Patient readers, sorry to have published this early. Here is the Full Cleveland. –lambert
Positively glowing: fluorescent mammals are far more common than earlier thought, study suggests Guardian
Scavenging hyenas save carcass disposal costs Monga Bay
Mincing machine of the bond markets has spread the pain wide FT
The bond market meltdown is going to get worse before it gets better Markets Insider
Wall Street Isn’t Sure It Can Handle All of Washington’s Bonds WSJ
Climate
The Rays of the Sun Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years
Glacial lake floods: A growing, unpredictable climate risk Channel News Asia
Biochar is a ‘shovel-ready’ climate technology, but can it scale up? Grist
Insurers are seeking a way to make money from your climate change travel anxiety CNBC
#COVID19
Are people getting old COVID vaccines because they don’t realize the fresh version isn’t here yet? (PDF) Dr. Mary Fernando. Canada, but I have heard the same here.
Mapping SARS-CoV-2 antigenic relationships and serological responses Science. From the Abstract: “Our results provide a comprehensive analysis of the antigenic variation between SARS-CoV-2 variants and the development of the immune response after infection or vaccination. The large antigenic effect of a small number of substitutions in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 is similar to the pattern observed for seasonal influenza viruses, for which major antigenic changes are often associated with single or double substitutions. These substitutions in the SARS-CoV-2 RBD not only allow the virus to escape from preexisting immunity but also influence the regions of the spike protein that the immune response targets. Depending on their infection history, different individuals can thus be sensitive to substitutions in different regions of the spike protein. As individuals increasingly experience multiple infections [oof], choosing vaccine immunogens on the basis of immunodominance considerations may be an important aspect in ensuring high vaccine efficacy across populations with different patterns of preexisting immunity.”
* * * The New Normal: Delayed Peak SARS-CoV-2 Viral Loads Relative to Symptom Onset and Implications for COVID-19 Testing Programs Clinical Infectious Diseases. From the Abstract: “In a highly immune adult population, median SARS-CoV-2 viral loads peaked around the fourth day of symptoms. Influenza A viral loads peaked soon after symptom onset. These findings have implications for ongoing use of Ag RDTs [Rapid Diagnostic Tests] for COVID-19 and influenza.”
* * * Opinion: Sick of your kids being sick? Clean air in schools may be the answer Irish Examiner
Many in Japan Still Wearing Masks to Avoid Infection Nippon. Polling data.
* * * Partisan views on COVID vax harden post-pandemic Axios. Handy chart:
We’re still talking mRNA, i.e. Operation Warp Speed-derived. I don’t see how Democrats rationalize taking Trump’s vaccines; or how Republicans rationalize not taking them.
Top science journal faced secret attacks from Covid conspiracy theory group Computer Weekly. Hardly garden variety CT, given the participation of “former chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) Sir Richard Dearlove” (if indeed any spook can be said to be former).
REVIEW: Shot in the Arm (2023) Pandemic Accountability Index
China?
China calls for ‘calm and restraint’ as Israel declares war after deadly Hamas raid South China Morning Post
India
How Manipur Caught Fire The Diplomat
Syraqistan
Israel battles Hamas for a second day after mass incursion and trades fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah AP
5 things to know about the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel South China Morning Post
* * * Hamas Just Torched Biden’s Deal to Remake the Middle East Bloomberg
Iran’s support for Hamas fans suspicion it’s wrecking Israel-Saudi deal Politico
Benjamin Netanyahu warns Israel faces ‘long and difficult’ war FT. Commentary:
Unpredictable remarks from Gen. (Res.) Amos Gilad. [for decades senior security official]: "The sources of this catastrophe lie in the regime change".
*דברים חסרי תקדים של אלוף במיל' עמוס גלעד: מקור הכשל הוא ההפיכה המשטרית* pic.twitter.com/gmB46iYtGr
— Daniel Seidemann (@DanielSeidemann) October 7, 2023
* * * After Attack, Israel Wrestles With Question: How Could This Happen? WSJ
Shocking Hamas Assault on Israel Echoes 1973 Yom Kippur Intelligence Failure Spy Talk. The deck: “Questions raised on how Israel missed months of Hamas battle preparations.” Will General Van Riper please pick up the white courtesy phone? Then again:
Hamas has deep ties with Qatar and Iran. But Qatar has a gazillion American lobbyists, a global TV network and one of the biggest US military bases in the region. So you see exponentially more anger about Hamas directed at Iran and very little at Qatar.
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) October 8, 2023
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood….
Israel’s high-tech spies and $1bn Iron Dome defences failed to stop Hamas massacring civilians in ’embarrassing failure’ The Sun (!). Commentary:
This was a stunning and massive intelligence failure in Israel. The planning for this attack was massive and intricate over months-how could they have missed it? There are two possible explanations. One is that everybody failed. The other is that Netanyahu ignored the warnings.
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) October 7, 2023
* * * Uprising in Palestine New Left Review. Commentary:
It’ll take the IDF a few days to get forces staged and put a lid on it, then long term probably a ground invasion and massive bombardment – the strip is going to become another Grozny/Aleppo/Bakhmut.
— Big Serge ☦️🇺🇸🇷🇺 (@witte_sergei) October 7, 2023
I dunno about ground invasion; urban warfare is hard, as we know from Bakhmut and Melitopol, and the IDF is casualty-averse. But they might give it a shot:
War is all about logistics. Interesting to see a mix of American & European semis in Israel 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/Xy3aLzTAtw
— Man, I Love Freight 🚛 (@freightcaviar) October 7, 2023
America’s Betrayal of Israel The Tablet
Timeline of conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza Reuters. Starting 2005.
* * * Turkey launches fresh strikes on Kurdish targets in Syria in retaliation for Ankara bombing France24
Dear Old Blighty
Labour takes conference sponsorship from 64.5% finance firm Sqwawkbox. 64.5% APR buy-now pay-later firm.
New Not-So-Cold War
Biden considering huge ‘one and done’ Ukraine aid package The Telegraph. The deck: “Biden considering huge ‘one and done’ Ukraine aid package.” Up to $100 billion.
Panic of the proxy warriors Aaron Maté
Leo Varadkar’s Ireland has washed its hands of Ukraine The Telegraph
Are Ukraine’s Airstrikes in Russia Effective? Foreign Policy. No.
South of the Border
Battle for banana fortune rattles Ecuador presidential frontrunner FT
The Politics of Fiscal Restraint Phenomenal World
Biden Administration
Hakeem Jeffries pitches coalition governing in the House, and major changes to the rules and House Republicans push major rules change to avert another speakership humiliation Politico
2024
Trump’s lawyers lay out hush money defense strategy The Hill. IANAL, but they seem able to put together a colorable case. And he hasn’t fired them.
Drop boxes have become key to election conspiracy theories. Two Democrats just fueled those claims AP. A phishing equilibrium….
Digital Watch
AI cracking Captchas:
I've tried to read the captcha with Bing, and it is possible after some prompt-visual engineering (visual-prompting, huh?)
In the second screenshot, Bing is quoting the captcha 🌚 pic.twitter.com/vU2r1cfC5E
— Denis Shiryaev 💙💛 (@literallydenis) October 1, 2023
The Bezzle
The SBF trial is a reminder that crypto is a rotten business FT
Can AI Do Empathy Even Better Than Humans? Companies Are Trying It. WSJ. Lyssn.io is an AI platform:
When a woman discloses anxiety after a tough week at work, Lyssn’s chatbot gives three options the therapist could text back: “Sounds like work has really taken a toll this past week” or “Sorry to hear that, how have you been managing your stress and anxiety this week?” or “Thanks for sharing. What are some ways you’ve managed your anxiety in the past?”
Oddly, “Have you considered joining a union”? isn’t on the list.
Amazon’s Alexa has been claiming the 2020 election was stolen WaPo
Imperial Collapse Watch
You’re not going to like what comes after Pax Americana Noah Smith, Noahpinion
March of the Four–Stars: The Role of Retired Generals and Admirals in the Arms Industry Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
* * * ‘It’s a New Aircraft — Why Is It At 55%?’: American Lawmakers Increasingly Impatient With F-35’s Poor Availability Rates Military Watch
Fake Engine Parts Found in Delta Planes as Scandal Spreads to Four US Airlines The Drive
Healthcare
The Two Words That Can Make Health Care a Nightmare New York Magazine (mv). “Prior authorization.”
