Are You Bullish or Bearish in 2024? Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture
Stephanie Kelton: ‘Inflation has come down in spite of the Fed, not because of it’ FT
Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-January 2024 Calculated Risk
US claims huge portion of the ocean floor, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic InfoBrics
Water
Colorado rivers may shrink by 30% as climate change continues, report says Colorado Sun
#COVID19
SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 enters lung cells and evades neutralizing antibodies with high efficiency and Immune evasion, infectivity, and fusogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 and FLip variants Cell (GM). GM writes:
The second one was a preprint back in September or so, and it showed that BA.2.86 enter CaLu cells (i.e. a lung cell line) much more efficiently than any regular Omicron (though not quite at B.1 and other first-generation variants levels).
The first one was never put out as a preprint, but it now shows this much more extensively. And it identifies some of the likely mutatons responsible, in particular S50L and K356T.
Curiously, those are some of the numerous reversions to the SARS-1 state observed in BA.2.86:
Worth noting that SARS-CoV-1 & Bat-CoVs have H49Y, S50L, and T572F, which might also result in stronger nonpolar interactions there. This would be consistent with JN.1’s remarkable trend back toward SARS-CoV-1/Bat-CoV residues. pic.twitter.com/ifCv2SeHSj
— Ryan Hisner (@LongDesertTrain) January 7, 2024
So in short, it doesn’t look good.
Is It Dangerous to Keep Getting COVID-19? Time. Throwing a flag on the Betteridge’s Law violation.
Ex-teachers begged to return to classrooms as teacher shortage rips through NSW News.com. Maybe ventilate their classrooms so they’re not constantly inhaling a brain-damaging Level 3 Biohazard? Just a thought. (AFAIK, there’s no reporting on this, but I would imagine that Covid-conscious teachers have disproportionately left the field, and that the same dynamic applies with HCWs, leaving students and patients to the tender mercies of the Let-Me-See-Your-Smilers.)
With COVID on the rise, your at-home test may be taking longer to show a positive result LA Times
China?
‘People don’t want to talk about war’: Taiwan civil defence battles invasion risk denial France24
Why is a unified national market now so vital for Beijing’s policymakers? South China Morning Post
US, China conclude two days of military talks in Washington Channel News Asia
The US reportedly believes China fills missiles with water instead of fuel. Is that plausible? Channel News Asia
Indonesia: Local School Sows the Seeds of Food Wisdom Cambodianess
Japan
Gods Old and New: Different Types of Japanese Deities Nippon
Can the spread of war be stopped? David Ignatius, WaPo. From January 4, still germane. Spook pool boi speaks:
The biggest national security question for 2024 and beyond is how to craft new mechanisms that would actually combat the spread of war….
Putin is wrong about most things. But there was an element of truth in his 2015 address to the United Nations about the effects of U.S. intervention in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt: “Rather than bringing about reforms, an aggressive foreign interference has resulted in a brazen destruction of national institutions and the lifestyle itself. Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social disaster.”
Syraqistan
Brazil Backs South Africa in Taking Israel to International Court Over Palestinian Genocide Brasil 24/7
In Israel, politicians are allowed to talk about genocide only if they support it (email) Haaretz Today
South Africa’s genocide case against Israel lays bare Europe’s feeble power Politico
Israel’s Violations of International Humanitarian Law Crimes by Israel. Endorsement:
I have been made aware of a detailed record of Israel's violations of International Humanitarian Law since Oct. 7th. It takes the form of a detailed and well-researched list that includes sources and is kept up to date. https://t.co/RQzJQ7L0Yc
— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) January 11, 2024
* * * Red Sea Crisis: Houthis Demonstrate Increased Capability, Coalition Demonstrates Increased Presence Naval News
Greyhound Day: World War II Combat Tactics Return To The Red Sea gCaptain. Very detailed.
