=
Giant Rats In Tiny Vests Trained To Sniff Out Illegally Trafficked Wildlife IFL Science
Seal surprise Isle of May National Nature Reserve
Syndemics
Nature: Influenza A(H5N1) Shedding in Air Corresponds to Transmissibility in Mammals Avian Flu Diary
China?
China bans exports to US of gallium, germanium, antimony in response to chip sanctions AP
US says Chinese hackers are still lurking in American phone networks Tech Crunch
* * * Building blocks: How China plans to make bricks on the moon for lunar habitats Space.com
In wake of mass attacks, China’s judges urged to ensure fairness to maintain stability South China Morning Post
A Historical Analysis of a True Invasion of Taiwan Naval News. France, 1884-1885.
Japan’s Fascination with Train Station Melodies Nippon.com
Myanmar
Second major Myanmar rebel group calls for talks with junta Channel News Asia
The Koreas
South Korea’s 6-Hour Martial Law Consortium News. Musical interlude:
🇰🇷 Presidents of South Korea
1. Syngman Rhee (1948–1960) – Overthrown.
2. Yun Bo-seon (1960–1962) – Overthrown.
3. Park Chung-hee (1962–1979) – Assassinated.
4. Choi Kyu-hah (1979–1980) – Removed by a military coup.
5. Chun Doo-hwan (1981–1988) – Sentenced to death after… pic.twitter.com/mk7NExbbHX— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) December 3, 2024
South Korea martial law crisis: What’s next for President Yoon? Al Jazeera. Commentary:
President Yoon, a man of many talents. pic.twitter.com/HZoBJxQum9
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 27, 2023
And:
Breaking: Sources have confirmed that Juan Guaidó has declared himself interim President of South Korea. 🇰🇷🇻🇪 pic.twitter.com/kB5sSDXRuP
— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) December 3, 2024
US ‘relieved’ South Korea president reversed course on martial law Channel News Asia
Entire South Korean Cabinet offers to resign after failed martial law attempt Anadolu Agency
South Korea – President Launches Putsch Against Parliament Moon of Alabama. Some good background.
Korea’s Crisis Is Just a Small Part of the Picture John Authers, Bloomberg
No, these images don’t show tanks and protests in the streets of Seoul France24
Syraqistan
Putin Sends Wagner to Syria, Russia Iran Agree Turkey Talks; BBC: Ukraine Troops Kursk Despair (video) Alexander Mercouris, YouTube
Inside Aleppo: the Syrian city captured by rebels FT
Illegal Israeli settlers vandalize, set ablaze Palestinian properties in northern West Bank Anadolu Agency
Africa
Experts consider US approach to Africa’s critical minerals under Trump S&P Global
Dear Old Blighty
Why has an additive called Bovaer sparked controversy online? BBC
New Not-So-Cold War
A table for five: What to expect from each player at Ukraine peace talks Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Three conditions for a US-backed peace agreement in Ukraine Unherd
Vladimir Putin does not want a peace deal. He wants to destroy Ukraine. The Atlantic Council
Foreign Troops May Be Deployed to Ukraine to Monitor Potential Ceasefire: Reports Kviv Post
How Trump can end the war in Ukraine for good Marc Thiessen, WaPo
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Nato ‘waiting for Trump’ over key decision as Putin’s planes ‘stole children’ Independent
Ukraine pushes for NATO membership, but it’s complicated Deutsche Welle
* * * 4,000 Days: The Siege of Donetsk Comes to an End John Varoli, A Vaccine Against the Pandemic of Lie
* * * Nord Stream: skepticism about Der Spiegel’s revelations; benefit to Gazprom refuted Bud’s Offshore Energy
News anchor Tucker Carlson comes back to Moscow and announces interview with Russian foreign minister Ukrainska Pravda
The New Great Game
Fyodor Lukyanov: Can the West still engineer a ‘color revolution’? We’re about to find out RT
Huge anti-Russian protests in Tbilisi echo Ukraine’s Maidan The Economist. One can only wonder why.
Biden Administration
The awkward parallels between the Biden and Trump convictions BBC
Federal judge accuses President Biden of attempting to ‘rewrite history’ in Hunter Biden pardon FOX
Trump Transition
Trump’s FBI pick has plans to reshape the bureau. This is what Kash Patel has said he wants to do AP
Chad Chronister, Donald Trump’s pick to run the DEA, withdraws name from consideration AP
DOGE’s Best First Target: the National Endowment for Democracy The American Conservative
Trump says he’ll attend Notre Dame Cathedral reopening celebration in Paris this weekend AP
2024 Post Mortem
Americans agree politics is broken − here are 5 ideas for fixing key problems The Conversation
Digital Watch
‘A Total Meltdown’: Black Friday Zipcar Outage Strands Customers in Random Places 404 Media
Andy Grove Was Right Daring Fireball
The Bezzle
Billion dollar squirrel: Trump effect fuels crypto’s ‘’ boom FT
Healthcare
150million people born before 1996 at risk of a mental breakdown caused by metal exposure Daily Mail
Zeitgeist Watch
Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for an Emerging World 3 Quarks Daily
God is dead and my enemies are in power Closed Form
Imperial Collapse Watch
America is Not Prepared for a Protracted War War on the Rocks
Class Warfare
How Can U.S. and Mexican Workers Build Cross-Border Solidarity? Labor Notes
What makes the US truly exceptional Martin Wolf, FT. The deck: “Are American pathologies the necessary price of economic dynamism?”
Sources of Permanent Capital for Cooperatives Grassroots Econmic Organizing
Some Brains Don’t Rot. Here’s Why Scientific American
Antidote du jour (H. Zell):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Selling Whoppers
(melody borrowed from Someday Soon by Ian Tyson, as sung by Judy Collins, 1972)
(Trump’s donors have picked neocons and Zionists for his Cabinet as the price for funding him. But Trump, a malignant narcissistic, only ran for office to get revenge on his political enemies. He is happy to let his Cabinet launch wars while he goes after his enemies. That’s his price for accepting donor funding.)
Trump has no place left to go
His swan song has begun
He still stands in his father’s cruel shadow
May the gods preserve us
Until Trump’s time is done
Womb to tomb, selling whoppers
So jejune
His parents never loved him
They were sharp and he was slow
The nicest thing they did for Don was dying
His childhood was a ghost town
Too scared to ever grow
Womb to tomb, selling whoppers
So jejune
He won his race this fall
Half the country didn’t vote for him, they say
Now we’re faced with an angry child
Prone to please for praise
His Cabinet of doormen will act their kabuki
As Donald seeks revenge just like he warned ya
He has a huge portfolio of who’ll hang from a tree
Womb to tomb, selling whoppers
So jejune
(musical interlude)
The writing’s on the wall
Trump is gonna hunt down his prey
All his life he’s been reviled
His enemies must pay!
Things blown out of proportion in his hateful glee
He’ll set the world on fire like in the Torah
He lies more than Pinocchio ’cause lying sets him free
Womb to tomb, selling whoppers
So jejune
Womb to tomb selling whoppers
So jejune
“Jaguar Type 00 Concept Is A Pink Panther Acid Trip Of An Electric Coupe With A Stone And Brass Interior”
I think that this car was originally designed for the “Barbie” film but was too late in development to be in it. So if I got this right, it has no rear window and thus no need for a rear vision mirror. So to see what hazards are behind you, you will have to take your eyes off the road and look into a screen instead. Yeah, nah! I can’t even see where that screen will be. And that blocky front end looks like it will create a lot of drag and decrease performance as well. I’d rather be in a Tesla Cybertruck and those I hate on sight.
Jaguar (Tata Motors) is going to crush Gillette in own-goal brand destruction.
Jaguar was already on the ropes as they couldn’t outcompete the Germans (particularly on leasing terms in the US). Jaguar has no hope going against Ferrari.