Class Warfare
Walgreens pharmacy employees plan walkout at US stores, CNN reports Reuters
Kaiser Permanente workers set to end historic strike, but another may loom CBS
What’s really inside the Hollywood writers’ deal? Here’s the juicy stuff LA Times
How a fight over 2 jobs bankrupted union of 40,000 dockworkers Freight Waves
The evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour in mammals (PDF) Nature
The Greatest Invention in the History of Humanity The Atlantic
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
181 comments
Comments are closed.
Links posted early? What a fancy bird!
And it won’t be dictated to.
Love the name. The bird looks like an 18th or early 19th century parliamentary secretary walking along with a quill feather ink pens tucked behind his ears or in his hat band.
at first glance thought it was a costume – looks like a bird ya don’t mess with, notice the talons
It made me think of a drag queen, with a lot of makeup around the eye. I guess the pose also influenced my perception. And I do think drag queens have talons, or at the very least, sharp opinions!
Yearly reminder that “It’s a culture, not a costume.” ;)
Bird is a terrestrial raptor. It’s related to to eagles, hawks, etc. So its prey is ground based reptiles (lizard,snake) and small mammals and rodents.
They kill prey by kicking their talons at it with a split-second striking force many times their weight. They hunt in pairs (him/her).
I wondered if it was related to the Bronterac from the movie “Don’t Look Up.”
And the thick heavy snake-stomping clubness of the toes themselves.
Reminds me of a Toulouse Lautrec dancing girl — all rouged up with black stockings and a decorative head piece:)
A very sexy 70s look.
Ya know, will all the BS going on, just a bird seems fitting.
Happy Sunday!
Yeah, for a moment one could see them having thrown in the towel given all the air oscillator delivered fertilizer flying around right now.
Fertilizer? OK, so the GOP firebrands in the House managed to oust Speaker Keven because he broke his word to them over funding for the Ukr war; and at the same time the peace activist group Code Pink was silently protesting at Bernie’s office for supporting more funding for the Ukr war; and Bernie had them arrested for hold up signs with his own quotes about the importance of negotiating peace; and Code Pink is seen by Marjorie Taylor Green (MTG), another ofher of the House GOP firebrands, and she goes up to them and says she supports them and suggests they make common cause on this one issue; and Code Pink say eww… common cause with you, on anything? no way! Proving Code Pink is a travelling theatrical group; and B releases $6 Billion in frozen Iranian assests back to Iran right before the surprise Hamas attack; and GOP goes nuts and starts saying Iran was behind the Hamas attack, although the $6 bil. release could be an effort to keep Iran on side.
Does anyone remember the old US sitcom SOAP ?
“Similar to a soap opera, the show’s story was presented in a serial format, and featured melodramatic plotlines including alien abduction, demonic possession, extramarital affairs, murder, kidnapping, unknown diseases, amnesia, cults, organized crime warfare, a communist revolution and teacher-student relationships. ” – Wiksi
Sounds about right. / ;)
Can you imagine if they restarted up that old series “The West Wing” and tried to update it for the present situation? Only way that that would work would be as a sitcom. I mean, where MTG is seen to be more progressive than Bernie Sanders, the jokes write themselves.
Reminds me that the mock election for the final season got a higher participation than the actual election…
The policy positions of the fake candidates were horrific. The Obama stand in wanted to fire every teacher, and the McCain stand in wanted to destroy do estimate spending and cut taxes on entrepreneurs or some nonsense. He was treated as brilliant by all the liberals on the show.
Then the commonsense position was to station 100,000 troops in Kazakhstan to keep Russia and China from stealing mineral wealth meant for Americans.
Bernie keeps digging a hole deeper and deeper that will be very difficult to climb out of – the Code Pink behavior regarding MTG is an endemic problem of never finding the middle ground to engage – better to protect your silo – it is also a clear reason my optimism never climbs and is difficult to maintain at all – didn’t try to suss it all and was just pleased to read of the return of Iranian funds – now if it could also be done with the Venezuelan gold being held ransom in England – who are the gangsters here? – not a difficult question for me – Soap kinda picked up where Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman left off and had a better run – considering Norman Lear produced Mary Hartman i was surprised by its short run –
Hmmm, I guess if your silo is all about donations and foundation funding your silo has to stay on on brand. (It used to be called astro turfing, aka fake grass roots organizing.) / ;)
Why would anyone ever, at any time, trust MJG about anything? Her career is mostly YouTube prankster, and especially stupid and dimwitted ones.
anything/anyone to amplify peace over war is alright with me – if nothing else they could have played her – a missed opportunity imho –
Bernie knows what Team D wants. And he has less self-respect than a whipped dog.
Just a bird!
[1] Re. the ‘Top science journal faced secret attacks from Covid conspiracy theory’ that included “former chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) Sir Richard Dearlove.”
Dearlove was behind the Steele dossier, too. For the uninitiated, SIS is popularly known as MI6.
[2] What are the odds that when the most corrupt country in the northern hemisphere gets flooded with weapons some of those weapons didn’t get sold on to Hamas?
Thank you, M.
Dearlove’s son, Mark, was a banker at Barclays and chaired the banking trade body’s LIBOR committee. I attended the committee from time to time as an employee of the trade body.
Dearlove fils has never been questioned about his role in the scandal. He was quietly promoted to run the investment banking arm of Barclays in Asia when the scandal erupted. When trade body employees voiced concern about the benchmark and proposed an alternative, Dearlove fils threatened them with dismissal and the body with the loss of funding.
Dearlove pere is one of the brains behind Brexit, but is happy to allow loud mouths like Farage and Cummings to grandstand and centrist log rollers blame Putin, Corbyn etc. He’s probably cuddling his cat as he observes the action.
Thank you Colonel. As I recall there was an interesting story going the rounds that Dearlove and Co. recruited a spy inside the Civil Service to help them bring down the May Government. If true, this would of course have been a serious criminal offence. I am unclear whether it would fall within the definition of treason.
Strange and worrying times we are living through. A former head of MI6 spying on the British Government?
Would these people be working on their own account or on behalf of someone else?
@ Colonel Smithers —
Col. S :He’s probably cuddling his cat as he observes the action.
Indeed.
Col. S :Dearlove pere is one of the brains behind Brexit.
That’s the reason for my interest in him, actually.
It’s probably occurred to you that based on the principle of ‘cui bono’ and much else, the UK’s apparently over-zealous promotion of the Ukraine conflict makes less sense as poodle behavior and/or Russophobia — major UK-headquartered corporations like AstraZeneca, after all, are continuing their Russian operations without the Kremlin confiscating their assets or London making a fuss — than as a strategic effort to degrade the EU while leaving Washington’s fingerprints all over the wreckage when the recriminations occur.
As they will. The deindustrialization of Germany, the EU’s former industrial motor; populist unrest in EU nations in reaction to neoliberal EU governments that are captured US vassals (captured of course in no small part because of the 2008 GFC and the credit swap lines the Fed then extended); the centrifugal pressures of different EU states pursuing their own interests when there’s a shrinking EU pie. Hard to see how the EU survives all these things without being substantially degraded, especially if enlargement to include Ukraine and those other Eastern European countries occurs.
So what’s the connection with Dearlove?
It’s very probable that the Ukraine conflict was originally set to be triggered in 2016-17, following both Hillary’s accession to the White House and, not incidentally, the Brexit vote. Hence, the frenzy from the US deep state when Trump’s election blocked that. Hence, too, in the UK R. Dearlove and a cadre of erstwhile SIS/MI6 agents — including C. Steele, former head of SIS’s Russian desk — stepping in to try to facilitate Trump’s ejection from the White House and the commencement of Washington’s proxy war against Putin and Russia. But Dearlove and his cadre were, I suggest, doing it for their own Brexiteer, anti-EU purposes.
Col. S : Dearlove’s son, Mark, was a banker at Barclays and chaired the banking trade body’s LIBOR committee … When trade body employees voiced concern about the benchmark and proposed an alternative, Dearlove fils threatened them with dismissal and the body with the loss of funding.
I’m shocked, Colonel, shocked.
Re your first point, I may be wrong but I can’t help but think that a major goal of the article is to make this connection:
1. Dearlove et al. are a bunch of devious right-wing spooks.
2. Dearlove et al. used their devious wiles to push a China did it “lab-leak” theory and smear “one of the world’s most prestigious science journals” as part of their own plan to cash in on a vaccine.