The Red Sea attacks are throwing supply chains into chaos — but US oil exports appear to be benefiting from them Business Insider
UN Security Council demands Houthis stop Red Sea shipping attacks Al Jazeera
* * * Autochthonous Wars Yasha Levine, Weaponized Immigrant. Commentary:
ISRAELI ACTIONS IMPLEMENTED IN BATH UK pic.twitter.com/l8RHCkiY6M
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) January 7, 2024
The Clash Over a Secret Tunnel Under a Synagogue on Eastern Parkway Curbed
European Disunion
Spain makes masks mandatory in healthcare settings amid surge in flu, COVID Anadolu Agency
Poland’s populists slam ‘political’ arrests as ex-officials launch hunger strikes France24
Dear Old Blighty
UK unveils plans for nuclear power expansion in bid to boost energy independence France24
New Not-So-Cold War
Is a Leading Ukraine Skeptic Influencing White House Policy? Kviv Post. “Samuel Charap, an influential proponent of Kyiv-Moscow negotiations, who has long been skeptical of Ukraine’s ability to win the war, evidently has an in with the White House.” Charap is from RAND.
Ukraine Has a Pathway to Victory Foreign Policy. Zaluzhny’s view.
Kremlin says Russia sees no progress in peace process around Ukraine war Anadolu Agency
What Could Tip the Balance in the War in Ukraine? The New Yorker. The deck: “In 2024, the most decisive fight may also be the least visible: Russia and Ukraine will spend the next twelve months in a race to reconstitute and resupply their forces.” IMNSHO, Ukraine has one (1) Zelensky Unit to go, and I don’t think it’s going to take twelve months to chew up the final army Ukraine is able to field.
US Set to Push Zelenskiy at Davos for Clearer War Plan Bloomberg. Davos again? How time flies.
South of the Border
Slow Motion Lulismo New Left Review
Mexico Overtakes China as Top U.S. Exporter – First Time in 17 Years Gang-Nam Times
2024
Democrats Can’t Keep Ignoring Covid in 2024 The New Republic. Yes, they can.
The Supremes
Government power, from federal agencies to counties, highlights January session SCOTUSblog
The Conservative Legal Movement’s Latest, Wildest Attack on Government As We Know It Balls and Strikes. Loper Bright v. Raimondo and a related case, Relentless v. Department of Commerce.
B-a-a-a-d Banks
The Fed Launched a Bank Rescue Program Last Year. Now, Banks Are Gaming It. Wall Street Journal
Boeing
Alaska Airlines Blowout Reveals Cockpit Door Vulnerability on Boeing Jet WSJ. Boeing’s “open door” policy:
After an emergency exit-sized hole opened in the side of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 at 16,000 feet, a separate chaotic episode erupted when the cockpit door mysteriously flew open.
That meant the pilots were subjected to the deafening wind and noise from the back of the plane—and also made the cockpit accessible to anyone inclined to try to force their way in.
What the flight crew didn’t know at the time, federal investigators said Monday, was that it was supposed to happen that way. Boeing had designed the cockpit door to open during a rapid decompression incident, they said. The company just hadn’t said so in the manual.
So Boeing’s tech doc is hosed, too? Interesting.
The Boeing 737 MAX and The Crash Of Capitalism Indi.ca. Commentary:
Make fun of Harvard all you want but the catastrophe at Boeing is so much more serious and the arsonists in charge of that company still haven’t been fired.
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) January 7, 2024
Alaska Airlines offers passengers $1,500 after mid-air door plug blowout Daily News
From the Archives: Gregory Travis and Marshall Auerback: Anatomy of a Disaster – Why Boeing Should Never Make Another Airplane, Again Naked Capitalism (2019).
