Malaysia to resume hunt for flight MH370, 10 years after it vanished Channel News Asia
Everything sucks because no one knows what they are doing Dougald Lamont’s Substack
Chartbook 340 Against synecdoche! … A plural taxonomy of capitalist globalization Adam Tooze, Chartbook
Climate/Environment
In a Major Reversal, the World Bank Is Backing Mega Dams Yale Environment 360
Transfer and Transition Phenomenal World
Bangladesh’s Shift Toward Salt-tolerant Agriculture Offers Lessons in Climate Resilience Earth Island Journal
Pandemics
Louisiana forbids public health workers from promoting COVID, flu and mpox shots NPR
China?
US announces military aid packages for Taiwan Taiwan News
Arming Taiwan to aid ‘Taiwan independence’ is like ‘playing with fire and will get the US burned,’ says Chinese FM Global Times
Old Blighty
A food apocalypse is coming Unherd
Trump taps ‘Apprentice’ producer Mark Burnett as special envoy to UK Business Standard
BREAKING: Keir Starmer picks close friend of Jeffrey Epstein Peter Mandelson as new UK ambassador to US.
Here is “Petie”, as Epstein called him, wearing a £21,000 Patek Philippe watch whilst shopping with the paedophile in the Caribbean island of St Barts in 2005 pic.twitter.com/rLQ6QoCYzd
— Double Down News (@DoubleDownNews) December 19, 2024
O Canada
The conservative-tech alliance is coming to Canada Disconnect
Syraqistan
Houthi ‘hypersonic missile’ slams into Tel Aviv area, sixteen lightly wounded The Jerusalem Post
US airstrikes hit Houthi missile storage and command facility in Yemen: CENTCOM Al Arabiya
US fighter shot down in ‘apparent case of friendly fire’ over Red Sea Reuters
Yemen in open war with US, ‘Israel’, not tit-for-tat: Ansar Allah Al Mayadeen
***
Turkiye demands end of US support to Kurdish militants in control of northeast Syria The Cradle
US senators introduce bill to sanction Turkey over military action against Kurds in Syria Turkish Minute
***
Israeli forces attack two hospitals and a school in Gaza, kills 8 Al Jazeera
The Fight to Stop US Arms to Israel is Gaining Momentum Inkstick
US Judge Finds Israel’s NSO Group Liable for Hacking in WhatsApp Lawsuit Asharq Al-Awsat
Archaeologists discover possible ancient Israelite palace in Jordan The Jerusalem Post. Commentary:
Trouble ahead for Jordan? pic.twitter.com/UiQe9TWgFY
— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) December 22, 2024
New Not-So-Cold War
SITREP 12/21/24: Things Heat Up in Kherson, Ukraine Losses Update, and More Simplicius
Ukraine faces difficult decisions over acute shortage of frontline troops The Guardian
RUSSIA Strikes SBU HQ, Officials Hit. KIEV Shocked Hits Back Rylsk. EU Aims To Derail TRUMP Alexander Mercouris, YouTube. Mercouris contends, based on two fresh Financial Times articles, and also Yves’ post What Happens When Trump’s “Negotiations” Over Ukraine Quickly Hit the Wall? that the planned Trump ceasefire negotiations are very unlikely to succeed and Ukraine and the EU/NATO are trying to use them to ensnare Trump in Project Ukraine.
Ukraine’s First All-Robot Assault Force Just Won Its First Battle Forbes
Ukraine collects vast war data trove to train AI models Reuters
Why sanctions against Russia have failed Ian Proud, Strategic Culture
Anti-Migrant Wave Rises in Russia Following General’s Murder Times of Central Asia
European Disunion
“Pro-AfD” terror attack in Germany Thomas Fazi
Germany moves to protect top court against far right Deutsche Welle
‘Powerful consiglieri’ run von der Leyen’s Commission, EU transparency chief says Politico
Commission’s ‘NGO gag order’ will boost corporate lobby power Corporate Europe Observatory
Global Elections
Electoral Democracy in 2024 (With Special Reference to Senegal and Ghana) Sawahil
Biden Administration
The US finalizes CHIPS Act funding for Samsung and Texas Instruments The Verge
Trump Transition
Trump: Panama will lose control of Canal if it continues to ‘rip-off’ US The Hill
America First? Phenomenal World
Biden’s antitrust crackdown on tech M&As may linger into Trump’s reign The Register
EXCLUSIVE: Where is Congresswoman Kay Granger? Dallas Express
Democrats en Déshabillé
Why Democrats can’t get over the grief of losing to Donald Trump Salon
The Supremes
The Equal Right to Exclude: Religious Speech and the Road to 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis California Law Review
Obama Legacy
Elon Musk’s Journey from Obama to Trump Aligns With Many Americans Newsweek
Police State Watch
When the Feds Are Still Watching The Nation
Missouri Governor Frees Eric DeValkenaere, the First White Cop in KC History Convicted for Lynching a Black Person Kansas City Defender
City Billed Family of Man Killed During Police Pursuit for Damage to Cop’s Car The City
AI
ACLU Points Out More Problems With AI-Generated Police Reports Tech Dirt
Big Tech’s AI Blackmail Boondoggle
Groves of Academe
Despite censorship and intimidation we continue to demand: no more research for genocide at MIT Mondoweiss
Sports Desk
Rickey Henderson, Oakland baseball legend, dies at 65 The Oaklandside
Guillotine Watch
Media’s empathetic coverage of Luigi Mangione reveals an obsession with humanizing white male suspects The Guardian. Commentary:
The Guardian here – much like all US media – is trying to make sure we don’t think about the corruption and fatal crimes of the U.S. healthcare system, of health insurance companies.
For the same core reason our media obfuscates & justifies the genocide in Gaza, it is now… https://t.co/qMvzw9oKQ1
— Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) December 21, 2024
UnitedHealth’s Optum continues mental health payment delays, despite saying they have ended Clear Health Costs
THERE’S A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH THE NUCLEAR WAR BUNKERS THE RICH ARE BUYING Futurism
Class Warfare
How the rich stole Christmas Red Flag
Five Decades of Stagnant Wages Dollars & Sense
THE WHOLE EQUATION: CAN “NEOLIBERALISM” EXPLAIN EVERYTHING? LPE Project
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
146 comments
Comments are closed.
Re: Peter Mandelson and his appointment to Washington.
I’m reminded of a story told to me many times by Labour activists back in the Blair years. Mandelson was given as a gift for his early services to Blair a safe labour seat in the fading port town of Hartlepool way up north, a long way from his London hangouts. So safe, he didn’t have to bother campaigning, just show his face occasionally.
On his first walk around by local activists, they stopped by the local chip shop for lunch and to meet the locals. ‘What will you have?’ he was asked. ‘Fish and chips of course’, he replied. He then pointed to the mushy peas on the counter. ‘And I’ll have some of that aubergine dip too’.
{Picard Facepalm}
The joke was guacamole rather than aubergine dip. In another anodyne quickfire Q&A newspaper article, in answer to the question ‘what most treasured possession would you try to save if your house was on fire?’, Mandelson answered ‘my Hartlepool United [the local football team] scarf!’
“Trump: Panama will lose control of Canal if it continues to ‘rip-off’ US”
Maybe Panama should tell Trump that they are running the canal as a business and not as a charity so that the US can be a bunch of free-loaders and get mates-rates passage. Trump might say that the US built that canal back in 1904 and so that Panama owes it but Panama can reply that that debt got cancelled – when the US illegally invaded Panama back in 1989 leading to the deaths of thousands of its people. That is why to this day they are not allowed to have their own military. When I read the title saying that Trump said that Panama will lose control of their own canal, it sounded an awful like when Biden said that Germany would lose NS2 if it went ahead.
