Links 11/9/2024

Subscribe to Post Comments

203 comments

1. Antifa November 9, 2024 at 7:00 am

   In Palestine
   (melody borrowed from Draggin’ The Line  by Tommy James & The Shondells

   Starving ain’t living no how no way
   My kids all get skinnier every day
   Lives of endless pain in Palestine
   In Palestine (in Palestine)

   Bombs come down at crazy hours
   Our lives are no longer ours
   There’s no flour or grain in Palestine
   In Palestine (in Palestine)
   In Palestine (in Palestine)

   Kids are cryin’ our dinner is roots and vines
   That’s all that I could find
   My children are cryin’
   In Palestine (in Palestine)
   In Palestine (in Palestine)

   Bombs landing closer we all hear it
   Each of us knows to dread and fear it
   How can we know if it’s our turn this time?
   In Palestine (in Palestine)
   In Palestine (in Palestine)

   I keep tryin’ while I’ve got me and mine
   But we’re in an awful bind
   When grass is all we find
   In Palestine (in Palestine)
   In Palestine (in Palestine)
   In Palestine (in Palestine)
   In Palestine (in Palestine)
   In Palestine (in Palestine)
   In Palestine (in Palestine)
   In Palestine (in Palestine)
   In Palestine (in Palestine)
   In Palestine
2. IM Doc November 9, 2024 at 7:15 am

   The tweet about silent Trump voters.

   It seems to me that the underestimation of the Trump vote in the polls this year was as bad if not worse in many areas this year. And yet everyone is scratching their heads why this would still be so.

   What could possibly give anyone the idea there would be retribution for demonstrating your allegiance to Trump?

   https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-fema-official-ordered-relief-workers-to-skip-houses-with-trump-signs

   Yes, that is a Right Wing Conspiracy news site…….but as so often is the case the CT today are actually spoilers. Remember the time when we were all told the vaccines were 100% effective and anyone telling you otherwise was a RW conspiracy nut? FEMA has actually now confirmed that this happened. The workers were putting things in the paperwork like “skipped house per management – Trump sign in yard”.

   Accurate political polling will be essentially useless until this type of thing is taken care of. What is even more interesting to behold is the PMC bemoaning the misinformation that there is anything like this going on at all.
   1. The Rev Kev November 9, 2024 at 7:39 am

      The Republicans would be fools not to prosecute that Marn’i Washington after taking office because if they let it slide, the same could happen during the next disaster whether it be to Democrats or Republicans. Maybe they can fund a lawsuit too by those people whose homes were bypassed under her orders and denied aid and relief. This sort of thing you come down on like a ton of bricks.
   2. Dave November 9, 2024 at 8:30 am

      Polling has nothing to do with truth. They are engineered to frame peoples perception. It is human nature to want to be part of the winning team. If a poll can convince one undecided voter to join then it did its job. In simpler terms, polls are propaganda.
      1. The Rev Kev November 9, 2024 at 8:36 am

         Like that poll just before the Presidential election back in 2016 that said that Hillary had a 99% chance of winning. I don’t know why people pay attention to those things. After all, the only poll that counts is the one held on election day.
         1. IMOR November 9, 2024 at 11:41 am

            Intentionally poor and/or dishonest polling is partly about:
            (Early voting + discourage one side) x desire to be on winning side.
      2. Socal Rhino November 9, 2024 at 9:14 am

         Public polling has become PR. Internal polls not shared with public are used to manage campaigns.
         1. Dave November 9, 2024 at 10:14 am

            I dunno, seems like Hillary consumed her own propaganda in 2016. Galavanting around Arizona to embarrass Trump and not recognizing Michigan was burning. I think a lot of internal polling is about telling the emperor what they want to hear and validating that the highly paid consultant strategy is indeed working.
      3. ArvidMartensen November 9, 2024 at 5:03 pm

         Yep, polls are strategic weapons of influence. You game plan what you want, and then you create a poll to do the dirty work.
         If you want your supporters to get out and vote, then the “poll” says the vote is ‘very close’, ‘lineball’. Because ‘every vote counts’.
         Which is what happened with Trump. They most likely knew the true situation, although some of the voters said they hid their intentions because of all the sneering and blowback against voting for Trump.
   3. jm November 9, 2024 at 10:17 am

      Can corroborate that the kind of discriminatory behavior reported in that Daily Wire story does occur in the wild. Had dinner with my brother and sister-in-law a couple months ago. They own an HVAC company in a small rural CA town. She told me she assesses a “surcharge” on customers that flaunt their support for Trump.
      1. redleg November 9, 2024 at 4:58 pm

         That’s not unusual. I modify my billing rate based on how much of a pain in the posterior a client is, among other reasons, and I know I’m not alone in doing so. Personally I don’t base that on politics even though farmers and construction foremen are dominantly Republican.
         1. Glen November 9, 2024 at 6:04 pm

            So the very large aviation company I worked for was infamous for not paying it’s suppliers on time. This directly impacted me in my job. I would get panicked calls from suppliers begging me for help getting their bills paid. This is long after we had received their goods, tested them, accepted them, and put them in use on the factory floor. After a while, we would get bids in response to RFQs which were 50% or more HIGHER than we estimated should cost. It was directly because doing business with the company was so risky. (We just asked the CEO/CFO of the company point blank, and they told us.) It seriously jacked our costs up, and in some cases completely wiped out some of our better, much better, low cost small business suppliers. The massive consolidation of major corporations in America has just completely undercut real competition and is the 800 pound gorilla in the room with regard to why American small business cannot grow.
   4. John k November 9, 2024 at 12:14 pm

      Imo it’s semi official policy for msm pollsters to be biased for dems… if it’s really close you’d want it to look as if the dems probably won, possibly affecting court cases.
      Emerson was among the best in 2020 though maybe 1% biased towards dems, so I ignored the others. Looks as if they were one of the most accurate this time, too.
   5. Doubt November 9, 2024 at 12:54 pm

      Remember the time when we were all told the vaccines were 100% effective and anyone telling you otherwise was a RW conspiracy nut?

      I remember it being stated to be around 95% effective at preventing Covid-19 initially for the Pfizer vaccine, with both doses, and effective at reducing symptoms otherwise. I can’t remember it ever being presented as 100% effective or even as 100% safe. There were warnings that there were rare fatal reactions to the injections and I recall everyone having to sit and wait for for about 5-10 minutes after injection for that reason.

      FEMA has actually now confirmed that this happened. The workers were putting things in the paperwork like “skipped house per management – Trump sign in yard”.

      “20 houses” on the basis of orders from one crew supervisor who isn’t a FEMA employee but from the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t suggest a consistent FEMA policy directed from the top. One reason for the messages might be that they were afraid of violent reactions from Trump supporters against federal workers after false claims spread by Trump and his camp about Hurricane Helene, given that the bullet points in that list were about safety. While “safety” can be an excuse for a political decision, the point about Trump supporters’ houses in that list seems very random if it isn’t related to safety.

      There were “credible threats and incitement to violence” against federal workers, including “calls to send militias to face down FEMA for the perceived denial of aid, and that individuals would “shoot” FEMA officials and the agency’s emergency responders.” This isn’t to say Trump supporters didn’t deserve aid, even if the situation is a bit “reaping what you sow,” but it seems likely the message was motivated in some part by safety concerns.
      1. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 9, 2024 at 8:20 pm

         None other than Biden said that the vaccine was 100% effective. From Associated Press:

         President Joe Biden offered an absolute guarantee Wednesday that people who get their COVID-19 vaccines are completely protected from infection, sickness and death from the coronavirus.

         https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-health-government-and-politics-coronavirus-pandemic-46a270ce0f681caa7e4143e2ae9a0211

         Walensky also falsely said that someone who was fully vaccinated could not spread Covid: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/21/politics/walensky-comments-cdc-guidance-fact-check/index.html

         BTW the 95% figures from the studies were for the rate of Covid preventing death and serious illness, not infection. The Pfizer and Moderna studies did not publish data on whether the vaccinated got Covid. Among other reasons, they would have had to test everyone in the study group regularly, since many got low symptom or asymptomatic cases.
   6. ArvidMartensen November 9, 2024 at 5:39 pm

      And in a piece of attitude transference, this article says that Trump will be a revenge president https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-10/us-election-trump-triumphant/104580858
3. Wukchumni November 9, 2024 at 7:22 am

   I went down to the polling station, just to take no side
   I went down to the polling station, just to take no side
   Found myself in a Pachyderm landslide, yesterday behind

   Kamala on the Donkey Show platform, there was no brass band
   She pulled out from the victory platform, nobody raised a hand
   And there were no tears of regret from the runaway DNC train
   Train, train, train, train

   Got no side in my pocket, you know I ain’t tied down
   Ain’t no side in my pocket, never do sit down
   I’m just a fence post walker, where the political trains run
   Run, run, run, run

   If a pollster see me acomin’, don’t you waste my time
   If a pollster see me acomin’, don’t you waste my time
   ‘Cause there’s more miles between us than the Mason-Dixon line
   Run, run, run, run

   Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm, mm-mm-mm-mm
   Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm, mm-mm-mm-mm

   Cross-Tie Walker, by CCR
4. The Rev Kev November 9, 2024 at 7:23 am

   ‘MintPress News
   @MintPressNews
   In historic first for football hooligans, Israeli men got beat up so bad that their government needed to help them escape’

   I have begun to wonder about this whole incident and am now thinking that the whole thing was a staged provocation. Moon of Alabama mentions that they had their own Mossad contingent but yet they were allowed to go on a rampage in Amsterdam for a day or two before the match even began. During the beginning of the match they refused to stay quiet for one minute to remember those killed in the Spanish floods but were doing their chants. They were going out of the way to provoke the locals who obliged them. And that is what Netanyahu wanted.

   So you have the entire Dutch establishment grovelling to the Israeli from the royal family, the mayor and assorted officials. An Israeli official has turned up in the Netherlands to make sure that those arrested are severely punished. And the Israelis who were doing all that vandalism? Sorry, they were all taken back to Israel so are out of reach of Dutch law. They got a hero’s welcome and were shouting anti Arab kid chants which the TV news had to admit. Probably all IDF you can be sure.

   So why did Netanyahu stage this (in my opinion)? He knows that support for Israel is flagging so he used this to send a sharp reminder that any attack against ‘innocent Israelis’ – Netanyahu’s words – will be smeared with charges of pogroms and antisemitism so you had better make sure that you don’t criticize Israel – or else. And the Dutch establishment could not roll over fast enough for him and I do not think that those ‘rioters’ will get real justice as the Netherlands does not have a good track record here.
   1. Wukchumni November 9, 2024 at 7:34 am

      I’ve too often had the opportunity to see the Israeli tourist in action overseas, and onesy-twosy not so different than other nationalities on vacay, but the ones that were always the most discomforting were klatches of 5 to 6 males-all coming off their tour of duty in the IDF, hell-bent to confirm every ugly Jewish stereotype, and so it shall be done.

