have nothing to do with churches? All of the Christians I know have fellowship with other Christians, in some way or another. A church doesn’t have to have a building.
Courtesy of google: “The word translated “church” in the English Bible is ekklesia. This word is the Greek words kaleo (to call), with the prefix ek (out). Thus, the word means “the called out ones.”
My two posts are short and to the point. It is possible to say a lot of things with a few words, and I strive towards it. This post will be much longer, and will elaborate the same point with much more words, without adding anything of essence. Still, it won’t muddy the waters.
There is no such thing as real or less real Christian, because it’s a completly subjective thing. For examplte, some may consider the Popes to be Christians, and others would consider them satans (pedophiles, torturers, warmongers, criminals, whatever). No verbal gymnastics can twist around that. In many ways Christianity is like Democracy, or any other buzzword abused for centuries.
Individuals declaring themselves as Christians, are just stating to be a part of an organized religious group, without even bothering to define that group. Any Christian in Norther Ireland can confim that not all Christians are the same, and many have died for being the wrong kind one. More recent examples can be found in the Ukraine, and the Middle East.
Christians do not have fellowship with other Christians, but tribalism inside their own little tribe. You do to, but you are hiding it, probably intentionally. The holier-than-thou individuals that try to own the whole of Christianity are Christians the least (like aforementioned Popes).
I think you have me wrong.
I am not saying ALL of any group of people is anything. I have always found most people to have every ability to be fine people. Including myself. I am not attacking the flock for believing the stories they were told since childhood, or turning to them as they get older… still exposed to the lies the churches tell. It is a natural path to take.
In fact, the desire of most people to “be on the right side”… in some way is a seemingly useful human trait which has helped the social creatures we are.
But, Let the churches convince the new people being born all the time to do the right thing… because it is the right thing to do…. Not because they have to because some fairytale has to be true… or the right thing is no longer the right thing.
Do we really need religion to know the difference between right and wrong?
This Peterson quote in the article gave me pause:
That’s some really delusional shite. Obviously, he hasn’t been paying attention to events both current and historical. And I’m actually rather fond of a number of Biblical writings, though I do find the notion of a personal god meeting out favors and punishments, making land grants and the like to be a grotesque projection born of individual and collective narcissism.
My pet peeve with him is he being a strong believer in the Paretto distribution in the social realm, as a law of nature, rather than a social human construct.
““This is a matter of definition, in the final analysis – and therefore, of faith. [The divine] is real insofar as its pursuit makes pain bearable, keeps anxiety at bay; and inspires the hope that springs eternal in the human breast. It is real insofar as it establishes the benevolent and intelligible cosmic order””
Almost identical with what the political aparatchick was telling us boys, in a 2 week work camp in Socialist Romania…
Does that mean blame Obama for getting Trump elected? I couldn’t understand who he meant with any certainty.
I agree on that. Many Chaos agents afoot around the round world.
Xi could be cryptic, implying that there are more immature, chaotic leaders in the US. From action over the past 8 years, it is hard to disagree. See for example, the Ukie missile and mine ongoing episodes, induced theoretically, from that 82-year old claiming to still be President. Who is pulling the strings on those DC kids?
Some of those DC kids have come up with some really bright ideas. Such as-
‘Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union.’
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/11/22/report-us-and-european-officials-discussed-giving-ukraine-nuclear-weapons/
Because nothing guarantees peace more that Nazis with Nukes.
A number of nuclear weapons from former SSRs were demilitarized under START, which was over all the Soviets weapons. There is that.
If any former Ukr SSR weapons were not demilitarized they were sent to Russia.
Funny how Stalin’s borders and Soviet nukes seem appealing.
Arbitrary Communist-drawn borders are sacred for the USA, for as long as they are useful, just like everything else.
I took it as just another way of saying “thanks, Obama.”
Yeah. Why does Rhodes think Xi meant Trump and not others, say, even Obama himself?
No, it means blame Obama for getting Biden elected. Biden is clearly the “immature leader” due to his dementia.
Biden.
An answer to that age-old Riddle of the Stinx.
what starts doing stinky things on four legs, then two, then three
Jill, time for a change.
IIRC it was Hillary’s team who thought it was a brilliant idea to run against Trump because they thought he was easy to beat.
“North Korea Closes the Door on New Negotiations”
I can understand the North Koreans doing this. In any negotiation with the US it always come down to one demand – get rid of your nukes. But North Korea saw what happened to countries that do that and I recall John Bolton boasting that this was the plan. However things have changed a lot since Trump left office four years ago. They are no longer isolated and are now making deals with the Russians which will help with their relations with China. The days of North Korea experiencing famines and mass starvation because of western sanctions and UN mandates are coming to an end. Their military is getting an upgrade which will secure them from attack and with their vast mineral wealth & now markets opening up for them, this country may start to experience a mediocum of prosperity. I’m not saying that they are on the path to BRICS membership but it could happen in the years to come. So in any negotiaions with the US, what could the US possibly offer them? And in return for what exactly? You will know that things have really changed between the US and NK when the US declares that the North Korean war is now officially ended and is a done deal. Then real negotiations can start.
Everybody already knows that the US and its Western puppets are not agreement capable. Even if the US offered them substantive concessions for some reason, it can retract it next week just because.
I find myself wondering if the fates of RoK and DPRK will reverse again (by some indicators, DPRK had the more advanced economy until about 1980) in the coming decades. DPRK will be doing booming trade with Russia and China, while RoK may find itself geographically and politically isolated in East Asia. It’s functionally Taiwan except with worse weather and having a DMZ as a border instead of the Taiwan Strait.
There was actually a deal in place back in the 90s and it seemed to be a good one. But then the US reneged on their end of the deal and when Bush came in he branded North Korea as part of the Axis of Evil and that was that-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreed_Framework
Maybe the USA will find a few more diesel engine locomotives they can sell for a few million dollars and call it aid and support? Or has that train already left the station riding on the transsiberian railway?
I imagine that the DPRK diplomats were very upset when they realized that they had actually let John Bolton enter their country and pull his usual stunts while Trump blustered and charmed, playing good cop, trying to sell Kim on building resorts and casinos along the undeveloped shoreline of the East Sea. A road trip for the ages, that one. It would make a funny movie if it weren’t so damn serious.
50 years old train engines and passenger cars…?
He’s talking about that old lot of diesel engines and passenger trains from California that the US sold to Peru for several million dollars which was their way of counterbalancing China building a billion dollar port there.
“China is a threat to Europe’s security”
“China has already posed a threat to the European security architecture through its trade and financial flows with Russia. In 2023, bilateral trade between the two countries reached a record high of $240 billion, an increase of more than 26 percent compared to 2022.
“This shows that China’s exports to Russia are replacing goods from Europe and other sanctioned partners. China was an economic lifeline for Moscow. This already made China a security threat to us.”
The EU and the US place economic sanctions on Russia in order to damage it’s economy. Russia looks for alternative sources for the goods it needs. It means that, not just China, but all those countries acting as suppliers to the sanctioned economy are threats to Europe’s security, presumably because the EU economies are in crisis because they they were foolish enough to choose to prevent the natural flow of goods and services berween Russia, which is now thriving, and the members of the EU, most of which are not. Life, as the man said, is like a shit sandwich, the more bread you’ve got , the least shit you eat. Russia eats bread. The EU eats shit.
But then freedom is just another word for the right to make stupid choices and al the boo-hoo-hooing in the world will not change that fact.
But Russia respects the EU’s right to make that choice and it unlikely that this choice can now be easily unmade.
Europe has become a backwater where the blind have been able to lead the bland for far longer than is healthy, and the bland are becoming noticeably less so, and have become deeply aware of the intellectual, financial and productive capacities of the the individual economies and the EU’s antics only make the problem worse for the citizens of the member states.
Situation in Serbia is much more interesting than the linked article implies. The main point of contention s not the bridge in Belgrade or the prior lithium mine issues. A few weeks ago the glass and metal awning on the train station in Serbia’s second largest city of Novi Sad collapsed, killing 15 people so far (few more are in critical condition).
