Links 11/2/2022

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1. Mikerw0 November 2, 2022 at 7:35 am

   Here is another example of how the deployment of technology has taken something that is simple and altered our relationship with it. While technology in bicycles has advanced in many ways, the simple fact is that the true innovations happened long ago; the double diamond frame, inflated tires, the derailleur, braking. And, what about right to repair?

   As an avid cyclist I enjoy doing the bulk of maintenance myself. But changes make doing certain things now out of reach. In fact, I own several bikes and in certain ways my fixed gear bike is my favorite. It is just a bike. No mechanicals, no technology.

   https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-gear/bikes-and-biking/modern-bicycles-the-end-of-diy-mechanic/

   And with more tech coming it will only make it harder, not better.
   1. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 7:51 am

      Prediction – The bicycle in 2030 will only be repairable by specialist tools unavailable to the general public, if the software encounters a problem the bike will be “locked” and need to be taken to the nearest service depot of that bike manufacturer which may not even be in your State, and you will only be able to ride one if you have insurance that will require you having not only a tracker but an interface with the bike’s operating system so that it can analyze your riding habits for unsafe riding practises.
      1. BeliTsari November 2, 2022 at 9:33 am

         Index shifting (instead of friction) took a REALLY useful mode of transportation, you could afford at a thrift shop/ yard sale,
         out of the reach of many. Butted steel frame “10-speeds” hung with used panniers, replaced cars (even in Pittsburgh!) as kids switched to fat tired suspension bikes, you could get a usable, easily maintained mode of transportation (and we’d started Rails To Trails to make sure, we’d be able to facilitate cycling as we’d aged) but e-bikes & scooters have taken over poor 1099 worker’s budgets.
      2. JP November 2, 2022 at 2:04 pm

         No, not analyze for unsafe riding habits, analyze to sell you s**t. You forget who the gov’t works for.
         1. Chris November 2, 2022 at 5:35 pm

            Regarding unsafe riding habits, I don’t advocate onboard tracking software; however, I would like to see more bicyclists ticketed (or at least warned) for cruising through stop signs and lights, as well as riding on sidewalks and riding against the flow of traffic. I’ve recently experienced some near miss collisions with bike riders doing one or other of the above things.
            1. FreeMarketApologist November 2, 2022 at 6:06 pm

               Oh yes. This. In NYC this evening I had the light (and it had been mine for a few seconds), and was nearly run over by a cyclist who, from 1/4 of the way down the block was trying to beat the startup of the cross-street traffic. He beat the car traffic, but nearly whacked me and another person as he swerved around the pedestrian traffic.

               I thought I’d never see the day, but the cyclists and scooter riders are worse than the car drivers on the NYC streets.
   2. Stephen November 2, 2022 at 8:31 am

      Thanks for posting. It’s a good article.

      I got back into cycling over the past couple of years.

      One of my bikes has electronic gear shifting, and it is really awesome. But the first time something goes wrong, it will be like getting an iPad repaired, I suspect!

      Which is exactly how cars have gone, as the article says. In my 70s childhood I can remember just how many neighbours repaired cars and how many back street garages were available. Even my own first car was a super simple manual gearbox CVH engined Ford Escort. Totally different today, of course. You cannot even see the components in the engine bay. Cycling does seem to be going in the same direction.
   3. PlutoniumKun November 2, 2022 at 8:57 am

      Bikes are definitely getting harder to self-maintain, but thats been a feature since they stopped making frames out of raw iron. The early Tour de France riders even occasionally had to do their own welding.

      I have done plenty of home maintenance on my bikes in the past, but I’ve more or less given up due to time constraints and the difficulties of doing it when living in a small apartment. Plus increasingly every problem seems to need a tool that I’ll never use again that will probably cost more than a shop repair.

      The reality is that enthusiastic home maintenance riders are a minority, a mostly male one at that. And most are incompetent – a bike shop owner I knew used to joke that he loved home repairs as 75% of his turnover was fixing/replacing the results. Issues with maintenance are probably one of the big turn-offs for new riders, especially commuters, and probably especially women. My local bike shop is female owned and operated and the owner has told me that maintenance concerns are one of the big things putting her female customers off, so she does free classes for the easy things and prices her workshop visits to encourage people to drop in their bikes when simple things go wrong (some old style bike shops in my area can be very unwelcoming for people needing simple quick fixes). Plus as most people buy components online now, the workshops are really important to keep bike shops open.

      The ongoing revolution in bike design are generally very positive. Issues like stupid internal cable routing are now being addressed through proper design and electronic gears and disk brakes are now vastly more reliable and easy to use. The latest generation of EV city bikes are incredibly good to use and reliable and are increasingly bought by people who never dreamed of swapping out their cars for bikes before. Sure they will need more specialist workshops, but this will provide local business as more and more sales goes online. For those who love fixing things up, there are plenty of antique old Colagnos and Bianchis out there that need some love.
      1. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 9:14 am

         Problems with bikes is nothing new and have been a feature since they were first invented. Not sure if I have mention it before but Jerome K. Jerome – who wrote “Three Men In A Boat”- also wrote a sequel called “Three Men on the Bummel” which follows the same three characters as they go on a bike tour of Germany in 1900. A sample-

         ‘There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can “overhaul” it, or you can ride it. On the whole, I am not sure that a man who takes his pleasure overhauling does not have the best of the bargain. He is independent of the weather and the wind; the state of the roads troubles him not. Give him a screw-hammer, a bundle of rags, an oil-can, and something to sit down upon, and he is happy for the day. He has to put up with certain disadvantages, of course; there is no joy without alloy. He himself always looks like a tinker, and his machine always suggests the idea that, having stolen it, he has tried to disguise it; but as he rarely gets beyond the first milestone with it, this, perhaps, does not much matter. The mistake some people make is in thinking they can get both forms of sport out of the same machine. This is impossible; no machine will stand the double strain.’

         https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2183
      2. Mikerw0 November 2, 2022 at 10:34 am

         I have long been into ultra endurance events and a critical issue is the ability to solve a mechanical issue. Good bye to that.
         1. PlutoniumKun November 2, 2022 at 1:31 pm

            The late great Dervla Murphy cycled Ireland to Afghanistan in the 1990’s and admitted at the time that she couldn’t even fix a puncture.
   4. Carolinian November 2, 2022 at 8:58 am

      Lifelong cyclist here and I agree that many of the design changes were simply about selling more bikes or indulging the come and go mountain bike craze that needs extra brakes, gears. The old timey three speed Europe bike was probably the ideal bike for most people and came from a place where bicycles were actually used for transportation.

      However re the Boing Boing article–the extra technology that has been added to cars is not a bad thing and while–yes–drivers are getting worse the cars are safer and more reliable and fuel efficient. Indeed the argument against ADAS or driver assistance isn’t even new as self drive car advocates have always said only full automation would solve the human distraction problem. The deaths-from-accident rate in the pre Nader days was horrific and one need only read On the Road where they bomb across America at 100 mph in their Hudson to see why. Guns are deadly weapons. Also cars. Most of those Tesla accidents were the driver’s fault. Musk’s guilt is in giving them the tools to be so dangerous.
      1. Mildred Montana November 2, 2022 at 11:13 am

         >”…the cars [today] are safer and more reliable and fuel efficient.”

         My brother, a life-long professional mechanic, would agree with you. That being said, he won’t buy a used IC car less than 20 years old because of the difficulties of doing one’s own repairs, which are many.

