Whale makes epic migration, astonishing scientists BBC
Climate
Did a Terminal Temperature Acceleration Event start in December 2024? Arctic News
We finally have an explanation for 2023’s record-breaking temperatures NewScientist
Water
An impact-free mechanism to deliver water to terrestrial planets and exoplanets Atronomy Astrophysics. From the Abtract: “We propose that primordial asteroids were icy and that when the ice sublimated, it formed a gaseous disk that could then reach planets and deliver water.”
Syndemics
How close is a new bird flu (H5N1) pandemic? Christina Pagel, Diving into Data & Decision making
EID Journal: Replication Restriction of Influenza A(H5N1) Clade 2.3.4.4b Viruses by Human Immune Factor, 2023–2024 Avian Flu Diary
China?
China Comes Out Swinging as Trump Trade War Looms WSJ
China reaffirms economic confidence, vows to remain global growth engine CGTN
China loosens purse strings to boost demand as economic conference ends South China Morning Post
US military airfields in Indo-Pacific too easily taken out of action, report says Channel News Asia
The Koreas
South Korea’s Yoon defends martial law as an act of governance and vows to ‘fight to the end’ AP. Commentary:
Looking more like South Korean president’s story claiming tens of thousands of still-unseen North Koreans sent to Russia to fight Ukraine—a story initially rejected by Washington—were part of this same coup false flag op, to gain Biden support. https://t.co/rof7EQmC6I
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) December 11, 2024
Cyberscamming is Southeast Asia’s Incurable Disease The Diplomat
Wasabi Nippon.com
Syraqistan
Syria’s Assad has fallen – just as the Pentagon planned 23 years ago Jonathan Cook
Syria’s Factions Explained in a Map WSJ
Israel is targeting Syria’s sovereignty with its occupier mindset: Turkish foreign minister Anadolu Agnecy
* * * Released Syrian prisoners hospitalised in ‘dire state of psychological shock’ France24
Incredible moment CNN’s Clarissa Ward rescues ‘hidden prisoner’ from Assad’s hellhole jail while searching for American journalist Austin Tice Daily Mail. Commentary:
This is really, really, really hard to believe.
The Air Force Intelligence Headquarters where this is taking place (as per the complete CNN report: https://t.co/YmZZ9QSrUd) has been freed since the 7th of December, 4-5 days ago (see https://t.co/auNuPNKF3C and… https://t.co/LdJJI4prPG
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) December 12, 2024
And:
They escort the man outside, but instead of taking him straight to a hospital or doctor – the logical thing to do with a man who has been in a windowless cell for three months, without food & water for four days – they sit him in a chair and interview him pic.twitter.com/kDRAW4BKfW
— Charlie Nash (@CharlieNash) December 12, 2024
* * * ‘We need time’: Syrians in Europe resist calls to return home FT
* * * What is Iran signalling since the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad? Al Jazeera
Houthi group says it targeted US destroyers, ships, Israeli military targets Anadolu Agnecy
* * * Hamas Concedes on Israeli Troops in Gaza, Raising Hopes for Hostage Deal WSJ
These Palestinians disappeared after encounters with Israeli troops in Gaza AP
Africa
Adani’s problems in Kenya undermine Narendra Modi’s ambitions for Africa The Economist
The New Great Game
“If cryptocurrency mining isn’t stopped, Abkhazia will sink into darkness.” JAM News
European Disunion
Romania’s cancelled election is a lesson in social media manipulation FT. But:
Interesting that the claim the Romanian authorities are making against Georgescu’s campaign are related to foreign political financing – the exact issue that Georgian Dream triggered outrage in Europe for addressing. No coherent narrative. This stuff is on its last legs. 🇷🇴🇬🇪 pic.twitter.com/v4fI99vXih
— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) December 12, 2024
A Judicial Coup in Romania Compact
Hungarian PM responds to criticism from Zelenskyy, saying his “Christmas truce” idea was rejected Ukrainska Pravda
New Not-So-Cold War
After U.S. ATACMS Strike On Strategic Target Russia Announces To Retaliate Moon of Alabama
U.S. Concludes Abrams Tanks ‘Not Useful’ For Ukraine Following Heavy Losses Military Watch
Putin’s regime may be closer to a Soviet collapse than we think Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph
* * * Lawmakers call for intelligence assessment on ending U.S. support for Ukraine The HIll
Biden admin loans Ukraine $20B backed by profits from ‘immobilized’ Russian assets New York Post
Hungarian PM responds to criticism from Zelenskyy, saying his “Christmas truce” idea was rejected Ukrainska Pravda
Zelenskyy: Ukraine cannot legally recognise occupied territories as Russian Ukrainska Pravda
Trump Transition
Where are all the bureaucrats? Kevin Drum. Handy chart:
The housing emergency and the second Trump term Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic
Will Chinese President Xi Jinping attend inauguration at Trump’s invitation? South China Morning Post
Dozens of Democrats Press Biden to Pardon Environmental Lawyer Targeted by Chevron Zeteo
The Adjuster
Luigi Mangione fingerprints match crime-scene prints, police say BBC
Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing could return to New York on a governor’s warrant AP
Who is the lawyer representing Luigi Mangione in his Pennsylvania case? ABC (mrsyrk).
NY Times Doesn’t Want You to See Shooter’s Face Ken Klipperstein
* * * RIP Bruno Latour, you would’ve loved United Health Group Closed Form
Arguments over whether Luigi Mangione is a ‘hero’ offer a glimpse into an unusual American moment AP
People Are Cheering on a Shooting. This Theory Could Explain Why. Politico (Acacia). The deck: “The theory of ‘social banditry’ explains our grim political moment.”
* * * How AARP Shills for UnitedHealthcare Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect
I used to do health insurance company PR. Here’s what I think the backlash is missing STAT
The Press Is Complicit in America’s Health Care Deaths Jacobin i(AG).
Digital Watch
OpenAI CFO thinks business users will pay thousands monthly for AI tools Business Standard
‘A truly remarkable breakthrough’: Google’s new quantum chip achieves accuracy milestone Nature
South of the Border
US-Cuba rum war spills over as Biden law stirs Havana Club row BNE Intellinews
The Final Frontier
ORCs in space! Astronomers find another vast odd radio circle in ‘completely unexpected discovery’ Space.com
Zeitgeist Watch
Canada euthanasia now accounts for nearly one in 20 deaths BBC. Rule #2.
Luxury real estate brokers charged with sex trafficking FT
Class Warfare
Poultry Bosses Benefit from Trump’s Threats Labor Notes
Pentagon says mystery drones over New Jersey are ‘not US military,’ not likely foreign TechCrunch
Antidote du jour (Donald Hobern):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Comments are closed.
How Did I End Up Here?
(melody borrowed from Do You Hear What I Hear? by Noel Regney and Gloria Shain, as sung by Bing Crosby, 1963)
(You ain’t from aroun’ here)
‘Yes, I’m lost and I don’t know where I am’
‘This here is Kaintacky’
Their English is hard to understand
Spittin’ out terbacky
(Spittin’ out terbacky)
My Tesla car is quite a novel sight
It distracts from their chicken fight
On a torch lit Saturday night
They sip moonshine for to feel a little joy
‘You ain’t from aroun’ here’
(You ain’t from aroun’ here)
Asking if it’s the real McCoy
‘What’s it tow in low gear?’
(You ain’t from aroun’ here)
The throng, the throng, shows clear signs of disease
But they huddle closer to see
Yes, they huddle closer to me
When they find no clutch inside my ‘lectric thing
‘Does it come with turbo?’
(‘How fast does this thing go?’)
Bouncing it to check out the springs
Chewing on tobacco (chewing on tobacco)
They ask how well it handles on the road
And if it is remote controlled
Will I trade for a tractor that’s old?
When I ask them how to get some other where
They all point back that way (back that way)
‘Hang a left or right once you’re there’
‘Don’t come back up this way!’ (up this way)
‘The way is wild, the cornering is tight’
‘Don’t you stop and you’ll be alright’
‘Don’t you stop especially at night’
‘CNN International PR
@cnnipr
“Syria is free.”
Extraordinary moment as @clarissaward
and her team witness a Syrian prisoner freed from a secret prison in Damascus.
Left alone for days without food, water or light, the man was unaware Bashar al-Assad’s regime had fallen.’
CNN? Did Clarissa Ward also sniff his clothing to see if she could detect chemical warfare chemicals?