Yeah, the overall profile and that barely-functional rear window remind me of something…
…ah yes, the 1973 Ford Mustang fastback.
Lol. I haven’t driven the new Jag, but I have had the luck to drive a couple of early mustangs belonging to friends, even took my drivers test in one. The rear view visibility wasn’t great, but it’s better than my current ’22 Impreza.
The ’73 fastback was my first girlfriend’s car. It was sort of a beast at the time and the ’72 was the last one with the standard bumpers and less emissions add-ons. Still, it’s a nice looking car compared to whatever that Jag is.
Maybe it sells to the target audience wealthy enough to afford that special garage to shelter those prized vehicular possessions that are rarely driven…the brand’s intent to go fully electric seems to be at odds with the trends for say, US brands like Ford and GM ( there is a gaping hole for electric vehicle sales in their recent earnings quarterly reports… ). Existing owners of Jaguar vehicles should hit the exits…quite possibly your choice of automobile no longer reflects the James Bond appeal?
Oh well, parting thought is to quote the Bruce Wayne line from one of the Christopher Nolan directed Batman movies…”does it come in black…”
The volume isn’t there to only target plutocrats unless your name rhymes w/Ferrari or you are part of huge multi-brand aggregation like Bentley.
The dirty secret of most luxury brands is that need the money of the nouveau riche, petite bourgoisie, and aspirational status seekers
in the 1960’s the structural costs of building a car was lot enough that a low-volume, eccentric brand could survive. that changed in the 70’s
Jags were once really cool – a friend had one with a Chev 350 v8 installed and it was a very scary sled to ride in. This latest thing is another realm entirely – it seems aimed at low IQ trophy wives or something – just a useless-looking plastic handbag of a car – will it even run on a regular road? Drag queen accessory, anyone?
Jaguars used to be a status car for realtors to show off. Maybe they’re returning to their roots?
Not only does the blocky front negate the function of the low ground clearance, the rear tail fails to incorporate a foil lip to break the aero-drag at the rear. Other than the paint job, the car looks much like a Dodge Charger.
And if the body is made of the thin metal incorporated into modern cars then forget about body repairs. A crinkled beer can is forever a crinkled can.
Thank you, Lambert.
A propos of no particular link, please let me relay some tidbits from yesterday evening.
I went to the Christmas reception of one of my professional bodies. The body was also inaugurating new digs in the City. I chatted with the guild’s former mistress, also my former manager and a junior minister at the Treasury in the John Major government. She explained how the Treasury has always wanted to scrap the winter fuel allowance, as it opposes universal benefits, long wanted to increase NICs, always presents new ministers with a shopping list in the hope of getting a couple accepted and found it easier to get Labour to accept its proposals.
My former manager, who I last worked with in 2012, but kept in touch with, likes a bit of gossip: The most senior source available at the Bank of England, literally up the road, confirmed the veracity of the allegations about chancellor / finance minister Rachel Reeves’ career. Said source, now the Bank’s most senior employee, had briefly managed Reeves on her graduate trainee rotation. The new cabinet secretary (top civil servant for readers outside Blighty) has always failed upwards. There’s a reason why he got the top job.
The veteran banksters were gloomy about not just the City, but the UK, too. Some, not just the immigrants or children of immigrants (like me), are seeking foreign pastures. Some of the smaller foreign firms are considering leaving the UK. The larger foreign ones are scaling back. One British bank long associated with Africa wishes it had more emerging markets business. It was interesting to observe that this group, many of whom volunteer for charitable initiatives associated with the guild, are more in favour of state participation and a rapprochement with the EU than the banksters advising the government.
I forgot to add that other than a couple of older African and US bankers and some young Indians and Ukrainians, there were no other attendees from overseas. It’s interesting to observe the lack of European and even Asian attendees, whether in finance, media or embassies, at City events since covid / brexit. It really feels that Blighty is sliding into obscurity.
Thank you, Colonel.
Interesting, if unsurprising, info.
I am a long way from this sort of briefing, being long into my retirement now, so it is nice to hear what is being said on the grapevine from time to time.
Thank you. I’m delighted to be able to help.
I also forgot to add that one of the four candidates for cabinet secretary, a serving permanent secretary, has been accused many times by colleagues of expense fiddling, mainly when heading the NYC consulate. In addition, the main adviser to Lammy is a Zionist journalist and descendant of a family from Baghdad who grew opium in India for export to China.
I see The Atlantic Council is doing their thing. The most obvious indication of Russia’s genocidal intent in Ukraine has been the mass deportation of Ukrainian children, with thousands abducted and transferred to a system of camps where they are subjected to indoctrination in order to rob them of their Ukrainian heritage and turn them into loyal Kremlin subjects.
Curious timing on the Belgium reparations case, (Guardian).
Thank you.
The principal adviser to the UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, is Ben Judah, formerly of the Atlantic Council and descendant of Baghdad Jews that exploited India and Hong Kong. See also the Sassoon and Kadoorie families. These people are still fighting from the days of empire.
In order to rob them of their Ukrainian heritage, that was robbed from Russia (and some fictional works).
Since the alleged kidnappings involved sending ethnic Russian kids to music camps with their parents’ permission, does that mean that all boarding schools (e.g. Le Rosey) and overnight camps are also war crimes?
Funny how one never hears from the parents of these allegedly kidnapped children. You’d think that the satrapy press would be all over that.
The American Conservative ran an article by Helen Andrews some months ago (and cannot retreive the link) which kind of blew that thing appart (Helen is not a Putin lover, for sure). But the evidence suggests that there have been put mechanisms in place for family reunifications, with Qataris being the go between. So there are kids on the frontline, Russia ships them out – you know, safety first, and that becomes a crime.
While Israelis snipershoot children in heads and chests and there is nothing to comment about…
“Giant Rats In Tiny Vests Trained To Sniff Out Illegally Trafficked Wildlife”
Who here clicked on that article expecting to see a rat in a high-vis vest and maybe a little helmet?
First thing that came to mind on when I read “Rats/Vests/Trained” was Winston Smith from Orwell’s 1984. Rats put in the service of any state sponsored institution gives me the creeps…
Reality v Fiction
Don’t forget Magawa, the landmine-sniffing rat, and his fellow landmine-sniffing comrads.
I expected to see Yellow Vests Protests.
Please don’t dis Hero Rats! https://apopo.org/herorats/
Re Jaguar 00 concept car, the driver’s sight lines are clearly not important. Describing it as a “Batmobile” would not be wide of the mark. I can picture Mayor Adams vrooming around Gotham, collecting protection racket profits in this thing.
Was there a version of the “Batmobile” in that “Barbie” film? That pink Jaguar 00 concept car would have been great for it.
the aspect that most offends me about Jaguar is their new font. Atrocious to use as text!
A friend has a silver XK120. It’s beautiful and so fun to ride in. Went to the New England Jaguar show 10 years ago and got to feast my eyes on the classics. What is going on with Jaguar now is breaking my heart. Better the company is dead than for this to happen. It’s sacrilege.
This Jaguar slow moving suicide is utterly strange. As a 16-year-old I wanted an XKE. Or at the other end of the spectrum an MGB (each with a spare in the garage, yes). Now I drive a 2011 MINI convertible (6-speed manual) that zips around and is fun to drive. I sense a progression. But when the MINI goes (after the top was replaced), no more English automobiles (even if the MINI is a BMW under the hood it was built in Oxford IIRC). Unless PowerBall or MegaMillions come through (but I would have to buy a ticket), and then this. Ha! The shallowness of a boy and his car has no known limit.
I always thought that it would be fun to own a Stutz Bearcat-
https://www.sportscarmarket.com/profile/1915-stutz-model-4f-bearcat
But that is just the boy in me.
But a boy with taste!