This was a brand new awning that was installed earlier in the year during the major reconstruction of the station’s main building and, despite it being a government project, all work was done without any construction permits, reviews or oversight. The cause of failure was the insane behavior of the construction company which basically removed all structural support for the awning to save money, literally attaching the multi-ton structure to the building facade with some bolts.
This produced a massive backlash, protests and strikes. Serbian president is in a panic mode and throwing his closest associates under the bus. Two long time cabinet members have been arrested in addition do a couple of dozen lower level federal and city officials. More arrests are expected.
The crux of the crisis is that the presidential elections are in March, and current president is at his term limit. That means that he will have to run one of his cronies for the position, which may be trouble. As the pressure in the country has been building for a couple of years, the presidential election may blow the whole country up and cause a violent overthrow of the current regime. Peaceful transition is not an option at this point.
So US and EU may find themselves with an interesting dilemma next year. They are both strong supporters of the current regime despite its pro-Russian leanings, mostly because when push comes to shove Serbian government reliably acquiesces to whatever their demands are. New government may not be as accommodating, especially on key issues for EU (lithium) or US (Kosovo).
Thanks Voislav for the explanation.
I’m always interested in Serbian political news but Mrs Bugs (a Beograđanka) hates talking about politics there and it infuriates her to no end because western news sources make a mash of everything and get party leanings wrong, don’t understand who are the principal actors, etc. I get the impression that it’s a common feeling.
Thanks for this expanded context.
Thanks for the gritty political details. I just returned from a 2-day visit to Belgrade, my first time there. Fascinating city, glad I went (as a tourist). Having visited many east European capitals (mainly on business trips), what struck me most about Belgrade was its authenticity. It did not seem to be a colony of western corporations (a la Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw), but seemed to have its own specific vibe (and lots of independent stores/cafes/restaurants). Quite a mix of architecture. Good food, great coffee. Some nice local red wines and beer. The Museum of Yugoslavia (basically a shrine to Tito) was a trip down memory lane. Quite a lot of Chinese investment was easily visible (don’t know about Russian money, but I heard lots of Russian being spoken, and the beautiful Saint Sava church was heavily financed by Russia). I hope Serbia maintains its somewhat independent course and doesn’t get sucked into the giant maw of the EU/NATO.
“Deputy army chief says UK troops ready to ‘fight tonight’ amid rising tension in Ukraine war”
If the UK went to war in the Ukraine, they would not be able to generate much of a force. Maybe two infantry brigades and a tank brigade from what I hear. And there is zero evidence that the Russians would ever invade eastern Europe or even the Baltic states. They don’t need or want them and their focus remains on threats on their own borders. But I have heard that there are some British officers who are really gung-ho for a fight with the Russians and when you look back at the course of this war, the British are often present or are planning attacks such as the ones on the Kersh bridge or sub drone attacks on the Russians. And it was admitted that you had the British SAS running around the Ukraine as well. The British establishment are rabidly anti-Russian and this appears to be happening with many officers in the British military as well. So maybe it is just as well that there is not a huge British military or else the temptation would be to use them in the Ukraine.
UK troops are ready to fight tonight, the whole night. In the morning they would be done.
Put the kettle on?
The British want to be the loudest in the Poodle Barking Show.
The Poodle Barking Show, not to be confused with the Chihuahua Barking Show, where Baltic breeds traditionally dominate the podium.
Thank you, Rev.
The British army is struggling to field a brigade and has not given NATO HQ an idea of when and defined what constitutes a brigade. To be fair, most NATO members are in that mess. The army can only field one armoured regiment, 40 or 50 odd vehicles.
The air force and navy are little better, unable to field more than one air squadron and not even a carrier group.
When the carrier QE2 went around the world a couple of years ago, it was little reported that the aircraft and pilots were from the US and most, but not all, escort ships from NATO allies. When the British escorts broke down in the tropical waters they are not designed for, fisheries protection vessels were sent in replacement.
There was a reason why Boris Johnson suggested sending all the RAF’s strike aircraft to Ukraine. There’s nothing they can do for the UK.
Twice in 2022, at NATO committees, the UK was asked to stand down, i.e. stop posturing, and rebuild, but it was too embarrassing to do so.
Twice in 2022, at NATO committees, the UK was asked to stand down, i.e. stop posturing, and rebuild, but it was too embarrassing to do so.
Would you happen to have sources or links on that, Colonel?
Thanks in advance, if you do. I could do a search on that, but while it’s probably out there somewhere it’ll likely be buried deep and under obfuscatory language, and I might miss it.
If you only pay attention to the direct quotes, and not the silly characterization, he by no means says that they are “ready” to fight tonight or at any other time in the short term. What he says is that if the army were ordered to fight tonight it would do do. Which really says no more than that the army will follow orders.
Overall, he doesn’t paint a terribly pretty picture of readiness.
What you say is reasonable to the point of being true. Imagine, a middle aged officer in the current Brit. army could have had a grand father involved in the invasion of Russia (by the Brits, French and Americans) in 1918-19.
Like grandfather like son.
It’s only a certain segment of the British Establishment that is anti-Russia. Unfortunately it is mostly the military-industrial complex part.
Do the British Elites harbor any residual anti-Russianism left over from the Great Game days of Britain’s Empire competing with the Czarist Empire over who would rule Central Asia and maybe ultimately India itself?
If they do, wouldn’t that make Brito-Elite antirussianism more widespread in the Halls of Power and Privilege than just mostly among the military-industrial complex part?
Are you implying that their Great Game is not still on?
>South Korea says Russia sent North Korea missiles in exchange for troops Aljazeera. So let me get this straight….Russia was running out of missiles, so it had to get more from North Korea. But now Russia, with roughly a million men in its army and is still having more enlist, needs men instead and has a surplus of missiles?
I know this is from Aljazeera but as to the legacy MSM in the US, it baffles me( though I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer), how they will sit there and cry about how they are not trusted all while claiming to be guardians of the TRUTH, while really being nothing more than stenographers for the DOD/MIC/think tanks, and not realize that the internet now gives up options to receive news from ALL around the world and from different points of view and perspectives. Plus the ability to easily look back at their reporting. No reflecting on their BS?
Remember these blasts from the past?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/11/russia-sanctions-effect-military/
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-says-russia-using-chips-from-dishwashers-in-tanks-sanctions-2022-5
Actually just two weeks ago
https://theweek.com/briefing/1013495/why-the-russian-army-just-isnt-very-good
How about this story from a day or so ago-
‘Russia needs a peace deal soon as it is running out of soldiers’
https://theconversation.com/russia-needs-a-peace-deal-soon-as-it-is-running-out-of-soldiers-244305
Exactly. From the article Mr. Rev Kev,
>For Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump’s win couldn’t come soon enough. Putin may reportedly accept a deal where Moscow gains significant territory in Ukraine (about the size of the US state of Virginia) and Ukraine remains neutral and forgets about any plans to join Nato or the EU.
I’m surprised the author didn’t mention that along with Trump, having Putin lackey Tulsi Gabbard in charge of DNI being a plus fro Putin as well.
I wonder how these Russian hating warmongers explain away the photos of the massive increases in size of military cemeteries in Ukraine over the last couple of years.
I believe Simplicious had it but could be wrong.
Interestingly, google increase in Ukraine military cemeteries and the hits come back with the increase in Russian military cemeteries.
Dump google!
Well, the professor who wrote that nice piece did use “academic rigour” to select only information available in western MSM to build her argument. It is a quality example of The Narrative that allows the support for the war to continue.
Of course, she’s is right in saying that peace is in Russia’s interest. Maybe, as an academic, she some day will do research to find out if the war itself was in Russia’s interest, and what was done to avoid it and by whom…
What I liked best about that headline was the barter. What’s the rate on DPRK soldiers to RF missiles?
After witnessing a year of Biden backed genocide in Gaza and Biden backed liquidation of the entire Ukrainian male population, I have zero compassion to spare for TDS fools.