Lots of people on X are saying it was staged. The guy was clean-shaven and the cell was apparently spotless.
https://x.com/CharlieNash/status/1867070380755866061
The guy should start a career in wilderness survival coaching. He looks to be in amazingly good shape for someone who went without water, food, or light for at least 4 days.
If I was without light for a few days and went out into daylight, I would be squinting my eyes because of the sudden glare and would not be looking up into the sky. Just sayin’.
Look at Ward’s expression in the second tweet(Charlie Nash). She looks like she’s going to slap him. “Remember the script you bloody moron!” is what I imagine she is barely choking back. I wonder if he got a gift card.
I wonder what he was really doing at the prison.
Recall that when the allies liberated German concentration camps at the end of WWII they found that the guards, especially those in the SS, donned prison garb and tried to blend in with the prison population. But, like this guy, they were conspicuous by their well-fed appearance.
What I don’t understand is this: If the prison was full of hundreds of tortured prisoners, why did CNN hire an actor instead of interviewing one of them?
Might get identified as an actual terrorist or murderer? Though more likely it’s because they’ve all ran off and cannot be located.
Today’s furry animals…math below is not great but a decent rhyme is what I’m aiming for…Proving I can drop a rhyme at any time, be it a day or night or about wrongs and rights. Ok, I better stop lest it only gets worse(!)
On the 14th day of Christmas
My true love gave to me,
Two Furry Fuzzy Quokkas
In a tree…
“Putin’s regime may be closer to a Soviet collapse than we think” Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
‘The Cope is strong with this one.’ – Not Darth Vader. Others may differ but for some reason I am always wary of a reporter with a triple barrel name. Of course nobody will ask Ambrose Evans-Pritchard what Putin’s approval rating is compared with Keir Starmers and I would not be surprised if I heard that a lot of Brits would prefer Putin to be the Prime Minister rather than Starmer.
If we go with the popular mirror theory we get a more interesting headline:
“The USA may be closer to a Soviet collapse than we think.”
Thank you, Rev.
Last Sunday, retired British diplomat Peter Ricketts was interviewed by the BBC. He said the week-end was a defeat for Putin as Zelensky was invited to Notre Dame’s reopening and Damascus fell to the rebels. Ricketts, now a lord and often interviewed from France, no Brexitannia for him, added this marks the return of the west and western liberal democracy and hoped the US would stay the course under Trump and build on this triumph.
Three hacks took that as their cue to argue for a much more hawkish line on Russia. This is not uncommon and possibly dangerous.
One hopes Aurelien pipes up as, I think, he knows Ricketts from a previous life and has written about the delusion of the PMC with regard to Russia.
Remembering that France in 1860 burned the summer palace in Beijing, I am pleased that China became the first country to begin assisting with reconstructing Notre Dame. As for the likes of Britain’s Peter Ricketts, the guy * would be burning the palace in Beijing again today, were that possible.
* I know, I got the title wrong.
Ricketts is speaking like the Ambassador he was, and he’s talking diplomatese. Zelensky being invited is a “diplomatic” success for Ukraine and thus a defeat for Russia, and Damascus falling is a foreign policy defeat for Russia. Those two judgements are incontestable, but they are essentially procedural and technical defeats for Russia, and don’t affect the situation on the ground, as I’m sure Ricketts knows.
Thank you.
I don’t disagree. Unfortunately, many pundits and political advisers, not professionals like you, do not make the distinction.
>”for some reason I am always wary of a reporter with a triple barrel name.”
😂
yesss!!
Me2
AEP used to be one of the few British financial journalists worth reading.
Russophobia is an unavoidable malady in Blighty, striking particularly those in the swampy regions of the middle and preening classes. Only a vaccination taken abroad may prevent it.
This fits in with a spate of recent articles about Russian inflation and the central bank’s ongoing increases to the base interest rate (interest rate now at 23%, I think.)
I think they greatly underrate the state’s ability to address the situation, certainly for the short to medium term.
They also don’t compare this to the actual recessions now afflicting western European economies, or the state of the Ukrainian economy, if it can still be called that.
It is possible to argue that less blunt tools (compared to interest rates) might be more desirable. Not everyone in Russia agrees with that policy.
Indeed. One of Russia’s problems is that until events force it’s hand it tends to go with market nostrums as it’s first instinct. Even the Bolsheviks were weirdly “hard money men “
when i first read that the soviets were on the gold standard, i was stunned. i do not for how long they were on it,
https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-soviet-union-was-on-the-gold-standard/319778
Lordie, please do not post false information This is already an issue with your comments here.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014498316300158
as i clearly said, i was stunned and did not know how long they were on it.
this pretty much answers my question,
“Accordingly, Chervonets, a gold-backed currency, was used during the monetary reform of 1922–24. ”
i do not see any false information,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetary_reform_in_the_Soviet_Union,_1922%E2%80%9324
“Soviet monetary reform began in July 1922 when Gosbank (the Soviet central bank) was given a degree of autonomy by Gosplan, the State Planning Committee.[1][6] According to Russian historian Zahari Atlas, the bank was given the right to issue national banknotes and the power to restrict government access to capital.
A more-independent central bank became an economic oversight mechanism to fight inflation and gave the Soviet economy the flexibility to counter domestic and global fluctuations.[8] Economist Amy Hewes wrote that the policy outcomes were the Soviet economy’s return to the gold standard, the introduction of a separate national currency, elimination of the government’s budget deficit and the restoration of a centrally-administered tax system. By the end of 1922, a dual-currency system was in place; gold-pegged Russian chervonets were restored as a unit of account, and Soviet printed money (sovznaks) was commissioned as the nationalised medium of exchange and domestic means of payment.[5]”
Clickbait
I am always wary when being told that something is not as we think.
Even more wary when being told that something is not as it is.
Even just the first para:
Well, Vlad doesn’t need to wait for anybody to have a few more kopecks, especially if we think he is totalitarian dictator.
He actually said ‘Soviet collapse”.
“How AARP Shills for UnitedHealthcare ”
This may be only tangentially related but this disgusting behavior is all finally being realized by my family after this shooting. My older brother has Schizophrenia and is on full disability and Medicare Parts A and B. If he is confused about anything with his healthcare he calls one of us. The last year he has been getting constant calls trying to convince him to get on Medicare Advantage because it will “save him money”. We did the math, it never saves him money.
Now I have heard UnitedHealth is all involved with these Medicare Advantage plans. And these people are calling disabled people trying to push them on these plans, some pretending to be calling from Medicare.
My poor brother, who struggled all his life, now this…greed and evil, spread by the virus of capitalism.
Janet was an RN for forty-five years, and has been running point between the establishment and my mother, who had collapsed two years ago and was Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. The meeting Tuesday was about Mom’s Humana coverage, since United Health was the only one of three state-approved insurers to come to an agreement with Area 10 Agency on Aging. Area 10 has been of benefit to Mom for years, but is now separated from contact on this issue.
Janet has done most things in nursing, including the trenches of authorization. She knows a lot, and we still dealt with professional advocates for her Medicare and SS, and a lawyer for Mom was crucial for an under-the-wire last-call hangnail to keep a benefit that was being scrubbed. I feel like those without resources to hire professionals, and without a Janet, are at sea on on a raft and being pitched they’re at the beach.
Good for Janet!
My brother would be homeless, like most of the poor and mentally ill, if he did not have his family. He is really smart and was making good money before he became too ill. So even though he gets a nice amount from disability, now he cannot afford rent anywhere, and my two bothers and I give him money every month so he can have a nice place to live and eat. In the early 2000’s he had no trouble supporting himself.
So many of things he once received free of charge vanished after ObamaCare came out.
That Congress let these parasites call these plans “Medicare” Advantage was the beginning of the end of Medicare, the beginning of privatization. Democrats naturally saw no need to undo this when the great Obama was elected. Naturally.
bill clintons medicare advantage privatization scam.
just a friendly reminder.
https://www.medicareresources.org/medicare-benefits/medicare-advantage/
President Bill Clinton signed Medicare+Choice into law in 1997.
The name changed to Medicare Advantage in 2003…
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/101320
Mayo Warns It Won’t Take Most Medicare Advantage Plans
— Letters to Florida, Arizona patients suggest they enroll in original Medicare with a supplement
by Cheryl Clark, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today October 20, 2022
“Medicare Advantage plans have been under increasing scrutiny and investigation because so many of them have been accused by federal agencies of denying care, exaggerating the severity of illnesses to pull billions more from Medicare, and delaying care with lengthy prior authorization requirements.