Sounds a lot like the scene from Blazing Saddles, where they find out there’s a new toll booth…”What will these assholes think of next? We’re gonna need a shit-ton of dimes!…” \sarc
Will no one rid the US of these meddlesome fee and toll collectors from the mighty world power we know as Panama? Here’s an idea, instead ships bearing the US markings should try going around the lower tip of South America if you don’t like this more convenient canal option …
Maybe Panama can invite Yemen’s Ansar Allah in to set up shop and do a number on which ships can go through the Panama Canal.
Lol…that could get messy. Better to just invite the Russians in for an extended visit. There’s going to be a bunch of them on the move in the mediterranean soon.
Actually, that would probably generate a Cuba-1962 level crisis. Maybe the Yemeni option is better? The US can’t admit the canal has been closed by a bunch of desert-dwellers from the fringes of civilization.
Either way, Panama won’t feel like winners.
Since we are so friendly with Nicaragua we can revive the Nicaraguan canal alternative that was once considered. Oh wait.
Trump is just trying to bring the ghost of Ronnie “I paid for this
canalmicrophone” into the picture so we’ll know that the GOPpers are back.The debate of where to build this canal tied Congress up for years. In 1902, a French engineer by the name of Philippe Buanu-Varilla decided to lobby Congress to continue their construction of the Panama Canal, instead of starting a new one in Nicaragua. Buanu-Varilla had, in fact, not only been an engineer on the French Panama Canal project for the past twenty years, but had also been an investor in the original project. Interested in preserving his work and stake in the project, he worked with an American named William Nelson Cromwell to lobby Congress to carry on with the Panama Canal.
One of the ways Cromwell and Buanu-Varilla planned to convince Congress to move forward with a canal in Panama instead of Nicaragua was by mailing each member of the Senate a Nicaraguan stamp. This stamp, one of a series, was released in 1900 and depicted the building of the railroad industry in Nicaragua, all in the foreground of a beloved national symbol: the local volcano Mt. Momotombo. The problem with the stamp, however, was with how Mt. Momotombo was drawn. With smoke spewing out the top, the volcano appeared active thereby giving the viewer the idea that it could possibly erupt!
The implication of Buanu-Varilla sending these stamps was clear: did Congress want to build a canal in a place where it could be destroyed by an active volcano? This concern was compounded by a recent volcano explosion on the Caribbean island of Martinique in 1902 that killed 30,000 people, making people wary of the uncertainty and danger around volcanic areas. In the end, Congress voted to continue work on the Panama Canal for numerous reasons – including duration of time crossing the canal, the amount of land needed, and yes, even volcanic activity – and thus, in 1904, history was made in part due to this stamp!
https://postalmuseum.si.edu/a-stamp-that-changed-history-how-the-panama-canal-was-almost-the-nicaragua-canal
Thanks.
Ronnie did try to take out Nicaragua so we would have a backup plan but the then still slightly liberal Dems intervened. Now they would probably cheer the idea on.
Bottom line: after Canada as 51 we will need additional states to make a symmetrical flag. Latin America has alredy been Monroe Doctrined and may offer the best prospects.
Mr. Cromwell was one of the founding partners of Sullivan & Cromwell, LLP, where long ago I was a junior associate. (I joked repeatedly, every time to a dead audience, that a firm with partners named Sullivan and Cromwell had to be a tolerant firm, Sullivan being an Irish Catholic name and Cromwell, ah, not.) Probably NC regulars don’t need to be reminded that S&C — under, BTW, Rodgin Cohen and Joe Shenker (though I may be out of date) — is one of the pillars of the establishment, especially with regard to banking and M&A.
https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/21/world/fighting-in-panama-the-implications-war-bush-s-presidential-rite-of-passage.html
December 21, 1989
Fighting in Panama: The Implications; War: Bush’s Presidential Rite of Passage
By R. W. Apple Jr.
For George Bush, the United States invasion of Panama early this morning constituted a Presidential initiation rite as well as an attempt to achieve specific goals.
For better or for worse, most American leaders since World War II have felt a need to demonstrate their willingness to shed blood to protect or advance what they construe as the national interest. John F. Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon in South Vietnam, Gerald R. Ford in the Mayaguez affair, Ronald Reagan in Grenada and Lebanon, and now Mr. Bush in Panama – all of them acted in the belief that the American political culture required them to show the world promptly that they carried big sticks.
Jimmy Carter did not do it until he sought unsuccessfully to rescue American hostages in Iran late in his term, and politicians of both parties still believe that it cost him dear.
For President Bush – a man widely criticized as recently as a month ago for his purported timidity, a man assailed on Capitol Hill and elsewhere for failing to fully support an attempted coup against General Noriega only in October, a man still portrayed in the Doonesbury comic strip as the invisible President – showing his steel had a particular significance…
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1ComU
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for United States, Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica, 1992-2023
(Indexed to 1992)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1Cone
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for United States, Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica, 1977-2023
(Indexed to 1977)
Nice archeological digging, CA. I’d dread going down there in the archives because I can probably remember the exact words.
This is also an early example of the “this is the day {insert name} became President” genre of MSM reporting.
“This is also an early example of the “this is the day {insert name} became President” genre of MSM reporting.”
Remarkably perfect depiction of the modern presidency. We have evidently accepted the idea that American development requires colonialism, and considered that a simple matter as the Soviet Union dissolved. But, Russia revived after Yeltsin and there was no understanding or appreciation of China and Chinese socialist development.
Thank you.
Trump’s shopping list:
Greenland
Canada
Mexico
Panama
Jump back, what’s that sound ?
Here he comes, full blast and top down parvenu
Hot to trot, burnin’ down the avenue
Model citizen zero discipline
Don’t you know the canal is coming home with me?
You’l lose it in the turn
I’ll get it back!
Panama, Panama
Panama, Panama
Ain’t nothin’ like it, our Teddy’s whet dream
Got the feel for the art of the deal, keep the moving parts clean
Hot to trot, burnin’ down the avenue
Got an on-ramp comin’ through my Monroe Doctrine
Don’t you know the canal is coming home with me?
You’l lose it in the turn
I’ll get it back!
Panama, Panama
Panama, Panama
Yeah, we’re runnin’ a little bit not so hot tonight in the House
I can barely see a shutdown comin’ off of it
Ah, you reach down, let me pull your legs
Please adjust expectations back
He’s not bluffing, I’m guessing
Right behind the 2020 rear-view mirror now
Got the feeling, power canal steering
Champagne popping, ain’t no stopping now!
Panama, Panama
Panama, Panama
Panama by Van Halen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMoDJ4HWWaE
yes guardia nacional were basically state police, limited to small arms only as I recall.
Ships bearing US flags will be nice big fat slow moving targets for SA guerillas with handy explosives, if it comes to the worst.
American imperialism could kick another own goal.
– 309 radio stations
– 16 76mm naval autocannons
– services, education, and training
Something more balanced, imo, about the car driver from the Jerusalim Post. ( Fazi’s piece reads like a quick AP/Reuters narrative designed to make political hay out of a terrible event.)
Saudi Arabia warned Germany ahead of Christmas market ramming, source claims
German reports claim that the driver was a man from Saudi Arabia and is approximately 50 years old.
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-834294
Mike Benz .