3. Therefore: we can assume “lab leak” theories are just right-wing spook propaganda.
I have no problem whatsoever believing propositions 1 and 2. But there is no reason whatsoever draw conclusion 3 from the first two propositions.
You don’t need to assume lab leak theories are right-wing propaganda but in light of the findings of this piece you also can’t dismiss it, rule it out.
There’s a degree of organization and planning behind the perpetuation of these now ideological beliefs which has all the hallmarks of propaganda and the piece outlines one method.
The findings of this piece have nothing to do with the arguments or evidence supporting a lab leak hypothesis with which I’m familiar. I’m not making any claims about “Truth” here, just questioning the motive, or perhaps one of the motives, behind this article. It strikes me as a very typical strategy; you link a “conspiracy theory” to the interests or ideas of people who will be most suspect to your readership, hoping to contaminate the theory by association, What makes me think this way? Well, for one thing, as I say, it gives no indication that there are actually a number of very valid arguments for why a lab-leak should at least be taken seriously that have nothing to do with this silly scheme. For another, it conveniently counters another story about a group of powerful officials who conspired to shape the “origin” narrative by repressing opposing arguments and evidence, publishing disinformation, and smearing all opponents. But the latter group were actually much more powerful than these “hard-Brexit” right-wingers, using their power and influence to *stifle* any suggestion of a lab-leak origin. But related, and perhaps the clincher for me, was this passage:
“…the group was confounded when Nature Medicine, the peer-reviewed monthly clinical medical subsidiary of Springer Nature, published a scientific report on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, showing that it was “not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus”.
A naive reader would assume that this was scientific proof against a lab-leak origin published “in one of the world’s most prestigious science journals” that was then smeared by these devious right-wingers. But this is not the case. This article has been roundly criticized for bias and conflicts of interest for some of the same reasons as was the infamous Lancet article on the same subject, linked to the *spook adjacent conspiracy* by Fauci et al. that I refer to above – which by the way has been *thoroughly documented*, i.e. its not a “conspiracy theory” but and *actual conspiracy*,
Again, I’m not making any claims about “Truth” regarding origins here. And there are “lab leak” hypotheses that do not claim that the virus was an artificial creation. But I do think this story uses misdirection to turn the reader away from the most significant aspects of this issue.
‘Man, I Love Freight 🚛
@freightcaviar
War is all about logistics. Interesting to see a mix of American & European semis in Israel 🇮🇱’
A year or so ago I would have been impressed by the amount of that firepower. Now? Not so much. Too much in warfare has changed in the fighting in the Ukraine as like with this Merkava tank that is the pride of Israel-
https://www.bitchute.com/video/gO3r9Osk43w6/ (41 secs)
So how many drones would Hamas need to cripple that convoy once it deploys?
Tanks have always been vulnerable to attacks from above, but until recently that needed either expensive planes or something like Sweden’s RBS 56.
Now the same thing can be delivered via a shaped charge and a commercial drone.
Or how about strapping a venerable M72 onto a drone:
https://www.tu.no/video/skyter-m-72-fra-drone/1765
“Joe Biden plans ‘one and done’ Ukraine aid package”
Old Joe is starting to sound as whiny about money for the Ukraine as Zelensky is. Of course if the Democrats get back in next November, there would be still more money for the country – or whatever is left of it. Things are getting really desperate in Washington. One Democratic Senator – Chris Van Hollen – has floated the idea that the US ships the Iron Drone anti-air system that it brought off Israel to send to Poland and the Poles ship their US-built Patriot batteries to the Ukraine. No idea what would happen if the Russians burned those patriot systems and the Poles demanded that that Iron Dome system stay in Poland. And it is not as if the Poles and the Ukrainians are getting along in any case for Poland to make such a sacrifice-
https://www.rt.com/news/584307-politico-biden-creative-ways-ukraine-aid/
Is he worried that if US do not pay up, Z will drop a incriminating bomb on the Biden dealings in Ukraine?
Big Z must know that if he tries that stunt, that Biden will get some of those neo-Nazis around him to make a martyr of him and claim that it was the Russians who assassinated him. They despise him anyway and for them, he is just a pr front – which he is.
If you think that Zelenskii is the only person in Ukraine with valuable dirt on Biden…
At this point, that seems like a logical conclusion.
Sadly.
Americans not in favor of “more please” begging and pleading for US$ Billions towards Ukraine are Putin lovers and to be derided as such. Do you want Putin to win? \ sarc
Internationally, those G-20 meetings in 2024 might get even more crazypants / man with hair on fire as the Biden administration heads into key election and campaigning season Can this administration do two-three things all at once. “Democracy!” “Democracy at stake!” “Our Democracy!” See I can write their slogans and did so for free, from the abundance of my dark heart no less.
Ukraine was trying to position itself as the new Israel, a beloved garrison and weapons testing ground for the US. They may finally be grasping that they can look forward to being the new Kurdistan.
Fwiw, Israel is well on the way to being a basket case…
Bidenomics in action: More for Ukraine and none for you! I guess they needed to buy something with all that money saved from uncanceling half of childhood poverty.
1: i found that when Yves hits th wrong button, i feel a bit better about my luddism.
2:re: Noapinion….wow.
he has to specify “interstate wars”.
i kept thinking about the history of us “interventions”…Cuba, Guatemala, and on and on.
and then he links to the wiki for “foreign inteventions by the soviet union”…which, it seems, the spooky cleansers haven’t gotten around to , yet.
the wiki didnt have a total count of such interventions, and i didnt do my own count.
so then, i followed a link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_interventions_by_the_United_States
and it has “more than 400”,lol.
and then…the “Rise of China” in manufactory is mentioned a couple of times like it just happened….like a dust devil or a weed seed germinating.
…this is a giant peeve of mine against the “Lets go fight china” crowd…they are of the same ilk as those who thought it best to send our physical plant/means of production over there in the first place.
Noah comes off as so reasonable and even edgy,lol…and tho he’s my age, i hear my mom and her 3 cousins…their ahistoricity and other assorted tropes about mirrored bubbledwellers.
(my sending cspan vids(which google did not want to show me,lol) of biden through the years bragging about writing the patriot act, or lobbying for the bankruptcy bill or “entitlement reform”…to mom didnt have an effect, at all…the cognitive dissonance was evident…but with some exertion mom doubled down on why biden is a rather awesome president,lol….mostly to do with trump, of course.—again, we’re frelled)
For me it has reached the point where i just avoid any link to noahpinion, as i know it will get stuck in my craw.
noah also links to this…which makes me think of shibari, for some reason: https://twitter.com/MEaglen/status/1689283338102616065
a few cynical comments, but mostly of the “down with the chicoms!” sort.
Though I tried to stay with it, he lost me about the time he failed to mention Domino Theory in Korea and Viet Nam, and started talking about Saddam Hussein being brutal, but less so after the first Iraq war. No mention that we still had the receipts from his purchases of WMD from the CDC for the Iran/Iraq war.
Yup, the lack of transparency on US involvements abroad was a blinking neon light. if you have to lie by omission to make your case then you really do not have much of a case to make.
Liberals that subscribe to Institution for the Study (and promotion of imperial) War (ISW), CNN etc!
Krugman once equated building defenses against UFO’s as better than digging ditches to fill them in.
Next they will demand a draft!
Because Star Wars can be turned against a restive lumpen much more easily than said lumpen can be made to dig their own mass graves and fill them in.
Thanks, I agree Noah lives in an alternative reality where talking points are real. Too many slights of fact. Or equivalent BS. I will save time and not follow any of his links again.
This is the part that got my attention:
Really? I have not read these headlines about China’s military:
The Pentagon’s $35 Trillion Accounting Black Hole
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-35-trillion-accounting-black-231154593.html
Because at the same time America was quite literally giving the DoD even more than it requested (maybe that’s why it loses it?), China was doing this:
Past, present and future: The evolution of China’s incredible high-speed rail network
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/china-high-speed-rail-cmd/index.html
As a taxpayer, I wouldn’t mind having even a third of that $35 trillion back so we could build HSR in America. OK, a third is too much, how about a tenth?