Additionally, unhappy enrollees who want to disenroll often find they can’t sign up for a supplemental plan without underwriting, which can result in rejection of beneficiaries with certain common underlying health conditions.”
My otherwise sharp sister keeps telling me Advantage is better, though I know from my own family’s rationed care in the past that it is not. Her big selling point: unified clear billing paperwork.
I have clung to plain vanilla Medicare, rarely used but better than paying in the open market. I am, like my dad decades ago, getting the same fat envelopes full of confusing information about what’s going on, including a back page of blurbs in many languages (couldn’t we save a million trees by just sending these out ONCE and asking people to indicate if they need special language assistance). When I think I understand what’s going on, a week later I get a lengthy quarterly recap to digest and file, as if that is helpful.
Traveling the country I am exposed to a lot of broadcast TV news, and almost everywhere there are saturation commercials for these ‘health’ plans. It’s shocking the amount of money poured into them. There should be some limits on this. And maybe opposing-view spots and disclaimers “you should know that that company which offers you a free gym you’ll never use is going to pay for that by denying you the use of high-strength insulin when you need it”.
Telephone calling to solicit the elderly, pushing them to cruelly rationed ‘care’ plans? A new low in evil practices.
You can go paperless with Medicare, if you wish.
Learning how to read an EOB (explanation of benefits) is a necessary skill. As is reading/understanding the meaning of the medical insurance contract you sign. Every ‘Open Enrollment’ period does require time to review your anticipated medical needs for the year ahead (yes, you must be prescient), as well. Healthcare in the US is a predators paradise.
Oh yes, that must be the problem, I’m not an informed enough consumer making the correct choices. The system is wonderful.
Speaking of non-profits shilling for private insurance, I’m currently reading “How to Make A Killing: Blood, Death, and Dollars in American Medicine” about the dialysis industry and its desire for higher profit, privately insured clients. Unfortunately for the industry, many patients are on low-margin Medicare and Medicaid. What to do? In the past 10-15 years, the American Kidney Foundation has been taking hundreds of millions in “contributions” from Fresenius and DaVita (which control 80% of the dialysis market) and using that money to help people pay for premiums for private insurance. The big 2 estimated that they get a 500% return on these “contributions” to a non-profit. And no doubt AKF is happy for the extra contributions to slice off a % of those for operating expenses. And all the Dems can do in this situation is have Katie Porter write some sternly worded letters.
So, If understand this correctly, the dialysis provider gets to charge the private insurer more and profits increase. Not sure the private insurers would be happy to cover these costs unless they make a profit somewhere else via premiums, deductibles, denial of other health claims . Perhaps they own the dialysis providers, so they are paying themselves essentially. The critical piece is, does the person receiving the dialysis care end up paying more out of pocket with a private insurer after all costs are added up as opposed to Medicare? My initial reaction is yes, as they will likely have other health issues needs denied, bigger deductibles etc.
You’ve got it on the profits. I’m not entirely sure why the health insurers don’t act more aggressively although I’ve seen estimates that about 600K Americans are getting dialysis, so that’s a relatively small percentage of Americans. Maybe the AKF targets lower-income clients who could get reduced premiums via ACA? Not sure.
Here’s an interesting stat though that shows why this kind of arbitrage system works so well for the dialysis companies:
“Spending on dialysis for patients in commercial health plans in the first year after initiation of that treatment was $238,126 compared to the $80,509 spent on Medicare patients”
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/238216-80509-157707-thats-how-much-more-commercial-insurers-pay-1st-year-dialysis-medicare
Reporting from the Green Mountain State. UVM Health Network to cut $122 million in jobs and patient services: Here’s a breakdown, Burlington Free Press, have a look at the url for the original headline, lol.
This is a battle between the administrators UVMHN (described as a non-profit) and the regulatory authority Green Mountain Care Board.
According to the regulatory authority, Dr John Brumsted (Pres/Ceo Of Uvmhn) collected $1,724,119 in compensation in fiscal yer 2020.
Here are the bullet points, dialysis is on the menu.
The University of Vermont Health Network announced cuts to staff and services in response to budget restrictions imposed by the Green Mountain Care Board.
The cuts include 200 job losses, the closure of dialysis units, and a reduction in overnight patient beds.
The Green Mountain Care Board, however, stated it did not approve these specific cuts and is seeking clarification from UVMMC.
UVMMC leadership argues these cuts are necessary due to a significant increase in patients and a reduction in commercial payer rates.
I hope you find this relevant.
I remember 8 or 10 years ago when AARP briefly teamed up with the right-wing Koch brothers lobbying group, the American Legislative Exchange Council, to help push some of their interests at the state level. This created such an uproar in the media and among its members that it immediately severed those ties. But to me that demonstrated its true colors; my wife and I dropped our membership literally the day after the news broke. Sounds like nothing has fundamentally changed.
you mention the Koch brothers which made me remember back when Bernie was campaigning the first time for presidency the Koch brothers had a study done to try to undermine Medicare For All and were hoisted on their own petard by Bernie –
https://archive.thinkprogress.org/mercatis-medicare-for-all-study-0a8681353316/
Politifact said Bernie was half-right
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2018/aug/03/bernie-sanders/did-conservative-study-show-big-savings-bernie-san/
and Intercept had this to say –
https://theintercept.com/2018/07/30/medicare-for-all-cost-health-care-wages/
i’m not an accountant and reading the tables within the report are above my pay-grade, but it is quite obvious the present situation is an out of control behemoth grift machine –
So l live in Tacoma Washington and have had for years someone as my PCP, main doctor, who when I started with him worked for a group called Polyclinic which I think then was a doctor owned service. As the last few years have passed I have watched as Polyclinic was bought out by a company called Optum, and I looked into this to discover (this was well before the rage shooting of the UHC CEO) that Optum was owned by United Health Care. During this time I went off my wife’s employment insurance and signed up for Original Medicare and a Supplement. I also trained to become a SHIBA volunteer, someone advising people on Medicare choices, which I have been doing now for nearly three years. I went to see my PCP this last summer for my annual wellness check and while waiting in the office looked at the various brochures all around the tables promoting UHC Advantage Plans. It struck me that nowhere, anywhere, can you learn from whatever was in those offices that there is this thing called Original Medicare. Nowhere. It struck me then I had been watching before my eyes the vertical integration of health care such that an insurance company had come to own the doctors, the drug companies, the data gathering sites, and the insurance. I have since learned, following this CEO story, that UHC is now the fourth largest corporation in the United States!
Every year Advantage Plans, and I think Medicare, has to send letters to enrollees notifying them of any plan changes, the Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC. This year in Pierce County Washington, home of Tacoma, Aetna and I think Molina cancelled plans, advantage plans, for over 60,000 people, forcing them to find other coverage. This ability to change or cancel policies, along with limited doctor selection, lack of national coverage, and generally enormous annual out of pocket exposure for the 20 percent Medicare does not cover ($ 5,500 – 9,000 at least) means that so long as you are healthy you are fine, but if something bad happens (and isn’t that the POINT of insurance) you are likely to be in deep trouble.
Maybe this incident will take off the blinders, and make we exceptional Americans start to understand what every other rich and industrial country does concerning health and insurance. I can only hope….
As for Medigap plans go the choices are slim. I was able to switchout my UnitedHealth plan (32% denial rate) to a Cigna plan (16% denial rate). I fear having to spend time in a hospital—the system is predatory.
Apropos Zelensky and whether or not he is agreement capable about a Christmas truce, one problem is that Zelensky is trying to force through changing the date of Christmas in Ukraine from the traditional Orthodox early January to the western late December. I wonder what dates will be on the table were any such negotiations to begin.
Thank you, John. May be Zelensky is not bothered about Christianity. He and other westerners are aiding and abetting Zionist and Al Qaeda persecution of Christians in the Middle East.
At mass in France last Saturday, I was stunned to read about Israel’s security. There’s growing resentment of and resistance to this nonsense in Catholic communities. Clergy have been informed to cut it out from mass, especially at Easter.
Thank you, Colonel. Did you mean they put in a blurb for Israel’s security in mass itself from the local sky-pilot or did they give out a hand-out? Either way that was really on the nose that.
Thank you, Rev. Yes. No kidding. Abbeville last weekend.
In the leaflet detailing the service.
I’m curious about this as well. Are there clergy going against the Catechism at 2313?
Supporting genocide very clearly goes against Christ, is against God, against everything that Christianity is about.
