Galápagos Giant Tortoises Are Ecosystem Engineers Smithsonian Magazine
Federal jury verdict on broker fees rocks real estate industry Axios
Dementia Risk Rises When Deep Sleep Falls MedPage Today
Remains of planet that formed the Moon may be hiding near Earth’s core Ars Technica
Climate/Environment
Walmart’s ‘Regenerative Foodscape’ Civil Eats
Air pollution raises risk of type 2 diabetes, says landmark Indian study The Guardian
#COVID-19
All variants of COVID-19 virus can infect the brain, study finds New Atlas (David)
Association of SARS-CoV-2 Infection during Early Weeks of Gestation with Situs Inversus The New England Journal of Medicine
Effectiveness of Nirmatrelvir–Ritonavir Against the Development of Post–COVID-19 Conditions Among U.S. Veterans Annals of Internal Medicine. Conclusion: “Out of 31 potential PCCs, only combined thromboembolic events seemed to be reduced by nirmatrelvir–ritonavir.”
Vaccine Confidence Falls as Belief in Health Misinformation Grows Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Water
The world’s largest waterfall is actually underwater ZME Science
Desert plant collects water from air by excreting salt on its leaves NewScientist
Africa
US to evict Gabon, Niger, Uganda and Central African Republic from trade program Reuters
Africa vs Colonialism: Why Does the Continent’s Struggle for Self-Sufficiency Remain so Difficult? Internationalist 360
India
India’s platform workers being flexed to death East Asia Forum
The Koreas
The surge of activity in relations between North Korea and Russia International Institute for Strategic Studies
China?
US hurts own industry as chip war against China seen to fail South China Morning Post
China turning US-sanctioned Xinjiang into a free-trade hub, strengthening geopolitical edge in region South China Morning Post
European Disunion
Six EU countries want to join the Middle Corridor in view of major energy project RailFreight
Syraqistan
Israel targets Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp for second time in two days Al Jazeera
Israel’s Long-Held Plan to Drive Gaza’s People Into Sinai Is Now Within Reach Antiwar (Offtrail)
“A Textbook Case of Genocide” Craig Murray. On the resignation of Craig Mokhiber, Director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Israel-Palestine war: Hamas and Israel were ‘inches’ away from deal on hostages Middle East Eye. “Sources say Qatari-mediated negotiations to release women and children fell through when Israel launched ground operations in Gaza.”
The looming storm: Israel, Hezbollah, and the risk of regional war Anadolu Agency
***
Islamic Resistance in Iraq vows to expel US troops Al Mayadeen
Director Wray’s Opening Statement to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs FBI. “As the world’s largest state-sponsor of terrorism, the Iranians, for instance, have directly, or by hiring criminals, mounted assassination attempts against dissidents and high-ranking current and former U.S. government officials, including right here on American soil.”
The Match Lit in Yemen May Force Saudi Arabia and the U.S. to Take a Stance Haartez
The Questions for Egypt Protean Mag
Egypt is ready to sacrifice millions of lives to protect its land from invasion: PM Middle East Monitor
Bolivia severs ties with Israel over war in the Gaza Strip, as Colombia and Chile recall ambassadors CNBC
Washington doubles down on claim arming Israel ‘beneficial’ for US workers The Cradle
I don’t think enough people in the west are preparing for the fact that our governments no longer feel the need to maintain the illusion that they’re anti-genocide lol
The reason the propaganda is so low effort and transparent is because they don’t care.
— Christi Olson (@christiolson) November 2, 2023
***
A public dispute over “the stench of propaganda” at The Financial Times Gilbert Doctorow
Did China recently remove Israel’s name from its maps? Pekingnology
New Not-So-Cold War
Putin says Russia must prepare for additional Western sanctions Anadolu Agency
Russia says it will shoot down all F-16 fighter jets promised to Ukraine in 20 days Anadolu Agency
“A pile of nonsense: authorities should deal with anonymous people briefing from President’s Office” – senior Ukrainian official on Time article Ukrainska Pravda. Danilov on the TIME takedown of Zelensky.
SCOTT RITTER: John Kirby v. Russian Military Consortium News
***
Tank production grows sevenfold in Russia RT
As Ukraine Loses More And More Of Its Best Leopard 2 Tanks, It’s Turning Back To Old T-72s Forbes
GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT ENHANCING U.S. DEFENSE PARTNERSHIPS War on the Rocks. “It is evident that alliance-wide capabilities are essential to ensuring that militaries can operate together, and that there is sufficient production capacity across the American, partner, and allied defense industrial bases.”
South of the Border
Deadly Strain The Baffler. “How the UN sought to deny its role in Haiti’s cholera epidemic.”
IN DEFENSE OF AMLO – UNDERSTANDING MORENA’S PROJECT The Real News Network
B-a-a-a-a-d Banks
HSBC Takes Stab at Using Blockchain to Modernize London’s Antiquated Gold Market Bloomberg
Imperial Collapse Watch
Flying to DC today feels like going upriver to see Kurtz
— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) November 1, 2023
Biden Administration
White House Executive Order on AI Gives Sweeping Mandate to DHS Tech Policy Press
2024
Antitrust
What Does Google’s Code Yellow Reveal About How They Treat Their Users In Search? Digital Information World
Here’s a rare look at Google’s most lucrative search queries The Verge
The unsettled legal question looming over the trial Big Tech on Trial
Immigration
Canada Finally Realizes It Needs To Factor In Housing And Healthcare Capacity To Immigration Plan The Deep Dive
AI
“AI, Ain’t I A Woman?” On the Blindness and Limitations of Artificial Intelligence Lit Hub
Healthcare?
How a Lucrative Surgery Took Off Online and Disfigured Patients New York Times
Digital Phenotyping May Worsen Epistemic Injustice in Psychiatry Mad in America
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
How GoGuardian Invades Student Privacy Electronic Frontier Foundation
Facebook Finally Puts a Price on Privacy: It’s $10 a Month Wired
Police State Watch
The climate crisis is pushing Washington’s prisons to the brink High Country News
The Bezzle
WeWork stock falls after move to withhold interest payment on some notes yahoo! finance
Book Nook
Books To Help Us Understand The World? Aurelien, Trying to Understand the World
Class Warfare
The Haunted House of Labor Protean Mag
Poor Kids and War Pigs Compact Mag
Thinking Bigger About What Should Be Ours How Things Work
Anger can lead to better results when tackling tricky tasks – study The Guardian
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
179 comments
Comments are closed.
SEND IN MORE ROUNDS
(melody borrowed from Stephen Sondheim’s Send In The Clowns, as performed by Judy Collins)
Turn off the switch
Let them eat air
Gaza’s our private playground
Give ’em a scare
Send in more rounds
Bombs hit or miss
People should move
Gaza’s a burial ground
We’re in the groove
Where are my rounds
There must be more rounds
Children get chopped
In and outdoors
We flatten hospitals when they’re chock full on all floors
We drop white phosphorous bombs with precision and care
Simply to find
Who dies down there
No need to be sparse
This is the year
Gazans are so sad and so gaunt
A stampede is near
Where are my rounds
Send in more rounds
Till Gaza is clear
Which house was which
Is no longer clear
We’ll smash them all at this rate
Our new frontier
Where are my rounds
There must be more rounds
End Gaza this year
Wow, that is a horrific portrayal – and masterful lyrics
Thank you, Antifa. A brilliant, if heartbreaking, adaptation, and a most worthy addition to the NC Songbook.
