Shipwrecks are acting as a hidden refuge for marine species to thrive Interesting Engineering
Energized shoppers break one-day holiday sales record CNN
SCIENTISTS SAY THERE MAY BE LIFE UNDER MERCURY’S SALT GLACIERS Futurism
Moon’s scientifically important sites could be ‘lost forever’ in mining rush Science
Climate/Environment
Mining stakes claim on salmon futures as glaciers retreat Science
A rush for Lithium in Africa risks fuelling corruption and failing citizens Global Witness
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Set to Be the Largest Since Deepwater Horizon OilPrice
#COVID-19
Over half the people who get COVID have lingering symptoms after 3 years, new study finds Fox News
Mycoplasma Likely Main Culprit Of Outbreak Of Pediatric Cases Of Pneumonia Worldwide Forbes
Old Blighty
How the UK arms the occupation and genocidal war in Gaza Red Pepper
Labour Internationalism pic.twitter.com/r24SYnFQD5
— ashok kumar 🇵🇸 (@broseph_stalin) November 25, 2023
The Lucky Country
Who are the Five Eyes loyal to? Pearls and Irritations
O Canada
Media Holocaust Revisionism After Canada’s Standing Ovation for an SS Vet FAIR
The Hofmann Wobble Harper’s. “Wikipedia and the problem of historical memory.”
La belle France
Making Migrants Disappear The Baffler
India
India rescuers hit snags in two-week bid to free 41 tunnel workers Channel News Asia
India’s BRICS quandary deepens Indian Punchline
European Disunion
EU looks to convince countries to invest in crisis management force, top military chief says Euractiv. The EU’s subordination to NATO in a nutshell. The NATO model is based on the availability of 300,000 personnel while the EU struggles to raise 5,000.
Brussels wants to beat the Pentagon at its own game on arms sales Politico EU. Von der Leyen’s European Commission continues to “study” the issue.
European Security Transformed Royal United Services Institute. “One thing is certain: Europe’s security transformation is far from over.”
The U.S. Has Its Eyes on Expanding NATO Into North Macedonia and Is Quietly Expanding Its Influence in the Country—to the Detriment of the Population Covert Action Magazine
Syraqistan
A ‘temporary ceasefire’ means realizing how much we’ve lost Mondoweiss
Two Palestinian killed, seven injured by Israeli forces in West Bank Al Arabiya. No ceasefire in the West Bank.
42 Palestinians Killed in Seven Weeks: A Visit to a West Bank City That Has Become a Firing Zone Haaretz
Thousands protest in front of Netanyahu’s residence Roya News
Israel’s ‘thought police’ law ramps up dangers for Palestinian social media users +972 Magazine
Few Options In Wake of the Al-Shifa Débacle, the War Lengthens and Widens Alastair Crooke, Al Mayadeen
***
Biden endorses Israel’s war to ‘eliminate’ Gaza Aaron Mate
Biden Moves to Lift Restrictions on ALL U.S. Weapons to Israel Ken Klippenstein
An open letter to Joe Biden Peter Dimock, The Floutist
“Rape as a Weapon of War” is in WashPost headline today https://t.co/FehdHrJGRc. Rape is also the ULTIMATE WEAPON OF PROPAGANDA. CNN, others chime in. US media have launched full-court press to “justify” Biden’s support for resuming “humanitarian genocide” Tues UNLESS WE STOP IT.
— Ray McGovern (@raymcgovern) November 25, 2023
***
Israeli-owned Ship Attacked by Suspected Iranian Drone in Indian Ocean, U.S. Official Says Haaretz
Iran’s Other Willing Accomplice: The European Union The Gatestone Institute. The neocons demand the EU further isolate itself.
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon say patrol hit by Israeli fire Al Jazeera
Our National Disgrace in Iraq and Syria The American Conservative
China?
Chinese envoy calls for intergovernmental talks to address AUKUS-related risks Xinhua
Now is the time for Japan to join AUKUS East Asia Forum
***
China wielding ‘bargaining power’ with Russia over Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline South China Morning Post
Is China-Russia cooperation in the Arctic a double-edged sword for Beijing? South China Morning Post
Russia and China planning ‘underwater tunnel’ to Crimea: Ukraine Times of India
New Not-So-Cold War
SITREP 11/25/23: Major Avdeevka Breakthroughs as NATO Plans Forever War Simplicius the Thinker
Its Official – U.S. & UK Pressed Ukraine To Reject Peace Deal With Russia Moon of Alabama
Moscow reacts to ex-Soviet state adopting EU sanctions RT. Moldova.
What Russian talk shows are discussing: NATO General Harald Kujat‘s interview and ‘Bild’ exposé on suing for peace Gilbert Doctorow
That is why we will not only continue our support for Ukraine, but also increase it,” Baerbock said at the Green Party conference in Karlsruhe.
— Sprinter Monitor (@SpriterMonitor1) November 25, 2023
Azerbaijan is massing Soviet-era aircraft to bait Armenian air defences Aerospace Intelligence
Political analyst Farhad Mammadov on the tension between Azerbaijan and the US JAM News
Imperial Collapse Watch
VA Plans Outreach to Screen 3 Million More Veterans for Toxic Exposures Military.com
Serious Syphilitic Uveitis Cases Almost Tripled Over 10-Year Period MedPage Today
Delay of eye drop recall highlights FDA’s impotence on the issue STAT
2024
Do Young Voters Actually Prefer Trump to Biden? New York Mag
Biden loyalists rally around president after former Obama adviser’s warnings Washington Examiner
Poll: Hilary Clinton among top picks if Biden does not run in 2024 WION
Kamala Harris v. Gavin Newsom: The Coming Democratic Civil War The Messenger
GOP Clown Car
George Santos says he’ll treat expulsion as a ‘badge of honor’ as he claims his colleagues are drunkenly having sex with lobbyists ‘every night’ Business Insider
Our Famously Free Press
CNN anchor claims Gaza is in Israel Electronic Intifada
At least 57 journalists killed in Israel-Gaza war Committee to Protect Journalists. “The deadliest month for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.”
AI
Tech
The Eyes on the Board Act Is Yet Another Misguided Attempt to Limit Social Media for Teens Electronic Frontier Foundation
China Tried to Keep Kids Off Social Media. Now the Elderly Are Hooked Wired
‘Straight through the bushes’: Google Maps misleads Californians into the desert during dust storm SF Gate
The Bezzle
Class Warfare
American Borrowers Are Getting Closer to Maxing Out WSJ
U.S. Poverty is More Entrenched Than Ever Counterpunch
The moral injury of having your work enshittified Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic
Does studying economics make you selfish? Southern Economic Journal
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
141 comments
Comments are closed.