I used to, as a younger man, own a MkII Jag, that me and a mate rebuilt from the ground up. I loved it. Strangely, the girls loved it as well. :D
Jaguar’s own promo video for the concept car starts with all the color and big-budget art department overconfidence of last month’s brand relaunch ad and then turns into … a TED Talk! And the talker is a lot more stiff and artificial than most TED Talkers. Copy nothing indeed.
Jaguar’s new model looks like it was inspired by Iron Man’s head and is as sleek and beautiful as the Cybertruck. A lot of discerning American tech billionaires would want to buy one.
I actually really like it. Car design is becoming fun again.
Personally I am a believer in the idea that form follows function. But with that Jaguar, it looks like they believe that function follows form.
It’s the Apple way.
Apple doesn’t manufacture anything that competes with the physics of air drag: resistance increases at velocity cubed (V^3). (And that is for a sphere; not this vehicle shape.)
Form over function is a general principle (just like form from function), that Apple is on forefront of (hence the Apple way). Musk is Jobs 2.0, and gave us burning death trap cars (among other things). These Jaguars are trying way too hard to get on the hip bandwagon, where all the cool kids are.
“A table for five: What to expect from each player at Ukraine peace talks”
‘In the zero-sum tradition of Russian diplomacy…NATO has denied any intention of attacking Russia itself…Putin his main strategic goal of destroying Ukraine as an independent state and transforming it into a vassal of Russia…the United States can say, as a condition for coming to the table, that Russia must be ready to rejoin talks on nuclear arms control and strategic stability.’
There is so much wrong with this article I chose just a few snippets. Who writes this rubbish and who is this Rose Gottemoeller? So I checked her page and found the usual markers – Stanford, NATO, US State Department. Why am I not surprised?
https://thebulletin.org/biography/rose-gottemoeller/
She says that ‘five actors will be central at the table of negotiations: Ukraine, Russia, NATO, the European Union, and the United States under a second Trump administration’ but she is wrong. There only needs to be two – the US and the Russian Federation. All the rest are just proxies.
No special seat at the table for BoJo? Maybe, in the spirit of the holidays, they should have a kid’s table.
You know, I have just the seat in mind that BoJo the Clown could have-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OLTvxzHWXU (2:51 mins)
Lol, chair #9 got a bit hot. Do you suppose that this is how The Atlantic Council imagines Putin? They seem to want me to believe this is how Russia does stuff.
Or a stool in the corner, with appropriate headwear.
Maybe Bojo the Clown can provide the after dinner entertainment to lighten things up a bit.
I went trough exactly the same thought process.
The article is another example of having learned nothing and forgotten nothing. These people are simply tiresome, tedious, and boring.
The sure thing is that this Gottemoeller wouldn’t seat in such an hypothetical table. To start with, one needs to have some predisposition to do so, and at least a little capacity to somehow understand the position of the other side of the table. That is certainly not in Gottemoeller’s capacity. In sum, she doesn’t want any negotiation. Another anti-negotiation rant by Western neocons.
Western elites today have gotten into their heads a strange notion of “diplomacy”: we dictate terms we like and you surrender unconditionally. This, in turn, gave rise to the strange syndrome that Yves described earlier: Western elites spend all their time negotiating among themselves in lieu of negotiating with the other side. This makes sense if you believe that the “diplomacy” is all about dictating terms that you expect the other side to surrender unconditionally to: you need to come up with terms that you impose on the other side so you need to get an agreement on them. Or, in other words, a habit of spoiled brats who have gotten too accustomed to getting whatever they want–so the important part is to agree on what it is that you want.
This attitude prevails, to a significant degree, even in domestic politics. The contrast between Clinton and Trump messages in 2016 still remains relevant: Clinton’s “America is already great” presupposes that lack of shortages/constraints. No need to economize. We just need to figure out what “adventures” to put our resources into. The “Trumpist” appeal, I tend to think, is really grounded on the recognition of limits and the need to economize and prioritize the resources–which, first of all, means no more extravagant “adventuring.” But i the entire coalition politics is based on extravagant adventuring, then you don’t want to cut back. If you have arranged an agreement between 4 battleships and 6 battleships factions by agreeing to build 8 (can’t remember the specifics, but I believe this was actual compromise in early 20th century UK?), then you don’t want to hear that you can’t afford to build battleships.
Every time there are “talks” or reports of “talks” (fill in the blank for the conflict), there are escalations.
That’s the current state of affairs.
a habit of spoiled brats who have gotten too accustomed to getting whatever they want–so the important part is to agree on what it is that you want.
We may debate about the wording, but I believe this is probably the result of the practices of the economic world bleeding into politics (via ideology, revolving doors, and the like).
In our wonderful neoliberal environment dominated by large firms/oligopolies/monopolies, a very common form of “negotiated agreement” is the contract of adhesion: one party stipulates the terms, the other party must abide by them without any power to shape or alter them.
This is the most common form of contract imposed by firms on consumers and employees, and a very prominent one between large principals and small subcontrating firms.
I suspect that those “diplomats”, sufficiently molded by the business-like approaches and mentality pervading politics, instinctively apply what they feel is the natural way to proceed towards a deal when you represent a supposedly powerful entity.
This is true.
However I remember when among the more sane ones it was regretted that Gottemoeller wasn´t brought into the Biden Administration.
I guess that she does follow a two-tiered approach of speaking publicly they way US-officials are supposed to talk –
e.g.
https://thebulletin.org/2024/07/interview-rose-gottemoeller-on-the-precarious-future-of-arms-control/#post-heading
and in secret negotiations trying to achieve more normalcy?
Since eventually for someone like her the only thing that matters is a signed treaty.
Nothing else does to people like her, i.e. negotiators.
A German reminded me of this who was involved in talks 30 years ago. Which one – being outside sitting at the fence – can overlook.
(Which doesn´t mean “we” on the fence are incorrect. But to broaden the spectrum of argument, perhaps….)
I remember reading the piece above thinking exactly the same. On the other hand who is going to say anything against US primacy openly and be a member of the government? That´s impossible.
Pavel Podvig on Gottem. in July 2024
“I fully agree with Rose – Russia’s October 2020 proposal is a good starting point – “Interview: Rose Gottemoeller on the precarious future of arms control””
https://nitter.poast.org/russianforces/status/1818204631014473735#m
Thanks for bringing up her name.
Or just Ukraine and Russia. By this time it should be eminently evident to everyone that Ukraine needs only one security guarantor, which is Russia. Russia can make or brake Ukraine as well as can insure that there is no security threat for Ukraine coming from the west.
The article from War on the Rocks on attrition shows the nakedness of the US military when it comes to conventional, peer to peer war.
The article doesn’t mention one of the better known melodies: the two different parts of “The Third Man Theme” (one each for two different train lines) at Ebisu Station, located near the Yebisu Beer Brewery. (The station and the surrounding district are named for the brewery, not the other way around, and “Yebisu” is the old-fashioned Romanization for Ebisu.) “The Third Man Theme” is perhaps better known in Japan as the “Ebisu Beer Theme” because of countless TV commercials like this one.
True. I’m also a little surprised the author didn’t mention the compilation disc of 70+ JR station melodies published by Teichiku:
JR東日本駅発車メロディオリジナル音源集
https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm22426062
Takadanobaba (“Iron Arm Atomu” theme) is #8.
Lots of “tawk” about a ceasefire or peace talks in Ukriane, but I detect an extra-large dose of hopium being stuffed into the peace-pipe.
Reality is that even Mark Rutte said something to the effect that now is not the time because Ukraine is in a bad negotiating position, losing ground steadily across the front. Kurakove is about to fall, and Pokrovsk where that giant Metinvest plant that an oligarch owns is located (perhaps pledged to Blackrock as collateral?) is now within artillery range of the Russian forces.
There are going to be some angry folks in the media come Jan 20.