It has been added to Volume III which I plan to publish in January.
Thank you. In my mind I hear Judy Collins singing these lyrics. Heartbreaking is the right word, indeed.
Rated ★★★★★ 5 out of 5
Excellent!
Twenty eyes for every eye
IDF let loose with big guns all over the cloistered hood, eh
(Gaza City, here we come)
You know it’s not innovative, it’s a Warsaw Ghetto like oldie but a goodie
(Gaza City, here we come)
Well, the residents really have no where to go
Everybody is waiting for Godot
And we’re goin’ to Gaza City, ’cause it’s twenty to one
You know we’re goin’ to Gaza City, gonna have to expunge
You know we’re goin’ to Gaza City, ’cause it’s twenty to one
You know we’re goin’ to Gaza City, gonna have to expunge, now
Twenty eyes for every eye
And if my Merkava breaks down on me somewhere on the invasion route
(Gaza City, here we come)
I’ll strap my Uzi to my back and hitch a ride in my Kevlar armored suit
(Gaza City, here we come)
And when I get to Gaza City I’ll be shootin’ everything but a squirrel
And checkin’ out the civilians for a dirt nap curl
And we’re goin’ to Gaza City, ’cause it’s twenty to one
You know we’re goin’ to Gaza City, gonna have to expunge
You know we’re goin’ to Gaza City, ’cause it’s twenty to one
You know we’re goin’ to Gaza City, gonna have to expunge, now
Twenty eyes for every
Twenty eyes for every eye
They say we’ll roll the streets and get some settlements goin’
(Gaza City, here we come)
You know they’re out sufferin’ with indignation growin’
(Gaza City, here we come)
Yeah, and there’s two kinds of Semitic guise
And all you gotta do is use the kill-ratio, 20 eyes for an eye
And we’re goin’ to Gaza City, ’cause it’s twenty to one
You know we’re goin’ to Gaza City, gonna have to expunge
You know we’re goin’ to Gaza City, ’cause it’s twenty to one
You know we’re goin’ to Gaza City, gonna have to expunge, now
Twenty eyes for every lost Israeli eye
Surf City, by Jan & Dean
Great! From Surf City, to the 80’s:
I want a new war Huey chopper and the cruise missiles
I want a new war
One that makes people sick
One that won’t end in ignoble defeat
And busts bunker walls 3 feet thick
I want a new war
One that won’t hurt our cred
One that won’t make the market crash
Or kills our own folks dead
One that won’t make me nervous
Wondering what to do
One that turns a lot of folks into pink blobs of goo
(And jacks the Dow up, too)
I want a new war
One that won’t spill
Over to the Poles or Serbs
Or give Putin thrills
I want a new war
One that won’t ever end
One that gives a testosterone jab
To Nikki H. and Lindsay Graham
One that won’t make me nervous
Wondering what to do
One that turns a lot of folks into pink mists of goo
(And jacks the Dow up, too)
I want a new war
One that does what it should
Spreading freedumb and rules-based order
Throughout the world for shareholders good
I want a new war
One with no doubt
One that won’t have a ceasefire too soon
Or let world peace break out
One that won’t make me nervous
Wondering what to do
One that turns a lot of folks into pink mists of goo
(And jacks the Dow up, too!)
Three songs in a row! The songmeisters are working overtime this morning.
Thanks to all.
Speaking only for myself, it is a coping mechanism at this point.
Perhaps we should send the songbook to Capitol Hill, along with a chorus and backing band.
Nice job!
Its kind of a mo better Wordle, where I get as many chances as i’d like to put in appropriate wordage to a familiar tune.
Bravo! most excellent songmeisters
Fear?
This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror spread online which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative parody songs. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister mirth to ourselves and to our fellow men.
“US to evict Gabon, Niger, Uganda and Central African Republic from trade program”
Next week’s news headline-
“Gabon, Niger, Uganda and Central African Republic to join Chinese and Russian trade programs”
Biden saying to these countries that it is all about human rights and the rule of law must really smell rank in these countries right now.
Definitely belongs in the category of, “don’t threaten me with a good time!”
Gangsta admnistrations of the USA continue to be worried about their “rule of law”.
However:
What’s listed as A, top of the list of eligibilty requirements, says it all.
https://agoa.info/about-agoa/country-eligibility.html
(1) has established, or is making continual progress toward establishing–
(A) a market-based economy that protects private property rights, incorporates an open rules-based trading system, and minimises government interference in the economy through measures such as price controls, subsidies, and government ownership of economic assets;
The rest of it is as phony as ususal…coming from a country that is shredding its own Bill of Rights.
I received an email response to my email to the White House asking the President to stop funding Israeli violence and support a ceasefire. The President says he is working diligently for ” a two-state solution”.
Perhaps he will give Florida to the Palestinians?
How about Delaware? :)
There will be a new map with Egypt rebranded as New Palestine.
Too easy.
Well, it’s the right shape….
If past performance is any guide, he will “give” the Palestinians Lower Baja California.
Tough luck for the 5,570,000 people living there as sooner or later Israel will start putting them into open-air prisons to force them to move out – just before they start bombing San Diego in order to protect themsleves.
ha. right. In Mexico. (lower baja california)
(Hope readers don’t mind my recent map adds. Geography isn’t taught in US high schools anymore, as far as I know.)
Some videos, once you see them, cannot be unseen ever again-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRh1zXFKC_o (3:44 mins)
zomg. What if the younger people in the US state department and fp apparatus have no better understanding of geography than these young people?! That might explain a lot. / ;)
It could be worse. Wait, it got worse-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJdNrCeUdhc (2:45 mins)
Does Blinken know where anything is? Anyone in Congress?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_aZJLMLa0io
I’m convinced Biden gave the order to leave Afghanistan because he finally had to learn where it was when he became president. I blame the intellectual rot caused by television.
“…..blame the intellectual rot caused by television.”
it’s why haven’t had one in 50 years – read –
Television didn’t have the encyclopedic knowledge of the internet, and the latter allowed us to not have to remember anything, which was a key tool for the last 70,000 years of humans ruling the roost on this here orb, remembering shit.
yes there is encyclopedic knowledge that can be beneficial but unfortunately the internet can also trap you in silos – our species can be very weak and lazy when it comes to critical thought – those Kimmel clips about geography and books is sad – but i know what you mean W –
US high schools teach history but not geography, for the most part. An odd omission, imo.