      It didn’t matter where you ran into these jackals of all tirades, NZ, Italy, Thailand, etc., they acted all the same-the worst ambassadors ever, unless you were looking to provoke something, nudge nudge wink wink, say no more Netanyahu.
      1. Joe Well November 9, 2024 at 10:39 am

         I keep wondering how all the Israeli backpackers are doing now. Already some hostels were specializing in catering to Israelis, but I imagine it’s gotten even more segregated.

         I actually spent a night in a hostel around mid-October last year. There was a young Israeli guest loudly playing propaganda videos about October 7, and in English not in Hebrew, in the shared lounge. I told him to use headphones and he seethed.
         1. Joe Well November 9, 2024 at 10:43 am

            Also scary because Americans in general don’t have the backs of other Americans abroad (and US State Department famously passive regarding citizen services), but in a conflict with an Israeli, can you imagine?
         2. Bsn November 9, 2024 at 12:45 pm

            I’m old enough to remember that when I was touring youth hostels, Americans would often put a Canadian patch on their rucksacks to avoid being hassled over US BS.
            1. Wukchumni November 9, 2024 at 1:47 pm

               I seldom see Israelis on holiday expressing regret over what their country has become, which gave rise to the Canada Man with Yanks, ashamed of being lumped in…

               Who can take an American (who can take an American)
               Sprinkle luggage with a maple leaf or two (sprinkle it with a few)
               Cover up with subterfuge and have a toque on too?

               The Canada Man (the Canada Man)
               Oh, the Canada Man can (the Canada Man can)
               The Canada Man can ’cause he messes with their minds
               And makes the world feel good (makes the world feel good)

               Who can take a sentence (who can take a sentence?)
               And end it in an eh (end it in an eh?)
               Speak softly and carry a big schtick?

               The Canada Man (the Canada Man)
               The Canada Man can (the Canada Man can)
               The Canada Man can ’cause he messes with their minds
               And makes the world feel good (makes the world feel good)

               The Canada Man fakes everyone he takes
               Its satisfying and delicious
               Now you talk about your identity wishes
               You can hook a lot of fishes

               Oh who can take an American (who can take an American)
               Depict him differently as seen (depict him differently as seen)
               Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream?

               The Canada Man (the Canada Man)
               Oh the Canada Man can (the Canada Man can)
               The Canada Man can ’cause he messes with their minds
               And makes the world feel good (makes the world feel good)
            2. jrkrideau November 10, 2024 at 10:04 pm

               I am old enough to know the flag trick but I have never seen it.

               OTOH, I landed on Jersey and was having a beer in the nearest pub back in the late ’80’s. My Canadian accent is not all that different from some Central Michigan and California accents, at least back then.

               Pleasant reception but a bit cool. The World Cup was on and I remarked something to the effect we, Canada, had gotten knocked out early. Much warmer response but as usual I had to explain I lived it Ontario and Vancouver was a long ways away.
               1. Bill Malcolm November 11, 2024 at 12:30 am

                  Almost standard practice when I did my backpack tour of Europe for well over two months back in ’71. I was a Canadian finishing up a postgrad degree in London. So there were Americans from France to Santorini with little Maple Leaf flags sewn on their backpacks. After a while, like the second day of thumbing free rides, you learnt to ask the person next to you sporting the logo if they were in fact Canadian. None were. Canadians didn’t think of or seem aware of that dodge. Was it a Whole Earth Catalog ruse? But what would be the point, anyway? Encountered no hostility except in Belgium, where the good citizens seemed to be in general against people thumbing rides, not nationalities.

                  I spent most of my time in Southern Europe, particularly Greece and the Aegean. My dodge before I left London was getting a short haircut, advised by a Greek lady communinist studying theatre scenery design in Wimbledon at their college for such — she was a pal of my girlfriend attending there. Got great service in the land of the colonels in Greece.

                  Entered on a German train from Yugoslavia that started in Munich (spent some money on that). A Greek woman in my compartment returning to Salonika from Munich with her kid was paranoid about Greek Customs / Immigration stealing her new transistor radio. I pretended it was mine, and officialdom just glanced at my passport, gave me the once over and asked zero questions. After the train moved on, the woman went up and down the train, and then there was a neverending line of people wanting to shake my hand! Food? You bet. I felt great at having done something small but meaningful. And the Greek lady was back in Athens, owned an apartment building on Platia Victorias (man she and her background were complicated!), and my girlfriend joined us and we had a free apartment for a month! She worked on a theatre stage production set! For Shakespeare in Greek! Got numbed out every day on ouzo, and heard stories about how the Greeks fooled the Brits when they shut down Greece under martial law after WW2 and killed commies on behalf of someone or other. The funny thing was, I knew other Greeks in London from “the other side”, one a visiting prof. Now he was a hi-fi nut, and so was I. So when I got to Athens, I contacted him and got invited to a party where hard-nosed men in suits were delighted to meet me! Scored a free yacht ride around Piraeus harbour. Now you talk about living a double life and nobody suspecting — it was an absolute hoot and a blast. I don’t understand the Greeks, but I love ’em as a people. Seem to be put upon by everyone, from their own government to the EU and ECB giving them the gears, but seem blithe in spirit throughout.

                  They still run the best family restaurants in my Canadian City. One old boy died about 15 years ago, and his speciality was homemade hamburgers in a tiny store / restaurant. When you sat at the diner longtable on high stools, only a dozen total, you got to watch him at work. And staring at you from a giant photo placed on the wall behind the grill was Prince Philip, wife of The Queen. He was Greek.

                  All this musing because of that little logo. Amazing. There’s far more to life than constant discourse on the USA, its hegemonic influence, vassal states and nitwit form of government when it comes to the practice rather than than the theory, that’s for certain.
      2. lyman alpha blob November 9, 2024 at 10:40 am

         Last spring I was in a Cretan taverna watching a group of 8 people or so making a bit of a spectacle of themselves and giving the waiter a hard time. When they left I asked the waiter what the problem was and he said one woman was trying to get her money back, complaining that the fresh squeezed orange juice she ordered wasn’t really freshly squeezed. They eventually left with the full glass of OJ left on the table and no refund. Of course the OJ was just as advertised – I had been eating freshly picked oranges all week that the taverna owner had given me from his own grove out back. Judging by their rudeness I thought at first they were USians, but I could hear them speaking and couldn’t place the language. Then the waiter told me they were Israelis. First time I’d witnessed non-USians being complete jerks on vacation.
         1. Joe Well November 9, 2024 at 10:45 am

            Umm..you need to see more Europeans in Latin America (far from most, but some…infamously wrt tipping).
            1. MFB November 11, 2024 at 6:34 am

               South Africans too, I regret to say. (I mean these days. Back in the day it wasn’t really surprising . . .
   2. Bugs November 9, 2024 at 7:43 am

      Imagine the reaction if say, Algerian hooligans engaged in such street violence in Amsterdam, pulling down and burning Israeli and Dutch flags, beating Jewish cabbies, shouting antisemitic chants about wiping out Jewish children. Accompanied by Algerian secret police.

      They’d be banned forever from aways in Europe and probably sanctioned.
   3. Lina November 9, 2024 at 8:08 am

      Yes.
   4. Anti-Fake-Semite November 9, 2024 at 9:16 am

      Makes you wonder what other pogroms and outrages are complete fabrications.
      1. JBird4049 November 9, 2024 at 10:34 am

         Let’s be careful here. The Israelis are great propagandists and liars, but antisemitism especially against the unarmed and the innocent is still quite real. The problem requires thoughtful observation, not knee-jerk reactions.
         1. chris November 9, 2024 at 10:41 am

            Exactly. Antisemitism is real. Unfortunately, Israeli actions to generally make the world a worse place are also real.
            1. Not Again November 9, 2024 at 1:16 pm

               I’d love to debate that proposition.
               Is it antisemitic to attack your attackers?
            2. Jams O'Donnell November 10, 2024 at 4:09 am

               Anti-semitism outside Israel suit Zionism just fine. I imagine they encourage it here and there. They have recently lost a lot of population to emigration (or maybe we should call it repatriation). Anything which makes Jews feel unsafe outside Israel is good for increasing the population.
         2. ArvidMartensen November 9, 2024 at 5:21 pm

            All behaviour eventually has consequences.
            My prediction is that the bubble of protection provided to jewish persons by their sufferings especially in WWII, is being destroyed by the Israelis showing that they too can coldly and enthusiastically slaughter civilians by the thousands.

            The generation in charge now grew up on stories of Auschwitz and Treblinka, and so will always bend over backwards to appease bad jewish behaviour (eg Amsterdam).

            But the youngsters of today will come to future positions of power after growing up on stories of the Israeli slaughter of women and children in Gaza. This will frame their view of jews in general, unfortunately. I think the blow back will eventually be severe.
            And in future the populace will shrug and say quietly ‘they brought this on themselves’.
            1. Michaelmas November 9, 2024 at 6:19 pm

               ArvidMartensen: My prediction is that the bubble of protection provided to jewish persons by their sufferings especially in WWII ….

               Means very little in the world outside the West already, because China, most Asian countries outside Japan, African countries and elsewhere don’t bear any guilt for Auschwitz, Treblinka, etc. 80 years ago in the first place.

               So Israelis are already pushing on a string there, as is.
            2. CA November 9, 2024 at 8:11 pm

               “And in future the populace will shrug and say quietly ‘they brought this on themselves’.”

               I wonder whether such thinking is a Western attribute? I have no idea, but wonder since such thinking is not reflected in ?Chinese literature.
               1. ArvidMartensen November 9, 2024 at 10:47 pm

                  Others call it karma
                  1. CA November 9, 2024 at 11:54 pm

                     “Others call it karma”

                     A fine response, but referring to the individual rather than the community. Still, a fine and important response which helps me better understand that reverberations will be long lasting.

                     Thank you.
         3. Big River Bandido November 9, 2024 at 6:56 pm

            antisemitism especially against the unarmed and the innocent is still quite real

            If Jeremy Corbin can be tarred and feathered as an “antisemite”, that word has ceased to have any meaning.
            1. JBird4049 November 9, 2024 at 8:55 pm

               False accusations are a serious problem, but just because some use weaponized, false charges of antisemitism does not mean that antisemitism does not exist.
               1. Joe Well November 10, 2024 at 9:51 pm

                  Of course false accusations mean it is rare.

                  If it were common, the ADA et al wouldn’t have to make it up so much.

                  Unbreak your brain.
   5. Es s Ce Tera November 9, 2024 at 11:01 am

      I think that one minute may be significant. It might indicate there was a mis-timed cue. Which, I think, in turn tells us the Israeli hooligans were responding to instructions rather than situation and surroundings. It’s safe to say they would have seen the big screen and noticed everyone else suddenly going silent, it’s a bit of a no brainer the optics aren’t good to be disrupting a minute’s silence for flood victims. So under what conditions would they have continued the disruption? One possibility I can think of is perhaps when following instructions from somewhere offsite, where the offsite minders don’t yet realize there’s a moment’s silence or why?