“Moon’s scientifically important sites could be ‘lost forever’ in mining rush”
This article talks about one important series of sites-
‘Scientists fear that such mining could threaten unique spots such as craters close to the north or south pole whose interiors are permanently in shadow. Some remain constantly below -225°C, making them the coldest places in the solar system. Orbiting probes have shown that their chilly depths hold large reserves of ice, perhaps accumulated over billions of years as asteroids transported water from the outer solar system. If so, those craters hold an invaluable record of the delivery of water to Earth.’
But what is the bet that miners will deliberately target those sites as they will regard it as free water that they don’t have to transport from Earth. Just look at the savings, they will say, and if they get all used up, then they get all used up. It’s what they do here on Earth.
My question is why can’t they put the telescope in a crater after it is mined? It’s not like they are going to be filling in the craters as part of the process. Besides which, any pit dug at the lunar polar regions becomes a cold trap by virtue of the orbital geometry.
I’d have more empathy for the scientists if they hadn’t spent the last several decades trying to get everyone rallying around the Mars flag and effectively ignoring the Moon. Now that someone else is showing interest in the Moon (I.e. industrialists) they’re all ‘wait, hold up, we aren’t done with that yet’.
There are Cislunar infrastructure architectures that allow the far side of the Moon to remain radio quiet by focusing on use of the Earth-Moon Lagrange-1 point for staging. Doing so would allow 24/7 direct access to anywhere on the Moon for an essentially flat delta-V cost, as well as access to every LEO inclination orbit for only a slight variance of delta-V costs. And access to GEO as well. As far as I can tell only the Chinese are really looking at Cislunar space in that regard, as evidenced by their Chang’e spacecraft moving to and between Lagrange points in near-Earth space.
The real question boils down to whether space should only be a place for scientists to explore with their minds and tools, or a place for humanity to explore and exploit to our benefit. My bias is humanity working towards a better future for itself, so I’m going with the latter.
Capitalists exploiting the moon’s resources isn’t a “better future” for anyone.
By whom, then, would it be permissible and acceptable to harvest the Moon’s resources and energy? Who do you have in mind that would do it better?
Or perhaps you’re one of those folks who think we should only be allowed to tear up our own planet, better and harder, rather than consider other options within our grasp.
Or perhaps this is just a drive-by “Capitalists suck!”-ing. Hard to tell, as there’s not much there to work with.
I view the various links here daily and countries around the world are squaring off to reignite world war.
Under such circumstances, earthlings exploiting the moon’s resources isn’t a better future for anyone.
I’m sorry, but I fail to follow your logic. We can’t develop the Moon because war?
Seems a tenuous connection at best.
There isn’t going to be any “feed the world” or other type of “save humanity” devolopment going on.
The interest would be for resources for military applications for war. First and foremost.
There are resources and technology enough right here and now to “make the world a better place.”
The issue isn’t tech or resources or the moon or mars or venus.
It’s giving a damn in the first place.
–> Giving a damn
This is a huge thing. We have a terrifying number of people without housing. Without any hope of housing. And I don’t see anyone coming up with a workable solution to it. The housing in my area (NE Kansas) has skyrocketed in price. I could go on and on. If you can’t afford to live in Kansas where are you supposed to go?
The capitalists have already ruined the one habitable place for us to live and they should be in charge of exploiting the moon as well? This seems like madness to me. Yes, this is a drive by shot at capitalism and it’s wretched capitalists. On another note, have you thought about the environmental damage this effort would create in it’s wake no matter who is in charge of it? Maybe we should curtail our exploitation of resources as much as possible and concentrate on radical conservation instead.
Take note that NASA is being more and more privatized. So it’s not for science, it’s more for industry, corporate sponsors, team members, and any other corporate leaches.
“Based on inputs from current partners, commercial and other stakeholders, NASA will shape the plan for the transition of low-Earth orbit activities from direct government funding to commercial services and partnerships, with new, independent commercial platforms or a non-NASA operating model for some form or elements of the International Space Station by 2025. In addition, NASA will expand public-private partnerships to develop and demonstrate technologies and capabilities to enable new commercial space products and services.”
From: NASA unveils new goals for Moon, Mars, including space privatization circa 2018
Just understand, when NASA says “stakeholders”, it is -not- referring to U.S. citizen taxpayers, but instead to the institutions and companies who receive NASA funding. What the taxpayer may want from NASA is a tertiary consideration at best.
NASA is a public-private patnership. Public money is spent for private profit. Let’s not spend money on anything that benefits the common man.
From Matè:
Targeted increase in share prices for the Arms manufacturers?
‘[A]ttempting to eliminate Hamas’
They can’t even do that. They have had six weeks or more and how has that been going? I read that not only has Hamas damaged about three to four hundred IDF vehicles – including tanks – but that the Israelis have had to go digging out of storage older version of their Merkava tanks and forbid all export of them as well. That does not sound like winning to me. Probably nobody knows how many Israelis have been killed but I also read a coupla days ago of several hundred of them being crippled in action.
Back in 1945 the Russians had that iconic photo of soldiers raising their flag over the Reichstag building as a statement that they had taken that city while the US had the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima to show that they basically controlled that island. I see no signs of the Israelis being able to do the same in Gaza and a coupla days ago I read that they were pulling their soldiers out of Gaza city. Maybe it is only now they are realizing that they have walked into an elaborate Hamas trap with no way out-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_a_Flag_over_the_Reichstag
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima
As counterpoints to your comment:
a) A comparable operation — the elimination of ISIS in Raqqa — also resulted in the city being levelled and the population expelled with many killed; it took 4 months, one week and a half, for a surface 10 times smaller than the whole of the Gaza strip, and a population 4 times smaller; and there was no truce. Urban sieges and conquests are a drawn out affair.
b) I have seen several photographs of Israeli soldiers with flags planted atop hospitals and official buildings in Gaza — but none atop the elusive Hamas headquarters.
Natural gas field offshore.
Water in that aquifer.
Just because.
Mate addresses it at the end:
As Norm Finkelsten said in a lengthy interview with krystal ball posted over this weekend, israel is now herding what’s left of the Gaza population into a patch of ground “the size of the Los Angeles airport” in an attempt to force Egypt to accept them as refugees.
“UN peacekeepers in Lebanon say patrol hit by Israeli fire”
That truce is not only holding in Gaza but it appears to be operating on the Lebanese border as well with Hezbollah. So why the need to take potshots at a UN patrol? Because they had a grudge against UN troops? Because shooting at them would not violate the truce between Israel and Hamas? It is not the first time that Israel has deliberately targeted UN troops and as the article mentions, Israel hit the UNIFIL headquarters just last month. No nation will even think of sending their troops to help occupy Gaza on behalf of Israel as Israel is too far likely to attack those troops too.