Mike Benz: ‘Reuters Received $300 Million in Biden Admin Contracts While Maintaining Watchdog Status’
Mike Benz discusses the controversial financial ties between the U.S. government, Reuters, and media integrity.
https://vigilantnews.com/post/mike-benz-reuters-received-300-million-in-biden-admin-contracts-while-maintaining-watchdog-status/
“Turkiye demands end of US support to Kurdish militants in control of northeast Syria”
Erdogan must see this as his golden, not-to-come-again chance to deal with the Kurds once and for all. The US probably wants to see the Kurds stay strong in this region as leverage against Turkiye but Turkiye has it’s own leverage. For one, after the US, the Turks have the largest military force in NATO. Turkiye itself holds a strategic position geographically that cannot be ignored and the US shares a Turkish base in Turkiye itself where the US houses nukes. The US is not prepared to give that all up. The Kurds are reaching out to Al-Qaeda in Syria for aid but I think that they have their own issues with the Kurds. Maybe Erdogan wants control of the wheat and oil fields currently occupied by the US/SDF to have leverage over Al-Qaeda Syria so it is hard to see who wins out here. Probably not the Kurds.
An additional problem for Erdogan is that if Russians pull out of Syria, they will move on to support Libyan Government of National Stability and Khalifa Haftar who are both opposed to Erdogan backed Government of National Unity in Libya.
And in Syria he will be left standing only with Qatar against Kurds, Israel, USA, the Gulf States, Egypt, Jordan, ISIS, al Queda and Iran.
Putin: ‘Da! Sounds like a plan to me.’
The pottery Barn rule is now in effect. Erdogan broke Syria so now he gets to own it.
Why Democrats Can’t Get Over Their Grief.
By Chauncey DeVega, and with a name like Chauncey DeVega, one is trying very very hard to assimilate.
I recall BookFace after the election when many posts were along the lines of, “They hate us because we’re beautiful.”
Discussing “grief,” which is what Catherine Liu might describe as upper-middle-class “trauma,” is an attempt to take the sniveling into psychobabble. Somehow, psychobabble will produce an explanation. I think not.
The issue is concrete real benefits for the U.S. populace, as in single-payer health care (currently being proposed by devotees of Saint Luigi the Adjuster). The constant blabber about reducing Social Security and Medicare, to which the Democrats are not an effective opposition, is no help in soothing “grief.” The endless wars and the bloating up of the security state, that “premier lethal fighting force” of Kamala, also add to the Democrats’ troubles, as they should.
The article contains a quote with a few lines from Ben Burgis that criticize the Democrats. That’s the self-criticism.
There’s a long pointless quote from Obama, but you already knew that. The tell “but as a citizen and part of a foundation” — oh, his foundation. Please make a donation…
The rest is more or less like this:
Joe Biden still has one or two functioning synapses, so he uses the Lawyer’s Ain’t.
My joy knows no bounds, groundlings.
I forced myself to read this entire article despite the “grief” framing you describe and the fact that it appeared in Salon. For the life of me I can’t figure out what Chauncey DeVega would have “Democrats” do. He is obviously mad at them for being too resigned, conciliatory, or rationalizing about Trump’s victory. But so what is his recommendation? That Ben Burgis quote is well-worth reading; as you say, *that* is the criticism. But it stands out like a sore thumb from the rest of this piece. Does Burgis’ critique also represent DeVega’s perspective? I don’t see how it can if DeVega can also praise Elizabeth Yuko’s “psychobabble” in Rolling Stone as “excellent.” His recommendation seems to be that the Dems need a “strong leader” to counter Trump and give the Democrats its “marching orders.” But I’ll be damned if I can figure out what he thinks those marching orders should be. I doubt if any real response that reflects Burgis’ critique of Obama would be printed in Salon these days. PMC grief counseling is acceptable though.
I am in favor of a campaign for shadow president on a platform with two planks:
1. (domestic policy) Universal concrete material benefits
2. (foreign policy) Make love, not war
This has the virtue of matching the concision of the platform of our neoliberal rulers, which Lambert likes to quote:
1. Because markets
2. Go die
Fergit it Jake it’s Salon.
The Dems also think they are The Resistance complete with tie fighters and Princess Leia–may have a reality problem.
Point of Nerd Order: The resistance in Star Wars fly X-wing, not TIE fighters.
The NYT has an article this morning: One Way Democrats Want to Gain Votes: Talk Up Their Faith. Discussing their deepest beliefs can be an authentic way to connect.
I can’t even begin to dissect this, what, delusion? Depravity? Mendacity?
Constituent: United Health Care denied my child’s claim for her cancer treatment. We have lost our house and are on the verge of declaring bankruptcy.
Congressional Representative: I hear you, Brother. Deep in my heart I sincerely believe that all of us are but one cosmic consciousness, linked by faith and light and hope and …… (next few seconds deleted..)
Constituent: Wrong answer, Brother. Why didn’t you propose lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 55 and enrolling every child in Medicare at birth? As a start.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/22/us/politics/democrats-religion-shapiro-warnock-buttigieg.html
December 21, 2024
These Spiritual Democrats Urge Their Party to Take a Leap of Faith
In a party that has grown less religious, some prominent Democrats say discussing their deepest beliefs can be a way to connect — when it’s authentic.
By Katie Glueck
As the Democratic Party wanders in the post-election wilderness after the bruising defeats of 2024, some of its newer leaders are tapping into an ancient form of connection: religion.
Thank you for adding the NYT link, CA.
There is ‘religion,’ maybe derived from the Latin, religare, to bind, and there is ‘spirituality,’which is more of a personal belief in something greater than oneself. Religion, for many, involves a set of rules, or laws, which, if not obeyed, results in consequences: excommunication, burning at the stake, shunning, being cut off from the group.
Religion and spirituality can be refuges from those situations in life which one can’t control. That’s maybe why our country has operated under the separation of church and state.
Priests help one deal with unavoidable and painful situations, like death. Politicians, OTOH, should be concerned with those things that make our lives here on earth more livable; making sure everyone has access to healthy food, clean shelter, safe environment, education, health care, fulfilling work.
When politicians start getting all religious, my antennae start quivering. Just what kind of a miserable future are they planning for us?
Churchgoing in the USA has been going down for some time.
https://www.christianpost.com/voices/the-decline-of-church-attendance-in-america.html
Yep. That was my first thought when I saw that this morning, anything but material benefits!
What’s worse, talking up “faith” and bumbling (inevitable if you are faking it) is the easiest way to lose trust. It makes one look like a fake…because that is in fact correct. So there is no upside (only bringing tangible benefits that people actually need has an upside), buta lot of downside.
I say this ironically… Jesus Christ. SMH. This is being considered a valid idea?
I may be naive, but surely the best way to gain votes is to promise voters things they actually want? And then, as a bonus, if you actually deliver on those promises, you get to keep those votes next time!
The Dems embraced DEI as a guiding light, even as a dogma, with no apparent thought about what it is really. (Or maybe, with lots of apparent thought at the highest Dem estab level about what it is really.) Now they are startled, even traumatized to learn the working and middle classes reject their dogma. Possibly worse for the Dem elite is the idea the working and middle classes might be smarter than the enbubbled bobble-heads in the Dem estab.
From Lee Fang:
\How the Union Suppression Industry Rebranded as DEI Consultants
Workers are warned that union dues will go to “old white guys,” a native land acknowledgement before an anti-union lecture, and much more.
https://www.leefang.com/p/how-the-union-suppression-industry
Re: Elon Musk’s Journey from Obama to Trump Aligns With Many Americans
Not one word about “But it’s my turn” Hillary —> and the concerted effort to tank Sanders and his popular policies. Americans remember nothing and learn nothing.