Perhaps as a result of this inaction or even active support in the face of Zionist genocide, we can expect Christianity to decline, worldwide. And I think the same is true for Judaism.
Thank you. One has to wonder.
Change date? He already changed the whole church. It’s just a matter of time before he puts it under Vatican (not a joke).
I believe I have solved the drone mystery.
1. There have been dozens of large (suv sized) drones flying around NJ. I was still dubious until I heard Taibbi describing watching them from his window. They are brightly lit and are trying to attract attention over towns, near Trump’s golf course and some military facilities.
2. Local authorities (mayors, police chiefs, etc)
have been bewildered, then angry.
3. The Feds have shrugged and said they don’t know much, they can’t do anything due to regulations, and also it’s fine don’t worry about it.
4. This week there was a long-scheduled Washington hearing on counter-UAS. The Feds further shrugged. They want to give anti-drone capabilities to local forces, but it’s not allowed. Also they are not allowed to act, seemingly.
5. Congress critters hearing all this are outraged etc etc.
6 Throughout this there is much hysteria, faked video etc in social media. The new Ufology ecosystem goes nuts. A small number of these large drones has caused quite a stir.
My theory is that the drones are a marketing demonstration of the need for militarised anti-drone stuff all over the US. Regulations must change fast to keep Americans safe. More kinetic weapons will be needed. Lasers and stuff. I guess for both Feds and locals. How the militarization of the air around civilians head goes….good luck!
Further, it reinforces how far behind the US is in drone stuff. Intelligent eyes in the military and spook-dom have seen the Ukraine war, and the ME mess and how drones have overturned the military balance. This message gets urgency for a pivot in US military procurement and development.
Flying them over Trumps golf course makes sure he sees the message too.
The prize is huge: the defence procurement budget. Can Musk bring start-up culture to the MIC? Can the traditional big 5 defence contractors be pushed out from the money-trough?
Plenty around Trump will get rich. Thiel is heavily into AI and drone stuff. It’ll be AI-drones at home, worldwide and in space.
…i’ve heard reports of activity in the area around Grovers Mill
The mystery drone flyers definitely have a sense of theater
…alls Wells that ends Welles
That is a bit too close to the plot of “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai.”
You win a welles deserved prize. A semi-antic pun of the best.
“Mr. Blandings Flies His Dream Drone.”
And, riffing off of Bernays; “The Big Fly.” Report on it often enough and soon people will begin to believe it.
Third order effect, the dreaded “Drone gap.” “We must increase research and procurement in drones to catch up with those wily Russkies Senator!”
I think that you are right in your assessment. The whole thing seems kinda off. You’d think that they could have added a few spy balloons as well. Flying over Trump’s golf course was just too blatant. I read today that the unofficial total military budget is about $1.77 trillion but if they want to go with drones defenses for the entirety of the United States, that would be enough to push it over the $2 trillion mark for sure-
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/12/11/house-passes-massive-895-billion-national-defense-authorization-act/
Lasers, Microwaves, Missiles, Guns Not On The Table For Domestic Drone Defense
Policy hurdles are limiting what capabilities the U.S. military can even consider to help provide critical domestic anti-drone defenses after years of inaction.
This shows you the domestic bit
That’s from October 31st in the Warzone. Coincidentally they were the website that first published articles about the NJ drones!
Trump allies draft AI order to launch ‘Manhattan Projects’ for defense (WaPo back in July)
On the general pivot to AI-drones – I wonder if they will cut old fat to make way for it? Trump likes to be a disruptor. I don’t see how the old defence guys can compete with companies like Anduril
Elon Musk Calls F-35 Builders ‘Idiots’, Favors Drone Swarms (Nov 26th)
Maybe the whore of the worlds is behind it, et tu Elon?
Idiocracy Tony Stark?
The Pentagon Files: A video essay by Mario Bava?
I wonder if Neptune is visible in the sky these days… It sometimes looks like a spy balloon, possibly a drone.
Neptune is way too faint to be seen with the naked eye, maybe you mean Venus, which is currently bright in Western evening sky.
I stand corrected, you’re right, it’s Venus.
I wonder how many bullets and missiles have been fired at it.
I wonder if those large drones are just a bunch of small drones in formation/flock or whatever the term is for coordinated flight.
I suspect a Santa Claus hoax.
The authorities seem unconcerned although they claim not to know anything.
Nothing has been shot down.
Remember the Chinese balloon?
And the kid’s science project balloons that we were hysterically scrambling jets to shoot down for awhile?
Yes, a drone swarm will be used to create ‘Santa arriving from the North Pole’ in the night sky on Xmas eve. Film on 6pm News!
Everybody has a theory.
This one is testable. Shoot one down. If it wasn’t manufactured by an American military contractor and paid for by the American tax payer I will give you two thousand dollars monopoly money.
They are lying to us.
I’ll be damned if I can find it now, but there was what seemed to be an informed comment on these pages that proffered that the lack of FAA required reporting regarding observed navigational hazards around airports(Newark) indicates the Feds know more than they are letting on, or at least “managing” the situation.
Watch John Kirby non-answering questions today and tell me why he’s so blasé if they don’t actually know what’s going on.
Again it’s “we don’t know what they are, we’re confident they are harmless”.
He wouldn’t be that at ease if they were genuinely unknown drones.
There is a feigned powerlessness from the Feds that reminds me strongly of the UK police during the 2011 riots. Then, the police did nothing because they wanted to show the Tory government the dangers of proposed cuts to police finding. When the riots started they just sat on their hands and let the consternation and pearl-clutching mount. Here the Feds are sitting on their hands, letting the bewilderment and demands for action mount. It vibes very similar.
FYI, today’s SF Chronicle reports that a Chinese national was arrested for flying a drone over Vandenberg and taking photographs. He had to hack the drone to allow it to fly there and at desired altitude.
“Yinpiao Zhou, 39, is accused of flying a drone above the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County for about one hour on Nov. 30, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.”
Here’s the story in the LATimes:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-12-11/chinese-citizen-living-in-brentwood-charged-with-allegedly-photographing-vandenberg-space-force-base-with-hacked-drone
They didn’t arrest him until a few days later when boarding a flight to China. Let me just say that Vandenberg is nowhere near the security risk that Area 52 (Tonopah Test Range) is. Heck, the Amtrak Surfliner train goes right through Vandenberg, so passengers can take all the photos they want. (BTDT)
Gooooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!
Prospects of our sentence being commuted 5 weeks from now had put a spring in all of mutual steps in the platoon, the grunts in the unit had long ago realized what a louse we had for a leader-even worse than the guy before & after, as it were.
Can’t Joe just give the ‘mercan people an early Christmas gift, and resign? Surely he has better things to do than mess up the world any more than he already has.
That would let Kamala have her 5 weeks to straighten up this place, before the Orangeman arriveth!
(Think of the comedic material!)
I’m hoping that Bidenclaus leaves a cheque for $600 in my stocking this Christmas.
An if I don’t get it, I’ll yell, and stomp around, and hold my breath forever! {Rule #2 in action.}
Half a league, half a league
Half a political league onward
All in the valley of death
Rode the six hundred clams
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns using a credit card!” he said
Into the valley of death
Rode the six hundred clams
We’re in your debt for that one Wuk. What’s the interest rate again?
Usury I ask for a little something on top…
Hmmm…. Olive oil and vig dressing. Sounds like something from the “Happy Ending Restaurant” menu.
The only Xmas gift we can expect from Joe Biden is a lump of coal.
I thought Biden was outlawing coal. That being the case, your lump will have to come from Trump
>The House Republican Steering Committee on Monday in a surprise vote recommended Rep. Brian Mast of Florida
Truly disgusting selection. I confronted Mast a couple of months ago while waiting to board a flight from PBI to PIT, his flight was adjacent, going to DCA. I told him I was sickened by the death of innocent women and children in Palestine and the U.S.’s complicity. His answer was that war was always “hell” and that innocents “bystanders” always have suffered. I was surprised how readily he was willing to go back and forth with me. I still look back on the incident and rue having taken his hand in a hand shake when he stuck it out.