The Bezzle
SEC approves first spot bitcoin ETFs in boost to crypto advocates FT
Digital Watch
Top large language models struggle to make accurate legal arguments The Register
Sports Desk
The Foreign Golf Simulator That’s Going to Take Over America Inside Hook
Zeitgeist Watch
Arguing Alone: On Alexandra Hudson’s “The Soul of Civility” Los Angeles Review of Books
Supply Chain
Extreme weather tops list of possible logistics disruptions in 2024 forecast DC Velocity
Hedge funds take on private equity in battle for distressed companies FT. Godzilla vs. Mothra
Healthcare
Changes in Hospital Adverse Events and Patient Outcomes Associated With Private Equity Acquisition (abstract) JAMA. From the Abstract: “Private equity acquisition was associated with increased hospital-acquired adverse events, including falls and central line–associated bloodstream infections, along with a larger but less statistically precise increase in surgical site infections. Shifts in patient mix toward younger and fewer dually eligible beneficiaries admitted and increased transfers to other hospitals may explain the small decrease in in-hospital mortality at private equity hospitals relative to the control hospitals, which was no longer evident 30 days after discharge. These findings heighten concerns about the implications of private equity on health care delivery.”
Imperial Collapse Watch
Minuteman III Missiles Are Too Old to Upgrade Anymore, STRATCOM Chief Says Military.com
The Language of Astronomy Is Needlessly Violent and Inaccurate Scientific American
This holographic camera turns any window into an invisible camera Digital Camera World
The Guardian view on archaeology and writing: the world-building power of small thought Guardian
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote:
— trailcam (@Trail_Cams) December 24, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
182 comments
Comments are closed.
BOYCOTT DIVEST AND SANCTION
(melody borrowed from Take Me Out To The Ball Game as sung by Edward Meeker in 1908)
Israel only has one true friend
Washington and the bombs they send
Courtesy of the White House crew
Then there’s me. And there’s you.
Every soul in the USA
Has a choice we must make today
Will you watch this apartheid grow
Or stand up and tell them no?
Boycott, Divest, and Sanction!
Genocide isn’t allowed
Israel is a pariah state
For ethnic cleansing we won’t tolerate
We must end the Zionist pipe dream
We can’t play Israel’s game
Choose apartheid or choose BDS
And then sign your name!
Israel’s doing a genocide
Palestine has been occupied
Human rights are not guaranteed
Though you beg or you plead
Each American has a choice
Has a vote and we have a voice
Tell our government they are wrong
And we aren’t gonna go along!
Boycott, Divest, and Sanction!
Genocide isn’t allowed
Israel is a pariah state
For ethnic cleansing we won’t tolerate
We must end the Zionist pipe dream
We can’t play Israel’s game
Choose apartheid or choose BDS
And then sign your name!
Thank you for this, Antifa. I hope you don’t mind if I borrow it and send it along to my very comfortable, brunching, democrat friends, with proper attribution of course.
Those friends sit with their fingers in their ears while the genocide proceeds in Gaza, singing “la, la, la, I can’t hear you” when I point out their savior, Joe Biden (and his handlers) is largely responsible for the continued slaughter. For them, Donald Trump is the bigger issue. Who will save the Palestinians from the Democrats?
I’ve gotten to the point that I am strongly considering cutting these “friends” from my circle, which pretty much will leave me with my dog, cat, and chickens.
Probably better off with that. You’ll get unconditional love from your dog ( plus a protector and loyal companion) and cat, from the chickens some eggs for cooking and the yard cleaned up of some pests and insects if they are free range…
Honestly a win all around in some ways.
I agree, Randall. Thanks for the input.
You do what you need to do in these times. I want to hear this old American tune sung at protests, during the seventh inning at every baseball game, including Little League, and anywhere else people can get together. Pass it along!
Thank you!
An old friend and I have been estranged for two years over the Russia/ Ukraine war, only to find out lately that we are vehemently on the same, Palestinian, side regarding Gaza. Life …
#TYVM
David Ignatius: “Putin is wrong about most things”.
I take it he did not actually list the things Putin has got wrong. I can only think of one in particular: initially thinking the US would accept Russia as anything but its much needed foe for the sake of its military industrial complex.
In a sense, David Ignatius may be correct here. Putin was operating under false assumptions so he was wrong about several things. Such as-
– You can actually negotiate with the West.
– They will follow negotiated agreements, especially with the stamp of the UN on it.
– Minsk 2 was actually about achieving peace in this region.
– The west is not seeking to turn the Russian Federation into a chop-shop operation.
– When the west runs out of weapons and money to send to the Ukraine, then they will settle down to serious negotiations.