To say nothing of the magically disappearing Pandemic, which under Biden killed 800,000 Americans and counting.
No, that is all somehow Trump’s fault. And the vaccines are great even though Trump is responsible for those except when they cause vaccine hesitancy, which is also Trump’s fault. Just like the continuing slaughter in Gaza is Trump’s fault, even though Biden is still president. Which makes sense because the border problems we have today are also Trump’s fault for not supporting legislationthat was proposed and negotiated during the Biden administration. If the sun doesn’t rise tomorrow, that is probably Trump’s fault too. But if it’s only an eclipse and people begin to fear science because of it that will be because of Trump too.
In short, for now and always, orange man bad. Amen.
It could be normalcy bias but I just don’t pay attention to the sabre-rattling anymore. Global capital is not going to risk the real estate market and push the buttons.
So RU has a new IRBM. Who cares.
I’m pretty sure Capital learned its lesson after WW2: keep conflicts local and cash flow global.
I am concerned that you are wrong. I’ve started to think about this situation as new money vs. old money. New money needs the status quo. New money enabled Trump. Old money will do just fine when the world blows up. So why not escalate now while we still have a chance against Russia and China? We’ll only be weaker and poorer tomorrow…
https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/attorney-general-todd-rokita-investigating-suspected-human-labor-trafficking-at-indiana-companies-tyson-foods-logansport/531-cf0834d0-6b0f-46e4-a5a1-caab680da1bb
“What we suspect is that businesses, in conjunction with nonprofit entities, are incentivizing, acting like magnets for these illegal aliens as they come over the border to place them in low paying work or otherwise engage in labor trafficking,” said Rokita. (What nonsense….)
Our fine AG in Indiana is already starting….and using an obscure law to do it too
Even sending document requests to catholic non-profits
Rokita is a rare beacon of hope, and should be joined by so many other State AGs. How soon will the latter join in?
What are readers seeing in their states?
Here in the Carolinas I would be mighty impressed if a current AG or possibly a recently elected AG is going to pursue a similar effort. North Carolina is my native state, and I’ll tell you the eastern portion of NC is large livestock farm centric once out closer to the boon docks as it were. It’s not Tyson necessarily but big pork wields heavy influence.
Kudos to the first mover there in Indiana, I’ll suggest these instances as presented from the above posting on X, are more widespread than previously understood or imagined. Free Markets loves cheaper labor!
LONDON
A senior official in the British army said Thursday that his troops are ready to fight if asked amid rising tensions in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“If the British Army was asked to fight tonight, it would fight tonight,” deputy chief of the UK Defense Staff Rob Magowan said at a defense committee session in the House of Commons.
The British establishment either believes, and is just too stupid to realise how unrealistic this assessment is, or it is lying for lying’s sake. Talk to people shopping, or listen to pub gossip, or just WharsApp a few friends, and it is obvious that ordinary folk have less rosy view of reality and will not take kindly to being forced to put British boots on the ground in a war against Russia, particularlywhen Russia has a deep technological edge and can strike any city, town, military establishment or administrative or political centre at will. We already have too many unfilled potholes in our streets and roads. And the spilling of British blood is not a price worth paying to get a few thousand more.
That is reminiscent of the French general staff asserting, just before the 1870 war against Prussia broke out, that they were so ready that not a single button was lacking from the gaiters of their soldiers.
Meanwhile, as a linked article above discusses, “The UK will save £500m by scrapping old military equipment early, the defence secretary has announced, despite a warning that the UK faces increasing global threats.”
Besides, what the UK Defence Staff stated:
“If the British Army was asked to fight tonight, it would fight tonight”
means exactly what it states: the British army would fight tonight, but nothing is said about continuing the fight tomorrow morning…
About a year or so ago I heard that they only had enough ammo for about five days of fighting. And since then I bet that even more of those stocks have been shipped to the Ukraine. This is what you get when you have champagne ambitions on a beer budget.
Inflation there, too. Now budgeting cask ales.
Thank you, Rev. That’s correct. I love your characterisation. It’s on the money.
Winter fuel payments cut makes sense, Starmer says BBC
“The prime minister has insisted it “makes sense” to cut winter fuel payments to millions of pensioners, as he was pressed on the change in a series of BBC local radio interviews in Downing Street.
“Sir Keir Starmer was repeatedly asked why he was “picking a fight” with pensioners, and about warnings that more would fall into poverty as a result and that some would die.”
Well, what’s the loss a few thousand pensioners compared to giving the Yukkies the means to kill a couple more Ruskies?
Starmer is quite the nadless puppet, imo. But that’s just me. / ;)
And no, you won’t find the slang term ‘nadless’ on a goog lookup.
You would be surprised what’s on urban dictionary but, in case context isn’t clear for the non-Left Pondians, ‘nads is the scientifically accurate British schoolboy abbreviation for gonads. Very droll to see it here. Brava!
I see your nads and raise you goolies (which I have always assumed is the go’ yin to the ‘nads yang but I’ve no proof)
After Starmer cut winter fuel money for pensions, it was also the BBC that ran cover for him by featuring a story how pensioners were only using that money for overseas holidays or money for the grand kids. It was as vile as it was outrageous what the BBC did-
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gegy4r9ndo
The current BBC is also nadless, imo.
Most views are always against boots on the ground for some far away conflict. It’s been that way before every big war.
How do peace loving people KEEP it that way? That is the question…
Crimean War redux? Except that in this case UK navy cannot get in the Black Sea. Choo-choo train? One reason for the Dniepr bridges to be blown up… Sooo many women to console in Ukraine…
The idea that you can just leave your car overnight at public charging stations without a queue where each person takes three hours just makes absolutely no sense to me logistically, at least for anyone living in anything like a city.
A prior rough example is those rent-a-bikes in Paris, where demand and supply were mismatched. Bikes returned in tourist destinations, out of desperation, to be parked just near their little racks. What kept those from being, uh, requisitioned?
The car charging stations might meet some modeled average demand. What happens when you really need that charged car to get to a job, the hospital or wherever, and the stations are full or out of order? Or when some politician hogs stations for some event, as happened in the US. A new type of event risk.
What a relief that Mayo Pete has all that charging station budget available. /s
Charging stations are set up as fast chargers at the moment, so the expectation is that you get a significant charge in say half an hour. If that is at 50kW rate, and the power capacity available is 1MW, then 20 stations.
The systems could be set up with 200 stations for overnight charging with the same 1MW capacity, switching around the occupied slots to triage the cars and ensure that they all have similar charge percentages at say 2am.
A work colleague has a tesla s with free super charging grandfathered into the car. He spends every work lunch at the nearest supercharger.
In a sensible place, where the government can’t be bought, we would be producing electric cars with easily swapped batteries. That still might be problematic for longer distances, but in urban and suburban areas it would be far more efficient, cheaper and consumer friendly than our version. This is especially true if we really wanted to make EVs a reasonable replacement for gasoline powered vehicles.
But we don’t live in such a place. We live in a place where much of Tesla’s future depends on expensive replacement batteries and the technology really isn’t shared. Yeah, I do believe much of this idiocy can be laid directly at the feet of Musk.
Rather ironic that we now want electric vehicles, and maybe self driving ones, and ones you don’t need to charge regularly, and ones with their own dedicated lanes so as not to interfere with other traffic.
We had electric trolleys over a hundred years ago that did all that.
sensible like this…………..in China? – takes 10 minutes
https://x.com/JRUrbaneNetwork/status/1776920400531959864
This is the question that never gets asked about public charging stations. It’s pretty rare that you want to go somewhere, but it’s optional. Usually you are traveling with the expectation that you are going to arrive at an expected time. Tourists may be the only users of electric vehicles who don’t really care if they can travel at the expected time or not. Residents generally are going places they need to go.
My employer put in charging stations at work, but it quickly became clear that employees couldn’t count on them being available and so commuting via an EV did not work.