And yet Biden et al insist that the slaughter must go on. Why? Let’s see. (1)To preserve Biden’s legacy. Could not be that, it is much better forgotten or better preserved as an exhibit in the hall of failed policies, never to be repeated. (2) To save Blackrock’s investments, Not possible. No human cares about that. (3) Because in spite of the sight before your eyes, Ukraine is winning, Russia is about to come apart. Must be that because then the war with China can begin. (4) Because even the neocons are a tiny bit wobbly after betting wrong, promising big and once again the result … I have lost count of the number of disastrous bloody expensive failures they have foisted on the willing and greedy suckers in the DC Bubble and Echo Chamber … is a fart in a whirlwind.
>Trump Transition
I couldn’t help juxtaposing the fact that Trump, in or out of the Executive office, in one way or another, has been front and center on the news headlines for 8, soon to be 12 years, with a story in yesterday’s links on “brain rot.” However, I think it’s not so much the brain, which to some extent you can manage intake by taking a break, such as during Thanksgiving, as opposed to social/cultural/political rot that is manifest in this country’s public mores, infrastructure and various institutions.
https://corp.oup.com/news/brain-rot-named-oxford-word-of-the-year-2024/
I’m waiting to see Time magazine name Brain Rot as the “Man of the Year.”
Here’s another look at the S Korea situation
https://scheerpost.com/2024/12/04/south-koreas-6-hour-martial-law/
“Last week 100,000 citizens protested in the streets demanding his immediate resignation — something that received absolutely zero coverage in Western media. There was still little mention of this in current mainstream Western coverage as a factor for the short-lived declaration of martial law.
Yoon does not want to lose power, but more importantly the U.S. cannot allow Yoon to lose power: He is essential to shore up alliances, agreements, and an Asian force posture to wage war against China.”
Yet another mess we can blame on Biden/Blinken/Sullivan? In the movie world actors who come in threes tend to be Stooges.
I see that Kim Yong-hyun, the South Korean Defense Minister, has resigned saying that it was all his fault for telling President Yoon Suk Yeol to declare martial law causing “confusion and concern”.
‘South Korean opposition parties have also submitted a motion to impeach President Yoon over the incident. The move would require the support of two-thirds of parliament and at least six justices of the country’s nine-member Constitutional Court. The motion could be put to a vote as early as Friday.’
https://www.rt.com/news/608701-south-korea-minister-resigns/
I think that most South Korean have no desire to go back to the times of autocratic Presidents again and won’t buy this defence minister’s claim.
“I see that Kim Yong-hyun, the South Korean Defense Minister, has resigned saying that it was all his fault for telling President Yoon Suk Yeol to declare martial law causing ‘confusion and concern.’ ”
Suppose the problem was a concern that bolstering Korean economic growth had made becoming closer in relations to China, but that was just what American-led policy of trying to contain China was meant to discourage or prevent? So then, control public disquiet.
This supposition may be foolish, but notice the relative currency strengths:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=n43W
January 15, 2018
Real Broad Effective Exchange Rate for China and Korea, 2007-2024
(Indexed to 2007)
The aspect that smells of US ear-whispering (not actual involvement) is the clownish arrest attempt of the parliamentarians.
SK has had coups before, they already have their own playbook in the archives. yesterday was a master class in “how not to conduct a power grab”
Public opinion polls make in clear that the SK people (bipartisan) want to stay clear of global US machinations, they got their own slew of domestic economic issues
Previous coup attempts in SK were successful precisely because the civilian politicians had bungled badly so majorities of public wanted someone competent in charge. Plus, they took place when the civilian government and institutions of democracy had very little credibility (related to the incompetence and chaos that they caused) and the military had some justified crediblity for competence.
This one is different: this was instigated by the chief “incompetent and chaotic” politician, as yet another illustration of his incompetence, in a setting where democratic institutions have gotten a lot more credibility. All the more reason to think this was bizarrely comical affair.
” There was still little mention of this in current mainstream Western coverage as a factor for the short-lived declaration of martial law…”
To put it mildly.
I read stories that were baffling with the BS being spewed.
When the MSM dares not mention a protest, it’s more likely to be something truly grass roots.
I guess time will reveal.
A lot of variation on the estimates of the crowd: 1500 to 10000. Even on the high end, it’s not a huge number by Korean standards: it is an extremely networked society (even before all the modern technology–and modern Korea is extremely internetted, so to speak.) so that gathering a crowd for practically anything is quite easy (remember that this is a country where a Halloween event led to tends of thousands of people gathering in tight spaces that led to a fatal stampede). The Yoon government was extremely unpopular even before the whole thing and the political networks are pretty extensive, so a decent size gathering on short notice is easy.
One thing to keep in mind is that Yoon used to be part of the people doing the protesting now–that’s how he came near the top of the heap originally. In fact, he was the previous allegedly leftist president’s right hand man when he waged lawfare that led to impeachment and removal of the president before him (in fact, he was the chief lawfare man, so to speak. I tend to think that this was actually a color revolution against President Park, who was far more of a sovereigntist/neutralist who wanted to maintain good relations with China and Iran–fun fact: SK had excellent relationship with Iran that even the Revolution did not affect at all, and until fairly recently, they really went out of way to sidestep the US sanctions to maintain these ties: I was really surprised to see them abandon this path vis-a-vis Iran after Park was driven out of power–without pissing off US too much along the way.). He defected to the allegedly “right wing” faction only after a power struggle in the leftist faction that he lost and was made their presidential candidate after a lot of dodgy back door negotiations (and as far as I can tell, a lot of blackmailing).
I was in Seoul in 2019 and was amazed to see absolutely enormous street protests against the then Moon Jae-In government – almost entirely older folks bussed in from the provinces with neatly printed signs and Korean/US flags. There were 10’s of thousands there, every day for several days. I passed a small pile of Trump memorabilia, presumably confiscated by the organisers who didn’t want at the time to be too closely associated with him. There was barely a mention of the protests in the Korean press so far as I could see, let alone the foreign press. The Koreans I asked about it usually just shrugged or made a rude comment about rural churchgoing types.
“Last week 100,000 citizens protested”
I saw that in the comment above. I guess it could also mean 100,000 over a number of days?
Or in multiple places. 1500 to 10000 is the estimate of the crowd in front of the Parliament in one night.
Well, imagine that number assembled in front of the US Capitol! What was the size of the infamous Jan. 6th crowd?
They are smaller than Russian hackers, so they are harder to find, just like those Koreans in Kursk.
Kurt Vonnegut in Breakfast of Champions shrinks the Chinese down to microscopic size where they create all kinds of chaos
Slapstick, I think. Good read — it’s Vonnegut.
Maybe they should check under the beds in case they are lurking there as well. You’d be surprised what can lurk under beds-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-kOU2_jerM (1:14 mins)
Better the Chinese than NSA, FBI, the local police department or any of the 16 or is it 17, maybe 18, members of the intelligence community.
It’s now eighteen, yes.
Surprise! It’s all of ‘em!
This story also originally fell under “the Chinese are stealing our data”, but it looks like it’s morphed into it’s actually too good at spreading the news so it must be banned:
The REAL Reason the U.S. Is Banning TikTok (It’s Not Who You Think…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAoo-AHU4w8
“Huge anti-Russian protests in Tbilisi echo Ukraine’s Maidan.
The Economist has been pushing the color revolution = democracy thing. Here’s another (archived, published yesterday), Will the West betray or save anti-Putin protesters in Georgia?.
What do people know of editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes? I’ve heard her interviewed, and she was intellectually sharp in an Atlanticist kind of way. Her public CV (aka wiki page) reads like one, although this caught my eye, “After graduation, she was recruited as an adviser to the minister of finance in Poland, in 1992,[4] as part of a small group headed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard.”
Thank you.
