Science could solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Why aren’t governments using it? Nature
An Ancient Killer Is Rapidly Becoming Resistant to Antibiotics, Study Warns ScienceAlert
#COVID-19/Pandemics
A single mutation in bovine influenza H5N1 hemagglutinin switches specificity to human receptors Science (Dr. Kevin). Ugh.
Undiagnosed disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo World Health Organization. GM:
Nothing of substance.
Here is what they say:
Given the clinical presentation and symptoms reported, and a number of associated deaths, acute pneumonia, influenza, COVID-19, measles and malaria are being considered as potential causal factors with malnutrition as a contributing factor. Malaria is a common disease in this area, and it may be causing or contributing to the cases. Laboratory tests are underway to determine the exact cause. At this stage, it is also possible that more than one disease is contributing to the cases and deaths.
However, none of that makes sense. All of those things have readily available tests for them, i.e. they would have known by now.
And if it was something seasonal, it would not be such a noticeable unusual outbreak.
Climate/Environment
Scientists Advise EU To Halt Solar Geoengineering The Verge
Drylands Now Make Up 40% of Land on Earth, Excluding Antarctica, Study Says Guardian
‘Solar Paint’ Being Developed By Mercedes-Benz Could Revolutionize EV Charging Mercedes Benz
China?
China starts military movements after Taiwan leader’s first foreign trip Financial Times
Taiwan Raises Alert as China Deploys 90 Ships in Likely Drills https://t.co/bhh45jcUhq
— gCaptain (@gCaptain) December 9, 2024
What is high bandwidth memory and why is the US trying to block China’s access to it? CNN (Kevin W)
Japan’s bankruptcies set to hit 11-year high in 2024, data shows Reuters
Koreas
South Korea president banned from leaving country as ruling party accused of ‘second coup’. Guardian
Africa
How a uranium mine became a pawn in the row between Niger and France BBC
Military leader dissolves Burkina Faso’s government Jurnaltime
Somalia accuses Ethiopia of undermining sovereignty with arms smuggling Hiiran
Fighting erupts in Sudan’s Blue Nile and White Nile states Sudan Tribune
South of the Border
Venezuela Condemns US SOUTHCOM and Guyana’s Provocations on Essequibo Orinoco Tribune (Robin K)
European Disunion
Investors dump French debt as political crisis grows Telegraph
Pensioner convicted of incitement for posting negatively about migrants in the latest politically charged German speech prosecution eugyppius. Micael T: “‘The poor woman lives on a monthly pension of 1,600 Euro, and the 50 Euro monthly instalments will continue until she is 93.'”
VW, workers clash in latest round of talks over factory shutdowns Reuters
Far-right backers protest after Romanian court cancels presidential election France24
Old Blighty
UK job vacancies fall at fastest rate since pandemic as business confidence slumps Guardian
Israel v. the Resistance
The fall of Syria heralds an existential crisis for Hezbollah and more pain for Gaza Mike Hampton
Israel’s Genocide Day 430: Progress reported in ceasefire talks as Israel continues to carry out massacres across Gaza Mondoweiss (guurst)
In new cease-fire violation, Israeli army hits home, demolishes buildings in Lebanon Anadolu Agency
Palestinian Authority Clashes With Resistance Fighters in West Bank Orinoco Tribune. Robin K: “PA just doing its job.”
Netanyahu is set to take the witness stand for the first time in his corruption trial in Israel Washington Post
Iran ‘dramatically’ increases uranium enrichment as nuclear bomb fears grow Telegraph
New Not-So-Cold War
Syraqistan
Syria’s Fall: In-Depth Analysis Simplicius
Israel occupies new Syrian territory following Assad’s collapse Mondoweiss
Israel has practically declared war on Syria with no provocation or casus belli whatsoever, announced a 50-year-old international diplomatic agreement is void, is invading another country in these very moments, and literally no one is doing, or even saying, anything about it. https://t.co/K128E5T2Og
— B.M. (@ireallyhateyou) December 10, 2024
Syria – Winners And Losers Or Both Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
THE RUSSIAN GENERAL STAFF, KREMLIN DISCUSS HOLDING THE LATAKIA SANJAK TO DEFEND BASES — AGREE TO WITHDRAW UNDER TURKISH SAFE PASSAGE John Helmer. Note that as we have repeatedly had to point out in comments, there is no evidence of any Russian deal with respect to Syria. The extreme frostiness and evidence of upset among Russian officials, who are normally very good at keeping their cool, starting with Lavrov, and explicit denial on the Foreign Ministry site, should have been understood as dispositive. But this Helmer post provides further proof. First, there are fierce recriminations in Russia. Second, General Staff connected sources report that there is an intense debate in the military, of whether to send in enough additional forces to adequately defend the bases, or negotiate with Turkiye for an orderly withdrawal. The debate is moving in favor of the “exit” camp in light of the commitment required to secure the bases. This is not at all consistent with the notion that Russia was a party to the negotiations, since preserving the bases would have been a key demand.
* * * Turkey to open border gate for safe return of Syrians, Erdogan says Alarabiya (Kevin W). As we predicted, Turkiye is going to push the refugees out.
UK and other European states suspend Syrians’ asylum applications Guardian (Kevin W)
From the Politico’s European morning newsletter:
WHO IS THIS ABOUT? Millions of Syrians sought refuge in Europe since the outbreak of civil war in 2011. Many were granted asylum and built new lives in their adopted European homes. However, others traveled to Europe more recently and have open asylum claims — these are the people who’ll likely be hit by the suspensions, Playbook’s Nick Vinocur reports.
Political dimension: The influx of Syrian asylum-seekers collided with a resurgence in popular support for anti-immigrant far-right parties across the Continent. Some EU governments, led by Italy, were already pushing to normalize ties with Syria before Assad was ousted, to facilitate the deportation of migrants. Some EU countries reported they were struggling to accommodate Syrian nationals, while governments in other capitals looked warily at growing support for far-right parties in the polls. Now that Assad has gone, the legal basis for many refugees being granted asylum — brutal repression by his regime — has evaporated, reasoned one EU diplomat.
BUT NGOs SAY WHOA, NOT SO FAST: Refugee rights and aid organizations warned that capitals are rushing to stop processing asylum requests when the situation in Syria is still volatile and despite knowing little about the rebel groups that have taken over from Assad…
“It remains to be seen whether this new reality will allow Syrians to start rebuilding their lives, or whether an even graver crisis lies ahead,” said Imogen Sudbery, who leads the EU office of the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian relief organization, in a statement to Playbook..
The situation in Syria is still extremely bleak. Although Assad’s departure offers glimmers of hope, my colleagues Giovanna Coi and Lucia Mackenzie report that going home wouldn’t be easy for the Syrian exiles. Their homeland has been devastated by years of war, with half the population experiencing food insecurity and 96 percent living on less than $7 a day. Critical infrastructure, from health care to sewage and power networks, lies in ruins and will take years to rebuild.
WHAT’S NEXT? EU foreign ministers gathering in Brussels on Dec. 16 will discuss the situation in Syria.
* * * Assad leaves behind a fragmented nation – stabilizing Syria will be a major challenge for fractured opposition and external backers The Conversation (Kevin W)
Alastair Crooke : Turkey Turns on Russia Judge Napolitano, YouTube. Good discussion of the Syria economy, the untenably low level of pay in the Syrian army, and how little it is rumored to take to buy officers off.
US Considering Removing HTS From Terror List After Syria Takeover Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
Imperial Collapse Watch
World War III Has Already Begun – And Businesses Need To Take Note Forbes
Germany, France and Poland condemn use of force against protesters in Georgia Independent
Australia’s nuclear sub plan sinking on multiple fronts Asia Times (Kevin W)
Trump 2.0
Trump says he can’t guarantee tariffs won’t raise US prices and won’t rule out revenge prosecutions Associated Press (Kevin W)
Gabbard kicks off Capitol Hill meetings amid questions over Syria The Hill
How the Neocons Won the Transition American Conservative (Chuck L)
How Peter Thiel’s network of right-wing techies is infiltrating Donald Trump’s White House Fortune (fk)
2024 Post Mortem
Democrats Can’t Course Correct Because The Illiberal Radical-Left Runs The Party Michael Shellenberger. Robin K:
I don’t know who does headlinesfor Shellenberger, et al. Someone should tell them that there is not and has not been a “radical left” in the US for . . . who knows how long? Much less any who who would, um, run the Democrats. Leftys I know think Democrats are a bad joke . . . and Republicans are a horror story. In foreign policy it’s hard to tell which is worse, if there’s any significant difference. Makes me wonder about Shellenberger’s analytic capacity/capabilities.
Our No Longer Free Press
404 Media Objects to a Texas Subpoena For Our Reporting 404Media
Police State Watch
Jury finds Daniel Penny not guilty in NYC subway chokehold case Gothamist
Woke Watch
Bosses of world’s largest LGBT news site PinkNews accused of sexual misconduct BBC
The Bezzle
Wall Street’s complex debt bonanza hits fastest pace since 2007 Financial Times. Note this represents serious underpricing of risk. By itself, this type of asset isn’t remotely systemic. But it is not a good sign.
Guillotine Watch
We are going a little light on the UnitedHealth CEO’s murder since it’s being covered heavily via posts and Water Cooler. Nevertheless…
A leaked video of UnitedHealth CEO defending denial practices sparks more online backlash Quartz (Kevin W)
Americans hate their private health insurance Jacobin (Robin K)
Class Warfare
U.S. Investigating Child Labor Claim at HelloFresh Subsidiary New York Times (Kevin W)
IT Giant Favored Indian H-1B Workers Over US Employees Bloomberg
Antidote du jour (Kevin W):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
re: Undiagnosed disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo
Might be time to re-read The Constant Gardener. (Said only half in jest.)
adding: A short history of medical experimentation in African countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_experimentation_in_Africa
“How a uranium mine became a pawn in the row between Niger and France”
The article talks about how France is dependent on imported uranium and how Niger is/was important in all this. Perhaps I missed it but I don’t think they talked about how much France was paying Niger for that uranium. I seem to recall that they were paying only a fraction of world market prices but I could be wrong. If I was France, I would just leave Niger – and I would take that uranium mine with me.