         However, he did buy a new Chevy Spark EV several years ago for its low-cost easy maintenance. He is very happy with it.
   5. Anthony G Stegman November 2, 2022 at 3:12 pm

      Basic bicycles will always be available. They are relatively cheap and easy to manufacture. Those who desire “state of the art” bicycles may run into challenges down the road. Keep things simple for a largely problem free life. Not always easy, and sometimes impossible, but where it is possible strive for it.
   6. John Beech November 2, 2022 at 3:57 pm

      The most tech car I own is a ’69 Silver Shadow, and the simplest is a ’74 step van. I speak carburetor and points but both are converted to electronic ignition. And I’d take either to California . . . +3000 miles from here and back because both are reliable as an anvil. I’ve also got a pal with a ’34 Plymouth I’d similarly take a long jaunt in. And speaking bikes, someone recently swiped my wife’s ’75 Le Tour, which I still rode. Keeping my eye out in the pawn shops for it to reappear because it’s been stolen once before.
2. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 7:43 am

   Working link for “Black Holes Can Behave Like Quantum Particles”at-

   https://www.space.com/black-holes-have-quantum-properties-study

   Wouldn’t it be funny if it was eventually discovered that black holes were actually an interface between classic physics and quantum physics?
   1. Jules Dickson November 2, 2022 at 8:24 am

      Fixed the link. Thanks!
   2. JP November 2, 2022 at 2:09 pm

      Pretty much what they just awarded the Nobel for. We are certainly one step closer to a unified field theory.
3. flora November 2, 2022 at 7:49 am

   The G20 meeting two weeks from now should be interesting. / ;)

   Calls for Russia’s G20 Expulsion Likely Doomed to Fail

   https://www.newsweek.com/putin-g20-russia-ukraine-indonesia-1756089
   1. hunkerdown November 2, 2022 at 9:46 am

      “Vladimir Vladimirovich, please believe your presence is valued so you show up so we can feed you polonium”
4. leaf November 2, 2022 at 7:59 am

   https://michael-hudson.com/2022/11/germanys-position-in-americas-new-world-order/
   New article from Michael Hudson, another insightful analysis!
   I wonder how progress is going on his “Collapse of Antiquity” book, his works really are an eye opener
   1. fresno dan November 2, 2022 at 8:03 am

      leaf – thanks for that!
      These anti-Russian sanctions make today’s New Cold War inherently anti-German. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said that Germany should replace low-priced Russian pipeline gas with high-priced U.S. LNG gas. To import this gas, Germany will have to spend over $5 billion quickly to build port capacity to handle LNG tankers. The effect will be to make German industry uncompetitive. Bankruptcies will spread, employment will decline, and Germany’s pro-NATO leaders will impose a chronic depression and falling living standards.

      Most political theory assumes that nations will act in their own self-interest. Otherwise they are satellite countries, not in control of their own fate. Germany is subordinating its industry and living standards to the dictates of U.S. diplomacy and the self-interest of America’s oil and gas sector. It is doing this voluntarily – not because of military force but out of an ideological belief that the world economy should be run by U.S. Cold War planners.
      =========================================
      John Maynard Keynes: “Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back”
      1. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 8:11 am

         I loved the bit where the good Doctor said-

         ‘German Chancellor Olaf Sholz is going to China this week to demand that it dismantle is public sector and stops subsidizing its economy, or else Germany and Europe will impose sanctions on trade with China.’
         1. Michaelmas November 2, 2022 at 9:02 am

            Brussels is the last redoubt, the Vatican, of a certain model of neoliberalism. EU officials also don’t like US subsidies for US EVs, and are making noises about taking action against the US.

            https://www.export.org.uk/news/621788/EU-calls-out-US-for-protectionist-treatment-of-electric-vehicles-.htm
         2. John November 2, 2022 at 10:19 am

            Stop! Else I blow my head off you bully.
            1. redleg November 2, 2022 at 8:36 pm

               Like Blazing Saddles.

               “He desperate! Do what he saaaayyy!”

               Except Rock Ridge is Europe.
         3. Mikel November 2, 2022 at 12:26 pm

            Is he taking Borrell with him to give China some “gardening” tips?
   2. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 2, 2022 at 8:52 am

      It’s up here at NC. It’s a disservice to readers to fragment comments across two posts. Hudson specifically asked me to run it, so commenting here is also a disservice to him since he likes to interact with NC readers.

      Please go to the Hudson post here for further discussion. And please be more attentive in the future.
   3. Michael Hudson November 2, 2022 at 9:52 am

      Thanks for asking. I just got the page proofs for Collapse of Antiquity. My indexer is now loading up the index, which will take a week. Then, the whole text has to be prepared. We’re working on the cover. I’ll probably publish it in the first week of January, so it will have a 2023 copyright (libraries and reviewers don’t like “last year’s books.”
      I’m already working on the 3rd volume — which is why I was writing about the Crusades along with US policy
      1. Tom Stone November 2, 2022 at 10:21 am

         If you can get Frazetta to do the Cover art you will at least double your sales…
         1. ambrit November 2, 2022 at 7:56 pm

            Seeing as Frazetta died in 2010, getting him to do the cover will be an act of legitimate magick. Somehow, a Year of Jubilee coming up, that might not be too far fetched.
            As the Middle Eastern occultist and art critic AlHazred said: “And with strange aeons, even death may die.”
            So, there is Hope! (The Change part has been on backorder for some time now. Supply chain issues, no doubt.)
      2. Rodeo Clownfish November 2, 2022 at 10:31 am

         Dr. Hudson – are there any audiobook versions of your books? If so, where can they be found?
5. griffen November 2, 2022 at 8:04 am

   Sell stocks, buy a rare edition of the US Constitution? It is a good thought to review and make adjustments at least annually, by the bye. Or in the case of stocks, buy at the highs and sell at the lows and long term losses are locked in. \sarc

   I’ll be searching for free bills and also the couch cushions for loose change. Might still be light by ~ $29.999 million.
   1. Michael Ismoe November 2, 2022 at 11:42 am

      That’s OK. The owners broke that Constitution a while ago. It doesn’t appear to work anymore. I believe our overlords are preparing a replacement as we speak.
      1. griffen November 2, 2022 at 1:48 pm

         I’ve watched a few of the Purge movies in that film series, and even a portion of the TV series which premiered in recent years on USA network or maybe somewhere else. It’s not a good version of the future, but as often quoted here the Jackpot will not be fairly distributed.
   2. A Wells November 2, 2022 at 12:21 pm

      You can buy much better fiction for a lot less money. I believe it is called hedonic adjustment.
   3. Wukchumni November 2, 2022 at 1:55 pm

      $30 million seems like a lot of money for a historic relic.

      I’m always amazed @ what these things fetch, but then again the only thing I collect is memories.
   4. lyman alpha blob November 2, 2022 at 3:05 pm

      RE: Seems awful cheap

      To be fair, politicians have been wiping their asses with it for over 200 years so it’s no longer in pristine condition.
      1. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 8:35 pm

         Even George Bush said that it was nothing more than a goddamn piece of paper.
      2. Late Introvert November 2, 2022 at 8:51 pm

         There’s a mess of Cheney and Bush poo, but Obama’s just doesn’t stink. Sorry (hide under chair emoji).
6. Anders K November 2, 2022 at 8:06 am

   Perhaps – extremely charitable interpretation – Ukraine needs financial infrastructure assistance, which is probably true. Credit/debit card payment nodes that use batteries and Starlink to send batched payments every now and then, to avoid the issues of having to get physical cash in people’s hands? Easy way to get money into the hands of people that need it for paying for every day things too. Getting the goods in the shops to pay for is of course the next problem.

   Probably not what was intended, though. I fully expect that it’s going to be another Afghanistan situation, where the money will flow as long as the destination is military in nature, but when – if – it goes from war to some sort of peace, the money will stop.
   Feels sad that nation building is no longer the objective; I think that Germany and Japan shows that there are advantages for everyone in the long run.
   1. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 2, 2022 at 9:02 am

      Have you lost your mind? Do you have the foggiest idea of how many transactions banks handle in a day? They need to use mainframes! That’s how much computing power it takes.

      Banks also run large intra-day balances with each other and then settle out at the end of the day. That is also impossible with long power outages.
      1. Bsn November 2, 2022 at 11:06 am

         I remember closing out at the credit union before computers, just using a 10 key pad. Had to balance to the penny. A penny off, can’t go home. We’d practice to get good and fast by copying long lists of numbers using the telephone book – remember those?
         1. cfraenkel November 2, 2022 at 12:59 pm

            Now do that 100,000 (at least) times before you can go home, which would be the volume at a central clearing bank. Not possible.
            (without central mainframe / db, which was Yves point)
         2. Anthony G Stegman November 2, 2022 at 3:16 pm

            I still get my neighborhood Yellow Pages delivered to my door each year. I keep the latest one (for old times sake) and put the prior year in the recycle bin.
      2. hunkerdown November 2, 2022 at 11:13 am

         If the clearinghouses are outside of Ukraine, as seems likely and prudent under the circumstances, how transactions get there from the last-mile doesn’t matter quite as much. Under signal constraints, offline/batch operations would seem straightforward and reasonable, especially if “a little scamming, as a treat” isn’t not part of the plan.
         1. cfraenkel November 2, 2022 at 1:02 pm

            If the power is down, how do the transactions get sent to the clearinghouse?
            Plus, if the comm links are spotty, the clearing needs to wait until the last batch of transactions get there.
            Maybe that’s the plan. Can you just imagine the check kiting opportunities when balances don’t get updated for 24+ hrs?
         2. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 3, 2022 at 12:35 am

            Huh? Ukraine has its own currency. The overwhelming majority of hyrvnia transactions will be in Ukraine. The only parties that will be willing to run large intraday balances will be entities ultimately backstopped by Ukraine’s central bank. That means any settlement entity similarly needs to be regulated by Ukraine’s central bank. That means in Ukraine, subject to Ukraine law.