The owners of the publication are oligarchs, Victorian millionaires, not aristocrats, but eager to have upper class / upper middle class types aboard, so the likes of Minton Beddoes are hired. Philip Coggan’s Buttonwood column is ok.
“Intellectually sharp in an Atlanticist kind of way.” You should watch Minton Beddoes on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. I think he’s smitten by the likes of her and Martin Wolf, the other Briton who features regularly. Some may wonder what all the fuss is about. She’s like most of the PPE graduates from Oxford.
One hopes Aurelien / David pipes up about the Economist. There’s a reason why I ask for his thoughts in particular.
Alas, Colonel, I haven’t opened the Economist regularly since the 1990s, when I didn’t have to pay for it. I became less and less enchanted during the decade before, and it must be twenty years since I last found anything of more than sociological interesting to read in it. There are some publications and websites that I warn people about that actually decrease the amount you understand about something if you read them. The Economist is one, which is a pity, because back before it got silly I used to read it regularly. About the only thing I can remember being right about is South Africa, and that’s because it was channeling the English-speaking business community, who were never that keen on apartheid.
There are some publications and websites that I warn people about that actually decrease the amount you understand about something if you read them.
As Mark Twain said, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” In that vein, two amusing factoids about THE ECONOMIST: –
[1] When the Ukraine-Kursk exploit began, I asked someone here in London who might know whether the UK and UK-related press in the US (e.g. Ben Lewis’s WaPo) was funneling so much clearly UK spook-supplied PR about the plucky Ukrainians invading Russia because Kursk was a UK-planned effort.
He said he didn’t know, but didn’t dispute it (why would you?). He did claim that a few years back when SIS (aka Six or Vauxhall Cross for American readers) had to undertake cost-cutting measures, its business intelligence unit was simply sold off to THE ECONOMIST.
[2] That tone of presumed expertise its articles are marinated in — and note there are few bylines there — is actually spouted by interchangable 20-some graduates just out of Oxbridge, who haven’t landed jobs in the City, corporations, or the Civil Service. The actual expertise and house style is mostly supplied by the Mothers, the middle-aged female copy desk who actually rule the roost. At least, so it was for decades.
Thank you, both.
Thank you, Colonel. That was informative.
Twenty years ago, The Economist online site had a very active and informed community and crunching some numbers, I could say that on most of the articles and opinion pieces, the commentariat was at more than 90% at odds with the theses of the articles.
This became so intolerable that TE shut down the comments section. TE is now just a hairbreath above yellow journalism. And when it comes to let’s say Russia, there is no difference in tone and attitude compared to the incendiary articles that have led to the Crimean war 150 years ago…
If one wants to delve into the world of The Economist, I can recommend Liberalism at large by Alexander Zevin. He traces the history of liberalism through the history of The Economist. Very thorough as well as a good read.
Among many things he notes is that though economic ties are toted as preventing wars, with the exception of World War one, The Economist hasn’t met a war it didn’t like. (And the World War one editor got fired.) And though it very much claims to be pro democracy, it hasn’t met a western sponsored coup it didn’t support as an exception to the rule. Often with the argument that political freedoms builds on economic freedoms, so it is better and more democratic to support a coup against an elected leader than let an elected leader lead the country into economic dictatorship.
This only applies to certain values of “economic dictatorshop,’ of course. E.g. the non-oligarchical.
Georgia began to be used to attack Russia in 2008, and evidently the intent is still there:
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/opinion/20gorbachev.html
August 20, 2008
Russia Never Wanted a War
By MIKHAIL GORBACHEV
Moscow
THE acute phase of the crisis provoked by the Georgian forces’ assault on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, is now behind us. But how can one erase from memory the horrifying scenes of the nighttime rocket attack on a peaceful town, the razing of entire city blocks, the deaths of people taking cover in basements, the destruction of ancient monuments and ancestral graves?
Russia did not want this crisis. The Russian leadership is in a strong enough position domestically; it did not need a little victorious war. Russia was dragged into the fray by the recklessness of the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili. He would not have dared to attack without outside support. Once he did, Russia could not afford inaction.
The decision by the Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev, to now cease hostilities was the right move by a responsible leader. The Russian president acted calmly, confidently and firmly. Anyone who expected confusion in Moscow was disappointed.
The planners of this campaign clearly wanted to make sure that, whatever the outcome, Russia would be blamed for worsening the situation. The West then mounted a propaganda attack against Russia, with the American news media leading the way.
The news coverage has been far from fair and balanced, especially during the first days of the crisis. Tskhinvali was in smoking ruins and thousands of people were fleeing — before any Russian troops arrived. Yet Russia was already being accused of aggression; news reports were often an embarrassing recitation of the Georgian leader’s deceptive statements.
Thanks for TIMES find!
This should be the “famous” EU-report on Georgia 2008 by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini which stated eventually that Georgia had caused the trouble not RU.
Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia. Volume I.
by Council of the European Union
https://archive.org/details/IIFFMCG_Volume_I_2009/page/5/mode/2up?q=Heidi+Tagliavini
Of course blaming RU with some major co-responsibilities – this is a EU study after all – but it comes closest to what is accepted in Europe today on Georgia going to war not RU.
And this is a German review on newspapers about Georgia back 2008/2009. By the now defunct, very good “AG-Friedensforschung” (the great archive with texts 1996-2015 remains avalaible!)
(please use google-transl. e.g.)
http://www.ag-friedensforschung.de/regionen/Georgien/eu-bericht.html
Trump instantly announced plans to prevent creation of bricks on the Moon. Make Moon American Again.
Thus to MAGA has been added MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) and now MAMA. Next?
Trump doesn’t have to declare it, because those bricks aren’t going to work.
Having personally worked with lunar regolith (thanks Jack for bringing it back!), there is no earthly analogue. All terrestrial materials are oxidized and hydrologized compared to lunar equivalents, and will therefore behave differently when chemically treated.
If someone really wanted to make bricks out of lunar regolith, They should start by adding water. The native iron in the moondust will quickly rust, binding the material together with iron oxy- hydroxides.
https://english.news.cn/20240822/45e1288fc24b47c8938c623b5b9a0795/c.html
August 22, 2024
Researchers propose massive water production method on Moon
BEIJING — Chinese researchers have developed a new method of massive water production through the reaction between lunar regolith and endogenous hydrogen. Their study * was published in the journal The Innovation on Thursday.
The study of the Moon’s water content plays a vital role in the construction of future scientific research bases and human survival…
* https://www.cell.com/the-innovation/fulltext/S2666-6758(24)00128-0
Korea’s Crisis Is Just a Small Part of the Picture John Authers, Bloomberg
I was quite surprised by this paragraph:
My emphasis. I am not used to reading this kind of thing in mainstream news. It is extraordinarily honest. I didn’t think mainstream news permitted this kind of discourse. Do I misunderstand the news or is this unusually frank?
South Korea was “an ultimate exemplar” only if you look at the top, say, 15%.
just like the rest of the first world, the bottom 51% has been left behind, the middle 34% is treading water.
North Korea may be suddenly worried that they may have a “failed state” on their southern border. Starts thinking about fortifying the DMZ to stop a flow of refugees fleeing north:)
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1864134630502486134
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
Immensely revealing from Luke de Pulford, Executive Director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (an alliance that gathers MPs in parliaments around the world against China)…
To him the “extremely dangerous situation in South Korea” is the fact that Yoon’s successor might – god forbid – embrace the One China principle (which incidentally almost all countries support). NOT the fact the current president declared martial law and sent uniformed troops into the National Assembly to stage a coup…
This might seem laughable at first but it’s yet another illustration of an immensely dangerous current in the West right now, also obvious with regards to what’s happening in Gaza, whereby the supposed commitment to “values” proves remarkably flexible when it conflicts with Western geopolitical interests.