Oh, look, I guess that would fix all our broken infrastructure, and still leave a trillion or so for HSR:
The cost to fix America’s crumbling infrastructure? Nearly $2.6 trillion, engineers say
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/30/politics/infrastructure-us-investment-cost-engineers/index.html
That joker (was it Frum?) that ran with the figure that the US was getting a bargain out of Ukraine because only 5% of the defense budget was being used to disarm Russia. Two things: if it’s coming from the defense budget, why is congress voting on appropriation. And two, if indeed about 80 billion is only 5% of the defense budget, that would make their budget upwards of over 1.6B$. Significant money in my book.
so almost 3 years of the part of the war and hegemony budget that we even know about…if we would only look,lol.
to fix a bunch of things that benefit us all(one presumes, with these sorts of reports)
Cui Bono?
(youd think that , 22 years after 9-11, that phrase might have made it into spellcheck’s files,lol)
remember…rich folks are tasty.
just in case.
I go to Noahpinion mostly to mock him and his mini-mes. Occasionally it’s subscriber only to comment, though.
“Battle for banana fortune rattles Ecuador presidential frontrunner FT”
Putting the bananas in banana republic?
Anchurian Candidate?
“Can AI Do Empathy Even Better Than Humans? Companies Are Trying It. WSJ.”
More like can it feign empathy better…
Maybe the first sentence should have read ‘Can AI Do Empathy Even Better Than Corporations?’ Once you put it that way, the answer becomes obvious.
Heh, 0.1 kelvin is more emphatic than a corporation.
There was nothing the three statements the AI produced that are not well trained in corporations today. It didn’t take an AI to think if that. The AI plagiarized it from every first level manager in a large corporation who got it because they are trained to say meaningless things to employees.
Also, if they’re modeling after therapists responses then consider that therapists are trained not to become emotionally or personally invested, which means they cannot really care, because they can’t or it will wreck them, which raises the question whether what they’re doing can be called empathy.
Having said that, if it teaches humans how to speak in a caring way then it could create empathy where there usually is none.
Therapists are also meant to have a well of training and experience about how people did or didn’t respond to therapies and medications. And there’s an art to that that requires insight into individuals.
And not being emotionally invested has nothing to do with empathy. Empathy is a type of insight and perspective. Haven’t you every understood exactly how awful a dear friend must feel after having done something stupid that blew up a relationship, while simultaneously being very annoyed that the dear friend didn’t listen to you and everyone else who warned them not to do that thing?
What does it mean for an AI or a human to “do empathy”? I can easily imagine that a software could give people who interact with it the experience of interacting with an empathic entity better than a human drone paid hourly to “do empathy”. That doesn’t seem like a big deal. But I thought empathy was a subjective experience.
“March of the Four–Stars: The Role of Retired Generals and Admirals in the Arms Industry Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft”
Makes me think about the inroads of Red Hat into MIC IT with a retired general on the board.
“Leo Varadkar’s Ireland has washed its hands of Ukraine”
So if I got this Richard Kemp character right, no country has the right to have a policy of neutrality and Ireland should have emptied out its armouries to send to the Ukraine. He also does not seem to realize that when he talks about ‘Boris Johnson’s leadership‘, that that is not the plus that he thinks it is. Is he bitter because Ireland never officially joined the Allies in WW2 too? But when he finishes this attack on Ireland by saying that the UK will be proud that it demilitarized itself for the Zelensky regime while Ireland will be ashamed it didn’t, I think that he is thinking of Ireland with a colonial mindset. For those interested, Here is that Richard Kemp’s Wikipedia entry and he turns out to be a retired British Army officer. Why am I not surprised?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kemp
To some people neutrals are more contemptible than the enemy. Sometimes combatants see their enemy as courageous and patriotic but fighting for the other side. This theme came up quite a lot in popular British fiction in the decades following ww2.
For both sides, the enemy is a bunch of undertrained kids that you’d probably enjoy hanging around with if you’d hadn’t been ordered to shoot them for god and freedom.
The Melian dialogue comes to mind…
Followed by GWBush you are with us or against us…
Many signs point to a full-scale war in Israel, which includes an invasion of Gaza.
A review of the major Hebrew-language Israeli media sites showed:
1) The Israeli military has called up hundreds of thousands of reservists.
2) The main spokesperson for the Israeli military has announced a plan to evacuate the towns and villages in Southern Israel that are closest to the border with Gaza.
3) While the number of critically and seriously injured Israelis numbers around 400 as of this morning, there are photos of hundreds and hundreds of people lining up in Central Tel Aviv to donate blood.
Israel is getting ready for a full-scale war. So far, more than 80 percent of the roughly 400 Israeli fatalities appear to be civilians. The number of Palestinian casualties over the next few weeks is likely to dwarf these numbers.
Tragically, we are looking at a blood bath.
I hope you are wrong but fear you are correct.
I’ve learned two things about the Hamas attack from our wonderful mainstream media so far. First, it was a “massive intelligence failure” on the part of Israel (Wolf Blitzer kept pushing that point over and over yesterday, so I guess that’s part of the accepted narrative). Second, of course, it was “unprovoked.” On that point:
https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/theyre-repeating-the-word-unprovoked-again-this-time-in-defense-of-israel-2984786b1ef8
These days I react to “unprovoked” the same way I react to “conspiracy theory.” And I’m a little shaky about “intelligence failures” as well,
One unintended consequence is the sudden rise of Bibi’s political standing.
Yes. How con-VEN-ient (in Dana Carvey’s Church Lady voice).
Civilians or settlers?
I think there’s a difference.
For years now Israel has said that all Israelis – men, women and children – are soldiers for that country and are therefore expendable for the greater good. Individual Israelis may not share this thought however.
Except… the ultra-orthodox are exempt from military service. From the Guardian, 2019.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/01/israel-conscription-taxes-netanyahu-resentments-behind-crisis
It is even funnier than that.
An anecdote from personal experience.
I grew up, (if one can credit such an absurd claim,) on Miami Beach during my teens. One of our neighbours was a Reform Jewish family. The street we lived on was a “back street,” and thus much safer to amble along than the main Streets. (Tourists in rented cars can be a serious threat to life and limb.)
One Saturday, our neighbour was out front mowing his lawn. A group of Ultra Orthodox walked by, presumably returning from Synagogue. They stopped and began yelling at our neighbour. I later asked the neighbour what was up. He replied that the Ultras were warning him that Jews were not allowed to do any work on the Sabbath (Saturday.) Suddenly, one of the Orthodox picked up a medium sized stone from the verge of the road and beaned my neighbour on the head with it. The Ultras were claiming the right to enforce religious law on other Jews in America. My neighbour was being stoned for his transgression. The local Police would not get involved.
The same applies in Israel, there with ‘official’ assent.
Battles between not only opposing groups of religious fanatics, but racial cousins too get very ugly, very quickly.
Israel has conventional military superiority. So, Hamas has resorted to “irregular” military means. Israel has WMDs. Does Hamas also possess WMDs?
This has been brewing slowly over decades. Don’t expect a quick resolution.
Wow. Thanks. The First Amendment seems more important all the time. Forward thinkers were the founders.
” First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Exactly. Beware any and all Theocracies. They are ruthless because “G-d” is on their side, so they can do no wrong and their opponents can do no right.
My favourite version of this is the poster showing the inside of a passenger jet cockpit. Two vaguely Middle Eastern men are arguing as the plane rushes towards the side of a tall building.
One says: “No, I say kill them all. The Allmighty will know his own.”
Stay safe, keep the Potassium Iodide handy.
As a follow-up to my comment above, I should add that there is a third thing that I am learning about the Hamas attack from our mainstream press – over and over. That is the centrality of deaths, injuries, and kidnappings of innocent civilians – Israeli civilians that is. This is the “first and foremost” issue according to Chistiane Amanpour. She demanded that the Palestinian Ambassador to Britain denounce such atrocities before she allowed him to say anything else. So a completely “unprovoked” attack on innocent civilians that came out of nowhere and took Israel completely by surprise. Those vicious Russian – I mean radical Palestinian fanatics.
No wonder Alex Christoforou mocks Chistiane Amanpour so hard in his videos.
(on the very small chance) Israel doesn’t enter Gaza, Hamas wins.
Israel gets repelled from Gaza, Hamas wins.
Endless stream of dead Arab children hits social media when Israel enters Gaza, Hamas wins.
one IDF soldier (reservist) dies for every 1.5 dead Hamas-fighter, Hamas wins.
The Gaza Strip is already a hell-scape thanks for years of Israeli sanctions; there is no open border w/Egypt.