      Someone in the group was probably busy trying to relay this unexpected development and, due to delay in communication, it couldnt be stopped in less than a minute. It would be nice to evaluate some footage of the hooligans.
      1. JTMcPhee November 9, 2024 at 1:31 pm

         Really? What a crafted exculpation and apologia for these hooligans.

         Maybe they were actually Iranians in disguise, plotting to throw shade on Israel by some devious treble-blind Persian mind trick.

         Jeebus wept.
         1. Es s Ce Tera November 9, 2024 at 5:21 pm

            In what way is it an exculpation or apologia?
      2. Darthbobber November 9, 2024 at 7:51 pm

         You miss the fact that the Valencia victims were SPANISH, and that Spain has been singled out for some singularly nasty Zionist diatribes since the government’s decision to recognize Palestine.

         And the various minutes of silence at football matches don’t get disrupted by accident. It’s always a deliberate action
   6. Ana November 9, 2024 at 2:47 pm

      It didn’t need to be staged. Israelis really are just disgusting pigs. I can confirm as a Jew who has (unfortunately) had to have interactions with these lunatics when they come to the U.S. So much of the discussion of why “diaspora” Jews are increasingly turning on Israel seems to leave out the plain reality that many of us have actually *met* Israelis and realized they’re disgusting, entitled [family blog] who treat American Jews little differently from your typical antisemite (while often buttering up to rich goy and talking about how they’re not like “those Jews”). Growing up in fascist apartheid regimes seems to have that influence on people.
   7. bertl November 9, 2024 at 5:47 pm

      This is what the Israelis want. They start it up and when they getting a kicking they whine and call it anti-semitism yet they commit genocide in Gaza and want sympathy for all the horrors that they have created and been forced to witness and they whimper about PSTD at the thought of all the children they have maimed, killed or whose bodies they have crushed under their tanktracks.

      Unthinking and cowardly pro-Zionist euro-politicians and news media may try to cover it up, but the lid will come off sooner or later and the outcomes will tragically go far beyond demonstrations of hatred against Israelis.

      What is surprising is the total breakdown of law and order and that there was no attempt made to arrest them and question each individual about their roles in Gaza, the Lebanon and the West Bank before shuttling them to some underground detention centre whilst further investigations continued and they could be matched against the footage posted online. After all, isn’t that one useful function for AI?
   8. ex-PFC Chuck November 9, 2024 at 7:43 pm

      Per Max Blumenthal, a 14 year old journalist videoed the incitement of the whole affair on the part of the Israelis.
5. timotheus November 9, 2024 at 7:44 am

   Democrats join 2024’s graveyard of incumbents Financial Times (BC)

   The voting map of the five NYC boroughs, aside from showing that Trump consistently polled 6-8 points better than in 2020 most everywhere, also highlights the acute political and racial segregation of our fair city. Trump ran up 80% totals in some parts of Staten Island and the white end of the Rockaways while Harris hit similar figures in black neighborhoods just a mile or two away. Although we sit next to each other in the subway cars, we still inhabit different worlds.
   1. NotTimothyGeithner November 9, 2024 at 8:57 am

      The conceit of the 50 state strategy philosophy there are a bunch of potential voters who don’t vote, mostly pro democratic. There are GOP non voters too.

      NYC and NJ results aren’t likely much different than the California results in 2020, grievance voting. Those people are likely activated voters in closer states.

      Trump’s appearance probably helped, but his numbers in the polled states were in line with polling.
6. Wukchumni November 9, 2024 at 8:08 am

   Great triptych of animal videos, and wow… Florida Mandible!

   If one of the hair’m is in the jaws of a mountain lion, i’m not gonna go try and pry the cougar’s mouth apart unless I have a raised chair & bullwhip to counter it’s thrusts.
   1. griffen November 9, 2024 at 10:29 am

      Speaking of, this headline showed up on my recent headline searches…If he or she starts to chase down an injured Dallas QB, this lion might end up enjoying a “Dak Snack”…an injured hammy is surely an impediment to running faster than the pursuing predator.

      https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/mountain-lion-frisco-lake-lewisville-tpwd/3691886/
7. The Rev Kev November 9, 2024 at 8:16 am

   ‘tphuang
   @tphuang
   JD Logistics unveiled full suite of unmanned products @ CeMAT ASIA 2024
   Called Zhilang robots Includes handling robots, ladder robots & 3D shelves + auxiliary facilities like automatic warehousing, picking workstations & empty box auto return lines. Achieves HD storage w/ storage efficiency per sql of 2.5x higher than industry average. You can see the AGVs moving around w. box & then getting put into & pulled out of high shelves. This set of robots is already in use in Beijing Daxing Linkong smart logistics park where ~1m items from 100 brands are stored.
   ~100 Zhilang robots zip around entire warehouse to realize automated warehousing, shelving, picking & outbound delivery.
   JDL also plans to launch heavy duty Dilang robot w/ load capacity of 1000kg, great for medicine & consumer goods’

   And this is how a country copes with a declining and ageing population. You mechanism everything that you can while the people are still there for the transition period. With the savings you then help support that ageing population of course. Well, you should. After all, you can’t teach an old dog new code.
   1. Es s Ce Tera November 9, 2024 at 11:20 am

      Remember that artwork where the robotic arm must clean up its own leaking hydraulic fluid in order to continue to operate? To me it’s like that, only worldwide in scale and systemic. At some point all the automatons in all the massive warehouses and factories will slowly come to a stop. I already feel so sad for the poor things! Even before they were born their purpose in life was limited, their jobs were BS jobs.
8. bassmule November 9, 2024 at 8:25 am

   How digital life threatens our capacity for awe: I’m sure a a leading spokesperson for contemporary existential-humanistic psychology means well, but this reads more like another PMC finger-wagging exercise. I’m sure the people living in tents in my town could do with a little less outdoor adventure.
9. VTDigger November 9, 2024 at 8:25 am

   Help me understand, so money is now cheaper for banks, and yet more expensive for homebuyers?
   Do they want to end the real estate market? Isn’t this shooting themselves in the foot? What gives?
   I thought keeping the transaction fees coming was the goal in the RE racket?
   1. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 9, 2024 at 8:53 am

      Yes. Bank borrowing is at the short end of the curve. Mortgages are not.
10. JoeKraft November 9, 2024 at 8:32 am

    I am seeing a lot of opinion pieces about how “Trump can’t do this” and “Trump can’t do that”. Like, he can’t abolish the filibuster, he can’t stop the war in Ukraine and Israel, he can’t override the Senate Parliamentarian on spending bills, he can’t deport illegal immigrants, he can’t levy tariffs, he will be forced to tack to the establishment center, etc, etc.

    A common thread through them all is they appeal to the “Norms Fairy” as we call it for predicting what Trump will do, as though Trump got here by respecting the norms.

    Trump may very well fail to deliver on his promises but “respecting the norms” is likely to be the least of the drivers that make him do it.
    1. flora November 9, 2024 at 10:37 am

       re: “as though Trump got here by respecting the norms.”

       Or, as if Trump’s opponents got here by respecting the the norms. / ;)
    2. JP November 9, 2024 at 1:27 pm

       Speaking of ignoring the norms, this was on the times front page this morning but gone now. It will make for an interesting day one. Hi, I have no idea what is supposed to happen here or who knows what but I am your new boss and by the way you all have to sign a loyalty contract with the white house.

       https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/us/politics/donald-trump-ethics-transition.html
11. The Rev Kev November 9, 2024 at 8:52 am

    “The Return of Trump’s Iran Obsession”

    Hard to say What Trump will do about Iran. I suspect that he was goaded into murdering General Soleimani who was actually a diplomatic envoy at the time and then had to be informed by the Pentagon that if the US tried to bomb Iran, that they will then bomb scores of US bases in the Middle East. Well that was nearly five years ago and a lot has changed. Iran is no longer isolated but is part of BRICS so has the support of at least Russia and China. Iranian weaponry has also advanced and would be more effective than it was back in 2020. In addition, Russia has radar and anti-air batteries stationed in Iran to protect it which turned the whole recent Israel/US attack on Iran into a fiasco. Thing is, Trump considers himself to be a great negotiator and if he could talk to the Iranians, a deal could be negotiated as they know a thing or two about negotiating. Of course Netanyahu will try to sabotage any such effort with the aid of the Washington political establishment but Trump is not so naive anymore as he was in his first Presidency. He must realize by now how sometimes he was manipulated by people that he thought that he might trust and was betrayed by Neocons like John Bolton whom he had invited into his government. So as far as Iran is concerned it is an open question what he might do.
    1. DJG, Reality Czar November 9, 2024 at 9:05 am

       Rev Kev: Fatto Quotidiano also pointed out in this morning’s edition that Trump and the transition team are giving ominous signals about Iran.

       Some things to keep in mind:
       –Trump is likely still operating under the Israeli-sponsored delusion that the key to U.S. hegemony in the Middle East is wrecking Iran. The only problem is that the U.S. cannot do so, not militarily, not with “soft power” — which no longer exists in the case of Iran.
       –You mention Trump as negotiator. Americans are lousy negotiators. They simply want to impose U.S. ideas and make everyone unhappy. (I recall an instance in an article in La Stampa in which some Italian government minister slipped and said, “You know how Americans are.”)
       –Further proof of how lousy Americans are at negotiation: Biden, Nuland, Hillary Clinton, Blinken. And now Musk.
       –Personnel will be policy when it comes to Iran. I am not hopeful.
       –An indication will be if Trump can get the Israelis out of Lebanon (for their own good). I doubt it.
       1. The Rev Kev November 9, 2024 at 9:13 am

          I agree with what you say about American negotiations. These days nobody trusts America to keep any of its agreements or commitments – agreement incapable. Not Russia, not China, not North Korea not the EU and especially not Iran. The US has reneged on far too many agreements so there is no trust anymore. That is why I said that Trump considers himself to be a great negotiator and not that he is. I am just wondering if by bringing in an Iran hardliner, that Trump wants to play the good cop, bad cop routine as that was when he did in his first term with Bolton as the bad cop. Time will tell.
       2. pjay November 9, 2024 at 9:31 am

          I have seen no evidence whatsoever that Trump’s policies toward Iran and Israel will be any better than last time, and much evidence – like Trump’s own comments and the Larison piece – that they will be just as bad or worse. I would be happy to be surprised, but I’m not optimistic.

          Further, NBC News last night led with an extensive story about the Iranian “assassination” plot against Trump. It seems like the Establishment is giving the incoming administration cover for an anti-Iran (i.e. pro-Israel) stance. These days our mainstream media are literally like the old story about Pravda in the USSR; you watch it to find out not what is true, but what the government wants you to *believe* is true. Early indicators are not good.
       3. Michaelmas November 9, 2024 at 9:36 am

          DJG, Reality Caesar: … proof of how lousy Americans are at negotiation: Biden, Nuland, Hillary Clinton, Blinken. And now Musk.

          I don’t disagree. Still, someone who wanted to nitpick might argue that none of the above are representative cases, as they’re all mentally deficient in some respect e.g. —

          Musk is autistic;
          Biden is senile;
          Clinton and Nuland are psychopaths/malign narcissists;
          and Blinken — well, I don’t know what his precise problem is, as I’ve never been around him and don’t know anybody who has.

