Gallipoli landings: Hundreds of Australians, New Zealanders attend dawn service in Türkiye Anadolu Agency
Researchers Discover Cryptic Cat Species on Mount Everest SciTechDaiy (furzy)
How Philly Cheesesteaks Became a Big Deal in Lahore, Pakistan PhillyMag (resilc)
Hell’s Painter Skip Kaltnheuser, LA Progressive. On the rehabilitation of George Bush.
#COVID-19
Pfizer Quietly Financed Groups Lobbying for COVID Vaccine Mandates Lee Fang
Help me solve a COVID cryptic lineage mystery. Marc Johnson (martha r). Important because Omicron was a cryptic lineage.
Climate/Environment
F*** Earth Day (2014) Wen Stephenson (Randy K). “I’d hoped this piece would be irrelevant by now…”
A mystery in the Pacific is complicating climate projections Yale Climate Connections
Glaciers in Swiss Alps lost 6% of Mass last Year, as Climate Emergency brings brutal Heat Waves Juan Cole (resilc)
Micro- and nanoplastics breach the blood–brain barrier in mice MDPI (Paul R)
Germany’s green energy delusion has an enormous environmental and economic price tag Remix
An Indigenous woman from the Amazon wins the Goldman Environment Prize NBC. Furzy: “More AIchat??..where are the editors?? ‘Studies have shown that Indigenous-controlled forests are the best preserved the in Brazilian Amazon.'”
Unnecessary Paper Packaging Creates the Illusion of Sustainability Harvard Business Review (Paul R)
Thai navy releases artificial reefs to protect marine life off Sattahip coast Pattaya Mail (furzy)
China?
Exclusive: Tesla readies export of Model Y to Canada from China Reuters (resilc). So much for US design v. China. China is ahead in a lot of anti-emissions technology.
Only 10 carmakers will survive global EV battle, says Tesla rival Xpeng Financial Times. Throwing down a gauntlet.
Western tech firms just can’t resist China’s chip market Asia Times (Kevin W)
Why the rewriting of China’s history 3,000 years ago still matters today South China Morning Post (furzy)
The Faces of Sanxingdui: Mysterious Masks of the Ancient Shu Kingdom Google Arts & Culture (furzy)
Old Blighty
Coronation: How popular is the monarchy under King Charles? BBC (resilc)
Mexico president tests positive for coronavirus for 3rd time Associated Press
New Not-So-Cold War
Biden’s team fears the aftermath of a failed Ukrainian counteroffensive Politico (Kevin W). See the take in RT: Ukraine gets Afghan-style warning from US – Politico
Allies resist US plan to ban all G7 exports to Russia Financial Times. I have not verified it, but Alexander Mercouris said the exports amounted to all of $80 billion a year.
Russian oil slashes OPEC’s share of Indian market to 22-year low Reuters
Syraqistan
Seven killed, 44 wounded in blasts inside Pakistan police station Bangkok Post (furzy)
Imperial Collapse Watch
Ending the Pentagon’s sunken cost, buried treasure excuses Responsible Statecraft
Space Force chief on ‘new era’ of threats beyond Earth CNBC. Resilc: “No teachers, no nurses, no plumbers, no infra, but we have a space force “protecting” a hollowed out failed and divided state. USA USA.”
Do embassies serve any purpose? Gilbert Doctorow
Guantanamo inmates showing signs of ‘accelerated ageing,’ Red Cross says Reuters (resilc). “Everything’s going according to plan.”
Biden
Biden announces 2024 reelection bid The Hill
Biden’s team picks Julie Chavez Rodriguez as 2024 campaign manager Reuters
Antony Blinken and the ‘Made Men’ of the Biden Administration Jonathan Turley
Clarence Thomas Friend Harlan Crow Had Supreme Court ‘Conflict of Interest’ Bloomberg (furzy)
Tucker Defenestration
No matter what you think of Tucker, this was a very good day for the Biden Administration and a very bad day for freedom of speech. Note that the breaking story at The Hill made it sounds as if Tucker quit (presumably following a reprimand or ultimatum) as opposed to was fired, but ex-Fox talking heads think otherwise (see Fox Fires Tucker, for instance).
Fox Corporation sheds $962 million in market value after announcing Tucker Carlson is leaving the news network Business Insider (Li)
In New York City they are celebrating the firing of a broadcaster. As if it were a victorious battle in a war.
Because it IS a war. And in the end, one side will be victorious and the other side crushed.pic.twitter.com/hHFjw7B7zB
— Gonzalo Lira (@GonzaloLira1968) April 25, 2023
Fox News ‘took issue’ with Tucker Carlson’s ‘derogatory remarks’ towards staff and bosses before shock departure: Anchor called them ‘incompetent liberals’ and ‘f***ers’ who were ‘destroying their credibility’ Daily Mail. Film and the media industries are full of prima donnas. Being difficult is never the ultimate cause for this sort of divorce.
I'm not making claims, yet, on what caused this separation. I'm just noting: the removal of Tucker means the elimination of the only real, sustained dissent on US militarism, the US Security State and more 👆(Laura & Jesse Waters are the only others in prime-time near that).
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 24, 2023
No one else in all of Corporate news ever brings on anti-war voices, the one that did just got axed. Doesn’t matter that he’s the most watched show in all of news – much like when MSNBC fired Phil Donohue for his anti-Iraq War coverage when he had #1 show on network. #WarMachine https://t.co/zpc7gOCZr6
— Jimmy Dore (@jimmy_dore) April 24, 2023
Five possible reasons Tucker Carlson and Fox News are parting company The Hill. Moi:
Not at all informative. Does not tell readers that Tucker despite his big ratings was a mediocre performer ad-wise because services that advise ad buyers deemed his show controversial and recommended big advertisers against his show. And regarding Dominion, Maria Bartiromo was a vastly worse actor. She has a zillion shows and flogging the vote fraud theory far more aggressively that Tucker, who did so almost entirely via some of his guests. And if Dominion really was upset about Tucker and his firing was a condition of the settlement, you’d expect to see a lower settlement amount. Or put it another way, surely Fox would have been smart enough to trade Tucker and maybe some others for a lower settlement amount than just fire him out of pique.
My right-wing following contacts are arguing for an operation by Lachlan Murdoch (apparently strongly liberal, has long hated Tucker) as well as Sean Hannity. The immediate triggers include Tucker’s recent 1/6 video footage showing the 1/6 Shaman being escorted through the Capitol the Capitol Police and a 5 minute anti-Pfizer presentation which I am told ran last Wednesday. I discount Tucker’s pointed talk about 2 big lies on Ukraine demonstrated by the Discord leaks because the central Biden team still believes Ukraine will win.
Tucker Carlson Keynote Address | Heritage 50th Anniversary Celebration YouTube. I wonder if this part, starting at 8:10, contributed to the outcome, Tucker acting as if he was not a hired hand who should know his place:
Some have paid a heavy price for telling the truth. They are cast of of those groups, but they do it anyway. And I look on at those people with the deepest possible admiration.
I’m paid to do that. I face no penalty.
Someone comes up to me, ‘Oh, you’re so brave.’
Really? I’m a talk show host. I’m paid to have any opinion I want (laughing almost manically). That’s part of my job. That’s why they pay me. It’s not brave to tell the truth on a cable TV news show. And if you’re not doing that, you really are an idiot, really craven. Lying on television? Why would you do that? You’re literally making a living getting to say what you think, and you can’t even do that? Please.
I am told Tucker is worth $400 million, so even with his ouster, he is facing no penalty save to his ego. And given that truth is rarely black and white, many people can legitimately take offense at him trying to stake a claim on “truth,” let alone integrity (many stories on the Dominion suit reported that Tucker privately voiced deep antipathy toward Trump while often going to bat for him on his show). And I do not like the way this talk goes into “good v.evil” positioning (not hard to see the way he works the audience as demagogue adjacent, but he’s not running for office or even calling for action beyond prayer). But he was gutsy in calling out a great deal of hypocrisy, even if nearly entirely on the Team Dem side.
