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Links 9/16/2023

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A Cockatiel in a Flower Hat Whistles ‘I’m a Little Teapot’ Laughing Squid. Seems pleased with himself too.

Hurricane Lee threatens New England, eastern Canada Reuters (furzy). :-(. Last really big NE storm took out quite a few of the first growth Bowdoin pines and many other old trees along the coast.

We’ve Been Misreading a Major Law of Physics For The Past 300 Years ScienceAlert (Chuck L)

Two-Month Study of Pig Kidney Xenotransplantation Gives New Hope to the Future of the Organ Supply NYY Lagone (guurst)

Oregon’s Novel Psilocybin Experiment Takes Off Associated Press

Revived patients share life-after-death experiences New York Post (furzy)

Climate/Environment

House passes bill targeting California’s EV mandate The Hill

Dams Worldwide Are at Risk of Catastrophic Failure Scientific American (David L)

We Thought We Were Saving the Planet, but We Were Planting a Time Bomb New York Times (David L)

China?

China AI & Semiconductors Rise: US Sanctions Have Failed SemiAnalysis (guurst)

TSMC’s outlook is so fuzzy it’s reportedly stalling fab machine deliveries The Register

S.Korea, US agree to make N.Korea, Russia ‘pay price’ for military cooperation Anadolu Agency. Let me know how that goes. Will be interesting to see how Russian foreign ministry responds. One line could be, “If you hadn’t imposed illegal sanctions, we might not have to make as many friends as possible” but that would seem to make the NKorea move look like weakness (plus a diss to NKorea), as opposed to lateral escalation.

Two years after AUKUS announcement, American politicians are divided on delivery of subs to Australia ABC News (Kevin W)

India

Canada hits pause on trade mission to India after tensions at G20 summit Aljazeera. This is not how a confident country behaves.

Niger

Macron says France’s Niger ambassador a ‘hostage’ in embassy DW

European Disnuion

EU lifts bans on Ukrainian grain but Poland and Hungary move to impose unilateral restrictions Euronews (Kevin W)

Old Blighty

Starmer attacked from left and right after setting out plan to stop Channel crossings Guardian (Kevin W)

Stay away from politics William Davies, London Review of Books (Anthony L)

It was a knife in the front’: The fall of Boris Johnson – and Rishi Sunak’s part in it Telegraph

The shoplifting epidemic is a sign that Britain is on the verge of anarchy International Affairs (Micael T). Posting for reader sanity check. This outlet tends to be onto things but also paints in overly bright colors. Can UK readers help calibrate?

New Not So Cold War

Note this is an unconfirmed rumor but seems to be widely discussed, per Alex Christaforu yesterday:

The hard lessons from Ukraine’s summer offensive Financial Times. Lambert featured yesterday but worth a gander if you missed it. archive.ph is your friend.

UN aid to Ukraine exceeds assistance to Afghanistan by one billion US dollars — diplomat TASS (guurst)

House GOP grows skeptical on Ukraine: ‘It’s not just the Freedom Caucus’ The Hill (Li). Hence Zelensky visiting to try lobbying in person.

Who can be so crazy and suicidal? The Russians, of course! Unparalleled misinformation and obscene reportage in the West exposed. Eastern Angle (Micael T). Just because a post is unabashedly partisan does not mean its point is invalid.

Key Putin Ally Ramzan Kadyrov Is Critically Ill: Ukrainian Report Newsweek (furzy). Note Newsweek is not great on reliability and neither are Ukraine sources, but word should get out in Russian sources if true.

Freedom Caucus won’t support Ukraine ‘blank check.’ What’s that mean? Responsible Statescraft

Syraqistan

Libyan authorities say floods may have killed 20,000 people PressTV (Anthony L)

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

California Legislature Passes Delete Act Regulating Data Brokers Association of Privacy Professionals

Google To Pay $155 Million In Settlements Over Location Tracking Reuters Reuters. This is couch lint for Google.

Lina Khan Got Stuck in the Fallout of the MGM Hack at Las Vegas Bloomberg

How Google Authenticator Made One Company’s Network Breach Much, Much Worse ars technica

Imperial Collapse Watch

Patrick Lawrence: Unsweet Dreams Patrick Lawrence, ScheerPost (Anthony L)

Is NATO Learning About Its Future in Ukraine? Stephen Bryen (Micael T)

What could be the reasons for the Western delay in hypersonic weapons? Cf2R (via machine translation, original here, guurst)

1/6

Trump

I notice below a dearth of supporting clips showing Trump behaving as if he is having issues, as opposed to talking heads assertions. On the one hand, videos of the young Trump show him using complex sentences routinely in press interviews. On the other hand, he spent 14 years as a TV show host, which is astonishing longevity in that business. His current manner of speaking strikes me as a shtick that has become his default. People who are expert in public speaking who have been to Trump rallies (admittedly a few years back) disagreed with the trope that he is disorganized. He riffs on a topic, using a lot of emotive phrases, looks for crowd reactions and piles on the riff, then moves on to the next topic. It is extremely unconventional but it is effective. I watched the recent Tucker interview. The times when Trump’s response seemed wobbly (not many) was when he was trying to figure out how to shunt a question. Trump does not resort to the conventional trick of ducking a question by hammering on unrelated talking points. He feigns a response and then tries to segue.

This is a long winded way of saying Trump may be declining but I see much of the criticism below as a mischaracterization of his eccentric yet effective dumbed down speaking style.

Prosecutors’ Request for a Gag Order on Trump New York Times (furzy)

Biden

Conservatives’ 2nd amendment push could help Hunter Biden Los Angeles Times (furzy)

The Gun Charges Against Hunter Biden Are Unusual. Here’s Why. New York Times (Kevin W). Help me. Story sets up Hunter as victim for supposedly harsh gun charges. The selection of charges was designed to create the appearance of having done something about Hunter’s serial bad conduct w/o going after money laundering and more serious tax fraud charges, which would have implicated Joe and other Bidens.

PENTAGON-FUNDED STUDY WARNS DEMENTIA AMONG U.S. OFFICIALS POSES NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT Intercept (Dr. Kevin). So Biden should not feel so bad, he’s on the receiving end of the Blob’s war against the senile? But this also amounts to the Blob saying its assessment of security risks takes precedence over democratic processes.

Gretchen Whitmer: Three men cleared of plotting to kidnap governor BBC (Kevin W)

GOP Clown Car

New Video of Lauren Boebert at Beetlejuice Captures More Horrifying Behavior New Republic (furzy). I get that this was an offensive display of misplaced entitlement, but “horrifying”?

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert called pregnant woman ‘miserable’ before being tossed from ‘Beetlejuice’: report New York Post (furzy)

Immigration

AOC HECKLED by furious New Yorkers over migrant crisis Daily Mail (Li)

Lampedusa migrant crisis: 7,000 people arrive on Italian island of 6,000 CNN (furzy)

Lampedusa, Italy, shows America the future of lawless immigration New York Post (furzy)

Abortion

In Poland, Testing Women for Abortion Drugs Is a Reality. It Could Happen Here. New York Times (Paul R)

Our No Longer Free Press

EXCLUSIVE: Homeland Security awards $20 million in grants to police, mental health networks, universities, churches and school districts to help identify Americans as potential ‘extremists’ Leo Hohmann (Li). A swampy source but looks like a valid sighting. The good news is that $20 million is the functional equivalent of zero. This looks like minimally indulging a demand by Someone. However, the bad news is more could follow.

The rise of surge pricing: ‘It will eventually be everywhere’ Financial Times. This may be the salvation of retail stores. In the US, retail store licenses require that fixed prices of goods be visible to the buyer.

AI

Reality minus minus James Ladyman, Professor of Philosophy, YouTube (Anthony L). Important.

Three in Four Americans Believe AI Will Reduce Jobs Gallup

MSN Retracts Insane AI-Generated Obit Calling Dead NBA Player ‘Useless’ Daily Beast

Class Warfare

GM CEO Mary Barra can’t answer if it’s fair that workers make peanuts compared to her $30 million (video) BoingBoing

‘Are you out of your f—ing minds?’: Dems recoil at Biden’s approach to labor standoff Politico

Former Wells Fargo executive avoids prison time for her role in fake-accounts fraud CNN. Kevin W: “‘Prison sentences for such high-level executives are rare.’ So how has that worked out for the economy?” Moi: This woman not only stole (her bonuses reflected the success of her account plundering scheme), she was running an internal racketeering operation.

Antidote du jour:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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219 comments

  1. Steve H.

    > New Video of Lauren Boebert at Beetlejuice Captures More Horrifying Behavior New Republic

    I think they skipped the part where she puts his hand on her breast and starts jacking him off.

    Not kidding. Not linking either.

    1. dave -- just dave

      The Daily Mail has pictures and descriptions of “heavy petting” and quotes an apology from her.

        1. Wukchumni

          Drove by Eagle (her district) en route to Vail, and although its only 30 miles between them, it seemed vaster.