– When western nations finally destroy their economies through sanctions blowback, then they will change course.
Yeah, Putin was wrong about so many things.
Agreed, but ultimately is is about the US need for an enemy to justify its ridiculous spending on military things. Everything else flows from that.
Curses, Foiled Again! Next up? China (Taiwan). We have Venezuela and Cuba to round out the batting odor.
Xi told Putin the same over tea while visiting Moscow last year: Your only mistake was in ever trusting the West.
Everyone outside the axis groks this very much.
i had a similar reaction. Surely he’s been right more than he’s been wrong? writing that was just a mandatory piety anyone expressing anything positive about Putin must do to not be banished from polite Liberal society.
Well, yes, but from the Russian point of view, his point of view.
Foreign leaders are supposed to be like Baerbock and Schultz, see things from The Blob point of view.
To say Putin is right about more than the single thing Ignatius now allows is to be a “Putin lover”!
exactly, that’s why he had to caveat it. his social credit score would go down
Funny, there’s no mention of the Iraq War in 2003. Unlike Robert Mueller, Putin got it right:
The Guardian reported on October 12, 2002 that, “Vladimir Putin yesterday rejected Anglo-American claims that Saddam Hussein already possesses weapons of mass destruction”.
[ https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/oct/12/russia.politics ]
I wonder what Ignatius was saying at the time? That was kind of a big deal.
“Alaska Airlines Blowout Reveals Cockpit Door Vulnerability on Boeing Jet” WSJ
‘Boeing had designed the cockpit door to open during a rapid decompression incident, they said. The company just hadn’t said so in the manual.’
Well that is a jaw dropper of a revelation that. Why would they want the cockpit door to fly open in case of a decompression. To what purpose? If the voice transcripts had survived, I can only imagine what the pilots would have said about that at the time. Fortunate for some that they got recorded over. But here is the thing. Boeing never mentioned this in their manual. But if you recall, there was no mention in the pilot’s flight manuals of the MCAS system which crashed two passenger jets a coupla years ago. They were there originally but Boeing asked for them to be removed which the FAA agreed. So now we learn of another thing that was not mentioned in the flight manual which had an effect on flight operations. Makes you wonder what else is not mentioned in the flight manual for a Boeing 737 MAX. I am sure that pilot’s would like to know.
Note – I’m a bit of an AV Geek but not a certified pilot.
A YouTube channel I occasionally watch (blancolirio) that does aircraft accident analysis has been posting a few videos about this incident. In last night’s video, the host (who states he is a commercial pilot) mentioned that there are supposed to be “blow out panels” in the cockpit door that open up in the event of a rapid depressurization to keep the pressure in the aircraft body equalized. He mentioned that it is important to have the same pressure in the cockpit and the passenger area, but didn’t delve deeper into the why.
He did mention the same concern – if Boeing “forgot” to put that into the flight manual much like the MCAS, what else didn’t they put in there in an effort to avoid recertifications for the pilots who already have a 737 type certificate?
This issue was brought up during the MCAS debacle. The costs of simulators/time and “unproductive” pilot time was considered to make recertification unnecessary.
In the end the MAX line exist basically because Boeing has been losing customers to Airbus thanks to the A320 series.
But in order to keep up, the MAX no longer behaves like a 737 during flight.
Juan Browne is indeed an airline pilot. I’ve flown with him on the the B777. His abilities and analysis are top notch.
The NC commentariat is everywhere all the time.
Would love to see the Venn diagram of experts that visit this site.
Blow-out PANELS in a cockpit door make sense: equalize pressure, but keep cockpit secure from intruders. I really doubt the DOOR was designed to blow out, but with Boeing anything is possible. We should be told!
Cheaper to implement? Sounds good to me.
Seems to me the blowout “panel” concept failed, inducing a full-on door blowout. (Was the operating manual secrecy an intent to keep “terrorists” from learning a new way to down aircraft?)