They don’t teach much history either in many cases.
amen to that P – official history is created by whomever rules – back in the 60’s when i started college and there were radical teachers and i was introduced to Karl Popper, Jacques Ellul, Maurice Cornforth and others but Thomas Frazier’s two volumes about “The Underside of American History” volume 1 & 2 really changed the way i looked at history – stuff like worker’s struggles, racism, anarchism, IWW, socialism, red scare, suffrage, equality of sexes and lots more – made me doubt forever any official history and to always look deeper – the genocide and forced relocations upon indigenous peoples from settler colonialism is never in history taught in schools, if history is even taught – nothing about the genocide and forced relocations in Palestine of course but also America, Oz, Canada, New Zealand, any S. or Central American country and i’m probably leaving out some other gruesome example – this is where W’s comment above about the encyclopedic knowledge of the internet is a very handy tool to suss out facts if using the 10 commandments of rational debate – questions are always the answer –
https://climateofsophistry.com/2013/12/17/the-10-commandments-of-rational-debate/
I don’t know how gruesome Japan’s history was, but I know the area now known as Japan used to be inhabited by the aboriginal indigenous Ainu people, before settlers from the Korean Peninsula began arriving and conquering and settling to create the Japan we know today.
I gather the last few Ainu are making a last stand on Hokkaido Island and the pages of National Geographic Magazine. ( There may also be some living on Sakhalin Island).
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ainu
Really, they teach ‘Accepted Narrative.’ Very much like ‘Revealed Truth.’
Southern Utah.
got a reply from my US Rep (Mike Quigley IL-5) to my email message asking him to work on an immediate cease-fire:
“I want to be clear that I strongly oppose needless war and support a foreign policy that relies on humanitarian aid and direct diplomacy. Simply put, human rights abuses anywhere should be cause for alarm everywhere. The U.S. must continue to support Israeli security and promote peace in the region without compromising on our value of unflinching support for human rights. As Congress considers H.Res 786 and other legislation related to Israeli and Palestinian relations, I remain committed to hearing all views and listening to constituents in my district about these vital issues.
I will continue to monitor this situation as it develops and am focused on ensuring the security of people in Israel along with the improved treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.”
“the Improved Treatment of Palestinians”
I wonder what that means?
That’s actually a pretty good reply for a Congressman, imo. He at least acknowledges there are two sides.
My local TV station news broadcast last night said the usual about “Irs right to self defense” and then included a story about what’s happening in Gaza and the refugee camp bombing without putting a pro-Isr spin on the story. The news person presenting the story had a somber wtf look on their face, then quickly went on to the next story of the evening. Sort of like Wolf Blitzer’s take. That’s new.
Now a reply from one of my US-IL Senators, Duckworth (D-Likud):
“Thank you for contacting me about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza following Hamas’ shocking terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023.
Like so many, I feel immense pain over the unspeakable violence that resulted in the worst loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust, and the subsequent intense suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza, particularly children injured or killed from Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas Commanders and infrastructure. Hamas’ vicious and coordinated terrorist attacks against civilians, continued firing of thousands of rockets at Israel and refusal to release every hostage has triggered a tragic war and heartbreaking humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
As Lambert would say, these missives from my various Congresscritters have been very clarifying (not that I was in much doubt) . . .
She’s really something, as they say. I think you’ve got her party-state designation right. / ;)
Duckworth fits right in with these pols.
Katie and Aaron, Useful Idiots, utube, ~18 minutes.
Israel stuns former Israel lobbyist Wolf Blitzer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U1d4cIu4Zs
Too bad Tulsi jumps the shark.
“the Improved Treatment of Palestinians”
I wonder what that means?
I think that it means that they are asking the Israelis not to use napalm as well.
I vote for Long Island
Then the Israeli colony of Miami and Dade County would be building walls, cutting off supplies and bombing hospitals wherever Palestinians were settled in “self defense”. /s
Flatlantis?
Would make for even more entertaining Florida Man stories!
I nominate Utah.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has several unique teachings about Judaism and the House of Israel. The largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement, the LDS Church, teaches the belief that the Jewish people are God’s chosen people and it also teaches the belief that its members share a common and literal Israelite ancestry with the Jewish people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism_and_Mormonism
Florida to the Palestinians?
Decades ago I thought that the powers of the day should have given Florida to the Jews. That would keep the radical Zionists away from the opportunity to incinerate the entire world in a holy war. I must be insane since the point of settling in Palestine seems to be that holy war must come. We must destroy the world to save it.
“They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.” ~ Tacitus
I should add that is as a very naive teen. No real understanding of history or religion or anything else that would enable me to understand the dynamics. The image of 3 monkeys comes to mind.
I think that Tacitus was writing that about the Roman Empire. Or am I wrong?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus
That tweet about going upriver to the DofC to see Kurtz made me laugh out loud.
Biden reminds me of a version of the villain from “The Tale of the 47 Ronin,” Lord Yoshinaka.
yeah…yesterday was payday, and i usually spend my scrawny pension check within 48 hours…so i skedaddled early this am, just after reading that tweet…
and have been laughing about it ever since.
as it turns out, my eldest…who essentially gave up on reading after covid trashed his first college semester…has taken up Heart of Darkness.
i left it laying on a shelf that everybody walks by every day, where Tam had left it(she needed it for her ESL students, i think)…and a year and a half later, he picks it up and reads the back cover…and it disappears.
interestingly, he apparently had a hunger for news and analysis(maybe so he could grok whateverthehell i was talking about), and started doing podcasts in his earbuds while driving skidsteers and running chainsaws.
this led to him asking where i got my news of the world.
so i send him links all the time…and i’m sure engender a lot of eyerolling.
but he’s reading great literature, now…so works for me.
many paths to enlightenment.
idk if he lurks around here, though.
“idk if he lurks around here, though.”
You would be surprised. However, ‘lurking’ around “here” is a guilty pleasure for some. Like having a fondness for BDSM magazines in the old days. Quite the ‘thing,’ but best hidden from view. The point being, (besides the one on the top of my head,) that tolerance for ‘non-compliant opinions,’ which was never too strong to begin with, has dwindled alarmingly of late.
One of the curious items that recently bubbled up from out of my subconscious lately is the fact that Socrates, of Ancient Athens fame, was a military veteran. Even given that status, he was condemned to death for being “non-compliant.”
Terran human nature. Can’t live with it, cannot live without it.
Stay safe out there. Keep subversion alive.
> Keep subversion alive
♫ Defenders of anarchy!
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=st+trinian%27s+defenders+of+anarchy&ia=web&iax=lyrics
Good deal ATH. I sent a Jimmy Dore link to my boy of 27. I have tried to deprogrammed him from the MSM and his Mom’s influence (team blue through and through). It’s a tough go at times. Last time we talked he was saying the far right religious folk are going to start shooting up stuff if Trump loses in “24”.Well, not sure of anything these days… we do what we can with to shine a light. Critical thinking!
“RFK Jr.’s donor data reveals his 2024 threat, By BRITTANY GIBSON and JESSICA PIPER, from Politico
11/01/2023 05:01 AM EDT
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is collecting checks from past Donald Trump donors at a much higher rate than former Joe Biden contributors, a sign the independent presidential hopeful may pull more from the Republican electorate than Democratic voters.”
.
“Threat”? Funny word choice, that. Who feels threatened?
Who knew? “Fund raising is politics by other means.”
>A Textbook Case of Genocide” Craig Murray.