          One of those ‘Caucasian Island’ type towns, 87% white population.

        2. ambrit

          Well, we must admit that a significant portion of “our” elected officials are “PIGS.” (People In Government Sinecures.)

        3. Leftist Mole

          Back in 2022 we actually stopped in Rifle to get a bit of lunch, right across from her campaign office and the Rifle Bar she and her husband owned. To my surprise the shops across from her were a new age mystical type shop, a handmade craft gallery, (all the sort that would fly rainbow flags if Boebert types wouldn’t tear them down) and Mexican restaurants.

          The recently divorced Ms. Boebert is the mother of four boys and one grandson. What a burden for them – she’s still young and obviously, delayed sowing her wild oats.

      4. griffen

        Been a few years, South Park featured an episode where the husbands all contrive taking their spouse to watch Broadway performances like Wicked…hilarity ensues when Randy purports to become a playwright…

        She’s not quite 40…and on the prowl for her next prey as it were.

    3. Es s Cetera

      I was curious about that but the internet seems to have been scrubbed of that. There is a residual mention of it in a Google cached wikipedia entry but when you click on it, nothing. You’re one of the few people to see it before the scrubbing took effect.

      1. lyman alpha blob

        Just searched for it on Brave – it wasn’t hard to find. They look like a couple of randy teenagers. I’d always thought there was a clandestine coatroom in Congress for that type of thing.

    4. Bugs

      She was rubbing his pants and he was feeling her up. Looked like she was drunk. Probably both were.

      She’s not someone I want holding any office but I refuse to judge because I think many of us have once or twice done something stupid in public. Better to attack her ideas than her behavior.

      1. cfraenkel

        Normally, I’d agree. But when the only “ideas” she’s known for is for vilifying a class of people for supposedly doing the exact same something stupid, then the something stupid in public is precisely on point. Hypocrisy absolutely should be called out.

      2. Bsn

        So sad that someone (regardless of who they are) can’t hang out in public, get a bit out of hand, with a friend, and hurting no one, and then everyone has to pass pictures around and comment endlessly in such a schoolyard simple manner. Sad people, sad.

  2. The Rev Kev

    “Freedom Caucus won’t support Ukraine ‘blank check.’ What’s that mean?”

    I would say that it means that enough is enough. Here is a list of donations for just 2023-

    https://twitter.com/DrLoupis/status/1701813856677335226

    Nobody knows what is happening to any of this money as Congress voted down legislation to track all that money. And I may be wrong but I think that all that money has been borrowed rather than just printed out of thin air and which would mean that it will have to be paid back – with interest – and would impact other parts of the national budget.

    1. digi_owl

      It may never have materialized at all.

      Likely the related papers at resting in a drawer right next to all those international agreements that some US president has signed but Congress can’t be bothered to ratify.

    2. bdy

      In the words of William Gibson, war is a cash operation. I believe him (in this case anywho) and imagine a significant portion gets printed at the mint, shipped over and passed around.

      1. Old Sarum

        Cash Operation:

        I recall that during WW2 Germany (Operation Bernhard) printed lots of Sterling banknotes. Did they really make any difference?

        Can anyone point to a good “executive summary” (apart from ChatGPT on Quora)?

        Pip-Pip!

  3. Wukchumni

    Lina Khan Got Stuck in the Fallout of the MGM Hack at Las Vegas Bloomberg
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I’d be delighted if Pavlovegas went away, but wasn’t thinking this is how it would happen, with negative reinforcement leading the way.

    It has been a week and not only are MGM & Caesars effected, there’s another handful of MGM properties that are dark.

    Oh for the days when a hacker was merely a largely talentless golfer plying their skills on a Vegas golf course, ha!

  4. timbers

    New Not So Cold War

    “unconfirmed rumor”…On that note, Military Summary says the US is building a Himars missile factory in Poland about 120 kl from Ukraine border, which might be ready in a year. Is US planning for long term harassment of Russia even after war is decided? MS Summary also implies Russia has in fact bombed Romania, and his limited English seems to suggest Romania has had enough of this and is moving to shut down these sites where drones that “Ukraine” is using in Romania that target Crimea.

    1. R.S.

      > Is US planning for long term harassment of Russia even after war is decided?

      My hunch is that if the whole cluster-thing doesn’t go nuclear, we’re in for a long ride. Two, maybe three decades of military conflicts.

      > the US is building a Himars missile factory in Poland

      At least there’s been a lot of talk about it lately. A maintenance center for HIMARS, a kit assembly factory, a factory for Korean Chunmoo MLRS ammo, a factory to make Javelins, etc etc.

      For instance,
      https://www.technology.org/2023/05/09/himars-production-maintenance-centre-in-poland-2023/

      This article (in Polish) specifically mentions a plan to manufacture 2-3 thousands of HIMARS missiles a year.
      https://www.tvp.info/69756189/w-polsce-beda-produkowane-rakiety-himars-przemyslaw-kowalczuk-prezes-pit-radwar-mowi-o-szczegolach-nowej-fabryki

      I’m not so sure that those plans will be implemented. It’s been a recurring topic on this site: promises, memoranda and fund allocations don’t build things by themselves.

      1. Schopsi

        It’s in the end quite convenient if those factories are built where Russia can comfortably destroy them if push comes to shove with NATO.

    1. Polar Socialist

      How can one be a hostage, if the people accused of hostage taking are actually trying to get one to leave but one is refusing to?

      And here I thought French is the most exact language…

      1. ambrit

        He is a hostage, to his own government.
        What is refreshing to see is that the coup government is slow walking this. Steady pressure, with no “sudden moves.” Such plays well on the World Stage. For the “Global South,” the coup government is coming across as the “adult in the room.”

          1. Old Sarum

            Ousting the French:

            Perhaps slightly distorted Opera; I’m thinking Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle would do the trick – something that the power-elite presume to be attuned to, but which grates all the same.

            However there are such things as ear-plugs.

            Pip-pip!

            ps What is the french argot equivalent to “Here’s your hat; what’s your hurry?”

    2. Darthbobber

      A peculiar “hostage situation” when the hostage takers just want the hostage to go home and he insists on staying. Maybe a resisted eviction?

    3. vao

      Some 25-30 years ago, after the end of Cold War I (OK, dated information, but still), I read an article in an official military magazine that surveyed military rations from major Western armed forces (France, UK, USA, etc). Everything about dietary balance, variety of menus, can they be eated cold as well as warm, ease of opening up the packaging, etc, was compared and evaluated.

      The last section was a brief one devoted to taste — which the authors readily admitted was entirely subjective, de gustibus non est disputandum, and so on. Nevertheless they mentioned that there was one case where the appeal of the reviewed rations had been put to a field test: Gulf War I. During the preparation of the counter-offensive against Saddam Hussein’s troops, soldiers of various armies camping in Saudi Arabia engaged in an active barter of rations. Reportedly, the more sought after rations were the French ones, trading at least 1 to 4 USA MRE…

      1. Wukchumni

        I did a week-long backpack trip about 25 years ago, solely on MRE’s, and not only did most of the entrees taste kinda icky, there was only 1 heating element in the packages, so you could have your choice of heating an entree or making a hot drink, not both.

        Make me the MRE majordomo and they’ll include freeze dried entrees, and a little stove and pot, along with a 4 ounce propane can with every 3rd MRE, which would last about 4-5 days of usage.

          1. Wukchumni

            You can buy tiny Chinese made stoves that weigh nothing and fold into an area of say 2×3 inches and fit into a plastic case, for around $10 online.

            I keep one in my backpack as a backup, it weighs about 4 ounces in total.

          2. The Rev Kev

            Consider yourself lucky that that Swedish army stove did no come with a complimentary free can of Surströmming. What is it? Surströmming is made from Baltic sea herring, which is fermented in a weak brine for at least six months. It’s lightly salted in the can to prevent it from rotting-

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4gzjhOqkMs (17:46 mins)

            1. vao

              In the same repertoire, there is also lutefisk (Norway) and hakárl (Iceland). But I doubt they put those in their respective military rations.

              1. The Rev Kev

                I posted a link recently where the Swedes sent his delicacy to the Ukraine for their soldiers to have. You actually had soldiers acting like those three guys and within a minute or two of opening a can, they bailed out into the open air while chocking. Maybe the Ukrainians could use their drones to drop some cans to the Russian soldiers but then again, there are conventions against chemical warfare.

              2. digi_owl

                If one wanted to go old school, going with stockfish would be more likely. Basically air dried cod.

                That said, i belive the current Norwegian MRE are ready meals that’s been dehydrated and vacuum packed.

                Rip open bag, add hot or cold water depending on content, and enjoy.

                A variant with smaller portions are also sold for anyone going camping.

                there was a minor stir a while back because the military requested an exception on the recent ban on plastic utensils. This because each bag came packed with a spork.