We are going to see in social media, the proverbial “better to die on one’s feet, than live on one’s knees” from the Hamas militants and “Pyrrhic victory” from the iDF
Not much love for Israel in the middle east right now-
‘Two Israeli tourists and an Egyptian citizen were killed on Sunday when an Egyptian police officer opened fire on Israeli tourists in the Mansheya area of the city of Alexandria in Egypt, according to RT Arabic, which cites an official from the African country’s security service.’
https://www.rt.com/news/584320-egypt-police-israeli-shooting/
So what happens when the Israelis commence their massacres. What will people feel about any Israelis in this part of the world? Other countries are getting nervous and already foreign airlines have stopped flying to Israel. I cannot see a path where Israel wins long term.
The plan might be to make a desert, call it peace, and wait 10 years while us tries again to push deals.
But what will Iran/hezballah do? I’m worried not just how bad it gets in Gaza but how far it spreads.
On the plus side, imo more pols will vote against more for ukr and for more for israel… I’d really prefer avoiding a direct us-Russia hot war. And, come to think of it, a us-China one, too.
Whose idea was it to push the other 2 super powers together and then take on both? Incompetent great game players…
I had the misfortune of running into Israeli tourists in many countries, often young visitors who had recently completed their IDF tour of duty…
They weren’t shall we say, the best ambassadors.
Somebody made a wrong choice at one point back in time… Likely it has to do with actually making the choice rather than the choice itself, given human nature…
In my experience, that observation could be made about most tourists from most countries.
I never typically saw their like, a pack of 5 or 6 jackals just out of the army on holiday, going out of their way to not ingratiate themselves with the locals in many countries I visited.
The individual Israeli tourist wasn’t anything like them, so they blended in.
That Egypt keeps the border closed is my biggest puzzler.
What is Egypt gaining by doing so?
1. no flood of refugees, Egypt has enough econ problems.
2. bargaining chip with Israel
And speaking of econ problems, seems there is some money from uncle Sam involved now that curiosity got the better of me.
What is that line again about trying something over and over while expecting a different outcome?
The peace accord between Israel and Egypt when President Carter (I believe) grants Israel a bit over 2 billion usd a year and Egypt gets a value of 50 % of what Israel does. It is under the banner of “Foreign Military Financing”. Israel’s defense industry owes it successfully to that money. Within the rules of FMF the recipient countries have to spend the money in the US. Egypt has to but Israel benefitted from a rule change for them that allows them to spend the money on R&D. No surprise why Egypt plays ball. Prior to the Carter deal Egypt had lots of Russian equipment. Rumors are they are looking at Russian equipment again.
I was reading a year or so ago that the US would only allow Egypt to buy obsolete jets as they border Israel so the Egyptians decided to order Russian Su-35S fighter jets. Under US pressure, Egypt backed out of the deal but those jets did not go to waste. Iran purchased them. Talk about an own goal.
That is just foreign policy. All jets are not created equally. There are levels of equipment and accuracy etc that are dictated by US policy. Then all kinds of other rules that come into play when a foreign government purchases US weapons systems.
Egypt has population of 110 million, there’s no way a half a million Gazans could flood Egypt, and likely many of them would continue to Lebanon, Jordan or Syria.
I’ve understood the border is closed because otherwise US would freeze the annual $1-2 billion aid* to Egypt. There are enough “hidden” tunnels under the border to keep Gaza fed and fueled in the “normal” times. Gaza is much more part of the economy of Egypt than economy of Israel.
* most of which is for buying US weapons, though.
US bribes. Egypt is the second largest recipient of American money in the Middle East.
And yet the Tablet link contends America is at fault today–apparently for refusing to bomb Iran back to the stone age in order to make Israel more secure. It was Iran, you see, who taught the Palestinians how to take out tanks.
Of course we once spent blood and treasure bombing Iraq back to the near stone age and that had more than a little to do with Israel. As usual in this sort of rhetoric the Tablet writer says Israel must “decouple” from the US as though this is some kind of threat rather than a promise (they’ll never do it). America doesn’t “owe” Israel anything and therefore is incapable of betraying it. They and their fanatic settler rump are very busy betraying themselves and then, like Biden when he makes his mistakes, blaming the world.
“second largest recipient of American money in the Middle East”
Relative worth per capita?
Egypt 2023 population 112,716,598 people at mid year. 1.4% of the total world population.
Israel had a population of approximately 9.73 million inhabitants as of March 2023
The Tablet piece is religious excretia. “They hate us” (why). It is not a religious war but it is being prosecuted by religious fanatics. The Palestinians have always been unreasonable. That because the elephant stepped on them they must kill the elephant at all costs. However one is not antisemitic just because one can’t stomach the hasidic delusion of god given entitlement. That is, of course, completely mirrored on the islamic side with their closed cultural enclaves and jihadic extremism. For now Israel has the upper hand and the aggressive territorial expansion. That is despicable but It is hard to feel sorry for either side.
It is fine with me that US foreign policy is backing away from Israel but do they have enough Dane geld for bribing middle eastern governments to keep the Russians at bay in the middle east?
I read that Tablet piece and its claims seemed so far off what I understand to be the basic truth that I wonder if it is some kind of delusional paranoia. It would take me hundreds of hours to try checking up on every claim and interpretation that this article offered up and I just don’t have the time and the interest.
I suppose if that Mr. Tablet regaled me with all this in person, my response would have to be . . . ” I’m so sorry. I am afraid you may have me confused with someone who gives a sh*t.” And if he kept going, all I could say after that would be ” Well bless your heart”.
Egypt has adhered closely to the terms of the peace treaty, and for good reasons.
Everybody mentions the US subsidy, but that’s small compared to the value of the oil & gas deposits in Sinai, the recovery of which made the treaty a big win for Egypt. Today’s Egypt runs on Sinai fuel.
Egypt also derives substantial tourism revenue from the Sinai resort towns.
It should be noted that Egypt cannot freely move troops or security forces into Sinai. Past a certain number, they must obtain Israeli consent.
Egyptian citizens have limited rights to enter Sinai. They must be normally resident, or have employment there. When I visited in 2005, I found that papers got checked more carefully when leaving Suez than at the foreign frontiers.
The entry of a large number of refugees and/or militants from Gaza would cause Egypt nothing but headaches. The Egyptian gov’t does not want incidents. They want business as usual.
A further complication is posed by the small population of Bedouin nomads in the Sinai region, whose lands and status are given some protection under Egyptian law.
And just generally speaking, Egypt has rampant inflation, a food shortage (because the stupid Europeans are killing each other), perennial housing and infrastructure problems, and a balance-of-payments crisis.
Does Sisi want a Palestinian imbroglio? No.
But I wonder if this war might destabilize Sisi’s regime. Scenario: Israeli reprisals in Gaza cause big pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Cairo, among a population already discontent for domestic reasons. Government tries to crack down, etc. etc.
Neocons must be having the feeling they are being jinxed. In Spanish we have a say that can be literally translated as “I set a circus and the dwarves grow” as an expression of things never going right for one. This obsession with total hegemony and obedience all around the world will always result in the proverbial circus where dwarves grow.
Doesn’t Hamas now have enormous leverage with hundreds of hostages in its possession?
Like probably everyone, I was surprised by the scale of the attacks and deaths and wondered what Hamas might expect to achieve. The answer, I think, is a vast reservoir of hostages, perhaps including Americans. Apparently, it’s not just a few but hundreds who could be detained in maybe hundreds of locations.
I’m not seeing even a remotely viable or acceptable way Israel can deal with this.
Regarding the FT article on the bond market. This is funny since we knew it was coming when the Fed raised rates. And if not then, on their second move up. I dilly-dallied and only bailed between both those and have sat on the sidelines licking my wounds (a 10% haircut) but looking back, glad as Hell because it could be the +40% those who are too stubborn have taken. In fact, beginning to think we’re not that far from a reentry. Then again, I’m in no hurry to move because, once again, I think the timing will be telegraphed with enough clues to maybe make a move after missing the first 10% jump, while not miss the remaining 90% that will take years if not decades to play out.
Good points. Thanks. I can only wonder what will happen to the 401K IRAs and the remaining defined benefits retirement pensions balance sheets.
Well, all I can say that my Europe travel is out of the picture for some time. And I know how to do it cheaply.
Low ‘mission capability’ implies sending more aircraft out to do a given operation, and a lot more supply and maintenance chain.
F-35 has been in ‘development’ since 2002! With a nearly 100% cost overrun! There may be 600 F-35 already out and about in the Navy/Marine Corps and Air Force.
The aircraft is being sold under waivers to statutory limits on the quantity bought before passing operational test. That suggests F-35’s with a lot of work to be done to get to spec.