One further thought: Tucker apparently gave his customary sign off on Friday, that he’d be back on Monday. So it appears the execution happened over the weekend. Perhaps there are exit terms in his contract that enabled Fox to pull the rip cord while gagging Tucker…but not knowing celeb contracts, I would suspect not. A weekend seems too fast to negotiate any separation agreement other than with a simple release. You usually have to pay to get a gag and then you’d have to argue over how much. So since the odds that Tucker is going on some other big network seem nil given the lack of obvious takers, will he do a tell all book?
Police State Watch
Officer who fatally shot Breonna Taylor hired by sheriff’s office in Kentucky Guardian (resilc)
Gunz
Nine injured in shooting at Texas high school prom party Reuters
Our No Longer Free Press
Time to Get Spies Out of Politics Matt Taibbi
AI
Office Overachievers Won’t Be Happy About ChatGPT, Study Says Gizmodo (Kevin W)
Farewell Vicky Chick Steve Keen (Chuck L)
High copper prices leads to thieves ripping wiring from tractors, farmers say Guardian (resilc)
Concerns About A Diesel Crunch Are Easing Oil Price. We and others had flagged this as an actual and potentially worsening problem but it seems to be reversing.
Boeing investors seek answers after latest 737 production glitch Reuters (resilc)
U.S. Debt: Visualizing the $31.4 Trillion Owed in 2023 Visual Capitalist (Micael T)
Guillotine Watch
I Really Didn’t Want to Go Harpers (UserFriendlyy). On a Goop cruise.
Class Warfare
Are layoffs common? A brief history of job insecurity in America. Vox (resilc)
Monetary austerity is class war. They’re not hiding. https://t.co/PYxeUby7yj
— David Fields (@ProfDavidFields) April 24, 2023
America’s Educational Superpower Is Fading Washington Post (furzy). Um, the Post is noticing only now that educational attainment has collapsed in younger cohorts in the US?
Flint STILL Has a Water Crisis—9 Years Later Status Coup (UserFriendlyy)
The False Choice Between Neoliberalism and Interventionism Yuen Yuen Ang, Project Syndicate (UserFriendlyy)
Fair share’ deficits at nonprofit hospitals reached $14.2B in 2020 HealthCareDrive (resilc)
Battle lines harden in Canadian federal workers’ strike WSWS
The empty basket aeon (Micael T)
Antidote du jour (Tracie H):
And a bonus (from Jules, and I must confess it languished in my inbox):
This cat is tearing up the slopes pic.twitter.com/74uEvQZl4y
— Aaron Cohen 🔜 🌮🔔 (@ImoveCar) February 19, 2021
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
152 comments
Comments are closed.
I learned about the UK’s Online Safety Bill yesterday. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/a-guide-to-the-online-safety-bill . Meta/WhatsApp is protesting along with some other apps https://blog.whatsapp.com/an-open-letter . I can imagine that parliamentarians and administrators might find it quite convenient if these apps left the market leaving it to firms that are ready to comply. Can anyone inform if it is likely to pass into law? It wouldn’t surprise me. Most Brits accept omnipresent telescreens without much protest.
UK’s version of the US Restrict Act !!!
Looks to me like coordinated action…. camel nose under the tent.
Can’t be good if you support certain fundamental human rights and privacy.
Its a shame that all politics is fear based and that all campaigning is done to get air time (the more sensationalistic the better) in order to raise campaign cash – does not matter how ridiculous and chicken little it is
Heres a quote..
“It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.” -James Madison
Makes me think that World War three is already well underway – or at least the MIC has briefed the top in secret with-out telling the commoners like myself.
Ayyway — all points, tactics and channels are engaged.
Just the cynic in me…I guess
This is the unspoken premise of Brzezinski’s book. Even without the deindustrialization policies championed by Biden and his ilk over the decades, US power would weaken without total military control because the US simply isn’t that big. Rationally, we were never going to the Augustan route and propose an expanded citizenship.
It’s in the post about Zelensky cosplay zoom session in Latin America, but the US ambassador warned AMLO about developing relations with Russia. When you get down to it, Russia and Mexico have quite a bit in common. The goal seems to be to defenestrate Russia before Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, the other non-micro states move on from the US world governing structures as Russia is a near autarky with shortages solved by the number one world economy.
Of course, India is full of smart people who have no desire or reason to be cannon fodder on behalf of London or DC.
I’ve been think on an off about NATO/UA vs RF as a world war since it started. The sudden division of everyone and every nation into allies, enemies, and neutrals was probably what made me think that way. The hard turn to authoritarian narrative control doesn’t help.
These days neutrals are not allowed, as either side see them as quietly supporting the opposition.
Thrilled to see the Sanxingdui artifacts mentioned here. They are changing the way Chinese see their own history. The pieces are extraordinary! Here’s a nice video on the digs and objects: https://www.youtube.com/live/O3bwgGj7d8U?feature=share
Thank you for that video. They are finding some really fascinating things out there.
Wow! Thanks for that Link.
What a stimulating, edifying exploration of an ancient Chinese regional culture.
I suspect that the establishments big score after the great depression was Samuelson’s butchering of Keynes after Keynes was no long around. Thus it could appear to have learned while continuing as if nothing had happened (except for having to stay ahead of those pesky communists out east).
>Pfizer Quietly Financed Groups Lobbying for COVID Vaccine Mandates Lee Fang
“You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations,” Biden falsely claimed in July 2021, as his administration and local governments were preparing mandate orders. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, similarly stated that vaccinated individuals “do not carry the virus.”
Where one stood on vaccine mandates was a moment of truth, at least for me. The company I work for sent out letters demanding that even those who work remotely, like I do, had to be vaccinated in order to keep their job. I refused. I did concede to fill out a religious exception form that I still have qualms about, not because I lied, but because I yielded, to an extent, to their dictate. A good friend who teaches at a large University did the same and I drew from his experience. He told me that he did not think this was not the “hill to die on,” yet.
Ben Norton, who I used to follow, and still to do to an extent, and Chomsky who I’ve read/followed for decades lost much of their credibility in my eyes, as have countless celebrities/musicians who I thought would know what a slippery slope conceding to the mandates were and should have known better. I don’t hold family and friends who did get vaccinated at fault. They were manipulated, as Lee Fang’s article now unequivocally demonstrates, they yielded either because of fear, loss of livelihood, and mostly for their altruistic/caring impulses; they didn’t want to endanger their family/students or other persons they came into contact with.
As for politicians, like Trudeau who now says, in a viral video making its round on Twitter, that he never forced anyone to take the vaccine, they should be held to account as should Biden, his henchmen/women, and the whole corrupt pharmaceutical/MSM/political establishment.
https://twitter.com/michaelpsenger/status/1650606378824929280
I think this is what you are referring. I found on a quick search of Twitter.
Absolutely unbelievable. “Incentives”………like losing your job, not getting to see your sick and dying parents, going to church? For an intervention that does nothing to protect you or your fellow man from being infected?
Tell the many health care workers all over Canada that are still not working because they are unvaxxed what is the definition of incentive? This while the system is in deep trouble in many places…..
These people are just a sight to behold. The absolute ability to lie with a straight face about things that are causing great suffering.
This is what has been shown time and time again when medical ethics are handed over to politicians.
All I will say is the people will have no one to blame but themselves if this is not turned out in the very next election.
There are still places denying organ transplants to people who did not get the Covid therapy shots.
How does that madness get stopped?
Yes, there are many stories like this. One that particularly struck me, again on Twitter, is of a women forced to give birth in an ambulance because the hospital refused to admit her due to her vaccine status.
It is economic terrorism. In America, if you loses your job, you be in some serious difficulty. You can’t eat your principles.
What I thought while reading Fang’s article: “you see? Current neoliberal politics in action!, what an excellent example of our rotten liberal democracies!” –
I was in a very similar circumstance. I.e., working remotely, but for the very occasional trip to home office HQ in a distant state, upon one such of which I was in a conference room for three days with about a dozen colleagues, one of who gave all of us the infection.
Subsequently we were acquired by another company, the new management of which had a mandatory vaccine requirement even for remote workers upon the premise, real or pretextual, that the unvaccinated were more expensive health insurance risks.
Luckily I had an employment contract prohibiting dismisssal except upon good cause and the sanction used to enforce the mandatory vaccine policy was *merely* a surcharge. I paid the surcharge.
I also had a similar experience with Chomsky, pre and post-pandemic. Perhaps it’s an exercise in excuse-making, but I wonder if he ever delved deeply into it. Given its social significance it seem difficult to believe that he would have failed to have, or at any rate having failed to that he’d nonetheless make such categorical statements about it as he did.