  6. DJG, Reality Czar

    Caucus99percenter posted this link late in the day in yesterday’s Water Cooler. I’d like to keep it in front of people, particularly because it is written by the excellent Jonathan Cook, who lives in the region (in Palestine, I believe) and knows it well:

    https://declassifieduk.org/why-the-media-arent-telling-the-whole-story-of-libyas-floods/

    I recall about eight years ago. Lambert Strether posted a link to a report by an Italian human-rights group that was investigating migrants who had crossed Libya. The researchers were shocked to discover that every migrant they interviewed, whether male or female, had been raped in Libya.

    Thanks Hillary! Thanks Obama!

    1. JohnA

      I wholeheartedly endorse your recommendation of Jonathan Cook, a former Guardian journalist who quit/was eased out because he refused to be a stenographer. However, while he certainly used to live in Palestine (and may be married to a Palestinian woman if I recall correctly), he moved back to England quite recently. Perhaps his pro-Palestine approach made life uncomfortable for him in Nazareth where he then lived.

      1. Cristobal

        The Jonathan Cook article is obligatory reading for those who don´t remember the story of Hillary´s war there. When I first learned of the disaster there, it made me sick to my stomach remembering the history. Libya had been one of the most developed countries on the continent. Makes ya kinda proud to be a Merricun.

        1. Procopius

          I really hated voting for Hillary in 2016. I finally decided Trump would be worse (I now think I was wrong). I’m pretty sure we would have been at war with Russia if she had won. Not the way we are now, directly. Americans really don’t understand that, next time, American cities are going to be devastated and American people are going to be killed. In large numbers.

  7. griffen

    Wells Fargo former executive avoids prison sentence with three years probation. In addition, she will write daily upon the chalkboard “I will not do this again….I will not do this again…Promise Super Swear…” sarc

    I don’t often hoist the idea of a guillotine but this episode makes me physically ill. Clearly, being an as$hole in an American corporation is where to learn the best life lessons of all. Winner winner, I’m in the clear with my millions stacked away. Good riddance to Carrie, enjoy home confinement which I doubt means she gets a cozy stop at a halfway house.

    1. Wukchumni

      Orwell’s Fargo is 2x+ good!

      So i’m eating at a Japanese restaurant in Visalia yesterday, and a patron starts talking loud enough for everybody to hear that they should read ‘1984’ by Orson Welles, and he repeats this mistaken identity a few times, getting louder each time as if for emphasis.

      I thought of walking 20 feet over and lowering the boom, but why mess with a good thing?

      1. griffen

        I’ve got a few novels from a science fiction guy, the author goes by PK Richard. You know some of them were converted into great, and highly regarded movies. The one novel, Ubik, reminds me of our devotion to all things available on a cellular personal device. Change the references in the book to “android”, or “amazon prime” and it is a painless transition!

        And to add, the one about the electric sheep included some guy named Indiana Jones, which I think is a stage name but I digress…on topic, Orson Welles didn’t write that you say?!?

        3. ambrit

          Right. I think I remember that Orson Welles being associated with something called the “Mercury in Retrograde Theatre.” So, a very topical reference.
          Mr. Richard wrote some really good stuff. I particularly enjoyed the film based on his “Harold and Kumar Go To High Castle.” It’s a laff riot! Plus what they do with that wormhole!

        4. Procopius

          Errr… According to the copy of Ubik in my Calibre Library, it was written by Philip K. Dick. I can’t find a PK Richard on GoGoDuck.

        1. ambrit

          Also a handy tutorial in modern socio-political control methodologies.
          Read it along with Lewis’ “It Can’t Happen Here.”

          1. .Tom

            When we read 1984 in school in the early 80s we were told it warned us about the totalitarianism in the East. But I re-read it last year shortly after reading Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton, which has a story set in the same part of London in run up to the declaration of WW2. I had the impression that what Orwell was satirizing with the brutal social control through propaganda, history revision, language, and thought control was what it took to transform the UK population from its political confusion into disciplined, obedient, and supportive of the government no matter what they do.

            1. Cristobal

              Recently read a book about the excellent Spanish journalist Manuel Chaves Nogales´ time in London after he had to leave Spain, and then France just a step ahead of the Nazis (Los Años Perdidos). Chaves Nogales went to work at the British Ministry of Information cranking out propaganda for the Allies, to be sent to South America. As a refugee (and decidedly anti-Nazi) he had little choice. George Orwell also briefly worked for the Ministry. From the account of Chaves Nogales´ time there, Orwell´s 1984 was not about a future distopia, but about an actual one: the Ministry of Truth as he had experienced it. The Brits have been in the propaganda business for a long time.

            2. FredW

              I opine that if you combine “1984” with Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New world” you get a fair idea of our current situation.
              It may seem ironic, since in many ways they are opposite visions, but each one fits in it’s own way.

              1. digi_owl

                Yeah, if you toe the line there is plenty of soma to go around.

                But get uppity and you get the 1984 treatment.

                2. griffen

                  Indeed, we get the Ministry of Truth treatment from our very own government. It’s the best of times to live in America, exceptional country shining on a hill. Nothing (no crisis) to see on our borders…Nothing (tent camps and homeless) to see in some of our bigger cities…look at our flourishing (work a side gig) jobs numbers and unemployment rates…

                  Ok, governments lie is like reporting the sky is blue…

    2. notabanker

      If I were a c suite exec who has knocked down millions over the last few years, I’d be seriously considering taking my chips home and calling it a day. Mary Barra going on CNN is not at all helping their cause. It also seems the video on X is in a permanent doom loop and won’t play.

      1. Mark Gisleson

        I don’t think they think they did anything wrong. Corporate insiders now think of themselves as Royals, cannot understand why anyone is permitted to crticize them.

    3. Feral Finster

      I promise to try extra hard not to get caught in public next time….”

      One law for the peons, another law for the connected.

    4. Gregorio

      At least she’ll have $38 million after the clawbacks and fines, to cushion the blow of that draconian 3 year probation that’s been inflicted upon her.

  9. The Rev Kev

    ‘Find a Brit and give them a hug.

    This was brutal and uncalled for.’

    Man, that was brutal. And the Chinese was so good-humoured about it. No shouting or hectoring. He just came out and asked how is the UK competing with China exactly and laid out some grand truths. And afterwards that TV presenter looks like he had just stomped out a burning paper bag.

    1. Polar Socialist

      Makes me think there should be a show called “Who Do You Think You Are?” but for nations. A hefty dose of realism and actual information instead of myths and fairy tales would do good for most populations on this sorry planet.

      1. John

        But when you have songs like “Rule Britannia” and an aphorism like, “The sun never sets on the British empire” and plenty still living remember when both were more or less true, it’s hard to be relegated to the cheap seats by China. Britain used to rumpus around China as if they owned the place. Sikh guards in the International settlement in Shanghai. A Brit running the Customs house. It’s hard,man. Hard.

        1. ex-PFC Chuck

          And then there are books like The Empire On Which The Black Sun Never Set, by Cynthia Chung, who argues that at the turn into the 20th century the British deep state recognized they would be overshadowed by the United States unless they co opted it. The founding of the Rhodes Scholarship program in 1902 was just one aspect of their campaign to do so. She further asserts that In the 1930s the British powers-that-be became enamored with the fascist governance model that had emerged first in Italy, and was growing on steroids in Germany. After World War II establishment historians dismissed the infatuation as largely a matter involving only Oswald Moseley, but the author cites considerable evidence to suggest it was much more widely shared and included none other than Winston Churchill and his son. The co-optation was completed when the institutions authorized at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944 that were intended to facilitate the elimination of colonialism were instead perverted to establish the American stealth empire after Roosevelt’s death in the name of opposing the Communist threat.

          1. Synoia

            All of what you write was commonly discussed at my School and University in the 1960 and our by our parents at the dinner table.

            As expats from the UK, we had many family friend with a large range of knowledge.

            Those at my school were not so informed as the expats.

            1. Cristobal

              Yes Cynthia Chung has written some very good stuff. I think it was from her that I read that Allen Dulles, the first director of the CIA, said that the US had been fighting on the wrong side during the Second World War. When you look at the roots of Fascism – Corporatism or what have you – it is hard not to see a family resemblence with the USA.

          3. ex-PFC Chuck

            Regarding the dead tree edition of the Empire/Black Sun book, its print is so fine and feint that it’s hard to read – at least in the case of my aging eyes. Hence I recommend getting an electronic edition.

          2. ambrit

            From your lips to the Gods’ ears.
            Since “Share the Wealth” has been banned, I’ll settle for “Share the Pain.”
            Something like:
            ““Then Marx said, ‘Thus says the Daimon of History: “About midnight I will go out into the midst of the Oligarchs; and all the firstborn of the Oligarchs shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the PMC servant who is behind the Brazen Idol of Mammon, and all the firstborn of the investors. Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of the Oligarchs, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again. But against none of the Children of Marx shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Daimon of History does make a difference between the Oligarchs and Children of Marx.”’” (Reinvesticus 11:4-7).