I’ve sent Craig Mokhiber resignation letter to several friends yesterday. I’m not sure their truncated attention span will allow them to get past the title. They have their NYT, CNN, et all pre-gurgitated views already ingested. The “encroaching fascism” that Craig Murray refers to below is already a fait accompli. How deep and wide and violent it spreads and whether there is hope of staving off further metastasis is the question that’s on my mind.
I honestly believe I am not fighting for me, but against encroaching fascism in western societies. It is for freedom from an ever encroaching police state and from a political class trying to enforce a monopoly of information to the public.
That letter is very powerful. As Murray says in his intro, most people who were aware of this had only seen the first page, and that included me. Everyone should read this. Rarely do we in the US see political reality presented so clearly, especially when it comes to Israel.
Craig Mokhiber appeared on Democracy Now yesterday:
“Text-Book Case of Genocide”: Top U.N. Official Craig Mokhiber Resigns, Denounces Israeli Assault on Gaza
Thanks for the DN! link, they have been off my news intake sources for a long time, almost forgot they exist; “the war and peace report” used to be part of Amy Goodman’s intro, though this is more of a genocide than a war at this point.
DN is very thorough and reliable on Palestine, and has been throughout the years. They were good on Ukraine in 2014 when Stephen F. Cohen would appear, but something seriously slipped later on. They were not so good on RussiaGate.
But I continue to watch daily for those areas where they are reliable and keep notes where they are not.
I’ve run out of words for the present tragedy of Palestine as my heart cries out every day. The tears fill the gutter and flood the sea.
I’m ashamed of my country.
Words do fail, I find myself going to places I’ve not gone too for many years to find some kind of understanding, solace
Acts 28:27
For the heart of this people has become dull,
And with their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes;
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart and return,
And I would heal them.
Matthew 13:15?
Larry Johnson’s latest post contains a short video of a “Ukrainian soldier” trying to recruit other Ukrainian soldiers to go to fight for Israel:
https://sonar21.com/israel-faces-mounting-diplomatic-isolation/
Yeah, and I thought our darkest days were behind us.
Evil running wild.
Yes a very powerful statement, I’m not clear if Craig Mokhiber is resigning due to the failures of the UN though.
Here is a link to a pdf of the complete letter.
craig-mokhiber-resignation-letter.pdf
Indeed, he’s quite clear about who he thinks is at fault:
«In recent decades, key parts of the UN have surrendered to the power of the US, and to fear of the Israel Lobby, to abandon these principles, and to retreat from international law itself. »
For what it’s worth, the spoke person of the Chinese foreign ministry said this:
Looks like China is in the “let’s implement the two-state solution ASAP” camp now. Although if Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah pulls the trigger tomorrow (quite unlikely), we may be looking at a one state solution when the dust settles.
UNGA also voted everybody to 2 (Ukraine abstained) that economic sanctions against Cuba are illegal. In real terms that means little, but every day it’s a bit harder for US to pretend to be the Good Guy.
Angelina Jolie about to be cancelled in Israel-
‘Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie, who also served as a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for 20 years, has condemned Israel for bombing Gaza.
On Wednesday, she posted a statement on Instagram calling for a humanitarian ceasefire, noting that the densely populated Palestinian enclave was “becoming a mass grave.”
The Hollywood star described Israel’s actions as “the deliberate bombing of a trapped population who have nowhere to flee,” adding that Gaza “has been an open-air prison for nearly two decades.”
Jolie noted that “millions of Palestinian civilians – children, women, families – are being collectively punished and dehumanized,” and accused world leaders of “complicity in these crimes” by refusing to call for a ceasefire.’
https://www.rt.com/pop-culture/586414-angelina-jolie-condemns-israel/
I severely underestimated that woman.
IDK …it’s pretty easy to spout your politics from Instagram. Even if she never works in the film industry again, she is wealthier than most. I like her stance and glad to read it but just don’t think she is risking much.
Maybe, but you know what modern Hollywood is like. She will be shunned & isolated and people will not want to be seen with her. She will not receive any invitations to official events like normal and there will be a media campaign against her and you may have people hassling her in public to get likes on social media. But damn, she really has a solid humanitarian work resume-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelina_Jolie#Humanitarian_work
Much respect.
I doubt she much cares what Hollywood thinks or that anyone should care what “Hollywood” thinks. But maybe others will speak up.
She’ll be ok, and I’m glad not to have to toss another celebrity crush in the conscience dumpster.
I think her humanitarian work with the UN and other international organizations over the years has been quite sincere. Sometimes this has meant that she has been used to provide cover for “humanitarian interventionist” propaganda to support our globalist agenda. But in this case the crimes against humanity are those of our staunch ally and island of “democracy and Western values” in the Middle East. I’ve seen her criticized as a lackey of Western imperialism and even a CIA asset. But her actions here suggest that she has the integrity of her beliefs.
I’m as critical of Hollywood “liberals” as anyone. Their near universal idiocy on Ukraine and Russia is contemptible. But I think there may be a few more cracks in the case of the Palestinians, even given the tremendous power and resources of the Israel lobby. This has long been a “liberal” cause, and most of them are not fans of Netanyahu and the right-wingers. “Liberal Zionists” could be considered delusional, perhaps, but I think many condemn the current genocide. We’ll see, but I’m not sure Jolie will be universally condemned for her stand here.
Oprah, Angelina, and Shakira all started giving away money and time when they had little money to give and no guarantees of one day being rich and famous.
Don’t know when Dolly started handing out books and band uniforms.
She’s wealthy, sure – but what would you have her do? Go to Gaza and be killed? There are many Jews in powerful positions in Hollywood so she is in a sense risking her career.
bet her right-wing father is apoplectic
First thing I thought of as well. But maybe a life lived with him in the background has toughened her up such that criticism from the rest of her world will just be sloughed off.
I’ve always thought she was a good actress and she proved to be a very good director with Unbroken about war prisoners in Japan. She has adopted three orphan children from Asia and Africa and of course built a big rep in humanitarian circles.
So yes, good for her.
RE: Goguardian article.
As a teacher that has experience with this software, everything they say is true The program logs everything the kids do on the device the school loans them. If they are doing something that is not authorized, I have a log of everything they look at for how long every day.
The problem I have with the EFF’s article is this: You should have zero expectations of orivacy on a device that is not yours, used on a network that is not yours. This is a lesson the students need to learn in this digital age.. you leave footprints everywhere you go.
I, as a teacher with experience, will remind everyone that many if not most USA schools use Gaggle products. They (Gaggle) retain the info they extract from students including: homework; disciplinary actions; searches and inquiries; likes/dislikes; visits to the school nurse; every keystroke; on and on and on. Then they sell it to anyone.
I used to tell students that “no prospective employer cares what you got on a math quiz in 7th grade”, but that is not true anymore. Not hard to imagine what a judge, an insurance company, or a prospective employer will think if you wrote papers in high school relating to the “Palestinian Question”. In reviewing their job application, they’ll determine “This person clearly has domestic terrorist inclinations and Jew hating tendencies. Throw her in the clink!”