Seems like the only arrangement that’s practical for an electric vehicle is to have your own private charging station at home, and plan on charging your vehicle at night. I don’t know what percentage of the population can do this. 1/3? Less?
https://english.news.cn/20241103/bb6c82b3244741d0bf4189804ce949f7/c.html
November 3, 2024
China reports sharp increase in EV charging facilities
BEIJING — The number of charging piles for electric vehicles (EV) in China reached 11.43 million as of the end of September this year, marking an increase of 49.6 percent from a year ago, latest government data showed.
Among them, around 3.33 million were public charging facilities while 8.1 million were private, according to National Energy Administration data.
Based on a total stock of 28.09 million registered new energy vehicles in the country at present, there is one charging pile for every 2.46 vehicles, the data showed.
In the first nine months of 2024, the country reported a net increase of 2.84 million charging piles, while the charging amount for vehicles totaled 66.67 billion kWh, up 12.4 percent year on year, the data showed…
re:
Newly identified chemical in drinking water is likely in many homes and could be toxic, study find- NBC
“The newly identified substance, named “chloronitramide anion,” is produced when water is treated with chloramine, a chemical formed by mixing chlorine and ammonia. Chloramine is often used to kill viruses and bacteria in municipal water treatment systems.
(my emphasis)
Mixing chlorine and ammonia is in normal circumstances very dangerous.
“In case you didn’t learn while growing up, mixing bleach and ammonia can kill you. When combined, these two common cleaning agents produce a chemical reaction that releases toxic fumes capable of anything from a sore throat to unconsciousness and death.
….
“Mixing chlorine bleach with ammonia creates a chemical reaction that can be deadly. Sodium hypochlorite is the active ingredient in chlorine bleach. When it mixes with ammonia, chloramine gas is released into the air.
” chloramine gas can be toxic and lead to death by chemical pneumonitis. Chemical pneumonitis is inflammation that occurs when a person inhales material that is toxic to the lungs.”
https://www.verywellhealth.com/mixing-bleach-and-ammonia-1298711
Maybe the tap watered is safe when treated with this new compound. Maybe not. Glad it’s being investigated.
One of the persons asked about how long it would take to determine the level and kind of toxicity of that substance and then to regulate it stated that “It’s a lot — probably a decade of research once a funding source is found”.
Don’t hold your breath.
Thanks. I might get a water filter. / ;)
Chloramine is a common public water supply disinfectant which is very effective. Every method of disinfecting water supplies produced disinfectant byproducts which can be hazardous, but nowhere near as hazardous as (e.g.) cryptosporidia, legionella, cholera, etc. that could otherwise be in the water supply.
I have very little concern about these disinfectant byproduct chemicals, relative to the risk of untreated water. For those who are concerned, reverse osmosis is the most effective method to remove anions, and these systems need regular maintenance to remain effective.
Thanks.
One wonders if small to tiny amounts of chloramine can further react with various organic chemicals in water to produce various carcinogenic daughter compounds, thereby posing a chronic danger building up over time.
“French PM Barnier faces no-confidence threat from far right”
Going by memory here, wasn’t his party the one that scored the least in the last election in France. But then Macron turned around and made him Prime Minister anyway? If so, then he was always going to be in a weak position. And now he has to ask for a meeting with Marine Le Pen to save him. So, how did that anti-Marine Le Pen coalition of all the parties work out for them then?
Nothing new here, and it isn’t the Right who are putting down the no-confidence vote, it’s the “Left.”
Macron did what any President has to do, which is ask the person who is most likely to be able to form a government to do so. No other group would go into coalition with the “Left”, mainly because of Mélenchon, and no other group would go into coalition with Le Pen’s party the RN. So the only option was a respected figure at the end of his political career, who would be able to command a sizeable number of votes, and who would be tacitly supported by the RN. Barnier turned out to be the man, and his government will survive so long as the RN does not vote against it.
The “Left” have been talking about a vote of no confidence for some time. If they combined forces with the RN they could bring the government down (not that that would solve anything) but they refuse to talk to the RN, and act as if they don’t exist.
It would have been a tactically sensible move for Macron to asked let Lucie Castets to form a government on behalf of the “Left” which she would inevitably have failed to do, but he didn’t do that. Now the future of the government depends on the RN as it was always going to do. It’s the fault of the voters for voting the wrong way.
Barnier is also tall :-)
Tall like in…”Up to Love”?
1:40 min trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX6gi_zK–8
(Just that comedy movie with Jean Dujardin. I had to laugh because in Europe there is indeed this prejudice of small French and Italian men. While Italians never engaged into that anti-male image in a self-deprecating way, French cinema has used it repeatedly along the known Napoleon tropes of some French Presidents. Which one is actually taller – Mr. or Mrs. Macron?)
And I quote *Ahem*:
Yet it is characteristic of this mindset that the Party is never wrong. Electoral defeats don’t matter that much: they just show that the population has failed to understand how to vote, and needs to be hectored further. Through some fairly sordid political manoeuvring designed the keep the RN out of power, the “Left” managed to have the largest single group of deputies after the 2024 elections, although its share of the vote was much lower than the RN’s. It therefore claimed to have “won” the elections, and ever since, in true vanguard style, has been demanding to be allowed to form the government, because, after all, its policies are objectively right. It’s the people who are wrong.
In re: the article about it being best to use Level I in charging your electric vehicle, the author left out the biggest advantage: Level I is gentler on the battery.
That is based on my six years experience driving a Nissan Leaf and then the Ariya and also it seemed to be the consensus on the Leaf blog site a couple years ago. Use Level I charging as much as possible and keep the battery between 30% and 80% charged and the battery will last longer.
Also, Level II is much cheaper to install if you don’t buy one of those thousand dollar kits advertised on Amazon. All you need is a weather-proof electrical box and receptacle from a good hardware store which cost about $50.
Musk buying MSNBC? Not going to happen. Sure, it would be fun watching all those heads explode at MSNBC but the numbers are not with Musk. I was reading an RT article about this and here are the guts of the article-
‘While it is unclear how much MSNBC’s assets are worth, the current market capitalization of the entire Comcast Corporation is $166 billion. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has a net worth estimated at around $314 billion. In October 2022, he purchased Twitter, now known as X, for $44 billion.’
With an ageing out audience, I doubt that MSNBC is worth $166 billion but regardless. However Musk had better be careful here. When he made noises about buying Twitter people were going nuts so then he started to back off. At that point he was threatened with lawsuits unless he actually bought Twitter which he did. But MSNBC? He would have to clean house like he did with Twitter and so may not need the hassle and distraction of having to do this as he has other businesses to tend to-
https://www.rt.com/news/608103-musk-msnbc-purchase/
MSNBC is being spun off from Comcast – along with multiple other cable channels. The Comcast Corporation itself is a huge media and cable and entertainment corporation. The entire thing is a market cap of 166 billion. These cable channels all together are a very small part of this entire corporation.
The cable channels being spun off – MSNBC CNBC GOLF SCIFI, etc – have been quoted as being worth a few billion at best – less than 10 billion for them all. I have read articles that since their ratings collapse since the election, their market value is cratering literally by the day. I think the spinoffs are certainly within his ability to purchase. I am not sure if they are being sold off one by one or the whole package – but the entire package is most certainly not 166 Billion –
That cratering of market value. Didn’t that also happen after Trump lost the 2020 election because the media lost their biggest money maker? Trump himself? With him being President again, you would reckon that their market value would increase because of all the news that he would generate.
But I live in hope that one day Rachel Maddow will find that Elon Musk is now her new boss.
The cable news shows did huge business after Trump 2016 largely because of Russia Russia Russia, pee tapes, and politicians like Adam Schiff coming on Rachel Maddow and stating – “I have evidence of treasonous behavior, but it is a total secret, I cannot reveal it” – then leading the audience on for years and never actually revealing anything but ultimately being revealed as a total fraud.
I think that these networks are probably even more aware than the public that their reputations are now destroyed and there will be no such luck this time with this kind of salacious tripe. Literally, the only people I know in my entire world who believe them now are what I would call the less than 20% who are cult members – and you just cannot run a network with that very limited audience.