            In addition, Ukraine has imposed capital controls to try to prevent capital flight in light of the accelerating collapse of the currency. No foreign bank is willing to be stuck with more than trivial hyrvnia balances in these circumstances.
      3. Revenant November 2, 2022 at 6:16 pm

         Ireland ran without banking services for weeks during strikes of the (60’s and?) 70’s. Credit was largely intermediated by local publicans acting as (i) a sump of cash in the local economy and able to reissue it and (ii) discount houses, accepting endorsed cheques, I.e. the original payee would endorse them in favour of a third party, because they knew which of their regulars was creditworthy.

         If the Ukraine still has a functioning society, it can have a functioning banking system. Money is a social relation!
         1. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 3, 2022 at 12:39 am

            Oh, come on. People then had paper-only records and stores often regularly extended credit to customers, as in they billed you monthly. Rolling the clock back that far in the conduct of commerce is like asking doctors to do surgery without anesthesia. It can be done but no one, and I mean no one, will be willing

            You also forget that Ukraine is in the midst of collapse and will see its people emigrating en masse. Plus it’s a massively corrupt society, so the trust needed would not be there even in more normal times.
   2. Gregorio November 2, 2022 at 6:10 pm

      When are we gonna start shipping them pallets of hundred dollar bills?
      1. barefoot charley November 3, 2022 at 5:57 am

         When will we stop?
7. zagonostra November 2, 2022 at 8:11 am

   >Twitter’s new boss is same as the old boss

   I see Scott Ritter’s account is suspended.
   1. zagonostra November 2, 2022 at 8:27 am

      Is confirmation bias always a bad thing?

      From Glenn Greenwald:

      This regime of censorship is anything but arbitrary. Its core function is to shield propaganda that emanates from ruling class centers of power from critique, challenge and opposition. It is designed to ensure that Western populations hear only the assertions and proclamations of state and corporate elites, while their adversaries and critics are at best marginalized (with warnings labels and other indicia of discredit) or banned outright

      https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-consortium-imposing-the-growing

      From Caitlin Johnstone:

      DHS and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the FBI, to push massive online platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to censor content in order to suppress “threats” as broad as fomenting distrust in the US government and US financial institutions.

      https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/11/01/destroying-western-values-to-defend-western-values/
      1. griffen November 2, 2022 at 10:37 am

         I enjoyed the Greenwald piece last week and have it saved for future sharing. It is a worthwhile long form read.

         It’s like every living day we are being entertained by a litany of performative mass media news sources on a stage, and no questions will be encouraged or even permitted.
8. jsn November 2, 2022 at 8:26 am

   “Black holes can behave like quantum particles”, goes to FT. Correct link, I think: https://www.space.com/black-holes-have-quantum-properties-study
9. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 8:31 am

   “PayPal Records Its Slowest Percentage Growth in User Accounts Since 2010 at 6.5% ”

   That’s nothing. Once PayPal starts using its wildly unpopular policy of fining users $2,500 every time they believes that customers violates their terms of service with transgressions as vague as publishing ‘harmful, obscene, harassing or objectionable’ messages, PayPal won’t be growing at all but will be heading into negative territory.
   1. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 2, 2022 at 8:59 am

      You’d be surprised. A lot of payments processors won’t take small sites. We were rejected by one and I don’t consider us to be that small.
      1. Dave in Austin November 2, 2022 at 11:02 am

         Are you allowed to mention what payment processors are good for small sites?
         1. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 2, 2022 at 9:06 pm

            I had a long conversation with banking and payment systems expert Clive. There are no good remedies. The one that as he put it engages in “honest grift” by charging only a markup over credit card/interchange fees is the one that rejected me. The alternative is a merchant account, which imposes administrative burdens on me. I need to handle issues promptly, which means it would interfere with posting.
10. Michaelmas November 2, 2022 at 8:36 am

    Oh boy. Just a week away from the US Nov. 2-22 elections, the NYT has just vomited up a new, more hardcore, novella length of ‘Russiagate,’ to tell the sheeple that it was Putin behind Trump because Ukraine.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/magazine/russiagate-paul-manafort-ukraine-war.html
    
    ‘The Untold Story of ‘Russiagate’ and the Road to War in Ukraine: Russia’s meddling in Trump-era politics was more directly connected to the current war than previously understood.’

    The NYT has doubled down on all the original Russigate riffs, despite the fact that Trump is now probably the most investigated individual in US history. The Republicans are evil commie traitors! Hillary for 2024!
    1. BrianH November 2, 2022 at 9:05 am

       It’s an extensive piece of propaganda, interspersed with helpful update links describing how Ukraine is winning.
       This nearly made me lose my breakfast:

       “Shortly after the appointed hour, Kilimnik walked onto a perfectly put-up stage set for a caricature drama of furtive figures hatching covert schemes with questionable intent — a dark-lit cigar bar with mahogany-paneled walls and floor-to-ceiling windows columned in thick velvet drapes, its leather club chairs typically filled by large men with open collars sipping Scotch and drawing on parejos and figurados. Men, that is, like Paul Manafort, with his dyed-black pompadour and penchant for pinstripes. There, with the skyline shimmering though the cigar-smoke haze, Kilimnik shared a secret plan whose significance would only become clear six years later, as Vladimir V. Putin’s invading Russian Army pushed into Ukraine.”

       Quite obviously an appeal for a book deal by this “journalist.”
       1. JohnA November 2, 2022 at 9:13 am

          All the while stroking a white cat on his lap. Dont forget the Guardian ‘scoop’ of Manafort secretly visiting Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the most under surveillance building in Knightsbridge at the time.
          1. Mark Gisleson November 2, 2022 at 9:41 am

             I was gut-punched by the mendacity of the first graf, began skimming and was astonished at how omnicient the narration was. Rutenberg just peels away Putin’s skull and examines the inner motives with God-like insights.

             Nothing here resembles journalism. Everything is in play, all the past lies are revealed to have been truthy beyond our ken. This is alt-history and should go into the alt-garbage bin.
             1. Tom Stone November 2, 2022 at 10:44 am

                That’s ” The Memo” from an official organ of the State, the NY Times.
                Make fun of it if you like, but also consider the implications.
                That’s the line and the message has been loud and clear, “Get in line or pay the price”.
                Quite a few have already paid a price, Murray, Assange and Snowden and many others.
                Yes it’s an insulting pack of lies uttered by a vacuosly corrupt Courtier and THAT is also part of the message.
    2. fresno dan November 2, 2022 at 9:48 am

       Michaelmas
       I don’t have a NYT subscription, but seeing the Times’ disinformation would only raise my blood pressure as well as deplete my allowance devoted to subscriptions.
       You know, this reminds me of the post by Hudson where Hudson talks about AD 1300 and the battle between the Papacy and German kings. An important part of that was what people believed – whether you call it ideology, propaganda, or faith and the adherents who spread the “belief.” It seems to me a good portion of our media are NO LONGER SECULAR – they are proselytizers of a religious belief that Trump is the devil. Belief comes before the superficial things that an ordinary human can see. That faith is paramont, and truth, facts, reality are all secondary to what they know to be the transcendant TRUTH. Strangely, or actually logically, reminding people of the evils of the devil is the most important thing they do, because the devil, with his guile and sexy ginger hair, is always waiting to tempt people away from that shining city on a hill, because the devil promises lower gas prices, instead of helping the noble people of Ukraine…
       In news you can use, if you are getting fatter, the latest settled scientific research proves its Trump’s fault…
       1. wol November 2, 2022 at 10:37 am

          A relation between TDS and a recent comment and youtube link (by semper loquator? pardon my spelling) about the Satanic Panic of the 1980s made me resolved to be more like the Tao’s

          ‘Alert, as if afraid of the neighbors
          polite and quiet, like houseguests’

          in my PMC neighborhood. I’m already side-eyed for removing a We Believe yard sign placed by an assuming neighbor. I remarked to my wife that the scariest Halloween costume I could imagine would be a pussyhat.
          1. semper loquitur November 2, 2022 at 11:30 am

             Here it is again, well worth a watch:

             https://youtu.be/NgmPQGWn8pI
             1. Percy41 November 2, 2022 at 6:44 pm

                New to me for the most part. At the time it was happening here last century, it passed me by, dismissed as sorry nut stuff I didn’t need to read. Still seems that way, I’m afraid. And does not to my mind get to the mainspring of recurring mass lunacy.
                1. semper loquitur November 2, 2022 at 10:35 pm

                   Good to know.
    3. hunkerdown November 2, 2022 at 11:14 am

       The 1916 Project
       1. semper loquitur November 2, 2022 at 11:31 am

          Takedown by Jacobin:

          https://youtu.be/qhxUWJdvEtM
          1. hunkerdown November 2, 2022 at 11:55 am

             No, it’s a the-year-before-the-Absolute-Evil-arrived joke. Instead of the Mayflower landing it’s the Marxist-Leninist landing.
             1. semper loquitur November 2, 2022 at 1:49 pm

                Well it’s still a great video! 😬
    4. Jason Boxman November 2, 2022 at 11:34 am

       I just saw this & I’m glad someone posted it. Phone claims that it is 26 minutes! of reading or whatever. Fully embraced ‘Russiagate’ as a term as well.