        3. Paleobotanist

          The reason they said that “the sun never sets on the British Empire” is because God Almighty didn’t trust an Englishman in the dark…..

          1. Old Sarum

            Oxymoron! Don’t you realize that God is British?

            Pip-pip!

            ps I’m looking for recompense for all those hours I had to spend in christian worship at school in the UK. Do I apply to the Pope or the Chief Rabbi?

  10. digi_owl

    That tweet on Huawei gets me thinking about how there seems to be a pattern of major US entities burrowing their way into the boards of companies globally, and then at some point pushing for a change of leadership more acceptable to US interests.

    1. The Rev Kev

      There is something that I do not understand about that corporate structure. How are they supposed to invest all their profits in stock buy-backs? You gotta have stock buy-backs, right? Otherwise how are their execs supposed to get all those super bonuses. China is such a strange country.

      1. ambrit

        Absolutely right. You get full Marx for that observation.
        Also, I have never been able to ‘wrap my head around’ the concept of Middle Kingdom Managers.
        [I was also contemplating a joke about “The Forbidden “City,” but realized that I would never again be able to get a table at any Canary Wharf restaurant. There went that idea.]

  11. DJG, Reality Czar

    The Douglas Murray piece in the New York Post about Lampedusa is more than disingenuous and is another aspect of Murray’s hobbyhorse, immigration.

    He admits that he hasn’t been in Lampedusa in seven years. Then he mentions that Lampedusa should be the perfect island getaway. Ahhh, as I often mention, there is nothing quite like Anglo-Americans writing about Italy. It is all bilge water.

    The piece is titled “lawless,” although there is a legal structure in place in Italy for refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers. Other European countries have now closed the borders to migrants crossing Italy–that would be mainly France. So there are plenty of laws. Recently, some French cops mistreated a family from Ivory Coast on a train from Italy to France–including beating up the wife, who is pregnant–and the Italian public didn’t exactly side with the aggressive gendarmes.

    The dilemma is that the Atlanticist and NATO-ist foreign policy is creating chaos in many delicate countries. See the articles above about Libya. Note the position of Libya on Murray’s map.

    Note the mess in Niger.

    Note the U.S. role in displacing half, yes, half the populations of Syria and Iraq.

    I enjoyed this: “In 2015-16, more than a million people came into Europe through this and similar routes.” Oh, but how many came through Lampedusa? And 2015-2016? That’s a long time ago. The estimate that I have seen is that 100,000 migrants came through Lampedusa in 2022. Others can correct me.

    That’s still a problem. There are indications that in 2023 even more migrants will use the route. We are seeing reports of 8,000 in the last week alone.

    So I am terribly sorry that Douglas Murray’s weekend plans were disrupted by the imperial ambitious of the US of A and the U.K. Maybe he should have thought that through.

    Meanwhile, in Italy, Giorgia Meloni is only too happy to sacrifice Italy’s room to maneuver to NATO and the U S of A. So the refugees will continue to pour in: They may be economic (from Senegal and Tunisia). They may be political (Niger and Mali). And that’s just Africa.

    But if NATO can’t change its ways, the refugees will continue to leave countries that the Atlanticists have wrecked. Italy’s reduced sovereignty will continue to produce internal political crises.

    And Douglas Murray will worry about not finding white-sand beaches.

    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      The CNN article bothers to include some facts: “As of September 14, 125,928 people had arrived in Italy, according to the Interior Ministry, a number that’s in line with those from 2016, when migrant numbers surged in the wake of the Syrian war. However, Flavio Di Giacomo, from IOM, said the number of arrivals in Lampedusa now was much higher than before.”

    2. Carolinian

      Note the U.S. role in displacing half, yes, half the populations of Syria and Iraq.

      Note that especially. They don’t call us the Empire of Chaos for nothing.

      Obama did at least express regret over Libya even as Hillary was cackling about Gaddafi’s sodomization. Such a big oopsie. Meanwhile the Repubs shrug it off as “making our own reality” and Trump said openly that we were in Syria to steal the oil.

      A country this insensitive and callous toward the rest of the world must be cruising to a big comeuppance.

    3. ambrit

      I imagine that the “secret” meaning of this piece is: How dare they not die at home like they were supposed to do!
      The history of Terran human migrations is almost too complicated for even the dreaded yarn diagram.

  12. Polar Socialist

    Regarding discontent in Poland, maybe Wroclaw is not the best measure of it, given that until 1945 it was known as Breslau, a Prussian city. It was “transferred” to Poland as a compensation for losing Lwow to Ukraine. The German population (or what remained of it) was expelled and Polish from Lwow and Volhynia (what remained of them) moved in.

    Most modern day Wroclawians remember family members killed by the Banderistas only 2-3 generations ago.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Those mass population movements that we saw after the end of WW2 that you mentioned? We are seeing the same with the Ukraine and it is doubtful that many will return. The EU nations have already refused demands by Kiev to return the men for cannon-fodder in the east and I suspect that the reason is that those EU nations want those men for their own labour market. But a few minutes ago I heard a Ukrainian blogger explain why many will never return there-

      https://www.bitchute.com/video/SHcULTy1gOzp/ (1:19 mins)

      1. Feral Finster

        The reason Ukrainians so enthusiastically embraced ethnic hate of Russia was because that was the price being charged for Ukraine to enter The Golden Billion, The Magical Land Where Institutions Basically Work.

    2. Feral Finster

      I know the Polish mentality well. Too many Poles would gladly slit their own children’s throats if that meant that an American would pat them on the head and call them a good dog. That goes double if their children’s deaths would somehow spite Russia.

      Think that was hyperbole? Look at how Poles so enthusiastically embraced the direct biological and ideological descendants of the very people who so gleefully murdered their grandparents.

      And I don’t know a single Polish family who didn’t have relatives who suffered under the Banderists and their European Values.

    1. The Rev Kev

      AOC has also been receiving heckling over her stances on this war. It seems that the “AOC brand” has now run over it’s expiry date and people are learning what she is really all about. I guess that leaving the borders open sounds great if you live at the other end of the country but now that these immigrants are turning up on their door step, they are rethinking their support.

      2. Feral Finster

        She has as safe a seat as can be imagined, and she serves Team D and not her constituents.

        She will go nowhere.

    2. timbers

      I support One for One. For each immigrant arriving into the US, an elected member of Congress, the Presidency, State Legislature and Governor, shall be deported to the nation of origin of said immigrant. This pairing shall start top to bottom, in other words The US President shall be first, then Senate, Congress, Governors, State Senates, then legislatures. Once completed, all US judges and CEO’s of corporation employing immigrants will be next again top to bottom.

      It’s only fair.

      1. Randall Flagg

        >I support One for One. For each immigrant arriving into the US, an elected member of Congress, the Presidency, State Legislature and Governor, shall be deported to the nation of origin of said immigrant. This pairing shall start top to bottom, in other words The US President shall be first, then Senate, Congress, Governors, State Senates, then legislatures. Once completed, all US judges and CEO’s of corporation employing immigrants will be next again top to bottom.

        I could get behind that but it’s pretty harsh. Haven’t those nation’s suffered enough, primarily from our meddling in their business in the first place and now we inflict this upon them?

    3. Pat

      Watched police “handle” a homeless situation recently. A group of three men had set up an encampment in front of an empty store between a restaurant and a newly opened deli on a midtown Avenue. They had obviously been strewing litter and annoying people. The owner of the building was there with the porter trying to clean up. The police were standing outside two patrol cars (blocking the bus stop) watching and occasionally telling the men to keep going. Once they headed down the street, the cops left. From experience If you call about someone passed out or homeless blocking your entrance it can take hours, if anyone shows up at all. (I was told by two people that they have watched the cops arrive, look at a homeless incapacitated human not blocking an entry, talk into their radios and leave.)
      After the cops left heard the owner tell the porter to just go ahead and use the hose on them when he was washing down the sidewalk from now on. He was very frustrated.

      I don’t know if the minimal or no response action from the city is because so many homeless just return to the street or because the city services have stretched beyond the breaking point. I do know that this was not what would happen four years ago. Covid did put a crimp on temporary shelters that only seems to have gotten larger even though Covid is supposedly over.

      And about overtime. Overtime padding in the last few years before retirement is an age old NYPD retirement enhancement scam. Ending or limiting it would affect benefits. That said, Covid and mandates hit both the NYPD and FDNY hard. They lost many more people to retirement than usual. I know more about the FDNY, and there recruitment hasn’t caught up. Not that they wouldn’t still be hurting, the senior ranks were just about cleared out. Overtime has been the necessary to keep functioning.

    4. Michael Fiorillo

      AOC’s early years were spent in Parkchester, a working and middle class development in The Bronx, similar to Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan, and like them developed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Residents there are experiencing ongoing distress due to the aggressive parasitism of the current owners,

      The word from friends who live there is that, despite entreaties from tenant groups, AOC is nowhere to be found, and apparently can’t even be bothered to have some staffers and interns cosplay on her behalf.