F-35 partial mission capable rate is 55%.
That is, as measured on a given day, the number of aircraft with at least one major system inoperative is 45/100.
I reviewed the GAO audit report, it did not reveal the Fully Mission Capable rate which is F-35’s that can do all that “we” paid for it to do.
Recently, the aerospace (AF/Space Force) military trade magazine reported F-35 cost per flying hour down to $42K. That cost gets you an unknown likely entirely embarrassing fully mission capable rate. The not mission capable rate, grounded aircraft, was also not mentioned!
Not to worry in another recent audit GAO found that cost of flying hour for the rest of the tactical fleet almost never yields mission capability the budget was supposed to deliver, for past 11 or so years.
F-35 needs a new engine bc they added much power draining electronics that the engine must run hot to supply all the power and cooling!!!!
GAO also found that the Operational Test, required to go into full rate production, is not possible because of numerous sustainment and support “issues”.
The USAF (maybe Navy, too) version needs a major software improvement for new stuff that was “hung on” it F-35’s!
Defense acquisition is about where it was with the C-5!
And given something i read about an encounter between a F-35 and a SU-30 over the Baltic sea, the latter can already blind the F-35’s radar via jamming.
We’ve seen the grenades in action, but I wonder about the anti-tank weaponry delivered early last year to Ukraine for a Russian offensive towards Lviv. The map has Hamas racing to the West Bank taking civilians hostage. I think they might be trying to draw out the Israelis into a narrow two sided front. Hamas isnt trying to link in the near future but force the IDF to fight a battle under political pressure to rescue their own population while appeasing the usual suspects who are frothing at the opportunity to kill Muslims. Russians are so passe.
Last I saw, the West Bank just has a general strike for tomorrow. In the North, the Israelis fired artillery into Lebanon, and Hezbollah destroyed radar sites in response. Israel won’t be able to redeploy those forces.
F-35 is getting a “new” fire control radar, based on F-22, modified and updated. Similar going in to F-16’s that are living longer because F-35!
Smaller comes from using GaNitrite chips, which the Russians and Chinese are well advanced.
More power, smaller size one motive new engine (another is poor reliability)! Also new software ‘channels’!
It is not a cost overrun if you fiddledlong enough to need new tech?
While reading that article, it occurred that the F-35 is the most powerful and dangerous weapon in the arsenal of – Russia and China. No, seriously. If there was any military confrontation, those countries would only have to wait a month before the availability of that fighter dropped from 55% down to about 5%. All that they would have to do is mount constant patrols forcing those countries that have the F-35 to keep on sending it up until the maintenance cycle broke down. Add in a few long-range missiles to strike at the airfields where those F-35s are based and soon it would be all over. On the other hand, Lockheed Martin stock is doing well so there is that.
All they need do is look at the airfields with big fuel tank farms…..
F-16 fuel load 6000 pounds, F-35 16000…….
Big slow hard turning gas gobbler!
KC 46 off loads not more than KC 135!!
It has to carry spare parts, test equipment, and contract technicians.
The other fighter aircraft are not a lot better.
https://news.usni.org/2023/02/10/cbo-report-on-super-hornet-availability
Most aircraft maintenance or a significant part of it is contracted back to the manufacturer. See the article about the Generals going to work for companies and see if that helps you understand the maintenance issue. Profit is in maintenance and modifications not the original manufacture of the aircraft. As someone said the F-35 has never lost a budget battle in Washington that is a battle it will always win.
I cost out the Bonanza at $250 per hour and while non-pilots are aghast, my wise friends with Barons figure $350/hr whilst homebuilt pals figure $125/hr (but without the capability, usually 2 souls versus 4-6 souls onboard). And were it not for the FAA, I’d put $50k into the aircraft tomorrow (in reality it would take a year), which may be chicken feed for a Mustang or G5 owner but is quite enough for me.
And for this I get near 100% availability, albeit no heads up display, AIM9, Hellfire fire-and-forget, nor the rush of going vertical for 50k feet. We all make sacrifices.
Anyway, a lot is made of mission-availability but Uncle is well used to 50%, especially for a cutting edge weapon that is complex beyond belief and functions as a developmental tool. The next fighter will be better still as lessons will be learned, new tactics developed, and improved training all play a role. It really is about live and learn. My favorite jet fighter? The relatively simple F-16.
My intimate staff association with F-16 was last in 1985. They were hanging complexity all over it to survive, and do different missions!
.50 availability degrades sortie rate, and fills the operating location with all kinds of overhead, and more airframes.
.50 okay flying over the Kurds….
Broke down equipment May as well been left home
—An astonishing unravelling of a situation that’s long been forgotten, ignored, or tolerated. What next? Sky News—-
This is crazy. Once again, like in Donbas/Russian attack, pundits act like a world event is a lighting bolt on a clear blue-sky day.
The situation in Gaza has been building up for years via sanctions. Hamas, the Israeli governments, ultra-right-wing setllers have all been lousy actors.
Hamas even named its operation after the mosque violated by the Israeli government.
“shock” is when happens when reality bursts propaganda bubble.
Dangerous days for the State Of Israel and the Middle East as a whole. Israel doesn’t want another front opening to the north with Hezbollah. However, that seems a unavoidable if Israel does launch a ground invasion of the Gaza,
For now a Gaza invasion isn’t guaranteed. The Israeli Ambassador to the Russian Federation has said that the final decision on the ground operation in Gaza has not yet been made. That’s good news. You can expect Russia to be playing a major role in defusing the situation.
There are reports of negotiations taking place between Israel & Hamas representatives in Egypt. If successful we should see the release/exchange of Israeli prisoners and hostages. This conflict could easily end in days with both sides able to declare victory.
That’s my optimistic take but things could easily spiral out of control and head off in a very unpredictable direction.
.
It is hard for me to see that scenario, given that Netanyahoo is in charge. Listening to Fox News, you could almost taste the thirst for revenge. I hope I’m wrong.
If Russia can help, I am certain they will, but (1) There will be attempts to sabotage it from DC and (2) it will be massively covered up in the Western press, so we will have no way of knowing. Other than the blogosphere.
Netanyahu also has close connections to Russia and has been making noise about turning away from US (at least while Dems are in charge) and even grumbling about color revolution attempts against him. So him listening to Russians is not improbable, although how much sway Russia could have given Netanyahu’s domestic needs is not clear. But if Russia does come through, Israel could become the new (old) Armenia.
Do wonder if such a switch would leave some oligarchs in “hiding” exposed.
https://twitter.com/ChinaTeacher1/status/1710884536559526200
I give you, your UN ambassador and GOP presidential candidate. Get your warmonger on, Nikki!
Maybe somebody should tap her on the shoulder and remind her that she is suppose to be UN ambassador and GOP Presidential candidate to the United States and not Israel. She seems to have forgotten the distinction. At the moment she is saying that they are one and the same.
It’s going to be Newsome sold as “The New JFK”.
When he appointed Padilla as Senator he was rewarding the man who delivered California for HRC in 2016, A solid favor for both Hillary and the Dem Mafia.
$.
Butler is more interesting, while her ties to Uber and AirBnB shows her heart is in the right place she was involved both with the “Hillary For America” Campaign and in 2016 she was a big Donor to Kamala Harris’ Campaign,$10MM from funds made available by “Emily’s List” when she was the Honcho there.
When you bring $10MM to the table you are on the inside and you have something to sell…
and US Senator is a sweet gig for someone with Ms Lashondra’s connections.
The Penny Pritzker appointment is also a tell, look at the pictures of her with Gavin Newsome. they have been close for decades ($).
The good news is that Newsome represents the Aristo wing of the California Democratic Mafia, He has no problem grinding the peasants into dust, but he can’t afford to look tacky ( $600 comes to mind) while doing so lest he embarrass his patrons.
Not bothering to put lipstick on the pigs these days, Dems are just straight up grifting, extracting everything they can get before everything has been gotten at which time the wise will realize it’s time to get going.
Newsome has already done that (fumble with the proverbial $600). He made a lot of noise about CA giving out the check on its own, but messed up the process badly (took way too much time and wrapped it in ridiculous amount of red tape.). Quite a few people I know were pretty disgusted with the affair (Newsome making all that noise and claiming credit) even after the checks materialized eventually.