       These people are insane.
11. Lexx November 2, 2022 at 8:56 am

    ‘ROKR puzzles’

    We liked the steampunk series. I have the steampunk robot music box on the counter now while I apply a black gel stain to all those little pieces. Tedious but worth it.

    https://rokrpuzzles.com/
    1. britzklieg November 2, 2022 at 9:27 am

       excellent!
    2. square coats November 3, 2022 at 12:34 am

       I recently tediously applied several shades of blue stain to the owl storage box! :)
    3. Basil Pesto November 3, 2022 at 6:00 am

       My brother bought me a similar model as a gift a few years ago which is still by my couch awaiting assembly, a different brand though. It comes from, of all places, Ukraine! Mine is apparently some kind of vintage-looking tanker truck
12. fresno dan November 2, 2022 at 9:16 am

    https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2022/11/01/chait-progressives-need-to-overcome-the-fear-of-standing-up-to-the-woke-mob-n507426
    The link has an excerpt from the Washington Post reporter Eric Wemple. I don’t suscribe to the WP so I didn’t see this at the time, but it is just another example of what really drives what doesn’t get reported or said in the modern media

    It’s also long past time to ask why more people who claim to uphold journalism and free expression — including, um, the Erik Wemple Blog — didn’t speak out then in Bennet’s defense.
    It’s because we were afraid to…
    Our criticism of the Twitter outburst comes 875 days too late. Although the hollowness of the internal uproar against Bennet was immediately apparent, we responded with an evenhanded critique of the Times’s flip-flop, not the unapologetic defense of journalism that the situation required. Our posture was one of cowardice and midcareer risk management. With that, we pile one more regret onto a controversy littered with them.
    ==================================================
    Maybe a day late (or more accurately, 875 days…) and a dollar short. OR better late than never. And perhaps a realization that FACTS should be first and foremost the most important aspect of the “news” not “analysis” which generally seems to mean ignoring inconvenient facts. Or maybe this is all just a marketing ploy by Bezos…
    1. Left in Wisconsin November 2, 2022 at 3:01 pm

       Thanks for posting that link. There is a line toward the end that really explains a lot regarding (what I find confusing about) the current moment:

       If the country is beset by a looming right-wing authoritarianism that people eagerly denounce every day and by a creeping left-wing authoritarianism that most people are afraid to mention for fear of punishment and lasting consequences, guess which one is the greater threat. It’s the one we’re afraid to talk about.

       I personally disagree with this claim – I think the substance of the authoritarianism is more important than the discourse (or absence of discourse), not to mention the fact that lamentations about cancel culture are everywhere on the right, suggesting a fake “we” in that quote – but it is certainly a valid opinion and I think it gets at what many ordinary people find reprehensible about the Dems: the unwillingness to respectfully engage, or really to engage at all, with opposing viewpoints. I personally don’t think many Repubs do much in the way of respectful engagement with opposing viewpoints either, but the Repubs have a much better political operation, so ordinary people are I think more aware of Dem malfeasance in this regard.
       1. JBird4049 November 2, 2022 at 6:13 pm

          Respectfully, I must disagree with the disagreement. :-)

          My family, while not active, was on the fringes of the Civil Rights Movement, New Left and the Free Speech Movement; I grew up surrounded by leftists and liberals who anti-war, anti-government, pro-peace, with some of them being socialist or communists with much of this ethos also assumed by the Christian fundamentalists who were friends of mine. Further, my family had some fun with J. Edgar Hoover’s agents.

          I grew up breathing this all in, in time were it was assumed that being liberal, certainly an American liberal, and probably an American leftist, likely meant being almost rabidly pro free speech. Civil rights would have been considered sacred in secular manner of course. And much of this would have been a part of some of the conservatives as well. But then, American politics was much more complex wasn’t?

          Today, we live in a time when every single one of my family, their friends, and likely by friends would be considered anathema by both the “left” of the current Democratic Party and the by the Republican Party including the socially conservative fundamentalists I knew. Every single one.

          When I go to class now, I have to be be… careful in what I say, especially in certain classes with certain teachers. I notice a certain tension, fear perhaps, that floats about that was not there decades ago although no one is there actively looking to chastise or denounce. A public college in the San Francisco Bay Area, mind you. An extremely Blue part of a very Blue state where the Free Speech Movement started at UC Berkeley.

          It is not like I will be disappeared in the Nacht und Nebel, to be Godwin’s law about it, but the impulse towards this seems to be growing among almost all of what consist of the American “liberals” and “conservatives.” I use quotation marks because I am not sure what to call these people who claim to be such but the words fanatical and reactionary, maybe insane, seem to fit although that is now the whole of it; the Overton Window has been sifted so far to the Right with the acceptable discourse so limited as to have no connection to what existed in the past. It has become almost impossible to have intelligent conversations on politics and ideology because the words, the grammar, have been so distorted and corrupted, deliberately to prevent this from happening. Minitrue would be proud. Maybe it is. Old school leftists, liberals, and conservatives as well would have no place today, and would likely have been vilified across the acceptable political spectrum.

          Fear has and continues to destroy us. The desire for control, to make us all “safe” whatever that would be nowadays, has created both the militarized police state with its growing censorship as well as society’s self imposed censorship and thought control of the past. The 1920s and the 1950s are good past examples of this.

          It is not that people are evil, or want to hurt others, but that the fear imposed, the censorship created, and the political and social repression is making us stupid or crazed by this. Whoever takes control in the next 2-4 years will likely impose true official censorship with some form of beefed up police and/or military presence. This is not guaranteed to happen, but I do believe that the impulse will grow along with the attempt, probably successfully, to create even more terrorized docility especially with the blow back due to the Covid insanity, and the likely economic depression, even collapse, that will come from the current wars against Russia and the shadow one on China along with the collapsing British and European economies.

          The more people suffer, and then because of this, actually see and push back, the greater the repression from the elites on down; the greater the demand of fealty to their version of the Truth, no matter how whacked and disjointed from reality it might be, which will mean more thought control and censorship. The Ministry of Truth or Minitrue, will gain in size, reach, and power. So, you are hungry? So what? Slava Ukraini!

          To sum it up, the current political parties are more like the several factions in the Uniparty of the socially unhinged Democratic Professional Elites and Republican “conservatives” being formed in opposition to the Trumpist faction along with smaller groups trying to form coalitions either with each other or with the larger Uniparty; there is no truly separate Republican and Democratic Parties, but there are factions that overlay them using the names and the quasi separate organizations as both cover and tools; all these groups will attempt to have even greater control the narrative during this struggle, and I believe the censorship will become even more organized and efficient, using not only their government powers, but their social networks as well both online and in the Real.

          (The heads of the parties, the elites, are more closely combined into the Squid, while the arms and their mini brains are still separated so it is hard to see.)
          1. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 9:02 pm

             When you talk about the way that language has been altered making understanding difficult. Remember this annex? It was not suppose to be an instruction manual-

             https://orwell.ru/library/novels/1984/english/en_app
          2. Anne Hutchinson November 2, 2022 at 9:51 pm

             Yes, the so-called left has stripped “resource extraction” from the condition of “oppression” and has conflated exploitation, discrimination and disadvantage into one over-arching power relation of “privilege” vs “non-privilege” and thereby turned a politics centered around ending oppression into a kaleidoscope of shifting positionality in which every single individual is, in some situations, an oppressor. It has even invented axes of oppression out of whole cloth. Somehow, I as a female am an oppressor of a male on the axis of gender. While on the axis of sex, that same male is an oppressor of me. Even though there is no legal, political or economic structure that embeds “resource extraction” on the basis of gender, while there most definitely is on the basis of sex, and even though old-school leftism didn’t talk about oppression as an interpersonal relationship but as an economic one in which a person is in some way an “owner” and the other is not.

             In this shifting kaleidoscope of positionality every single individual faces, in some situations, attack. Even thin people are now the oppressors of overweight people. Though overweight people may face disadvantage and discrimination, there is no political, legal or economic structure that embeds resource extraction specifically from the overweight.

             This so-called left has upended Marx’s reversal of Hegel in which politics are grounded in materialism rather than idealism and now places subjectivity before material reality.