          All this is without getting into Trump. (In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king?)

          That said, one could counter with the question: what is it about the US system that not just enables but encourages the clearly deficient to rise to the top?

          Sure, psychopaths constitute a sizable fraction of elites in any human society, but — as you say — in the US they seem uniquely inept at negotiation, which means real manipulative persuasion alongside an ability to read what other actors what (Trump can do it, after all), and would be a tool in any smart psychopath’s toolkit.
          1. .Tom November 9, 2024 at 10:18 am

             > That said, one could counter with the question: what is it about the US system that not just enables but encourages the clearly deficient to rise to the top?

             The absence of accountability. There’s no downside to being wrong and screwing up at the high levels in those organizations.
             1. NotThePilot November 9, 2024 at 1:31 pm

                I agree completely, and funny enough, accountability is the one thing I’ve found I can agree with people across the political spectrum on.

                What I’m not sure is if most people have really thought through how deeply American un-accountability may go. I always think of Thoreau’s description of the serial bankrupt that just moves from town to town.

                Just my own personal opinion (and my inner Nietzschean coming out), but I don’t think it’s even structural or something formal that can be “reformed”. It’s deeply ingrained in the culture to give the worst people the most chances, and it will be until a critical mass of the society has fully jettisoned Protestant morality (even in its more liberal “humanist” form).
                1. JTMcPhee November 9, 2024 at 1:47 pm

                   Recalling the serial sinning of Protestants like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye and a raft of others. Do the dirty, then settle back into the “redemptive grace” pillow that has been fluffed up again and again, that protects these sinners and enables their serial predations and felonies. Of course the same mechanism got its start in the Western Catholic tradition… and one can add “bankruptcy” to the list of mechanisms of redeeming grace.

                   It also helps to be able to cry, to earnestly weep, on cue…
                   1. NotThePilot November 9, 2024 at 7:40 pm

                      Since you replied, I thought I’d just add, the Protestantism angle is a really deep rabbit-hole, but also one I think should really be pursued by anyone that’s into theory. It’s arguably one blind-spot that could actively help us understand and save (no pun intended) us from ourselves.

                      Just for example, I’ve felt for some time now that Luther’s issue with indulgences was based on totally misunderstanding their social function, which is weirdly similar to the “reification” Marx diagnosed in capitalism centuries later.

                      Bringing things full circle to Trump’s election, I’ve become interested in Emmanuel Todd’s theory of family structure (haven’t read him yet though). I wonder, is much of Trump’s appeal, despite being an awful example of family values, related to the collapse of the nuclear family (a Protestant type)? And if you’re a Boasian, who believes the environment itself has a way of preserving certain cultural patterns, is this the last temper tantrum before more native structures re-emerge?
          2. Mikel November 9, 2024 at 1:37 pm

             Sounds like a recipe for a cluster&%$#.
       4. NYMutza November 9, 2024 at 8:51 pm

          What the United States does often is playing games of bluff. Israel does similarly. Part of the bluff involves targeted assassinations in lieu of full scale military attacks. Both nations have to know that attacking militarily Iran (or Russia or China) would be extremely foolish. Instead, the men in the dark suits carrying briefcases will strongly advise color revolution vs full on war. It must be clear that there can’t be limited war when it comes to Iran, Russia, and China. Only full on war, which will risk nuclear war. Are Trump and Netanyahu that crazy? We should all hope not.
    2. Mikel November 9, 2024 at 10:53 am

       “so has the support of at least Russia and China”

       Russia appears to have a greater sense of the urgency of now. More likely of the two to provide some level of strong military support. China is still mostly preoccupied with what they are going to do with all those exports. If China were to supply a stronger level of military support, I suspect it would be stealth.
       1. Mikel November 9, 2024 at 11:06 am

          Then again, if the USA – still the leader of NATO – concedes to Russia’s demands with regards to Ukraine, I don’t know what effect that could have on situations.
       2. NYMutza November 9, 2024 at 8:54 pm

          Iran recently complained about the lack of support from both Russia and China. I don’t think Iran can count on Russia (and most certainly China) for any significant military (or even diplomatic) support. A few air defense systems ain’t gonna cut it.
          1. Mikel November 10, 2024 at 3:42 am

             I hadn’t heard that, but not at all surprised.
             1. Joker November 11, 2024 at 8:31 am

                Maybe because it was made up. Shoigu spent more time in Tehran than in Moscow, and it wasn’t because of his love for the chelow kabab.
          2. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 10, 2024 at 7:57 am

             You need to provide a link for a claim like that.

             Iran is unhappy with Russia over siding with Azerbaijan in a border dispute (https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/06/iran-warns-russia-against-siding-with-azerbaijan-in-border-dispute). But Putin made a special, sudden trip in October to a summit to meet with Pezeshkian.

             And why would Iran expect support from China? The Middle East is not a theater of interest for China except for energy. Iran and Israel escalating threaten oil supply. China might lay back to signal it want Iran to dial it down.

             In other words, I don’t see the reason for Iran to expect Chinese assistance.
    3. bertl November 9, 2024 at 4:16 pm

       From my own experience, it’s useful to bear in mind that experienced negotiators do their research, conduct psych ops on their audiences, but are incredibly realistic about each other’s situation, Their audiences are, for the most part, not realistic, so negotiators are in the entertainment business in which negotiators are not tiring each other but they are intentionally tiring their audiences and lowering their expectations until their audiences until they are so bored that the negotiations end in a realistic settlement.

       A part of the process is to weaken and often to humiliate third parties attempting to influence the conduct and outcomes of the negotiation. For Russia, the problem is one of trust and verification as Reagan noted. The verification mechanisms must, therefore, be a major outcome of a negotiation if the agreement is to be successful for both parties.

       The interesting thing is the Trump team are letting the neo-cons bang on and publicly negotiate with themselves and each other about the jobs they expect in the administration and there will be an entertaining finish to this nonsense when Trump does make appointments to his cabinet, some members of which will merely be tasked to wind up their departments in part or in whole under someone else’s supervision.
    4. Not Qualified to Comment November 9, 2024 at 4:25 pm

       I’d put my money on the proposal that the ‘just uncovered plot’ by the Iranians to assassinate Trump was an Israeli-sponsored, ptb-supported false-flag exercise to further inflame Trump’s three functioning brain cells against any approaches to Iran. It will probably work.
12. DJG, Reality Czar November 9, 2024 at 8:56 am

    Claire Lehman (“lemon”) twiXt. Revenge of the Silent Male Voter.

    So we’re back to the Silent Majority stuff?

    At the bottom, the link to the full article is at Quillette, and I am sure that in Quillette style, she is foaming at the mouth in oh-so-edgy conservative ways.

    A hint that Lehman may be off: “The election wasn’t just a victory for Trump. It was a victory for a way of seeing the world that many thought dead: one where individual achievement matters, where male ambition serves a purpose, and where great men still shape the course of history.”

    This is after she praised Elon Musk as shaping the course of history. My surmise is that Musk is temporary — after Trump brings Musk into the government, to oversee a budget commission about a federal budget that Musk doesn’t understand, and after Musk defenestrates Lina Khan and tries to destroy the unions, the Musk may dissipate. He’s a Great Man of History in the mold of Henry Ford, who supposedly invented the assembly line — and whose other antics we collectively now pass over in silence.

    Great men of history. And I am the Tsar of all the Russias.

    Every indication is that the election (as in 2020 and 2016) as about the disaster of the bipartisan economic policies and the endless war. But Lehman wants it to be about male ambition and unashamedly ordering steaks rare.

    The Republican elites are about as willing to reflect on their behavior and its consequences as the Democratic elites are.
    1. The Rev Kev November 9, 2024 at 9:05 am

       The Silent Majority? Does that mean that we can look forward to the 21st century equivalent of the hard hat riots?

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

       I still remember seeing a picture at the time of thousands of silent majority workers gathered in Washington DC on the Mall, most of whom were wearing hard hats.
       1. marym November 9, 2024 at 10:02 am

          Angrier that some college kids wanted to end the war, than that their own kids were being drafted, maimed, and killed.

          It’s a continuing theme in US politics – hard hats, Tea Party, MAGA – white, christian, patriarchal (men and women), working class/petit bourgeois who consider themselves (1) the true patriots and (2) the adversaries, never the allies of any other cause – anti-war, civil rights, voting rights, an expanded social safety net, numerous iterations of the women’s movement, and other identity-centered issues, climate, environment, etc.
          1. flora November 9, 2024 at 10:48 am

             In the 1950’s Army/ McCarthy trials, infamous for supposedly rooting out commies and reds from govt, academia, entertainment, and labor, the labor unions were hit very hard. Wall St. had been trying to crush labor since the 1930’s. The McCarthy trials were a way to push out leftist labor leaders.

             So it wasn’t too surprising the hard hat riots were more about demonstrating anti-N.Vietnam, anti-commie sentiment than anti-war sentiment. / my 2 cents
             1. flora November 9, 2024 at 11:13 am

                The anti-war demonstrators were painted as pro-N.Vietman, pro-commie radicals by the MSM.
                1. marym November 9, 2024 at 11:23 am

                   Taking on the mantle of the McCarthyism that was used to destroy unionism would itself be an example of hard hats not even showing solidarity with each other, let alone with the anti-imperial international resistance. :)
             2. Darthbobber November 9, 2024 at 8:04 pm

                The non-communist affidavits required under Taft_Hartley did the heavy lifting in shoving the left out of the unions.

                Many aspects of what we popularly remember as the McCarthy era had nothing to do with McCarthy and had enormous backing from cold war democrats and mainstream republicans.

                Groups ranging from the ACLU to the AAUP conspicuously failed to cover themselves with glory. I think it’s questionable whether the nation ever fully “recovered” from that era
          2. Es s Ce Tera November 9, 2024 at 11:30 am

             “Angrier that some college kids wanted to end the war, than that their own kids were being drafted, maimed, and killed.”

             Eric Maria Remarque in All Quiet On The Western Front observed that parents, uncles and aunts, grandparents, etc., all seemed only too happy to send their children to be killed or destroyed. Even those with experience of war invoked duty or honor. That so-called duty and honor needs to be exposed and attacked as BS, including patriotism.
    2. Michaelmas November 9, 2024 at 9:11 am

       Ignore the stuff about Musk and male ambition. Aurelien’s most recent is a classic old guy rant — and I mean that in a good sense, mostly — and makes some of the same underlying points more deeply and intelligently —

       https://aurelien2022.substack.com/p/no-more-heroes

       No More Heroes. Pity the nation that needs someone else’s.

       ‘…Our society today, though, with its presentism, its assumption of moral superiority over even the recent past, and its ideology of the ruthless pursuit of power and money, has no room for exceptional people except the exceptionally rich….