      Conclude from that what you will.

    5. Katniss Everdeen

      kathy hochul has apparently decided that the solution is “accelerated work permits.” No clue who would hire this unskilled, unvetted wave of humanity or what they would do, but whatevah.

      The white house seems unimpressed, and the “president” was too busy to meet with her when she showed up there to pitch the plan. (Maybe she showed up before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m.)

      No matter, I guess, that many of these humans are indebted to those who shepherded them to this land of milk and honey, and would owe much of whatever wage they could wangle to those that brung ’em. No matter either that even many americans, who are not in indentured servitude, have trouble putting a roof over their heads or food on their tables in the great state of new york and elsewhere.

      Under the circumstances, it’s hard to see how much of this “economic activity” would inure to new york’s benefit unless ms. hochul hopes they could be deported to Detroit as scabs for the automakers.

      In any event, one thing is for certain–winter is coming and no one can stop it.

      1. Pat

        Both Hochul and Adams have landed on accelerated work permits. It seems to be the only acceptable request a Democrat can make of the utterly uninterested administration.

        I would have started sending them directly to the White House, the Naval Observatory, Camp David, Biden’s Delaware residence etc months ago.

        1. ambrit

          From the local attitudes I see and hear around the North American Deep South, I would not be surprised to see many “illegal immigrants” murdered by angry mobs of hungry American citizens. This will be an object lesson in “Divide and Rule” presented by the Oligarchs.

    6. Sin Fronteras

      In Tucson Casa Alitas (volunteer-run) processes 600 migrants a day. They go through the wall in groups of 20-30, pregnant women, babies, children, where we (Tucson Samaritans) encounter them and give them water and food, and call Border Patrol because they are applying for asylum. Who picks them up, gives them a Credible Fear Interview (first step for asylum), and then releases them to Casa Alitas. Where they are fed, spend the night and then move on to their families, with an immigration court date.

      These are WHO New York is dealing with, asylum seekers who have passed the first phase of vetting. As I said to a Trump supporter who I was conversing with at a demonstration: if you don’t like migrants coming here, stop our government from wrecking their home countries. He actually agreed.

      These are NOT the economic migrants coming here to serve as nannies, landscapers, construction workers. The latter are undocumented (we feed and water them too when we run into them, which is rarer). And when they are caught, the Border Patrol puts them right back across the border, in one case to a small poor Mexican town with no social services or transportation.

      So quit whining, New York! Pissed off? Take it out on your government. Punch UP, not down. Did you like the smoke from Canada? Well migrants are a similar effect, partly, of climate change. More COMING thanks to the US government, wait till Bangla Desh is under water. Do you all think you can hunker down in your Fortress America while the conditions for human life on the planet are destroyed?

      1. Pat

        Politically sending migrants to NY is brilliant. It not only undermines the majority party in a mostly blue state, but it has gotten the media interested in the issue in a whole new way.
        That said NY is ill equipped for this. Adams just designated a large sports field as the newest area for a migrant shelter. Migrants start lining up hours before the federal and city offices that are supposed to be helping them open trying to get some of that help.

        It might seem like I am being snarky, but this isn’t really NY’s problem to solve. They do not have the power. I am being entirely serious when I say that NY should be sending the buses to the various residences of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I also think they should find a way to commandeer the homes of their Senators and Congressional Representatives to house migrant families. Not to mention the homes of Mike Bloomberg and most of the other wealthiest NYers. It may not quite be your punching up. It doesn’t tell them to stop undermining other people’s countries. Hell we can’t manage to tell them to stop undermining this country and the majority of its citizens. But it does make the problem theirs in the same way that shipping them to NY made it NYs problem.

        Unfortunately because this is a Democratic state and because our politicians are Democratic apparatchiks with dreams of climbing the ladder, they will not approach this radically. They will instead do their best Europe imitation and destroy their economy and our support systems because Washington demands it rather than recognizing that this problem will not be ignored or go away because it is ignored.

        2. Sin Fronteras

          “Punching up” is not what those folks on Staten Island were doing.

          Plus, the migrant issue IS a national problem, caused by US policy. In Tucson we DEAL with it. New York is a lot wealthier than us, put a tax on the developers.

          Plus, how many people are we talking about here? I am also unsure of the mechanics of how the migrants get up there. Border Patrol releases people, who are then “free” to travel to their families. In Tucson and Seattle (MUCH lower numbers than Tucson), volunteers enable them to get tickets from their families and get them to the bus or airport. And house temporarily the ones that get stuck with scheduling.

          Migrants leave Tucson for ALL parts of the US. Paid for by their families. ICE COULD step in here, and provide more transition: it’s not rocket science, just being a travel agent.

          But to use the migrants as objects: whether to ship them to the north, or, in the north to get angry they are there, is classic US racism.

  14. Terry Flynn

    Re UK retail anarchy: Nonsense. Nottingham (for many years less-than-affectionately known as Shottingham and got “upgraded” by internet wags to merely “Stabbingham” after the notorious Gunn family mafia were, along with a lot of police officers, made to live at his Majesty’s Pleasure for the rest of their natural lives) has experienced no big change of the type the Telegraph (sheesh) shrieks.

    Things like Gillette 3 blade razors have been in locked cabinets for as long as I have known. Other high value small objects are not being locked up in our suburb (the archetypal red wall going-down-the-toilet suburb that typifies modern Britain).

    The deterioration is more insidious. Boots pharmacy (bought by USA company years ago and brought to its knees) here just had heart breaking dose of reality. The fabulous indefatigable pharmacist is on long term sick leave. I found out why. Stress. The queues to pick up prescriptions became so long due to staffing issues (resignations and covid sequelae) that soviet queues wluld be preferable. Old lady collapsed. Pharmacist spent AGES doing CPR waiting for ambulance but she died. One of his deputies is also on stress related sick leave. Male staff have quit en mass due to threats of violence from male customers frustrated at waiting times. There is not retail anarchy but there is health care anarchy. I’m about to collect my last prescription from there. Later I’m using the NHS app to change pharmacy.

    1. Roop Dogg

      I live in a roughish London suburb and there are certainly not armed gangs pilfering every shop. But from my infrequent interactions with TV, it seems to definitely be the new talking point. I read it as preparation for increased electronic surveillance (they keep mentioning staff chest cams).

      If shoplifting is up in the figures, presumably the fact that checkouts are mostly now of the unstaffed variety now is the main contributing factor

  15. Wukchumni

    It takes so few to skew, dept:

    There are about 20 protesters @ Nadler’s presser, and that’s all it takes to make it seem so much larger than it is on our small screens, you’d think there were hundreds howling.

    On the other hand in 2020 here in Tiny Town, we had a Trump truck rally of around 20 trucks and say 47 people in them.

    It was impressive the first few times they coursed down Hwy 198 and then turned around to do it again, but by the 5th time, hadn’t they made their point?

    1. Pat

      I am not on Jerry’s mailing list anymore since NY’s district changed, but I doubt he announced this to his constituents. Everything about that said it was set up to appear he was taking Congressional action on the issue without ever really listening to the public and their concerns Meeting the press on a blocked off office entrance in NYC doesn’t scream constituent outreach.

      It may have been small but I think it did screw with what Nadler’s staff intended to happen, which were brief spots on the area’s evening news casts showing leadership and the adults are handling this. Since I don’t watch anymore I am not sure how or if it was covered though.

    2. lambert strether

      > It takes so few to skew, dept:

      The tweet says: “people shout “Close the Border” and demand action.” Presumably “people,” and not animals, or avatars, or aliens. But who exactly?

    2. JohnA

      I jsut await Ursula VDL and 360-degree Baerbock demanding make-up be scrubbed off the faces of Russian women who dared defy the ban on bringing cosmetics, amongst other ludicrous bans, into the EU.

  17. mrsyk

    “We Thought We Were Saving the Planet, but We Were Planting a Time Bomb”. Ugh. Note the transfer of responsibility for the forest fires from the timber industry to environmental activists. The clear cutting of old growth forests was rationalized and sold to the public with the quaint idea that planting a bunch of seedlings made up for cutting down stands of thousand year old trees. And the replanting strategy was a monocultural one. Check out this glossy PR piece from the Forest Service. Note how many beautiful photos you look through before you see a single broadleaf tree.

    1. digi_owl

      The crazy part is that most of it is for paper in an age pushing towards more digitalization of “paperwork”. Because as i understand it, conifer timber is not considered acceptable for use in construction (at least in USA).

      2. cfraenkel

        I think you might be thinking of the specially bred, super fast growing pines that have been specifically selected for pulp. (and grown in stands so thick you can barely squeeze between the trunks) They get harvested long before they’re large enough for lumber.

        (and just because most office work is now digital, it hasn’t reduced the usage of paper. There’s just more emails than there used to be paper memos (remember them?). And add all those Amazon boxes piled up on the curb everywhere…. Killing off the printed newspapers is another story.)