             Therefore when the individual faces attack as oppressor, the appropriate political act is NOT to look beyond the individual to the legal, political and economic structures that uphold exploitation, but instead to apologize for hurting feelings, for “being bad,” and to promise to “do better.” Though that doing can never be done enough. The entire premise behind cancellation is that the individual must be “disappeared.”

             Since humans are flawed and will always make mistakes, however mistakes are defined, every single person will at some point “be bad.” Note the shift from “doing” to “being,” with the requisite “doing” better made an impossible goal, such that the “being” of badness can never be purged from oneself.

             Though the effects on wealthy and famed individuals are the ones that get scoffed at, it is the effect on the non-wealthy and non-famous that matters.

             Try working in the arts and being an old-school leftist of the materialist variety, one who understands fought against class-based exploitation.

             It’s like living with duct-tape wrapped completely around your face. Because not to do so would be to be named a heretic and exiled to some colony even further away and smaller than Rhode Island.
             1. semper loquitur November 2, 2022 at 10:09 pm

                Thank you for this excellent comment!
13. Pavel November 2, 2022 at 9:28 am

    Re: the Pelosi home invasion & attack:

    So a day or two after the incident a top SFPD official gave a brief press conference with even briefer Q&A, which I listened to.

    One of the first questions was: “Who opened the door to the police?”

    A: “We don’t know yet.” [paraphrasing]

    Well, I’m no Sherlock Holmes (or perhaps more aptly, Lt Columbo), but given that SFPD police were there, with bodycams, and absent the “Third Man” being present, surely they could distinguish between the 82 y.o. Paul Pelosi and his mid-40s bearded assailant?

    If there were a in fact third person present, the bodycams should clear that up as well.

    How on earth is that response credible? Isn’t this a basic part of the narrative? Didn’t they interview the officers who responded?

    As for the FBI stepping in and issuing a report, they also have zero credibility IMO. I just saw that they are requesting 66 years to produce the records from Seth Rich’s laptop — which they initially denied having possession of. They all lie!
    1. Acacia November 2, 2022 at 9:44 am

       Sounds like they DO know who opened the door to the police but they simply don’t want to say.

       Although the Santa Monica Observer article about this incident was basically speculation, their claim that DePape was a male escort brought home by Pelosi and there wasn’t actually a break in strikes me as the most credible explanation thus far.

       Like the FBI, Law Enforcement is notorious for making sh*t up, so I take their statements with a grain of salt.
       1. ArvidMartensen November 3, 2022 at 12:09 am

          This is not the first time that a losing political party has suddenly been “attacked” by someone they can tar as a monster from the opposition.
          And just before voting. Oh my. How terrible! Oh the poor man! I feel so sorry for him I’ll go and vote.
          All you need is a mentally unwell/unstable man, maybe someone to provide some drugs or booze or some crazymaking words of encouragement, and someone to open doors etc..
          And yeah, the guards were asleep, they got lost on the way, this was their night off, their mom had a surprise birthday party for them etc etc etc.
          Then the FBI came in, hosed down the place, magically found “evidence”, shut up and ignored or threatened the real witnesses.
          And then a high profile somebody started tweeting the “narrative” all over the media.
          Spookcraft 101.
    2. fresno dan November 2, 2022 at 10:06 am

       Pavel
       supposedly this is the Pelosi glass back door, and this supposedly shows that glass is OUTSIDE – which could mean the door was broken from the INSIDE. There is a bunch of comments on reddit and twitter about “backsplash” from breaking a window as well. Now, I happen to think that someone breaking a window from the outside could, after the initial break, take a hammer or whatever they used to break the glass, and move it around inside the initial hole to widen the hole in the glass, and some of that glass could fall out. We’ll see (or maybe not).
       https://twitter.com/RyanKPIX/status/1586032006864904192
       1. fresno dan November 2, 2022 at 12:12 pm

          https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/11/02/wapo-wonders-why-did-the-capitol-police-bungle-pelosis-security-n507489
          How did an intruder make his way undetected to the home of the House speaker long enough to break into it and attack her husband? The Capitol police provide security for Congress and especially for its leadership, including Nancy Pelosi’s home, which is covered by real-time, 24/7 surveillance. And in this case, the CPD’s cameras actually caught the intruder coming onto the property and breaking into the house.
          …
          Apparently, the first notice of something amiss at the Pelosi house picked up by surveillance is when they saw police lights flashing on the cameras. They had to roll back the video to discover that the assailant could be clearly seen on their cameras approaching and then breaking into the Pelosis’ home. Oof.
          ==========================================
          Well, considering Hot Air is a conservative site, I would believe their contention about the source of the video and that the video is authentic, as they would be most willing to believe that the male Pelosi picked up was a…friend at a bar… and not believe that it was an authetic break in.
          If one reads the entire article, the real problem with the failure is one of competence, and not partisianship. Democrats were in charge of the resources for monitoring of the cameras surveilling Nancy’s house – if one was watching, that is really on Nancy…
          1. Katniss Everdeen November 2, 2022 at 1:48 pm

             wapo “reporting.” Let’s see the video. Let’s see ALL the videos.
    3. Katniss Everdeen November 2, 2022 at 10:13 am

       A: “We don’t know yet.” [paraphrasing]

       This is the response because the most likely answer is “No one.”

       To believe that either pelosi or depape let the cops in, is to believe that the cops then watched the two of them resume their struggling with the hammer, intervening only after pelosi got his head bashed in. I’m no Sherlock Holmes either, but that makes zero sense.

       Given the few “facts” on offer, the most likely explanation is that the cops broke the glass to get into the house when no one answered the (probably locked) door, and ended the struggle as soon as they encountered it.

       This is not inconsistent with depape’s plan to knee-cap nancy. paul pelosi’s mug shot was everywhere after his DUI arrest, so anyone who didn’t know who he was before, knew after the arrest. It’s entirely possible that depape was trolling pelosi that night while pelosi was “innocently” trolling gay hustlers, in order to get into the pelosi house without breaking in to execute his kidnap plan.

       Under the circumstances, there’s really no way to explain what happened if either pelosi or depape actually opened the door, IMHO, but obviously bodycams would show what really happened.
       1. trogg November 2, 2022 at 5:24 pm

          Well what’s the scandal? Does anyone on here really care if the Speaker’s husband is paying for sex with men?

          Incidentally, I think a lot of the confusion here could be the result of semi-literate police writing reports, reporters rushing to get out copy without the benefit of copy editors who have been laid off, and people giving briefings who weren’t properly briefed themselves. This is America after all!
    4. Maxwell Johnston November 2, 2022 at 1:26 pm

       Hilariously enough, it appears that both Depape and his (taking a deep breath) wife/ex/partner/friend/mutual parent Gypsy Taub are immigrants: Depape from Canada (possibly an illegal, not clear if he’s a USA citizen), and Taub from (drumroll) Russia! You can’t make this stuff up:

       https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy_Taub
       1. Wukchumni November 2, 2022 at 1:33 pm

          I wonder if they are Doukhobors, a Russian religious sect shuttled off to Canada in the late 19th century, whose main form of protest is en masse in the buff…

          The Sons of Freedom used nudism and arson as visible methods of protest.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doukhobors
          1. Wukchumni November 2, 2022 at 7:37 pm

             Do as the Doukhobors Do, by Pete Seeger

             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHs4uAwgRrs
14. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 9:29 am

    “West accused of double standards over oil and gas exploration in DRC”

    Actually you do not need to go all the way to the Congo to see this type of double standard by the west but Europe will do. So the Chinese built a coal-powered electricity plant in Serbia because obviously the Serbs can see a dark moon rising energy-wise. But then this mob called the Just Finance International portal crawled out from under a rock and said-

    ‘If the Chinese-backed coal Kostolac B3 power plant is allowed to come online it will be a serious blow to the climate, as well as Serbia’s commitment to become carbon neutral by 2050’

    They go on about investments in renewable energy, phasing out fossil energy sources and ramping up air quality plans which might be realistic next decade but the Serbs need that energy now. So perhaps it is the Chinese being involved that has got their knickers in a twist? Thing is, they are complaining about air pollution but we all know that this winter Europe will be blanketed with a thick layer of smog as people burn coal, wood, rubbish and whatever else they can to try to stay warm this winter but I doubt that they are criticizing this.

    https://rs.n1info.com/english/news/just-finance-international-warning-about-new-serbian-power-plant/
    1. fresno dan November 2, 2022 at 10:29 am