Our Democracy and the Soul of America will be up for grabs in 2024. Corn pop fighting man from Scranton, man of the people Joe Biden is the real deal. Let’s all agree in unison, Four More Years! \SARC
Four years, four months, heck at this man’s age every day is a gift. And Mr. Trump ain’t a spring chicken either. America, run by the octogenarians because no one else really wants that job ! Is it too early for a drinking game?
> Is it too early for a drinking game?
Probably a good idea to sign up for the liver transplant list while you’re at it.
Gonna be a long year and a half.
Regarding “Monetary austerity is class war. They’re not hiding.”
Having a conspiracy moment. What if inflation was instigated and coordinated by corporations by raising prices (what we all see as greedflation) but their purpose was not just profit?
Is greedflation part of the austerity war? And are the mass layoff part of this plan as well? Why do they want to put pressure on Americans?Divide and conquour? Is that why they are pumping up the culture wars as well?\
And did they do this to tarnish the idea of a UBI? I mean look how many talking heads blamed the COVID checks for inflation!
It’s a reasonable conspiracy, though if true it suggests the people in charge are incapable of seeing more than one move ahead of the present state. I’m reminded of a conversation (potentially apocryphal) between Henry Ford and Walter Reuther. Ford is showing Reuther a new factory machine capable of replacing some workers that Reuther represents, and Reuther asks Ford how many cars the new machine will purchase.
If wages are crushed and jobs are lost, I would worry that a consumer/service economy will suffer pretty significantly.
“If wages are crushed and jobs are lost, I would worry that a consumer/service economy will suffer pretty significantly.”
I remember the last time that happened in a big way we had our Second World War soon after…
>Court overturns cancellation of Roger Waters concert
Germany apparently still retains a sliver of sanity.
A German court has overturned a decision to cancel a concert by English rock legend Roger Waters in Frankfurt. Regional officials had argued that allowing an “anti-Semite” to perform at a venue linked to the Holocaust would offend the local Jewish community.
https://www.rt.com/pop-culture/575290-frankfurt-roger-waters-concert/
I am told Germany has very strong press protections, and perhaps they extend to other speech. As we can see with the First Amendment, we in the US have theoretical rights. Can informed readers opine?
not an expert here at all!
you might recall the case of Alina Lipp, German journalist interviewed by Grayzone (iirc).
seems she is in hot water for her reporting on the Donbass:
https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/world/watch-german-authorities-to-prosecute-journalist-alina-lipp-for-reporting-from-donbass/
Yeah, but Mr. Rogers has a level of audience that is several magnitudes higher…
re: “Ending the Pentagon’s sunken cost, buried treasure excuses – Responsible Statecraft”
This is a bit rich considering the tragic farce instigated by the USA in Ukraine appears to have been informed by group think rather than rationally thought out strategy.
Second that, and I’ll point out that a Pentagon unable to manage budget or operate under fiscal restraints in peacetime is a Pentagon unable to fight any real wars, period. Especially when it’s spread across 800 bases worldwide and American production infrastructure has been outsourced to anywhere but home, which eliminates a key advantage the Americans had in WW2.
Meanwhile, the Russian military is built around lessons of economic scarcity.
Tucker is going to be at the vanguard of a fascist media apparatus that will be constructed as the GOP fractures further into its neocon and even more reactionary elements, and he will have all the space in the world to express some of his “own opinions”, for example the urgency of invading latam countries (expanding imperialism), of instigating war with China (fighting the communists), and of scapegoating vulnerable minorities with lurid and completely untethered blood libel-style horror stories – all directly from the Hitler-Goebbels handbook and all stuff he’s already been doing.
That some people fall for his “change of character” is quite astounding.
Making Shit Up is a violation of our written site Policies. I find it a sad commentary of the state of American media that despite Tucker doing a lot of ugly dog whistling related to immigration and voicing neoliberal economic views, he’s been the only major media figure willing to criticize our Russia and China war-mongering and defend Assange and press freedom generally. I support his right to speak and not be misrepresented to boot. He has consistently criticized Biden escalating v. China, particularly the Pelosi visit and the balloon hysteria. He did suggest invading Canada, not Latin America.
And as for fascism, it’s the Democrats who are working overtime to end free speech, with the current horror prosecuting four black left activists for daring to voice Ukraine-skeptic positions. Since when is having a contrary opinion a crime? Since the Biden war against the First Amendment.
Daily Kos is over there.
I am so old, I remember when NC reported on the essential criminal nature of the Murdoch Inc.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/03/murdochs-hacking-scandal-review-murdochs-pirates-neil-chenoweth.html
Tucker Carlson was one of the very limited number of people telling the truth on more than a few subjects. The Democrats are in love with George Bush. A man who started his Presidency with serious signs of dementia is already saying that he wants another four years based on how successful his first two have been. This is the world that we live in now.
And I am so old that I remember when Daily Kos banned and the crew over at Eschaton would attack anyone who pointed out that the ACA was not universal, not affordable and would not eliminate bankruptcy and that Democrats did have the numbers and ability to do better but not the will or desire to do so. Silencing those who bother to tell the truth about Democrats selling out the public and civil rights is now long standing liberal policy. That that has now extended so far into the press and internet apparently has missed your notice.
When those running our foreign policy are determined to start wars we cannot win, when our President is suffering serious mental decline, and when our civil rights to both free speech and assembly are under deep attack, I for one will take what allies in pointing the danger and idiocy in this that I can find.
so what, what has that to do with the easily documented fact that Tucker Carlson’s entire career has had to do with making shit up, and doing so in service of the most loathsome oligarchs on the planet? Biden won the 2020 election. This has not to do with how you feel about Biden, but how you feel about democracy. Biden won the election and Carlson spent months calling that into question with tragic consequences.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlRU8NuS9rKCImUNs0px2myMJT8YaNZh-
Trump won in 2016, and a whole lot of people elected and in the media have spent years undermining that on the lie that Russia was responsible. Those same liars spent much of the 2020 election silencing true things that would have damaged Joe Biden, and are doing their best to make sure that contrary information on things from candidates to medical treatments are not just disparaged but erased from public discourse completely. Propaganda and gagged speech are not democratic.
Oh and for the record Biden has spent years as a proven liar. Hell Clinton was impeached for lying. See above about his wife. And don’t get me started on Joe Scarborough, who has made a career of lying in Congress and now on cable news as much or possibly even more than Tucker Carlson. And that is just off the top of my head.
I hope you are prepared for WWIII because Tucker Carlson was the only mainstream media voice out there seeking to cut through the cheerleading for policies guaranteed to make that almost inevitable. And just as in 2002 all of this is based on lies and misinformation coming directly from the government and every aspect of the media.
But I guess we don’t need no stinking freedom of speech and press for democracy for this kind of thing.
There should be an acronym or abbreviation NC commenters can use so we don’t have to keep saying: “I have been a lifelong critic of Tucker Carlson [or ‘Trump’ or ‘libertarians’ or ‘Ron Paul’ or ‘Fox News’ or etc., etc., etc.] BUT…”
The BUT, of course, is what most of us have been saying for the last few days, that regardless of Carlson’s past and present sins (of which I am well aware), his was the *only* mainstream media platform that challenged Establishment propaganda on Russia, Deep State censorship, Syria, Ukraine, and other crucial topics. It was the only platform that allowed non-partisan critics like Greenwald or Mate to make their cases on what I consider to be the most crucial issues of the day. Further, as has been pointed out countless times already, though Carlson hosted election “truthers”, he himself expressed skepticism that the election was stolen from Trump. His big “sin” in that regard was to question the partisan framing of the 1/6 riot by the Democrats. So do I. Regarding how I feel about “democracy,” I think that the four-year coup attempt against Trump by the entire National Security Establishment and its media lackeys, including “making shit up” about the Russians, and about the President of the US being a traitorous agent of a foreign power, pushing these lies as proven facts constantly during that time, “trumps” the actions of a motley bunch of “insurrectionists” on 1/6. Do I have to add the “I have been a lifelong critic of Trump BUT…” part?
I could go on (and on), but I know it’s fruitless. You seem unwilling or unable to see the other side of these discussions. Sad… for all of us.