Do not forget the forced use of Microsoft products in those online programs including Hotmail. I cannot use other programs such as LibreOffice, but must use the Microsoft maintained in such as Canvas, the all in one, Borg like, website for anything from class assignments to emailing anyone on campus. The Future is Now.
Anyways, what truly worries me is not some complaint or request to the Dean or my college professor. Instead, what terrifies me is what future administration, government agency, corporation, or some organization might think and act on what I might say on my English assignment or to what someone might have say(Although all the students I have talked to are perfectly fine and very thoughtful. So far.)
Actually, it is even worse than that. If you want to get historical, and I do, authoritarian, never mind totalitarian, regimes always change and expand on what is crimethink and concurrently the level of punishment on not only the individuals, but on the group, however defined. Colleagues, friends, very extended family, and so would be swept up and receive often lethal, always unpleasant punishment, for the actions, including just verbally mild criticism by someone that they might barely know. What is fine today is not tomorrow or maybe in the next decade or three.
This is part of what cancelling is by the way, but always, always, some get into power either in government or business, and then they use more effective cancellations. If the more noxious forms of IdPol is not enough, read on the Red Scare of 1915 through the 1920s or the McCarthyism and the Scare of the 1950s and 60s. Just remember the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). “Are you now, or have you even been, a member of the Communist Party of the United States?”
As with civil asset forfeiture, one does not have to be charged with any crime, nor be given a chance to defend themselves, to be blacklisted for the crime de jour often by one’s family, friends, the government, and entire industries. To save themselves, and sometimes their families, people would throw you to the wolves. I am not, yet, saying that in the future people will start disappearing into the nacht und nebel because that is just not the thing to do in the United States proper. But the empire always comes home, and that I have to qualify my last sentence after thinking of Operation Condor, is just all sorts of scary. Operation Condor also makes me think of the horrifying School of the Americas and the ghoul known as Henry Kissinger.
We do have a nice country, but it is still just too bad that much of the evil done by it has been put under omertà by the participants, the schools, and the media. We would be a better country then, wouldn’t we?
It’s amusing to see Google offer so many ads that ask “Do you Stand with Israel!?” when I open NC.
They smelled your doubts from miles away!!!
interesting – i see no ads when i open NC from my email and google is nowhere to be seen on my landing page – too bad, that sounds horrible –
They saw what you wrote in high school.
I also get them, -and I’m in Norway. I thought they were coming from the local lobby but seems not
“Six EU countries want to join the Middle Corridor in view of major energy project”
Here is a map showing the routes of this Middle Corridor-
https://middlecorridor.com/en/route
So stuff comes from China through Kazakhstan to the Caspian Sea. Those goods are then loaded aboard ships which travel the short distance to Azerbaijan. Those goods are then taken off those ships and onto land transport. If they got to Turkiya, then it is straight forward where they travel to Istanbul and beyond or a southern port and into southern Europe. But if they go through Georgia, those goods once more have to be loaded aboard another ship to the eastern Black Sea which is kinda of a war zone at the moment. At each destination, those goods have to be taken off those ships and loaded back to land routes. One route, by the way, actually looks like it goes through the Ukraine itself. Good luck with that one. Should I point out that those goods could have simply gone from China to northern Europe via Russia and Belarus by rail alone stopping all those transshipments? Just sayin’.
This route give Chn more opportunities to set up trading stations and Chn …er… manpower, and diplomatic relations in the Central Asian nations, right above the ME nations. Infrastructure for future use and expansion, imo. The planners in Beijing seem to have longterm horizons. / ;)
(Thanks for the map.)
This is pretty much the old Silk Road route, which avoided the slightly shorter northerly route mostly due to the awful climate and the difficulty of building infrastructure in the permafrost region. The railway network connecting Europe to China via Russia is surprisingly good (the Trans-Siberian railway trip is still popular and a viable alternative to flying), but for a variety of reasons its never proved all that viable for goods transport. One reason often not appreciated is that the huge daily temperature changes makes the railway transport of many goods problematic, as the Spanish discovered a decade or so ago when they tried to send a consignment of olive oil via train to China as a publicity stunt. It did not end well.
The main driver for the Middle Corridor is not China to Europe transport (sea transport is still vastly cheaper and safer), but Kazakhstan’s ambitions to be a major energy hub, with its neighbours hoping to get in on the action. There is a lot of gas in the region (I knew a lot of people, including my older brother, who worked there in the ’90’s in exploration) but they’ve long been limited by infrastructure, although rising prices always makes investors look again at the reserves around the Caspian and the ‘stans. They also have ambitions for green hydrogen due to its enormous solar and wind resources. The region has never developed the heavy industry you’d expect to find with so much cheap energy due to transport costs – this is just one of a seemingly never ending series of proposals to try to address the problem. Unlike previous proposals though it puts more of an emphasis on creating mixed mode corridors for local development rather than just investing in point to point railways or pipelines, which shows some progress.
Thanks for this information.
an aside: I always thought it would be a great vacation to take the Trans-Siberian railway trip from Moscow to Vladivostok just to see the countryside and peoples and the architecture/buildings of that huge country. Eleven time zones! The countryside and maybe the weather (what clothes to pack?) must change significantly between Moscow and Vladivostok. What better way to see a country than by train? Alas, my imagined vacation trip there will never happen now with all that’s going on in the world.
“(what clothes to pack?)” It’s Siberia, pack all of them, plus borrow some from friends.
There is Siberia and there is Siberia.
The railroad skirt along the border of Russia where all the major cities are located.
Best i can find the interior cities along the railway are comparable to say Calgary or Montreal in Canada in terms of average temperatures.
The great travel writer Dervla Murphy wrote a very interesting book about that trip (she did part of it by train) called Silverland.
Although obviously things are a little bit kinetic at the moment, the website Seat61.com gives great information about all the possible train trips you can do in the region – the Trans Siberian links to many other potential routes there – it soon may be possible to go all the way down to Malaysia (at the moment its possible, with a bus link across Cambodia). It’s my ambition one day to do Dublin to Ho Chi Minh by train, via Beijing.
Thanks for the links! By bicycle, no less! wow!
‘The climate crisis is pushing Washington’s prisons to the brink’
I was curious about where Evergreen’s funding is coming from to pay for those projects.
http://sustainabilityinprisons.org/about/funding/
very interesting report in re recent israeli casualties
https://thedreizinreport.com/
Here is that video mentioned-
https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1719782695968952443 (1:01 mins)
Walmart’s ‘Regenerative Foodscape’ ‘
Interesting that they got a quote from Natural Grocers, whose niche is almost entirely organic and who have perhaps the highest prices for produce* in Fort Collins. The local outlet is usually full of customers; it has six check-out stands and not one of them self-service. They are still opening new stores, including the town just south of us. There are two Walmart superstores within five miles of our Vitamin Cottage, two Targets, a Trader Joe’s, a King Soopers, a Safeway, an Albertsons, a Costco, a Sam’s Club, and several Dollar-type stores. Not a food desert, but a food oasis full of choices… or at least I thought so until I read that article.
As much as I worry about the watering down of the word ‘organic’, I’m slightly more concerned for what that means for the word ‘conventional’.