The aluminum tube (shell, or skin) in which the passengers/pilots sit faces either no pressure differential (on the ground) or uniform internal pressure during flight. If the passenger cabin is depressurized (internal and external pressure equalized) but the cockpit remains internally pressurized there is a moment and resulting additional stress in the tube at the bulkhead. It may be that this stress was never designed for and may result in total tube stress exceeding what the tube can withstand. Gross tube failure would not be desirable.
Smaller holes in the door or bulkhead might not be adequate to sufficiently match the rate of depressurization through the plug, even though the cockpit volume is much smaller than pass cabin volume.
(Sung to the tune of, “Simply Irresistible” by Robert Palmer)
Simply Incorrigible
How can it be permissible?
No aviation principles
(Yeah yeah)
Quality control is mythical
For clown world, they’re quite typical
There ain’t no recourse
For their lobbying force
You’re obliged to say prayers
When the plane veers off course
They used to be engineers
But now I find them
Simply incorrigible 2x
The planes they are so crashable
It’s simply unavoidable
The trend is irreversible
Cause markets are invincible
They break black-letter law, as you get sucked out the door,
They deserve no applause, you’re rendered sky-kill because
They used to be engineers
But now I find them
Simply incorrigible 2x
Might get fined, but Congress pockets where the money went
Profits rise, there’s no safety regs to show
It’s unavoidable, no, Mayor Pete won’t call
Their planes shed engine parts and go into a stall
I’m bringing parachutes, they’re breaking every law
They used to make good planes but now I find them …
Simply incorrigible 2x
They’ll get fined, but there’s no prospect of a jury trial
Profits rise, there’s no safety regs to show
(Guitar solo)
Their methods are inscrutable
The proof is irrefutable
No courtroom they’ll be perp-walked to
Airbus is looking better, too
There ain’t no recourse
For their lobbying force
You’re obliged to say prayers
When the plane veers off course
They used to be engineers
But now I find them …
Simply incorrigible 2x
They’ll get fined, but there’s no prospect of a jury trial
Profits rise, there’s no safety regs to show
Simply incorrigible!
Noice!
“However, it seems that not just Boeing but the 737 MAX will never go out of business, but that doesn’t make the risk disappear. It just accumulated upwards. The problem simply moves from the scale of a bad door, to a bad company, to a bad nation, to a bad Empire. The United States keeps having and bailing out bad company after bad company and all of that risk keeps piling up on the national balance sheet. They can keep doing this as long as the rest of their White Empire keeps paying tribute (called buying treasuries), but Boeing also makes sh#&*ty military equipment and the Empire itself is crumbling all over.
At some point, the deficits will add up, the debts will come due, and America and its whole White Empire will undergo what engineers called ‘Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly.’”
Like I have said before–It’s hard to run an empire with neoliberalism as your operating system
Just came across this bit of info.
There’s a smart wrench being used in manufacturing, don’t know about Boeing…
It’s network-connected, and can be hacked.
The article high-lights the danger of a ransomware attack, but the torque settings can also be set through a web interface.
I’m not sure I like important things being assembled using network connected ‘smart tools’.
It’s like they are pretending the pilots aren’t there.
“Well that is a jaw dropper of a revelation that”
Don’t see it that way at all. Obviously the partition between cockpit and cabin isn’t designed as a pressure vessel. I’m not sure blowing a hole in the side of the cabin in order to breech the cockpit door is a significant threat.
As far as “manuals”, having been responsible for producing them in the USN, you have manual “experts” on writing and organizing material. They rely on “SMEs” (subject matter experts) who tend to be a mix of operators and engineers. The operators tended to come from the “school house” as training is always the first place manuals get used. There is always discussion/debate about what needs to be in the “manual”. In the end it is a matter of judgement that can always be second-guessed.
Ukraine Has [an Imaginary] Pathway to Victory
“Ukraine’s advanced air defenses […] are regularly shooting down the majority of Russian missiles and drones destined for Ukrainian targets. “
* * * *
“If Ukraine can achieve the momentum in the ground war that evaded it during its failed summer offensive, Kyiv will have a real pathway to victory. That pathway will run through Ukraine’s demonstrated prowess at sea and in the air, joined to an embrace of a sophisticated combination of techniques on the ground. It will be a pathway to victory not only for Ukraine, but also for the United States and its allies.”