They’d literally rather the South Koreans live under a new military dictatorship headed by a mad and extremely unpopular president, than the country have normal relations with China…
For context, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China comprises over 240 members from 27 legislatures and the European Parliament…
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd65BrYa0AErDx9?format=jpg&name=medium
9:28 PM · Dec 3, 2024
If I’m getting this right, this phrase, “What does Cross-Strait issue have to do with Korea?” is causing heads to explode. Question from an undereducated Usian; Do South Koreans refer to South Korea as “Korea”? Another one; Which is considered worse from current western perspective, getting friendly with China or getting friendly with North Korea?
South Koreans refer to their country as “Hankook.”. This is not entirely a snark, because the North call their country “Chosun” (both are historical names for all of Korea, incidentally). The Chinese and Japanese use these names for the Koreas, too (they used to use “South” and “North” during the Cold War days.)
Thank you.
Or rather, everyday Chinese and Japanese use their reading of the Chinese characters that the Koreans use for their country. Like a back borrowing.
Before Koreans invented their own alphabet, they use Literary Chinese as their writing system.
You sometimes hear 코리아 but I don’t know in what context it is accepted except as a sports cheer 오 필승 코리아 along with more common 대한민국
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-04/unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-fatally-shot-in-manhattan/
Big red flag about this:
“Thompson was shot outside the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan, where the company is hosting an investor day, according to two people familiar with the situation. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.”
From that brief report, sounds like it was done in public.
Archive.ph link to get past paywall:
https://archive.ph/bUkGt
Not much detail. Maybe an intentional hit.
Here’s the New York Post on this. I’m curious about the photo of the pills spilled on the curb. Anybody recognize them?
Public shootings scream, “Sending a message.”
Just sayin’…
Psychological profile: Somebody who spend hours and hours on the phone trying to get a claim processed, only to be passed through gazillion layers of chatbots and poorly trained call-center fodder.
No shortage of people with a motive then
Cory Doctorow has anticipated this sad, tragic and completely understandable development. Who’s going to try to turn this into a moral panic? In some ways the panic should be over how long it’s taken for this to occur.
What stayed with me from Radicalized wasn’t the violence, or much of the plot, good as it was, it was how pedestrian the horrors of the American ‘access’ to health care system was presented. It was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that wouldn’t be considered ‘yeah, that’s how it works’.
UnitedHealthcare was my Medigap plan insurer. Their subsidiary UMR is the administrator of my dental plan. The CEO likely deserved an upbraiding, for sure.
UnitedHealth is gigantic and infects all aspects of the US healthcare system
Yes. It’s the equivalent of a “post it” note on a pitchfork.
More detail, but not much –
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/04/us/brian-thompson-united-healthcare-death/index.html
Looks like it was in public, and deliberate. Doesn’t say what happened to the shooter. If it was deliberate and the shooter survived, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the shooter or a close relative had gotten the shaft from this healthcare company. If that speculation is correct, it is interesting that this possible victim of capitalism chose a specific target rather than taking out their rage on a bunch of innocent randos as usually happens.
CEO of insurance division.
If this were to become a trend, something tells me that Congress would do an abrupt volte-face and pass gun control legislation. Can’t have the PMC directly targeted so blatantly.
If it were to become a trend, we might finally get a true national healthcare system.
Lol, dreams are for dreamers and Trix are for kids. Neither of the above, we will get The Clampdown instead.
The Clash
Gun control or a single payer medical care system would be quite a dilemma for Congresscritters.
Of course, both would never happen. But which of the two would be more likely to pass?
Let’s look at the donor/owners and the elected officials. They’ve got healthcare. They don’t necessarily have complete protection from an angry person with a gun.
The genie is out of the bottle (this happened in one of the most stringent gun rule spots in the nation), but I would bet on guns first. Especially as healthcare would strip far more profit from their pockets over the long run.
love triangle or the “James Garfield” treatment.
imo.
Heh. I really enjoyed Sarah Vowell’s book Assassination Vacation where she describes Garfield’s assassin Charles Guiteau as the one guy who couldn’t get lucky after living in the free love Oneida community. He must have been very frustrated!
I read someplace that his nickname at Oneida was “Charles Git Out”.
“love triangle”?
Would have access to the victim closer to home.
Shooter, described as a “white male”, reported as escaped on a bicycle by the Post. I’m hoping on a Citi Bike.
That would be foolish of the shooter since it would immediately narrow down the pool of suspects.
You are absolutely correct sir!
From Barron’s: “Tisch said the suspect fled first on foot and then on a rented Citi Bike, and was last seen in Central Park.”
I love NY. Thank you.
Waiting for Costco to list Executive protection anti-drone electronic warfare kits for their holiday listing. I’m pretty shocked that we haven’t had any notable drone assassinations (aside from what Israelis do to Lebanese and Palestinians) in 2024.
Speaking of drones, local NJ news media has stories of large unidentified drones flying over Northern New Jersey, including near Picatinny Arsenal and Trump’s Bedminster golf course. The Feds are investigating.
A question for the business pros here. According to Barron’s, their reporter was ejected from the premises. Is this standard procedure today?
Read:
“Crowds largely dispersed by midmorning from the third floor at the Hilton where the UnitedHealth conference had been scheduled to take place. The atmosphere on the floor was somber. A woman standing on the conference floor told a Barron’s reporter to leave. The reporter was escorted out by Hilton security.”
Gunz, this just came across the transom, “Police illegally sell restricted weapons, supplying crime”, CBS.
Well worth a read. A glimpse of scale,
Nearly 26,000 guns were traced from American crime scenes back to a government agency, law enforcement or the military between 2017 and 2021, the most recently available data, according to a report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It isn’t known how many of those were lost, stolen or sold. However, when government auditors investigated firearms that law enforcement agencies reported missing over a 15-year period, the General Services Administration Inspector General found that more than two-thirds had not gone missing at all but, rather, were inappropriately sold or traded —including Uzis and grenade launchers that were never recovered.
A big part of the problem,
“We’re not looking to prosecute fellow law enforcement officers,” said Eric Harden, former special agent in charge of the ATF’s Los Angeles field division. Color me unsurprised here.
All in all, some good investigative reporting.
This is just a current iteration of government complicity and immunity to/in crime. I recall Michael Rupperts evidence of CIA (Cocaine Import Agency /sarc) drug distribution four decades ago. John Deutch was denied appointment to head the agency as consequence.
Lol, I’ve got an “Iran Contra” themed deck of cards around here somewhere. Paging Ed Meese….
Concerning the new Jaguar
There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
So let’s stop and look what’s goin down
It’s the Plutonomy Stupid
Some years ago Citigroup did a study that predicted what they called the rise of the Plutonomy. An economy of, by and for the plutocrats.
In the words of Willie Sutton on explaining why he robbed banks: “it’s where the money is”
There is no end of talent with the ability to create outstanding vehicles directed toward the Plutonomy.
The competition is getting fierce. Even Cadillac has jumped into the fray with its $350,000 Celestiq.
The new Jaguar campaign is interesting in that manufacturers are having to go to great extremes in order to attract the attention of the members of the Plutonomy.
I see Jaguar’s “reimagining” as a way of setting themselves as special, different and apart from the herd because it is no longer enough to produce a great product.
Go for it Jaguar
As for the Type 00 concept, the more I look at it the more I like it.
Till the software fails and you can’t even unlock the doors! This entire “operating by wire” syndrome is simply prone to failure by a number of vectors as witnessed in recent news.
Give me a vehicle that I can see out the windows, use mirrors, and closes a circuit between the battery and lamp when I flick the signal lever instead of relying on my instruction to the computer to do so.
Joe Rogan interviews Mike Benz. utube. The first 10+ minutes talking about what happened to internet freedom.
Joe Rogan Experience #2237 – Mike Benz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrJhQpvlkLA
Thanks flora. Benz’ recent lecture was good as far as it went but ended abruptly less than half way through the material. I look forward to this JRE.