Zionism and Likud and Bandera and USNATOAUKUS. Kind of like a cross between a rabid dog and a piranha…
One reads about the neocon plan for perpetual war in Europe to finally bleed out the Russians and take their stuff like Israel wants Pal water and oil and gas, and NATO in Taiwan/Japan/Korea, and “modernization of USNATO nuclear arsenal,” and engineers being scared of the AI they are midwifing like Rosemary’s Baby, all as USNATO has designs to make a knockout punch out of domination in that domain, and of course the public-privatization of space including the moon mars asteroids, and I find myself hoping that the Russians have a plan to ensure their security, and their possibly pipe dream of a stable multipolar world, by SARMATing and Kinzhaling all the individuals and places and resources/means and methods of the globalist-neo-neo cadre.
I used to have faith that incompetence would ensure the survival of the species. Not any more
Amazing how implacable and durable the Fokkers and Fuggers who demand ownership and hegemony and “dominion” over everything, and the reduction of a decimated population of mopes to slave or maybe, “charitably,” in the Christmas spirit, serf status. Nothing is ever enough. Seems to be a defect in the assembly of too many of us, in our heritable biochemistry.
And there’s so few of the Rich that they aren’t even a good source of protein. Maybe as a smoked appetizer on perfect toast points.
And there’s so few of the Rich that they aren’t even a good source of protein.
I was told (long, long ago) that people from 1st world countries are unfit for human consumption — way too many chemical contaminants (and just think about smokers!)
re Media’s Holocaust Revisionism in Canada
For those with a spare 90 minutes or so, this is about as complete a history of Ukrainian Nazis in Canada as you’ll find.
https://albertaadvantagepod.com/2023/11/19/why-does-canada-love-ukrainian-nazis/
When you think about it, that whole episode was great practice. You literally had the entire Canadian Parliament cheering and clapping a real life Nazi. Then you had the media across the world start humming and hawing and saying that it was ‘complicated’ as if it was a Facebook relationship post. So now we are witnessing in real time a genocide and ethnic cleansing and the media is saying well maybe it isn’t and Israel has a right to defend itself and look at all the people that were taken. Censorship is going into full drive and people like Susan Sarandon are being cancelled for stating obvious facts. But the fact remains that it is a genocide and the younger people are taking the lead in calling bs on the whole thing and not believing the media. To use a Star Trek line-
‘There..Are…Four…Lights!’
But Cardassia has the right to defend itself!
It is very Orwellian. In 1984 they had a well-oiled machine to rewrite the past and make people disappear. TPTB today need to practice just a little more.
If it is “God’s Will” That HIS chosen people shall solely occupy Greater Israel I don’t see why the Israeli’s need help from any human agency.
If they had “Genuine Faith” they wouldn’t need tanks or Bombs FFS, GOD will take care of everything.
Never heard God stating this himself to the rest of the world….
YHWH only talks to the Chosen. We will just have to take their oh so careful reporting of what was said on faith.
All Joshua needed to demolish Jericho was a bunch of old guys walking around and tooting some horns. Joshua 5:13-6:27. Of course then the Israelites still had to go in and slay all the men with the edge of the sword, rape and kill the women, dash the little skulls of all the children against the rocks, and add the sheep and goats to their herds. (And having sex with sheep and goats was “abhorrent,” but apparently tempting and common enough that YHWH is said to have laid out specific prohibitions against it, with harsh enforcement. )
What Russian talk shows are discussing: Gilbert Doctorow
Concluding sentence: “Those in the United States who believe Vladimir Putin will settle for less are deluding themselves.” Meaning Putin will insist on regime change and elimination of Nassi elements in Ukraine.
Yet before writing this, Doctorow writes Putin was willing to negotiate peace: “Kujat blames the United States and Britain for sabotaging the March 2022 tentative peace treaty reached between Kiev and Moscow, and for missing another opportunity to conclude a peace on relatively advantageous terms for Kiev in September 2022.” He goes on to say Putin is still willing to negotiate.
We now have reports of the “peace” deal Putin negotiated was reportedly on the verge of signing.
It is not unfair to call it a potentially greatly weakened watered down version of Minsk 1& 2, which we also know were catastrophic disasters in that it allowed the West to arm Ukraine (which the Donbass had just defeated) to the teeth for the next 8 years. A course of action The West did in plain sight of Russia for 8 years. And it is this re-arming that is the reason for the massive destruction on Donbass territory that is occurring, to liberate Russians.
The evidence does not support saying Putin – left to his own devices – will finally not negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine, as he has repeatedly tried to do in the past. He may not be able to do so, but only because those around him have learned what he has demonstrated he can not and will not learn – a negotiated settlement with The West is impossible and undesirable under any circumstances.
IMO, Putin is still willing to negotiate. For that reason and for the sake of Russia, he must be prevented from doing so. Hopefully, it’s possible he will NOT be able to negotiate in the manner he has in the past, because others around him have learnt lessons and will prevent him from making mistakes of a similar nature of those he has made in the past.
Yves has pointed out several times that Putin is not the Big Boss that people think that he is and certainly not an autocrat. That there are very powerful factions in the Kremlin and that any decisions are ones done by consensus. This being the case, I seriously doubt that the military, intelligence services and the foreign ministry will ever accept a Minsk 3 as the west has proven what they are all about and are never to be trusted. And they will not let all the blood and treasure spent in the Ukraine go for nothing either.
Sure Putin/Russia will negotiate, but on their own terms, and likely not before a conclusive military defeat for Ukraine/NATO/USA. Neither Crimea nor the four new Russian oblasts will be on the table. However defining borders and security arrangements will require negotiation. What those borders will be is a function of how long Ukraine is willing to go before surrendering – the longer they fight the more they lose.
Imo there’s no chance at this point russian terms won’t as a minimum require unconditional surrender, change to Russian leaning gov, the other 4 Russian speaking oblasts plus neutrality and nazi prosecution – whether that’s what putin would advocate or not.
Besides, what’s the downside? Why would any Russian settle for less given the collapsing ukr armed forces? In Vietnam I recall the north stalled on negotiations for 6 months or so, as my crappy memory recalls, and that was after the us finally realized their domestic position was untenable. The us looks ready now, but negotiations can’t even start until z leaves the scene.
“The evidence does not support saying Putin – left to his own devices – will finally not negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine, as he has repeatedly tried to do in the past. He may not be able to do so, but only because those around him have learned what he has demonstrated he can not and will not learn – a negotiated settlement with The West is impossible and undesirable under any circumstances.