I think the other big problem are off air clips like this from yesterday from their major on-air talent –
https://x.com/JeffnClownWorld/status/1860188318509727835
This is scary. It is leading to severe mental issues in the 20% or so who are still watching this stuff. It is a public menace. And yet nothing is being done to stop them from spewing this kind of stuff online. I am personally and professionally very concerned about this – I am seeing the results in the mental health of my patients. This cannot be good for the bottom line of these companies either. I also find it amazing that these people like Joy Reid are acting out like this – the paranoia of having family turn them in etc – when they were on air nightly spewing hate against the unvaxxed and applauding when the UNVAXXED WERE ACTUALLY BEING TURNED IN AND HAVING THEIR LIVES AND BUSINESSES DESTROYED. As is so often been the case in my life, bullies do not handle things well when the tables are turned.
This is not a formula for a successful media company. I will begin to take MSNBC’s humanity toward their fellow man AND their viewers seriously when people like Joy Reid are fired. But until then – they are going to crater in value. There is no other way.
> This is scary. It is leading to severe mental issues in the 20% or so who are still watching this stuff. It is a public menace. And yet nothing is being done to stop them from spewing this kind of stuff online.
Like what? And who’s job is it to police what Joy Reid is allowed to say online?
I know it’s scary and dangerous but I’m also into freedom of speech. So the best way to reduce the influence of Reid’s speech is to promote better narratives that crowd her’s out. I’m not the right person to suggest what that alternative message should be because I suspect people who inhabit the MSM political narrative would be disoriented by my view of how things work.
I agree – Joy Reid has the same rights that you and I and every other American. She can say whatever she wants on social media. But there are always consequences to free speech. It is part of the deal.
One of those consequences is that she works for a publicly traded company. A “news” company that is responsible for the content of what these people say – certainly on-air but also when they are speaking in their roles on their social media accounts. And sometimes, as has happened many times in the past, when the on air talent goes off the reservation in their private life – and even veers into harmful territory – they get canned. Like Keith Olbermann – he was canned – and he still exercises his free speech rights every day online – no matter how crazy it is. It is not just speech – how many times have people been fired because of drug/alcohol abuse, sexual activity in the workplace, etc.
In my opinion, the MSNBC and others engaged in deliberate deceptions to mislead the listeners. And that reminds me of Orson Welles’ s original radio broadcast of his adaptation of War of the Worlds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama)
Wiki downplays the panic that resulted and the reported suicides that resulted. Now, when the radio show is rebroadcast on Halloween, there are many many announcements – at the start, at every commercial break, at the close – that this is work of fiction.
Maybe MSNBC et al needs to make similar disclaimers during their ‘lets get people worked up’ broadcasts. They aren’t presenting real news. “The walls are closing in!” heh. / just a thought
Cap income. Turn media into state public entities. And allow for serious media diversity and guarantee for genuine freedom of speech.
Then automatically the incentives for any of this will be gone in an instant.
Because as craftsmanship goes, those people are among the worst journalists I have seen in my entire life.
If those were surgeons they wouldn´t be allowed to get near a hospital within 10 miles.
Take that sick TV-show “Morning Show”. Idiots who earns millions? How is that even possible.
Well, laws were created that very intentionally before WWII and afterwards destroyed any meaningful public broadcasting.
These are not phenomena and acts of God that overwhelm us inexplicably. Those were and are vested interests. And as such they can be easily identified, addressed and fought. Just like any other form of corruption.
Because that´s what it is. Its called “journalism”. But it´s fraud. It´s deceit. It´s propaganda.
re: “Turn media into state public entities. ”
Oh please no. The last thing we need is officially official public media broadcast entities, aka official MSM public narrative outlets. (That’s what we already unofficially have now, imo.) Welcome to Pravda, as they say. / ;)
Maybe it depends on how that’s done? I’ve seen some pretty interesting shows on local access cable TV for example.
There were plenty of wrong things on the interwebs 15+ years ago and nobody seemed to mind all that much. It was the advent of the big social media platforms and then later Trump being on them that led to all the handwringing about “misinformation”. Maybe the answer is to make sure no entity gets too much pull – not the government, and not big tech.
I wouldn’t mind a bit if social media ceased to exist today. I’m perfectly content with NC and the number of followers and likes I have here, which best I can tell is zero ;)
Have you forgotten that PBS and NPR exist?
Seriously, it depends on how you do it. The framework is decisive. You had a working info space in Germany. It´s gone now. But that was state-funded. Of course you won´t have safeguards against ideological penetration if the entire elite is all gung-ho. But you have to start somewhere. And in fact the integrity of state media started to deteriorate only after it became subject to social cuts and the destruction of labour. In a system where employees are organized and well paid and don´t have to fear job loss “US-style” you have a good chance of resilience against any of the attempts to hollow out state media. Mind me, but the Pravda-argument is about as sensible as Putin is a dictator because he won´t bow to our demands. And the French system proves that even cinema and TV entertainment are possible with state funding (while it is often argued only 100% profit orientation can create good entertainmnt. That´s ideological nonsense.). The US entertainment industry only works on the basis of imperialist structures which are of course provided for by the US state which prepares the ground for US entertainment products. And those acts of state pressure are state actions not private companies´ initiatives. South Korea was a case in point: They had an unusually high percentage of highly successful domestic cinema which offered little space for Hollywood. So what happened? Washington forced South Koreans to sign an agreement with big brother that forcefully opened up the Korean market by obliging cinemas there to show a certain percentage of US movies. That´s entertainment.
Joy’s presentations on MSNBC does make me wonder if MSNBC has been the modern equivalent of Operation Mockingbird all along. / ;) enquiring minds ….
Adding, Operation Mockingbird, per wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
This thought comes because I don’t believe Reid and Maddow, et al actually believe what they’re saying. They don’t sound like they believe it, imo. They sound like they’re pitching a line and checking to see if it gets any takers. Maybe they’re just hyper-amplifying some idea to get ratings. Or maybe it’s something else. / my 2 cents.
Yes, they are pitching a line (from the Blob) and are being well paid, aka they are the “takers”.
Yet note that wikifakea is the same as MSM but just more subtle. One can’t accept anything they write as true.
It seems a delusional yet fun bit of mental gymnastics. Musk needs to pay attention I’d presume to IDK, but Tesla, Starlink, SpaceX and the recent acquisition of X I wish to believe. And all those efficiency initiatives of course (\sarc) !
I’m guesstimating that these aforementioned channels are broadly a package deal….I did see the news drop this week on CNBC on the morning schedule.
If he bought it he could rename it M-Usk-NBC.
If he bought the entire Comcast Corporation he would be getting more than just MSNBC. Besides all of NBCUniversal, the additional items would include one of the largest internet provider companies in America in Xfinity. IOW, RT is utterly misreading the situation.
MSNBC is easily one of the weakest and least performing aspects of the company, even if they throw in another cable channel in CNBC, it isn’t going to get into the 10 billion category. I haven’t been able to find the numbers but this is closer to Tom Hicks and Bill Abbott buying the cable channels Great American Country and Ride from Discovery+. (MSNBC might still be worth a little more than GAC but it has been hemorrhaging viewers for years. And since Hallmark is now regularly beating both MSNBC and CNN on weeknights with reruns during one of the biggest news cycles I couldn’t resist the comparison.)
This is hilarious on so many levels. My favorite thought is this: the neoliberal, aka the Market is more important than govt and govts should be subservient to the Market, the Dem neoliberal good thinkers are being hoist on their own petards. Now they’re freaked out by the idea that the ‘wrong thinker’ Musk might buy their darling MSNBC. Wait, wait, I thought they were neoliberals? Musk has put out tweets praising Milton Friedman, the neoliberals’ godfather. / too funny.
adding: most all pols — D and R — are neoliberals these days, imo. It’s funny to watch the Dem side suddenly pretend they aren’t neoliberals when it come to one of their pet companys or corporations. / heh
Maybe these idiots can start a fund and buyout Comcast and have their own TV-BlueSly.
But banding together like that, that reeks of socialism! And then it would be viewer-owned! Can’t have that!