You can blame ‘Americans’, but that’s just victim-blaming.
Our ruling classes keep launching efforts to wipe our hard drive clean every time we don’t do exactly what they want.
Collective memories get manufactured, just like consent.
per Douglas Macgregor: https://x.com/DougAMacgregor/status/1870673218920489075
Fixed it for ya.
US plane shot down by “friendly fire” in the Red Sea.
I do not believe this story. I suspect that the Houthis scored their first shoot-down, finally. IFF (identification friend or foe) is a fundamental thing. The US military? It’s an information controlled regime.
The F-18 had a flight plan……… the CiC had the plan!
Houthji or egregious operational ineptitude!
Remember Iran Air Flight 655 and the USS Vincennes?
Egregious operational ineptitude sounds good
The USS Vincennes? You mean the one whose captain abandoned his designated post, crossed over to the other side of the straight to get what he thought was an F-14 kill, disobeyed orders to return to his post, went into actual Iranian waters and shot down instead a civilian airliner? That USS Vincennes? I wonder if they will give the captain of the USS Gettysburg that shot down that F-18 a medal as well.
Maybe the Houthis thought that they were shooting down yet one more Reaper to add to their increasing collection. :)
To be fair, USS Vincennes was the very same class of cruiser and managed to shoot down a much bigger aircraft in a much less tense situation – even while being told not to launch by other US ships.
And as far as we can tell, US Navy has only deteriorated since.
Yeah, yeah, yeah…
But does the USS Gettysburg get to stencil the outline of a F/A 18 on the side of the ship?
RE: There’s a Major Problem With the Nuclear War Bunkers The Rich Are Buying
So true!
When in Switzerland, I recommend visiting the Sonnenberg bunker in Lucerne. It takes about five minutes to understand that it is not a viable option in a disaster—or maybe a little longer if one is hopeful—but one look at the “toilet” does it. Movies about the apocalypse are always about fighting for food and resources, but they never show the reality of living without proper plumbing. Not me!
The entire tour is creepy. The entry is a long tunnel; in the walls, there is a tally (several sets of four vertical lines and a diagonal one) representing the days inside and these messages in English: “Hold on to the boat,” “I want to leave,” “The End is Nigh,” and “I want to stay.” I still have the pictures!
Per Wikipedia: “The logistical problems of maintaining a population of 20,000 in close confines were not thoroughly explored, and testing the installation was difficult because it required closing the motorway and rerouting the usual traffic. The only large-scale test, a five-day exercise in 1987 to practice converting the road tunnels into usable shelters, revealed many problems: among other things, it took 24 hours to close all four blast doors fully, and it proved impossible to set up the 20,000 beds within a reasonable time. Afterward, the shelter’s capacity was reassessed at 10,000-17,000. Doubts about the tunnel’s viability as a shelter remained.”
Of course, those logistical problems didn’t consider the spread of infectious diseases…
The tour guide mentioned that calls have increased since the Ukraine-Russia conflict started. People want to know where to report in case of disaster.
The government also sends iodine pills every 10 years. I freaked out the first time I got them. I didn’t speak the language, but I understood “nuclear.” I guess, in theory, one should carry the pills at all times, I wonder if someone does that.
Bunker link: https://unterirdisch-ueberleben.ch/
Pills: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-10-28/switzerland-s-once-a-decade-nuclear-ritual
Me neither. I have often watched and do enjoy such movies, but they never fail to arouse my scatological curiosity. Is everyone just digging holes in random locations, using latrines, or what? Are they taking measures to protect water sources?
Zombieland rule #3: Beware of Bathrooms – Don’t let them catch you with your pants down.
Apocalyptic warning…the film version of The Road features a decidedly different and bothersome depiction of food and resources…Such a dark and bleak movie.
Don’t look in that cellar, you won’t soon forget.
Most of the climate controlled bunkers near me have running water, but no toilet facilities.
There is one that does partly show the toilet issues:. Letters from Iwo Jima, when the main character has to go out of the shelter to empty the “shit bucket.”. Of course, no one seems to think it’s an apocalyse movie, but it runs on many of the genre’s tropes. And, no, the people in the shelters don’t survive.
I liked that move just for Ken Watanabe. Also in The Last Samurai.
I highly recommend the book, So Sad to Fall in Battle.
A historical analysis of the Marathon battle posits that at Marathon, the Persian disembarkment was not complete, before the Greek hoplites came and surrounded the place, which was quite small.
There was a standof of several days time in which human refuse started accumulating on the Persian side, and the Persians decided to retreat and planned a quiet boarding of their ships during the night. The Greeks got wind of what was happening and attacked the retreating Persians and, of course, “defeated” them.
After which Athens was burned to the ground…
Gore Vidal, in his novel “Creation” makes a lot of fun of the Greeks, and places the Persian interest in Greece, which by any standards was resource piss poor, on the presence of a lot of Greek exiles at the Persian court, all vying for influence… Side story, sorry…
The subhead “Shelter Skelter” is brilliant.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/nuclear-war-bunkers-problem
That Sana Saeed tweet is perfect.
If they don’t want people to lionize that guy, then perhaps they should not be doing stupid stuff like that perp walk. So where was Luigi’s bullet-proof vest? Why a multi-agency escort when two ordinary city detectives would have been able to do the job? Why was the city Mayor there at all? They act like they just caught a mob boss or something than just some guy accused of murder. And trying to put a terrorism spin on his charges was just stupid on a stick.
Still thinking about that whole perp walk scenario. To me, it felt a lot like kayfabe, a reproduction of a scene here or there from either of these films by Christopher Nolan…The Dark Knight or The Dark Knight Rises…
Just missing a cameo appearance from Christian Bale in a dark batsuit, and of course we can’t permit not including Morgan Freeman as Mr. Fox..
I think we should decide who is Luigi. Is he a rebel, insurrectionist, insurgent, murderer, assassin or martyr? These terms are normally associated with action against the government or individual politicians and assassinating a corporate CEO is unusual. Does that make him an anarchist? And if he’s put to death, does that mean he dies for our sins?
The sin is that the dysfunctional healthcare system is immoral and must be reformed. Will it take his death for the powers that be to realize this?
Personally, I see Luigi more as an anarchist than martyr or rebel. The overwhelming authority of the healthcare industry is dangerous to our health.
He’s The Punisher!
I thought it was decided that he was a terrorist?
He is an avenger. That is an upscale word for vigilante.
Maybe they’ll do all the stations of the cross before they’re done.
“Archaeologists discover possible ancient Israelite palace in Jordan”
Hopefully nobody has told those Israeli archaeologist about the ruins of King David’s summer palace in southern Turkiye yet (eye-roll). Israeli archaeologist often work hand in hand with settlers to provide “historical” proof of Israeli land claims which makes me wonder about this article. You and I read ‘possible ancient Israelite palace in Jordan’ but those settlers would be already rolling out the maps to see where to strategically place new settlements, particularly hill tops and water sources.
According to a Harper’s piece a few years ago, much of Israeli archaeology is controlled by settler fanatics for the purpose of stealing more land. Looks like the original story is paywalled, but here’s a link for those who can bypass it – https://harpers.org/archive/2019/09/common-ground-archeology-israel-palestine/
Here’s another (non-paywalled) to a podcast about the article, where the author Rachel Poser interviews an Israeli archaeologist who is opposed to the settler groups – https://harpers.org/2019/09/commong-ground-archeology-israel-palestine/
There are thousands of documents unearthed from ancient Egypt. Archeologist have been digging all over the place. There is not a shred of evidence that Jews ever lived in ancient Egypt let alone as slaves building pyramids and eventually busting out, crossing the red sea, and destroying the Egyptian army in the process.