IMO, Putin is still willing to negotiate. For that reason and for the sake of Russia, he must be prevented from doing so. Hopefully, it’s possible he will NOT be able to negotiate in the manner he has in the past, because others around him have learnt lessons and will prevent him from making mistakes of a similar nature of those he has made in the past.”
Of course. At the same time, Putin won’t have much of a choice. Russian public opinion supports the war, but only as long as and to the extent that the average frustrated Russian is not overly inconvenienced, and an opportunity to end any inconveniences will be welcomed by much of society.
How many volunteers are now in the Russian Armed Forces? Let us not downplay the willingness of Russians to go to the deep end and finish this war, especially it involves their overwhelming military superiority over Ukraine, and NATO.
How many more volunteers can Russia get? Keep in mind that the mobilization last year was far from popular in Russia.
iIiRC, the Ukrainian military had lots of volunteers at one point, but that resource has long since been tapped out.
The Russians are willing to negotiate, but what they will not do is agree to a cease fire or truce during the negotiations. Nor will they dial down the intensity of their military actions during discussions.
IMnsHO Armchair Warlord summed up the current state of affairs here:
https://twitter.com/ArmchairW/status/1728320020240093686
To quote an old game, “I cannot say. But if I could, I would smile.”
It was never Plan A, but if Ukraine wants to commit suicide by Russia, no one can stop them. And realistically they coming to their senses is about as likely as a junkie going cold turkey.
There’s a tenacious virus in USNATO political economy, of which Nazism is one genetic strand. After all, US industrialists really liked them the benefits of national socialism. And look how the PTB love them some Ukronazis.
I was hopeful that Russia might be committing to a really complete de-Nazification, which would entail completely breaking the globalist machinery, for good. Getting a bad vibe that the many scattered players in the globalist camp might be getting the Bandera band back together for another world tour. How long before the autonomous drone fleets and mechs are sweeping once again across the steppes? Do the Russians, with their resources and pride and history, have the stick-to-it-ivity to face down and defeat the greed heads and Dominionists who are in it for the long haul? Demilitarization is not a one-and-done thing, and the Nazi disease is deep in the bones of the “west.”
Would Russia be in a hurry to complete any negotiations before the 2024 US elections and 2025 inauguration?
I don’t think so. Some USA politicos are still parading Hillary Clinton around.
And all of the other tensions in general are something to monitor.
Re: Corruption can increase environmental efficiency
«Asked what developing countries need to do to combat pollution, Dr. Zervopoulos said, “Developing countries should consider improving factors, such as the human development index (HDI), to transform into developed.”»
Corruption is the way to do this?
It’s the grease on the axles of commerce, don’tcha know? Sure works fine here in the US of A and the rest of the West —and of course most of the world. My Econ professor called it “slack in the gears,” analogizing to the manufacturing and engineering reality that there have to be tolerances and clearances in any machine. From the same root word, what’s a “tolerable” amount of corruption before the machinery chews itself to shreds.
‘U.S. Poverty is More Entrenched Than Ever’
‘Manchin’s snobbery, that disgusting eagerness to believe lies about the poor, is actually a form of bigotry directed at the dispossessed. Remember, Manchin is a multimillionaire.’
Mostly lies of political expediency. But the author, Michael Mechanic, says in his book ‘Jackpot’, that the rich and especially the suddenly rich, have a constant need to explain their good fortune to themselves. That ‘bigotry’ is a rationalization that includes the need to believe they’re better. Luck is too fickle.
Man the rationalizing animal. The Brits used to chalk wealth up to breeding if not actual holy oil whereas we Yanks would give the credit to our “hard work” or, if you are Trump, being a “stable genius” (he may have been joking).
In many if not most cases of course it’s about being born on third base.
I spent a good deal of time while reading that book wondering what the internal conversation sounded like to those who had inherited wealth, and to those who were suddenly rich. How would you explain yourself to your Self?
Whistling past the graveyard, out of tune.
The self-deceived don’t know that they don’t know, or could know with a little effort. Oh, look, a shiny black Friday.
I haven’t been there, I’ve just heard tales… but the South seems to be a place where bigotry can be shared with less social censure than many parts of the country. And who, I wonder, would want ‘bigotry’ to define them as a community? I’m often puzzled by what others wear about them with pride.
“Brussels wants to beat the Pentagon at its own game on arms sales”
‘The European Commission is hinting at a new mechanism similar to the US Foreign Military Sales to facilitate arms exports.’
If the EU wants to manufacture their own military gear, then exports will be necessary as just enough manufactured weapons to service the EU nations will not be economically viable. You need scale of production to make it economically feasible. And of course the US will be subjugating those European nations to intense pressure to buy US weapons instead. In any case, the European Commission probably only wants to do this as they see the opportunity for a great big slush fund to dip their beaks into.
I wonder just what market will be left for the EU and USA to fight over? Russia may see an export boom. At the moment, in the Ukraine we are not seeing any great superiority of Western armaments over Russia’s. If anything the opposite in some equipment and Russian prices usually are lower than US/EU prices.
I am not sure how equivalent these missile batteries are but wiki suggests that a Patriot battery is ~US$2.37 – 2.5 billion for export. An S-400 is ~ US$200 million for a battery and reserve missiles. And there seems to be a good chance that an S-400 missile will actually intercept something.
Harris v Newsom
What if they held a war and no one came?
Yugo vs Trabant is more like it…
What if they held a race and no one came?
That made me chuckle, in between sips of coffee, so my screen is still clean today.
How about if they held it as a greasy pole competition with Harris and Newsom at each end and a flag in the middle? I’d pay money to go see that-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKE67Jz0fas (2:21 mins)
Good idea! Perhaps a greased pig contest, w/ the two protagonists instead of swine?
Retired Carpenter
Do not invite Boris!
do invite David Cameron.
On the Democrats’ Harris problem: Recall the history of this particular debacle. Back in 2017 Harris was assessed by the Big Donors, particularly the Clinton people, and when she passed the audition she became the Chosen One. Remember the big Hampton’s shindig?
https://observer.com/2017/07/clinton-staff-donors-kamala-harris-2020/
Soon after she began getting glowing media coverage. Go back and read a few of those old articles if you want a laugh. But once the primaries started she was exposed and fell like a stone. Near the bottom of what was originally a crowded field, she was one of the first to go. But no matter; she was forced on the Democrat electorate anyway as Biden’s running mate. Was she forced on the Biden campaign itself by the Clinton faction? I’m not sure, but she did check several key idpol boxes.
Now they’re stuck. Once again, blowback is a bitch.