I guess TDS whackjobs are screwed!
He could create a SPAC and raise the funds by going public, no need to use his own. He didn’t have enough of his own wealth to keep Tesla going initially, was only able to with a public offering and driving perceived value. In fairness, Tesla value is no longer just perceived, is closer to its promised fundamentals even if not as profitable as it should be. So he made the promise, the investors provided, he built it up with the funds, and now it’s a formidable corporation, thus fulfilling the promised value.
Having said that, I’m not sure even Musk can convince anyone of the value or promise of MSNBC unless he has some ideas for connecting it with StarLink or something.
Economist Makes the Case For Slow Level 1 EV Charging
Perhaps this is mentioned in the podcast itself, but it seems like it should be more prominent that a significant advantage of Level 1 charging is that vehicle batteries will last considerably longer if maintained with a gentler charging profile. (NC readers may have experienced already that super-fast charging degrades phone battery capacity over time relative to slower speeds.)
This advantage is not just theoretical in my household, we have charged our 2015 Nissan Leaf on 120 for its whole life and our 2017 Chevy Volt since buying it in 2021. Every time I chat with owners of similar models they’re amazed when I report that we’ve experienced almost no loss of range. I have yet to talk to anyone with a Level Two charger at home who hasn’t lost noticeable mileage capacity over years of use. And charging overnight makes speed largely irrelevant, so installing a Level Two is just an expensive way to prematurely age an EV’s batteries.
I blush to confess that despite knowing this perfectly well I succumbed to super-fast charging on my most recent Samsung Galaxy and triggered a feedback loop where now the battery doesn’t last a whole day under normal use and I “need” to pump juice into it quickly. Ah well!
Trump disavowed Project 2025, but is now hiring people who worked on it?
You mean Trump lied? Surely not.
Well, so many worked on that document that it would scarcely be possible not to hire some of them.
Re IM Doc via e-mail. This is very sad this. There must be thousands or even maybe tens of thousands of such cases across the country over the past few weeks with even more to come. I suppose all those social media channels did not help by whipping up people into a frenzy over an election of all things. I don’t think that anybody will want to draw attention to any increase in suicide rates though, certainly not either party as it does not make them look good.
I’m a little confused as to how IM Doc is getting presumably non-public information (number of suicides in NYC due clearly to the election outcome) from a morgue employee–was the female suicide victim IM Doc describes a patient of his? I had thought IM Doc practiced in more bucolic settings than NYC.
The patient traveled there. As I suggested in the email, there was a fairly significant English language problem with the discussion I had. I am not certain of the denominator, nor am I certain if this individual was telling me things about the entire city, a single borough, the entire metro area or the state, or whatever it may be.
What I would take from this is qualitative and not quantitative. No idea how prevalent it is. BUT it is happening to whatever degree it may be occurring.
I have already stated in the past two weeks, I have personally dealt with less than 10 suicide issues in my own world, ranging from larks to very serious indeed. This is the first one in my world to have succeeded. I have had far too many others having all kinds of mental meltdowns in one way or the other.
So, it is happening, and we may very well never know the exact level. Most people do not leave notes nor do they give many clues beforehand. I have some degree of survivor bias, because I am talking through with suicide attempt survivors what caused them to go this route.
And now for the PSA – if you are having despair about this election – go and talk to someone about it now. Do not harm yourself. Do not isolate from your family and friends ( as much as your online avatars are demanding that you do so). Go and talk to you doctor, your clergy, your therapist. Get some fresh air, play with your grandkids, pets, or whomever. Go fishing. Go birdwatching. I have encouraged all of mine to go work in a homeless shelter – go work a few shifts in the animal shelter. Share the positive part of your life with the world. Realize that letting Trump v Kamala win and cause you despair unto death is harming no one but yourself. Realize that you have control over what is in front of you – take control – and do good things. Turn the internet and these insane asylum political shows OFF. The world is a much better place with you than without you.
One of your patients traveled to NYC and did that? And the police or medical examiner’s office called you as part of the investigation? My sympathies for you for having to deal with this.
I am guessing this person is not an undocumented immigrant or government employee or anyone else who would even have any reason to worry about Trump vs Biden/Harris. I really don’t understand what could be the concern of someone like that.
I just came up with the most awful murder mystery plot. A killer targeting affluent MSNBC senior citizens, and making them look like suicide. Maybe a foundation trying to speed up those bequests…
Amen
Very good Big Serge on Nelson. We the once sailing ship obsessed know only some of this history.
And if I may plug a movie while at it, check out That Hamilton Woman next time it is on TCM. Olivier plays Nelson and his wife Vivien Leigh is Lady Emma.
re: Fugaku demonstrates the effectiveness of mask wearing and good ventilation in buildings Bill Mitchell
I’m fortunate to work in a recently constructed office tower which is extremely well ventilated, as construction was still underway when COVID became a thing and ventilation became top of mind. It strikes me that another way of proving/disproving the case for ventilation other than using super computers, is to track which buildings are well ventilated, how and to what extent, along with company records of illnesses. Hopefully someone out there is doing this.
Unfortunately, when people believe Covid-19 is nothing but a minor inconvenience, as in the U.S. they have been taught, masking and ventilation are beside the point. Who would bother to protect oneself and others from such an inconsequential little malady?
That one person in 200 or 300 you see with a high quality mask on and properly worn? Just some crazy hypochondriac…
This, following the end of Chevron deference…
https://bbklaw.com/resources/la-112124-split-dc-circuit-panel-holds-that-ceq-lacks-authority-to-issue-nepa-reg
If you are wondering why Genocide Joe decided it was time to attack Russia directly with ATACM’s and supply landmines to Ukraine, it’s simple.
He was getting even with people who had dissed him, Putin and Trump.
This is one of the common ways Senile Dementia exhibits itself, selfishness and self centeredness to a pathological degree.
EVERYTHING is personal, the slightest disagreement is a deadly insult and those who don’t fervently support whatever idea crosses their mind must be punished.
Dr Jill has been his enabler for decades, that lovely red outfit she wore to the polls on the 5th was a message.
So, expect more of the same, harder until he leaves office or the Earth is turned into a radioactive cinder.
It is no surprise to me that someone with dementia is acting in a demented manner because crazy people ARE crazy.
My hope is that some of our Oligarchs will take Joe off the board before he takes all of us off the board.
Did B make that decision? That’s my question. If not him then who? The committee, aka the team?
I agree- I don’t think Biden is mentally competent enough to be running the show full time. Blinken and Sullivan have demonstrated that they are competent warmongers without (m)any additional skills, so that’s where I put the responsibility.
Biden will go down in history (assuming there is any) as one of the worst US presidents, certainly the worst in my lifetime. Given how awful some of the recent presidents have been, this is quite an achievement.
The problem is he is competent enough 10-4 to issue orders. And he’s awake enough the next 10-4 cycle to see if they were implemented or not.
And lack of competence is no bar to being President. See Reagan’s second term.
While I think his presidency has always been a team effort, Biden is still an active participant, to some degree. He didn’t spend years missing the bouquet every primary not to walk all the way down the aisle now. Whatever his capacity, his will is still strong, so I agree with. In my family we call it Irish Alzheimer’s-everything forgotten except the grudges.
Kelly Loeffler as Ag Sec is a trial balloon and payoff. Trump move to incite as per usual. Jimmie Edmons is the best candidate “If you haven’t heard, we are very honored and excited about the opportunity to potentially be the Next Secretary of Agriculture at USDA…the extreme challenges we have faced and persevered. We are at a critical time for our soil, food and human health. We welcome the challenge before us at USDA if we get the opportunity. Long live the Soil our lives depend on it!”