*Also, although small, the most attractive. By being small the turnover is high, little is wrapped in plastic or allowed to sit there to dry out and wither. I hope Trader Joe’s is taking note.
While its useful to be cynical about finding foods like that in Walmart, ultimately organic or regenerative agriculture will never make a difference until it is being produced and sold at scale, and that means (realistically) in big box supermarkets. The organic foods in my local supermarkets (I live in a city centre so I’ve a lot of choice) are generally better and much cheaper than in my local food co-operative or the small deli’s in my area.
The big problem as I see it in the US is the very poor labelling systems – at least ‘organic’ in Europe is more precisely defined legally. My big worry about ‘regenerative’ agriculture is that its such a vague concept we’ll see the term applied to pretty much anything that isn’t grown in a vat.
There’s one food cooperative here and it’s downtown and if the distance wasn’t enough of a PITA, there’s finding parking. We checked it out 20 years ago when we first moved to this town. Wasn’t much of a cooperative and still isn’t. Hasn’t moved, hasn’t grown, and I’ve never heard anyone mention it. This was very different from our Olympia experience. I was disappointed and didn’t bother to join.
We took the bus from Bunratty to Limerick one morning. It must have been a Thursday, since the farmers market was open and to my mind, lively. It was expensive, but then everything in Ireland seemed expensive. But what impressed me was the quality and craftsmanship. It looked like it was worth the price and I can’t say that about the farmers markets here, where the emphasis is on quantity rather than quality, much like our restaurants. The energy from the vendors there seemed high and the sense of competition. The booths were color saturated. I think trying to sell fresh produce on an asphalt parking lot in temps above 90 tends to sap the energy, color and water right out of vendors here. They’re all organic but under those conditions it’s a harder sell. In addition to scale, Walmart has AC going for them. Nobody wants limp veggies.
https://www.milkmarketlimerick.ie/
https://www.fortcollinsfarmersmarket.org/
Occupancy at our farmers market is down by 40% since Covid.
There are lots of little organic farms along the west coast of Ireland, but most struggle to make much of a living – its a pity there aren’t more local markets like the Milk Market – in France you’ll find wonderful food markets in every little town and village.
In the late 1970s, on German TV I saw a documentary on life in France in the provinces, outside Paris and environs. One segment focused on the trade in live animals at open-air markets, still common in those days.
A scene that stuck in my memory: a young mother shopping for her family, explaining what her mother had taught her about buying poultry: “Look at the plumage, is it healthy? The eyes, are they clear? Never buy a dead bird!”
I’m a sucker for good PR about the environment/society and the regenerative ag article fit my lock. If anybody has a combined self interest and huge bank account it’s Walmart. The details of their process, so far, also pass my bullshit test. That account of their endeavors sounded doable and regenerative not only for the environment but for the entire enterprise of us humans who depend on it. I’m high as a kite.
RE: Director Wray’s Opening Statement to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs FBI.
With millions of unknown persons continuing to stream over the southern border and being relentlessly dispersed to america’s largest targets…er…cities, the “director’s” main concern is preserving his ability to electronically spy on americans without a warrant?
In “testimony” about “the most-pressing national security threats” the nation faces, an ongoing, 2+ year and counting invasion of foreign nationals claiming to be “asylum seekers” doesn’t even merit a mention?
You’d really have thought that the top guy at the fbi might have at least tossed off a sentence about the “potential” of this situation to cause problems of a “national security” nature in the future.
The only real national “insecurity” is the help not listening when spoken to. The security of the individual is merely an instrument to secure a world in which servile slavery is still possible.
Let’s see border security – tedious, requires too much dirty field work, and for the most cost more to do thus is not a moneymaking operation. Technology, clean air conditioned offices, lots of opportunities for skimming and bribes, and it changes so often lots of time for repeat business.
When your biggest goals have nothing to do with government security but is all about enriching oneself and your sponsors, national security choices will never make sense if you try to apply them to national security.
I drive on paved mountain roads all the time, and most date from the 1930’s and 40’s when the MIC wasn’t all that, and the usual graft in constructing them at least came with a benefit down the line for everybody including yours truly.
Aside from really low fly-bys of Air Force & Naval jets @ Saline hot springs, I get nothing out of our military except the possibility of more people in the world that hate us because of what we’ve become, utterly Krupp’d.
More years ago than I want to think about I got into a heated discussion with a few people. Some far more to the right than I, one who worked for the MIC and one who contracted for it. My position was that our military had long since been corrupted into a wealth generating operation that provided little defense and was actively destructive to most recruits. The point that got them all thinking that I wasn’t just some ct nut was when I pointed out that if our little group and Hollywood were aware that all the various sections of the grids in this country were not just vulnerable to EMPs but to terrorist attacks the DOD had to be as well. And then stated that just a small portion of our outrageous defense budget should have been being put to securing the grid, and this was not a subject for privatization because the industry is too fragmented to trust all the players and a weak link could break everything. It needed to be standardized and done with the same level of expertise and quality throughout the whole system.
With few exceptions, most came around to the idea there was no logical reason for this not being done except that American defense not connected to weapons purchased over and over at home was not high on their priority list for whatever reason.
Better would it be if someone there in the Senate Committee asked Wray if he knew what is the opinion of his Iranian equivalent on “which is the state responsible for most terrorist actions in Iran and the middle east region and sponsor of other terrorist states like let’s say Israel”. If only to check whether the FBI is somehow able to see how US actions might be perceived elsewhere or if it is they are blind to this.
Reading The Federal Bureau of Investigation by Max Lowenthal copyright 1950
Just amazing how old Hoover with his pandering by how threats are growing all around, we need to fund this or that once termed “bing bang” publicity (same thing cops do claiming how dangerous their jobs are) to gain funding for his lists and cyber security and legal cut outs like qualified immunity and Wray’s 702.
or those damned socialists, communists and todays terrorists, foreigners and the rest of the eye catching publicity and fund seeking hysteria.
“China’s relentless efforts to steal our innovation and intellectual property”… and here I thought our stock compensated financialized leaders gave it to ’em to make more ka-ching – I am clueless
“Director Wray’s Opening Statement to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs FBI.“
‘As the world’s largest state-sponsor of terrorism, the Iranians, for instance, have directly, or by hiring criminals, mounted assassination attempts against dissidents and high-ranking current and former U.S. government officials, including right here on American soil.’
Projection much? Funny thing. I put the search term ‘Iranian attacks in us’ into Google to see what sort of list or article they had as I could not recall this ever happening. You know what came back? Zip. Only articles about attacks on US troops illegally occupying countries near Iran. How about that.
Look, if there was a real problem then B would have closed the US southern border to unchecked immigration last year. right? Right?! / ;)
Funny to think of it, but from down here in the North American Deep South, the border with Canada seems to be much harder to cross than the southern border with Mexico.
Northrons and Damyanks pipe up please. I’ve never been north of the Mason Dixon line myself.
Nobody can really agree what constitutes the line between the north and south in Cali, and if I had my way i’d say everything south of say 100 miles north of SF is Southern California, but i’m in the minority.
The one agreed upon dividing line nearby is Delano-home to competing prisons across the road from one another.