Picture her before California power broker, Willie Brown, her married boyfriend who bought her a BMW and appointed her to various state medical boards for which she was uniquely un-qualified. Free market at work. San Francisco was the political fulcrum, or dung heap, upon which she and Newsom were leveraged onto the ballot.
Every picture of her makes me think of Homer (not Simpson);
Kamala Harris: The lips that launched a face.
Or
The lips that launched a thousand face plants.
Kamala oddly reminds of a lefty Sarah Palin, who was also a disaster in interviews & speeches, but a different kind of dullard.
How about this one? Definitely in the groove.
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-and-us-vice-president-kamala-harris-news-photo/1244301714
If he falls off the stage–I’m it!
Fall or pushed?
He’s gotta go before Inauguration Day for her to grab the ring… imo Biden has no chance unless trump has an accident, and she has even less at winning on her own. Granted, dems might think of the ploy of getting rfk on the ballot in the swings…
I remember how Clint Eastwood was ridiculed after the drunken connection he suggested by his conversation with the empty chair supposed to contain Obama at the 2012 Republican Convention. Is it impolitic to suggest that Harris v Newsom contests one empty chair versus another?
Only if you don’t add Pete Buttigieg to the mix. IMO he lets those two look like they have a minuscule bit amount of something other than overwhelming ego and ambition, the two qualities all three of them have in abundance.
https://pamho.medium.com/the-uniparty-and-cowboy-war-1689568759ae
Ran across this a few days ago, what do you guys make of it?
Certainly seems plausible.
There might be a third group that you could call the ‘crazies.’ Even George Bush Snr. knew them and called them “the crazies in the basement” so I assume he meant the basement of the White House. It sure looks like they are running rampant in the White House right now as well as the State Department.
Too much for me to take in at one sitting!
I always thought that the (U.S.) South being Democratic was more a product of Lincoln being a Republican than of any actual political affinity with northern Democrats. It wasn’t particularly surprising that the South went Republican later when memories of (or myths about) the Civil War had maybe faded somewhat.
As for the split between northeastern Republicans and the rest, I remember reading an interview with Nixon where he talks about his decision to go into politics. He says that he would have preferred a career in an intelligence service or the State Department, but that those weren’t open to someone with his background at the time. I have to say that he (and the rest of us) might have been better off if he’d had the career he wanted. Although looking at our presidents since, I feel a bit of nostalgia for him.
‘Although looking at our presidents since, I feel a bit of nostalgia for him.’
Who back in the early 70s would have believed such a thing and yet here we are. Incredible.
The day I realized I was nostalgic for Nixon, and could articulate numerous things he was better about than Obama, was the day my dislike for and disappointment in Barack Obama bloomed into full out hatred.
CNN says Black Friday shoppers were out in force and buy, buy, buying.
WSJ says consumers are about maxed out.
i Allegedly Dan’s ‘man on the street’ report. / ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXA67LJy7-E
(Any chance CNN is trying to drum up a bandwagon effect?)
Don’t these post Black Friday reports say the same thing every year? Hard to know what’s true.
The CNN article did say that the figures were not adjusted for inflation, so, a bit of “fun with numbers” going on. Some of the comments there said the same. When adjusted for inflation, sales were down.
Low and middle income folks defer purchases in advance of major sales like Black Friday, and Black Friday is also now the day many folks buy their Xmas gifts.
Next up we’ll get the annual “sales are down in December” stories.
Spouse and I just took advantage of the 30% off Black Friday sale to order a pair of new eyeglasses each. Such giddy excitement! Such a consumer’s rush! I think I’ll go sit down for a while to recover.
Yes they do, as do the holiday weather, traffic and “biggest crowd evah” airport reports.
The “Black Friday shoppers are out spending gobs of cash” stories were an easier sell, however, back in the day when they came with video of fist fights over flat screens.
More “nice” things wrecked by the internet…
For that kind of stuff you should just read Wolf Richter’s Wolf Street Report and ignore all the noise from the MSM
Wolf starts me as being captured by other peoples’ numbers which bear scant resemblance to reality, but it makes for bitchin’ graphs.
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Set to Be the Largest Since Deepwater Horizon OilPrice
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When ‘Mad Max Macondo’ did it’s thing the news was all over it, but how come coverage is practically non-existent on this one?
I had been wondering that myself. The only answer I can come up with is that Biden lacks the platinum get out of jail free card that Obama had when it was safe for him to waffle until something ultimately happened on its’ own. Similarly, one can see this on any number of other issues, from kids in cages to increased drilling on public lands.
The musk oxen have closed ranks around an already wounded president that has entered his second calf-hood.
I was just thinking, “news to me!” Reminds me of a post-Viet Nam posture and pact by TPTB/ Fourth Estate . No coverage, out of sight out of mind.
What tree, what forest?
Simplicius on Tom Wolfe’s Masters of the Universe, DC edition
So it’s the old Marshall Plan in reverse where we tear down Europe to keep them in opposition to Russia whereas the first time we built Europe back up to keep them in opposition to Russia. And of course if none of this works out it’s still all good since “war is the health of the state.” The health of those of us who don’t work for the state will of course never even enter into it.
The recent elections in Poland and especially the Netherlands show how weak that argument is. Then try to actually field a major NATO force in Ukraine with young Euro men and watch how long that lasts.
Goering showed how easy it is to get the populace to support war and aggression. That’s the easy part, especially in Europe, which houses the most sheeplike humans on the planet.
The problem is that Europeans also are wimps, and therefore, pathetic soldiers. You haven’t really lived until you’ve gone shooting with Europeans. They thought *I* was practically Rambo.
I hope it is not inappropriate to reference the Goering quote I believe you intend:
“Why of course the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don’t want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
― Herman Goering
And didn’t many ‘wimps’ die for French pride in the trenches at Verdun in World War I?
They did. 100 years ago.
RE: open letter to Biden
That is some pretty weak, TDS infused tea if you ask me, and I’m rather surprised Patrick Lawrence countenanced it on his substack. From the letter, towards the end –
“As I suspect you inwardly know, the inhumanity of your present conduct of American foreign policy will surely cost you the next election. I suspect you also inwardly know that by betraying your own humanity and compromising that of every American citizen, you are opening the doors to the unspeakable criminality represented by the full-blown fascism of Donald Trump.”
So is this about stopping a genocide, or once again is it all about Trump? The Biden administration has declared covid over in the middle of a pandemic based on nothing, surveilled us, censored us, jailed political prisoners with excessive sentences, refused a peace deal to foment war in Ukraine to enrich the military industrial complex, twisted the judicial system in knots to invent crimes for its opponents, and is now wholeheartedly supporting a genocide the whole world can see, and that’s just a few things from this administration of the top of my head, but it’s Trump who’s the “fascist”?!?!!?? Based on nothing more than the feels of mewling, butthurt liberals?!!!??