Obama won in 2008 and the right spent 8 years questioning his citizenship. Clinton won in 1992 and the right spent 8 years investigating him and her, as well as impeaching him and later investigating her some more. They’re investigating the Bidens now.
These attempts to de-legitimize elections, undermine those elected, and impose anti-democratic speech and voting rights restrictions are worth discussing on their own terms, not just as deflections from other attempts.
From what I read of the Dominion allegations, Tucker wasn’t a primary focus for on-air election denial, but more for his behind-the-scenes criticism of Trump’s efforts, allegedly showing that he and his colleagues and management were aware that the election wasn’t stolen.
Tucker did have all the tapes from the Capitol riot. It’s my understanding that he showed a clip of the costume guy – of whom there are clips at the storming and entering stage of the event – apparently being calmly escorted from the building, but not much else.
(I have been a life-long critic of those calling the Capitol riot an insurrection, but I do see it as part of the particular 2020 Trumpist attempt to de-legitimize an election.)
I feel like I’m missing your point. I don’t really disagree with any of these observations – though I do wish the Clintons would have been investigated for their *real* crimes rather than the partisan Monicagate charade. If you are arguing that “both sides do it” I would also agree. But if you are suggesting that 1/6 is in any way on the same level as what was, and continues to be, demonstrated with Russiagate and the nearly complete take-over of our media by the national security establishment, I would vehemently disagree. Regarding the later, Democrats are either in complete agreement or in denial. The *only* voices of resistance outside a few marginal leftists have been a handful of libertarian Republicans. And regarding the election interference charges of the Trumpers, I think you would certainly have to consider the recent revelations regarding the Biden laptop repression in that discussion.
Now what is a life-long lefty and, until 2016, a life-long Democrat, supposed to do with that reality?
I don’t usually make my points very well – or maybe they’re not good points to begin with :(
Maybe your comments can help me clarify:
Agree with your point that maybe we need a “criticism of X does not mean approval of Y” acronym.
Tried to point out that (afaik – I didn’t watch his show) Tucker didn’t back up his criticism of the Democrats’ framing of the Capitol riot with much of anything, so I wouldn’t see that as some great contribution to journalism.
Tried to argue not that both sides do it, but that the evil that each side does (in different ways) should be criticized as such, not just met with an example of what the other side does.
Tried to argue that the Capitol riot itself was not equal to/worse than Russiagate. However, I also think it was part of a multi-level attempt by Trump and his elite and non-elite allies which was of comparable seriousness to Russiagate, as are the different forms of totalitarian consequences each “side” tries to justify (voter suppression, free speech suppression, surveillance, vigilantism, etc.).
US national politics has always been Machiavellian. As the two-party system evolves it’s become clear that taking power is more important than taking care of the plebes.
I cannot believe that you are bashing Carlson for “working in service of the most loathsome oligarchs on the planet” to deflect attention from how the Democratic party has been fixing primaries for years in service of yet more of those most loathsome oligarchs on the planet. Biden’s primary was fixed, and his presidency is fruit of a poisoned tree, not a show of democracy in action.
If this is “about democracy”, it seems like you would have a more balanced view of whose oligarchs are loathesome and whose are not. They are all loathesome, this is the pay to play “democracy” you have, and you might spend a little time on the greater issue that someone in a position of influence has managed to point that out on a larger stage for once.
I carry no brief for Tucker Carlson, I cannot listen to that voice of his for more than a minute or two and my view of him is colored by his actions during the Bush Administration, however, as Pat has said, we do not have the luxury of choosing our allies when those we elect are so easily corrupted. If he has something of value to say then it is just common sense to allow him to say it unimpeded. That, after all, is the essence of our First Amendment right to free speech.
You can say what you like, and we get to determine if it has any value.
Par for the course for dcblogger. Her previous posts show exactly how she operates.
If you think Carlson is an ally because he occasionally criticizes some who deserve it while promoting fascism, then idk what to tell you… a broken clock is still broken and shouldn’t be relied on to tell the time.
Could you please elaborate, perhaps with examples, on how Carlson “promotes fascism”? This is a legitimate question. He’s said lots of things I disagree with over the years, both big and small. But there is a lot of throwing the “f-word” around toward Carlson in the celebrations of his firing by liberals (AOC seems very attached to the word). Please spell it out for me.
Dude, please.
“You can say what ;you like, and we get to determine if it has any value.”
If that was too hard for you to understand then perhaps remedial civics courses are in order. I would suggest you start with a corporation having the ability to determine who we get to vote for.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/08/reminder-dnc-lawyers-to-court-we-do-not-owe-voters-an-impartial-or-evenhanded-primary-election.html
You are a few years behind. You had best get cracking.
I’m not so old but I remember when democrats purportedly supported free speech, not engaging in empire building (forever wars), strengthening the social safety net and social security, and the general backing of workers rights-regardless of stated gender or racial makeup.
CHS on crime in america…
exposes the essentially criminal nature of the whole shebang
https://www.oftwominds.com/blogapr23/social-contract4-23b.html
There’s no high road, it’s covered up by an avalanche of malarkey
In the fight against the powerful and the tools that they use to maintain power, I will accept just about any ally even when I must be wary of some of their ideas. Ain’t no one that is perfect or with whom you will always agree with; tossing words like fascism like candy at Halloween cheapen those words’ meaning, power, and usefulness while making real conversation as well as the changes it might create more difficult. Causing such difficulty is one of the reasons for misusing certain words like fascism.
“Fox Corporation sheds $962 million in market value after announcing Tucker Carlson is leaving the news network”
It will be interesting to see if there is a wave of pro-Tucker media in the same way that there was an anti-Bud Lite media after the Dylan Mulvaney fiasco. Bud Lite too lost a mint but I have not yet heard a boycott Fox movement – yet. I am sure that there is a lot of celebrating among a lot of people that they finally got rid of Tucker Carlson from his TV spot. Here is AOC celebrating his deplatforming-
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1650763682811465730
So here is the thing. At the end of next year you will have the 2024 US Presidential election but which will start several months earlier. It may very well be that by having Fox cut off Carlson, they they have just set off a careening loose cannon on the decks of the media which Fox will have no way to control him or to reign him back if he still worked for them. The guy lives for politics so he is certainly not going away.
My favorite Tucker interview of all time. No wonder AOC is petrified of him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSxnyA_8RI0
Can’t believe Jimmy Dore made it on to a major MSM outlet. No wonder that rarely happens.
Aaron Mate sitting in for JD on The JD show last night
had a great segment on the Tucker saga.
When JD would catch heat for appearing on Tucker – proof positive for libs that he had cooties –
he always pointed out he’d happily go on the msm, MSNBC etc.
but they would never invite him!
Tucker also hosted Max Blumenthal, Mate and Anya Parampil — good on him!
Glenn Greenwald spent nearly two hours on his show last night delivering an apologia for Tucker. I’ve really only watched Tucker much since the beginning of the Ukraine war, and so I was surprised by clips of Tucker going after hedge funds and other “crony capitalism” as Carlson calls it. Greenwald also had a clip of Tucker in mid-November, 2020 doing what Greenwald says is the hardest thing to do: tell you’re audience something they don’t want to hear. He reported to his listeners that he had repeatedly asked Sidney Powell for evidence of her claims about rigging electronic voting machines–claims that Carlson said he agreed were possible–but that Powell did not provide anything. Carlson said that he remained open to receive some evidence, but that until he did, the claims were unverified.
Greenwald closed with the comments of AOC last Saturday calling for direct government censorship of Fox to protect from “incitement to violence.” AOC apparently demanded that Google and Apple remove the Parler app, and they complied within a few days. Greenwald thinks it’s unlikely that AOC had such influence with Fox. Instead, he says it was their corporatist board composed of people like Paul Ryan whom Greenwald highlighted.
This is the link to Greenwald’s Rumble-hosted show. Not sure if I got the link right.
Per your point, the assumption seems to be that Tucker will go off and sulk or won’t find or create a platform anywhere near as good as he had at Fox. To be determined…..
It would be funny if Joe Rogan had him on his show for a long debriefing. The fact that Tucker was sacked so suddenly makes me wonder if there was time to negotiate any non-disclosures. If not, he would be able to tell a lot of stories. As Carlson is only 53 years old, I seriously doubt that he will do an Achilles and go sulk in his tent
If Tucker goes to work for one of the lesser right wing tv channels it would be a giant step down like a MLB star playing in the minor leagues for the same salary.