They were paying a very tiny fraction, low single-digit percentage if I recall correctly.
Essentially just taking it.
It is all a mystery. No one can figure out the force that fuels resentment in the colonized.
Is this some buddy of Aueralian? :)
France is not dependent on Niger uranium – it has plenty of alternative suppliers. Niger is a very minor player internationally. Most of its mines are uneconomic unless prices are very high (and they are not). Two of the three mines in the country have been shut since the last uranium price spike around a decade ago.
The issue here is that the mining company, which operates a concession, is a French state company. The concession was last agreed during a period of historically low uranium prices. But the shut down now is not really connected to prices – the Niger government came to power in a coup (the previous government, however flawed, was elected). Something like 40% of the Niger governments budget was direct aid from France and the EU, and this was cut off following the coup. I assume the Niger government thinks that preventing exports gives them some leverage to get the aid money flowing again, but I doubt this is the case. The mines just aren’t all that important to France (in truth, its probably loss making), and they can use the aid money that used to go to Niger for whatever else they want to do. France probably kept the mine going as a form of leverage against other uranium suppliers.
I’ve no idea what importance France gives to keeping Niger ‘on side’, but I suspect its not much. Its more a drain on its budget than anything else. Niger is playing with a very weak hand – it is enormously dependent on European aid and trade. China has invested in its oil fields (and built a pipeline to Benin), but this is a very small resource (mostly producing diesel for domestic use) and isn’t compensating for all the other issues the Niger economy has.
The article itself says-
‘So, over the past decade or so, (France) has imported almost 90,000 tonnes – a fifth of which has come from Niger. Only Kazakhstan – which accounts for 45% of global output – was a more important source of supply.’
Yes, they can source uranium from other countries but the only problem for them is that they will have to pay market prices and not ‘mate’s rates.’
Nah, you don’t understand. It was a drain on their budget, but French kept it going because they are incurable philanthropes. In a gesture of gratitude, Nigerans finaly decided to help them fix the budget deficit, and kicked them out.
you cannot look at this as a government asset, or debit. under free trade, or colonialism, both are almost identical, governments lose money, might break even, which is doubtful, since war is the inevitable outcome.
you have to look at the parasites that are the recipients of free trade, the rich.
just look at all of that splendor in great briton and europe in general before WWI, it came out of the hides of the worlds powerless and poor.
western governments are spending vast sums of money to make sure the rich can loot the world, and they will spend even more to hang onto what they have left, and then they will spend even more to try to recolonize the world again.
any south american government that signs the new free trade agreement with europe, is signing their sovereignty, democratic control, their standard of living, and their freedoms away.
so its meaningless to say france has other options.
under free trade or colonialism, it matters not which, whats mine is mine, whats yours is mine, and their will be no disscions about this period.
Niger better arm and train themselves pronto, because some rich oligarchs just had the rice bowls taken away.
>Scientists Advise EU To Halt Solar Geoengineering The Verge
But small-scale experiments have triggered backlash over concerns that these technologies could do more harm than good.
Are “small-scale experiments” being conducted in the U.S. without public awareness/consent?
Are controversial technologies used to reflect sunlight back into space, primarily by sending reflective particles into the atmosphere or by brightening clouds what I see constantly over my sky?
As I mentioned in a previous comment, over Thanksgiving break I drove down from Roswell, GA to Ft. Lauderdale, FL on I95 and saw the sky whited-out over the several hours it took me to make my drive. I snapped pictures periodically and sent to friends, and one sent me a link indicating Florida has introduced a bill that prohibits releasing things into the atmosphere to affect “the temperature, the weather, or the intensity of sunlight” This is similar to the one that was enacted in Tennessee last year. And yet people I interact with still deny what one’s eyes clearly see. At the very least, what ever is happening when the sky is turned from a blue to pale grey, it is man-made and it depresses the hell out me.
https://www.wmnf.org/a-new-florida-bill-prohibits-releasing-things-into-the-atmosphere-to-affect-the-temperature-the-weather-or-the-intensity-of-sunlight/
*Sigh*
Airplanes engaged in normal flight can do that. So could illegal chemical plant discharges (say a breakdown in pollution control equipment).
What day was this? If there was a major sporting event in the area, private jets swarm on the destination. Ditto major private equity conferences.
I’ve always been skeptical of contrail conspiracy theories. The jury is still out as far as I am concerned.
cant ever know for sure, but i play a weather maven in my down-time…and have been outside for most of my life.
some days, the contrails look just like they always have…no matter the conditions at that level of atmosphere…ie: they disperse and go away.
other days…again, no matter the conditions at that height(per NWS)…they linger, spread out..until what was a clear blue sky(just as predicted by NWS) has become a white haze…which also notably has a sort of oily rainbow sheen to it.
the planes that cause this latter phenomenon seem to be mostly the normal airliners…but there are also those large, very high flying aircraft that put out a lot more contrail than usual(the chemtrail sites tend to focus on these…i have no idea what they are)
ive been a keen observer of all this for, like i said, all my life out of doors.
the difference between now, and 30 or so years ago, of course, is a whole lot more aircraft over my part of the world(smack dab in the heart of texas). i note the trajectories, and can pretty much figure out where a given aircraft is heading…or coming from…based on height and direction.
…and, anecdata, but still: dad said once that an old friend from his DIA and NASA days told him that yeah, we’re spraying reflective crap to mitigate the warming.
dad was very, very rarely forthcoming about that part of his life…as i’ve related( he said once that “they” made it clear that he was never, ever to speak of these things,lol). so when he opened up about things like that, i paid attention.(this cryptic utterance was while wade fishing on an oyster reef in east matagorda bay…i had pointed out the airplanes mucking up our until then clear blue sky.)
We’ve had changes in the atmosphere as a direct result of global warming. A recent link pointed out how changes in lower-level clouds was a meaningful factor in the record-setting heat in many parts of the world in 2024.
Thanks for your post amfortas, sometimes I think I’m irritating friends/family when we go for walks by simply asking them to look up at the sky and speculate on what they are seeing and taking in their response.
The production and behaviour of contrails is very much a function of the relative humidity at the aircraft’s altitude. (And this is not easily obtainable from publicly available data from weather prediction models… ie. You are not going to be able to easily discern any pattern based on NWS data). And the relative humidity can change considerably between one atmospheric level and other nearby levels. Which can result in aircraft at relatively similar altitudes producing very different looking, and behaving, contrails.
This assumes that all aircraft have exactly the same engines. Engine type/make/model is another fly in the ointment which affects the production and behaviour of contrails.
I prefer to believe that if some group were conspiring to seed the atmosphere with unknown chemicals for a nefarious purpose, and releasing those chemicals created visible contrails in the sky that could expose the conspiracy to public scrutiny, the group would be smart enough to release those chemicals at night when the contrails would not be visible.
The argument against chemtrails which has always convinced me is: where are the planes leaving them storing the chemicals they are spraying? There’s no room in the wings for storage tanks.
1. Steal underwear.
2. ???
3. Profit!
Devil’s advocate: in the fuel….
Exhaust from combustion contains soot, which form nuclei around which moisture in the atmosphere and the exhaust condenses. If it’s either dry or warm up there the condensation will dissipate i.e. go away. If it’s cold or damp the condensation will persist. It’s the same thing as car exhaust- on a cold, damp day you see it, and on a hot, dry day you don’t.
You don’t need a conspiracy to explain it when simple physics does the job.
Saturday November 30th, from 10:00 am until about 2:00 pm in the afternoon. I’m not speculating on what the discharge from the airplanes was, I’m just reporting what I saw over the 4+ hour drive, a criss-crossing of planes on the southern horizon that whited-out the blue and turned it grey.
Also, with all due respect, pending FL legislation might be of some interest to NC readers who follow the subject, regardless of what opinions on geoengineering may be.
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/56
You could try using a search engine. Planes fly back and forth for plenty of reasons, such as mapping, photography, and search and rescue:
https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/51368/what-is-this-plane-doing-flying-back-and-forth-near-sydney-at-night
Had a coffee house acquaintance who was, uhm, significantly involved with climate change science at NOAA.
I asked him about the contrails/chemtrails issue vis á vis geoengineering. His response was that it was going on to some vague extent.
This was some 6-8 years ago.
Not taking a stand one way or the other here but it should be noted what happened after 9/11 when virtually all aircraft in the US were grounded meaning no contrails-
https://globalnews.ca/news/2934513/empty-skies-after-911-set-the-stage-for-an-unlikely-climate-change-experiment/
Yes. Tests and more have been conducted in the U.S. See here and here.
These are documented rocket launches, not contrails claims.
Assuming we are talking about civilian aircraft and not military.
These are condensation trails, not chem trails. Why?
If these are commercial aircraft some product would have to be exiting the aircraft to cause this right?
This product would have to get into the plane somehow. Only 2 ways, 1.it’s put into the fuel before it goes into the plane or 2. it goes into some tank in the plane.
#1 If its goes into the fuel, then all the engine OEM’s have approved this. Thats GE, PW, RR, which means the product has been tested. It also has to be made, shipped and then blended into the aviation fuel going into the jet planes. There are 10’s of thousands of of people around the world just dealing with fueling planes, and none of them know, or have a sample or have put it on youtube?
#2. It’s put into the plane, this is for the folks that think you can turn on/off the product. That means that there is a tank on the plane, with hoses, valves, pumps, breakers, fuses, switches, gauges that all have part numbers. There are thousands of aircraft mechanics around the world and no one has ever mentioned this. Then you have to have a truck to fill the plane, remember you can actually watch the plane from the minute it arrives at the gate until it leaves, and where is this product put into the plane? If so then you have tanks at the airport with this product, put into trucks, then installed into the plane. Those tanks at the airport have to be filled up. The pilots have to be instructed on when to turn on/off these switches. And no one has a youtube video on this?