       ‘…If you accept that modern culture doesn’t produce heroes, role-models or figures for admiration and emulation as it once did, then why? The first thing to say is that Liberalism is quite uninterested in doing anything for its own sake at all, let alone well. Arete except in the limited sense of skill in making money, does not count. Quality, dedication, practice, even natural ability honed to perfection, do not count either. What matters is how quickly and how thoroughly something can be monetised….’

       And so on. Worth a read.
       1. anahuna November 9, 2024 at 9:41 am

          Those I have encountered who fit the description — of pride in doing a job well — are far removed from hero status, at least in the eyes of the world. They include plumbers and janitors, and by extension into long-ago memory, Black Pullman porters. None of whom required or received outside recognition.

          I never felt that their quiet dignity and self-respect were in any way related to a culture that worships
          the heroic male.
          1. Steve H. November 9, 2024 at 10:02 am

             Aurelien> ordinary people touched with grace.

             Dan Brooks> Evolution is survival of the fit and not the fittest… What is the fittest at one point in time becomes maladapted, becomes unfit, when the environment changes
             1. hk November 9, 2024 at 12:18 pm

                Kropatkin pointed out that fitness can be a “social”/collectove thing. There is much written about his views on evolution and those of Thomas Huxley who saw fitness mostly as an individual phenomenon. (Most of the stuff I read on tjis camw from SJ Gould, I think…)
                1. Steve H. November 9, 2024 at 1:28 pm

                   This has been an important paper:

                   Unifying Evolutionary Dynamics

                   The paper is short but dense. Long story short, Replication, Variation, Covariance. The covariance is the selection step, and while that can mean resource level, it can also be entirely social. As in, if you don’t have the right colored hair or ascot, you’re not reproducing from this pool.
             2. bertl November 9, 2024 at 6:18 pm

                Another way to put it is, “evolution is survival of that which fits”.
       2. Wukchumni November 9, 2024 at 9:45 am

          Nowhere is this more the case than with the generations that fought the First and Second World War, suffered the tyranny, poverty and insecurity of the inter-war years, and rebuilt the West after 1945. We could not do that today. Simply put, our societies would come apart under those kinds of stresses, and we know it. It’s not because we are inferior beings, or society is decadent, or any other frivolous excuse, it’s that our neoliberal societies simply could not do what our forebears did, individually and collectively.

          in their quest to make a heroine out of her, the main stream media constantly reported on how much manna Kamala’s campaign had garnered during les Cent-Jours-as if that was a yardstick by which things are measured, and their glee was palatable when she punched through the billion dollar barrier, she’s the real deal-SEE!

          I’ve been largely hero-less since Evel Knievel, but then heroes were in such short supply in the early 70’s, he was a natural who inspired punks on the verge of teenagerhood like me to build ramps from pilfered lumber at housing development sites in order to injure ourselves emulating Evel somehow-usually on the landing.

          Nobody knows anything now, if your smartphone stopped working, it isn’t as if you are going to pull tubes out of it and go to the drug store to test them and get your telly working again, we collectively know nothing about most everything in our lives and have nobody we know that knows anything, either.

          Open the hood on your vehicle and everything screams, stay the {family-blog} away!
          1. Retired Carpenter November 9, 2024 at 11:22 am

             re: “Open the hood on your vehicle and everything screams, stay the {family-blog} away!”
             Damn right. And that is a feature, not a bug. The powers-that-be do NOT want us proles repairing anything, “Green” be family-blogged. My first car, a 67 Dodge Dart w/ a 225 slant six, could be maintained with a set of wrenches and a screwdriver. Wish I still had it. A good one is 40k$+ these days!
             Retired Carpenter
             P.S: This thread reminds me of Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. I wonder if he could have written it today…
             1. hk November 9, 2024 at 12:23 pm

                The closest thing might be the do-it-yourself coder: very few number crunching packages on open source platforms do exactly what you want/need them to do, so you disable auto update and tinker with them, until you need to use other packages and they don’t work with your customized packages, or worse, your version of the software….
             2. Glen November 9, 2024 at 8:52 pm

                So I’m not disagreeing with you, but all the new engines have is a lot of electronic control systems, and all the required sensors to feed data to those control systems. Once you get a handle on the electronics and the sensors, it’s a lot like working on older car engines. I use to loan these manuals out, but got tired of buying them over and over:

                Automotive Computer Codes & Electronic Engine Management Systems (81-95) Haynes Techbook https://haynes.com/en-us/automotive-computer-codes-electronic-engine-management-systems-81-95-haynes-techbook

                OBD-II & Electronic Engine Management Systems (96-on) Haynes Techbook
                https://haynes.com/en-us/obd-ii-electronic-engine-management-systems-96-haynes-techbook

                These tell you car by car how to hook up a code reader and run the tests, and then also tell you how all the sensors work, and how to check those too. Code readers are pretty cheap, and the engines are pretty good at self-diagnosing faults. Go down to your library, and see if you can take a look at these manuals.

                Not to say that I don’t agree with you, I think you would have to shove lite dynamite down the carburetor of a slant six to kill it – suckers just run forever, and I don’t think new engines are built that tough.
          2. Rolf November 9, 2024 at 6:35 pm

             Late-to-the-party I am, as usual, but this is a great comment, Wukchumni. Thank you.
          3. NYMutza November 9, 2024 at 9:22 pm

             There are people hat know how things work, but they are prevented from disclosing things due to non-disclosure agreements, patents, intellectual property rights, etc…These days it seems many more things are under patent protections or other moats. Governments ought to sharply restrict patent protections if they are at all interested in fostering market competition.
    3. Eclair November 9, 2024 at 9:54 am

       The ‘great man’ theory is so …. American? Western? Capitalist? Libertarian? I am trying to think of a good label.

       Elon Musk. Henry Ford. John D. Rockefeller. J.P. Morgan. Bill Gates. Mark Zuckerberg. Jeff Bezos. They ‘move fast and break things.’ And make gobs of money.

       Thanks to them, the US has: more carbon-producing automobiles than people, are the planet’s top fossil-fuel producer (We take sequestered carbon out of the earth and turn it into cash! Oh, and carbon in the atmosphere. And oceans,) have made moving money around to make more money an increasing percentage of GDP, knocking out actually making stuff, and have just about succeeded in making constant surveillance of citizens (and non-citizens) a reality. All with a cavalier (some would say, sociopathic) disdain for the common good.

       What’s not to love? And why would any young male not want to be part of this group?
       And, BTW, the young males do notice that those ‘great men’ advocating peace and justice (and thereby threatening those with wealth and power) … Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, JFK (some would say), tend to be assassinated.
       1. flora November 9, 2024 at 10:56 am

          The counter to the great man theory is Marx’s historical materialism theory. I think both the great man theory and the historical materialism theory are true. They exist in a kind of symbiosis, or in a chicken-and-egg “which came first” way. / ;)
          1. Kouros November 9, 2024 at 9:33 pm

             In my dialectic materialism class in uni, there still was a chapter allowing for the role of personalities in history… You know, Lenin, Marx, Stalin, Ceausescu, etc…
       2. MaryLand November 9, 2024 at 12:03 pm

          The great man trope has been inculcated in American children for generations. Our Catholic grade school library in the 1950s had several shelves devoted to biographies of such men, and a few women. These standard biographies written for children started with the future great man as a child usually making money like a Horatio Alger character. Working hard, not having a childhood of play, was held up for admiration. On a nearby shelf were biographies of Catholic saints. In contrast to the great man biographies these personages suffered through terrible circumstances, often of poverty, but mainly religious persecution. Reading both types of life stories somehow led me to expect life to be more of persecution than Horatio Alger. Keep your head down, work hard, don’t expect to be rich or famous. Not sure if that was the intention of Catholic education, but it seemed to be the effect.
       3. NYMutza November 9, 2024 at 9:28 pm

          Why do so-called great men have to be filthy rich? What have Gates, Bezos, and Zuckerberg done that qualifies them to be great men? Nothing, as far as I can see. Will there be statues for any of them? Will airports be named after them? How about post offices? How about “The William H Gates Nuclear Waste Repository”?
       4. witters November 10, 2024 at 1:08 am

          The Great Man Theory of History is usually attributed to Thomas Carlyle:

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory
          1. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 10, 2024 at 1:51 am

             Like so many things, our modern conception of great men has been subjected to grade inflation.
          2. AG November 10, 2024 at 4:50 am

             Great Men?!
             
             “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”
             Laurence J. Peter

             To quote Churchill in “The Darkest Hour”:

             “You know–I have never ridden a
             bus. Never queued for bread. I
             believe I can boil an egg but only
             because I saw it done once.”

             p.s. There were plans well before Covid for a biopic on Einstein´s first wife Mileva about what an asshole he was and suggesting she was not entirely uninvolved with his early work. It is remarkable how thoroughly her story was buried. The concept of G.M. (Great Men) was outdated the moment it was propagated by Carlyle. It´s about as timely as ban of abortion rights and capital punishment. If it did serve a goal it was to cover up incompetence, genocide and mass exploitation.
             1. AG November 10, 2024 at 1:00 pm

                Caitlin Johnstone on no heroes in the West
                The West Only Has Pretend Heroes Like Spider-Man And SpongeBob
                https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-west-only-has-pretend-heroes?r=kk1hf
             2. jrkrideau November 10, 2024 at 10:44 pm

                I believe I can boil an egg but only because I saw it done once.

                Great men, poor men. I once was head cook in a jail. One of my inmate workers explained he had never cracked an egg before I gave him the task. He had some hopes of learning to read based on words from the chaplain and a social worker.
    4. pjay November 9, 2024 at 10:21 am

       I actually thought the extended Lehman “tweet” (or whatever) illustrated something important, though perhaps not intentionally: that like most successful politicians in our winner-take-all electoral theater, Trump represented many different things to many different constituencies. As the absurdly divergent takes on Trump show – from Hitlerian fascist to swamp-draining populist hero to everything in between – he is a Rorschach test. We see what we want to see. A lot of people saw something positive, or at least “less bad,” but for a variety of reasons. That’s what you have to do to win in our system.

       Now the reality sets in.
       1. hk November 9, 2024 at 12:33 pm

          That has been true for every really successful American politician, or even political movements, though. You build coalitions, the broader (and the more improbable), the better, the catch being the amount of effort needed to maintain it. (Thus the nature of “Congressional” government in US in mid 20th century, masterfully observed by David Mayhew, whose masterpiece no one in poli sci actually read, but always cites wrong.)