“Chinese chip firms say a new round of US sanctions won’t stop China’s chip industry — Chinese government responds with its own export restrictions anyways”
A spokesman for the Chinese government stated, when asked about this situation, stated ‘**** them if they can’t take a joke!’
Like a true Marxist . . .
RE: The awkward parallels between the Biden and Trump convictions
The Brits serve up some weak tea, highlighting the alleged similarities and differences between the Biden and Trump legal cases, and trying to make the claim that Biden’s prosecutions were “novel” too.
The only thing “novel” about the Biden case was how the original prosecutor tried to give Dear Hunter blanket immunity from the get go, something Pere Brandon eventually made happen. And this claim of novelty –
“Rarely are gun-application cases like Biden’s prosecuted without a connection to more serious misdeeds.”
– is risible. Anybody with half a brain can see that the prosecution on gun and tax charges was a potential lead up to wider charges of influence peddling by the whole Biden crime family.
One difference they and none of the Western media ever mentions is that the crimes Dear Hunter was convicted of were obvious crimes any six year old could understand. It’s illegal to not pay taxes, and Biden didn’t pay them. It’s illegal to lie on a gun application, and Dear Hunter lied. It’s also clearly illegal to smoke crack, the thing Biden lied about, and he wasn’t even prosecuted for that. Most people, myself included, would be hard pressed to explain exactly what the crime was in any of the cases Trump was prosecuted for during his election campaign, because all of them involved twisting the law until it was barely recognizable in order to find a “crime”.
I could of course come up with crimes the Trump administration did commit, but he’d never be charged for those since the entire DC establishment agreed with them. Coups and war crimes are no problem at all!
Trump is a criminal or his family is very criminal adjacent…the facts are so blatant and apparent I need not list anything of particular substance…\sarc
I do hear that trope quite often from the TDS afflicted I know directly, to be fair the man or his organization built casinos and developed real estate. No cutting corners there no sir! I will concur, a bit of weak tea being served there by their US reporter in the BBC article. I shed no crocodile tears for the suffering of either of them, to be fair. Change the names to Smith or Jones, and let’s see what happens I’ll suggest. Eric Holder, behold it is your doctrine; justice in any case, well the US is reaping what your DOJ has sown lo these past years following the GFC.
No one is above the law! Okay pull the other leg next.
This just in;
United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot dead outside NYC hotel.
Some guy hanging around outside the Hilton in a ski mask and nobody called the cops? And no cameras saw his escape? Mhmmm…
Likely a seriously unhappy “consumer.” I can appreciate his rage (unable to read article).
“America is Not Prepared for a Protracted War”
‘U.S. Army doctrine assumes that a major theater war would incur 24,000 casualties each month.’
They’ll be lucky if it is only that. The Ukrainians are losing 30,000 to 60,000 a month. The US lost 58,000 people in ‘Nam. Could the present US accept the same figure each and every month? After reading this article, there is no way that the US is prepared to face off with a peer nation as US capabilities continue to decline, no matter how much money is thrown at this problem. Here is an example of the US losing yet another capability-
https://news.usni.org/2024/12/03/poor-material-condition-of-navy-amphib-fleet-prevents-marine-deployments-training-says-gao
That is what twenty years of fighting in the sandbox will do to you.
Peer nation? They’re losing against the Houthis in the Red Sea. They probably have to go to a children’s playground to find “peers”.
Too true. The Army did perfect their present doctrines “playing in the Sandbox.”
Non-nuclear steam propulsion. As in burning oil to power a steam engine?
Yes, the traditional power plant arrangement. Forced combustion air boilers that operate at 600 psi supply superheated steam to geared turbines and separately to steam turbo-generators to supply 450VAC electrical power.
Other of the amphibs employ marine mid-speed diesel engine drives, but USN has never been great with this propulsion system (was something of a niche — aside from subs — and then the steam navy transitioned to gas turbines in the 70s). All conventional ships designed to run on marine diesel fuel, commonly referred to as NATO symbol F-76. Backup fuel is aviation jet fuel JP-5.
Of course aside from how you boil the water not much difference between nuclear and conventional steam plants.
These articles always distill the problem down to more money, more weapons, and more bodies, rarely does the MIC braintrust ever suggest more diplomacy.
Seeing that the current US Navy cannot rearm at sea, that new Russian ballistic missile sure looks like a ship killer when a task group rearms at a port. A 75kg mach-11 bullet would demolish (in water too shallow for sinking) a stationary warship/submarine in the act of loading missiles into VLS tubes. 20 minutes notice isn’t enough time to cast away from the pier. A severely damaged vessel is as good as sunk considering the US’ lack of shipyard capacity and shipbuilding expertise.
The US can’t fight the wars the politicians want so fervently to start.
Not sure the reported CEP would support direct attack, but no need just take out the shore infrastructure.
USN was extremely short sighted in getting rid of the destroyer tenders, but it was all part of generating the “peace dividend”.
The port facilities don’t even need to be targeted. The ship could be hit directly, and the damaged or destroyed vessel would render that part of the port useless until the damaged or destroyed ship was moved from the berth.
My father built missile launchers and installed then onto ships around the world. His opinion of the VLS systems was that they were great when attacking, but a liability once the missiles were fired since they couldn’t be reloaded at sea. Apparently the old Mk 26 systems could be reloaded while underway. Since he retired many years ago, the support capability of the US Navy has not improved, so this is still a liability.
I don’t know if the article was written before or after Yuzhmash, but why don’t these people understand that military confrontation with Russia or China will be a disaster. Death and destruction will be widespread, if not terminal. There are other options.
Re: Americans agree politics is broken − here are 5 ideas for fixing key problems
I actually have direct experience regarding one of the solutions the author proposes: multi-member districts.
Illinois elected members of the State House of Representatives in three-member districts until 1980. In 1972 I worked briefly for the campaign of one of the candidates in that year’s election. As an ancillary part of that effort, after the election was over I reviewed the results in all of Illinois’ 50-odd State House districts. In all but one or two, the party with a majority in that district ran two candidates and the other party ran one. Neither party was willing to upset the equilibrium by trying to “punch above its weight.” This strategy rendered the general election basically superfluous; the election was decided in the primaries.
I never really thought about this system in terms of gerrymandering before this article, but it seems to me that a party in control of redistricting could still artfully pack supporters of the opposing party into fewer districts than their overall vote share would warrant. They’d just have to retain enough of their supporters in those districts to forestall a sweep.
There are a lot of variations in multimember districts: one of the key variations is how many ballots voters get and, if they get several, if they are allowed to vote for the same candidate with all their ballots at the same time. IIRC, Illinois allowed multiple ballots and they had to vote for different candidates with each ballot, yes? If so, the problem for parties is dealing with voters who are not particularly partisan (and thus less relevant for redistricting purposes). These voters will split tickets and the strategy you describe presupposes that these are the decisive voters. Things work differently with more party minded voters.
“IIRC, Illinois allowed multiple ballots and they had to vote for different candidates with each ballot, yes?”
No, you could cast your 3 votes for 1, 2, or 3 candidates. Casting all three votes for one candidate was known as “voting a bullet.” Being able to do so was how the minority party in a district could ensure that their candidate got elected regardless of how many candidates the majority party put up. There were virtually no districts in which one party was strong enough that thrre of their candidates could swamp a single opposition candidate receiving all bullets from his/her supporters.
Ah, OK. That makes more sense in this context. Being able to “plump” the votes (this is actually the semi-official term among the academics, believe it or not) makes things potentially more interesting in terms of strategerying.