       RK
       I was thinking about your post, and how basically EVERYTHING is kabuki and not as it seems. And just as I had to reassess my belief (not based on anything other than growing up in the 60’s) that the dems were more interested in peace and co-existence than repubs, and that now of course I understand that is total nonsense. So also the idea that the repubs are totally in the pocket of the oil and gas industries. Kind of hard to reconcile that with a dem administration that sabotaged directly or indirectly Nord stream, obviously for the benefit of the US oil and gas industry.
       And it makes me wonder – why is there such a ruse to maintain the facade that the dems are “liberal” when in fact that dems out republican the republicans? Puting on my tinfoil hat, it can only be that they are in cahoots to maintain the 2 party system, and the illusion of choice… so that the status quo remains the status quo…
       1. c_heale November 2, 2022 at 10:34 pm

          Something else which may or may not be related. When Just Stop Oil started its policy of attacking artworks, I thought I’d look to see who was funding them. I couldn’t find any information on their websites. I guess it’s the oil companies, since their actions are so counterproductive. And Just Finance International. Who is funding them. My guess is the Deep State.
15. t November 2, 2022 at 10:08 am

    There are some ads that appear to be encouraging voting – maybe??? Giving links so you can see how many people with your last name or how many people in your zip code voted. Had not run across this before. The URLs don’t look fishy but I have clicked through. Has anyone?
16. semper loquitur November 2, 2022 at 10:09 am

    “She would only start pursuing a career in mathematics as a result of politics and circumstance. In the Soviet Union, any humanities education would inevitably be too enmeshed with Communist ideology. (Even biology and agricultural science were subject to this corruption, with tragic results.) Mathematics seemed blissfully free of that.”

    Wow, so the Soviet Union was one up on us there:

    https://www.knoxfocus.com/archives/this-weeks-focus/woke-math-invades-the-schools/
    1. hunkerdown November 2, 2022 at 10:23 am

       Sure, Lysenkoism was a mistake, but Anglo-American elementary-level math pervasively conveys the ideology of “having”, symbolically rewarding the learner for making correct claims of possession. As usual, Puritans externalize their own guilt in order to symbolically flagellate themselves for it.
17. Carolinian November 2, 2022 at 10:10 am

    This is unbelievable. Dems like Clinton and Warren are urging Europe to censor American speech or rather to require Musk and Twitter to do so.

    https://jonathanturley.org/2022/11/02/eu-moves-against-twitter-to-block-free-speech-protections-after-calls-from-clinton-and-other-democratic-leaders/

    So we destroy their economy (with their cooperation) and they destroy our freedom (with Dem cooperation)? It’s honestly time for these lunatic politicians to receive a huge rebuke. Maybe next week?
    1. fresno dan November 2, 2022 at 10:40 am

       Carolinian
       This is unbelievable
       IT SHOULD BE. But really, it is now the tenets of the dem religion. As I’ve said before, we are rapidly losing the precepts and principles of a SECULAR society. Although dems, the woke, whatever you want to call the proponents, all too many ideas, observations, and simple statements of fact are deemed SACRALEGIOUS. They cannot be debated, indeed, not even acknowledged, because they are of the devil. And no God fearing democrat can utter them, lest they be excommunicated…
       1. Left in Wisconsin November 2, 2022 at 3:14 pm

          Well, having relocated within flyover to a semi-rural, semi-resort-y area from woke central, I can tell you that there are (at least) two completely different Democrat(ic) Parties, and your claim only applies to one of them. In Madison (ironically a university town), the absence of open discourse is patently clear. But here in off-the-beaten-path flyover, the local Dems I have met (all volunteers) are earnest, open, extremely nonjudgmental and also vastly outgunned by the other side. All our electeds are Repubs – mostly of the stupid, ideological types the Kochs prefer but increasingly of the unhinged, evangelical, home-school type that is ousting the former in primaries or non-partisan elections (for local office) – and there is virtually no public anti-Repub discourse despite the Dems routinely getting 35-40% of the vote in most elections. In Madison I was resolutely 3rd party but here there are no 3rd parties and the only decent candidates for public office are Dems.
    2. Dr. John Carpenter November 2, 2022 at 10:50 am

       I wish it was unbelievable, but this is what they’ve all been angling towards for quite some time.
       1. Screwball November 2, 2022 at 1:16 pm

          They are fighting to protect our democracy and the rise of fascism.

          @Carolinian – Maybe next week? That’s my plan.
          1. Dr. John Carpenter November 2, 2022 at 2:00 pm

             In order to fight the fascists, they have to become the fascists?
             1. Screwball November 2, 2022 at 3:58 pm

                As far as I’m concerned, they already are.
    3. spud November 2, 2022 at 10:59 pm

       Carolinian, to got to the frauds in academia who supported the policies of the fascists in WWII, and to get to the fascists that infiltrated medicine, finance, and industry etc., required the arrest, interrogation, and imprisonment or hanging what was left of the leadership of the fascist countries.

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

       russia is showing us the way. to change the future, you must address the past, and expose the traitors for what they are, and what they did.

       certainly the people who are in that article, fit the bill.
18. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 10:27 am

    ‘Massive protests are ongoing in South Korea, demanding the end of right-wing President Yoon Suk-yeol’s tenure and the U.S.-South Korea-Japan war exercises.’

    Never thought about it but it may be that how the Ukraine is being thrown under the bus is being seen as a salutary warning about being put in the same position around the world. Take a look at South Korea here. Usually the US schedules military exercises at the same time that North Korea needs to bring in their crops which causes them all sorts of problems. And considering the fact that North Korea has a paranoid leadership, it does not help matters when it is announced that the purpose of these exercises is to perform ‘decapitation strikes’ and to invade North Korea itself. But I just saw that the US has said that they will never accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state. On the other hand, if the North Koreans give up their nukes they know that they will be attacked militarily. John Bolton came out and said that this was the plan based on the Libya model.

    Point is that if war breaks out, that it will be both Korean nations that will suffer catastrophic damage with deaths likely in the hundreds if thousands. And if nukes are used, then all bets are off. So understanding this and seeing what is happening with the Ukraine, that they do not want it to go so far. Peace is always a possibility or at least a live and let live approach but not if there is a threat of war always in the background. In short, we may see more and more of these demonstrations as nobody wants to be the next Ukraine-

    https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/us-will-never-accept-north-korea-as-a-nuclear-weapons-state/
    1. fresno dan November 2, 2022 at 10:47 am

       RK
       But I just saw that the US has said that they will never accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.
       NEWSFLASH: I don’t know about acceptance, but NK IS nuclear armed…
       Who said speak softly and carry NUCLEAR bombs??? Or was it test long range nuclear missiles and bet your a$$ that if you hit our country we are taking you with us. Well, it was somebody…
    2. hk November 2, 2022 at 10:53 am

       That’s a rather misleading headline at best.

       The focal point of most news in South Korea has been the Halloween stampede that killed 150+ people, which has been sparking loud criticisms of government–and various other “usual suspect” issues are coming out alongside. To emphasize these secondary issues would be akin to claim that massive Western protests in 2003 were demanding that Mumia Abu Jamal be freed while ignoring the war in Iraq.
       1. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 11:01 am

          My reading is that it was a protest against the government that was not only responsible for all those crowd deaths but also for saber-rattling with the North Koreans to please Biden.
          1. Anthony G Stegman November 2, 2022 at 3:32 pm

             I have another take. In East Asia there is a pecking order of sorts. The Japanese have always considered themselves a so-called “master race”, not unlike the Aryans. China was always considered East Asia’s Untermenchen by the Japanese. Now that South Korea has become wealthy they have some Japanese style swagger and so also consider China to be inferior, even as Japan continues to view Korea (North and South) as inferior. The war games that South Korea is participating in with the US and Japan provides South Korea an opportunity to show that they belong with the big boys (even if said big boys would sacrifice Korean lives in a heartbeat). South Korea is caught between a rock and hard place. In any hot war in East Asia the entire Korean peninsula would be largely reduced to rubble.

             Having said all this, let’s not forget what South Korean military forces did in Vietnam. Some of the most horrific atrocities were committed by South Korean forces working side by side with American forces. Perhaps karma truly is a bitch.
    3. ACPAL November 2, 2022 at 7:00 pm

       Kim Jong-un likes being the king with all its perks. There are two certain ways he can lose that and die like Saddam Hussein.

       First, if the US invades NK he will be killed so he might as well go out with a nuclear bang killing Americans, South Koreans, and probably people from many other nations which would then blame the US for their losses. The US knows this and therefore is reluctant to attack NK.

       Second, if for whatever reason Kim launches even one nuke the US will rain down nuclear death on him. He knows this and is therefore reluctant to launch a nuke first. You can’t be king and dead at the same time.