When people want to believe stuff, facts be damned.
Did anyone ever claim that Jews lived as slaves building pyramids in ancient Egypt? Can anyone link to any written claims that Jews ” built pyramids in ancient Egypt”?
Why bother with archaeology? The book of Joshua is quite clear on the fact that 2 1/2 tribes didn’t want to cross the Jordan river, so got bits of Jordan instead. Wait till Modi hears about this, and takes seriously the bit about Sahadeva conquering the “city of the Greeks” (Antioch?) and Rome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_founded_by_Alexander_the_Great
Some of those cities were in today’s Pakistan, so, curb your enthusiasm…
Ok, i’ll let the cat out of the bag, so to speak.
For about 30 years I’ve been spreading ancient Roman coins all over the Sierra-maybe a few dozen, and being a crafty bastard, made sure they were all from the same Emperor: Gallienus* to make it seem like all the explorations were at one time, and to arouse curiosity many hundreds of years from now, when somebody finds one way off trail, and good luck locating them!
* they are always finding new large hoards of cheap Roman coins of this Emperor’s era, you can buy 1700+ year old ones for a few bucks
SPQRafornia
“When your Empire is in danger,”
“When it’s threatened by Lone Rangers,”
“When it looks like you will take a haircut.” (Cut, cut, cut)
“There is someone pretty funny,”
“Who’ll hurry up and reform your money,”
“Call for Gallienus!” (K’ching!)
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1870779217430143460
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
This should alarm all Europeans.
Emily O’Reilly, who’s been serving as the European Union’s chief accountability watchdog for more than a decade, reveals that the EU commission is a totally opaque body run by unelected “powerful consiglieri” (a mafia term).
https://politico.eu/article/consiglieri-ursula-von-der-leyen-eu-commission-cabinet-ombudsman-emily-oreilly/
O’Reilly discloses that over her 11-year tenure she was never able to meet even once with Ursula Von der Leyen, even though she’s the official European Ombudsman which, again, is the watchdog that theoretically needs to hold Von der Leyen accountable…
She also says that she’s incredibly “frustrated” that her “access to documents” requests to the EU Commission take “months” to be processed and at the end “they still say no”.
In effect we learn here that the most powerful institution in the EU is run like a black box by unelected officials (the “powerful consiglieri” O’Reilly speaks of) who systematically block oversight attempts, even from their own official watchdog.
Which raises the obvious question: if Von der Leyen refuses accountability to Europeans, to whom does the commission answer?
It also frankly raises questions about O’Reilly herself and the European Ombudsman body: how on earth did she allow herself to be systematically stonewalled and blocked from doing her job for over a decade without raising public alarm sooner about this?
5:31 AM · Dec 22, 2024
“In effect we learn here that the most powerful institution in the EU is run like a black box by unelected officials…”
Yeah, some noticed that during Brexit and were accused of being flag waving Union Jacks for just pointing out the problems with the EU.
Good point. And that just one of probably many issues that require investigation. For example, Pfizergate.
https://www.politico.eu/article/ursula-von-der-leyen-eu-commission-shirks-public-responsibility-pfizergate-texts-albert-bourla-court-hearing-new-york-times/
Nothing new here:
Luuk van Middelaar – Alarums and Excursions or Improvising Politics on the European Stage
Luuk van Middelaar – The Passage to Europe & How a Continent Became a Union
>“Pro-AfD” terror attack in Germany
Why did the terrorist have a perfectly Islamic name but be anti-Islamist, an immigrant but hold anti-immigrant views, and attack a Christmas market instead of a mosque?
MoA has a pretty detailed post. Or at least much detail than the few articles I’ve read about the driver.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/12/insane-anti-muslim-jihadist-terrorizes-christmas-market.html
I have another question. Why are these Christmas market attacks always in Germany? Or have I missed the news of others in other countries?
1) Christmas markets are a typical German / Germanic tradition — they are less prominent / smaller in other countries.
2) There have been just a few attacks of the same kind in other countries:
2011 Kashgar (China).
2014 Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (Canada), on a parking lot.
2016 Nice (France), on a promenade, during the 14th July celebrations.
2016 Berlin (Germany), Christmas market.
2017 Stockholm (Sweden), in a major shopping street.
2017 Westminster bridge (UK).
2017 Levallois-Perret (France).
2020 Berlin (Germany), on the Autobahn — not against pedestrians.
On the other hand, there have been quite a number of ramming attacks with cars and lorries carried out by Palestinians in Israel.
Strasbourg has a cool Christmas market. There was a plot to blow it up in 2000, the year I was there for grad studies at ISU:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasbourg_Cathedral_bombing_plot
Not my first rodeo, though:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Brooklyn_bombing_plot#:~:text=On%20July%2031%2C%201997%2C%20officers,pipe%20bombs%20in%20the%20apartment.
That’s the one that really got to me. I lived in Fort Greene at the time, and Atlantic Ave was my station for going to work. I distinctly remember descending into the station the day after the news broke, seeing the crush of LIRR folks transferring to the subway, and being horrified at the thought of the carnage that would have been unleashed had they been successful. Quite sobering indeed.
Because in Germany they have traffic very close to the markets, so it’s quite easy for the attacker. I remember seeing the market in Berlin, and thinking that the traffic was so close that they were just asking for accidents. The attack was a week later.
Here in Italy, there are barriers that keep the traffic away from the markets, but the FDP would never allow that in Germany. “Freie Fahrt für freie Bürger!”.
I usually send an Antidote to my wife and animal-rescuing sis to brighten their day. Today is an exception.
“ESTRAGON: I can’t go on like this.
VLADIMIR: That’s what you think.”
In an ideal world, only Rickey Henderson would supply the proper eulogy in honor of the departed Rickey Henderson…one of the best there was on the base paths, and occasionally a bit of humor with his lacking in self awareness …
Modern players in MLB earn millions upon millions indeed I’m sure they’re just swell and very good at their craft ( okay I admit that Ohtani breaks the typical mold ). But I have to say…I like remembering players that were seemingly authentic ( even if they faked “wanted to always be a then-Florida Marlins” ) which made them appealing to a young baseball fan.
Got to see Rickey, Don Mattingly, Winfield, and Co. play at old Yankee Stadium back in the 80s(was in 3rd grade). We were sitting up so high the birds were flying below us. Was a thrill to see those guys. I don’t remember much from my first and only trip to the city except the game at Yankee Stadium, a bag lady, the wooden escalators at Macy’s, and a couple other things.
> Got to see Rickey, Don Mattingly, Winfield, and Co. play at old Yankee Stadium back in the 80s
As did I … and I’m so happy I have memories of seeing him play, and hit a few lead-off homers … or maybe single, steal second, third and then score on a sac-fly … the famous “Ricky rally”!
RIP to a real one.
‘Mercouris contends, based on two fresh Financial Times articles, and also Yves’ post What Happens When Trump’s “Negotiations” Over Ukraine Quickly Hit the Wall? that the planned Trump ceasefire negotiations are very unlikely to succeed and Ukraine and the EU/NATO are trying to use them to ensnare Trump in Project Ukraine.’