His options seem pretty limited on the old school screen…
Unless of course he does a Joe Rogan. Goes for the new media and skips TV altogether. He would already know that the average age of a Fox viewer is much older than himself and may use the new media to nab a younger audience. I’d never bother to watch him myself but lots of people would.
Doge on the Tucker Box?
Heh! Heh! Heh!
https://www.thedogonthetuckerbox.com/poemsfolk_songs
They even put up a statue to this story-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_on_the_Tuckerbox
I think this is a good bet, but the problem is, he’s going to have to accept a more limited audience, especially if he goes the subscription route. We saw some NYT and other journalists go to Substack, and while it seems like they can make more money and have more freedom, they seem to spend the time preaching to the converted. I like Taibbi and I think he’s made it work for him, but the comments sections on his posts… Sheesh.
I dont think this is necessarily true at all. For reference, Joe Rogan has an average listenership of 11 million. Tucker Carlson had an average listenership of 3.5 million at fox.
If Tucker goes to work for one of the lesser right wing tv channels, it will become a lot less lesser, don’t you think?
Recently there was a mini-boycott of Directv because they dropped Newsmax from their lineup. Newsmax flogged the “discrimination” and “censorship” incessantly on their channel, which could be watched on an app.
Newsmax is now back on Directv.
FOX “sanctioning” Tucker could work out about as well as the US sanctioning… well… just about every country. / heh
Stories about the Murdochs. They are the true sleaze.
I don’t know about Joe Rogan, Rogan is smarter than many people give him credit for and Carlson has a lot of history. Just see the GrayZone reports on Carlson, and I recall Ben Norton’s old channel had on a guest who has done a deep dive on him and his father’s very dubious past.
PS. I have to agree with Garland Nixon that Tucker’s biggest issue, but not sole issue, was giving a lot of alternative media access/marketing. Many of his guest were not the CIA / Deep State actors who were happy to sit around waiting for a call, but rather competitors to Faux, CNN, MSNBC. Greenwald, Dore, Grayzone, etc were growing their presence thanks to Carlson. The loose canon ego behavior was a multiplier.
Listening to Glenn Greenwald last night on Tucker’s departure, it sounded like an invitation to host his own show on Rumble.
Is there a possibility of Tucker running as VP to either Trump or Desantis?
Carlson-Lemon 2024. (There is a bag in the seat back in front of you)
Kennedy-Carlson 2024 Politics makes strange bedfellows.
Trump-deSantis 2024. Bromance on The Pirate Ship!
Biden-Feinstein 2024. Failed state: Necropolis!
Tucker said he’s not running for office and being a VP totally sucks. He has much more power as a commentator if he can take most of his Fox audience with him.
His show and guests seem pretty different from the rest of fox fare, imo his viewers will miss him, maybe more so if they think he’s being silenced. The Rogan model might look good, don’t know how Tucker’s numbers compare with Rogan, but my recollection is rogan got big bucks from Spotify.
I don’t think this has anything to do with the Dominion settlement as some of my MSNBC/CNN watching friends think, but it was strategically timed to have that resonance.
I knew when Tucker had Jimmy Dore on multiple times, as well as others who have the rare capacity of putting political events together in a coherent way in a 3 minute space, that Tucker’s time on a MSM platform was limited.
The job of the MSM, in part, is to create discontinuity, incoherence, stitching events together where motive can be attributed, is dangerous to power elites. It’s part of the function of manufacturing, if not quite consent, at least inertia and confusion.
When Glen Greenwald says “the removal of Tucker means the elimination of the only real, sustained dissent on US militarism, the US Security State and more” he is pointing to the effect as well as the cause of Tucker being fired. What is so disheartening is my lefty friends/family feeling somehow vindicated that he was removed.
Agreed. To repeat:
1. Maria Bartiromo did FAR more damage. She is the hardest working person in media, way more hours on air than Tucker with bigger views across all those hours. She was flogging the fraud claims herself while Tucker did it indirectly, via having cranks on.
2. You’d expect Fox to have gotten an $ reduction from Dominion for firing Tucker. This would be leaving a ton of $ on the table. I’ve had media companies as clients and they are the best and most brutal negotiators because they do it all day, way more than Wall Street types.
This happened fast and looks to have caught Tucker by surprise, which is in line with the idea that this was done by the Murdochs directly. We’ll find out if they were determined to fire him or wanted to put curbs on him that he rejected.
“What is so disheartening is my lefty friends/family feeling somehow vindicated that he was removed.”
What’s so disheartening to me is how many of my lefty friends are both very intelligent on a given topic and at the same time very weak minded/ short sighted in general. Like precocious children. The past few years have brought this home to me. TDS for example.
If some of them seem a lost cause, just remind yourself that ‘people are entitled to their delusions’. Look at AOC. One time she was thought to be a breath of fresh air but now?
‘AOC went from “Medicare For All” to “We must silence my political opponents and critics” pretty quick’
https://twitter.com/DoctorFishbones/status/1650813657452883968
Is she still admired by your lefty friends? But ask carefully. :)
Yes, I’m careful not to refer to her as “princess” with some of my lefty friends. / ;)
For me the moment came years ago when many of my gay friends, whose cause I fought for at great risk even when it was deeply unpopular, and whom I assumed shared my principles of inclusion, turned out in the end to be anti-bi, anti-trans, and finally more recently, anti-BLM.
It has been observed, I forget who made the observation, that we started seeing this phenomenon during suffrage and first wave feminism whereby a previously disadvantaged group, having come into advantage and the mainstream, then proceeds to turn against their own stated principles and side with keeping other groups disadvantaged. In the case of suffrage the same white women who wanted the vote for themselves wanted to deny that same for their Black and Brown sisters worldwide – even well into second wave feminsim.
And as I always point out, Hillary Clinton, an avowed feminist, was against gay marriage. I was a huge Clinton fan until that point, will never forgive them for that.
And now the left, once about freedom of speech and antiwar, by some catalyst is no longer about freedom of speech and is decidely pro-censorship and pro-war. We go from helphelpwe’reebingoppresssed to being the oppressers.
anti-BLM(tm)
As it has been shown, corporate BLM was nothing more than Bezzle and lip service.
https://blackagendareport.com/validity-and-usefulness-term-black-misleadership-class
None more viscous that a class/race traitor who knows they are swapped one set of chains for another, abet with velvet lining. They fear their victims as well as their masters, the thin line leads to all sorts of mental gymnastics and illness. Only thing disappointing than to find out there is a Buffalos Soldier Museum is to go there and find it was an even worse white wash than was expected.
> None more viscous that a class/race traitor …
Indeed. Oleaginous, even.
:-)
… or vicious even…. ;-) Thanks.
The Bi and Trans movement is somewhat at odds with the gay movement. (Especially trans movement) What a generation ago would have been simply a gay man or women, are now individuals being encouraged (coerced?) to be trans.
It’s logical therfore that this change in treatment towards [a given individual] would be recieved as a negative. It’s fair to even call this view/them anti-trans/anti-bi even if they continue to share them same principles of inclusion for any specific bi or trans individual as you do
We live in the same universe, myself in a ‘Berkeley East’ college town. I am often asked if I watched Maddow.
What’s particularly disheartening is my NYC TDS friends whom I’d formerly assumed would know better.
“Oh no, I would never watch anyone who was a regular on the Tucker Carlson show or regularly hosted Pat Buchanan.” This has been my response.
If you can work in not being a white nationalist, they lose their steam. As Jon Stewart’s performance on Crossfire demonstrated, Tucker was always bad, even when he was on MSNBC.
Tucker and Phil Donahue should team up.
Moon’s latest….Biden Prepares To Give Up On Ukraine
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/04/biden-prepares-to-give-up-on-ukraine.html#more
I suspect there was total “Uni” agreement that Tucker couldn’t be around for Ukraine unwinding.
Want a really Good Laugh? Read Stephen Walt’s latest.
https://archive.is/8gooK
Customers of First Republic Bank pulled more than $100 billion in deposits out of the bank during last month’s crisis, as fears swirled that it could be the third bank to fail after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
San Francisco-based First Republic said Monday that it was only after a group of large banks stepped in to save it by depositing $30 billion in uninsured deposits that the bank was able to staunch the bleeding.