These are the type of people who get kicked in the face by a fascist, for their own protection of course, look up, and say, “Thank you sir, may I have another?”.
As I wrote, it is always touching to see moral arguments presented to a sociopath.
“Touching” in a sweet, sad way, like a human kitten asking the bad man to please let Mommy go.
A loaded .357 held to the bad man’s head and the sure knowledge is what will get his attention. And he doesn’t care if you are justified or not. He cares only whether you will hesitate.
They are getting the message, and the message is be afraid, very afraid. Trump is coming back, he will bring a fascist dictatorship ran by Putin and the Kremlin. They will postpone elections, make Trump president for life, attack and imprison all their political opponents, and yes, Trump will even give the go ahead for the Red Hat Trump army to shoot and kill all democrats. It will be the end of democracy and America as we know it.
Yes, they truly believe that. I have read and heard this many times. Hillary said pretty much the same thing, along with Morning Joe, Keith Olbermann, and a few other notables. That is the message and they are sticking to it.
It will only get worse in the next year because team Blue has nothing but “we are not Trump.” No matter what happens; a recession, market crash, more wars, more homeless, more crime, more evidence Biden is a compromised criminal, or whatever is bad, will be covered up and whitewashed by the media. There is only one message, and the only one that matters – Trump is Hitler. Vote Blue no matter who. And they will.
What’s sad to me is that in a nation of over 300 million citizens the best that the political machine can come up with is these two old dotards for us to fight over.
There is also the matter that what are the odds in Biden’s increasingly rare moments in lucidity, that he is going to care about what some random online journalist thinks? The rest of the world as well as much of the US citizenry is screaming at Biden to stop giving Israel the green light to do whatever it wants, and it still falls on deaf ears.
The problem is that the way the presidency is set up, presidents are largely within a bubble and insulated from any degree of consequences from their actions. In a way, the American president is almost like a king, as there is very little the citizenry can actually do to apprehend a president’s bad decisions and the president can ignore public sentiment at his leisure. The president might experience a drop in polls, which could give him electoral trouble, but if the president and his party do not care about their electoral prospects (like the DNC, apparently) or if the president is a lame duck, there is little motivation for the president to care about what the public thinks.
I wish there was some sort of referendum process for the public to legally force a sitting president to abide by the public’s wishes, but I do not think there is one, and trying to enact a measure like that now would fail, as the Executive branch would never allow its own power to be limited like that.
I don’t think the letter was really intended to move the Biden administration. Rather, I think it was meant to force a wider audience of liberal Democrats to confront the reality of this administration’s complicity in genocide. In that it was a pretty effective statement, in my opinion. Who knows how many will actually see it, but it is clear that many liberal Democrats have *not* swallowed the propaganda pumped out by the Israel Lobby and its political lackeys. This is a different situation, much different in my opinion, than the sheep-like acceptance by liberal Dems of the Establishment line with regard to Russia (and Russiagate), Syria, Libya, Ukraine, etc.
I agree with lyman on the passage he quotes; it was a sop to the intended audience of TDS-infected Democrats. But the rest of the letter was good. I think that’s why Lawrence published it in spite of that paragraph.
the public to legally force a sitting president to abide by the public’s wishes – Its called congress
I think the Congress is even less responsive to the public’s wishes than the President — unless you count the design of made to be broken campaign promises. As for the supreme court, the less said the better.
I know in some states you can recall Governors…I do not see why there has never been a similar process for recalling any sitting elected official, including House members, senators, and even the president.
An argument could be made that it would be disruptive to the process of governing, but true democracy is an inherently messy process, and if elected officials are not doing the bidding of the people that put them there, then they have no right to remain in office, especially when we have dementia-addled presidents initiating hostilities with other nations on a whim or with the authority to command nuclear strikes.
Iff we still had local political parties that solely responded to local political concerns and interests, a formal recall process might be unnecessary — at least for Congressmen — especially those facing re-election. A Congressman might take an active effort to unseat them initiated before the elections might … might … might become concerned … … … although might become concerned to lock in any prospects for ‘outside’ employment opportunities.
“the American president is almost like a king”
Because at the end of the day, despite all those grand words and documents, what the founding fathers came up with was a carbon copy of Westminster with some labels changed.
After all, initially only land owners could vote.
I wish there were some reliable way to vote NONE OF THE ABOVE and feel confident my vote would be counted and reported as an undercount. This is the most dismal election ever — dismal candidates and even more dismal prospects for the future.
A quotable paragraph indeed. Perhaps I’m just very po’d at this point in my life, scales falling from my eyes day by day, but it certainly speaks what I see and feel. May I use it? Though I fear it falls on deaf ears in places other than here.
In a setback for eastern Kern’s aerospace industry, Virgin Galactic LLC has informed county leaders it has decided to lay off 78 people from the company’s Mojave operations.
A letter the company sent to local officials Nov. 8 said the reductions — mainly among technicians, project managers and engineers at four separate addresses in Mojave — will be permanent. The county received the notice Nov. 14 but did not release it publicly until Wednesday.
The Orange County-based space tourism company did not give a reason for the layoffs in its notice, which accounted for about 42% of the people let go companywide.
https://www.bakersfield.com/news/virgin-galactic-cuts-78-jobs-in-mojave-amid-shift-to-higher-frequency-flight/article_7616fd46-8b31-11ee-b7f4-2368b84c4964.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m eager to go to space, er out in the Mojave desert where there is going to be an empty facility that in theory was gonna offer rides in space.
Happy New Year to the Hmong among us!
Now I’m hungry. Hmong families own and run most of the Thai restaurants in Minnesota and do an excellent job of it!
Zvi Mowshowitz’ substack has had excellent coverage especially in the last couple weeks.
AI #39: The Week of OpenAI
@ Craig —
Thanks for the link.
I scanned that one by Mowshowitz — only scanned, because too much other supporting material he links to to go through it all at once — then glanced at a couple of his other posts (on SBF and the UK AI convention) — and bookmarked his page.
The reason that US made cluster munitions are causing such high casualties in Gaza is because Israel is at most indifferent to civilian casualties, and at worst actively desires to kill civilians.
Contrast Russia, which continues to bend over backwards, at great cost to herself, to avoid harming noncombatants. Never mind, the West still regularly accuses Russia of genocide and whitewashes everything Israel does.