I don’t think that there will be any ceasefire either. Considering the fact that Trump has filed his entire Cabinet with war hawks, I think that he made a deal. He met with people from the war party – people like Lindsey Graham – and an arrangement was made that they would not sabotage his Presidency this time around so long as he supported the permanent Democrat/Republican US foreign policy. And that policy is to stretch Russia, contain China and try to bring Iran down. That and other smaller operations in places like Georgia. Considering the fact that Trump has been nothing but belligerent and bloody-minded recently when he doesn’t even become President for another month, that this was an easy deal for him to make. So next year expect more military confrontations and setting countries on fire around the world.
“… and an arrangement was made that they would not sabotage his Presidency this time around so long as he supported the permanent Democrat/Republican US foreign policy.”
I agree. Given Trump’s electoral “mandate,” I think the Establishment will attempt the “carrot” approach first rather than the “stick” (which can always be evoked later). As you say, Trump has already signaled his openness to this uneasy truce with his cabinet picks. In addition to the areas you mention, I’m really concerned about the Trump administration’s intentions toward Latin America given his choice of “little Marco” at State and the “Salvador option” ambassador to Mexico that Conor wrote about the other day.
Some of Vance’s earlier comments had suggested some degree of policy realism; I don’t know if that means anything (VPs can always be disappeared once in office). The one question mark is Gabbard. Will Trump fight for her nomination, and if so, will it mean anything?
I’m really concerned about the Trump administration’s intentions toward Latin America
Given the might of Russia, the remoteness of China, and the pugnacity of Iran, I also think that the Trump administration will instead have another go at Venezuela, and will seriously attempt to bring down Cuba. Cuba is dire economic, energy, finance straights, and I am sure there is a feeling it can be brought down by tightening a bit more the vice of sanctions. After all, didn’t Bashar el Assad’s Syria collapse after years of debilitating sanctions?
Mexico, on the other hand, is probably too big a morsel: too complicated, too violent, too enmeshed in the economy of the USA. A sever disruption in Mexico may cause a disproportionate blowback in the USA.
Perhaps Nicaragua will also find itself the object of North American attentions, will all those issues with the Panama canal and the (now stopped) competing canal project through Nicaragua.
I’ll actually go one further and suggest it’s less a deal and more a very casual (very American), rudimentary version of the Fuhrerprinzip.
I first had this sense after the shooting in Butler, PA, but I think behind the curtains, most of the power elite decided to circle the wagons around the Trump Train earlier this year. The media (c.f. the cover of Time magazine and foaming the runway for all of his policy plans), the Feds (dropping all cases against him, cynical as they may have been), and even the Democratic apparatus have all pretty much rolled over and asked for belly rubs.
Everyone that plays that game is going to be really disappointed though because none of it changes the reality. The reality of who Trump is, of why America needs to change, and how the rest of the world (human, natural, ideal, etc.) actually works. It actually dovetails perfectly with the Dougald Lamont piece, only now we’ve bet the farm on the sheer magic of conformity, rather than replace the people that don’t know what they’re doing.
Somehow, falling in line behind a bunch of gloriously incompetent people is supposed to cancel out their incompetence. And so collective narcissism metastasizes into magical thinking. Funny enough, I think the Quran sums it up best, “The unbelievers schemed, but God planned too… and God is the best schemer.”
Nice screen name! Star Wars: Rogue One?
Haha, not actually. Was that a line in that movie? I don’t remember, but I actually liked that one. It was kind of Shakespearean, especially the ending (which was very unusual for a Disney production).
Without getting into details, I worked for a while in aerospace software, and when I finally decided to start posting here, I was trying to think of a screen-name. Somehow the phrase, “I just program the things, I’m not the pilot” popped into my head.
Oh, I conflated the words. It’s actually the inverse. “I’m the pilot.”
I was exactly backwards.
UFC* 86
Canada vs Israel
2 countries on their last legs politically go into the Octagon, one hopes to be #51, which will make for a really awkward looking old glory. Both speak in odd tongues, the former introduces ‘u”s into words a lot, the latter sounds as if it is on the verge of throwing up.
Leeeeeeeets get ready to tumble…
C$39.95/NS99.95 PPV
*Ultimate Fealty Championship
THE WHOLE EQUATION: CAN “NEOLIBERALISM” EXPLAIN EVERYTHING? LPE Project
However examined, it’s infected governments all over the world – the testament to undying influence of empire.
Even Russia seems shocked that it’s maintained a working economy by practicing a wee bit of anti-neoliberal economics.
Once neoliberals get technocrats trained on achieving the metrics like GDP and others that prioritize the transfer of wealth upward, most of the hard part of influencing is complete. Then there’s this monoculture masquerading as a multipolar world.
On this issue enjoy reading one of the previous links: Everything sucks because no one knows what they are doing which is a very good critique on neoliberalism, rules based order etc. My thanks to Conor for this link.
Agreed, that was a well crafted piece. In particular, it stands out for proposing a potential path forward out of this mess (that doesn’t involve guillotines, that is…)
“In particular, it stands out for proposing a potential path forward out of this mess…”
Please explain the potential path forward. Would this path be printing money to pay debt or simply debt forgiveness, followed by directed investment of a significant portion of earnings?
Would a possible path be selling off state assets to pay debt, then directed investment?
I am trying to understand how either path would work.
“Governments are always to blame – not private sector failures, even when there is blatant crime and fraud taking place. Government gets the blame even for private sector crime.”
That’s what the big donors pay them to do.
“However examined, it’s infected governments all over the world – the testament to undying influence of empire.”
An important but incorrect comment. China is neither neoliberal nor imperial, and China is gradually influencing other countries to follow alternative development paths. The G7 is powerful and influential, but China and Belt and Road and BRICS countries are also influential.
Everything sucks because no one knows what they are doing:
“There are housing and cost-of-living crises around the world.”
Thank you, I had read the linked article and read it again now.
The article seems too encompassing, from the words “everything” and “no one,” and I wondered whether there might be any exception.
China is not neoliberal but rather “socialist with Chinese characteristics,” and that seems to have been working well for the 1.4 billion for decades:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1tLEO
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, United States, India, Japan and European Union, 1977-2023
(Indexed to 1977)
Canada, for whatever mysterious reason, finds it necessary to send NGOs to China to try to break apart the 5,000 year old civilization. So, China simply orders the NGOs and personnel to leave the country. How could the Canadian government take such a measure, trying to ruin a country that Canada should be learning from?
This is mere nihilism to me:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1C12K
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China and Canada, 1977-2023
(Indexed to 1977)
‘Canada, for whatever mysterious reason, finds it necessary to send NGOs to China’
That’s OK. Canada has also been sending ‘gender advisors’ to the Ukraine and Haiti because that’s what you really need in a conflict zone-
https://www.rt.com/news/609703-report-canadian-military-gender-advisors-ukraine-haiti/
No mystery. Whatever pretense of independence Canada’s foreign had was severely compromised under the Harper government, and jettisoned entirely by Trudeau.
“Two years after Freeland was promoted to Minister of Foreign Affairs in early 2017, a dispatch to Washington from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa was made public that revealed how much the United States appreciated her appointment.
The dispatch, titled “Canada Adopts ‘America First’ Foreign Policy,” says Freeland was promoted “in large part because of her strong U.S. contacts,” and that her “number one priority” was working closely with Washington. ”
We’ve received our foreign policy since then – remember when Freeland was charged with the farce that was the Lima Group? (From a US perspective, mostly successful: CITGO out, Venezuela’s UK gold stolen; but a complete failure with Random Guaido.)