Now you’re talking hundreds of thousands of people many into the millions around the world. Every airline personal, aircraft builder, maintenance manuals, suppliers of airline parts, mechanic, airport worker, FAA, foreign aviation organizations etc would have to know. Where are the tanks, the fill ports, the switches to turn on/off?
They don’t exist because it’s not happening.
What is happening is that airplane engines have changed greatly when they went to high bypass turbofan.
these greatly increase efficiency, but that changes how the temperature of the exhaust works. Also they are now flying higher and higher than they used to because the engines are more powerful.
To me unless someone comes up with the actual stuff, its not happening.
And finally what exactly are they trying to do? And who’s they?
The comment you are replying to contains links to articles documenting how in the U.S. rockets are dispersing chemicals into the upper atmosphere for the purpose of reflecting Sunlight and thus cooling our planet.
This leads me to believe that your reply was intended for a different comment.
>Russia has voiced strong opposition to NATO’s expansion into Southeast Asia, emphasizing concerns about militarization in the region News.Az
The headline reminded me of the “Squad” in the U.S. sending “strongly worded letters” to Democratic Congressional leadership. As Paul Craig Roberts states at the end of his article on “Putin and Xi and Iran the Unready:”
The Russians believe in the efficacy of truth. The West believes in the efficacy of force.
Russians believe in сила в правде.
The West believes in might makes right.
“Putin and Xi and Iran the Unready”
Forgive me, but this is absurd.
China has been “ready” these last 24 years and before, and has only become readier and more formidable. China knows just what it meant to be invaded by Japan in 1931, and remembers the following years of rampage. China also understands just what it means to be continually threatened since awful “containment” policy was shaped from 2009.
Be assured, China is a country of peace but is always absolutely “ready.”
The readiness is all.
– Hamlet
Then why the military alliance with North Korea? Probably soon with Iran…
And in Southeast Asia, there are not many buyers of NATO expansion, and not among those not already under vessalage. One can be sure China is acting on this front and doesn’t bother to talk any longer…
“Jury finds Daniel Penny not guilty in NYC subway chokehold case”
Never even heard of this case until earlier today. Kunstler wound himself up about this case but did add something interesting that was not in that article-
‘Penny applied a choke hold after Neely declared he was of a mind to kill somebody on the train. Neely was still alive when the cops came, but they declined to give him CPR because he was filthy and an apparent drug-user, and they feared getting AIDS or hepatitis from giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. . . so Neely died there in the subway.’
https://www.kunstler.com/p/twilight-of-the-race-hustle
So how did the NYPD skate free?
Good outcome, imo. Case shouldn’t have been brought to begin with, imo. But this is the District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg at work. NYC is sure getting their money’s worth from Bragg…not. / my 2 cents.
Two facts that got buried and I never heard about until yesterday…
Penny was on the train w/two black friends. When Neely boarded the train, Neely said (likely because he was high on the synthetic marijuana that was found in his blood—synthetic marijuana), “Someone is going to die today.”
Media/certain political actors make everything always about race—-then get surprised when there is a counter-revolution against anything race-related.
Meanwhile, no one tries to unite people via class (Bernie gave up). shaking my head.
“Someone is going to die today.”
Got to hand it to him, he was right.
Whether Neely said that was disputed during the trial, though it seems clear he did say he was prepared to die that day, which is quite different. And he never touched anyone.
Native and lifelong New Yorker here, who has cumulatively spent the better part of a year of his life riding the subway (as a child, and then commuting all through high school, CUNY and thirty + years commuting to work), including the Bad Old Days of the ‘70’s and early 80’s.
In terms of the homeless mentally ill on the trains, things are without a doubt worse than I can ever recall: ever more agitated, desperate and often deranged/drugged people abound, though that remains a small minority of the homeless on the subways, the overwhelming majority of whom remain harmless. I’m a large male who knows how to carry himself in NYC and have had many unprovoked and scary encounters in recent years with the homeless mentally ill.
That said, as long as I was never physically touched, I kept my response to either body language or a harsh word.
Penney probably didn’t intend to kill Neely, and perhaps felt no malice, but kill him he did, as the coroner reports testifies. His acquittal, and the near-glee that accompanies it, is a bad outcome and a bad look.
1. Penny was a Marine bystander, not NYPD
2. A friend knows the spouse of a witness pressured by the prosecution (as in bigly) to say the victim died as a result of the chokehold. The level of fentanyl in his blood was so high he was very likely to die./have died of that. So cause of death not as clearcut as you’d think.
3. The jury rejected one charge and the judge made them consider a second which was arguably pretty close to duplicative, as in double jeopardy. So even if the jury had found for the prosecution on the second charge, the odds were good of it being reversed on appeal.
Not that I like this outcome since the guy is dead but the point is that this case was not as cut and dried as the reports would have you think. The ex-Marine had no business playing amateur cop. And our cops are terribly trained. There are many vids from other parts of the world of cops talking down deranged/hysterical people with knives or swords rather than killing them, as we like to do. So we have terrible standards re the use of force.
I never meant that Penner was a cop or anything. What I meant was that they tried to pin the blame all on him when those cops might have had a case to answer for in not trying to save his life after they arrived. But what you say about how they tried to fit him up, including the judge was a bit of a revelation. Probably would have not surprised Trump though.
The cautionary nature of this trial and the events on the subway, where the defendant took that action makes me think twice about ever using or riding it….but I don’t need to as I’m not a NYC resident. I have to wonder just how safe a transportation mode it is, not only because of this story in particular.
Mental health and critical facilities for those who experience it or have a specific diagnosis, it’s as though over the past 50 years the US just chose to reprioritize how these problems are addressed. Or rather a devoted plan to tear it asunder.
Do you know how many *millions* of people ride the NYC subway, every single day?
Yep I know it’s in the millions…or I’m certain it is such a vast sea of people it’s kind of like the old signs at McDonald’s from long ago…
Millions served…That being said I now also think twice before going to a McDonald’s as well but decidedly it such a different reason to not eat there.
About twice as many ride the Moscow subway. I’ve no idea how the death rate compares to NYC.
NYC subway is the best way to get around town, period.
It is getting pricey though
NY subway cars are long and unless you got in the very first or last car, you can walk from one care to the next through doors at the front and back of each train. So unless a threat is pursuing you personally, you can walk to the next car.
Riding in an automobile is way more dangerous.
…and I’d assume you mean more dangerous from traditional vehicular accidents. There is still plenty of risk via mental health issues that we now typically label “road rage”.
I’ve lived most of my life is rural or suburban America, but in my mid 20’s I lived in metro-Boston for some time withOUT a car. I was totally dependent on public transit including the T. I loved it and I never felt unsafe riding the T… granted you might have the occasional experience of being in close proximity to an “odd” character from time to time, but as you said you can move… AND you are just as apt to find yourself next to an odd character or two at most any major public gathering including sport events or concerts where you’ve spent REAL money to be at… and (LOL) in most of those venues you can’t relocate so you are stuck for the duration.
I was only assaulted once on the T, where a black possibly homeless man mumbled something at me, hit me in the back of the head on the way out and exited at Park St. Fortunately only a sight bruise, but certainly came as a shock. I was talking to a friend and certainly not antagonizing whoever it was. This was probably 2016.
Currently I would say that your bigger danger is getting an infectious disease like Covid and RSV. Coming along with the bird flu could even be TB if it continues to spread. The air in the subway stations and on the trains is awful.
And as Yves points out, you can move. What isn’t mentioned is that you can also leave the train and just get on the next one. Unless you have been pinned by someone because you weren’t paying attention, you have options.
Pro tip – if a crowded train comes in and a car is largely empty there is a reason. In summer it might be as simple as no air conditioning or even heat. Or it could be a particularly smelly from a not dangerous homeless person or the remains from their ride, or worse there could be someone who is ranting and dangerous.
I would add my experiences are quite limited, say taking the Marta out of the Atlanta airport going north into downtown or further north…and that’s just a handful of instances over the course of maybe 10 years.
Going further, I’ve spent much of my adult life and professional working life in either of the Carolinas with an in between time in North Texas, it’s not as though high speed people moving was a true priority in any of these locations…
Something that has stuck with me for a long time. Metropolitan Police in London subdue a man with large blade without using “lethal force.” This person, likely in the midst of a mental breakdown, would not have lasted 15 seconds in other jurisdictions that will not be named.
They are increasingly inclined to shoot these days or use Tasers. :-(
The video was very interesting. Unfortunately it cut between the initial standoff and the ending in a mob if them giving him a kicking by the look.of it :-( I wanted to see how they subdued him. They were creatively ramming him with plastic wheelie bins at one point!
Scientists Advise EU To Halt Solar Geoengineering
the scary thing is that they’re already doing it. Maybe the Chemtrails believers weren’t so crazy after all.
Re: Soldier spraying a home in Quneitra with bullets.
Five jams in 12 seconds. Impressive. Wonder how that works when there is return fire./sarc
Obviously not a graduate of the Keep Your Freaking Head Down academy. Too use to fighting people that can’t shoot back and we saw how well that worked out for them in Lebanon.
So the collective “West”–if we can assume spookdom and their governments had more than a little to do with the Syria collapse–finally bring down Assad and immediately want to send Syrians back to the new land of the jihadis where they of course be treated with great kindness and consideration. Is Israel’s genocide enthusiasm spreading? Or do we, the wealthy developed countries, just like to break things and walk away from the mess. Perhaps this is what F. Scott Fitzgerald meant with his “the rich are different”–they have no morals or conscience.
But they sure do like to talk all the time about how moral they are.
All day yesterday I saw stories about different European countries shutting down asylum procedures for Syrians. As if there is suddenly a stable government there.