It is really interesting how much of the youth vote is going to Trump and RFK. Given how rabid RFK has shown himself to be over Israel, I find that one particularly surprising. It just looks like a gigantic upraised middle finger to the Democratic party at this point. I don’t know how you can continue to fundraise without a future, but if there is anyone that can do it it will be the DNC that can find a way.
My thirty-something kids are simply announcing/threatening they are opting out at the federal level for 2024. No more license or consent. I point out 2024 run up will be Unprecedented! Historic!!
(I leave out disheartening… protective parental hard-wire of hiding the ugly cynical world-view of Popsee)
2024 top ‘o the ticket in Montana? Promises to be analogous to the women-to-men ratio in Alaska… the odds are good, but the goods are odd…
To be fair, young people in fire engine red Montana may feel themselves justified in not voting. Montana is a safer Team R state than Texas.
In swing states, the old “you gotta vote Team D because Trump ZOMG Roe v Wade ZOMG!” rhetoric may get voters in the booth one more time. They may hate themselves in the morning, they may tell themselves “never, and I mean never again!” but Team D does not care.
Their vote counts just the same.
I live in a state that is exactly the opposite. My only advice to them is if there is a third party on the ballot whose platform they appreciate on the ballot, they should consider voting for them. It was my decision for the last three.
Undervotes say a lot, as does not showing up to vote at all, at least to people looking for those things. But they are also really easy to ignore.
The Democratic Party going all out undemocratic in getting the Green Party ballot access thrown out in so many states might not have been the reaction wanted, but it did show they felt they couldn’t ignore that slowly more and more people were voting for their candidates.
The winner doesn’t care about undervotes. Winning ugly is still winning.
Too true. They don’t have to worry about why people aren’t voting or even not just voting for them. Most of the time they don’t even have to care about losing as usually it is just one of their friendly opponents that works for the same donors. The candidate loses but the party doesn’t.
But people voting for something else that isn’t uniparty approved, something that is listed right there on every report of the vote counts because those votes have to be counted, not so much.
Well that might give people ideas.
I would urge you to tell them to always vote every chance they get. It is the one time they get to have an opinion that matters, and they should not give that up.
I decided that I would always vote FOR the candidate with the views/polices I support, and never vote for the “lesser evil”. I often get told “I’m throwing away my vote”, and I respond that I’m supporting the candidate that best supports my views, and if that means their candidate may loose, well then maybe they should support what I want. And if they then get all excited and say “You’re the reason they may lose!”, I lean into it and say damn right, I’m why they’re losing, maybe they need to do what I want.
I think you are right. Younger people are less willing to accept the obvious BS of our increasingly meaningless political theater. Ironically (as you also point out), this demographic is also much less likely to believe the Zionist propaganda justifying genocide, yet on the subject of Israel (and Iran), Trump and Kennedy are if anything worse than Biden. I guess if the only tool you have is a middle finger…
Everybody is on the juice?
I don’t enter society any more; SARS 2; I wonder if this is a thing now? A few people I know also on the Internet mentioned being on kit.
https://x.com/shawngorham/status/1728505239366762704?s=46
Mildly unrelated but I love your line “I don’t enter society any more”. Hubby and I were talking this afternoon about how important it is to slowly but steadily remove ourselves from American society (we’re in the USA). The article about how slowly the FDA is removing blindness inducing eyedrops from the shelves reinforced out conviction that eugenicists are running the joint. Keep it local and support each other while removing oneself from America.
Similar to “thirty-something kids are simply announcing/threatening they are opting out at the federal level for 2024”. Trust but verify while removing.
From Turley:
Happy birthday, Adam Smith: The invisible hand just slapped Disney
‘In its annual SEC report, Disney acknowledges that “we face risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment, travel and consumer products.” ‘
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4326247-happy-birthday-adam-smith-the-invisible-hand-just-slapped-disney/
(One could say the same about the Dem estab, imo.)
The Hill Rising:
Jeffrey Sachs on Rising: I Was a Democrat… COVID CHANGED THAT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIUelh-SAlQ
I don’t know how the existing Dem estab comes back from the B admin’s disasters, this being one of said disasters. Is Hills herself is an answer? … only in upside-down world. (Even knowing T overturned O’s ban on gain of function research, even knowing that….)
Imagine if a good many of the mortgages on homes in the USA were variable interest rate ones, such as in CANZ*?
*Canada, Australia & New Zealand
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao urges judge to let him leave the U.S. before sentencing—after the DOJ scrambles to stop him Fortune
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I’m excited to announce the launch of FlightRiskCoin, which goes up in value each time a Cryptocurrency founder tries to get out of dodge…
Meanwhile, Bitcoin has gone up to over $37k, as there is no way their imaginary money is anything like the other guy’s imaginary money.
I think you meant to say,
“I’m excited to announce the launch of FlightRiskCoin, which goes up in value each time a Cryptocurrency founder tries to get out of doge…”?
Kids being treated for viral respiratory illness in hospital hallways in Hamilton, which is about an hour away from Toronto, and part of the dense sprawl known as the Golden Horseshoe along Lake Ontario.
Archive link to Toronto Star articles entitled “Kids cared for in hallways as viral illness overflows ER at McMaster Children’s Hospital”: https://archive.is/Njkhj
A brief summary for those who struggle accessing archived articles:
McMaster Children’s Hospital is struggling to deal with a significant rise in admissions for flu, RSV and Covid this week with expectations of it continuing for many more. This, despite an “infusion of provincial and federal cash to shore up McMaster’s emergency department, intensive care unit, in-patient beds, surgery, rehabilitation and outpatient care to avoid a crisis like last year when a surge of viral respiratory illness caused record overcrowding from October 2022 to January 2023.” A general staff shortage is being exacerbated by nurses and doctors missing because they too are being infected with viral respiratory illnesses.
Nothing about hand washing, so hurray? But also nothing about masking.
The article ends with a plea for people, including children, to get their flu and Covid shots to reduce the risk of severe illness. (Fortunately, because of creeping privatization of healthcare, people can now get their shots from pharmacies. Huzzah!) Also a plea for people visiting emergency rooms to be understanding and not take it out on staff. (Which is fair, since we should definitely be focusing the ire on the ghouls running the province.)
Bowie’s handwritten lyrics could sell at auction for £100,000
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-67529751
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Funny how recorded music isn’t worth anything, but a 51 year old scribble on a legal pad is all that!