The bank said it now plans to sell off assets and restructure its balance sheet, and said it also expects to lay off as much as a quarter of its workforce, which totaled about 7,200 employees at the end of 2022.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to the internet, ‘silent bank alarms’ are a thing now, and unlike a traditional bank run where you line up to get your moolah-which only increases anxiety, those that withdrew their money did it on the QT online, and aside from the bank, nobody knew nothing.
Aren’t bank runs all about this ‘freedom of capital’ to move that our political masters keep on telling us is a great thing? I tend to think that it is a good thing overall. Back in the financial strife of ’08, this big financial guy went on TV to tell people to not to worry about their money and that everything would be fine. This was just after he texted his wife to grab every card that they had in the house and to go down and pull out the maximum amount of money that she could from the ATMs. Just the thought that any money I had in my bank could be seized and used in a bank-bail in makes me restless if trouble arose. As they have done that before, they can’t put that genie back in the bottle anymore.
The Earth Day article really fired me up this morning. More and more pollution all the time and there is nothing we can do about it because the polluters have all the political power. However, if life on earth is to continue long term, people must summon the courage to join together and stop the polluters. I think the most effective approach would be to form thousands of monkey wrench gangs to take on the polluters by cutting wires, plugging pipes, disabling electric transformers, etc. We need to move our society back to the times when there was less pollution. We have to go back to safety.
There is no force more damaging to the environment than war. Let me know when the illiberal liberals of the Democratic persuasion celebrating earthday figure that part out and stop the madness of extending the forever wars of choice and aggression which they seek because of their deluded partisanship.
Re: the empty basket. Ha-Jong Chang is often a voice of reason. At an LSE debate on the methodologies and constructs of economics, he forcefully said: economic policies hurt people (citing UK austerity policies, etc.) …therefore economists are obligated to be more informed (history, sociology, etc.) and to take human issues into account.
Ukraine gets Afghan style warning … weren’t the “warnings” about how the Afghan government would be able to hold out for months on the strength of the US training and equipment for its forces? Am I misremembering the way the US had to run away in a panic because its intelligence assessments were terribly wrong and the Afghan president gave up immediately and ran away with trunks full of cash?
Or is the warning Kiev is getting that the US will abandon Zelensky in a hot minute just like it abandoned Kabul?
Pallas’s Cat (new species confirmed) Those eyes! Looks like a four-year election cycle voter contemplating the offerings. Not Happy- smoldering.
How’s that for anthropomorphizing the newest charismatic macro-fauna ?
The rightwing Daily Mail seems tougher on Carlson than the NYT.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/24/business/media/tucker-carlson-fox-news-dismissal.html
Which doesn’t make the Times his fan either of course. If I’m not mistaken Carlson was always a trust fund baby and so not dependent on his day job and could do what he wanted. Perhaps for many on the right that made him a “class traitor” when he played contrarian.
‘Hell’s Painter’
I was compelled to go pull my copy of ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ and worry about our culture’s investment in Joseph Campbell’s definition of a ‘hero’. Does George think, personally in his heart of hearts, that he’s one of those faces? He’s fond of mythologies. Are we agreed here that all ideologies fail? Their bedrock is story, the story of us. The ones we tell ourselves and each other have become (I suspect) hollowed out as a political tool, nothing more than propaganda. I can’t just enjoy the Tale anymore without analyzing what it is I’m being sold.
The deeper the emotions, the greater the subtext.
https://www.skillshare.com/en/blog/the-heros-journey-stages-and-structure/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/25/lamar-johnson-ginny-schrappen-pen-pal-missouri
I will put my comment about Hell’s Painter here to be neat. The article does not cover his paintings, which admittedly look pretty bad, but concern his policies as President. I can see why Hunter does abstracts if his talent rises to the same level. The last record I can find for the sale of a G. W. Bush painting was from 2018 when it sold for $720. Hunter’s work is currently selling for $55,000 apiece and up to $225,000. Not bad for the son of a President. I will bet that 100 years from now the Bush paintings will be worth more.
The money that Hunter is getting for his artwork is just a legal way of money laundering. Like how another person will get paid millions of dollars for a book that nobody will bother reading or maybe doing a series of podcasts. Or how another person will give a speech to a small group and get paid several hundred thousand dollars for it. As for the artwork that George Bush is doing, maybe a century from now they can hang an example of his next to another from an early 20th century failed German artist.
When Godwins, humanity loses.
‘…maybe a century from now they can hang an example of his next to another from an early 20th century failed German artist.’
Well done you!
Too late. Justice Thomas’ Sugar Daddy already has a Bush on the wall next to an actual Adolph.
Satire is dead. It couldn’t keep up with current affairs.
I would bet that Hunter’s will be worth less, much less, five minutes after old Joe departs the White House one way or another.
My guess is the resale value already approaches zero.
In case someone hasn’t said it already, apologies if I missed it: I think Tucker will make more going independent and will take his followers with him AND will no longer be regulated by FOX.
Those celebrating are celebrating too soon (and for the wrong reasons). If he does what I think he’ll do, he’s about to become louder AND increase his fan base and this time no network or editorial board will regulate or inhibit him. He has gone from being somewhat censored by network guidelines, needing to responsibly represent the corporate network, to being a free agent able to say whatever he wants.
This move will also make him a hero.
The thing is, I don’t think the guy was alt-right, religious right or fash, but there’s a real risk that we may be pushing him into that camp, also pushing that camp to him. Someone who steers themselves according to wherever the stronger argument leads them, which I think is Tucker (and just to be clear, I think he goes in wrong directions, with wrong arguments and reaches wrong conclusions), hopefully remains independent minded and free thinking.
And the fact that someone like me (extreme lefty) can reasonably agree with any of his stances on their own merits, e.g. his antiwar, anti-globalist, anti-interference, means he’s a very powerful and dangerous guy and antiwar, antiglobalist lefties like myself have no other voice on the airwaves right now.
I also agree that it’s a blow to freedom of speech in that the mainstream media landscape just got more homogenic, pablumized, has fewer voices standing up to and critical of government and state, an important function and responsibility the mainstream media has abdicated. Having said that, it’s looking like that mantle is taken up by the people. And Tucker is now the people.
Obligatory note: I don’t agree with Tucker on most things, especially politics, am not a fan – but I do not think this is the victory people think it is.
“Officer who fatally shot Breonna Taylor hired by sheriff’s office in Kentucky”
I would question Carroll county’s basic competency here. So they took a look at this Myles Cosgrove character, heard that he let fly with 16 bullets which killed an innocent women, put the Louisville police into nation-wide disrepute with unwanted publicity, was sacked in the end for not following basic police procedures and for not having his body cam on, caused Louisville city officials to have to pay out $2 million to settle the resulting lawsuits, caused a Federal justice department investigation of the Louisville police, and after hearing all this, their first instinct was to say ‘We have got to totally hire this guy!’
re: F*** Earth Day
I’ve never ever thought Earth Day would actually contribute some sort of solution, to me it was always more of a symbolic act. I suspect this is a case of the original idea was Earth Day as symbolic act but zealous followers, as usual, as is their wont, took a good idea and through their zealotry inadvertantly subverted it, tried to convince others that turning off the lights actually makes a difference for the complete wrong reasons, and it snowballed from there.
Snow that melts into the Kern is at around 400% of average (versus a mere 300% of average above tiny town) and if there’s a place in deep doodoo it’s My Kevin’s (since ’07) neck of the woods…
https://www.bakersfield.com/news/chevron-braces-for-possible-flooding-in-kern-river-oil-field/article_9a1a5de4-e2dc-11ed-bf93-1bcdc0c4af24.html
Re Harper’s Goop cover and a very stupid article – it’s the first time I’ve ever been embarrassed to have a Harper’s for all to see on my table at my coffee shop. How I long for the Lewis Lapham days when it was worth reading.