      3. Lee

        Pine, fir, spruce, and hemlock are regularly used for construction in the U.S. Redwood is often used for fencing as it is rot resistant.

    2. Kelly Cadler

      “If trees are renewable, then only log renewed trees.”

      From one of the longest lived environmental activist websites ca. 1995

      verdant.org

      1. Maria Cardenas

        Actually it’s verdant.NET

        Used many of their articles in our literacy program for foreign students learning English. Got them hooked on environmentalism at the same time.

      2. Robert Gray

        In the copy centre of a school where I used to teach, some well-intentioned colleague had put up a sign over the Xerox machine: ‘Do you _really_ need all those copies?!? Save a tree! Save the planet!’ I looked at the reams of paper in the supply cabinet and saw that they were made in Finland, where (a) forest products are a major export and, therefore, (b) they know what they’re doing. One reads reports to the effect that in a properly-managed pulp operation, they plant something like three trees for every one harvested — which can’t be bad. I put a polite footnote to that effect on the eco-warrior’s admonishment and — surprise, surprise — the sign was gone the next day. :-)

    3. maipenrai

      Seriously: who thought monoculture planting was a good idea?Apparently the NYT says we are all guilty…
      Why would anyone read that C#$%?

    4. Kouros

      Moving from Romania to Canada after studying forestry since highschool and working as a forest management planner in Romania for 5 years, all over the place, and then doing a long Masters in forestry, I observed that most of the forestry practices in western Canada would be considered criminal in socialist Romania… The justifications provided do not hold water. And silviculture is a dead science in North America.

  18. vao

    The rise of surge pricing: ‘It will eventually be everywhere’ Financial Times. This may be the salvation of retail stores. In the US, retail store licenses require that fixed prices of goods be visible to the buyer.

    The price must be visible, but must it be a fixed price? As I explained in a comment last year, where I live, supermarkets have been diligently introducing electronic price tags, looking deceptively like real paper price tags (they are implemented with electronic paper, not LED or LCD), but that can be modified remotely.

    We also see restaurant chains moving from paper menus to tablets or kiosk-like terminals — where prices can be adjusted dynamically.

    So that article of the Financial Times focusing on services that must be booked (travel, hotel, concert) or on-line shopping is really missing the evolution — it barely touches the matter of electronic shelf labels in just one paragraph.

    1. JohnA

      When booking flights and rental cars, I always check on both my laptop and phone as the price displayed is often different.

      1. vao

        I remember to have read that depending on the terminal used, the price would vary as well. The price would be different if the site is accessed from an old DELL instead of an Apple, from a desktop instead of a laptop…

        1. The Rev Kev

          I read the same too. In an article I read a coupla years ago, a couple were shopping for some gear and each of them – using a different device each – were getting two different prices for the same piece of gear. Probably that store’s software was interrogating the cookies stored on those two different devices, hence the difference.

      2. paddlingwithoutboats

        Oh yeah, one must dump all cookies and data bases immediately prior to getting prices on airfare portals. I did this years ago, maybe 8, but have stopped flying, will never fly again.

        If you don’t dump everthing the price will roll upward based on the data coordinated to learn what you’ve paid previously, what you earn, all the info they can get. Used against us.

        I’m not much of a consumer but less and less.

    2. Wukchumni

      You should have been in Mexico in the 1980’s when hyperinflation rendered the Peso worth 1/264th of its previous value against the almighty buck over a period of a dozen years…

      Merchants had to reprice every item as the money became worth less and less, with the replacement cost going higher and higher, and I think the most stickers I saw on something was about 8 or 9 superimposed on one another.

      It’s simple now, nothing has a price tag and changing the price of something takes almost no effort aside from adjusting the price on the shelf, thus the market reacts quicker, pushing the pace of inflation.

    3. Yves Smith Post author

      The price must be visible. as in posted.

      I have yet to see any US store using LED price tags.

      And I am sure most retail store laws require all customers be offered the same price.

      1. Bugs

        We have these nasty LCD shelf prices in France and when I lived just outside Paris, I could swear that wine and liquor went up in price every weekday at around 5:30 PM, timed to the local train arriving at the station from St Lazare.

      2. Mark Gisleson

        Grocery stores (especially convenience stores) have a habit of not having a price displayed whenever something gets expensive. They take down the old price and simply “forget” to put the new price up.

        I set these items aside and ask the cashier what they cost before they get rung up and have avoided some very nasty surprises.

        1. Yves Smith Post author

          They can do that because transient customers. There are enough people like me in grocery stores and chain pharmacies who will make a stink at the register and hold up checkout to curb that sort of thing.

      3. Bob Tetrault

        Ten years ago I encountered a wi-fi linked LCD price tag startup in Silicon Valley. They were pushing it as a labor saver, ostensibly to eliminate changing all the paper by hand. Some central office dweeb could handle it with a few keystrokes. However, they also admitted that cell phone apps were on the rise and thus “custom” pricing algos could be exploited.
        That was a ‘retirement’ moment.

    4. Mikel

      With ever expanding wealth inequality, the profits depend on a shrinking base of the population. The price varying price increases are a way to increase the heat slowly.

  19. griffen

    It’s a moment in the sun for our ageing geriatric class of leaders and elected officials. Everywhere you turn, this guy is too old or that guy also is too old. Instead of the guy who said “Rent is too darn high”, how about “too many of you in DC are too darn old”…Ruling until sweet death, I thought that only happened at the ending of films; then there’s the Emperor Palpatine…never dead but living still through the mastery of the dark side.

    Fe Fi Fo Fum
    I smell the death of more than one…
    Be they alive or be they bribed…
    Their devoted clan trusts the True One..
    Can’t we get someone under 60…
    To rule with a sense mathematically
    Lest we crumble into dust…
    Best to fade out than rust…

  20. Milton

    Two things can be done to rein in corporate misbehavior: 1. Freeze assets, Ala Canada trucker style, of execs engaging in such behavior. 2. Sentence said execs to real, pound me in the ass, prisons. It can be for periods of only 3-6 months. I think those incarcerated will get the point.

  21. Pat

    I fully admit to ignoring the Lincoln Project as much as possible, but have they remotely acknowledged Biden’s obvious cognitive issues and physical decline? As a partisan propaganda organization I don’t expect it to have happened. Still anyone that targets Trump but omits Biden, and by extension McConnell and Feinstein, when discussing possible senility or dementia in political leaders is clearly not serious about the problem and are adding to inadequate or propaganda level coverage. Thus negating any high ground for their stance.

    1. Wukchumni

      Joe is as game as Ned, er Flanders, lets not give up on him with the idea of so many awful encounters to come, until somebody whisks him off in to the scorned field.

    2. flora

      It was a humorous pairing in the links: T is going ga-ga (Lincoln Project) vs. T needs a gag order. (One of these things is not like the other.) / ha

    3. Carolinian

      Well I don’t think Trump should be running either. Is he only running because Biden is running or is it the other way around?

      There were reports before Trump announced that he was getting bored hanging around Mar a Lago. So maybe that was it. It’s not boring any more and he even has a mug shot.

      Bottom line: we the American people are the plaything of these pumped up public figures and their various minions. Last night PBS had a show on the career of Jerry Brown. And while I was never much of a fan his notion–your hat in the ring and see what happens–is rather refreshing compared to the politics of personality where the vote getter can even be called “Camelot” (by his widow). In theory this country is supposed to be something different.

      1. Pat

        I would like to see the back of most of the political usual suspects, and not just for obvious physical impairments. And the fact that both Biden and Feinstein were even allowed on the ballot the last time around chaps my behind. Both were obviously already in some stage of dementia. This is not something you come back from. (McConnell should also be out, but at least he wasn’t obvious having problems in his last election.) I don’t see the same signs in Trump, but this is a serious enough issue that it shouldn’t just be used as a partisan cudgel.

        I don’t believe in term limits. I do believe there should be a mandatory retirement age for both federal elected officials and Supreme Court judges. And yes both Biden and Trump would have passed the one I have in mind.

  22. The Rev Kev

    “Canada hits pause on trade mission to India after tensions at G20 summit”

    I guess that Trudeau was told to go on a charm offensive with India at the G20 but only heard the second part of that phrase. Modi got all out of joint because there are anti-Indian activists making public statements in Canada like with that float. This would be the equivalent of Koran burning in some EU countries. So maybe Modi was demanding to know why Trudeau was not suspending the bank accounts of those protestors on his behalf or something. Or cancelling them like Trudeau has been doing to Russians. Actually, it could be worse. Canada could also have Germany’s Annalena Baerbock as their Foreign Minister as well. She just came out and called President Xi a dictator. Yes, she actually said that. Her words were-

    ‘Because if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin were to win this war, what sign would that be for other dictators in the world? Like Xi, the Chinese president? So, therefore, Ukraine must win this war’

    But I guess that Canada will have to settle for their Christina Freeland.

  23. Alice X

    >German Journalist Udo Ulfkotte explains how Western Corporate journalists are Bought and Paid for by the CIA, he was senior political journalist for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

    He really lays out how the Intelligence Services control the narrative. Bravo that!