At a fundamental level, the baseline logic of partisan gerrymandering is not affected: depending on how many of which votes there are to split up, there’s still plenty of room for the party doing the gerrymandering to tinker with the district makeup. However, it does provide a lower upper limit. With single membered districts, you can literally create 51% district everywhere to turn a slim advantage to total dominance. With 3-membered districts with plumping, the “losing” party can always plump the votes and get 3 times their number. The winning party always has to split their votes and their third candidate, even with perfect coordination, will not beat the 3 times the losing party’s votes unless they massively outnumber the other side: you need 3+ to 1 advantage, or the other side is (assuming perfect party voting) to deny the other party any seat. The bigger the district size, the larger the advantage needs to be to deny the other side seats.
Hawaii elected its two congressmen at large until Congress mandated single-member districts in the 1972 re-apportionment. Don’t know the voting mechanics for that though.
Three conditions for a US-backed peace agreement in Ukraine. By Anatol Lieven. Unheard
Though this is a much better piece of writing than that of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists the author does not acknowledge some important facts. A very important one is that Russia now sees the West as incapable of agreement and unable to stand by their words and documents signed. This by itself makes any agreement nearly impossible and the thought of some country like the UK offering guarantees is a non-starter for Russia. The UK? Are you kidding? Another delusional view in my opinion.
Thank you, Ignacio.
Perhaps to be expected of a Baltic German dispossessed aristocrat. He’s not all bad, though.
“He is not all bad”
I agree. Yet it is disheartening to see that, within the CW, those who are still able to see beyond their noses feel the need to believe that the “garden” countries keep having capabilities that have been largely lost.
That’s pretty much what I was already thinking regarding the “Table for five”; what do the Ukraine, NATO, the European Union, and the United States have to bring to the table? Promise that they Ukraine will re-arm as soon as Russia stops destroying Ukrainian manpower and weapon systems and The West re-learns how to build stuff?
Ukraine has nobody legally qualified to negotiate or sign any agreement, NATO AFAIK can’t actually be part of any agreement (who would sign it?), EU will need to hop trough a many bureaucratic loops to even nominate a negotiator and US is, as you say, completely non-agreement capable and untrustworthy.
That table needs only to seats; one for the stenographer and one for the translator to Ukrainian. Zelensky and Syrsky probably still need the Russian language version, I hear their Ukrainian leaves room for improvement and one doesn’t want misunderstandings to happen.
Probably just one seat. The Ukrainian side can stand or kneel or whatever it is that the side that’s surrendering does.
It’s almost as if the U.S. foreign policy blob hasn’t heard a word that Putin has said over the last 20 years.
…or understand the impact of Oreshnik. (If you think it didn’t turn Yuzhmash to dust, then you haven’t noticed the ATACMS have stopped arriving in Russia.)
Even the North Koreans used as an excuse for the long range missiles have moved far away from the front lines, says Ukrainian intelligence. How convenient is that?
Apparently Hegseth is a no-go, and in his stead an old glory lapel pin is being considered for SecDef. Said pin-back standard could not be reached for a comment.
I see reporting this evening from the national channel news of ABC that mister Pete ain’t going nowhere, no way no how. He’ll channel his best imitation of Tom Petty..
Well I won’t back down, no I won’t back down
You can stand me up at the gates of Ft Meade
But I won’t back down…
Oh and he’s gonna swear off the sauce whilst in office, so there is that …
Colonel Smithers, especially:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/business/bangladesh-banks.html
December 4, 2024
How a Country’s Economy Was Siphoned Dry
Bangladesh’s currency was battered by what the new head of the central bank says was the looting of the banks under the deposed prime minister.
By Alex Travelli and Shayeza Walid
The new governor of Bangladesh’s central bank, Ahsan Mansur, calculates that about $17 billion was siphoned from the country’s financial system in the 15 years before the government of Sheikh Hasina collapsed in August.
Other economists guess that the true value looted during Ms. Hasina’s rule, before she fled the country, could exceed $30 billion. But no one can say for sure. Using a web of financial schemes, Mr. Mansur said, the perpetrators in the government and at some of the country’s biggest companies pulled off what was effectively the largest bank heist in the history of money. And they did incalculable damage to Bangladesh’s economy….
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1rW02
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Philippines, 1977-2023
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1rW0s
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Philippines, 1977-2023
(Indexed to 1977)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1rskR
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, 1977-2023
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1rsl4
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, 1977-2023
(Indexed to 1977)
Not going to bother reading a NYT article but the free part sounds no different than your typical “take IMF loan, allow your wealthy elite to take dollars out of the country at favorable exchange and profit from questionable projects, run out of money and be forced to take an emergency bail out package that requires selling state assets and take away subsidized food and fuel for the masses” situation.
Whatever the actual situation is, Hasina was not taken out because she mismanaged the economy, any more than Imran Khan was taken out for publicizing “secret documents”. They were taken out for being insufficiently subservient to the United States.
Thank you, CA.
https://x.com/AXChristoforou/status/1864324321960972298
[image]
Daily Mail article (“Kim Jong Un sends North Korean women to fight in Ukraine”) with the altered image has now been removed. Link now redirects to Daily Mail home page. No apology or explanation.
They AI altered a video from 2023 of Russian twin sisters Zhenya and Sasha, made them look Korean, and ran with the BS narrative of North Korean women soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
These lies from the media are pushing us to nuclear war, and they cry about how X is fake news. Daily Mail is fake news.
“Korean” women with fake Chinese names…
The planning team came in after the weekend to see another beautiful Martian drill hole on the target Mineral King! Mineral King is named after a silver mining district in Sequoia National Park, California.
We should have results of the analysis by planning on Friday, when we will find out if Mineral King will live up to its name (though we probably won’t find any actual silver) and we’ll decide if we want to proceed to drop sample to SAM.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4110-4111-mining-into-mineral-king/
You westerners have heard of hypersonics
You heard about their speed, they’re quick
Let me introduce you to my Rocket Oreshnik
Yes, it’s great, just won’t wait
Not everybody likes my Rocket Oreshnik
Baby, it’ll fly in style movin’ all along
Hard to intercept this modern design
Mach 10 top speed, better take heed
Sportin’ with Putin, ridin’ all around Dnipro for joy
Blow your horn, rocket, blow your horn
Meet my rocket and don’t be late
We’re pullin’ out about a half past eight
Goin’ on the corner and havin’ some fun
Takin’ my rocket on a long, hot run
Ooh, goin’ out, oozin’ and cruisin’ and havin’ fun
Now that you’ve seen my Rocket Oreshnik
It’ll be around every night about eight in good nick
You know it’s great, don’t be late
Not everybody likes my Rocket Oreshnik
Missile will ride in style, movin’ all along awfully quick
Rocket 88, by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=260hXID0Yo0
nuts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUDc78znrLM&t=88s
On “Andy Grove Was Right”… before Intel was in MACs, they used Motorola 68000 series. Motorola spun off to be Freescale for the big stuff, On Semi for the small stuff. A manager at Freescale told me that Apple repeated asked Motorola/Freescale to spin a lower power version, and were ignored. So Big Fruit moved to Intel.
“French government collapses after Prime Minister Michel Barnier does not survive no-confidence vote”
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20241204-live-french-government-faces-collapse-as-historic-no-confidence-vote-approaches
I had been completely unaware of anything in Donetsk like John Varoli describes in today’s link. Would it be possible to have someone with a NATO orientation/perpsective comment on his article?
You mean the Mainstream Media? That wholly owned subsidiary of the people for whom the NATO was build as a tool for eternal conflict.
Um, did you really believe that Russia was ‘unprovoked’?
re: Americans agree politics is broken − here are 5 ideas for fixing key problems
Nothing to address politicians being bought?
Maybe public funding of campaigns where political ads on TV are limited by funding and candidates must meet with citizens at public debates. It seems the internet (email, podcasts, etc.) could be a lower cost method of engaging with the electorate.
Of course there will always be a need for election watchdogs (in a dog-eat-dog culture).