Whatever goodwill Canada had with China went out the window with the Huawei/Meng affair.
“Even Russia seems shocked that it’s maintained a working economy by practicing a wee bit of anti-neoliberal economics.”
its not that they wanted a activist protectionist’s government, it was forced onto them. i am betting, deep down, they still want to be in the club.
if that gorby/yeltsin group think is not forever extinguished, it will keep trying to rise up till it is successful.
Three interesting links:
Pro-Western party funded anti-NATO candidate in EU state – media (the canceled elections in Romania)
https://www.rt.com/news/609757-eu-states-pro-russian-presidential/
Chartbook 342 Are we all dead in the long run? John Maynard Keynes and the politics of time
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-342-are-we-all-dead-in
Political Economy Forever?
https://profstevekeen.substack.com/p/political-economy-forever-5d5
It strikes me that we will know Harris’ political future by March 2025.
If her book deal is less than $10MM, she’s done.
The amount could be affected by whether she becomes the 4th Female American President, following Edith Wilson, Nancy Reagan and Dr Jill Biden.
A terrific comment on MoA by aleph_null, about influence of Popper and Wittgenstein on shaping society and politics (and how people approach them):
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/12/the-moa-week-in-review-ot-2024-305.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02e860ddc473200b#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02e860ddc473200b
Don’t stop at the MOA…read the original article… https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/12/22/luigi-mangione-vs-karl-popper/
the originally referenced article is great.
Thanks for the Strategic-Culture link.
The last phrase is odd though (or do I misunderstand it?):
“For better or worse, Mangione’s actions remind us of what was evident when the specter of communism was looming over Europe: that the very rich are subject to brute force.”
If she refers to the Russian Revolution and what came after – I have an issue with the general vilification, especially not taking into account the injustice of the RU system pre-1917 and the destruction between 1914-1945
It is in fact mostly and very conveniently being left out of stories of how brutal the USSR was.
I almost never read the simple and difficult to realise fact that with 3 major wars 1914-1917 / 1919-1922 / 1941-1945 – within 30 years Russian society lost between 40-50 million people.
Each one of those wars was devastating the Western part of the country. Especially the last two of those.
How can any serious historian or historical text or any judgement of the Soviet century gloss over this?
It’s a miracle this country hasn’t fallen apart in the first place. And each one of these wars were wars by the very rich to get back what they considered their birth right. On what basis? Divine intervention?
So yes, there was violence but it was not the rich who were subject to it in a normative sense. They unleashed it and did everything in their power to wipe out the opposing side.
It’s a bit like talking about Ukraine today omitting the fact that there is a war going on there with nearly 1 million soldiers killed.
The author’s name was vaguely familiar, so I was curious about the origins of the 2nd item in today’s selection of links: a piece from Dougald Lamont’s substack. This led me into a minor rabbithole of Canadian provincial politics.
A bit of checking reminded me that Lamont was, until fairly recently, a member of the Manitoba Legislature (2018-2023), and during that time served as Leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party.
The MLP is a curious creature, which hasn’t been part of a provincial government since the ’50s, and for much of its modern history was usually the most conservative of the provincial parties in Manitoba. Since then, despite 1 or 2 blips, the MLP has been only a minor player, and has sometimes lost official party status in the Legislature.
I’ll defer to any Manitobans who wish to comment, but the major reason for the MLP’s persistent weakness is that its natural habitat on the politicial spectrum – squishy centrism – is quite fully occupied by the governing New Democratic Party, a late-stage neoliberalized social democratic party. (Since first coming to power in 1969, the Manitoba NDP has governed for 36 of the subsequent 55 years.) The MLP’s residual support appears to be centred in the province’s Francophone areas, as well as among strong supporters of the federal Liberal Party with a sentimental attachment to that brand. So it’s a kind of political appendix – a vestigial organ which has persisted despite no longer serving any essential role.
Which brings me to Lamont’s current writings. There is much to agree with in his dissection of neoliberalism linked today, and in several other postings on his substack, which would place him well on the left of the Canadian political spectrum. Frankly, I can’t imagine anyone in any senior position in the Liberal Party – whether federal or any provincial section – expressing those views.
So his trajectory is a bit of a mystery, and it could just be that he’s got a prickly enough personality that he prefers to be a one-man-band substacking in the wilderness.
How to disappear completely
The internet is forever. But also, it isn’t. What happens to our culture when websites start to vanish at random? naked capitalism forever!
AI is stealing creators’ work & repackaging it like a thief in the night.
Picasso said, ‘Good artists borrow, great artists steal,’ but this? This is mass plagiarism at scale. from the ProHuman
On the Twitter some gen-AI thread was making the rounds, someone asked it for an Italian plumber hero and it shot out the Mario Brothers. But yeah, gen-AI can reason and come up with unique ideas. Heh. The entire Internet is being polluted with this garbage. And they’re trying to train GPT-5 on synthetic data. That’s gonna go well. Truly garbage in, garbage out.
Re the rich and nuclear bunkers
So obviously they need to have emergency private jet access to Australia as in On the Beach but that may not work either now that Ozzians have joined Five Eyes and painted a target on their backs.
Sounds like Antarctica then. Take a coat.
The statement is rubbish. Bunkers were built during the Cold War to allow political and military leaderships to survive conventional, and if possible, nuclear attack. There was never any real intention, or even hope, of providing shelters for everyone, and far from being a psychological tactic, the location and even existence of the bunkers was highly secret, in many countries. There’s a large literature on Cold War government preparations for nuclear attack, which the author might like to consult, and which has nothing to do with bunkers.
That said, I wouldn’t want one of these things today, no matter how much money I had.
“THERE’S A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH THE NUCLEAR WAR BUNKERS THE RICH ARE BUYING Futurism”
Underground, you need to pump the ground water out. Lots of water. Lots of the abandoned ICBM silos are completely full of water. They need the ground water constantly pumped to keep it clear. Lots of power required.
The second season of the dystopian tv series Silo brings that to the fore, big time. Silo 17 is almost half submerged when Juliette gets there and fixes pumps to drain it…
It is quite a good series (the books are also good).
Inflation note from Sonoma County, Mayonnaise is now $12 per quart, however gas has dropped below $5 per gallon…
I’m looking forward to seeing how many more flaming turds Genocide Joe can drop in the punchbowl before he retires on the 20th to become the “Elder Statesman” of the Democratic Party.
I’m across from the Santa Rosa main library and a pro Israel parade of about 50 people just passed me.
Israeli flags and a combined US and Israeli Flag being waved.
I’m surprised that people are openly celebrating Genocide in the bluest blue County in California, it’s worse than seeing a parade supporting NAMBLA…
When people tell you who they are, believe them.
No matter how depraved their statement is.
And there is NOTHING more depraved than cheering Genocide.
Palantir and Anduril join forces with tech groups to bid for Pentagon contracts (FT, via archive.ph)
The consortium is planning to announce as early as January that it has reached agreements with a number of tech groups. Companies in talks to join include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, autonomous shipbuilder Saronic, and artificial intelligence data group Scale AI….
….Palantir’s “AI Platform”, which delivers cloud-based data processing, was this month integrated with Anduril’s autonomous software, “Lattice”, to deliver AI for national security purposes.
Similarly, Anduril combined its counter-drone defence systems with OpenAI’s advanced AI models to jointly work on US government contracts related to “aerial threats”.
I’ll add that all the Andressen Horowitz folk joining the Trump admin are part of this too. Huge overlap in ownership via Founders Fund and similar.