Whether Israel uses the U.S as their personal army or the U.S. uses Israel as a proxy to advance ME interest, the result is the same, death, desolation, terror, and a manifestation of man’s seemingly incurable tendency to violence. It may even be bootless to make any distinction between Israel and the U.S. and just think of the two as one with coextensive national interest, and interest that by passes, the majority of citizens altogether.
https://rollcall.com/2024/12/09/in-a-surprise-gop-panel-recommends-mast-to-lead-foreign-affairs/
Thanks for relating the tale. That one is a true believer. The “war is hell” bit is just an imperialist justification for their wars of choice. Russia and Hezbollah both conducted wars with far lower civilian casualties and observed proper rules of war even when their opponents did not. It’s also not a war when the other side has only defensive weapons like IED and antitank rockets while IDP uses bunker busters, drones, and habit of doubletapping rescue workers, journalists, hospitals, and food warehouses.
That monster should be tried and then hung until dead, along with a majority of Congress, cabinet officers, spokesvampires, generals, and media creatures.
Shaking an offered hand is good manners, imo more important than refusing just to emphasize a point. I’m hoping a few bystanders were able to take in the exchange. Lack of diplomatic skills is oft discussed here. I’d say your instincts did you a good turn.
My understanding is that shaking a hand universally signals you’re willing to have a civilized conversation and not bludgeon the other to death. It can but does not always signal agreement.
I’ve been in that situation and wound up refusing to shake hands but I have to say it was, oddly, difficult not to, took some willpower on my part. I think the politician handshake is used as a way to deliberately disarm. And look how you’re left feeling bad about having done so, like you indignified or sullied yourself. There was lingering harm long after the event.
I wonder if there are any social or psychology studies or experiments around the handshake as a way to induce people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t. If a politician can secure a handshake, does it follow the handshaker is more likely to vote for them? Is that why they do this?
I think the trick is to hang on to that proffered hand until you get the last word.
Jonathan Cook. Having been based in Nazareth for some twenty years means that he knows the region intimately, and his article is worth a read. He marshals many good details so as to synthesize them.
He does stick in the dagger: “When the West intervenes, so this narrative goes, it is simply to assist the laggards on their path to a final utopia: something akin to the United States, but without Donald Trump, gun crime, opioid and mental health crises, and nearly half of working-age adults deprived of proper healthcare.”
Without a doubt, it is better that Syrians are breaking open the prisons and ending a regime of torturers. There is simply no doubt, either, that the Assad regime was engaged in enormous numbers of human-rights violations.
Yet one must keep in mind that after the Shah fell, the prisons in Iran were emptied (somewhat) only to be filled up again. And the ayatollahs are not dainty about executions. Evin prison, a notorious place, has not gone out of business.
Yet one must also keep in mind that the human-rights situation for Palestinians in the West Bank is a disaster — arbitrary arrest, torture, vandalism of orchards, arson, abuse. By the heroic Israelis!
Like Cook, I am concerned about the human rights of people — and I am skeptical of the shuffling of governments.
The implication of the last few paragraphs is that that US of A, with wonder-poodle England, is knocking down the pins one after another. Iran supposedly is next. Then the dismantling of the Russian Federation, which will cause the deaths of thousands (but who cares?). Then, China, which some neocons have proposed to dismantle, as if three thousand or so years of Chinese history have not been a continuous effort to hold China together.
Full spectrum dominance = This way lies madness.
To the town of the Big Apple strode a stranger one fine day
Hardly spoke to folks around him, didn’t have too much to say
No one dared to ask his business, no one dared to give him lip
For the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip
It was early in the morning when he strode into the town
He came walking from the south side slowly lookin’ all around
There’s a CEO outlaw loose and running, came the whisper from each lip
And he’s here to do some business with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip
In this town there came an outlaw by the name of the Jewell Kid
Many people had tried to take care of health issues and that many men were dead
He was vicious and a killer though a paragon of profit
And the notches on the P/L list benefited on account of it
Now the stranger started walking, made it plain to folks around
Was righting a wrong, wouldn’t be too long in town
He came here to take out an outlaw in the back and shoot him dead
And he said it didn’t matter he was after the Jewell Kid
After the Jewell Kid
Wasn’t long after before the story was relayed to NYPD they said
But the shooter didn’t worry, a health care assassin was dead
Back surgery gone wrong took him out, an aggravated disc slip
Revenge would be served with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip
The morning passed so quickly, it was time for them to meet
It was 20 past 6 when they walked out in the street
Cameras were watching from the windows, every one recorded to be shown later on the ‘net
This handsomely paid CEO was about to meet his death
About to meet his death
There was 10 feet between them he they stopped to make his play
And the swiftness of the Ivy Leaguer is still talked about today
The Jewell Kid had not cleared the Hilton ‘fore a bullet fairly ripped
And the assailants aim was deadly with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip
It was over in a moment and the folks had gathered round
There before them lay the body of the outlaw on the ground
Oh, he might have went on living but he made one fatal slip
When he tried to deny claims to many a crip
Big denial to many a crip
Big denial, big denial
When he tried to deny claims to many a crip
Big denial to many a crip
Big Iron, by Marty Robbins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NuX79Ud8zI
Thank you. Marty Robbins rides again.
Yes, thanks Wukchumni.
Always good to remember Marty. And also to valorise one more of our resistance heroes.
“Hungarian PM responds to criticism from Zelenskyy, saying his “Christmas truce” idea was rejected’
Zelensky can’t read the writing on the walls. In a few weeks Trump will be sworn into office and old Joe will be heading for a beach so Zelensky will have to deal with a President Trump whom he has annoyed. But worse than that, Trump has a point man in the EU/NATO and that man is Victor Orban. Zelensky could have agreed with Orban’s idea of a Christmas truce or even a large prisoner swap and gotten some brownie points with Orban and even those Ukrainians who would welcome home those POWs. He did neither and now has not only annoyed Orban but also those Ukrainians who were hoping for family members back for Christmas.
Zelensky can only read the writing on the teleprompter.
I tend to regard this as performative anti-Zionism by the Turkish state, similar to Ergodan’s pious speeches about Gaza as he continued to supply Israels energy needs.
That said Turkish and Israeli interests are now cheek by jowl in what remains of Syria. Israel ultimately wants Damascus, and whatever else it can get. How far is Turkey prepared to push south?
The Kurds are the current point of performative disagreement. I don’t see the US or Israel seriously opposing Turkiye destroying Kurdistan, or the Turks missing the opportunity. But who gets the oil? And who ultimately holds the eastern Syrian staging ground for the war with Iran?
Maybe the strategy here will be to swell Ergodan’s head so large that he attacks Iran himself to show who is boss? This I could see as a plan.
Nah. Ergodan would never attack someone that could punch back. He’s more of a kick-someone-that-is-on-the-ground type.
Damascus? With or without the Arabs?
’The Blue Roof
@BluRoofPolitics
The Defense Minister’s original plan was to provoke an attack from North Korea, then use that as an excuse to declare martial law. To that end, South Korean military flew several drones over the Pyongyang sky, spraying propaganda fliers. North Korea did not attack, however.’
For years now we have been told that North Korea was an unstable country and that their leader was reckless and a bit of a nut job. Turns out that they were really taking about South Korea.
South Korea has two types of leaders. Those that were in jail, and those that will be in jail.
In their defense, several were in jail as dissidents before becoming president. I guess they ran out of those.
Would asteroids from Uranus benefit from a bidet?
And by the way, just had a glass of water containing a minuscule portion reconstituted from when Jesus pissed on a burning branch back in the day…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An impact-free mechanism to deliver water to terrestrial planets and exoplanets Atronomy Astrophysics. From the Abtract: “We propose that primordial asteroids were icy and that when the ice sublimated, it formed a gaseous disk that could then reach planets and deliver water.”
I wrote a comment about the Jonathan Cook article that went into the ether. So much for my tremendous wisdom.
Nevertheless, I recommend Cook’s article to you, because he lived for twenty years in Nazareth and knows the players and the chessboard intimately.
Reading the Italian news, I chanced on this video with Zerocalcare as host. He has written two graphic novels on Rojava: Kobane Calling, which centers on Rojava and the revolution there. His graphic novel No Sleep Till Shengal centers on the massacre of the Ezidi. So he knows Syria well, having been there.
His two guests are intimately involved in the zone of northeastern Syria now much in peril. Eddi Marcucci fought with the YPJ, the women’s army.
They marshal facts well. Note Eddi Marcucci’s discussion after about 15:00 of what is going on with the 70,000 people, ex ISIS, stuck in the northeast. Abandonment.
The beginning is good for their descriptions of the various players.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrOvNJM-DEY
All three are sensitive to the delicacy of the situation in Syria.
There are subtitles in Italian. I can’t seem to turn on the English subtitles (which I thought I could do as a favor). Maybe you can.