          In this context, forcing politics to “left-right” divide (a tendency since 1990s especially) is not only wrong, but a dangerous folly–it breaks coalitions. (Well, it made sense for Newt Gingrich, since he wanted to break the Dem coalition in Congress, and many others who hated it for different reasons). In a way, Trump is sort of bringing it bacj, but it remains to see if it can be maintained. (I’m skeptical, although I have to invoke my own “great man,” Sam Rayburn, whose analogue I don’t see yet today.)
    5. Anonted November 9, 2024 at 11:36 pm

       While I agree with you, what I got from that bit, once I got past the sycophancy, is that both things can be true. Trump and Musk are deficient, but that doesn’t negate what they might represent to their fans, however delusional. We may see Trump’s parlor tricks for what they are, but to the unwashed masses he is beloved, and however you might feel about it, that’s something. If we are to get *family blog*, it’ll be nicer with a bit of romance, eh?
13. ex-PFC Chuck November 9, 2024 at 9:16 am

    Re: “Trump is Eyeing Iran Hawk Brian Hook as First Foreign Policy Pick” – Dropsite News
    In view of the fact that the only thing the neoconservatives have been good at over the last half century is pushing other voices away from the foreign policy table (and at this they are world-class), is there anyone left on the anti-neocon bench that is under 75 years of age for Trump to draw upon, even if he wants to?
    1. nippersdad November 9, 2024 at 9:50 am

       Judge Napolitano routinely says that Trump used to call him over domestic issues. Now that he has a show dedicated to foreign policy it would be a good idea for Trump to give him a call again, if for no other reason than to diversify the range of opinion in his cabinet.
    2. Chris Cosmos November 9, 2024 at 10:03 am

       I’m sure there are plenty of folks “around” who are of the realist school. But political power (the real power, not “the people”) lies with the neocons because constant war and tension makes money for the PTB. I don’t see how Trump can avoid all that. At the same time, Trump seems to understand that the US military is in poor shape and needs to be overhauled and restructured while, at the same time, rolling back some of its commitments. The slow simmer going on now in the region of the ME is not going to favor Washington and its agenda. Iran and its allies cannot be defeated so this will be a big challenge for Trump and his own tribe of neocons.
    3. hk November 9, 2024 at 12:37 pm

       There are two obvious ones–on already in the incoming admin: Vance and Gabbard. No doubt there are more if I think a little harder.
       1. Polar Socialist November 9, 2024 at 12:46 pm

          Rep. Thomas Massie, possible future secretary of agriculture? Seems to want to prevent US involvement in Middle East/West Asia (and elsewhere).
          1. Not Again November 9, 2024 at 1:24 pm

             Putting a libertarian in charge of food stamp distribution doesn’t sound like an auspicious start.
             1. Polar Socialist November 9, 2024 at 2:54 pm

                True, but this was about foreign policy.
                1. ambrit November 9, 2024 at 3:45 pm

                   Hmmm…. Putting a Libertarian in charge of gun stamp distribution?
14. Jester November 9, 2024 at 9:23 am

    EU needs to become ‘omnivorous’ – Macron RT (Kevin W)

    Eat ze bugz!
    1. The Rev Kev November 9, 2024 at 9:36 am

       Nom! Nom! Nom!
    2. Darthbobber November 9, 2024 at 8:06 pm

       Surely Macron knows that all frogs are carnivorous in their adult stage, though some species are omnivorous as tadpoles.
15. The Rev Kev November 9, 2024 at 9:40 am

    “SITREP 11/8/24: Trump’s Arrival Throws Things Askew”

    ‘Pompeo, who some claim is now under consideration for the Trump administration given his surprise speech at a late Trump rally a week ago, outlined his vision as being that Trump would threaten total escalation with a massive “$500 billion” dollar lend-lease program to give Ukraine everything it wants’

    Does Pompeo even listen to himself? One of the reasons that Trump got back in is that Americans in disaster areas like South Carolina are being given pocket change while money is being sent to Zelensky by the tens of billions. Same with dead beat Israel as well. Now that Trump is about to become President, Pompeo crawls out from under the rock he was hiding under and suggests that Trump send Zelensky half a trillion dollars. Half a trillion! That would totally destroy Trump’s support before he can even do anything in office which may be the point.
    1. NotTimothyGeithner November 9, 2024 at 10:07 am

       The grifter economy. That is it. Trump is the doofus he has always been just older. So there is profit to be had.

       They functionally don’t understand the Ukraine conflict or its current state, relying on msm and our own propaganda. “European troops” on the border of Russia is insane. They aren’t negotiating from reality. Why not ask for 11ty kajillion acres of Russia to be handed over to Ukraine.

       It’s also 2002 for most Republicans. All these places are 2003 Iraq just waiting for a Republican to strap on a cod piece and tell the Pentagon to git er done.

       Republicans also don’t give a flying eff about any of their voters at the end of the day. They are afraid if them, but they don’t care about them.
    2. Camelotkidd November 9, 2024 at 11:20 am

       We can print money but not air defense missiles
       Meanwhile, Ukraine is running out of warm bodies
       1. Kouros November 9, 2024 at 9:37 pm

          In a cold winter, actually burning some of that money might be usefull… especially in Ukraine.
    3. ChrisFromGA November 9, 2024 at 12:19 pm

       If Trump nominates Pompeo he’s learned nothing.

       Unfortunately, I have to be real and say its a distinct possibility. Only prayer can stop it – “Dear God, may Pompeo have one too many steak dinners with a martini followed by an encounter with a skilled prostitute. You know, that old ticker is sort of past its sell-by date. Just a suggestion!”
16. .Tom November 9, 2024 at 9:42 am

    What do we think is the appropriate punishment for George Clooney?
    1. Jester November 9, 2024 at 9:59 am

       Make him look ugly.
       1. ChrisFromGA November 9, 2024 at 12:21 pm

          lol. Thanks for the laugh
       2. Mikel November 9, 2024 at 1:32 pm

          Makes me think of the 1990s Spanish film “Abre Los Ojos”.
    2. .human November 9, 2024 at 10:00 am

       Visible “crows feet” about his eyes.
    3. Not Again November 9, 2024 at 10:06 am

       A tax cut from Trump.
    4. griffen November 9, 2024 at 10:51 am

       During the week I saw a quite hilarious post on LinkedIn by a travel consultant. Posted a mere one or two days following the national election result, he was humbly offering the service to those who were quite public of intending to exit the old USA should Trump win the election.

       The listing was maybe 50 or more, prominently known celebrities like say, Taylor Swift and I think also her beau Travis Kelce…naming but a few.
       1. jobs November 10, 2024 at 7:04 pm

          Good riddance.
    5. Screwball November 9, 2024 at 11:16 am

       I would make him go on The View, but he would probably like that. It would be cruel and unusual punishment for most.
       1. Pat November 9, 2024 at 6:53 pm

          Make him do it for six months.something that can be amusing once or twice sours very quickly soon after, especially since after a month or two their “admiration” for him would also fade.
          You might evendouble down and require regular appearances on Morning Joe and Maddow as well.
    6. ambrit November 9, 2024 at 3:52 pm

       Make him star in a “reboot” such as “The Mask of Zero.” Or perhaps, “Transformers: The Shape of Things to Come.”
17. Useless Eater November 9, 2024 at 10:19 am

    I am very comfortable predicting that reduction of private jet travel is a non starter as long as there are private jets and people who can afford them. Probably a major economic bust is the only thing that could reduce it.
    1. chris November 9, 2024 at 11:32 am

       There’s lots of options to limit or eliminate private jet travel if we wanted to. This is a regulated industry after all. Forcing the high and mighty to travel in cattle class would be amusing.

       I think we’d end up with a situation similar to the bizarre future proposed in Bester’s “Tyger! Tyger!” though. You’d have people like Musk compete to arrive at a destination using the slowest and most ostentatious method of locomotion. “We’re here at COP32 where Mr. Gates has just arrived in his palanquin, and he is followed by Mr. Musk Jr. who rode to the conference on the backs of Asian elephants…”
       1. Wukchumni November 9, 2024 at 2:05 pm

          I drive a Tacoma-they drive a Testarosa

          I fly a 737-they fly a Gulfstream G650

          I sail the waves in a 927 footer-they sail a 417 foot long yacht

          …we all get to our destinations around the same time
          1. ambrit November 9, 2024 at 3:54 pm

             Yet many of us are stuck on the shoreline trying to figure out how to make the blasted torpedo go.
18. Es s Ce Tera November 9, 2024 at 10:42 am

    re: “Meta will allow U.S. government agencies and contractors working on national security to use its AI models for military purposes… ” Wikileaks/Slashdot

    FB is already so, so bad, epically bad, at targeting ads, content, at determining what people are interested in and want, and on top of that it algorithmically suppresses speech, thought and news, suppresses all attempts at political organization, so will never be able to get an accurate read or pulse on anyone or anything. What value is there? Nevertheless, this is now going to the 5 eyes and to Palantir, therefore also to Israel. They’re getting a version of ChatGPT which is wildly, wildly less accurate, I think we can say 100% inaccurate, and to think what they’re paying for it…

    But where do I sign up for this AI, because I want it too. This would be such a fun toy to play with.
    1. flora November 9, 2024 at 11:05 am

       “Meta will allow….” ? That’s so cute. Meta or FB or whatever is a US military created outfit. From Unlimited Hangout.

       The Military Origins of Facebook
       Facebook’s growing role in the ever-expanding surveillance and “pre-crime” apparatus of the national security state demands new scrutiny of the company’s origins and its products as they relate to a former, controversial DARPA-run surveillance program that was essentially analogous to what is currently the world’s largest social network.

       https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/04/investigative-reports/the-military-origins-of-facebook/
       1. Mikel November 9, 2024 at 11:17 am

          Shhh, Flora…they have to lay claim to being innovators of something.
       2. AG November 10, 2024 at 1:36 am

          Would you consider
          https://unlimitedhangout.com
          a good site?
          I didn´t know them, but a quick glance suggests so.
    2. Craig H. November 9, 2024 at 11:37 am

       All the aggro at OpenAI began when their mission statement documents that they were tabooing military applications got shredded. The new Board Directors has Paul Nakasone, retired U.S. Army general and commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director National Security Agency.

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

       Don’t be evil might have been the greatest bait and switch of all time.
       1. Mikel November 9, 2024 at 1:30 pm

          “Don’t be evil might have been the greatest bait and switch of all time.”

          Right up there with the Apple “1984” ad.
       2. witters November 10, 2024 at 2:19 am

          “Don’t be evil might have been the greatest bait and switch of all time.”

          “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is pretty good.
    3. .Tom November 9, 2024 at 3:48 pm

       > What value is there?

       If the government agencies and contractors using the features pay then there’s that.
19. more news November 9, 2024 at 10:46 am

    https://www.reuters.com/world/icc-ruling-body-conduct-investigation-into-alleged-misconduct-by-war-crimes-2024-11-08/
    Exclusive: ICC to investigate alleged misconduct by war crimes prosecutor, sources say
    Nov 8 (Reuters) – The International Criminal Court’s governing body will launch an external investigation into its chief prosecutor Karim Khan over alleged sexual misconduct, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.
20. Mikel November 9, 2024 at 10:47 am

    A ‘republic if we can keep it.’ Perhaps we cannot – Washington Post

    This is a bit like the weird statement I heard from a Pacifica Radio host I heard (a show called “Letters and Politics”) just before the election. I was radio dial scrolling in my car and heard the statement to the effect that “this could be the last election”. I kept on scrolling.
    Beneath it all, the DNC Party and their hardcore supporters would really prefer no elections – if they can’t have a predetermined outcome. They have zero toleration for ideological differences and, in many cases, actually deny that their policies and beliefs stem from ideology – especially like groups that claim to be Centrist or from “the center”.
    1. griffen November 9, 2024 at 11:30 am

       I skimmed through that one quickly, perhaps too fast but it bears all the markings by anyone devoted to the MSNBC or comparable outlets, the ones who are consistent and loudly crowing about elections, felonies and “Our Democracy!”… Probably looks the same or similar if the author was David Frum or Robert Kagan. Vomit worthy.