Thielverse takeover is go…
On Big Tech’s AI Blackmail one factor that isn’t mentioned is that Big Tech cannot situate data centers abroad, as a threat to coerce preferential treatment. These installations must be close to fiber, and close to customers, full stop. You can’t situation a data center in India to service east coast US customers, for example. This is just not a credible thing.
As usual, the threats to get subsidies are mostly empty. These facilities need to be situated in favorable locations to be fit for purpose, just like Amazon extorting money out of states and municipalities for warehouse site location, when being close to major transportation networks and customers is key.
By breaking up big business, these kinds of threats won’t even be possible, or in the case of data centers, these ought to be regulated as public utilities.
There are also strict regulations on keeping data in the US if it is sensitive, and European data privacy laws give American corporations heartburn, so moving the data centers to Europe is a no-go for those reasons, as well.
That is true. There are even rules for operating within data centers, as some clients might have sensitive data on their servers (e.g., HIPAA related) which require those servers to be in separate rooms from other clients.
The biggest problem with data centers as currently construed though is not being discussed. The concentration of people and need is by the coasts. All over the world. The worst place to build a data center is by the coasts. Not just because of possible storm or flood risk but because of salt contamination. There are some places in Polynesia and Asia that have seen corrosion related failures of critical data center components in as little as 6 months after the building was commissioned.
In the US this has caused a lot of proposed projects for the interior. But the power requirements for those projects require disturbing a lot of land and the land owners and local home owners really don’t like being told their fields will be partitioned for power lines to feed data centers so that big tech can replace more people with AI.
This last push for data centers to host AI is the latest “can’t stop/won’t stop” from the people who thrived off of “go fast and break things”. They’re running into real limits now. I expect a market based tantrum when it is discovered the promise can’t ever meet investor demands.
And speaking of public utilities required for data centers, we have a proposed fusion power plant being built in Virginia. This will be interesting to watch. 400 MW is not much compared to other options. But commercially viable fusion is an interesting concept. I wonder if the US NRC will muscle in to this project and ruin all their proposed budgets and deadlines. I also wonder what the usual NIMBY crowd will make of this.
The guardian picked up on the missing congresswoman too. Nice to see the Republicans can play that game as well as the Democrats :/
Is there really no way to end this fraud? Is there no method to force all these decrepit people back to their districts so that they can rot in peace? This rep combined with AOC losing a committee chair position to someone on deaths door shows we may never dislodge these people from power.
Speaking of frauds…
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-12-16/history-will-be-kinder-to-joe-biden-than-the-pollsters
I’m not so sure about this.
US historians, coming from the pmc, may give old Joe a pass. If they know what is good for them they will. Historians everywhere else will rip shreds off him for trying to push the US into a shooting war with Russia, wrecking internally the American economy, fobbing off the Covid pandemic while allowing a new pandemic to brew in the background, destabilizing the Middle East, supporting genocide, etc. Man, it’s gonna be brutal.
That’s what I meant when I wrote “I’m not so sure about this”.
Unfortunately I’ll be long gone when the verdict is finally decided upon.
I somehow think that we will not have to wait so long as too much is already leaking out what the Biden regime was like. One example. During the entire four years of his admin, Biden had a total of nine Cabinet meetings. Nine. I would have thought these to be a weekly thing but old Joe in all those four years could only ever mange to put together nine of them. Can you imagine a mega-corporation that only ever had a total of nine Board meetings over a four-year period? No, me neither.
I think he’s a much worse president than Hoover, or Coleridge, or Taylor. He did worse than Trump I too. But since he didn’t actually do anything, the Collective Biden(tm) did all the dirty work, perhaps he’ll be treated more kindly in time.
But as it stands now, the Biden Administration has to mark the end of the American Empire.
Coleridge? Was he US president from his lime tree bower prison?
I suspect you got “autocorrected” trying to type Coolidge …
Although most here are familiar with the first chapter of Smedley Butler’s “War is a Racket” most have not seen the full text. It is five chapters and available from “Feral House” publishers in Los Angeles , a worthy addition to any library.
Add Twain’s “War Prayer” and Clausewitz “On War” and you have a sound basis for understanding War.
Is this the full text: WAR IS A RACKET BY SMEDLEY D. BUTLER?
This short anti-war pamphlet was written by a Major General in the Marines
who was an American military hero, but became disillusioned with the profiteering,
propaganda, and injustice of the military-industrial and intelligence-foreign policy
establishments , and came to oppose American involvement in foreign wars
designed to benefit financial and industrial interests.
35 pages.
Also, the Art of War. The book (or, should it be called a pamphlet?) starts with how serious a business a war is. The second chapter starts with a description of how costly a war is and why it’s not a good dea if it can be avoided. All in all, it’s a cautionary note on how war is a bad thing that you should avoid as much as possible and what you need to do to minimize its cost…while still advancing your (political) agenda as much as possible, if you wind up in one.
Glenn Diesen on the Tara Reade Show on Russia and NATO
Unfortunately I cannot listen to it. It has music in the background constantly which freaks me out. Pity.
(Anybody know why she is doing this? )
https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/negotiations-or-a-direct-nato-russia
p.s. Is this the Tara Reade who left the US for RU as someone here pointed out to me in the summer? (Her room in the video almost looks like it.) Or was that a different Biden victim?
@AG – Just looking at the image of her, that is the same Tara Reade that was assaulted by Biden and got out of the US and went to Russia for her own safety. I recognize her face.
hmmm
then that’s cleared.
thanks
p.s. weren’t it for NC I wouldn’t have ever in my life learned of her case
She appeared on RT a few times as a commentator on US related things (RT post videos on Rumble and Odysee).
JACOBIN with much discussed issue:
How Progressive Civil Society Became Professional NGO Culture
By Anthony Nadler
The disintegration of working-class institutions and the rise of professionalized advocacy has severed the connections between progressive civil society and working-class communities.
https://jacobin.com/2024/12/civil-society-working-class-democrats
Germany & NATO expansion 1990s
BERLINER ZEITUNG (translated vers.)
An Inconvenient Truth: How Germany Provoked the USA into NATO’s Eastward Expansion
The USA is seen as primarily responsible for NATO’s eastward expansion. But does this portrayal correspond to historical facts?
Note: The events and quotes described come from the study by Chaya Arora (2006):
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781403983343
(download defunct)
by Muamer Bećirović
https://archive.is/5GDXw
Muamer Bećirović researches the history of diplomacy and international politics. In January 2024, he published a biography of the Austrian diplomat and statesman of the post-Napoleonic era, Prince Klemens von Metternich.
Thanks for featuring the Anduril story from the FT. I’ve been droning on about Anduril for a while here, and continue to find it most interesting. There are so many different aspects to their rise.
I’ll add
1. Defence procurement is being upended. I’m not sure how far they will succeed with the Anduril Manifesto, but it has a lot that makes sense. https://www.anduril.com/article/rebooting-the-arsenal-of-democracy-anduril-mission-document/
2. Anduril are incredibly well connected. Billionaire Tony Stark wannabe gounder Luckey Palmer has Matt Gaetz for a brother-in-law, JD Vance as a founding investor and the company itself is a Thiel/Palantir spinoff. They are owned/funded by the exact same Andressen Horowitz types who Trump is handing the government to.
3. I’d guess they will put Palmer (who really is a comic-book character) on Rogan pretty soon after the inauguration. I imagine he’ll cause quite the stir. He’s about to become the face of a big old as race.
4. Their “Lattice” software looks likely to become very central to US war fighting.
The whole thing is very Starship Troopers