This video makes a good companion piece to the excellent article by Jonathan Cook.
When watching the video the user can open up the settings, select captions, select Auto translate and then select English. This will generate English subtitles, in case people didn’t know how to do that.
The Cook is good as was the Tariq Ali from yesterday. Nothing beats experience.
The prob is that while he is undoubtedly correct that the Great Gamers are calling the shots, the larger question–how does all this really benefit America?–goes unanswered. Because ordinary Americans and not just those of Syria etc are also victims of the elite power games and in so many ways. You could say the beginning of the end of the “Americam Century” was really Vietnam where a Domino Theory rather than R2P was deployed to justify a different (but the same) world domination urge and the violence necessary. I believe Yves is among those who say LBJ’s “guns and butter” approach was a key factor in all the economic problems of the 1970s. Seems there is no free lunch when comes to Mastering the Universe.
And there won’t be this time either. Geopolitical obsessions may have made sense for a tiny country like Great Britain but not for a large and resource rich continent like our own. Isolationism is our natural and proper mode–the true “normal” that the neocons now claim to be creating.
Some of us see a ray of light in Trump’s seeming rejection of the Great Game. This is probably a false hope.
“… seven countries in five years…”
I also recommend this piece by Cook. It provides an important piece of the historical and geopolitical context in which this entire project for a “New Middle East” is situated. And as Cook makes clear, this *is* a “project” – by Israel, and by US neocons – that they have been planning and working toward since the 1980s. To be sure, there are many diverse and competing parties involved in the region. All of them have “agency” to a certain extent. None of the regional interests are completely “controlled” by Israel, the US, or other foreign powers. They all use each other, and there is no guarantee that any particular party or coalition will “win” in the end. There are policy disagreements even *within* many of the states or non-state actors involved. This certainly applies to the US.
And yet… For all the competing interests, historical complexities, unforeseen contingencies, apparent reversals among competing parties, etc., if you go back and read some of the documents mentioned by Cook (and a few he does not mention), it’s almost as if everything is going according to plan so far. As he says, it has taken a bit longer, and historical contingencies have changed the order of events, but at this point the similarities to the neocon blueprint are pretty striking.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/22/world/africa/gupta-zuma-south-africa-corruption.html
December 22, 2018
In Gupta Brothers’ Rise and Fall, Tale of a Sullied A.N.C.
By Norimitsu Onishi and Selam Gebrekidan
An Indian family rose to the heights of power and fortune in South Africa with the help of eager officials in the legendary party of Nelson Mandela.
https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2024/12/05/adanis-problems-in-kenya-undermine-narendra-modis-ambitions-for-africa
December 5, 2024
Adani’s problems in Kenya undermine Narendra Modi’s ambitions for Africa
Competing with China will now be even harder for India’s prime minister
Importantly, before the recurring Indian corporation corruption problems arose in Africa, an Indian think tank began a meme about “supposed” Chinese debt trap diplomacy in Africa. The Indian think tank meme was written about at Harvard and in the New York Times and beyond:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23792949.2019.1689828
December 6, 2019
A critical look at Chinese ‘debt-trap diplomacy’: the rise of a meme
By Deborah Brautigam
A meme is an idea that spreads from person to person within a culture, often with the aim of conveying a particular phenomenon, theme or meaning. On 23 January 2017, a Chinese debt-trap diplomacy meme was born in a think tank in northern India and was furthered by a paper written by two Harvard University graduate students who called it Chinese ‘debt book diplomacy’. The student paper was enthusiastically cited by The Guardian and The New York Times and other major media outlets as academic proof of China’s nefarious intentions….
Deborah Brautigam is Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/business/adani-group-indictment-modi.html
December 12, 2024
A Symbol of India’s Global Soft Power Stumbles After U.S. Indictments
Countries in Asia, Africa and elsewhere have been distancing themselves from Gautam Adani, the Indian magnate, after accusations of bribery and conspiracy by American prosecutors.
By Alex Travelli and Abdi Latif Dahir
Hours after U.S. officials indicted Gautam Adani, one of India’s most successful businessmen, on fraud and conspiracy charges, Kenya’s president publicly backed away from lucrative infrastructure deals with Mr. Adani’s companies to overhaul Nairobi’s international airport and the country’s electricity grid.
Days later, TotalEnergies, a European energy giant, said it would stop investing in Adani projects.
Now Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, where India competes with China for influence, are rethinking their alliances with Mr. Adani.
For the past decade, the Adani Group has been the face of India-led development around the world. In India, it owns ports, power plants, mines, airports and even a TV station. The conglomerate is one of the country’s most valuable enterprises. Its ability to build, finance and operate highly visible infrastructure projects has made Adani an icon of corporate India as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to expand its place on the global stage.
In the process, Mr. Adani became one of the richest people in the world. His brand spread, as few Indian companies have ever managed, to encompass deals in Southeast Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East.
That is all now at risk of unraveling…
??? I remember reading of this at least six month ago, maybe as much as a year. The Hindenburg Group released their investigation in January, 2023. There have been reports every month about Adani’s problems. What’s news about this? I notice there are no dates mentioned in the story earlier than last month, but it’s almost two years now.
We know Adani well in Australia. One more polluting corporation destroying the Barrier Reef. Still approved by our Govt. though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmichael_coal_mine
Did a Terminal Temperature Acceleration Event start in December 2024? Arctic News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In times of olde when great climatic change occurred it was always on account of displeasing some almighty deity, but we’re much smarter than that and are completely aware of the source, and do our best to ignore it.
The Big Heat® is gonna be quite something to live through, with wildfires rampant and perhaps the ability to fight them, severely limited.
If we were smart, we’d offer a more than fair salary and excellent benefits to firefighters, to lure the best people… and yet are content to spend funds on far away proxy battles instead.
Got a lot of trees on the all cats and no cattle ranch, and have been doing a fair amount of pole saw dancing, gyrating my pelvis towards formerly viral members overhead and coaxing them in regards to the gravity of the situation, sometimes merely the faintest touch my big 14 inch blade is all it takes to make them come down. Other times I have to earn my keep through bump & grinding a branch that needs a good sawing.
Every tree has dead limbs on it, like so much seasoned firewood.
Doing the pole saw boogie here as well. I’m of a mind that this is the time.
Bring back YCC and make it big enough to make Kevin Drum’s chart above. I understand that young adults can boogie all night long.
Tiny Town is hellish when all the tourists come to see the big timber in the summer, but is heavenly from October to May, and if you weed whacked, those areas resemble a manicured green on the fairway for the next fortnight, Fore!
Yes, I imagine it is lovely this time of year. I’ve a similar affection for “off-season” coat of Maine.
Yes the oaks really crank out the dead branches but cutting them out is largely cosmetic. More important to fire safety is clearing the understory. The live oaks and red bud can produce copious sucker growth but in our area chemise is the primary tinder. If there is only bark and no leaves below six feet the fire hazard is greatly reduced. Without the understory,crown fires don’t get started and are not very sustainable unless dense growth and steep slope.
Of course I have a pole saw and a light arborist saw to shape the oaks and mountain mahogony. Also broken branches from wet snow have to be cleared and cut clean for the health of the tree.
I don’t wear a hat when using the pole saw. A few years back, when wearing a hat, I ducked my head to avoid the saw dust and didn’t see the branch come off because of the bill. That put a nice scab on my head and a black eye.
I’ve overachieved by clearing out anything bigger than the width of a #2 pencil on the ground over the years, and then anything a 14 foot pole saw can reach on the trees. Fires in predominantly oak savannas are few and far between, but that was then and this is now.
It makes everything more park-like in that I can walk anywhere on the many splendored acres here.
Currently residing on a lake in the Northwoods– tourist season pretty much sucks, and we get a lot of traffic from Chicago and the Twin Cities. I get up in the predawn to hike a little and to enjoy some of nature before it is drowned-out by loud motors, louder music, and by the shouts of people shouting above all that noise (even when they don’t need to) while shouting over each other, seemingly thinking that because they are outdoors that they must shout instead of converse in more normal, more appropriate tones of voice. While I do understand that the tourists are important to the local economy (part of it anyway) that doesn’t mean that I have to like them.
We’ve been spared from severe drought so far. But I’m expecting that we’re gonna get hammered and hammered hard sometime in the next few years, and maybe as soon as even next summer or fall as this season has been extremely dry so far. When this area dries out, it won’t be long afterwards until it goes up like a torch that’ll burn, burn, and burn. There’s too much fuel laying around, and some stretches of forest are almost exclusively pine, a lot of this planted after the hardwoods were cut down for timber, farmland, and for the construction of vacation homes. Add to that the drunken tourists who MUST have their bonfires, red flag or not.