Sureños are everything south of Delano and their hue is blue, while Norteños are everything north of Delano and their color is red.
To give you an idea how pervasive these Mexican gangs are, a friend was a 7th grade science teacher in Farmersville-well into Norteño territory with a largely Hispanic population, and he handed out blue folders and a few of his Mexican-American students wouldn’t accept them.
In the past, when I frequently visited Los Angeles I would remind myself not to wear blue or red clothing. In no way do I look like a gang banger (I look more like a nerdy engineer), but why take a chance riling up the locals.
“As long as you South of the Canadian border, you down South.”
Malcolm X
Welcome mat is out.
While they have us distracted, a massive caravan is marching to storm our border.
This is not a crisis. It’s an invasion.
https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/171935184985625424
Projection indeed. Wake me when they start taking over countries and funding Nazis to the tune of 150 billion dollars a year. And that is just in Ukraine.
Maybe he was just being modest.
Truth, Justice, and the American Wray!
Sounds like a sales pitch to get Congress to increase his budget. Too cynical? / ;)
Let me guess? 9/11? Nope, Sunni fanatics, sponsored and funded by Saudi Arabia and the Gulfie tyrannies.
Al Qaeda? Nope, Sunni fanatics, sponsored and funded by Saudi Arabia and the Gulfie tyrannies.
ISIS? Nope, Sunni fanatics, sponsored and funded by Saudi Arabia and the Gulfie tyrannies.
But go on, tell how bad Iran is.
So CNN was interviewing a spokesperson from PM Netanyahu when suddenly her Freudian slip started showing-
https://www.bitchute.com/video/o2WlK9uJvWY7/ (9 secs)
re: Tank production grows sevenfold in Russia – RT
Even if the claim is exaggerated, Ru does have a strong manufacturing capacity. The US off-shored its large manufacturing capacity decades ago.
(Maybe one reason the UAW workers won a good contract is because somewhere in foggy bottom some pols roused themselves enough to see the national defense dangers of destroying onshore manufacturing, and the strike made it clear there’s more than one way to destroy onshore manufacturing. just a thought. )
“Russia says it will shoot down all F-16 fighter jets promised to Ukraine in 20 days”
Since the Russians shot down 24 Ukrainian jets and helicopters just last month, mostly over 5 days, I believe them.
…the demise of manned battle is greatly exaggerated
Damn it. Again this morning I’ve awakened into the stupidest of timelines. Yup, just checked the cellar. I’m long alcoholic beverages and homegrown, and there’s a bunch of dry and canned goods down there too. There’s even a brand new gas fired generator still in the box. I’m guessing this preparation will grant me a couple extra days, no more. I’d rather not find out, but I can’t seem to get off this bus. Could somebody pour some water in my cup please.
I don’t know. Going way out on a limb here. Sounds like you’ve taken all reasonable precautions for reasonably foreseeable possibilities. What else can anyone do? Because you have the sense to take precautions makes me think if unforeseeable events occur you’ll figure out how to cross that bridge when you come to it, if it comes to that. Anyway, it’s a nice Nov. day here and enjoying the simple things in life is good, like laughing at a little chipmunk I saw this morning who’d stuffed his cheeks so full of nuts to store up for the winter that every time he tried to hop-run he plopped and had to walk. It was very silly. The little guy *would not* spit out a seed or two to lighten his load and give himself the ability to run. He kept trying to run because he was crossing a busy sidewalk. Silly chipmunk, how would get himself into his burrow with his cheeks stuffed out to *—there—*? (I have no idea what this has to do with anything. Sorry. )
Heh heh, good story. Chipmunks do make me chuckle. A sip of cold water for sure, thanks flora.
I’ve been having a hard time lately. My sense of humor deserted me a bit over three weeks ago making me a tiresome cynic. It’s been difficult working up the enthusiasm to engage. It feels pointless, for a future so abstract that it no longer seems to exist. I’m going to start a new book tonight. Perhaps that will take the edge off this chill.
I think the MSM has been working overtime to demoralize all of us. And some of our pols, too. But then I remember the Marion Record, not part of the MSM, thank goodness. / ;)
http://marionrecord.com/
Yes. A small but important story, still playing out.
So I heard about this poor Israeli guy talking about how he was trying to sleep in his car next to a construction site when he had a vision of the IDF still fighting in Gaza a generation from now and trying to use their superior technology to do so. I can just see it now-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Ahq4NU1E8 (2:57 mins)
This video by Richard Medhurst talks about a plan for a strategic new canal through the Negev desert, replacing the Egypt-controlled Suez. That, says Medhurst, is a further strategic reason for the West’s complicity in the destruction of Gaza. Is there anything to this? What says the commentariat? Substance, or stuff and nonsense?
https://nitter.net/richimedhurst/status/1719843625784266992
He says it was a secret 1963 US plan to detonate 500 nuclear bombs in the desert to build the new canal. Our nuke contractors would like to be heard.
Operation Plowshare?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare
Never knew about that. The US detonated 35 nukes to see if they could stimulate gas production. Seems the public objected to radiation in their gas stoves and the gov occasionally listened to public opinion back then and ended the idea. And there is this on the Negev:
“A project proposed in a 1963 memorandum by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory would have used 520 2-megaton nuclear explosions to excavate a canal through the Negev Desert in Israel at an estimated cost of $575 million ($5 billion in 2021), to serve as an alternative route to the Suez Canal.”
For reference, the bombs dropped on Japan were in the 15-20 kiloton range.
There are other reasons as well:
https://unctad.org/news/unrealized-potential-palestinian-oil-and-gas-reserves
https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-grants-golan-heights-oil-license-2013-2?r=US&IR=T
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/israel-awards-gas-exploration-licences-eni-bp-four-others-2023-10-29/
I do not think many people know that the Israeli government blocked the agreements the Gazans had to tap their natural gas fields and sell their gas, which are quite extensive. For the past two decades just about everything included the fishing fleet has been restricted or blocked.
“Remains of planet that formed the Moon may be hiding near Earth’s core”
A fascinating theory this. I suppose that chunk of Theia is buried so deep that it will forever out of reach for us but it is good to learn that a fragment of planetoid could have actually survived that collision.
I thought Gaia was a benign God. Will have to re-evaluate.
Our planet is a chimera!
Our planet has Operating Theians in the core! Quick, call Tom Cruise and David Miscavage.
>Deeper Into Depravity, Patrick Lawrence – Consortiumnews
White phosphorus, depleted uranium artillery shells, and every conceivable mechanized instrument of death. Patrick Lawrence captures it in this paragraph from the article.
U.S. foreign policy has not…much to do with the ideals of Western civilization as we were taught to think of them. Now Americans whose taxes pay for policy are urged to come right out with it: Yes, we approve of war crimes, violence against noncombatants, ethnic cleansing. What is Israel costing Americans? Ourselves and our self-respect, our psychological coherence, our regard of history, our culture, our humanity.
>https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/02/patrick-lawrence-deeper-into-depravity/
This is a must read. Thanks for the link.