Yeah, that’s a problem for the notion of a glorious Ukrainian victory. The author is living in a world of make-believe.
That’s not the point. The point is that The West is nowhere near done doubling down, and each time they double down, Th Sunk Cost Fallacy prevents them from negotiating.
This is entirely intentional.
Such a waste of magical thinking, giving it a bad name for no reason at all. If I had that kind of magic that Zaluzhny used to form those words, I’d have written: “It’s over, folks. Ukraine has defeated Russia. I am giving notice of my retirement and departure to an undisclosed mansion in a global southern location, on this glorious day of triumph for Ukraine. May God bless you all.” As in declare victory and leave.
It’s Zelensky that has to worry about doing a Trotsky and having a mountaineering ice axe buried in his head but I’m sure his widow will have no problem finding another partner. Hey, is there a Mrs. Valerii Zaluzhnyi by any chance?
Likely a pitch for mo’ money from stalled out DC sausage-making clowns:
“But wait, there’s more! For only $61B we’ll throw in a glorious ’24 counter-offensive, guaranteed not to fail like last time!”
Interesting that alt-media has portrayed Zaluzhnyi as more amenable to negotiations.
Whether he is fact is or not, Zaluzhnyi knows what his American Masters want to hear.
Russia needs to stop kidding themselves. Victory will not fall into their lap. They will have to take it, and the West (Ukraine does not count) will not give that victory up easily.
Where/when has Russia indicated they expect victory to fall into their lap?
Rather than calalogue Russian failures and red lines ignored, I will simply say that Russia has refused to act decisively, going back even before the war started, to the obvious sham of the Minsk Agreement.
This appears to be a variant of “trust me bro” as opposed to providing valid evidence.
I’m sure you are aware that some of these “failures” (which I’m forced to guess at since you didn’t list any) were on purpose to garner more support worldwide.
This is not a binary situation, and Putin doesn’t play checkers.
And what, precisely, does “more support worldwide” give him?
“Can the spread of war be stopped?” David Ignatius WaPo
I don’t think that some vague “new mechanisms” need to be created to stop wars. Wars end when the checks stop clearing. And alot of the BS interventions would never be on any ones radar if players involved didn’t think there would be personal rewards from the conflict.
Everything needed to stop war already exists.
Yes, the mechanism that will end war does exist, Global Warming/Climate Catastrophe. Countries will have to bring the boys home to fight fires, deal with energy collapse, move housing and industry, etc. etc. etc. It will be a growth industry and war will be a waste of time and energy. Can’t make plans if the war room is on fire and the big board computer has crashed.
“…Countries will have to bring the boys home to fight fires, deal with energy collapse, move housing and industry, etc. etc…”
There have been articles that the renewable energy isn’t bringing in the same kind of profits. Yeah, the industry can grow, employ workers, etc, but are the war profiteers giving up war for less profit? In the case of possible scarcity of reources due to a climate event, I wouldn’t assume the Masters of Disasters are going to actually feel any more concern for citizen cannon fodder. That could also be the que to continue to ramp up war for resource grabs. In their system, it’s only a few whose needs are worthy of being met. Mass suffering hasn’t ever ended wars.
War is already a waste of time and energy…and here we are…still trying to stamp out the embers of WWI.
So if “the boys” want to take care of home instead of going to war, they need to stay home in the first place.
Or they as soldiers will have to be the ones to decide for themselves and do what is necessary to back and take care of “home” .
Can someone provide an archived, non-paywalled version of the Stephanie Kelton article at FT on inflation and monetary policy? Thank you.
http://archive.today/2024.01.11-122457/https://www.ft.com/content/5a7297a0-7ee9-4be0-882b-617d8d9b0cef
bwilli123 : Thanks for “googling that for me” ; )
Aaron: 1) click on the link, 2) click on the address bar, 3) press ctrl+c, 4) type “archive.is” into the address bar, 5) press ctrl+v takes about 3 seconds, maybe a quarter of the time it took you to type out your comment. Just sayin….