    1. The Rev Kev

      He was a very brave man and the media tried to deep-six his book when it came out about a decade ago. The German absolutely media despised him by calling out who they actually were-

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

      Then again, if he was still around the German government would probably have him arrested for what he would have said about this war.

      2. Alice X

        Thanks for that. Glenn Greenwald would have a field day picking apart that vile Wiki page.

        Wikipedia is a CIA mouthpiece.

    1. Wukchumni

      Everything was so green and we even noticed a little patch of Mustang Clover, a small beauty you see carpets of in July, but the middle of September?

      Saw 2 more recently fallen giants, one 1,500 year old model hit the deck about a month ago, all the branches still attached had greenery on them-all the bark was still on and the tree itself, tore out from the rootwad and unusual for a tree of size (17-20 feet wide at eye level] it didn’t break into 2 or 3 sections upon impact, fully intact.

      When you look at the root system of the now prone Brobdingnagian, it kinda looks like flames sprouting out, as if the rocket fell off the gantry with the engine still going.

  25. The Rev Kev

    “The hard lessons from Ukraine’s summer offensive”

    ‘Some US officials have complained privately to the media that Ukraine had failed during training to master modern operations that combine mechanised infantry, artillery and air defence and were too risk averse in their approach.’

    Some US officials are trying to cover their behinds. Military formations are not like cakes. There is no such thing as a shake-and-bake brigade. Soldiers need months just to learn the basics and years if you are talking about specialists. And yet NATO thought that a coupla weeks training would do the trick and training them in a warfare type that they have no experience in or battle-tested doctrine themselves. This was all an atrocity waiting to happen and that is exactly what they got. All so that it could make western leaders look good.

    1. ilsm

      Diverting from failure of gifted wunderwaffen…..

      US officials seem to have had no idea the Russians would do in the gray zones what western novelists described since the mid 1970’s; anticipating remote delivered mines, ATGM,s and pop up attack helos

      Who believed their own propaganda and the war reporting by checkout rack tabloids.

      Substantial need for massive reform of military science in the west

      1. Polar Socialist

        I did see today a comment by Ukrainian officer that had he followed his NATO training, he and his men would now be dead.

        Also in the new U.S. Army War College publication they estimated that in a war of the same intensity as Ukraine war, the US army would suffer 3,600 men casualties each day, and with a replenishment rate of 800 men per day, the current reserves would run out after 3 months. Conclusion is that USA can’t fight a modern war with the armed forces based on volunteers.

        I doubt that is the reform Pentagon will go for. Not until it has tried everything else.

    2. Hugo

      The most brutal minefield video I’ve ever seen.
      Just Ukrainians from the 47th Brigade losing legs and Bradleys nonstop for 11 minutes. This is the reality, but you’ve been warned.

      https://twitter.com/narrative_hole/status/1673406986174492674

      I’ve been in combat, but watching this made me want to throw up. The waste of lives. If Trump doesn’t get reelected, and if Biden gets in, maybe that could be your son–or daughter, no glass ceiling in the military, getting their legs blown off…

      When a Feinstein, Pelosi, McConnell or Cortes is left with a shattered tattered bloody dragging mess that used to be a leg, struggling to get into the Bradley, then we’ll know we are serious about Democracy in Ukraine.

    1. TimH

      The shoplifting epidemic is a sign that Britain is on the verge of anarchy

      I’d rephrase that as: “The UK gov thinks that Britain is on the verge of anarchy, and so enacted the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Act in 2022 and the Public Order Act this year that combined make it an offence to be a nuisance to the powers that be”

      Yeah, a bit long I s’pose.

    2. flora

      I am really starting to wonder if these brazen shoplifters are the low levels of larger organizations or gangs or cartels. Think of Fagin and his gang of pickpocketing boys in Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist. Wish I was kidding. / oy

      Maybe tescos should rethink reducing store staff.

      1. JBird4049

        In the United States, yes, much of the shoplifting has been done by organized gangs, but of course, it is all blamed on the individual shoplifter, who certainly do exist.

        They destroy the economy, then they housing almost impossible to get, which fill the streets with the homeless, and then they reduce the staff to nothing, while reducing the policing needed to control it, and finally, they are shocked at the thievery.

        1. Carolinian

          Yes we’ve all read or seen Les Miserables but this goes beyond stealing a crust of bread.

          And I don’t think retailers are shocked by shrinkage as it’s always been part of their calculation. The California phenomenon seems to be something new.

          1. Cristobal

            Between the shoplifters and Amazon, all the brick and mortar stores will be gone soon. It is already happening in smaller towns and cities. Empty buildings on Main Street, No tax receipts for the local municipality, further crapification of municipal services. Welcome to the digital age!

            1. Hugo

              And the thousands of “migrants” taking every job within a hundred miles, working for five bucks an hour, if that, will be sending most of their money back to Latin America or Africa thus creating even more local poverty, food deserts and social mayhem. Plenty of staff for the cheap labor Republicans and humanitarian Democrats however.

          2. JBird4049

            What frightens off Joe Shoplifter are having plenty of employees around. When there are no employees, there is much less embarrassment or fear for the thief. Add the the mess outside, and Market Street is really a pit, not to mention many other cities and towns, I think that chaos spills into the stores.

            Anyways when you have a mess of homeless, often unemployed or mentally ill, people, and not many of other people, it adds to the problem. When Market Street was full of people and there were many more open businesses twenty and thirty years ago, not only was the number of problematic individuals less, but everyone was enmeshed in people acting to a more functional, polite, law abiding community.

            Also, do not forget that this is only a small sub-faction of the homeless as most homeless, just as anyone else, are not interested in causing problems. However, as there are evermore homeless in a society that is not only under increasing strains, but has fuckall for mental healthcare, the problematic individuals increase in both sheer numbers as well as a percentage of the population.

            Really, does anyone think it an accident that the increasing collapse of everything else would not cause an increase in crime, especially in shoplifting?

            It is really depressing to see the whole bay area slowly fall apart despite it being a wealthy area. We got the money, the education, the resources, but those running things do not want to spend the time, money, and energy doing anything to actually fix anything. It is all theater, or government and NGO grifting where all the money goes into “overhead” and precious little to the people who actually need the help.

      2. Carolinian

        I don’t think you need to wonder but perhaps not so much Fagin as the gang out of Breaking Bad. Seems the web now offers a new way to fence stolen goods.

        My movie world frequently glamorizes shoplifting but the Baptist in me is somehow repelled by it. Petty crime a gateway crime?

      3. Terry Flynn

        Maybe people should quit “looking over there” (to a minor/non-existent problem conjured up by the Telegraph) and look at what is the REAL major issue in retail in the UK – the collapse of Wilko, the oldest most viable bricks and mortar competitor to Amazon.

        Owners paid themselves huge dividend, took on shedload of debt…. Then unsurprisingly it collapsed this week. I used to buy all my bathroom stuff and USB sticks etc there because they matched amazon on price and weren’t amazon. A MASSIVE store is now vacant here in Arnold. But the Telegraph would rather cook up a non-existent storm re shoplifting.

        Let’s look back to a history lesson of the early self checkout tills at Cremorne, NSW, Australia. Most shoppers lived in the richest postcode in Australia. Yet the Cremorne store had highest fraud rate – people weighing posh fruit but claiming it to be the cheapest per kilo fruit. Surprise surprise the highest rate of fraud in Australia was in its then richest postcode. Local MP was the “mad monk” and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Think on that.

        1. Carolinian

          I think you’ve hit upon some kind of cross border syndrome. I grew up not poor but certainly we weren’t rich and therefore cheating on inexpensive things takes on a larger dimension than it does for the rich for whom it is, to use Yves’ phrase, couch lint. They probably do it for the thrill of proving they can get away with it. Only the little people don’t shoplift.

        2. The Rev Kev

          There was an article I read some time ago which found that the cheapest prices in supermarkets are to be found in the richest postcodes. And that the most expensive prices were to be found in the poorest postcodes.

          1. Tom Stone

            Commercial nearly tasteless tomatoes $4.99 per pound at Santa Rosa Safeway, locally grown heirloom tomatoes $2.49 per pound at Fircrest Market in Sebastopol.
            When I lived in Oakland the produce at the Montclair Safeway was noticeably better quality and less expensive than at the Fruitvale Ave Safeway.

          2. JBird4049

            The cheapest prices and the best quality of merchandise. Go to two different stores in the same chain, but in different economic conditions. I think you will be quite surprised. I was. High, middle, and poor areas all get different quality merchandise and employees as well. The worst produce and the troublesome employees got to the poor areas and the reverse to the wealthy ones.