We could do the Jeff Foxworthy schtick … if you let Israel take potshots at any military base, college, or school in your country you might not have a stable government!
If your country is divided up into three or more “spheres of influence” … you might not have a stable government!
I am afraid that things do not look good for the Syrians. HTS doesn’t seem capable of governing. You have the SDF still in the eastern oil fields, protected by the US (for now.) Then you have the Turks just wanting to claim Aleppo for their own, and whatever rag-tag remnants of the SNA are left.
And don’t forget Israel, always up to no good. At this point I am not sure if this HTS gang can even keep Damascus.
The future is looking a lot like Libya.
Making Libya-like chaos was the goal. Gaddafi warned everyone, long time ago.
Inthat clip, Assad is shown laughing…
Yea, everyone was laughing.
I don’t claim to understand even half of the the former Syrian opposition is organized, but HTS is in principle the main group under Syrian Salvation Government, which has it’s own prime minister and president. The prime minister Mohammed al-Bashir seems to be the one forming the new government, based on an agreement between al-Jolani, al-Bashir and the former prime minister al-Jalali.
Now, of course, this being Levant, there also Syrian Interim Government, located in Idlib and operating under National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces in Ankara, and it’s running the Syrian National Army (which is much stronger than HTS).
So, the opposition can govern, given half a chance. They’ve run Idlib for many years now. The question is whether the different factions lose coherence now that they won and the common goal is gone and they will start fighting each other. Or maybe they, for now, can find a new common goal provided by Israel’s bold invasion. Who knows?
One hopes for the best while expecting the worst. We did get rid of Biden and some of his cronies so maybe things will get marginally better? Biden at the end seems incapable of managing the reality of walking across the White House lawn much less “running the world.”
Trump has put out social media posts saying that the Russians have lost 600k casualties in Ukraine and therefore must be desperate for a deal. So he has his own reality problems but may be more capable of changing his mind. Biden’s only response to criticism has been to attack the critics.
I am not sure the oposition can run the country if the sanctions are kept and if the east is under occupation and with the wheat and oil barred for the Syrian state…
My bet is on the reprise of the Lebanon situation circa early 1980s, except with the Turks playing the role of Syria (and Israel replaying, well, Israel), on a scale 10 times bigger, which is another way of saying that a large scale Turkish invasion/intervention will eventually take place to knock heads together and put things in some kind of order–after everything else had been tried. We may well wind up with a Sunni version of Hizb’ullah as the outcome of the episode. Recall that Israel didn’t actually pull out of South Lebanon until 2000 (or, they haven’t yet–Shebaa Farms and all that). Assuming that is, Israel still exists 20 years from now.
” if you let Israel take potshots at any military base, college, or school in your country you might not have a stable government!”
Strange thing is that there is more than one way of Israel taking a potshot at universities…as the USA should know.
Plus les choses changent plus elles sont les memes.
The new version is move fast and break things. (Zuck, not Thiel, but celebrated by the tech bro class for decades.) Except of course they mean break up that other guy’s monopoly and make mine bigger, root out any disloyal in
spooks and policing, and replace them with spookier and loyal goons to do my bidding.
I suppose they retreat to crowing about innovation and progress and saving the world, with contributions like crypto and AI.
The portrayal of Assad by Simplicius as a kind and reluctant leader is so strange. Why would anyone believe that?
Because he got an MD in London and didn’t evidence any interest in running the country until designated by his father after his brother, the heir apparent, died? He was reluctant even if the kind part is very much subject to question.
Because the Western press initially depicted him and his wife as nice people? He even got to ride with the Queen.
Okay I guess I mean the kind part. He tortured or at least allowed torture of his people.
What do you think happens in the US prison gulag complex?
Are you serious? You can’t equate the two. Syrian prisons are like the prisons Israelis use for Palestinians.
The differences between the American carceral state and the Syrian and Israeli prisons are of degrees, not of kind. If you do even a light afternoon reading, you will likely have nightmares for a few nights. Then there is the reality that our prison system is the largest in the world with Louisiana’s having the largest by percentage of that state’s population.
Many years ago I saw the tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacques, whose last name betrayed his birth and upbringing in what he called between tunes “Lousy-Ana.”
Are they a little something like this? – https://theappeal.org/the-lab/explainers/chicago-police-torture-explained/
Please read my post in the Syrian refugee thread on Ashcroft v. Iqbal.
It may be not easy to read though, as in the red-pill in the Matrix.
Readers digest version: two Muslim detainees were assaulted, deprived of sleep, nutrition, and battered by prison guards in the ADMAX SHU facility in NYC. This resulted in permanent injuries. Ashcroft as US Attorney General was the architect of the discriminatory policies that led to such injuries.
There are people who endure Special Housing Units (SHU program) that could tell you what prisons are like in California, concrete cells with no windows and no lights except what comes thru slits in the door. in “the hole” in county jails political prisoners eat compressed leftover food baked into “joot bars”. and nothing in California compares to Angola, La. which is why there are regular prison strikes, really all they can do.
Yea, just like Putin, and everyone else USA dislikes. Why would anyone not believe that?
Too bad he didn’t think to call it “enhanced interrogation.”
Come to think of it, didn’t he interrogate some folks “enhancedly” at the u.s.’s request?
I think that is a part of the dissonance.
I think some people, having decided that “their guys” are intolerably bad, often with good reason, still feel the need to look for “the good guys” somewhere else, playing up their virtues to an often ludicrous degree and overlooking everything that contradicts the “good guy” image (of which most modern governments have plenty). This dynamic has long been in play with Soviet dissidents and their Russian liberal spiritual successors, but a lot of dissenters in the so-called West appear to have it too.
In some sense, this is amplified by the fact that every dissident, in practically every society, is some sort of shady person–they pretty much have to be, since they are, by definiti8on, excluded from the normal and legitimate way of living by virtue of being, well, dissidents. And the beetter you are at taking advantage of shady aspects, the more likely you are to survive for a long time. But if you decide that the regime that they are, well, dissidenting against are evil, the dissidents necessarily have to be great and moral people.
I honestly think Trump phenomenon captures this exceptionally well: in many ways, he captures every trait of successful dissidents in other countries, both good and bad. (I’ve certainly seen this pattern among SK and Taiwanese dissidents over the years and the biographies (and other accounts) of successful dissidents in practically every other country repeats the same themes.)
Trump himself is more like the demagogue politicians in the mold of early Yeltsin or Navalny. Beloved by a certain stripe of dissident (whether because they think he’s good or because they think he’s a battering ram), but fundamentally more pragmatic and self-interested. I was talking more about the believers; the kind of people who, vexed with Soviet misrule, found it necessary to believe that the West is the opposite of that and ruled by fundamentally decent, public-minded people who win elections for good reasons (unless somehow cheated out of them by bad guys, naturally; funnily, some of the more right-wing Russian liberals used to think that way of Obama) rather than dumb careerist hogs and thugs elevated through corrupt connections and the abuse of state resources. That belief is fading with exposure and generational change, but very slowly.
True. But the Syria campaign was supported by an incredible level of propaganda. As much of it was in the service of a “humanitarian” excuse for regime change, the effort to portray Assad as a vicious sadistic torturer/killer/poison gasser/etc. was especially vigorous – and sometimes ridiculous in its extremes.
I can’t tell if Pilar’s comments reflect the actual brutality of Syria’s prisons, or the absurd cartoon caricatures of NY Times or New Yorker articles. But as Yves notes, the Simpicius picture of Assad was the accepted one in the Western press before he became the Demon Dictator from Hell. It is significant not only as a case study in propaganda, but also as one *possible* factor in his failure, which is what Simplicius seems to suggest.
I should have added that the Demon Assad propaganda is also significant because it was used to justify the so-called “Caesar sanctions” that squeezed the Syrian economy, starved its people, and slowly destroyed its ability to resist. They were named after the guy who smuggled out massive “evidence” of Assad’s torturing literally tens of thousands to death. This “evidence” was always suspicious and eventually debunked, but as usual that didn’t matter – it did its job in providing cover for our Congressional hacks and making tender-hearted liberals feel better about Obama’s destruction of yet another country.
It’s certainly possible. Western media talked up Putin as a nice, reasonable Pinochet-type figure back when he was newly in power as well. (And yes, that is a rather funny descriptor, but Pinochet was still cool back then.) I don’t know which image of Assad is nearer to reality. It’s possible that he was too nice a guy to be very good at managing the assorted awful things his government actually did and that Western governments and media then shamelessly exaggerated. That would help explain his eventual failure. I’d want to dig a bit deeper than the Western mainstream media of either period before coming to that conclusion, though.
On nice guy or not, keep in mind that Syria has been a steady target for regime change and even in ~ 2005 it was said he was to be pushed out (and Wesley Clark’s interview supports that). He tried to run a secular country with respect for religious minorities where there are people violently opposed to that form of government that will stop at nothing.
Note that he did not brutally suppress in the initial protests in 2011 like his father did in 1982 in Homs, and look where Syria is now.
Yes, being a halfhearted autocrat in a place where enough people are actually out to get you is never good for you, your system of government, or anyone who relies on you for protection, no matter the reason for it. That sounds like a plausible takeaway, at least.
Hama was tbe big crackdown (although I think there were serious issues in Homs, too). Basically, Hama was levelled to the ground, with both sides perpetrating horrible atrocities and likely tens of thousands dead. Sunni fundamentalists don’t like the old Syrian govt much and the sentiment is reciprocated…been goinh on for more than half a century.
Why would anyone believe the Western press?
+ Saddam has WMD
+ Gaza’s not genocide
+ Assad’s plane crashed and he’s dead (Reuters)
+ Putin has cancer (2022) and will croak any minute now …
(Just a sampling, for a full accounting we might need to ask for a dedicated thread.)
People want to believe. People need to believe. The truth pill is bitter and hard to swallow, and would make them see the blood on their own hands. They need the bad guy to be someone else. Assad, Saddam, Putin, anyone but their own presidents.