       Pair that against this article, featuring comments by none other than Jon Stewart…who unlike his contemporaries in the trade, does sometime appear able to grasp that 74 million or possibly more voting Americans actually see things in a different light.

       https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4981112-jon-stewart-trump-says-win-feels-different/
21. hemeantwell November 9, 2024 at 11:08 am

    Re Scholz and snap national elections, Wagenknecht’s BSW and Die Linke, polling at 7 and 3 percent respectively, are when combined as strong as the Greens, polling at 10. CDU’s at 32, AfD at 17, SPD has 16.
22. Mikel November 9, 2024 at 11:14 am

    The world faces its worst trade wars since 1930s – Economist.

    Nobody is against global trade. It’s been going on for thousands of years.
    More now understand the difference between global trade and globalization. “Globalization” isn’t accepted as the only way to global trade and the Economist ilk can’t tolerate such a deviation.
23. Mikel November 9, 2024 at 11:30 am

    Global trade remains in contraction at start of fourth quarter – S&P Global

    In short:

    “Manufacturing new export orders remained in contraction globally …”

    “While services export business continued to expand…”

    And aren’t services where inflation is the most sticky?
    Also, it’s never far from my mind that services include all the financial rentierism.
24. IM Doc November 9, 2024 at 11:44 am

    Elections have consequences – the rats are fleeing to the dark corners now.

    https://www.fsmb.org/advocacy/news-releases/fsmb-spreading-covid-19-vaccine-misinformation-may-put-medical-license-at-risk/

    I know this page was active just a few days ago because I have a colleague in a desperate fight and I looked at this for background. It is their page informing all that miscreant docs need to be delicensed and how they were going to work together in all jurisdictions to do so. All gone. I cannot find it replicated anywhere else on their site.

    I do not have a complete number of various physicians I have heard of who have been sanctioned, delicensed, deboarded, humilatied, screamed at, fired, etc over various stances on COVID. But the number is signficant.

    What the medical boards called misinformation a few years ago are now obvious facts. The lawsuits are flying and they are losing big.

    Unfortunately for the boards and agencies – they deserve every bit of this.

    Censorship is not only a First Amendment issue – it is also an arrow straight to the heart of the scientific method.

    The scientific method is what has allowed us to achieve what we have in our world today – the good – the bad – and the ugly. “The Science (TM)” has nothing whatsover to do with anything to do with science. Censorship like they have done in the medical sciences the past 4 years under Biden is one of the most supremely and insanely dangerous policies ever. I hope people are beginning to realize that this whole scheme was not about protecting science and the population from misinformation – no, it was all about protecting grift and corporate profit. The end. And the consequences of this censorship may indeed turn out to be earth-shattering. I can assure you – students will be learning about this time of intense evil for ages. It will not be a good look for anyone involved.

    The walls are finally crumbling down.

    Well, there’s some people – ain’t no damn good
    You can’t love em You can’t trust ’em
    No good deed goes unpunished.
    1. flora November 9, 2024 at 1:59 pm

       Thanks for this information. wow.
    2. .Tom November 9, 2024 at 3:40 pm

       I get a 404 at that URL.

       Edit: It’s also here https://archive.ph/KFLzn

       This came to fruition bot long ago. Certain MDs with a social media/youtube audience were booted for talking about e.g. the I-drug and the L covid.
    3. debug November 9, 2024 at 5:26 pm

       Thanks IMDoc.

       If you still need that link, the page is available at archive.org at this link:

       https://web.archive.org/web/20240624210802/https://www.fsmb.org/advocacy/news-releases/fsmb-spreading-covid-19-vaccine-misinformation-may-put-medical-license-at-risk/

       Also, archive.org shows that the page was taken down sometime between June 24 and June 30 of this year, 2024, as indicated here:

       https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/https://www.fsmb.org/advocacy/news-releases/fsmb-spreading-covid-19-vaccine-misinformation-may-put-medical-license-at-risk/

       Hope this helps.

       It is, of course, the case that some few rogue doctors need to be diciplined from time to time, but serious physicians who recommend alternate treatments should not be summarily censored and have their licenses impaired or revoked. We have endured decades of similar issues with doctors who treat Lyme diease beyond a short course of Doxycycline.
    4. Jason Boxman November 9, 2024 at 7:47 pm

       It’s not lost

       Edit. Never mind everyone else did way back machine already. Didn’t see it.
25. Es s Ce Tera November 9, 2024 at 11:55 am

    re: NRO chief: “You can’t hide” from our new swarm of SpaceX-built spy satellites

    “The NRO has identified other benefits, too. It’s a lot more difficult for a country like Russia or China to take out an entire constellation of satellites than to destroy or disable a single spy platform in orbit. “

    Surely he doesn’t believe this.
    1. cfraenkel November 9, 2024 at 2:09 pm

       Huh??? There are going to be many practical tradeoffs between one or two big expensive platforms vs a swarm of small, less capable ones; but that specific claim is obviously a true statement. What don’t you believe about it?
       1. ambrit November 9, 2024 at 4:15 pm

          It is basic “arms race” theory that for every new weapon, a new counter weapon is worked out. Swarms of middle range capability satellites? No problem. Let us launch swarms of middle or even low capability anti-satellite satellites. The “shotgun tactic” is always available.
          “In space, no-one can hear you scheme.”
       2. Randy November 9, 2024 at 4:31 pm

          I have heard that if you blow up one satellite the bits and pieces of space junk derived from the previously intact satellite will take out the rest. That is what I don’t believe about it.
          1. ambrit November 9, 2024 at 4:51 pm

             That idea depends on how close together the orbits of the satellites are. A slowly expanding cone of debris will take out increasing numbers of satellites, if that cone of debris is focused on the most commonly used orbits. As in real estate, so too in space estate; location (X axis), location (Y axis), location (Z axis.)
          2. Captain Obvious November 9, 2024 at 5:02 pm

             Blowing up one satellite have already happend. More are needed.
             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
          3. Acacia November 9, 2024 at 5:14 pm

             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
          4. Es s Ce Tera November 9, 2024 at 5:17 pm

             Yes, space debris is one, EMP is another, but we’ve also seen the hyperventilating American suspicion is Russian satellites are weaponized.

             That bunch of US satellites the size of a school buses mentioned in the article makes me think, hrm, elongated, as in, like a rocket launcher, as in can hold a handful of missiles. Either to take out other satellites or earth targets. How many school buses are up there now?

             Another possibility is hacking.

             Given that we now have at least four potential ways of taking down the satellites, it doesn’t seem like such an impossibility now, does it…
    2. Glen November 9, 2024 at 4:54 pm

       Well, if this is the case, when will we see the evidence that those trillion dollar DOD investment F-35Is actually blew up the Iranian air defense system? Because everybody wants to see them, but it’s starting to feel like weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – a big [family blogging] lie.

       So throw down with all this NRO photographic evidence goodness or STFU.
26. Lefty Godot November 9, 2024 at 12:43 pm

    Funny how the “graveyard of incumbents” did not include Vladimir Putin. But I assume like all other elections where we don’t like how people actually voted, we’ll say it was “rigged”.
27. griffen November 9, 2024 at 1:08 pm

    This is a sports desk entry item, or for those who love their furry friends a stark reminder of the reality that sometimes hits hard. Plenty of tomes are written, about a young boy and his dog… Should the day come when I need a walking buddy it would probably be a retriever I guess.

    College football analyst and ESPN employee Kirk Herbstreit …he also is on the Thursday night NFL broadcast I seem to think.

    https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/41611085/college-football-gameday-kirk-herbstreit-ben-diary
    1. NotTimothyGeithner November 9, 2024 at 2:02 pm

       I watched much of the Gameday at Indiana. I have a feeling this wasn’t entirely about his dog. :(
       1. griffen November 10, 2024 at 7:52 am

          Well it is ESPN, where performative theatrics are indeed a common feature…but still a nice quick story of the beloved golden retriever…
28. Jason Boxman November 9, 2024 at 1:30 pm

    So it is worth noting that STD testing is relatively straightforward to get, and there are organizations that offer free testing. CDC even makes it easy to find one! Just enter your ZIP, and the web site is fast and easy to use.

    https://gettested.cdc.gov/

    So we can immediately contrast this to COVID testing. The web site returns an error when you search:

    https://testinglocator.cdc.gov/

    “The request is blocked.”

    This website helps you find ICATT COVID-19 testing locations and contact information for the providers. Because every provider handles appointments differently, schedule your appointment directly with the provider you choose.

    But it does not. It is broken.

    Maybe another try?

    This site does not display all the locations in the United States where COVID-19 testing is available. Visit the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’s) Community-Based Testing Sites for COVID-19 website to find out about other community-based testing sites for COVID-19. You can visit your state, tribal, local, and territorial health department’s website to find the latest local information on testing.

    The link to HHS is broken. It redirects to a page not found on CDC that redirects back to the original page. The same is true for the state and locality links as well.

    The page you were looking for has moved.

    Hopelessly incompetent, no?

    Worse than I expected. I was just musing that you can get a STD test just about anywhere on earth, and often it is free. So I wanted to see how the United States fares with COVID testing; And we see the result.

    In Kagi Search results (powered by Google and Bing) for COVID testing, you get CVS as the top link for rapid test kits. Then DC Health rapid test locations. CDC shows up much lower down the list, 10 or more links, and is the broken site above.

    Much further down, FTC (!!) has a better page, linking to the correct HHS page that CDC screwed up. This just lets you order poor quality RAT tests, no PCR tests that are superior.

    They also link to CDC’s free testing sites URL, which is broken, as seen above. Server error.

    Basically a dumpster fire.

    Meanwhile finding a place for STD testing is very, very easy, either through CDC or via a (sigh) NGO.

    Lack of executive function.

    H5N1 is gonna be such a blast, that’s for sure!
    1. Samuel Conner November 9, 2024 at 6:00 pm

       > H5N1 is gonna be such a blast, that’s for sure!

       On the bright side, if the CFR is high enough, it may overcome the widespread public aversion to NPIs. It seems that every century or so, the human race needs a really good pandemic to remind it of the importance of public health measures.

       (somewhat, but not entirely, in snark)
       1. JBird4049 November 9, 2024 at 8:35 pm

          >>>the human race needs a really good pandemic to remind it of the importance of public health measures.