Agreed! Either Harpers’ editors are blissfully unaware of how they’re playing directly into Goop’s marketing strategy, which seems to rely heavily on outrage & mockery on the part of media sophisticates, or they’re perfectly well aware of the same and just want to exploit the attention of those same mocking sophisticates for their own profit. Not sure which it is; either way making fun of Goop seems like old hat at this point. Also, Oyler’s ramblings can’t hold a candle to David Foster Wallace’s genuinely enjoyable 1995 commission for Harpers, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again”. Oyler knows it too, otherwise I can’t imagine her throwing the shade in ol’ DFW’s direction that she does in this piece, LOL.
>”Oyler’s ramblings can’t hold a candle to David Foster Wallace’s genuinely enjoyable 1995 commission for Harpers, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again”. Oyler knows it too, otherwise I can’t imagine her throwing the shade in ol’ DFW’s direction that she does in this piece, LOL.”
Thank you for this and well said. As a big DFW fan I’ve read most of his stuff and his cruise essay is a classic of its genre and will be read long after Oyler’s typings have disappeared into some dusty corner of the internet.
Oyler says, somewhat gratuitously and irrelevantly considering her topic at hand, “It’s not that good.” She (a self-professed feminist) then goes on to suggest DFW and his writings were “misogynistic” (just to compound her gratuity and irrelevance).
I have never sensed this. But then maybe I am dense, a reader with poor comprehension, blind to the subtleties and nuances of a hidden hatred. Or, could it be that I don’t pore over lines of text, looking for and cherry-picking “transgressions”, and then accusing the author of literary “crimes”.
Yeah, the article was garbage.
Ignore the Goop on Harper’s cover and take a look inside at a bit of hidden treasure: Fae Myenne Ng’s “Book of Lies,” a chapter from her forthcoming memoir.
Her life and her family’s, framed by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the Confession Program that falsely promised to resolve it: “Exclusion and Confession, the two slamming doors of America.” A story told with fierceness and delicacy, a depth of feeling and not a drop of sentimentality.
Funny how USA has secularized the catholic excommunication and confession runaround, and made it a core part of its social structure. And thanks to social media, now it gets exported globally…
From the NYT:
Harry Belafonte, 96, Dies; Barrier-Breaking Singer, Actor and Activist
A 2011 Documentary: Sing Your Song
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sing+your+song+harry+belafonte
Just saw that Obama got in some free publicity talking about that in a tweet showing him next to Belefonte. I really doubt that it was genuine.
“The Faces of Sanxingdui: Mysterious Masks of the Ancient Shu Kingdom”
They are so different. If somebody asked me where they came from, China is not a place that I would have thought of. South America perhaps if I had to guess. And to tell you the truth I do see a distant echo of some of the artwork that came out of the Pacific islanders. Other artwork that they created, you can see a Chinese aspect to them but those masks are something else again-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanxingdui
I thought they definitely look African south of Sahel…
R.I.P. Harry
Shake, shake, shake my bank, shake the bottom line
Shake, shake, shake my bank, shake it out in time
Work, work, work, work your online line
Work, work, work, work it all out and i’ll be fine
My bank’s name is First Republic
I tell you friends, there’s a run by the public
And when it goes B/K, oh brother!
Luckily you can withdraw in all kinds of weather
(Jump in de line, get your money out in time) OK, I believe you!
(Jump in de line, get your money out in time) OK, I believe you!
(Jump in de line, get your money out in time) OK, I believe you!
(Jump in de line, get your money out in time) Whoa!
Shake, shake, shake my bank, shake the bottom line
Shake, shake, shake my bank, shake it out in time
Work, work, work, work your online line
Work, work, work, work it all out and i’ll be fine
You can talk about SVB
Signature Bank & the big rumble
First Republic’s dance has more financial tumble
You jump out of the saddle
Hold on to de bundle
(Jump in de line, get your money out in time) OK, I believe you!
(Jump in de line, get your money out in time) Rock your body,child!
(Jump in de line, get your money out in time) Somebody, help me!
(Jump in de line, get your money out in time) Whoa!
Shake, shake, shake my bank, shake the bottom line
Shake, shake, shake my bank, shake it out in time
Work, work, work, work your online line
Work, work, work, work it all out and i’ll be fine
Jump in the Line, by Harry Belafonte
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMXBJW1PuU8
Chevron Corp. is shutting in some of its production in the Kern River Oil Field to minimize chances of an oil spill in case the unprecedented snowpack above Isabella Lake leads to flooding near Bakersfield.
A spokesman said by email Monday the company is monitoring the situation and working with government agencies to “prepare for potential flooding” by doing things like isolating wells and planning to scale up such efforts as needed “depending on river levels.”
Pipelines serving the oil field are being drained and power has been turned off in some areas, Kern River Watermaster Mark Mulkay said Monday. The intention is not only to protect against an accidental release of crude into the Kern, he added, but also to make sure oil is not actively pumped into the river if disaster strikes.
“They know what’s coming and what they’re getting ready for,” Mulkay said about recent actions by Chevron officials. He added that the company has “all kinds of people out there working on it.”
The Kern River Oil Field, extending north-northeast of Bakersfield alongside its namesake, is considered the most dense oilfield operation in California. Some of its wells are located inside the river’s levee system, while some are outside of it.
Kern County’s most senior official, Chief Administrative Officer Ryan Alsop, said Monday he had heard nothing about flood-related risks in the oil field, adding, “if that is an issue, Chevron has not made us aware of it.”
In regards to Tucker Carlson and Fox, over 14 years ago. There was a book written about Roger Ailes and Murdock. It told a story about a battle between Murdock and Ailes. Obama’s people had come directly to Murdock to complain about the coverage of Obama and his wife. Obama was having a fit over being portrayed as something short of a foreign terrorist. They wanted it stopped. There had also been a vanity fair story written on this incident. Murdock pushed for a meeting between Ailes and Obama. Secretly. Anyway the story goes that Ailes was forced by Murdock to tone down the coverage of Obama. Makes me wonder about Tuckers very recent coverage of RFK jr. This couldn’t have gone over well with the Biden people. Or the DNC. Since the DNC can go after sponsors using fake groups like color of change which promotes putting pressure on advertising sponsors using boycotts. These were used to go after bill O Reilly.
After Murdock all ready had to payout money on dominion law suit, I doubt he would want a boycott of sponsors. Just a guess but since there is coverage on anyone running against Biden. The fact that there are no primary debates and they are effectively keeping all press away from Biden. They would cover their bases and do what Obama did to keep Fox in line. These people seem to be all about control. They were so unhinged over Matt Taibbi and the Twitter files. Murdock is establishment he won’t knock the narrative. He also wouldn’t like Biden to lose to Trump. War makes money.
Agreed.
To have such as Taibbi, Mate, Greenwald and Dore on there, from their prospective, would be bad enough, but to have the prospect of Kennedy running a potential dirty break campaign from FOX must have sent them into a frenzy.
I wonder what sweet nothings Pfizer et al might have whispered into Murdock’s ear. “Nice station ya got there. Be a shame if anything happened to your advertising dollars.”
Brought to you by Pfizer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAkQlZgnbUQ
“Space Force chief says U.S. is facing a ‘new era’ of threats beyond Earth”
The US Space Force, who has stated that their mission is to dominate space, is saying that any other country in space is a threat. ‘Kay. He says ‘The congestion we’re seeing in space with tracked objects and the number of satellite payloads, and just the launches themselves, have grown at an exponential rate.’ but what he does not mention is all those billionaires who are launching satellites by the tens of thousand into orbit – and none of them are Chinese or Russian. But at the end of this article you can see that all he really wants is more money.
ah, applying the Monroe Doctrine to the universe. logical.
RE: Biden announces 2024 reelection bid The Hill
So, the catastrophe that the biden-harris “administration” has been from the git-go and almost no one wants back is announcing that it will make itself available to the country for four more years, with the promise to “finish the job.”
Yikes!
In the FWIW department, James Howard Kunstler’s latest Clusterfuck Nation take is:
And Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse thinks that all that’s left is to figure out how biden and harris will be “off-ramped” for some combination of gavin newsom and susan rice, who quietly exited her position as biden’s domestic policy advisor this week.
Dunno, but I tend to agree with the last sentence of Turley’s “Blinken/Made Men” link:
(I hear that digitalis causes heart attacks and is virtually undetectable in the blood stream should anyone suspect “foul play.”)
Digitalis comes from foxgloves. They produce pretty spectacular spikes of bell-shaped flowers that bees love to explore.