So many people in the US want to believe our leadership are the good guys. Biden is a kind and decent old grandfather. The NYT reports the truth. Yeah, as a country we may have problems, but we’re still the best of a bad lot. Democracy, etc.
We’re like abused kids. Where do we go if we repudiate our parents? It’s better to pretend it’s all good and deny that we and our siblings are miserable. At least we have a home.
Joe Biden is as sharp as a tack….
Ukraine is a democracy …
Donald Trump cares about ordinary Americans or America, or anyone besides himself.
Donald Trump will drain the “Swamp.”
(No, I don’t believe he’ll actually do anything of the kind, but I do hope that he will wreck enough of the machinery that it leaves room open for longer term change.)
Donald Trump will end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, after inauguration… (countdown to validation/invalidation has begun.)
He did not say after inauguration, but after he gets elected. Countdown has begun, and ended, and have already been forgotten.
Trust me.
I give you my word as a Biden!
I will not pardon my son Hunter!
No one is above the law!
Kamala Harris is going to beat Donald Trump, the polls say so.
Liz Cheney is an asset.
Bill Clinton did not have sex with that woman.
Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation is philanthropic, not self serving. Microsoft…and Apple are donating technology to improve American education.
Bill Crosby, America’s dad.
John McCain has veterans’ backs. (True only if you were a veteran of the right war.)
Obama wants to do ________, it is only the Republicans that are stopping him.
ACA will end medical bankruptcy.
NAFTA will benefit American workers.
Business can do it better and cheaper than government.
And I do realize that many of these are more personally established, but the press happily spread most of them.
A Gaza cease-fire and hostage deal is “imminent” and “on the 10-yard line”
The press mischaracterized the fake ceasefire ploy that Blinken tried.
How about that portable pier of Biden’s?!?
Good one. We may be here all evening …
Don’t forget Russia stealing computer chips from washing machines to use for missles
The Freedom-loving Syrian People, with their gas pipeline routes, are natural allies of American People. They are now free to return home to begin rebuilding their country under the wise leadership of Al Giuliani, the Syrian Nelson Mandela.
Syrian Zelensky. Slava Aloha!
“…Or do we, the wealthy developed countries, just like to break things and walk away from the mess…”
Is this a rhetorical question?
It’s not, because you don’t just walk away from the mess. You stay there in order to assure the mess stays messy. Also, to steal oil and everything else that is not nailed down, and other democratic things.
Bad news. As I recall, Florida had a well managed pension plan.
Bitcoin State: Florida Pensions Take $1.85 Billion Leap Into Crypto
Breach of Fiduciary duty (From ChatGPT, sorry I haven’t studied financial crimes yet)
What is the legal definition of breach of fiduciary duty?
A breach of fiduciary duty occurs when a fiduciary (someone entrusted to act on behalf of another) fails to uphold their duties and responsibilities, acting in a way that is contrary to the best interests of the beneficiary. This can include actions like self-dealing, misappropriating funds, failing to disclose important information, or any behavior that benefits the fiduciary at the expense of the beneficiary
For a successful claim, the plaintiff must prove:
1. existence of a fiduciary duty.
2. A breach of that duty.
3. Damages resulting from the breach
Depends on where it happens. For example, CalPERS in California has never been hauled over the coals for their misdeeds but are treated with kid gloves.
It would likely come down to element 2 – proving breach.
Clearly the FL Pension managers owe a fiduciary duty to the pensioners. And I’d bet dollars to donuts that the damages are coming.
BTC is now manifesting true ponzi characteristics, because it has to suck in more and more entrants. The writing was on the wall when Wall St. showed up and started creating exchanges that don’t really hold any BTC. I was hoping that the SBF debacle with FTX would end the game, but it obviously didn’t.
These pensions will be bagholders when BTC collapses. Guessing that this is a sign we’re in the late innings, now.
Seventh inning stretch?
Bring me another ponzi
Take my money from me!
Buy me some bitcoin or schemes from the Fed
I don’t care if they ain’t got not cred!
Cause it’s root, root, root for the Bull team
If we go red its a shame!
Cause it’s one, two, three strikes yer out at the old ponzi game!
Melody from “Take me out to the ballgame” (American classic.)
This is a shitty definition of fiduciary duty. Please use a search engine the future.
Fiduciary duty is the highest standard of care under the law. A fiduciary is NOT merely entrusted to act on behalf of another. That person is merely an agent or representative.
A fiduciary is required to put the interests of the party for whom they are acting AHEAD of their own.
Yeah, sloppy work there … and a cautionary tale on using AI for anything that requires precision.
Today I learned something. Thanks. Now, I would think that because fiduciary duty is the highest standard of care, proving breach is easier for the plaintiffs.
why use AI for anything – period – of what value besides sloth?
Thanks, Yves. Saw this, cancelled mine along the same lines.
Late to the party on the claims adjuster capture. I’ll observe that:
1. It wasn’t technology that led to his capture, it was a citizen tip combined with some old-fashioned local police work. So much for “AI is going to take over the world.” They couldn’t even match his smiling face with facial recognition databases. Where was Abby from the CSI crime lab? She would have solved this in a hot minute!
2. It appears based on his background that Luisi was “son of the PMC.” Middle class folks don’t send their kids to 40k/year private schools, then U Penn for multiple degrees. Houston, we have a problem. Much better for him to have been some isolated loner like the Unabomber. Now, every PMC member has to wonder if their own kid is going to turn.
3. I hope he gets a good lawyer.
Since I know the area well, I’m wondering why he went to McDonalds since Wendy’s is closer to Interstate 99, which I’m assuming he was traveling on. There is also a Plaza just north of the McDonald’s exit which has a Panera, a Steak House, and a lot more to choose from. I guess he might be a “big Mac” epicurean, but it seems he would have been less conspicuous in a lot of other food establishments, let alone going through a drive-thru at the Arby’s.
I’m wondering why he wasn’t in an apartment eating delivery dropped at the front door until things died down, given that his face was everywhere for several days.
Maybe he felt he needed to get caught to better make his point?
It was a McDonald’s employee. Reportedly he was acting strangely at the McDonalds, loitering, etc.
Luigi may be suffering from chronic back pain? as his social media avatar had an x-ray of a back w/pins in it.
Stunning combo of competence and incompetence, likely w/a dash of (legal or illegal) drug use.
Lots of other sites that have the more salacious aspects of Luigi’s personal life and manifesto.
>> They couldn’t even match his smiling face with facial recognition databases.
Non-zero chance that federal authorities did find him/trailing him via a surveillance network/panopticon tool, but are going to construct their court case without revealing that hand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction
Or for some reason don’t want that hand challenged in court for a variety of reasons while the AI hype is still being $old. It’s possible a good defense attorney could make weak tea out of such evidence.
Apparently he still had the gun and silencer on him. How stupid was that? Did he want them for souvenirs? It should have gone into the Hudson or some other river before the end of the first day – along with all the clothes he wore then. Wouldn’t have hurt for him to trim his eyebrows either to throw people off. They were a dead give away.
>>>How stupid was that?
“normal” rules of rationality don’t apply to edge cases like Luigi.
IMO, irrespective of the morality of his actions, he’s a blend of Ted Kaczynski + a clinical psychopath + the haze of chronic pain.
Now to get on my soapbox, lol…..if people want a scion of the top 0.5% to be the Pied Piper to a post-1789-esque vigilante Reign of Terror, have at it.
I’ll sit that out.
Agreed. There’s no telling what’s going on here.
Although Luke O’Neil had a lovely take in his substack: “It appears that Luigi Mangione the alleged shooter of the UnitedHealth CEO has a wide range of disparate beliefs and no clearly delineated ideology (unlike me the only person with completely coherent politics in the world.)”
The pain became a corrosive substance
Let’s say he chucked the gun in the creek … the cops still can detain him based on probable cause that he committed the murder, using the fake ID linked to the hostel and facial similarity to the suspect as evidence. They would have to work a bit harder, though. Maybe beat a confession out of him or build a case on circumstantial evidence.
The gun charge made their lives a whole lot easier.
I understand the gun was not the murder weapon.
He is not just a son of the PMC. His family owns a right wing talk show radio station in Maryland. And his cousin is a right wing politician.
https://wcbm.com/on-air-schedule/
https://ninoformd.com/about/
We don’t have a decent health care system in the US because of folks like the Mangione family. Thanks to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, the concept of Medicare for All is disparaged on a daily basis.
My mother had pictures of herself with both Georges Bush on her refrigerator. Chuck Grassley called her by her first name.
My family would be horrified to think that people were judging them by what I do and say as a socialist and former union activist. This is the United States of America where most everyone grows up disagreeing with their parents.
FWIW, several members of his family seem to be in the medical profession, besides his own (apparent) health issues. So I figure that he has some good sense of the issues.
Be honest. It’s not just the right wingers that stand in the way of rational healthcare in the US.
Yes, it would have been better jury-wise for the Adjuster to have been a scrappy poor guy whose mom was killed by UH.
But on the brighter side, here at last is someone from the elite ranks, stepping up to show leadership. Let us pray there are many more to come, regardless of their methodology. Part of our problem has been that those with the time, power, and money to solve problems, (or just insist on problems being solved) are instead spending their time deciding what wine refrigerator to put in their 4th home.
“Now, every PMC member has to wonder if their own kid is going to turn.”
And so they should. Historically, and in my personal experience during the antiwar and other movements of the 1970s, it’s not at all unusual for many of the most militant radicals to come from the ranks of the relatively privileged.
Yes, a long history of the young generation wanting to make radical change when they see no other agency. The history of Russia in the times of the Tsar is a good example.
Engels is another good example.
correct.
“Now, every PMC member has to wonder if their own kid is going to turn.”