        3. ChrisPacific

          The article raised a lot of red flags to me, with a lot of unsourced assertions that happened to correspond to political hot buttons. So I decided to do some research, by which I mean that I googled ‘shoplifting stats UK’ and clicked on the first hit. That led me to this excellent summary:

          https://www.statista.com/statistics/303563/shoplifting-in-england-and-wales-uk-y-on-y/

          It suggests that shoplifting has increased roughly 10% since 2002, roughly in line with population growth or a little below. There was a modest spike in cases peaking around 2017/18, then it fell off a cliff in 2020 presumably due to Covid restrictions, and returned to historical norms in 2022/23.

          The source for the original article looks to have been the BRC crime survey 2023, which focuses on retail violence and abuse. This is indeed up since pre-Covid times, almost double. Even more strikingly it was even higher during Covid, nearly triple, even though shoplifting incidents were way down at that time. Anecdotally this seems like a real concern and also seems to be strongly correlated with Covid measures and their politicization. It is not correlated at all with shoplifting numbers, as the stats show. The crime report mentions violent shoplifters as a concern and speculates on possible gang activity, but offers no stats for the former and explicitly says that there is no way to know on the latter without better police data.

  27. Louis Fyne

    S.Korea, US agree to make N.Korea, Russia ‘pay price’ for military cooperation Anadolu

    this is a rather 1-D take by the USand SK. Russia is/will have a labor shortage, particularly among weapons-munitions workers

    30K skilled North Koreans (from the NK weapons industry) with work visas helps both sides.

    Dunno if work permits are sanctioned right now. Putin is a legal pedant. If the work visa option is available, it will be taken

    1. Maxwell Johnston

      NK workers have been in RU for many years now. Mostly manual laborers (farms and factories). They have a reputation as hard workers and are sought-after. They are not paid directly by the RU employer, but indirectly by the NK embassy (if they’re paid at all, for all I know it’s a kind of slave labor); RU employer works out the payment details with RU government, which in turn deals with NK embassy. The labor shortage in RU seems to be worsening, so I expect that more NK workers will be arriving soon.

      There are rumors that ‘volunteer’ NK troops will be coming to RU; possibly to fight in UKR, possibly to take over garrison jobs in order to free up RU troops for more important duty. RU govt says this rumor is false.

      1. digi_owl

        NK workers have supposedly shown up in Poland as well.

        Created a bit of a scandal in Denmark as the shipyard the workers may have been at got hired to work on Danish navy ship.

      1. ilsm

        “No fighting in the war room”

        Bigger problems in US war doctrine than too few draftees to tell the “lifers” off.

        They forget about fragging?

      2. Pat

        I want it back so we can immediately conscript the President and Congress’ nearest military age relative for the infantry when they authorize military action.

        Hey, if the spouse or the kids have to go be shot up or gassed to support military misadventures, that should be an acceptable sacrifice for our patriotic political leaders. Right?!

        1. JBird4049

          Have you noticed that even into the Vietnam War, you could still find the sons of the elites in the military, sometimes even in the fighting. Today, are there any sons and daughters of the elites in the military?

          1. caucus99percenter

            Yes, a few — some even, oddly enough, serve not in the U.S. Armed Forces but in the 🇮🇱 IDF, somehow without jeopardizing their U.S. citizenship.

  29. Jason Boxman

    From ‘Are you out of your f—ing minds?’: Dems recoil at Biden’s approach to labor standoff

    Biden also said he was dispatching acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and White House economic adviser Gene Sperling, who has been his point person on talks between the UAW and the Big Three, to Detroit to support both sides. On Thursday, Biden talked privately with both Fain and the automaker CEOs.

    (bold mine)

    Worth noting that we still don’t have a confirmed labor secretary, for the most pro labor administration ever.

  30. Jason Boxman

    So a shout out to NC for saving me from Chrome’s dark pattern for their new spying feature; Just as was covered here, the popup notification informing me that Chrome is going to track and share information about my browsing history to web sites was presented in such a way that it’s easy to simply click the blue affirmation button, to get to browsing.

    Most of us probably launch a web browser to, well, browse, and getting yet another annoying popup out of the way by clicking the blue button is instinctive and automatic. I just about did it, before remembering what I read here a few days ago. If you inspect the dialog to make choices, you actually have to turn off a bunch of options to stop the sharing. This is a really nasty dark pattern. You can’t just click “no” and have all 3 tracking options turned off.

    Thankfully my 99% browser is Vivaldi, and in a recent blog post they detailed how this perilous and derogatory Google feature, in Chromium, is disabled two different ways so it’s basically impossible to enable it in Vivaldi, even if you wanted to.

  31. Revenant

    That Nina Byzantina tweet is badly translated. Schwarze Sonne means Black Sun (the Nordic supremacist symbol), not “barely asleep”!

      1. R.S.

        I’d wager to say that the English Wiki page is a bit sketchy. The Sonnenrad doesn’t come specifically from Wewelsburg. For instance, there’s an image of a Sonnenrad combined with a Hakenkreuz inside the Bismarck monument in Hamburg.
        https://www.unter-hamburg.de/bunker/bismarck-denkmal/

        But the symbol was indeed invented somewhere between the World Wars, by some more esoterically inclined, so to speak, ethno-nationalists from the Völkische Bewegung. The earliest images I’ve seen come from the 1920s. Reading the S rune as “Sieg” (victory) is a dead giveaway, as this name was invented by Guido “von” List in the 1900s. All rune poems from the Middle Ages call the S rune “Sun”.

  33. .Tom

    > Stay away from politics William Davies, London Review of Books (Anthony L)

    It’s a turgid academic review of what seems an even more turgid academic book by Wendy Brown. The review has this wonderful brow-slapper of a sentence:

    What Brown has been trying to puzzle out, along with many other leftist observers of US politics in the 21st century, is how a neoliberal regime rooted in ubiquitous privatisation and economisation could have yielded the illiberal excesses of Trumpism, whose violent rhetoric and ethno-nationalism appeared so at odds with the cold calculations of the global market.

    I think humanist academics that study and write about politics, science, neoliberalism and nihilism should read more NC and a bit less Foucault-related scholarship and head to the TIP JAR.

    1. Old Sarum

      Turgid perhaps but for those not afraid of a long read there is certainly food for thought, eg the following:

      ‘Brown does not accept a blanket distinction between facts and values, pointing out that such a distinction looks dated in light of subsequent work in sociology and cultural studies on the historical entanglement of expertise and moral worldviews’.

      Who-da-thunk-it? I celebrate every time I get a laugh from such an article and for some reason I am reminded of those pernicious passengers who are ejected from airliners when their “rights” are not given due respect*.

      Pip-pip!

      * nb heavy sarcasm.

      1. .Tom

        Ok, but a blanket distinction between facts and values looks silly in the gaze of common sense. If the debates Brown is involved in got so far out to lunch this point needs complex theoretical justification, I think that supports my assertion above.

        I enjoyed Bruno Latour’s 2004 essay “Why has critique run out of steam? From matters of fact to matters of concern”. But here again it worries me that Latour felt the need to write it. What went wrong in the academy so that the schisms he explains evolved in the first place?

  35. Waking Up

    “archive.ph is your friend.”

    When I first used archive.ph, it worked great. Now all that happens is a “show you aren’t a robot” security check page. I can’t get past this webpage or point even though I am not a “robot”. Does anyone know why? Thanks.

    1. Bsn

      Could be your browser. Are you using Brave? Works for me 90% of the time. If article is real new, sometimes try again a few hours later. Good luck.

    3. CanCyn

      I use archive.pH all the time. Occasionally it gets filled with ads that can overlap the article but generally it is fine. It can take a while to archive a link and make it legible if the link isn’t archived already. Never see captchas or have any other difficulties. I use Firefox on my iPhone or iPad.

  36. JBird4049

    About all those dams in danger of failing, California for decades has spent juuuuust enough to maintain all the waterworks, which includes dams. The whole state seesaws between drought and flood, which requires a lot of money to manage, but that requires taxes. Neither wars or failing economies are needed for failing infrastructure.

  38. Lee

    Expected CDC guidance on N95 masks outrages health care workers NBC

    “Health workers warn that loosening mask advice in hospitals would harm patients and providers…

    ‘The CDC must not undermine respiratory protection regulation by making the false and misleading claim that there is no difference in protection between N95 masks and surgical masks’, commented Deborah Gold, an industrial hygienist at Cal/OSHA, at the August meeting.”

  39. Jabura Basaidai

    please excuse this left field question but i just breezed through John Perkins book “Touching the Jaguar” and was bothered that although he writes a good game about helping the Ecuadorian indigenous folks, but nowhere in this book published in 2020 does he mention Steven Donziger who paid a price for winning a judgement against Chevron in Ecuador – seems strange and makes his platitudes seem disingenuous and suspect to me – anyone have an angle on John Perkins? i found Economic Hitman book interesting and helpful in understanding how the World Bank and IMF took over countries but now wondering if he maybe took too many ayahuasca trips – he seems to be profiting nicely – just wondering –

  40. Tom Stone

    I had no idea the eugenicists at the CDC were so blatant in their desire to kill the weak and helpless,.

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