As you well may know, hiking a burn is a real b***h and is no fun, so I’ll kind of miss this place when it’s gone. The only positive that can come of it is that millions of people in the Midwest who still think that they’re immune from this climate crisis are going to suddenly realize that they are not, and that it is not some distant thing, but it is both here and now.
About those tourists… yeah, sometimes they can see me from their boats as I roam in the woods adjacent to shore half-naked with a bottle of whiskey in hand. I used to fire off random blasts from my shotgun just to put them on edge if they are pissing me off, but I think I’ll try something different next season: you ever hear of an Aztec death whistle?
minnesota’s northern forests, deer ticks! i am recovering from my fifth bout of lymes disease, dang deer ticks!
“We finally have an explanation for 2023’s record-breaking temperatures”
‘A decline in low-lying cloud cover means Earth is absorbing more solar radiation, which could explain 0.2°C of missing heat scientists have been struggling to account for.’
What if – and this is a very big what if – what if a coupla billionaires and techies through their experiments to control the weather and save the planet have the side effect of getting rid of most of the planet’s low-flying cloud cover. What then? We know that they are doing these sort of experiments in secret already. Bill Gates is involved in this too and that is never a good sign.
“Zelenskyy: Ukraine cannot legally recognise occupied territories as Russian”
That’s OK. Russia says that they cannot legally recognise Zelensky as President as his term ran out and he won’t hold new elections.
NY Times Doesn’t Want You to See Shooter’s Face Ken Klipperstein one breath away from saying the quiet part, MSM doin what they do trying to prevent any further spread of sympathy for the Adjuster.
Eyes Without a Face, by Billy Idol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_GxaoOJFTY
After a short search the only MSM with the nuts to publish the manifesto is…..Newsweek. I commend them for crediting Klipperstein, stating that the published script is verified, and providing a link to his substack.
Reading the related article from the Politico link….the masses rooting for an outlaw,or that’s my general conclusion from the middle to ending paragraphs. This after all wasn’t in an old west from many fictional narratives, and it didn’t feature a cowboy on his horse firing his pistol as the inept lawmen aimlessly fire away at anything except their target…AKA, Josey Wales…for an example from film.
The perp in this instance was in the early morning light on a major street, in front of a major hotel chain location…in just one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. So he’s suddenly a very new American outlaw circa 2024…not 1884 in Tombstone, Arizona.
And wiping the mask off the man in the mirror
Who really was Billy the Kid
Smiling at somebody dying
Was something that he never did
Shandy
Kris Kristofferson
Salvatore Mattera
@SalvMattera
4th infection. 2024. As I have written for a long time, the default assumption should be that everyone – or almost everyone – will develop disabling long COVID. It is only a matter of time.
Author and writer Isabel Kaplan says she is sick with long covid three months after her 4th covid infection.
I’ve been thinking about the reactions I get from ‘liberals” when I try to have a discussion about current events, particularly RUSSIA!!!.
The first time I encountered a reaction like this was in 1958 when I told my older redheaded sister that there was no Santa Claus.
She had a screaming tantrum and beat me up.
Asking them to look at the evidence objectively is like asking a Biblical literalist to count the number of ribs on a Female skeleton.
Their fear of questioning the narrative is palpable and I need to recognize that fear as reasonable, they will be cast out of the tribe if they do not conform and that is a fate worse than death for many Humans.
I’ve been thinking about the reactions I get from ‘liberals” when I try to have a discussion about current events, particularly RUSSIA!!!.
This is important, but remember that liberals have made it impossible simply to sit in a Harvard library studying with a poster on the desk in sympathy with Palestinians. Try finding an article or comment in the New York Times that is written objectively about China.
The BBC “euthanasia” article is irritating, particularly since it’s being mentioned all over the place. For once, read the reddit thread comments:
https://old.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1hcbyns/canada_euthanasia_now_accounts_for_nearly_one_in/
Hundreds of grateful family members witnessing what a godsend this program was, with many others saying “I wish this had been available for Grandma”.
Contrasted with a scattering of disabled rights warriors opining that ‘this could open the floodgates’ with no evidence. So we’re supposed to make the 95% of patients suffer torment at end of life to pressure the government to do more for XYZ favored group? This blinkered advocacy gets old. (and please do not reinforce this with “Rule #2” out of context cheapshots. Save it for the 30% denied claims south of the border.)
I’m sitting at my computer this morning because the pain is too much for me to get to the work that needs to be done. Hopefully the evil pain pills will kick in soon, but I always face the threat that I’ll be denied them, mostly due to greedy people demonizing them in order to get higher financial judgements from the courts.
As an amateur philosophist (ArmChair Philosoper At Large) I observe people individually and in groups and try to understand their actions. There are certain aspects of humans that seem to be universal. First, people generally don’t like to kill or harm other people, which is why governments must demonize people in other nations before they order GIs to kill them. Second, people generally don’t like to kill themselves. Just look at the actual murder and suicide rates. And if you look at the actual suicides the vast majority have something significantly wrong with them. Even human cells can commit suicide under some conditions.
Opening the legal flood gates to suicide, assisted or otherwise, will undoubtedly have a high rate at first due to the backlog. But that rate should reach a steady state quickly, for obvious reasons. There will be those who confuse their short term problems for terminal problems and those should be provided other assistance. IMO people should not be legally required to suffer, sometimes for years or decades, just to satisfy the morality (a nebulous concept) of some.
As an aside, as I understand it, the Catholics, Jews, and maybe others have religious reasons for demonizing suicide. But specific religious beliefs are not fundamental to human nature. Just look at the vast number of religions, sects, and personal beliefs even within those religions, not to mention the billions who don’t have religion.
Therefore, in a nation that claims freedom of religion (US), suicide should be accepted as a part of human nature (albeit small) and quit trying to stop, or demonize it.
I was not given a say on being brought into this world, but I’ll be damned if I won’t claim my right to leave it on my own terms.
About 20 years ago as a newcomer to Canada I was asked to take part in an interview segment on the local talk radio in Our Little Town. My “opponent” (as they framed it) was a local newspaper editor and politician. We were to talk about how assisted suicide as was then-recently legalized in Oregon was or was not a good thing when translated to MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) in Canada. (Full disclosure: When it was legalized in Oregon I was one of the people who voted in favour.)
Funny thing. We agreed it was a good thing and that society should bring that option out of the shadows for those who felt it necessary. Two exchanges, cut to commercial and man the host was mad. Couldn’t gin up a controversy. So they ditched us on the spot and teed up the next interview about 15 minutes early.
That Kevin Drum chart has the CFBP listed twice at 24 K and 14.4 K employees respectively. The CFBP actually has around 1750 employees. How off are the rest of those numbers?
Interesting that MSM is attempting to reframe Mangione as a social bandit ala Jesse James, Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, et.al. While the rage directed towards power might be similar, where is the personal profit in Mangione’s action? Meanwhile, according to the “RIP Bruno Latour, you would’ve loved United Health Group Closed Form” link above, United Healthcare’s astronomical growth over the last several years is largely built on fraud. Actually amending medical records to charge Medicare for services not rendered.
Then there’s the sanctimony of officials like Josh Shapiro. In the AP article about the reaction to Thompson’s killing he is quoted, “We do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint.”. What Shapiro leaves unsaid is that killing people in cold blood is just fine if done for profit in the context of a Wall Street-approved business plan. The more I see of the Pennsylvania governor the less I like him: support for the Gaza genocide, signing munitions to be used in Ukraine, and now this.
The Politico article also refers to The Adjuster as a vigilante, so this is just more of what we’ve been getting, and this is just the Cocktail Party version of history for people who are “shocked, shocked” that this finally happened.
Shapiro is a good example of the type that the article is aimed at — pretending they don’t understand is their affirmation that they are part of the establishment, and they are committed to it. They will avoid addressing the political reason for the attack because that would bring the deliberate, paid-for legal default of the system toward the health insurance industry under public discussion.
The AP article is the first one I have seen in the MSM that uses the T-word to describe what The Adjuster did. The act was a clear case of Propaganda of the Deed. The Adjuster had nothing to gain, but wanted to exercise the power to steer public attention and discourse onto insurance crimes — hacks like Shapiro or the Politico writer want to contest that power by playing dumb. But if The Adjuster succeeds, then we have seen a greater assertion of popular power than even the latest election.