Personal anecdote: A few days ago I was invited to a holiday party in the hills above Beverly Hills. Super fancy elite affair. First time I’ve been to a “house party” with valets and full catering staff. Literally more staff than guests. So, these people weren’t average PMC’s but by my standards at least pretty elite wealthy.
Over dinner this shooter topic came up. A woman there brought up a denied claim from a car accident she had while covered by United. Others discussed their issues with health insurance coverage. All thought what the shooter did was understandable and some even thought it was justified.
Not sure what to make of this but never seen an issue this extreme that crosses class divides so much. About the only people who seem outraged by the shooter are news media types which makes sense since about 20-25% of ad dollars comes from healthcare & insurance ($200M+ from insurance alone) so their paychecks rely on for-profit healthcare and politicians whose biggest donors are for-profit healthcare.
Just seems that even the rich have become aware that some aspects of our society are so corrupt even they are excluded from protection and that democratic and capitalistic avenues of remedy aren’t enough to change that.
Again, anecdotal, but it’s not often I get a peak into the world of the well-to-do so figured I’d share.
Interesting, ty Geo. I would have expected otherwise. Good to hear.
Read this interesting take that makes some level of sense:
“I think someone rich would likely have a much worse reaction to getting screwed by insurance than someone used to being treated like dirt.”
I believe that is a big part (though certainly not the whole) of why devoted revolutionaries, dissidents, etc. often come from the higher layers of society. They expect more out of life and react more strongly when their expectations are thwarted.
More anecdata: Played golf with a surgeon and internist Saturday afternoon. Their reactions, unbidden by me who never brings up politics on the golf course, were similar to those at your party. But as I have mentioned to more than one physician over the past several years, they are part of the one profession that could have resisted the complete crapifcation and enshittification of medical practice over the past 30 years. But they went along…they still get paid and most of them are in the top-5% of the income distribution at the minimum, with many in the top-0.1 to 1%. And they all view themselves as part of the “middle class.” Which does make me laugh.
The Bloomberg article on Cognizant and its racist discrimination and replacement of American workers with Indian H1B hires is must read. Great business reporting.
In the tech outsourcing industry, the Indian firms are known as WITCH for Wipro, Infosys, Tata, Cognizant and HCL. All of them do this and they are a menace to quality IT work at a decent salary. Destroyers of good jobs.
“Far-right backers protest after Romanian court cancels presidential election”
No doubt the globalists are trying to get Calin Georgescu disqualified before the re-run of the election in three months time. Maybe they will claim that he is actually a Manchurian Candidate from the Russians or claim that he was actually born in Moscow or maybe they will just “find” kiddie pron on his computer. But they will not let him stand for office – or will they? In three months time Trump will be settled into office as President. So maybe Orban or Fico will have a word with him how this guy is one of them. Trump wants to make America great again? Well Georgescu wants to make Romania great again. Trump, in his haphazard way, might decide to give this guy a bit of cover as having one more of his ilk in the EU might give him a bit more leverage. Time will tell.
Calin Georgescu seems like an RFK Jr. type. He is a danger to the NATO/Anti-Russia crowd for sure. He is a soil scientist and I was a little surprised to see that he doesn’t believe humans are a factor in Climate Change or that Covid is real, per this Sky News article.
https://news.sky.com/story/calin-georgescu-the-ex-soil-scientist-who-rose-to-prominence-on-tiktok-and-is-on-course-to-be-romanias-next-president-13267482
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1866271588552942036
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
Yau Shing-Tung, Fields Medal winner and former top professor of mathematics at Harvard says that “Chinese scientists have no choice but to leave the US” because the environment has become too discriminatory against them.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3289766/brain-drain-top-mathematician-says-chinese-scientists-have-no-choice-leave-us
Top mathematician says Chinese scientists have no choice but to leave US
6:59 PM · Dec 9, 2024
“too discriminatory” is politely diplomatic – it may be dangerous to their freedom and possible display of consequences to instill fear – leaving is a smart move imho –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qian_Xuesen
Qian (or Tsien, as his name was anglicized back then) was a Chinese rocket scientist in US during 1930s and 40s (and was even made a colonel in US Army during WW2 while working in the war-related research–I don’t think he was ever a US citizen, so I wonder how that was arranged.) But, during the 1950 Red Scare, he was accused of being a Chinese communist plant and was basically expelled to PRC in 1955. This was the time when Chinese rocket research started taking off (there’s a good reason why Qian came to be known as the Father of Chinese Rocketry). His name came up quite a lot when I was undergrad (I think he donated his papers to Caltech in early 1990s) so I remember his story well.
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1866305695240601876
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
This is crazy: the U.S. house of representatives just overwhelmingly passed a law that mandates the teaching of anti-communism and anti-China propaganda to U.S. school kids.
Even more insane, the curriculum will be based on educational material prepared by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
( VOCMF, https://victimsofcommunism.org/house-of-representatives-passes-crucial-communism-teaching-act/ ),
an anticommunist propaganda shop founded by an act of congress. VOCFM is so extreme in their views that to them, all Nazis killed by Soviets are “victims of communism”, as are all deaths resulting from Covid-19
( https://hamptonthink.org/read/red-scared-revising-history-at-the-victims-of-communism-museum ).
Check for instance one of their recent X postings
( https://x.com/VoCommunism/status/1747646935429677554 )
in which they exhort people to “remember the victims” from when the Soviet army liberated Poland from the Nazis (including Auschwitz!) during the Vistula–Oder Offensive
The new law that just passed, the “Crucial Communism Teaching Act”
( https://congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5349/text ),
mandates that “high school students in the United States learn that communism has led to the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims worldwide”, which is the same tally as that of VOCMF (and in fact the law specifically says that it is that VOCMF that shall develop the curriculum).
The new law also mandates that U.S. school kids be “taught” all the usual anti-China propaganda talking points such as “the treatment of Uyghurs” (the so-called “Uyghur genocide” is, incidentally, also a narrative that originates from the VOCMF), the “actions taken by the PRC to deter pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong” or “the increasingly aggressive posture by the PRC toward Taiwan, a democratic friend of the United States”.
The irony of course is that “communist China” has no equivalent law or curriculum: Chinese school kids aren’t taught as part of their curriculum to hate capitalism or the U.S. In fact, China has even plenty of American international schools in almost all major cities in the country, which goes to illustrate that, contrary to common perceptions, China’s educational approach toward the U.S. and its system shows much greater receptivity and balance than is currently being demonstrated in the reverse direction. And that’s a massive understatement…
All in all, to take a step back, which approach is likely to educate more capable and discerning citizens? The one fostering genuine understanding through exposure to diverse perspectives, or the one imposing a rigid framework of ideological opposition? You draw your own conclusion…
9:15 PM · Dec 9, 2024
But, but, wait … I thought project 2025 would abolish the Dept. of Ed?
No Federal Dept. of Education means this bill becomes null and void as all education funding returns to the states, and localities. No money, no hammer to bash school districts that don’t comply with their unreasonable mandates.
Remember that this is the stupidest of silly seasons – this lame duck Congress ends in about 23 days or so, and any bills that haven’t been passed by both the Senate, House, and signed by the President die.
So this is just grandstanding by the House GOP morons. They know the bill has not a snowball’s chance in Hell of ever becoming law. Kind of like the SCOTUS term limits bill being staged by the Senate Dems.
Kabuki theater!
“So this is just grandstanding by the House GOP morons. ..”
No, no. Led by Nancy Pelosi, Democrats in the House of Representatives flocked to pass this wildly prejudiced legislation. Pelosi has been a leader of prejudice against China for years and Democrats have contentedly followed, with remarkably few exceptions. The Democratic leaning New York Times is wildly prejudiced in articles on China.
but but nancy said nafta democrats are free traders to their souls! i guess we really know what that means, white supremacy.
Nancy and the corporate Dems being on board isn’t surprising. Still, it has no chance of becoming law in this Congress. They know this, and that’s why all sorts of “show” legislation with no path to becoming law gets votes late in a lame-duck Congress.
There is only one bill that will pass before these clowns go mercifully home to their districts … and that is the stop-gap funding CR to keep the government running until Trump takes over.
if you don’t have an enemy to point at ya’ have to look in the mirror – Bernays 101 – the predicate of our cultural motivation since Plymouth Rock has been us vs them – which unfortunately is a human trait as well – it takes self-aware consciousness and humility to control it –
Funny, the Feds can ram the anti-commie propaganda down the kiddies’ throats, but somehow funding is still dependent on local property taxes. Perhaps many districts will just be too poor to teach those classes…
Also, or course the Russians and Chinese aren’t really communist at this point and have largely embraced capitalism in some form. But don’t let that get in the way when there’s propaganda that needs catapulting.
This is not a sign of an elite that is confident in its position. Hopefully that’s an indication that this whole capitalist facade is going to crash and burn soon. They can’t keep pretending little crapbox houses are worth a million dollars forever, can they?
So I read the bill (not yet law) and it says:
“(3) engage with State and local educational leaders to assist high schools in using the curriculum described in paragraph (1) and the resources described in paragraph (2).”
Not sure what “engage” and “assist” mean in this context, but it doesn’t sound like “mandate”. That said I would gladly offer up “VOCMF” to the DOGE chopping block.
>>>Crucial Communism Teaching Act
Oh brother, did those lawmakers check who made the printers that printed out that delusional act?
Wellie, I’m a notional (at least) commie and I have disputes with how the concept has been implemented thus far (excluding Cuba, which I never touch), but I have greater disputes with how Capitalism™ exists in its current form.
I’ve been down for so long it looks like up to me, to quote the old blues tune.
Not only American international schools (which are for foreign kids), but also Western-curriculum (IB, AP, British, Canadian) internat’l schools for mainland Chinese kids.
I taught in the former in Shanghai, the latter in Beijing–and in Beijing, quickly learned that my assumed freedom to criticize Western imperialism and capitalist exploitation was taken as “biased” by the Chinese kids. Probably connects to the “middle path” and “yin-yang” dialectical roots of Chinese thought stretching back two+ millennia. (Or, more cynically, to their rich socio-economic status. After all, they were there in order to study in Western universities.)