       Therefore we have a stalemate no matter how many missiles are fired into the water, sabers are rattled, or war games are played. Now, if the US starts getting serious about attacking NK then I suggest you duck and cover.
19. t November 2, 2022 at 11:00 am

    Rev, it’s been a sad and bizarre experience watching both the US and UK decay into a sordid form of Corporate despotism.
    When I was 10 years old the voting rights act passed, 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
    I had faith that the USA was making real progress in its efforts to live up to the ideals of the Bill of Rights.
    I was proud to be an American Citizen.
    Ouch.
    1. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 11:03 am

       You wouldn’t believe how much Australia has changed since I was a kid either. In some ways, we are going backwards. Must be true for the Brits too.
       1. Wukchumni November 2, 2022 at 1:59 pm

          My last trip to Aussie was in 1988 so all my memories are shall we say, locked into place. Sometimes its better that way.
    2. Mildred Montana November 2, 2022 at 12:01 pm

       >”…it’s been a sad and bizarre experience watching both the US and UK decay into a sordid form of Corporate despotism.”

       Parallels are never exact, but today’s geopolitics seem eerily reminiscent of the decline and fall of the aristocracies and imperial powers at the turn of the 20th century.

       If indeed major power shifts are in the air, that does not augur well for the next few decades.
20. fresno dan November 2, 2022 at 11:07 am

    speaking of Carolina. I was gonna look something up, but found this.
    https://people.com/crime/north-carolina-boy-finds-gun-kills-self-father-charged/
    A North Carolina toddler found a gun in his dad’s truck and shot himself, and now the father faces criminal charges.
    Investigators say they arrived at the scene in rural Johnston County to find the boy with a gunshot wound. Warren Bennett Oser, 2, was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
    ——————————————————
    Of course, that is so common its not worth commenting on, but right below it, was another article. At first I thought, can’t these reporters get the age straight – I then relealized that it was another child…
    https://abc11.com/toddler-shot-3-year-old-shoots-self-christmas-day-shooting-asheville/11392713/

    and then I scrooled down, and there were many more…
    1. Michael Ismoe November 2, 2022 at 12:05 pm

       Anthony Jeselnik used to tell a story about his parents. “Thet bought the gun to protect their five children. They got rid of the gun to protect their four children.”
21. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 11:08 am

    “Why Didn’t Russia Do This Sooner?”

    So I was listening to the ex-British general doing his bs spiel, probably after being briefed by the 77th Brigade, and then I went off at a tangent again. You know, it will take a few years but there are some things that I really want to know about this war. Sure, things like which countries were involved in blowing up those pipelines but more over-reaching stuff. And the main thing that I want to know is the involvement of the different countries. Sure the US is shipping the Ukraine money by the transport load and tens of thousands of tons of military gear as well as special forces running around on the ground. But I want to know more about the UK. They seem to be involved in things like keeping the war going when a peace deal was near, the operational aspects of the pipeline explosions, the bridge attack and the Sevastopol attack. They seem to be the one at the coal front making things work. Sure you have a lot of Polish and Romanians for example fighting as “mercenaries” along with other countries but it would be interesting to learn who was responsible for what.
22. Brunches with Cats November 2, 2022 at 11:16 am

    Re: Russia rejoining grain deal

    Per Oct. 10 FT article:

    As the date for renewal nears, Kyiv is pushing to expand the agreement to include a fourth port, the large grain export hub of Mykolayiv. Moscow, meanwhile, is pushing for progress on a delayed agreement aimed at exporting Russian ammonia.

    One person familiar with the grain deal dismissed fears that it would not be renewed, arguing that there were incentives for both sides to continue. “Most of us firmly believe that it will be extended,” the person said.

    Among the sources for the story is a guy from Cargill. Note that Cargill, ADM, Bunge, and Louis Dreyfus all stayed in Russia — although they claim to have “scaled back” their operations, whatever that means — as did Bayer, the German company that bought Monsanto, dropped the name for PR reasons, and then launched a new ag startup, in North Carolina IIRC. I haven’t had time to research it, but tell me these guys aren’t playing a major role behind the scenes in Ukraine-Russia negotiations — particularly Cargill, which is private, doesn’t have to answer to shareholders, and has been described by some Western media as “defiant” in its unapologetic refusal to leave Russia. It also happens to own a big chunk of the grain shipping facilities at Odessa (actually in nearby Yuzhnyi) in a joint venture with the Ukraine government.
    1. Brunches with Cats November 2, 2022 at 11:52 am

       Correction, not a joint venture with government, but with a private company, albeit with close ties to Ukr govt, as well as US State Dept — co-owner, who’s also CEO of the parent company, did an internship at USAID. He fled to Poland at the start of the war, reportedly monitored his mansion near Kiev via security cameras, and when he saw Russian forces on his property, called the AFU to bomb them.
       https://www.businessinsider.co.za/ukraine-millionaire-says-asked-military-bomb-mansion-after-russia-occupied-2022-4

       So, this guy’s biz partners with Cargill and personal friends (he says) with Zelensky. As I’ve noted previously, most of the war report links we get are “order of battle” type analyses, oblivious to relationships, influential companies, oligarchs battling for the spoils, etc.
       1. Polar Socialist November 2, 2022 at 11:56 am

          You think it was this dude that gave Putin the written assurance of no more trouble from the “humanitarian corridor” for grain shipments and not Zelensky?

          That would make more sense than Ukrainian government being able to put anything trustworthy on paper.
          1. Brunches with Cats November 2, 2022 at 1:54 pm

             No way to know, Polar S. But I would bet my valuable (to the bank) debt that messages are relayed via these people. It’s a given that U S. companies abroad are in constant contact with the U.S. State Dept, the mission of which, after all, is to serve them. This Stavnitser dude may or may not have direct contact with the Russians, but can there be any doubt that he shares info he gets from Zelensky et al. with his Cargill partners (BTW, Cargill owns 51% of the joint venture to Stavnitser company’s 49%), and it gets to the Kremlin via back channels? If anything, Stavnitser is a likely channel to the State Dept. for info in the other direction. Then again, he does kinda fit the profile of a double agent…
          2. Brunches with Cats November 2, 2022 at 2:09 pm

             Thinking about this after posting the above response, the likeliest direct channel to the Kremlin for info on grain deal negotiations is Roman Abramovich. Not mentioned in the FT article I quoted or the update in a comment below, but we know he’s been a major player all along.
          3. anon in so cal November 2, 2022 at 2:11 pm

             All this time, Erdogan skillfully maneuvered to convey the impression he was occupying the higher ground: even if Russia behaves in an “indecisive” manner, as he defined it, we will continue to pursue the grain deal.

             So, it seems like Moscow was being tested – by the UN and by Ankara, which happens to be the main beneficiary of the grain deal and is clearly profiting from this economic corridor. Ships continue to depart from Odessa to Turkish ports – mainly Istanbul – without Moscow’s agreement. It was expected they would be “filtered” by Russia when coming back to Odessa….

             …It is important to remember that the Black Sea grain deal is actually two deals: Kiev signed a deal with Turkey and the UN, and Russia signed a separate deal with Turkey.

             The corridor for the grain carriers is only 2 km wide. Minesweepers move in parallel along the corridor. Ships are inspected by Ankara. So the Kiev-Ankara-UN deal remains in place. It has nothing to do with Russia – which in this case does not escort and/or inspect the cargoes.

             What changes with Russia “suspending” its own deal with Ankara and the UN, is that from now on, Moscow can proceed anyway it deems fit to neutralize terrorist threats and even invade and take over Ukrainian ports: that will not represent a violation of the deal with Ankara and the UN.

             So in this respect, it is a game-changer.

             Seems like Erdogan fully understood the stakes, and told Kiev in no uncertain terms to behave. There’s no guarantee, though, that western powers won’t come up with another Black Sea provocation. Which means that sooner or later – perhaps by the Spring of 2023 – General Armageddon will have to come up with the goods. That translates as advancing all the way to Odessa.”

             https://thecradle.co/Article/Columns/17727
             1. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 3, 2022 at 12:54 am

                Mercouris’ take is much more persuasive.

                1. Russia had signaled that it might come back by saying it was suspending its participation, not exiting

                2. Letting Erdogan be an intermediary on various issues boosts Erdogan’s prestige, which means soft chits on Russia’s side of the ledger

                3. This deal was important to Erdogan, both prestige-wise and practically

                4. Russia and Turkey are getting closer all the time. Turkey now defying the sanctions with banks again offering the Russia Mir card

                5. Ukraine effectively admitted to being a bad actor and has provided written guarantees. Russia knows those are worthless but now it has laid the foundation for quitting or not renewing the deal.