Devil’s Own Advocate:
Lets say a dirty bomb or a briefcase nuke goes off in Israel while they are in the midst of pummeling Gaza, what happens next now Pandora’s Box is ajar for the first time in anger since August of 1945?
In 2008 The Atomic Bazaar, such a dirty bomb is a when, not an if.
So far, Langewiesche has been wrong but we shall see.
I’m still stunned by the picture of Blinken taking his kids trick or treating dressed in Ukrainian garb
Imagine a future where one or both of his kids are being attending to by a platoon of shrinks as they recount their daddy issues
“The fucker dressed us up as the leader of a country that was feeding hundreds of thousands of its own people into a meat grinder.”
“Halloween is all about monsters and it turns out that Daddy was the worst one of all.”
Haha, I was going to say something along those lines, that Blinken was assuring his children would need a lifetime of therapy.
They probably will need that regardless of the Halloween costumes…
More like indoctrinating the next generation. Have to groom psychos, er – future politicians somehow!
Is this some subtle way of Blinken communicating for history scholars to debate if he always saw Z as a monster? Nah.
“He may have been a monster, but he was our monster”
I think we are being a bit harsh on Antony, what if his kid was dressed in a red shirt as a Star Trek crewman… beamed onto the White House lawn, what kind of complex would the kid have had thereafter?
Sleep walking into WW3, DC edition:
BREAKING: Secret US, Israeli Plan Has US TROOPS Occupying Gaza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1USTguQb1M
There is little secret about this plan. The US and Israel have proposed a multi-nation occupation force for Gaza. Of course, the US will provide the vast majority of this “multi-national” force.
—fact that our governments no longer feel the need to maintain the illusion that they’re anti-genocide lol—
because there is no electoral consequence.
Culture wars divides US, UK, French, German domestic politics. Foreign policy interests get free rein.
Interesting Helmer about what Putin and many polled Russians think about the Gaza situation. Putin says the war in Ukraine is part and parcel of all struggles against the Hegemon–that the Israelis wouldn’t act the way they do without US backing and that’s right.
https://johnhelmer.net/if-the-army-says-fight-the-war-russians-agree-if-the-kremlin-says-stop-russians-agree-on-conditions-the-army-decides/
Durbin calls for Israel-Hamas cease-fire tied to hostage release. Not exactly clear how this would work, but it takes some stones, anyway, in this environment. Where is Sanders? https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4289462-durbin-israel-hamas-ceasefire-hostage-release/
Where is Sanders?
It can take weeks to effectively deploy a political winds sensor array and process the data and evaluate the political risks.
I got to get me one of those. Seems to work pretty well for him.
Writing an op-ed in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/01/gaza-humanitarian-pause-bernie-sanders
The Beatles were the 1960’s, stuck in time. I almost beat Ringo out for the position, but they didn’t feel a toddler could reach the drum pedals.
My dad thought they were the devil incarnate on account of their long locks which he felt blurred gender. This only made me like them even more, having the official disapproval notice from daddy-o.
We watched A Hard Day’s Night a few months ago and they seem so innocent…
https://variety.com/2023/music/reviews/the-beatles-new-song-now-and-then-review-1235777477/
Nope. Watch John on the train sneak a bottle of CocaCola out of his manager’s briefcase and mock snorting it.
Still a great movie. Lot of shades of Monty Python to come in it….
Indeed. From what i have read, they spent years playing at establishments along Hamburg’s Reeperbahn. How they honed their skill and sound before breaking into the mainstream.
Supposedly Lennon spent a whole night performing at one place with a toilet seat around his neck.
From: How a Lucrative Surgery Took Off Online and Disfigured Patients
This is not a serious country. Surgeons learning how to perform complex, profitable surgeries from online Facebook groups and YouTube videos. Why even have professional licensure? Why not let everyone practice medicine again? After all, we have a shortage of doctors anyway. Let’s just let everyone do it! Appalling doesn’t even begin to describe this.
I believe the Da Vinci robot was previously known for being used in prostate surgery, resulting in some cases of ED. This was maybe 10 years ago. It isn’t clear if this device is one that should even be in service.
As with almost all media coverage of Trump, this piece works hard to discredit anything and everything the guy says. One would think that a presidential candidate proposing to spend money to get mentally ill people off the street would be received with appreciation and great fanfare. Those of us who were in California when Ronald Reagan was governor remember that homelessness really took off when Reagan started shutting down mental hospitals, pretty much as anyone with half a brain would expect.
This piece invokes the horrors of mid-century mental institutions and involuntary commitment in an attempt to shut this idea down. But it’s not like our only two choices are to throw people out on the street or else lock them up (involuntarily!) with daily electroshock treatments and Clockwork Orange-style eyeclips. We have mental institutions now, and I like to think they are better than living in a cardboard box behind a dumpster.
Good ideas can come from anywhere.
Having spent some time in mental institutions (I used to be bipolar, before lithium solved my problem) I’ve much appreciated the treatment, and even on some occasions the food. I’ve also been held against my will more than once, and am grateful to the people who kept me there, because I soon recovered. If I’d been left to my own devices, I’d probably have lost my job, my friends and my home. Oh, and on electroshock, I’ve never had it myself but have met people who have, and who were very happy to have had it, because it was the only thing that cleared up their depression.
Capital Hill can be completely walled off and serve as a federal mental institution, with the White house grounds available for overflow.
A public dispute over “the stench of propaganda” at The Financial Times Gilbert Doctorow
Great to see Doctrorow call out Max Seddon. The guy has been flying under the radar for far too long. Seddon’s Dagestan paste-up was way over the top…even for him. As Mary McCarthy said about her nemesis Lillian Hellman, “Everything she writes is a lie including ‘and’ and ‘the.’
Curiously, she seems to have been generally correct.
It seems the entire ‘Julia’ story is now considered to have been fictitious.
re antidote
Is that a red heifer?
Anger can lead to better results when tackling tricky tasks
Perhaps this is true, but at what cost? Anger is unhealthy.
Anger is useful when directed at the true source of one’s distress. Too many have been ‘socialized’ to displace legitimate anger from the more powerful onto the less powerful. This leads to a cycle of self recrimination and further dysfunction.
TIL (= today I learned) that “the New York Police Department … maintains an office in Kfar Saba, Israel.”
Black ties to Palestinian liberation (Black Agenda Report)
Books to help Us Understand the World is a great peek into the underpinnings of belief in real time. Asks the question, Are we, now, that different from yesterday, last decade, 20th century, last millenium, prehistory? The only book I’ve read in the mentions is Julian Jaynes, Origins of Conciousness in the Breakdown of the BiCameral Mind, hard to say after all this, how much of it I understood back when it was published, but it lays the groundwork for aurelien to describe the shifting sands of actual, operational, close held belief. How different and unrecognizable how people, societies, tribes act in the world from any demarcation of time. How quickly and seemingly absurdly feedback loops take idea(s) out of use, favor. Aurelien says Machiveli is the most relevant to politics “So we continue to read Machiavelli (not just The Prince, but the Discourses as well), not for his shock-value, but for his clear-sighted understanding of the realities of politics in an environment where power rules. ” I am truly awed, maybe naive by the seeming intransigence of any and all beliefs.