Oct 16, 2018
Jimmy Emmons, an Oklahoma farmer and rancher, is known across the U.S. as a soil health champion. He is a strong advocate for no-till, cover crops and other practices that support the biology of the soil. In April 2018, he and his wife, Ginger, faced the Rhea Fire, which burned a total of 286,196 acres primarily in Dewey County, Oklahoma. The wildfire burned about half of the land they operate, creating a struggle to move their cattle to safety. Jimmy and Ginger share their story and their hope for the future, which is rooted in the resilient capabilities of the soil. Learn more about the fire and their experience at http://www.noble.org/from-the-ashes
Thanks for the link.
adding: had to search their site for the article. Good site. Here’s the working link for From the Ashes.
https://www.noble.org/legacy/2018-fall/from-the-ashes/
A little confused here……. So is he promoting/proposing Kelly Loeffler as Ag. Sec. or Jimmy Emmons as Ag. Sec.? Of course I hope Emmons, but I’ll believe it when I see it – just as with a tax return check.
Rueters reporting Brooke Rollins taped for Ag Secretary, more of the same.
re: Russian weapons are a hit seller Marat Khairullin. As we predicted.
Trump has Erik Prince and Elon Musk. Erik very likely has the same informed view as Marat AND has argued publicly that America can’t win wars because its MIC is bloated – Russia can produce all this advanced hardware on the cheap and a corrupt American MIC cannot, the procurement process is fundamentally broken. Meanwhile, Musk is an expert at economizing, of stripping complex processes and machinery to bare essentials, bringing the cost of production lines down to affordable levels, for rockets, at least, although not the cost of Teslas apparently. SpaceX is what NASA should be, and the model likewise suggests itself for the US military. The question then becomes can they combine and take on the MIC, or will they both have unfortunate “accidents” in their near futures if they try?
This struck me as even more of a booster piece than the usual US releases.
Right, of course. A large Russian army for stabilization. Doubtless an American army doing the same thing, both of them stabilizing for all they’re worth. The Sahel is going to be the most stable region ever!
No, that’s not how the US operates. They do not have the expertise or experience necessary to create large armies and use them effectively. What they do are terrorist attacks, color revolutions, diversions, covert ops and other such pleasantries. Unfortunately, as the Russians have shown, large, strong conventional armies are the only possible deterrent to the Americans’ MO.
“For example, right now in the Sahel region…”
There appears to be no such quote on the Internet. Please set down a precise source, or show clearly that it is only a type of sarcasm.
It’s right there, the second sentence on the second paragraph in the original Marat Khairullin substack article in the links.
The currant size of the Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso armed forces is around 150,000, and they do plane to double that by 2030, with the help of Russian trainers.
It kinda makes sense, too. There are three schools of though regarding fighting regional terrorism: one is to use high tech IRS and weaponry to bombard them randomly from 25,000 feet (doesn’t seem to help), the second puts boots on the ground and tries to achieve stability and control in the areas most affected by violence, the third thinks it’s a police/policy issue and uses law enforcement and politico-economical solutions to end violence.
The third option, of course, requires a stable society that can enforce laws and implement policies – so often road there leads trough the second option. The first option is basically a recipe for a forever war.
https://maratkhairullin.substack.com/p/russian-weapons-are-a-hit-seller
November 22, 2024
Russian weapons are a hit seller
By Marat Khairullin
In general, the Russian military-industrial complex is becoming one of the most stable and highly paid sectors of the national economy in the foreseeable future, a powerful driver of development with a constantly expanding, high-capacity market. For example, right now in the Sahel region of Africa alone we are creating a powerful 300,000-strong army under the command of a Russian general…
[ Thank you for this reference, which I had completely missed. ]
Generally when you see a thread beginning with “re: ” in the comments, like this one, it refers to a particular article in links of that name, and that’s the assumed context.
Developments in the north:
Cars burned, windows smashed at pro-Palestinian, anti-NATO demonstration in Montreal
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/cars-burned-windows-smashed-at-pro-palestinian-anti-nato-demonstration-in-montreal
I think there’s more going on than just support for Palestine. Has a touch of Battle in Seattle feel where the underlying anti-neoliberal sentiment is bubbling forth.
It is always good to ask who benefits from this vandalism. And who is harmed by it, PR wise.
1. Israel. 2. Palestine supporters.
Another example of this: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-21/cars-vandalised-with-anti-israel-graffiti-in-sydney/104628790
Most likely? Agents provocateurs of you-know-who.
An instant classic from NDTV:
This phrasing vividly sums up the United States’ attitude towards international agreements, and explains why the Russians consider us “non-agreement capable”.
@Yves – you can buy adhesive lead tape cheaply on ebay. Line an appropriately sized box with a couple of layes of that. Then, if you’re worried about Pb poisoning, layer some duct tape over it. Or, make a lead-lined duct tape wallet. There are many instructions for duct tape wallets on the net. Interposing some Pb tape shouldn’t be beyond a smart cookie like you…
This was the first year I got Democrat postcards in the mail, urging me to vote. Two were from the Democrat Party, from volunteers? handwriting about how important this election is. Three were unbranded, with the state’s web site for voting, and handwritten notes urging me to vote. No evidence it is from Democrat Party volunteers, other than why does someone in Seattle or Pittsburg PA care if I vote or not? Perhaps I fit the demographics of a liberal Democrat voter, although I registered as independent so that I can vote in either primary here. Mysterious.
I managed to completely avoid the deluge of Democrat Party fundraising emails this year, which was amazing. I guess blocking NGP Van email servers did the trick! Basically no text messages, either. Given this was The Most Important Election Ever maybe I’m finally free of this scourge!
I only got one phone call from a Republican, too, from when I was rage donating to Republicans each time a liberal Democrat candidate bothered me, and sending the donation receipt to the Democrat. Not that that was going to make any difference unless I started maxing my federal limit, ha, an expensive way to FU the Democrats, so I stopped that initiative.
I’d bet they were from volunteers. I knew two people who wrote a bunch of them to people off some list in another state. Theirs was a just go out and vote thing.
I know of a Massachusetts resident who sent 100 letters to Ohio voters to support Sherrod Brown.
It is hard for me to see how an Ohio voter would receive this well, someone from another state KNOWS that my senator is worthy of my support, as if I, somehow, missed this.
Good revenue for the postal service.
Brown lost, even though his history looks good to me.
Another former leftist lobbying (?) for a job in the Trump administration? (Taibbi’s recent rant).
If Donald Trump creates the position, I volunteer to be Secretary of Feeding People to Komodo Dragons. The first round of tossings into the lizard-pit will involve “experts” who still use grossly snobbish terms like “fringe” and “contrarian” to describe beliefs held by most of the population:
https://www.racket.news/p/its-time-to-redefine-fringe
Fun times. Amazon leveraging market power. I get email: “A provider is ready for you”
Apparently for “amazon one medical”.
Glad we’ve got ED covered!
And I never signed up for these emails; Amazon must be blasting this out to everyone with an Amazon account. So most of the United States. Market power!
Just got my email an hour ago. I wonder if I can add viagra and Ritalin to my Xmas wish list.
Got one for Amazon Pharmacy a few hours after that.
Nasty stuff.
Clearly AMZN is betting antitrust is finished. They might be right.
USA: Literacy Statistics 2024- 2025
https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/literacy-statistics
On average, 79% of U.S. adults nationwide are literate in 2024.
21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024.
54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).
Low levels of literacy costs the US up to 2.2 trillion per year.
34% of adults lacking literacy proficiency were born outside the US.
Massachusetts was the state with the highest rate of child literacy.
New Mexico was the state with the lowest child literacy rate.
New Hampshire was the state with the highest percentage of adults considered literate.
The state with the lowest adult literacy rate was California.
Where does the US rank in literacy?
The US ranks 36th in literacy.
That’s better than where it currently ranks on life expectancy, which is 48th. Just below Albania and Panama, at 46th and 47th respectively.
The Exceptional Nation ® — exceptionally full of cr*p, is what
Remember “Wag the Dog”? (1997)
I don´t find the clip but here is the script excerpt:
AMES
Albania…
BREAN
Yes.
AMES
Why?
BREAN
What do you know about them?
AMES
…nothing…
BREAN
Precisely.
AMES
What did Albania ever do to us?
BREAN
What did they ever do for us…?
(PAUSE)
You see, this is why we have to mobilize the B-2
Bomber.