Isn’t a corporation like UHC running roughshod over regulatory authority to enforce their own rules another brand of vigilanteism?
My prediction here is that the Adjuster will never survive to reach trial. He will, under the pressure of his jailing and realization he has deeply wronged himself and his family, take his own life, as Jeffry Epstein is alleged to have done. Or that is what we will be told, because the sooner he can be removed from the spotlight the better, at least as far as the fourth largest company in the USA (maybe the world?), UHC is concerned.
We have this interesting situation, here. A huge corporation run by a CEO has a business model whereby killing people (or allowing them to die) is fundamental to their structure and operation and profit. The Adjuster and his mother, according to his writings, were being killed by this entity, relentlessly. So he chose to cut off the head of the beast, and I think he might – might – be able to argue he may have been acting in self defense. And, if not, maybe legal thinking needs to change. If the only way to get a huge entity to change course is to severely damage it, and it has the resources to guarantee isolation from any lawsuits or legal processes, then a choice to kill the CEO and terrify other CEOs appears highly logical.
If this case does get to trial, I think it is uncertain what a jury would decide. What is happening here seems to be a sudden pulling back and reveal of a truth we all knew but collectively chose to ignore, and can now ignore no longer. It seems the general public is thinking not in terms of one man’s murder of another but one life taken to save tens of thousands of other lives (in that Thompson’s murder may scare other CEOs and the health care industry to do a better job else they get nationalized). This is not, of course, what the elites and millionaires (among them most of the lame stream media talking heads) are thinking or saying, but this seems to be an enormous cognitive shift just now taking place.
The big question is, who if any of our leadership understands this and takes action. If Trump had any sense he would state in his office-taking speech January 20 that he was imposing Medicare for All, effective immediately. If he did that the nation would beg him to remain in office forever, and he would be hailed as the greatest president ever.
Absolute Bagels, Iconic UWS Bagel Spot, Possibly ‘Closed For Good’: Multiple Employees, Westside Rag
New Yorkers will attest to the scale of this loss. I lived around the corner from Absolute Bagels for 19 yeas, and spent hard coin on what many consider to be the best bagels on the planet. I’ve watched this neighborhood lose its flavor as icon after icon closed their doors. Absolute Bagels joins a long list of previous victims including Cannon’s (the local blue collar pub, now Korean fast food), La Rosita (Cuban diner, now an out of the box pilates place), the local movie theater (was on the NE corner of B’Way and 106), and The Underground (pub, live music venue, now empty) to mention just a few.
The article has not assigned cause, but will anyone wager against it being the rent’s too high.
Bialy there-done that. sorry for your loss.
Western Bagel in LA was always my favorite~
So the Trump tariffs on Chinese stuff are going to raise prices on almost everything, with the US government getting the tariff money, right? Does that mean they are a giant regressive tax in disguise, since that stuff is purchased mostly by consumers and non-huge businesses? Huge businesses don’t buy that many manufactured products other than for resale afaict.
“OpenAI CFO thinks business users will pay thousands …”
Fine. Charge them thousands. But be sure to write your customers a check for 90% of it to cover the external costs (environmental damage) related to the service. Also include a payment for the (unauthorized) intelligence gained through your LLMs.
Big Tech is challenging Big Oil for the title of Most Environmentally Damaging Industry. It may not be long before they challenge Healthcare for the Most Despised.
Solution?: Tax the external costs industries impose on citizens and the planet for their products and services. The fees assessed must be used to eliminate the problem(s). If problems aren’t eliminated after “x” period of time, it’s not a sustainable product or service.
Bah humbug dept:
Used to stress this time of year in the Big Smoke, as it seemed pressures were heaped on you, procrastinate and you might end up jockeying for a parking spot in the back 40 of the mall parking lot, and worst of all-the faux frolic on other people’s lawns, ye gads.
There is almost no Xmas displays on display here, and I’m down with that…
…that said i’m going through withdrawals, so headed down to Tijuana-adjacent soon to take a traipse with friends and family to the most over the top Xmas ‘hood i’m aware of-Black Mountain in San Diego… you’d be very much the outcast were you not to be all lit up around those parts. One household boasted of using 65,000 lights last year, makes Bitcoin mining seem passé.
I should be ashamed of thinking that an American politician would endanger their immortal soul by lying to gain mere temporal power, especially a devout Catholic like Joe Biden.
I really should…
Thank you, Tom.
This Catholic thinks plastic paddy Biden is faking being Catholic.
Thanks Tom, Colonel. Similar to those annoying flag lapel pins, professing “deeply held religious beliefs” is a resume requirement for those seeking to scale the US political ladder. From memory, Carter, Bush 1 and 2, both Clintons and Obama all are described as such. The sincerity of these claims is left to the eye of the beholder. Interestingly, Reagan is not.
Aren’t there still some states where it’s illegal for atheists to hold certain government offices?
According to this, the U.S. Constitution prohibits religious tests for state as well as federal offices, but only since 1961:
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artVI-C3-2-2/ALDE_00013639/
Nice to see Wendell Potter surfacing at this very appropriate time. I’ve been doing organizing on single-payer healthcare off and on for much of my life, and know Potter well as an excellent and outspoken resource on the evils of for-profit health insurance and how much better off we would be if we went to a government-funded system like almost every other country has.
Most evil systems have one or more outspoken former employees who have finally reached the breaking point and now spend their time giving an insider’s view to the public. Phillip Agee on the CIA, Edward Snowden on the NSA, Scott Ritter on “Iraqi WMDs”, John Barnett on Boeing, Allen McDonald on the Space Shuttle program, and many, many others have risked their own lives and the lives of their families to carry forward a message that they can no longer keep to themselves.
Such people are a tribute to the human race and show that acting in the interests of the species even at great personal risk is somehow deeply coded in human DNA. The fact that such people continue to emerge even though confronted by an increasingly powerful governmental and corporate system is something that should give us all confidence and hope that the human race will be around for the long term.
“Goldstein developed corn varieties that could effectively form relationships with nitrogen fixing bacteria – an extreme anomaly for non-legume plants.
Some of these varieties get nearly half their nitrogen requirements this way.”
1/2 Moon Of Alabama
The same day there is a second post on this psy-ops:
Merkel, Putin & Dog
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/12/merkels-fear-of-putins-dog-or-how-propaganda-is-kept-alive.html#more
I always hated this story because everyone in Germany fell for this bullshit so it’s good Bernard has brought it up. The reason is that Merkel when encountering the same kind of dog, a Labrador again, in 2016 had no issue with it at all.
However this time it was Italian PM Renzi´s dog and since we have no beef (ha-ha) with the Italians it was not worth a single news item in Germany when the images of her and the dog came up.
2/2 Moon Of Alabama
In the same post MoA mentions:
THE MIGHTY WURLITZER
How the CIA Played America.
By Hugh Wilford
I found this 2008 NYT-review by Nathan Glazer
“A Word From Our Sponsor”
https://archive.is/b8qEv
When it became public that Gloria Steinem had organized for CIA she defended her decision:
“I was happy to find some liberals in government in those days who were farsighted and cared enough to get Americans of all political views to the festival,” she told The New York Times. And to The Washington Post she said: “In my experience the agency was completely different from its image: it was liberal, nonviolent and honorable.”
More importantly A.F.L.-C.I.O too of course took part in the action even though without CIA money, the unions were rich enough.
This divison of the left by the left is one of the topics that still bothers me.
On that note: I will post a translation below of a new text from the German edition of JACOBIN about West German labour union economist Viktor Agartz. Agartz died on 9/12/64.
In the post-war period he had been a powerful proponent of socialist economic planning and was regarded as possible alternative to Ludwig Erhard´s free market model.
Agartz triggered serious opposition by among others Lucius Clay (who was everything but a loveable fella) and the entire SPD of Herbert Wehner who fought Agartz and won out. It´s an interesting and important episode. Since today it´s usually pictured as if all of the FRG was into Erhard and into the system he represented. That´s not the case at all.
Inflation rate by country:
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/inflation-rate
Russia doesn’t look like collapsing any time soon. I would look first for other countries to collapse, as a sign that Russia’s turn is coming…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrNgLd7RGro
The Syrian Revolution Was a Lie
Richard Medhurst
I watched that. Its good and like so many data points seems to make a lot of sense
Time will tell us what data points were-are correct.
Thanks. Will pester my Germans with it.