Nice guy Newsom. He just vetoed a bill that would have banned caste-based discrimination-
https://apnews.com/article/california-caste-discrimination-ban-newsom-veto-eef696fa2e28476d566aa2f9ef3f1997
Newsom, the Team Blue Romney or Newmittens.
I’m think actor George Raft flipping a silver dollar in his hand. / ;)
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/478648266640006550/
I’m thinking of Richard Widmark from “Kiss of Death.”
See, and marvel at the relevance today!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DkySy18p0U
My Kevin (since ’07) aka Righteous Lazarus of Bakersfield, has been politically dead about 4 days and there is already talk of resurrecting him…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The attacks in Israel and demand for U.S. aid are injecting new urgency into recent talks among centrist House Republicans to attempt to reinstate Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, with scores of Republican lawmakers now discussing the effort.
Calls and texts among GOP members picked up dramatically after news of the attacks reached the U.S. overnight Friday. The message, per one House Republican lawmaker involved in the long-shot effort: “We need to bring back Kevin, immediately.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/07/some-republicans-making-bid-to-bring-back-mccarthy-to-move-on-aid-to-israel-00120501
The only way this will be more delicious is if it happens with Democratic support. Gaetz would probably lose the one man wrecking crew clause, the Dems would lose a whole lotta of dignity, and I am betting Nancy would still lose her secret office.
Popcorn, anyone?
AIPACkage Deal?
Now available at the AIPACkage Store, at the corner of ‘K’ Street and Treasury Drive.
These are the countries that do and don’t recognize Israel:
International recognition of Israel
My comment yesterday on the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine is here.
Crypto is a rotten business. More likely headline, crypto attracted the most venal, hypocritical and self interested people and venture capital couldn’t keep from wetting the beds to start throwing good money after it. It’ll be an Uber, it’ll be a Facebook / Meta, huge win for everyone !
CNBC has regularly during the week piped in from the proceedings. Below is one article, from a series of interviews covering the SBF trial. This one focuses on his parents and how little Sam was always so smart and precocious…well you can perhaps fathom how it goes as we see the results. I’m not a parent, so I can just assume indulging every child’s wish tends to create such a behavior but that’s just an opinion. If you watch anything about Ted Bundy (as an example), it’s his mother who commented at one juncture “our boy is just wonderful, he could never do such a thing he is so special the world needs him…”
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2023/10/02/sam-bankman-frieds-parents-arent-out-of-legal-peril-themselves-new-yorkers-sheelah-kolhatkar.html
Has anybody read Michael Lewis’ new book?
It looks like he had huge access to the glory Bankman-Fried but no access to the disgraced Bankman-Fried and he was as shocked as Tom Brady when everything blew and at the very least he would have a lot of explaining to do and that might be interesting to read. I don’t know. A couple of his earlier books were most excellent.
Barry Ritholtz interviews Lewis:
https://ritholtz.com/2023/10/mib-lewis-sbf-ftx/
And has something to say about the haters:
https://ritholtz.com/2023/10/cancelling-michael-lewis/
Which sounds reasonable, since it seems a lot of people, probably almost everybody criticizing Lewis, didn’t read the book. They just watched 60 minutes
I’ve not read anything of his since the Big Short was published. But I think the above links, h/t to B.P, might reflect the instant reactionary environment we can often observe. It’s like this sports talk show from Fort Worth used to run on Mondays after a Cowboys football game. “Overreaction Monday.”
Lewis has a quite reputable amount of books under his wing, and prior efforts like The Blind Side or Moneyball, for easily reference samples, I always found to be good reading before the film industry took notice.
I read it. And I think this review is a pretty fair assessment:
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-10-04/sbf-was-reckless-from-the-start#xj4y7vzkg/
SBF Was Reckless From The Start
The part about what SBF learned at Jane Street was enlightening. Overall, in the book SBF just came across as a weirdo prick. And I left it thinking youthful naivete was part of the scam.
Too much is invested in perpetuating the myth similar types of grifters. Grow up time is in order.
But recently, I’ve been wondering: Did SBF imagine he was operating an unregulated Central Bank for crypto?
Crypto fantasy finance was made possible by the ridiculous amounts of easy money pumped into the system.
Criminally low interest rates…
“Many in Japan Still Wearing Masks to Avoid Infection”
‘Despite the symbolic downgrading of COVID-19 under Japanese legislation in May, many in Japan are still wearing masks to prevent infection when they leave the home.’
Even before the pandemic, people in this region masked up when it came to flu season. You would see photos of street scenes with most people there wearing a white mask. Their reasoning seemed to be this-
‘Ah, there is an infectious airborne disease right now. I will wear a mask as will my family, friends, neighbours and co-workers so that we do not get each other sick with an infectious virus. My mask will protect them and their masks will protect me.’
Asia is such a strange place.
TRK,
I must be Asian at heart because we’re masked up whenever we enter a place of business – and to heck with those who give us amused looks. And for what it’s worth, I’ve found a wonderful tool to diffuse the fools who actually challenge my mask wearing by responding with, ‘Mom lives with us and is undergoing chemo (true except she’s healthy as a horse)’. Then I follow up with; ‘I’m glad there’s nobody in your life worth protecting.’ They back off with apologetic alacrity and wearing quizzical look as they attempt to suss whether I’ve insulted them, and for my part, I continue about my business, unbothered.
The level of idiocy in our nation – defined by me as those who let others do their thinking – is truly astonishing.
Has this always been a nation of busybodies? Sheesh. Other people’s decisions about their health – to mask or not to mask – is their business, not mine. Or anybody else’s. I see people that I know wearing a mask in a store, I wave and say hi. They see me not wearing a mask, they wave and say hi. Save us from busybodies, the junior varsity team of the bullies. / oy
Have a thin outer mask with a print of the American flag on it and dare them to say something about Old Glory.
Er… um… how does that work in Australia? / ;) Or am I mistaken?
It wouldn’t really. You see a lot of flags about but we are not that emotionally attached to them. Probably doesn’t help that a quarter of our flag is the flag of another country. :)
Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited”, or some such.
How odd to realize after a fine college education that people are not simply reducible to a financial equation. Something must have gone wrong with my education. / ;)
re: biochar.
with the continuing trickle of articles like this(so thanks!!),my eldest is beginning to get almost enthusiastic about his dad’s latest weirdo science experiment.
that first burn…with the VOC’s leaking out, rather than igniting themselves…turned almost half of the dry woody material into carbon.
the glass rope i ordered will be here tuesday, and i’ll apply that and that black woodstove pooky and try again.
i expect a more complete and efficient pyrolysis.
once i’m satisfied with this proof of concept, i’ll go talk to the farm service guy in town, and see what’s available as far as carbon credits and subsidies and such…as well as how many bullshit covered flaming hoops it would take to access it.
all that latter, i will consider gravy…this is the only thing ive found to counter the persistent herbicide problem in all the hay and manure available…so i can grow tomatoes, again.
and i burn all manner of weeds and brush every year anyway…may as well make it useful.
i will report at each stage of this ongoing endeavor.
> all that latter, i will consider gravy…this is the only thing ive found to counter the persistent herbicide problem in all the hay and manure available…so i can grow tomatoes, again.
News you can Use!
yeah,lol.
i’m also doing this to see how much heat the thing(retort) puts out…and hopefully capture that heat in waterwalls and thereby heat the big greenhouse.
i get these 55 gallon drums for $20 a pop, from a guy 48 miles away who does that blow in insulation.
he’s got great piles of them, and is happy to see them go.
ive already determined that i’ll hafta put a hood and chimney over it if i continue building a fire underneath it to get the process started(smoke aint good for plants in a greenhouse)…although ive considered using a great big propane burner i liberated from the dump, instead…or at least until i can get around to fabricating a hood.
next burn, as i said, will be to see how it operated when sealed up better, so the VOC’s are directed beneath it and into the enabling fire(?).
i’ll prolly make the holes in that ‘burner pipe’ a little bigger before that burn,lol…as i worry about the dern thing exploding.
(i prop an old cell fone to film these burns, and i myself move way the hell back)
if that burn does as i hope…the next one will be to determine the heat given off.
…somehow,lol…likely hanging a few big number yard thermometers over and around where i can see them thru binoculars.
i reckon i’ll eventually determine the safety of this design over time,lol.
and, BTW…this is the design i used:
http://www.twinoaksforge.com/BLADSMITHING/MAKING%20CHARCOAL.htm
cost me about $50 to make, with all the iron pipe sourced from the metal pile at the dump.