          You might be somewhat snarky, but going by memory the United States had a number of deadly endemic (always present) diseases during the 18th, 19th, and the first half of the 20th centuries including:

          smallpox
          scarlet fever
          yellow fever
          chickenpox
          measles
          typhoid
          malaria(!)
          mumps
          tuberculosis
          whooping cough
          rubella
          polio

          Like much else, it took two centuries to get rid of them. My older relatives are believers in vaccines for good reason. And now infectious diseases have become politicized with it being more important to signal tribal affiliation than surviving potentially lethal illnesses.
          1. ACPAL November 9, 2024 at 11:20 pm

             I can’t speak for everyone but changing the definition of “vaccine” (creative lying) after denying any of the downsides of the shots (however small the percentages) convinced me that, in this case, trusting the proponents of the shots is more dangerous than not. I got the first three shots but until I’m convinced of the honesty of the government and Big Pharma there will be no more. Probably never. This has nothing to do with “tribal affiliation.”
29. Jason Boxman November 9, 2024 at 2:38 pm

    Speaking of crimes against humanity. From Is a ‘Green’ Revolution Poisoning India’s Capital?

    But right before the plant came online, the market crashed.

    In 2011, the carbon credit market peaked at $176 billion. When the plant opened the next year, the market had lost nearly two-thirds of its value.

    Suddenly, the plant’s whole economic model had been upended.

    “When the Okhla project was being developed, the carbon market was booming at that time; it was one of the revenue drivers for the project,” said Neelesh Gupta, a former manager at the Jindal-controlled subsidiary that operates the plant. He resigned in 2021.

    The market’s collapse “made the project unviable,” he said.

    So we get:

    India promised to burn its trash mountains and safely turn them into electricity. But a New York Times investigation found hazardous levels of dangerous toxins around homes, playgrounds and schools.

    Just insane. Insane stuff.

    Both the smoke billowing from the plant and the ashes dumped near homes have been found to be toxic, and Indian officials are well aware of the dangers.

    Internal government reports found that the plant pumped as much as 10 times the legal amount of dioxins — a key ingredient in the notorious Agent Orange herbicide deployed by the U.S. military in the Vietnam War — into the skies above Delhi.

    Yet the government has doubled down on its strategy nonetheless, breaking the law by dumping toxic ash right near homes and vowing to build similar facilities in dozens of cities where tens of millions of people live.

    Having surpassed China as the world’s most populous nation, India has nearly 60 cities with one million residents or more, making “waste to energy” plants like the one in Delhi a model of what the government calls its “Green Growth” future.

    And there is no alternative:

    Turning waste into energy is not new. The technology is used in American and European cities like Miami and Paris, where it powers the Louvre. Many experts say the approach will only become more necessary as the world churns out ever more trash and landfills ravenously consume valuable land.

    (bold mine)

    Well. Why. The. F**k. Is. That?

    Capitalism is a plague upon this Earth.
    1. CA November 9, 2024 at 4:34 pm

       https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1p39n

       January 15, 2018

       Life Expectancy at Birth for China, India, Indonesia and Philippines, 2017-2022

       https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1p39s

       January 30, 2018

       Infant Mortality Rate for China, India, Indonesia and Philippines, 2017-2022
    2. CA November 9, 2024 at 7:53 pm

       https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/world/asia/india-air-quality-trash.html

       November 9, 2024

       Is a ‘Green’ Revolution Poisoning India’s Capital?
       India promised to burn its trash mountains and safely turn them into electricity. But a New York Times investigation found hazardous levels of toxic substances around homes, playgrounds and schools.

       [ The point is that China offers a model of environmentalism and should be taken as such. United Nations officials agree on this, but are little listened to. ]
    3. CA November 10, 2024 at 12:31 am

       Clean air and water need to be agreed to as basic human rights in the United Nations. Part of the right to development. These rights must be introduced for General Assembly votes.

       I am shocked and distressed by the cruelty of India’s governors.
30. Clwydshire November 9, 2024 at 3:36 pm

    I am in awe of Scott Ritter’s interview with Nima today (Ritter comes on after Colonel Wilkerson) and I wonder if it will stay available. Ritter is the most emotional of all the commentators I listen to, and sometimes that’s off-putting. But I think in this interview, through his rage, he ends up telling the bald, ugly truth about war crimes in the Middle East. Nima is a very fine interviewer, and courageous to post something like this.
    1. ambrit November 9, 2024 at 4:47 pm

       Yes. This is the basic ground of the Middle East power struggle. It has been so for thousands of years.
       It is nearly time to implement the Samson Option. Shutting down the Middle Eastern oil supplies for a generation will be “energizing” for the alternative energy supply field.
    2. Anonted November 10, 2024 at 9:04 am

       We are socialized, especially as men, to deny their relevance, and their expression, but whether it is by choice or perhaps his inability to limit that expression, his feelings only confirm his judgment, as his rationale is reliably sound, politically and morally. He is honorable, in that he takes accountability for his errors and adjusts position accordingly. Anyone who can do that, much less publicly, is aces in my book. That Ritter has kept it at all ‘together’ in light of the persecution he has faced, to speak nothing of the righteousness of his positions, is admirable, and it is unsurprising that his passion spills into his discourse. If it were most others, that passion would have spilled in the streets. We have grown accustomed to listening to white-house press correspondents, and unaccustomed to hearing men speak with conviction.
31. ArvidMartensen November 9, 2024 at 5:58 pm

    Possible sabotage actions against Trump by the Dem/Three Letter Agency corporation
    1. https://newrepublic.com/post/188159/donald-trump-maga-attacks-women agents provocateur to terrify women?
    2. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/08/racist-text-messages-trump-win anonymous of course. From ‘Poland’. Didn’t Snowden say something about the NSA being able to spoof any location?

    and counting.
32. ArvidMartensen November 9, 2024 at 6:07 pm

    For those who might be interested, a presentation from DefCon 32 around the topic
    “Deception isn’t just about narratives – we see deception at every layer of the network stack, from spoofed electromagnetic signatures, to false flags in malware, to phony personas used to access networks and spread influence. They hide in our blindspots, exploit our biases, and fill our egos while manipulating our perceptions.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHqDEMrqTjE

    One presenter is ex-NSA and ex-US Cyber Command and ex-faculty at West Point where he ran the cyber research and education programs.
33. AG November 9, 2024 at 6:35 pm

    re: Russiagate and the James Risen article

    Apparently I was not the only one reacting abhorred.
    Ray McGovern mentioned the article Nov. 3rd:

    Risen Raises a Russia Hoax Rerun
    https://raymcgovern.com/2024/11/03/risen-raises-a-russia-hoax-rerun/

    
    “Gullible enough to trust re-re-run of “Putin-Wants-Trump”? Erstwhile reporter James Risen joins full-court press: “Trump Campaign’s Ties to Russia Were No Hoax.” Jim, they were made up by the same folks who feed you now. Please read this sworn testimony”

    And he provides the adequate link, again:
    https://www.dni.gov/files/HPSCI_Transcripts/2020-05-04-Shawn_Henry-MTR_Redacted.pdf
34. michael99 November 9, 2024 at 7:13 pm

    I wonder if Trump ever watches Judge Nap’s channel. He’d get alternate views there.

    Would love to see Trump bring Col. Macgregor into his administration though it is hard to imagine given Macgregor’s very public criticism of recent US foreign policy, unless Trump really wants to overhaul it.

    It’s the military and intelligence departments that really need reform. The waste, fraud and abuse there is epic, not to mention the atrocities and general tendency to get up to no good. Put Musk on that.
35. Martin Oline November 9, 2024 at 7:49 pm

    I don’t think that Pompeo or Haley will be in a position to effect the next administration. President Trump has announced on Truth Social there will be no position for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley or Former CIA Director and Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, in the next administration. Linky here at Truth Social.
    1. AG November 9, 2024 at 8:32 pm

       thanks! Lets hope its not just a probe into reactions.
       Grenell already would be too much of that madness.

       p.s. But if Trump for real will go on pushing those out of the WH and its vicinity how much will they accept until they strike back. On the other hand, the Senate is still the US-Senate and they will defend their interests against any POTUS.
36. XXYY November 9, 2024 at 7:54 pm

    From Revenge of the Silent Male Voter:

    If we take a macro perspective, we see that such young men have never known a culture in which males are not routinely described as “problematic,” “toxic,” or “oppressive”. Going to university, and working at modern companies, they live in a world of Diversity Equity and Inclusion policies—many of which promote an insidious and pervasive form of anti-male discrimination. Yet to talk about it in public invites social ostracism. To criticise DEI is to risk being called a Nazi.

    I was happy to see this in there; I thought perhaps I was the only one who felt this way.

    The general strategy at this point in history is to either (a) denigrate the accomplishments of male figures, or (b) explain how their accomplishments are solely due to a society that makes it easy for men to succeed, all whilst conniving sneaky and mean ways to hold women and POC back.

    These kinds of unflattering portraits don’t describe any of the men I know, but that doesn’t seem to stop them from becoming the common, accepted wisdom in the culture, media, and academia.

    Very depressing overall.
    1. tegnost November 9, 2024 at 10:37 pm

       Agreed, but one must remember that roughly half of POC are men.
       My bestie lives in public housing and she told me lots of the black guys were wearing trump t shirts so I knew the game was afoot…
37. AG November 9, 2024 at 9:38 pm

    ROLLING STONE
    
    Dem Insiders Begged Team Harris Not to Campaign With Liz Cheney

    “People don’t want to be in a coalition with the devil,” says a Democratic source who was appalled by Harris’ embrace of Dick Cheney

    By Andrew Perez, Asawin Suebsaeng
    November 8, 2024

    https://archive.is/aAR8y
38. ChrisFromGA November 9, 2024 at 9:52 pm

    https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/129463

    Trump campaign announced that neither Nikki Haley nor Mike Pompeo will be invited to be part of the Cabinet.

    Yay!
39. Jason Boxman November 9, 2024 at 10:22 pm

    lol Trump is concern trolling

    I am very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2020 Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn’t have lots of $’s left over. Now they are being squeezed by vendors and others. Whatever we can do to help them during this difficult period, I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do. We have a lot of money left over in that our biggest asset in the campaign was “Earned Media,” and that doesn’t cost very much. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

    https://x.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1855404088734945765?s=46
40. tegnost November 9, 2024 at 10:33 pm

    I’ve long been a fan of CHS…

    https://www.oftwominds.com/blognov24/housing-homeless11-24.html

    “forget it, jake…”
41. Mikel November 10, 2024 at 3:56 am

    Norman Finkelstein debates Elijah Magnier on resistance of Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel – India & Global Left. Important.

    Finkelstein hit on some points that have been making me uneasy.
    And people all over the globe are about to be more focused on their own backyard, because now fiends see what can be gotten away with.
    1. caucus99percenter November 10, 2024 at 5:19 am

       Alas, YouTube is becoming practically unwatchable in Germany due to the ever-more-frequent random, and repetitive, interruptions by advertising spots.

       Enshittification, thy name is Google / Alphabet …
42. AG November 10, 2024 at 5:16 am

    Anyone any experience with this outlet:
    “garrison journal of history” ?
    https://www.lulu.com/shop/st-patrick/garrison-the-journal-of-history-deep-politics-issue-004-e-book-pdf/ebook/product-1n7my988.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Comments are closed.