“An Ancient Killer Is Rapidly Becoming Resistant to Antibiotics, Study Warns”
Typhoid fever? Now that is an old enemy come back from the grave. Certainly there would be a lot of knowledge still there about how to deal with it and people will understand restrictions put on them temporarily to stop it’s spread. Or will they? What if we have another Mary Mallon-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon
I have no doubt that there will be a lot of dogooders who would insist that such a person be free to live their lives and not quarantined away. There would be a GoFundMe to raise money for her legal expenses and a media campaign talking about her rights. I can see it now.
re: Pensioner convicted of incitement for posting negatively about migrants in the latest politically charged German speech prosecution — eugyppius.
The EU seems to be harshly cracking down on dissent of any kind. They’ve passes so-called speech laws that invite dissent by their very nature. It’s almost as if they were designed to draw out dissent and then punish the dissenters.
Von der Layen declared essentially above the EU laws by the European prosecutor.
How else explain the bizarre Romanian canceled/do-over election because the apparent winner and his party dissent from continuing a foreign war? From RT:
https://swentr.site/russia/609065-simonyan-west-democracy-death/
(donning my foil bonnet) I could almost think this is a long planned return of the old (and new) European aristocracy, waiting patiently while their minions clear the field for them. ( removing foil bonnet) / ;)
From the pensioner article:
On 8 October 2023, van Geul encountered an image of our Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck on Facebook. In this image, Habeck was quoted saying that “Germany depends on immigration to meet its labour needs.” Van Geul commented as follows:
Blah, blah, blah. We need skilled workers, not asylum seekers who just want a good life here without respecting our values and culture. Send the ones who are here off to work. We don’t need loafers and freeloaders, and certainly not stabbers and rapists.
Big fire in Malibu in the midst of Santa Ana winds, you get the feeling there might be more conflagrations, tis the fire season, oh, oh, oh.
You’d think it would be easy to procure a gang load of firefighting aircraft, as nowhere else is really all that flammable in the entire country @ present.
We didn’t send bombers out in WW2 on a onesy-twosey basis, why not have vast air armadas of ‘bombers’ on fires?
Boeing aircraft in that massive fleet?
And. it’s proven that likely toxic aerial-applied fire suppressant chemicals would do the job?
The Case for Letting Malibu Burn.
Because the proletariat down in Torrance don’t really want to be billed to maintain a private army / air force to fight canyon fires for the 1%?
Re: Democrats Can’t Change Course
I took Mr. Shellenberger to mean the wokie/DEI set when he he wrote “radical left,” which is pretty much where the action on the left is these days. The economic left in the US of A is down to Freddie DeBoer and a few people who left the DSA when that place turned into DEI language policing hell.
We are still here trying to form a credible Workers Party!
Classunity.org!
It will be interesting to really see what comes out about Luigi Mangione. I stumbled upon this Slate article that goes over what was on his GoodReads page before it was turned to private.
https://slate.com/life/2024/12/luigi-mangione-ceo-shooter-suspect-unitedhealthcare.html
The funny part about the author of the article is that he’s trying to paint Luigi as being complex because he’s read some right-wing material; except I had to laugh at what he thought was right-wing… Orwell and Aldus Huxley.
When I was Luigi’s age, I probably also read about half the books on his list and the other half weren’t yet published. All in all, I suspect Luigi is of the extreme Leftist mindset and he just decided at some recent point to violently act on it.
Maybe they denied his claim over that complex back surgery.
Just smoked some weed on my day off and wanted to thank Yves, Lambert, and the rest of the #NCSquad for the great work y’all do!
Really an invaluable tool to organizing!
Merry Krampus to all and to all a good night!
Hear, hear!
Got the old Bayou Blaster out does ya?
Stay safe. Stay at home for the Holidays.
Syria’s Fall: In-Depth Analysis – Simplicius
Another question: Syria formally applied to be a member of BRICS in Oct. While decisions are on hold, has the “new government” withdrawn the application? Stay tuned?
It’s probably moot.
BRICS need to stop talking about alternative currencies and solve the easier problem of Country X wants to trade with Country Z such that there is not a damn thing Uncle Sam can do about it short of sending the US Navy to blockade all the ports.
From what I have been reading this seems to be exactly their focus…
The speed with which this happen has been incredible. Except I feel like we’re looking at an iceberg with most of it hidden. As events proceed, more chaos in Syria, the iceberg is gonna roll over and expose more of the unseen events that precipitated this fall.
What I wonder about is what Iran does next. They’ve been a major target of Western aggression since the Shah fell. I was actually almost shocked Iran did not develop nuclear weapons after W nominated them to the Axis of Evil. That has been in my estimation an incredible show of restraint by Iran since it seems that only nukes will prevent an invasion by the West. I cannot see that restraint continuing, yet if Iran does go for nukes that would most likely start a chain of events which would result in most of the other major ME nations deciding they want to have nukes too.
All not very good especially with a Forbes article stating WW3 has already begun. Lets hope calmer heads prevail (which seems to rule out the current leadership elites in the West.)
I would expect Iran to get even closer to Russia. They don’t need Forbes articles in order to know that it’s WW3 o’clock.
Yeah, Forbes targets American elites so it was Jamie Diamon telling the elites the current situation framed as a Russian backed Syria defeat, and after that war with Russia is likely.
These people are idiots.
Regarding Israel occupies new Syrian territory following Assad’s collapse, there is an interesting X-Twitter thread explaining the sheer strategic advantage that these new conquests afford to Israel.
Basically, together with the conditions imposed by the cease-fire (whereas ceasing fire apparently only applies to Lebanese forces), Hezbollah will soon be truly boxed-in, its entire territory under constant surveillance by Israel, incapable of operating without being detected. And a large part of Syria, including the capital, will end up likewise.
It increasingly looks as if the current events will lead to an Israeli victory as complete as the 1967 war, and with consequences as momentous:
1) Arab armies wrecked or neutralized — then Egypt, Syria, Jordan; now Syria, Lebanon.
2) Arab territories conquered by Israel — then Sinai, Gaza, West Bank, Jerusalem, Golan; now Gaza, a part of Syria including the whole of Golan, arguably a tiny sliver of Lebanon.
3) Ethnic cleansing enabling Israel to vacate land for settlers — then Palestinians fleeing the West Bank to Jordan, inhabitants of the Golan fleeing to Syria; now Palestinians in Gaza being exterminated.
There are differences though:
4) The 6-days war was a short, sharp conflict; the current one is a long-grind where attrition plays the major role.
5) In 1967 the Israelis achieved victory by daring tactical operations against the armed forces of their enemies; in the current one, by focusing on the slaughter of civilians, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and outright genocide.
6) In 1967, Israel fought alone. In the current conflict, its armouries are being constantly replenished by the USA, Germany, and the UK; the Israeli airforce uses British bases in Cyprus as a backup; NATO spy airplanes have been loitering on the Gaza, Lebanese, and Syrian coasts providing intelligence to Israel; special forces from the USA have been operating in Gaza; and the warplanes of the USA, UK, France, Jordan, and Egypt helped Israel attempt to fend off the missile waves lobbed at it from Iran.
I am sure that, when everything is over, the current conflict will be touted in Israel as yet another example (after 1948, 1967, 1973) of the Jewish State, outnumbered and assaulted by a coalition of blood-thirsty enemies, heroically fighting its way to a costly, exhausting, but nevertheless crushing victory. I suspect that, just like in 1967, we will also see the emergence of Palestinian worldwide terrorism as the sole remaining outlet to fight Israel.
This will also mark the point at which war will be primarily be conducted to destroy not the enemy forces, but the enemy as a whole. Machine-gunning ambulances, bombing hospitals, blowing up protected cultural artifacts, sniping children, killing women and old people, shooting at refugee camps, levelling cities, arasing fields and orchards, sending prisoners to concentration camps to be tortured and assassinated — anything goes. Forget about the Geneva conventions, the Hague conventions, the customary rules of war. No need to dissemble, no need to conceal war crimes, crimes against mankind, crimes of genocide: they can be perpetrated openly — nobody will do or say a damn about it. That kind of approach initiated by the USA in Serbia, pursued in Iraq, taken up by France and the UK in Libya, the Saudis in Yemen, and the Ukrainians in Lugansk and Donetsk, has been now perfected by the Israelis in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.
When karma strikes back and the “civilized” nations are subject to the same treatment, of course they will screech like pigs led to the slaughter, but it will be too late. Just look at Ukrainians howling when Russia blasts their energy infrastructure.
Possible Ukrainian blowblack could be worse.
No need to dissemble, no need to conceal war crimes, crimes against mankind, crimes of genocide
One can only wonder in dismay at how little moral progress mankind has made from the previous millennia. What is abhorrent conduct on an “individual level” is sanctioned by psychopathic people in leadership/decision-making positions on the “societal level.”
Moral is the same, but the lies progressed through to roof, or was it a glass ceiling.
But this assumes the jihadist in Syria will be fine with Israel occupying them, bombing them and generally trying to dominate them.
Those jihadists were equipped either by the USA (Al-Qaeda, Daesh), or by Turkey (HTS, SNA). Funding for some of them came from countries like Qatar.
If their sponsors reduce their supplies, they will be left hanging against Israel. The USA, the UK, and Germany never interrupted and will not interrupt in the foreseable future their deliveries to Israel — even if it means prioritizing them over those to Ukraine, for instance.
And those jihadists will not be able to rely upon the formerly vast pool of weaponry from the SAA: the Israeli air force has been destroying them in many hundreds of daily sorties ever since Bashar el Assad flew out of the country.