From: Pluralistic: The moral injury of having your work enshittified (25 Nov 2023)
So at Google, you get an ominous, dark red badge if you’re a contractor. You don’t get invited/aren’t allowed to any of the company meetings or events. At the time I was there, you could partake in the meals for tech gods, in the various cafeterias. It’s a sight to behold. If you’re a millionaire, you might have your own chef. This is like being a billionaire, a little, because at Google in Cambridge/Boston they’d have a dozen unique meals prepared for lunch daily, plus a full breakfast bar and omelet station (popular). They also had a custom grilling station, whatever you want, plus salad bar, multiple dessert stations, sandwich bar. (Yes, I gained 15 pounds.) Upstairs was an entire noodle bar they built; downstairs they had the Mexican cantina. All different Mexican, daily. All free. Every floor had a snack station, as well, drink coolers on every floor. And a self service ice cream bar.
At the HQ in CA, I hear they also had dinner, nightly, as well. And several more cafeterias, bigger, than Cambridge.
All brought to you by monopoly dollars.
From Do Young Voters Actually Prefer Trump to Biden?
But seriously, mass infection without mitigation is part and parcel with Bidenomics; it’s stochastic eugenics. This economy, however “great” it may or may not be, is brought to you by increasing mass disability and death. And you can’t forget the largest increase in childhood poverty in history under Biden and the Democrats, by refusing to extent and make permanent material benefits provided during the initial stages of the Pandemic. This was an easy win. Make the Republicans vote for poverty. Instead, Democrats let it expire. Of course.
Biden’s legacy on the economy is one of privation and death, given if it’s big a boost to the top 10%. (And these are liberal Democrat base voters, after all!)
“Bidenomics” is basically the current-year rebranding of Reaganomics that has been going on since the dawn of the neoliberal era. Bidenomics has done nothing substantial to ameliorate corporate-caused “greedflation” and did not balk at the Fed’s continual raising of interest rates to punish labor. Our economy is still largely based on military-Keynesianism as seen with the whole Ukraine proxy war that we are funding, and Biden is basically opening the coffers and weapons stockpiles to Israel as it gleefully eggs on Netanyahu’s extermination campaign against the Palestinians no matter how many people protest.
Biden might be going down in flames electorally, but neither Biden nor the DNC care as it will not hamper their ability to fundraise off of Trump-Derangement syndrome even if they lose in 2024.
Clouded leopards face alarming decline amid ‘genetic crisis,’ study warns
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/clouded-leopards-face-alarming-decline-amid-genetic-crisis-study-warns/
Vermont shooting injures three men of Palestinian descent — victims are college students at Brown, Haverford, and Trinity
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=palestinian+students+shot+burlington+vermont
File under big brother dreams. From Austria about proposed car insurance changes in the EU. I don’t know if this is solid information, if it’s real but not as described, or just a dream from some car insurance company’s financial committee’s hopes, or if someone is overreacting to a simple change. Maybe someone knows what this is talking about.
Very concerning message!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CNli3UekTk
Car review of the new Ford Mustang.
Ford Mustang 2024 , It’s A Great Car, But….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb3jGLXw5og
My favorite part of this propaganda is that anyone opposed to the ethnic cleansing ( Mass Murder) taking place in Gaza is anti Semitic.
I wonder how I’d explain that to a six year old?
“Palestinians aren’t, you know, REAL Semites, they are HUMAN ANIMALS!!! “.
Perhaps some of the more moderate Ultra’s will balk at the waste and start selling some of the kids ( There’s a lot of competition from Ukraine and prices are down) or even feeding them up to the point their organs are worth harvesting.
Frugality is a virtue and I can think of a lot of Western Elites that could use a heart.
For those that are appalled by Slavery, you call it something like the “Prison Industrial Complex” and everything will be cool.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/covid-linked-to-deadly-diseases-parkinsons-alzheimers-bowel-disease/news-story/91d03ac183a8b6718f3b3e267a4e0fd4
Covid linked to deadly diseases, Parkinsons, Alzheimers, bowel disease
As Australia enters its eighth Covid wave, alarming new research suggests catching the virus could have long-term health implications.
Dated 11/26/2023
We’ve only been talking about that here on NC now for about what, three years? That article could easily have been written a year ago but the media keeps on dancing around the long term effects of a Covid infection. And when enough people are suffering the effects of a long term illness because they got infected by Covid, they will come out with articles saying who could have known that this was the effect of letting a respiratory infection running free and who knew that herd immunity was impossible. Our media here isn’t worth a pinch of poop.
Great speculation on what OpenAI accomplished here (YouTube)… in short, Large Language Models like Chat GPT can imitate human language, but are terrible at eg. mathematics, because they are incapable of reasoning as there is no provision in their programming for unrealized possibilities (it can’t speculate, or create, only imitate what it has already seen).
Their new model dubbed Q* can allegedly do mathematical reasoning; which is a gross understatement of what that capability introduces.
The video relies heavily on a Reddit leak, but uses real studies to mark the trajectory of research. The conclusions are shocking if true.
Via Caitlin–Hollywood and the lockstep trades go after pro Palestinian actors and agents via smears and outright firings.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/23/ptwk-n23.html
Not that we should ever pretend that an industry once dominated by rightwing moguls like Louis B. Mayer and rightwing gossip columnists was ever out of step with that earlier McCarthyism. What has changed is that Hollywood as a force in American life is shrinking like a punctured balloon due to plutocrats and their finance driven version of entertainment.
I knew Hollywood was finished a coupla years ago when they gave an Academy award Oscar to an Al Qaeda PR unit aka “the White Helmets”. So in a way I take satisfaction in seeing Hollywood films one after another suffer crippling financial losses upon release because they refuse to make films that people actually want to see. Then again, isn’t Hollywood itslef a sort of grand PR unit that is propagandizing their own set of values, even if they do not align with that of most people?
I think Hollywood’s politics weather vane with the times but in recent times they are highly aligned with the Democratic party. If the Democrats change they may as well.
But firing people for thought crimes is an ugly business and should be put under the spotlight. I’ve read that a United Airlines pilot was also just fired for something he put on social media.
Celebrating more of Obamacare’s great success:
No one’s promising you can keep your doctor anymore
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/26/future-of-primary-care-family-medicine-00128547
I don’t know whether this has already been posted by someone, but I think people should read some of the comments by various CEO’s on company profits.
A Senate SPECIAL REPORT ON GREEDFLATION. HOW CORPORATIONS ARE MAKING RECORD PROFITS ON THE BACKS OF AMERICAN FAMILIES.
https://www.casey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/greedflation1.pdf
Google AI says moon landing photos are fake LOL
https://twitter.com/HuXijin_GT/status/1728434287689773246
What will they think of next?
How your DNA is being used against you
The CDC’s Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance Program isn’t about health & safety, it’s about feeding your DNA to the Vast Machine.
https://off-guardian.org/2023/11/25/how-your-dna-is-being-used-against-you/