Wow that’s great!
They’ve caught up to my slogan for the dems from 2020…
“Let’s crash this thing!”
I read it and thought “Yes, you’ve beaten me to a pulp so far, finishing the job would kill me.” I can’t handle him “finishing the job”. There won’t be anything left of me. Can’t wait to see the memes for this one-low hanging fruit. smh. Someone probably got paid a lot of money to come up with that.
I wish I had stuck my foot out when I had the chance.
Stuck your foot out – I bet there is a story there! (And I share your dread.)
“Let’s crash this thing!”
Reminds me of that term, Controlled Flight Into Terrain. If anyone ever writes a book about the Democratic party culminating with the Biden Administration, that would make a great title.
If you can stomach it: Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’
Mostly about the Pandemic, but read this at the end:
It makes one wonder if he started listening to the “ultraright MAGA Community” right now, what truths would be found? Is that the moral to this story? What truths do the deplorables have that we can all learn from?
What is he even trying to say with that statement?
This kum-ba-ya tone he is setting for what happened in the AIDS years is just nauseating for those of us who were there.
He is misrepresenting what occurred because deep down he knows that his mistakes then were prologue to similar misjudgment and handling of Covid. And he expects that the only media pushback that will count, aka from acceptable MSM sources, would probably come from those who lived through and know that period.
“Early years”?!?! Fauci might have finally realized HIV was not going to remain a gay plague and that his preferred solution of so many Guinea pigs for vaccine production trials was not going to work with women and children in the mix. And that he had to allow the processes gay activists were demanding, because it was no longer just gay activists. But it certainly didn’t happen early and many of us know his so called outreach was not willing. I hope to god someone destroys this self serving jerk and his version of history
Sad that a doctor didn’t catch that the “bit of connection” is that both sets of people are afraid for their lives, tired of being lied to and about, and otherwise being ignored by politicians and medical authorities. One “bucking against the government” was a learning experience for Fauci. The other was a vision from a $hit-lib fever swamp.
What is dr F planning for his future, I wonder. Going to work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? Going to work for the WHO (virtually the same thing.) Going to work for GAVI? Becoming a ‘distinguished lecturer’ at an ivy?
I don’t see him retiring to gardening and fishing or golf. He still has left in him more damage to do / grrr.
Fact checking Dr Fauci
Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’ NYT Magazine 4/24/23
“If you look at what worked for us, it was on the science side: the extraordinary investments that were made for decades before the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. First, the work in platform technology that led to essentially a revolution in how we make vaccines. No.2 is structure-based immunogen design. That helped with antiviral design, too — that has been the most underrated part of our response. I mean, show me a person who’s vaccinated, got infected, took Paxlovid and died. I can’t find anybody.”
It took me about 2 minutes to come up with this study showing that at least 29 died that met Fauchi’s criteria.
Per the CDC: Paxlovid Associated with Decreased Hospitalization Rate Among Adults with COVID-19 — United States, April–September 2022
Weekly / December 2, 2022 / 71(48);1531–1537
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7148e2.htm
“Among the 5,229 persons with a COVID-19 hospitalization, 930 (17.8%) received Paxlovid during the 5 days after diagnosis. Overall, 211 deaths were reported during a COVID-19 hospitalization. Among those who received Paxlovid, 0.01% (29 of 198,927) died compared with 0.04% (182 of 500,921) of persons who did not receive Paxlovid.”
I hate to be the one to show him.
I’m sorry what was the government trying to do as regards HIV? I seem to recall deafening silence, inaction, derision, rubber gloves, food trays left outside, etc.
Outreach in the early years? Would that I could get Joe Sonnabend on the phone.
High copper prices leads to thieves ripping wiring from tractors, farmers say Guardian
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nickels are 75% copper and cost twice as much to mint as the face value, its as if we’re thieving ourselves.
I dropped by my local CU’s ATM this morning a little before 8 with the intent of doing some minor shopping as soon as Trader Joe’s opened.
There was a sign on the front door and another on each ATM announcing that they would only be available between 9 AM and 5 PM due to the increased number of crimes taking place at ATM’s locally.
Since it’s part of the same network I went by an RCU ATM (Also in Santa Rosa Ca), same story but open at 8:30 AM.
Wuk, sorry for the delayed response.
You asked yesterday why I did not
“Open Carry” a firearm if I was concerned about my safety.
It’s for the same reason I registered Republican when I turned 18, the “Black Panther Gun Law” AKA the Mulford Act.
My Parent’s crowd was the Sierra Club/ACLU/Adelle Davis/Rodale Press bunch and their reaction to a bunch of Black Men legally carrying rifles on the steps of the Alameda County Courthouse was clarifying.
I was young and thought that their praise of Dr King and their condemnation of Racism in America’s South was genuine.
That belief changed when a group of black Men had the temerity to behave as if the Constitution applied to them and these same people reacted with abject fear and a demand that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE TO PROTECT THE CHILDREN!!! from “Those People”.
The smarmy hypocrisy was and is disgusting.
A little Fact Check.
Seems the NRA was all for gun control in this case and backed the Mulford Act:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nra-california-open-carry-ban/
(apologies for the source)
Democrat RFK Jr. Says Tucker Carlson Is ‘Breathtakingly Courageous’ in Wake of Fox News Departure
RFK Jr., who just last week launched his 2024 campaign for the Democratic nomination for president, suggested that Carlson’s Fox News exit came because of the host’s recent monologue about pharmaceutical companies
https://people.com/politics/robert-kennedy-jr-weighs-in-tucker-carlson-exit/
A voice like Tucker’s promoting and defending the efforts of RFK Jr’s. run would be a great asset. He can get a UToob show now, and meet a younger demographic perhaps, as mentioned above. Could Tucker pull some of the more moderate conservative voters who fear a second round of Trump/(insert goblin here) but equally fear a second round of Biden/Harris? Questions, questions…
Putin-fever in Germany. It would have been hilarious if it wouldn’t have serious consequences
https://www-nachdenkseiten-de.translate.goog/?p=96742&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
‘According to the media, “Putin wants to recapture Germany”. With nothing less than “a putsch” – led “by left-wing icon Sahra Wagenknecht and the far right of the AfD”.’
According to Wikipedia: ‘The horseshoe metaphor was used as early as during the Weimar Republic to describe the ideology of the Black Front.’
Has the Horseshoe Theory boomeranged back to its origins? No, just an incoming kinzhal.
Thanks for the Taibbi link.
Wondering if in 2024 I’ll have a choice between the CIA party candidate and the FBI party candidate.
For those that are curious about how Gun laws are actually enforced you can do so in just a few minutes.
Go to any large US metropolitan area ( In SF and Chicago I’d look at the County as well as the City Data) and look at the number of felons charged with illegal possession of a firearm, a crime which has been punishable by 10 years in the Federal Pen and a $25K fine since 1934.
89 years.
Then look at the US Attorney’s website for the same year or years and look at the number of Felons who were prosecuted for that crime in the same period.
Just for fun, and before looking, make a guess about the percentage of violent criminals who were prosecuted under this section of the NFA ’34.
Come on, guess!
None whatsoever?
Re: Gallipoli landings: Hundreds of Australians, New Zealanders attend dawn service in Türkiye
I spotted this curiosity in the article: “A famed letter by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic, to the families of foreign soldiers who lost their lives in the battle was also read out.”
Curiouser: “Ataturk’s ‘Johnnies and Mehmets’ words about the Anzacs are shrouded in doubt.”
The discussion below the second article – The Guardian 2015 – opens up a WWI ANZAC controversy I was never aware of. More curious than the fact that many war memorial obelisks in the UK bear the dates 1914-1919, and some even 1914-1921.
https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/archives_online/digital/russia/civil_war/
UK was part of the 9 to 14 nations (depending on what you call a nation vs. colony) that participated in fighting in Russia, North China, Korea, against the proto-Soviet, and sometimes even against their putative allies The White Russian Army, This war for the UK semi-secretly ended in 1921. One could claim it never ended, but at least the uniformed troops were out by 1921.
Cheers – interesting archive, including The Blockade of Russia by Britain, which refers to seizure of Russian assets and interference by naval command in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.
Have twice now come across an account of how the guy that replaced Tucker Carlson on air was wearing a Ukrainian flag lapel pin.