AMES
(TO HIMSELF)
…you want us to go to War with Albania.
BREAN
Here’s what you got to do:
(HE GESTURES, “GET ON THE PHONE”)
Get your Press Office, Right now. To deny; There is
no report of Albanian Activity. They have to deny it.
Now, get the C.I.A.
Later on: FBI is pissed (the famous “job security scene”):
3 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwgPnYVg74Y
I need help finding an article that summarizes the main events in the (say) six months up to the start of the SMO in Feb 2022. This would include Russia’s public show of diplomatic efforts, the US eye-poking and insult responses, UN stuff, the arms shipments, Z at the Budapest arms show talking about nukes, and the rest. I remember picking all this up piecemeal. Do any of you have a handy link that draws it all together?
The NC archives are a great resource. Also, any search engine will have a date range option. You can use that but I’d stay away from Google.
This article is my go-to reference:
‘Now or Never’:The Immediate Origins of Putin’s Preventative War on Ukraine
I’ll try and take a look at this, even though I usually avoid articles that begin with “Vladimir Putin’s [anything]” since in my experience they generally favor the Putin-as-Hitler trope.
Thank you, johnnyme. Lots of good detail and references.
Jeffrey Sachs wrote within the past six months or so a comprehensive history of events leading to the SMO. May not have every detail you’re looking for, but it’s here as a guest post on Taibbi’s Racket.
https://www.racket.news/p/a-true-shock-economist-jeffrey-sachs
September 4, 2024
A True Shock? Economist Jeffrey Sachs Reveals Secret at Heart of U.S.-Russian Relations
The U.S. was advised toward a “Marshall Plan” to help rebuild post-Soviet Russia as a democracy, but a key witness says the Cold War never ended, because we didn’t want it to
By Jeffrey Sachs and Matt Taibbi
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1BGSc
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Russia and Germany, 1990-2023
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1BGSi
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Russia and Germany, 1990-2023
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1BGU1
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, Russia and Germany, 1990-2023
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1BGUj
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, Russia and Germany, 1990-2023
(Indexed to 1990)
re: Peace with Russia? No way.
To understand how those German elites think who favour brinkmanship and risking WWIII; who hate Russia, and who form the pillar of the utter pro-UKR-nationalism in Germany and who spread lies with fervor of the Spanish Inquisition – I present to you: Claudia Major.
Green house paper TAZ with a short Q&A.
These are the people who will never back off. They are true believers dishonest and delusional at the same time to the bone. I think Major is way worse than a Blinken e.g. MPs of Bundestag see her as a major source of wisdom. If they want to know what is what, they ask her. Not a Jacques Baud. Even though she lacks any of his competence when it comes to serious assessments. What Kallas is for the EU Major is for German “scholarship”. Peace with this kind of people? Good luck Vladimir. You gonna need it.
p.s. Yes. Whenever I see her I freak out. Because this one is truly evil.
“Land for peace does not work”
Political scientist Claudia Major talks about a possible peace in Ukraine and the danger of nuclear war.
November 23, 2024
https://archive.is/EM7ec
German original
https://taz.de/Politikwissenschaftlerin-ueber-Ukraine/!6048138/
I wonder whether Mrs. Strack-Zimermann is justifying her rabid anti-Russian views on the scholarship of Mrs. Major.
good question.
I have regarded Zimmermann too much of a corrupt puppet to inquire (wrongly so may be). But my time is too limited and valuable to dive into the minds of such genocidal morons.
Major is of course a person of authority for MPs. So it´s likely she is part of some action group there.
Her institute is close to the German government.
They are good in spinning narratives about the war in a hermetic way similiar to what RUSI does. Where lies are smartly mixed with half-truths and deceitful re-framing of actual situations. So that people who are gullible and uniformed will fall into the trap and start believing the hate PR of the EU. It´s disgusting if one starts to read the scholarship in Germany about these issues. Which is why I have stopped doing it. It messes up your karma.
There is a little bit that she happens to get right only to double down in the usual mistakes:
No. That is pure arrogance. Then she goes on saying that the solution is providing more ammo, more AD, more of the same thing that so far hasn’t worked very well precisely. But al least she could get one thing right. The Germans should look very carefully to recent developments and calculate risks. Specially with the potential delivery of Taurus and it’s use in Russian territory.
At the opening of her retrospective show in Berlin, photographer Nan Goldin — coming herself from a Jewish family background — stands up for Palestine, chiding German institutions for misusing accusations of antisemitism to suppress protests against genocide.
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/nan-goldin-gaza-war-neue-nationalgalerie-opening-controversy-1234724697/
She also went after Purdue Pharma/the Sacklers. https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/01/18/nan-goldin-sackler-name-museums-opioid-epidemic
Somebody posted The Bibi Files (2024) on X:
https://x.com/Kahlissee/status/1860337037573865825
If I save this, it will only save the link to the X post, right? Not the video itself. How do I save the video to a USB drive?
Correct. There are online services that will allow you to save a video file. Savefrom DOT net is pretty good, but I think(?) it no longer works in the US. Search for “Savefrom net Alternatives” and you’ll find a bunch of them. All you need is one that works in your region.
How would one save it onto strictly analog media for when a Carrington Event destroys every last digital thing?
About the woman who killed herself: Is her cat okay?
Not funny, Dale.
No, not funny. Mocking someone driven to take their own life is ghoulish.
Hitler was driven to take his own life.
Publishing images of ballots and allowing open access to each and every ballot while maintaining anonymity:
An Idaho County Will Publish Everyone’s Ballots to Combat Mistrust NYT archive
>After enduring a host of election conspiracy claims in recent years, Ada County [Idaho] believes it has found a way to restore confidence in the vote-counting system.
US elections are not as simple as voting for a single parliamentary seat to determine an outcome. As much as “hand marked ballots, counted in public” holds attraction, most US ballots contain many offices and various amendments or initiatives. A ballot with 30 or 50 of these simply doesn’t lend itself to a simple tabulation without paid employees.
Comments from the commentariat?
The bigger issue is the 36% plurality of eligible voters that didn’t vote for either evil.
In the latest example of Republicans get stuff done they believe in
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/23/us/politics/trump-tax-cuts-republicans-deficit.html
Doing the Pandemic hangouts thing, and this particular breakout room, the women, all women, are losing their minds about Trump being president. They’re gonna avoid the news, try to be zen, starting the holidays early, blocking any emails with the T-word in them, these women are all in their 40-50s, about a half dozen.
Trying to get a feel for the still-Pandemic crowd to see what everyone’s experiences have been.
I keep thinking that a serious analysis of media effects could be a good way to get some ideas about how we got to this. It’s not Trump himself, it’s that the media has used Trump as a way to literally terrorize people into this state of extreme TDS. That’s my hypothesis, at least.
There’s some real concern, too. One woman, a different Zoom breakout room, is a type 1 diabetic, and is extremely worried about what’s going to happen with health care under Trump. Life and death. And this is a legitimate concern for those that are working class, and can’t afford insulin.
The after hours Discord, someone said something offensive to a trans person, which is sad, and we’re talking about this situation now. Those that still take COVID seriously, at least in this small community, is definitely a collection of people at times outside the mainstream. There’s also a people of color breakout room, with ~ 10 people in it at times.
About 50 people tops on Saturday for 3 hours, though. It is a small group. Maybe there are other isolated groups out there. I’m getting a real education on what being trans is like in the real world, though. What’s most interesting about this group is learning about how other people are experiencing life. I’m pretty privileged, being white and male and having a stable job. Life is very different for other people. For some, Trump might have real consequences.
Shame the Democrats prioritize cowing the left, such as it is, rather than delivering for people.
Trumpers losing their minds on Twitter because surgeon general pick once recommended masks. These people are nuts. I hope they get what they’ve got coming. SARS2 doesn’t care if masking made you sad.
I agree, with the qualification that I also hope that the Legions of Walensky equally get what they’ve equally got coming. And the suppressors of and liars-about the knowledge that covid is airborne who operate at the CDC and WHO deserve to get what they have coming most of all.