                Erdogan cannot tell Kiev to behave. What leverage does Erdogan have? The West, which owns him, didn’t even say a peep after he cut of the gas in Yamal-Europe. Ukraine needs this deal because it needs every penny of GDP it can generate.
23. fresno dan November 2, 2022 at 11:28 am

    https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/twitter-celebrities-leaving-elon-musk-rcna54831
    Update on celebrities leaving twitter.
    GOOD NEWS – yesterday I didn’t recognize even one celebrity quitting Twitter. Today I recognize Toni Braxton! Of course, I don’t actually read or ?subscribe? to Twitter (I click links to Twitter but I don’t know if it costs anything to use it).
    1. Wukchumni November 2, 2022 at 1:19 pm

       My twitter feed wasn’t legally usurped by the likes of Elon and although mostly limited to 14 characters per tweet and frankly repetitious, its what birds do.
24. ThirtyOne November 2, 2022 at 11:32 am

    An interesting read over at The Postil:
    https://www.thepostil.com/what-ukraine-tells-us-about-the-coming-war/
    Germany has surrendered.
    1. Acacia November 2, 2022 at 4:30 pm

       Thanks for this. Interesting indeed. Teaser quotation:

       It is apparent that apart from a few scattered battalions, NATO no longer has any effective military power; that the German army is in an advanced state of decay; that the French army (although still very operational) has only seven days’ worth of ammunition in the event of a high-intensity confrontation, and it is the same with all the rest.

       All this means that in Western Europe, the nation-state is no longer capable of “making war,” a function that was its main regalian attribute and the driving force behind its historical construction (according to Charles Tilly’s famous formula, “war makes the State.”
       1. Roland November 2, 2022 at 10:26 pm

          “No longer any effective military power.”

          UK and France both have high-yield nuclear arms, with intercontinental range.

          “A few scattered battalions.”

          When you got a few battalions that can hit like a H-Bomb, from thousands of miles away, you may scatter them however you please!

          That warmaking power, indeed, isn’t “regalian.” A more accurate term might be, “godlike.”
25. Dave in Austin November 2, 2022 at 11:49 am

    An interesting factoid re: “Your car’s automated safety features are probably making driving less safe Boing Boing (resilc). Forced obsolescence via destruction?”

    My 2017 Toyota Corolla has a forward looking radar connected to the cruise control. I can set the cruise control to any speed, for example 80 MPH, and if I pull-up behind a truck, the car will gently brake and then follow the truck at a safe distance, a nifty and useful feature. I went 250+ miles on I 85 north of Atlanta with the speed set at 80 MPH without touching the gas or the brake.

    But if I use the radar and set no speed limit, under certain circumstances (ie when the truck you are following takes an exit) the car will accelerate up to 85 MPH- and no further. A safety feature.

    With a twist.

    Going from Austin to Washington, DC it will go as fast as 85 in TX, AK and TN, states with a 75 MPH interstate limit. In Virginia it will only go to 80 MPH. The state has a 70 MPH interstate limit. So the car uses the now mandatory GPS which tracks the car’s location (for your convenience, of course), determines which state the car is in, and goes up to 10 MPH over the speed limit, which is the limit set for a reckless driving charge. Usually in uncrowded interstates, 10 MPH over the limit is not an unusual speed anywhere and reasonably safe. The posted speed limit is for the right lane slow-pokes, trucks going uphill and the elderly.

    But I can’t wait for the ambulance chasers to figure this out. A car that is manufactured by those evil Japanese that automatically exceeds the posted limit by 9.99 MPH for hours at a time. Will the lawyers find this to be another legal pinata to gleefully break-open and get rich, thus bankrupting Toyota for killing innocent children, etc? This would lead the companies to set mandatory speed limits below the posted limit to avoid tort suits. All with no government action… in America.
26. Robin Kash November 2, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    Here’s The Financial Times’ take on Russia rejoining the grain deal:
    https://on.ft.com/3DWimwf
    1. Brunches with Cats November 2, 2022 at 2:14 pm

       Mentions fertilizer, as I noted in an above comment citing an earlier FT story, but contains absolutely no info on what the Russians actually got, other than worthless “assurances “
27. antidlc November 2, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    Does the video merit a nomination for Ron Klain for the NC “Sociopath of the Day” award?
    https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1587693955885330432?cxt=HHwWgMCjybXPz4gsAAAA

    Eric Feigl-Ding
    @DrEricDing
    Mehdi: “Is the pandemic ‘over’ or not?”
    Ron Klain: “The fight against Covid certainly isn’t over…”
    Mehdi: “But the pandemic’s over, in your view?”

    Ron Klain, White House chief of staff, on Joe Biden’s “pandemic is over” remarks:
28. Wukchumni November 2, 2022 at 12:37 pm

    ‘Clawshank Redemption’

    Taronga Zoo: Five lions escape exhibit at Sydney zoo BBC
29. Wukchumni November 2, 2022 at 12:57 pm

    In theory, the federal government can unilaterally cut water deliveries from the Colorado River’s two main reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which release more than 2 trillion gallons of water to farms and cities across the Southwest each year. In reality, this has never happened: Previous cuts have always been negotiated between the federal government and the seven states that use the river.

    Late last week, however, the federal government sent its strongest signal yet that it is willing to single-handedly impose water cuts on the Colorado for the first time in history, as the U.S. West stares down the consequences of a climate-change-fueled megadrought that has parched the river.

    The Department of the Interior, the federal agency that manages water in the Colorado River basin, announced on Friday that it would look into changing the rules for how it operates Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which are located in southern Utah and southern Nevada, respectively. This would pave the way for the department to impose sharp cuts on major water users in Arizona, Nevada, California, and Mexico, which receives water pursuant to a 1944 treaty.

    https://grist.org/drought/colorado-river-cuts-interior-department-reclamation/
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    So far the small self-mandated cuts by states have been by short-changing Ag, but the real cuts of size to come by the Feds will certainly effect the Big Smokes in the SoCalist movement, and seeing as price fixes everything, the only alternative to less water is making it much more pricey to home moaners, to induce them to use less.

    Now imagine this occurring in a plunging real estate bubble…
    1. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 7:16 pm

       Pray for rain. Now.
       1. Wukchumni November 2, 2022 at 7:24 pm

          You’ll see signs saying just that in Godzone, but a similar drought in Texas prompted too many of said signage, resulting in a biblical flood in Houston, as it appeared they overprayed their hand.

          It snowed a smidge in Mineral King last night…

          http://www.mk-webcam.net/
30. Jason Boxman November 2, 2022 at 1:14 pm

    So the most interesting thing about that Angry Bear post is the few comments. About wood working. One poster has been doing Japanese woodworking for 20+ years. And his site has some impressive pieces. These are highly intricate. Both posts lament that no one learns these crafting skills in America any longer. (And that getting PhD tenure even in the 90s was a tough bit.)

    Never know what you’re gonna find.

    I’m more of a straight utility person, and prefer furniture that can get dropped in transit without so much concern for damaging it. I already have too much scoffed up furniture as it is.
31. Mike November 2, 2022 at 1:19 pm

    RE; US Inspectors in Ukraine Won’t Be Near the Front, Pentagon Says Military.com.

    Subtle hint at who will be at the front, per Brig. Gen. Ryder:

    “My understanding is they would be well, well far away from any type of front-
    line actions,” Ryder said. “We’re relying on the Ukrainians to do that; we’re relying
    on other partners to do that. So essentially, that would not be the case for U.S.
    personnel.” (my bold here).
32. Katniss Everdeen November 2, 2022 at 2:43 pm

    For anyone interested in what happened after Briahna Joy Gray’s interview with “activist” joe cirincione that was discussed in yesterday’s links, here is Gray’s “Radar” from today’s Rising.

    Spoiler alert–joe went all Karen on Gray, accusing her of encouraging twitterites to abuse poor little old him. Some other “notable” twitterites took shots at Gray as well.

    Well worth the time for Gray fans and non-fans alike.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbHjyQ0hycs&list=PLLri3HDD8DQswJEP4fxQkuZILYL7FgTlV&index=2
    1. Late Introvert November 3, 2022 at 12:32 am

       Good to know, but I would like a proper write up of it, videos are just BS IMO. And spoiler alert, I make videos for a living, so I guess I should know.
33. QuantumSoma November 2, 2022 at 4:57 pm

    Iran may join Eurasian Economic Union, according to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak
34. The Rev Kev November 2, 2022 at 8:31 pm

    “Taronga Zoo: Five lions escape exhibit at Sydney zoo”

    They tried to but these were North Shore lions-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W86PiQ0jY0Y (2:25 mins)
    1. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 3, 2022 at 1:01 am

       Oh, this is great!
35. Jorge November 4, 2022 at 12:47 am

    That horse cannot be real.

Comments are closed.