> glass rope
Good name for a band. But what is it?
woven fiberglass rope like one uses as a gasket on the door of a woodstove.
stove pooky= that black putty used for sealing gaps/cracks in woodstove and apparatus.
after this one burns out and is unusable, ill paint the next with that high heat paint….see if it makes a difference.
failure, in science, is still a triumph.
‘Clash Report
@clashreport
#BREAKING Hamas publishes video footage of its fighters using motorized hang gliders to infiltrate southern Israel.’
https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1710564982281085397 (41 secs)
Hamas has an Air Division. Who knew? I wonder where they got their training done? I can’t see it being done in Gaza. Seems that Hamas is also upping their PR department. Another side effect of the Ukraine war?
Bankrupt union in Portland. Did not have that on my bingo card.
Going through the details, I see that they could have used some marketing advice.
Do keep fighting for worker protections.
Don’t do anything stupid that will provide fodder for anti-union propaganda.
That does not mean just roll over. It means being more strategic and even future oriented for their workers.
I wonder how much the Covid conspiracy theory group story is about political corruption and how much it is a smear campaign against oncologist professor Gus Dalgleish. Here is an interview with Dalgleish where he describes his skepticism of Covid boosters and the vaccine idea he put forward which stimulates a general T-cell response that is apparently closely related to proven Tuberculosis vaccines. The general ideas are covered in he first 10 min. Ideas that would not make Pfizer very happy.
Thanks for the link. I saw that interview yesterday and learned a great deal. A lot of the medico talk was over my head, however Dalgleish’s description of the importance of T-cell immune response was clear and made sense to me, a non-medico.
re: Fake Engine Parts Found in Delta Planes as Scandal Spreads to Four US Airlines – The Drive
Possibly somewhat related, listen to the opening 30 minutes, no paywall, latest Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn’s episode of America This Week. Walter relates his latest flying Delta experience.
https://www.racket.news/p/america-this-week-october-6-2023#details
Meet The Doctor Who Solves Medical Mysteries (17 min. interview) Science Friday
Brain eating worms and amoeba, metagenomic diagnostics, and effective off-label drug treatment.
“Biden considering huge ‘one and done’ Ukraine aid package” The Telegraph
One big grift package.
One and done
Take the money
And run
Like the beginning of so many movies… ‘one last big haul, then we ride off into the sunset‘. I wonder how it will turn out.
File this one under scammers / the bezzle. Reporting this morning from the CNBC website. Be warned and forewarned. Scams like this are always in that gray area.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/08/how-one-retired-woman-lost-her-life-savings-in-a-common-elder-fraud-scheme.html
Thanks so much for this link. It highlights a few points I wish everyone to know.
If someone cold calls you representing themselves as someone from your bank, just say thank you very much. Note their points. and…. Hang up. And call your bank directly (not at the caller id info presented on your phone) at their public directory listing bank number, and ask them if they called you.
Never, ever, trust a cold call from someone purporting to be from your bank, and especially if they are asking you to make financial transactions or decisions. No reputable bank will ever make such a call. Now, your bank might call you to wish you a happy birthday or something. That’s different and OK. Customer service, PR, etc.
Shorter; no reputable bank will ever call you on the phone to request your account information or personal detail information (SSN for example) or suggest that you make any sort of financial transactions. Never. Period.
adding, and going on too long, but I’ve spent my life in IT including scam avoidance: Many older bank customers in their late 60’s or 70’s or 80’s may hear a so-called bank person on the phone whose voice they do not recognize, but will pass off that lack of recognition as a new hire they haven’t met, the older hires they knew personally being probably retired by now. That’s a mistaken assumption about the phone caller, but very common.
adding, adding, and apologies for going on too long, but if this comment can help one person avoid a scam, there’s that.
In my many, many decades of being a customer at a local community bank I’ve only received 2 sorts of phone calls from the bank. One sort was to wish me a happy birthday. One was a call once from a bank officer whose voice I didn’t recognzse but whose name I knew, questioning if I wrote a check (particular details) to a particular person, if I meant to write the check, and if I felt compelled to write the check. She was looking out for me. (I have a wonderful local bank. They were ready to cancel payment on said check if I in anyway indicated said check was forced against my will. Elder abuse, don’t ya know. Great bank. Great customer service.)
So, lots of great banks out there. But cold calls from someone purporting to be from your bank could very well be a scam.
I have received occasional, yet infrequent, text messages from financial institutions with which I have zero business with. So yeah, the scams are prevalent. And further for the ones I do have a relation with, per at least one credit union it is not their policy to send a text message so yet a good way to flag and delete them.
I am now old enough to read this in AARP, etc… but yet to take the dive into a membership.
When we had toddlers in the house, I would hand the receiver to them and let them have at it.
Ha! / :D
Ooops looks like a drop in pressure in the Finland-Estonia gas pipeline (which just got laid in 2019) has shut it down.
Repairing Finland-Estonia gas pipeline may take months, operator says
Better be a warm winter…
Not sure if I got this Twitter Fink link from here or elsewhere, but it’s worth an addition to the sound track for Clown world
Ode to Blackrock
Chorus:
This land was your land, this land’s now my land
From Mariupol to the Dnieper Islands
From the Luhansk forests, to the Black Sea waters
This land was made for larceny
Verse
As I went skiing down those Davos slopes
Doing the good lords work, thought I’d lost all hope
I saw beneath me a deep rich top soil
This land was made for larceny
Repeat chorus
I’ve bribed and I’ve trespassed, and I have followed my inner Fink
To defoliated lands where, the corpses stink
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for larceny !
(Chorus)
Verse
There was a big, bad bear there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said “Russian Property”
But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing
This land was made for larceny
When the bodies disinterred
Got turned to coal ash
And the wheat fields sowed with, Monsanto blood cash
The voice was chanting as the stock went green
This land was made for larceny!
Inspirational material https://twitter.com/Ramy_Sawma/status/1709830333665849563
Awesome! It fits the beat of the tune just right.
“I don’t see how Democrats rationalize taking Trump’s vaccines; or how Republicans rationalize not taking them.”
The Big Guy’s in power so dems do as he says.
The Big Guy’s in power so repubs do the opposite of what he says.
When Trump returns, all bets are off.
There were 42 people at church today; 24 in the church and 18 on zoom; that is a typical number. What wasn’t typical was that the “name someone with an ailment so they can be prayed for” period went on for so long, with cancers (including in young people) and heart attacks and strokes, that the person leading it simply stopped it and moved on to another topic. I didn’t get a chance to name the person I had in mind; a friend with liver cancer. The person leading was supposed to wait until there is a long pause to make sure that everyone got to speak, but he didn’t.
A fellow church person on a homelessness committee I’m on just developed covid, to add to the list of more people than ever that I know with it (and reddit covid positive is very busy), but my very local sewage data is at zero; it makes no sense.
I am so sorry.
I felt so bad for all those people listing relatives and friends.
Sorry too to hear about this. Church is suppose to be a place of comfort but going by your description, it is anything but at the moment. And if your local sewage data is at zero, then somebody is lying their faces of so don’t give it any more credence. Unfortunately it will have to get worse before it gets better but keep yourself safe, OK?
Lead article on the Minnesota Public Radio website today is about clergy burn-out.
We don’t have clergy in my denomination, or rather everyone is considered clergy. I think this guy just kind of gave up as he was standing there. He is a very nice person; it wasn’t due to a lack of empathy.
I do think the people who had the chance to ask for spiritual support did get comfort (and I didn’t need it; I just wanted to ask because my friend would have liked it; I’ll ask next week).
I don’t believe the ultra local sewage data at all anymore. It makes no sense. I am not going to trust it.
So I just realized these modified-RNA vaccines are a failure; the vaccine platform was sold as a way to rapidly produce shots that keep up with or stay ahead of variant evolution. Whether by the realities of vaccine production or due to financial considerations, this has not happened. Meanwhile, mRNA vaccines are an order of magnitude less safe than traditional vaccines, require special cold storage, making them unsuitable for distribution in many locales, and when compared to Novavax, produce a les robust immune response.
Oops.
What a joke.
I didn’t see this posted yet, but AfD in Germany had a good showing in the recent elections. I know no one is asking to live in even more interesting times because what we had been experiencing was so boring, but if Germany turns hard right and the EU gets even more wobbly, we will get to experience the “all at once” part of history changing.
Beware the Persimmon Omen
4.2 earthquake in Seattle https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1711207412651143472
What’s the Persimmon Omen?