Hezbollah could credibly confront Israel because it had modern equipment (missiles, artillery, drones), either procured from Iran, or custom-built. The jihadists will not get a comparable arsenal from anybody, have not set up machine shops to build them, and will not be able to salvage anything significant from Assad arsenals or use the former regime’s machine shops — because the Israelis are making sure they get blown up. And contrarily to Hamas, they have not set up underground fortresses and underground machine shops either. In the short to middle term, those Al Qaeda derivatives might be an annoyance, but will not constitute a real danger for Israel.
They wont have conventional army and certainly will not be able to overrun Israel, but they will be able to wage insurgency war, which can be done on the cheap. Syria isn’t the Gaza concentration camp, it’s too vast to be controlled from air, or even from the ground as Assad learned.
The fundamental problem I see is that for Israel the idea of being secure is equal to being able to dominate everyone else to the point where they can bomb neighbors without fearing any repercussion. Which means not only military but also economic destitution. And of course when they feel they have that power, they will use it, as they are doing now. So the jihadist will be dragged into war with Israel whenever they like it or not.
This doesn’t obviously address in any way the facts that Israel’s economy is in tatters and invasions are extremely expensive, that IDF has had so high losses it needed a cease-fire with Hezbollah and that Israel’s sponsors themselves are running very low on weapons.
We know that Israel is the most militarized society society on Earth, but one reason for that is because it needs quick victories, it just can’t fight long wars without collapsing. And this is already one the longest wars it has ever fought.
It is also a question of proportion: who lost more economically — Israel or Lebanon? Israel or Gaza? Israel or Syria? The economy of those nations has collapsed — the one of Israel is shaky, but still standing.
Same for casualties: Israeli casualties are a small fraction of those of those nations — and contrarily to Israelis, those other nations never dared openly and deliberately massacre civilians.
What does the acid test of the Clausewitzian criteria for a military victory show?
1) Destruction of enemy forces: the Syrian army is entirely gone; Palestinian fighters are slowly but surely being eliminated; the Hezbollah has not been destroyed, but after the grievous losses amongst its leaders, it is seriously impaired. Yemeni and Iranian forces are basically untouched — but they are far away.
For all its difficulties, the Israeli military never ceased to fight and can muster enough forces to open new fronts (Syria).
2) While the will to fight of the Palestinians is unbroken as yet (they are basically dying of hunger fighting), those of the Syrians is entirely gone: they do not even put up a token resistance to the invasion of their country by Israel. The will to fight of Hezbollah is also gone — it signed the cease-fire and abides by it, while Israel continues to bomb Lebanon unimpeded. The Iranians have not shown any particular will to fight — every reasonable commentator states that Iran is actually trying to avoid being involved in a war. As for the Yemenis, I do not see how their will to fight can ever be broken, but once again, they are just too far away.
3) Israel is slowly but surely mopping up Gaza and re-occupying it — including a zone that, according to the peace treaty with Egypt, it is not allowed to enter. Israel is conquering a part of Syria, especially the Golan, much-contested in previous wars. It is also keeping an admittedly small “buffer” in Lebanon. And dispossession and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank goes on unabated.
Israel is therefore already controlling, or on its way to control the contested territory.
From these points, we conclude that Israel has won on some fronts, and is winning on the others.
Ritter was on Nima’s “Dialogue Works” YT channel for two full hours today. Many commenters called him “unbalanced” in it, but I found it largely persuasive and entirely depressing.
On Disease X, “All of those things have readily available tests for them”. You should absolutely not assume that in that area of the DRC that tests to diagnosis this diseases are readily available, that there are laboratorians available to conduct tests, that they have the training to do it, and that the sample transport system ensures that the samples for testing get to a lab in a timely manner and without compromising the sample. All those issues are quite common across the DRC.
Yes there are rapid tests for certain common diseases but even those should get laboratory confirmation. And for other notifiable diseases the surveillance system in DRC is under resourced, under staffed and does not share info well. Overall health system weaknesses in a place like DRC do not make it easy to figure what is going with a potential public health event.
That area is very poor, rural and with no infrastructure. That is correct.
But it has been a week now, in Kinshasa they definitely have the tools (the DRC being such an infamous breeding ground of exotic diseases), and if they are giving such extensive reports and telling you that they are awaiting lab results, that means that they did collect samples and they are being analyzed.
Everything points to them having to do metagenomics from scratch to figure out what it is.
RE: How Peter Thiel’s network of right-wing techies is infiltrating Donald Trump’s White House
Article makes it sound like Thiel’s just now sticking his snout into the government trough. Of course that’s not the case. Quick search can find any number of articles on Thiel’s companies benefiting from Uncle Sugar’s largesse under multiple administrations, because creating a techbro-led dystopia is a bipartisan effort.
Just one easily found example – https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241209729523/en/U.S.-Special-Operations-Command-Expands-Contract-with-Palantir-to-Deliver-Advanced-AI-and-Mission-Manager-Capabilities
re: Mearsheimer v. Dugin about everything
I don’t know yet if it’s worth the time:
Mearsheimer in a 3-hour dispute with Dugin on a Chinese blog. (sooo many red flag terms in a single sentence.)
Exclusive: John Mearsheimer vs Alexander Dugin: All You Need to Know about China, Russia, and the US
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv02AsNATAg&t=47s
Glad to see the tide is beginning to turn against geoengineering. This completely asinine idea should have been laughed out of the room the minute somebody brought it up, but apparently there have been hucksters trying to make a buck on it trying to keep it alive.
The earth’s climate is a complex system in the technical sense, meaning there is no predictable relationship between cause and effect. The idea that you can somehow manage a complex system by doing things to it is by definition impossible.
Additionally, the scale of greenhouse gas emissions is such that no artificial technology can come anywhere near compensating for it. We have spent a century or more emitting gigatons of CO2 into the biosphere; there is no way that we can do something comparable as part of a man-made effort.
So geoengineering is profoundly doomed on at least two fundamental levels.
This article gives a brief but interesting set of examples of attempted geoengineering efforts to date. They are reminiscent of the increasingly comical efforts of human beings in the early 21st century.
The Bloomberg piece on H-1B discrimination is an excellent piece of work and presents the case very clearly along with all the things that make the program problematic. There’s also a lot of supporting data and a methodology. Definitely recommend reading.
‘We don’t do it to reduce costs, even though it reduces costs.’ Sure.
It’s somewhat discouraging that a lot of the complainants are black or female, even though the broader issue is companies using H-1Bs to undermine US permanent staff across the board. There are stronger legal protections against race/sex based discrimination, and it suggests employees are needing to resort to that avenue to gain traction.
Re: Helmer’s article.
Should one read Vzglyad, “the government-financed internet publication in Moscow, [..] their mouth organ”, one would come to the conclusion that Russia indeed is for now planning to stay in Syria. It’s mentioned in almost every news regarding Syria.
They quote Peskov saying that until there’s a Syrian government to negotiate with, Russia bases will remain, as “the country is currently experiencing a period of transformation and instability, which makes it premature to discuss this issue”.
They quote Ahmed Al-Asrawi, a member of the executive staff and head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Syrian National Coordinating Committee saying that Syria should keep it’s agreements with Russia and “link them to the interests of Syria and its connection with the Arab cause”.
They quote Vadim Kozyulin, head of the IAMP center of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying that Russia probably negotiated peaceful transfer of Russian troops from cease-fire line forward bases in the north to the big Russian bases even before the opposition attack.
The same man also says Russia can’t leave the bases, the whole African strategy of Russia depends on them at the moment, so Russia has actually extends it’s presence in Syria, because there are now more parties to observe and negotiate with.
They quote war correspondent Alexander Kotz, who says on the same vein that the bases are important besides as a connection to Africa, also as away to breaking trough the containment and work toward multipolar world.
“Thus, we face a long and difficult diplomatic path of negotiations with those representatives who have real political and military weight in the country. We have specialists in such negotiations, because we conducted this process even when the active phase of the operation in Syria was underway until 2020.”
They quote Middle-East expert Kirill Semenov, who also says that until a transitional government is formed, the bases will remain. “So far there has been no talk of withdrawing bases, and the opposition has not talked about it. So far, everything remains as it is.”
The only winner in Syria? Toyota.
Re the sinking feeling around AUKUS and Australia buying US nuclear subs.
It’s a scam. It was a scam from Day 1.
The sucking noise that Aussies have heard for decades has been the sound of Aussie dollars being funnelled at warp speed to the US from US mining companies and “consultancy” companies and tech companies.
The AUKUS scam
1. Dazzle the Aussies, especially thick grifters like PM Morrison, with being one of the in-crowd-boys (nuclear fraternity)
2. Lock them into a contract where a large amount of Australian money goes to US companies (> $300 billion)
3. Collect payments while stringing the Aussies along
4. Do the old bait and switcheroo. Sorry, you can’t have your own nuclear subs(for very-official-made-up reasons) but you can be ports for our subs. And btw we need you to build the specialised infrastructure for the subs using Australian taxpayer money.
5. And don’t complain or we will sue you or colour revolution you ( it worked in 1975).
So, sort of a US pig butchering scheme.
“New kind of solar paint could generate enough electricity for more than 7,450 miles of driving per year”
Imagine if they could come up with a sort of paint that you could use on your house. No panels vulnerable to hailstorms and the only parts would be to feed the generated electricity from the surface of that house to a battery or directly to the power supply of the house itself.
It seems to me that Syria is being cleared and demilitarized to become the Palestinian state in the 2-state solution. The Russians are holding the coast, the Americans are holding the oil, the Israelis and Turks are putting in demilitarized border zones, and the refugees are getting sent back.
The Israelis have already declared a kill zone on their border with Syria but there are reports that there are Israeli tanks only about 20 kilometers from Damascus. The Jihadists oddly are saying nothing about any of this.
It just looks to me like Trump or Biden (who cares which old guy takes credit? – they both will) is trading Ukraine for Syria. I expect we’ll see a collapse of the Ukraine defense soon. I’m not saying it works out, but it was too coordinated to be a surprise to everyone.
The Jihadists are saying shalom.