Matt Taibbi’s latest. The Orfalea video at the top is great.
Orf vs. the Memory Hole: The Heartless Shaming Campaigns of Covid-19
https://www.racket.news/p/orf-vs-the-memory-hole-anthony-faucis
an aside: It’s kind of hilarious that Paul Craig Roberts compares Fauci to Lysenko.
From the full article:
We then got the famed Jimmy Kimmel take on E.R. triage in the Covid age: “Vaccinated person having a heart attack? Yes, come right in. Unvaccinated guy? Rest in peace, wheezy.” What the f*ck! Doctors never even took that attitude toward people who plopped into emergency rooms with ancient cases of untreated diabetes or Fentanyl ODs or any of a thousand other fixable medical problems. It still would have been a moral outrage to turn away such people, but the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” was worse: a state-sponsored cruelty campaign ungrounded in fact, for which no one has ever apologized. They want us to just forget it.
Saying “I don’t recall” is a way to avoid a perjury charge. Would someone be good enough to remind me, are “Noble Lies” perjury?
“Would someone be good enough to remind me, are “Noble Lies” perjury?”
No, when the speaker says what the establishment wants to hear, then it isn’t perjury. Witness Clapper or Ken Griffin.
But when the speaker says unpopular truths, every word must be parsed and a falsehood found somehow.
Hunter’s for sale or rent
Bound to get, 5 million Cents
No outward laptop regrets
He gets a deal on reservation cigarettes
Ah, but, two hours of pushin’ Ukrainian oil boom
Buys an eight by twelve West Wing room
He’s a man of means by no means
King of the road
First Son, daddy trained
Destination: the Ukraine
Old, worn out addiction and blues
He don’t pay no rehab dues
He keeps gotten gains he has found
Short, digital entries not too big around
He’s a man of means by no means
King of the road
Joe knew every engineer on every Amtrak train
All of their children, and all of their names
And every stop in every town
Every influence peddling possibility, that could be found
I sing, Hunter’s for sale or rent
Bound to get, 5 million Cents
No outward laptop regrets
He gets a deal on reservation cigarettes
Ah, but, two hours of pushin’ Ukrainian oil boom
Buys an eight by twelve West Wing room
He’s a man of means by no means
King of the road
King of the Road, by Roger Miller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvFMH3QWQcw
Absolutely fascinating and important:
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1745297976409620837
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
I find this explanation of the Chinese system by Prof Keyu Jin (in a recent lecture at Harvard’s Fairbank center * ) absolutely fascinating.
Keyu Jin is a professor of economics at LSE (London School of Economics) and serves on the board of companies like Credit Suisse. She’s also the daughter of Jin Liqun, former Vice Minister of finance of China so she’s a rare West-based academic (maybe even the only one) who actually has insight into the Chinese system from the inside.
Essentially what she’s explaining is that a key reason why China was so successful economically is because of its decentralized nature, which creates two mutually compounding loops of competition, as opposed to one loop in the West.
What does that mean? Well, contrary to popular belief that imagines China as being this centrally planned economy where almost everything is decided in Beijing, the inverse is actually true: China is actually one of the most decentralized countries in the world. To illustrate this, a metric that’s always amazed me is the fact that in China local governments (provinces, cities, villages, etc.) control a crazy 85% of the country’s expenditures. On average that same metric for OECD countries ** is 33% (as in 64% of the expenditures are controlled at the federal/national level to China’s 15%). In the US for instance, which is already more decentralized than most given it’s a federation with states, only 45% of the country’s expenditures happen at the state and local level: almost twice less than in China!
The effect of this, as Keyu Jin explains, is that provinces and larger municipalities in China have an immense degree of autonomy over the way they run their respective economies and fiercely compete with each other. This is the first loop. And then of course the second loop is that you have companies competing with each other in the market.
As a result what constantly evolves in China is not only companies themselves but the environment in which they evolve: you constantly have this or that province running a new policy that proves very effective, making them gain an advantage vs other localities, initiative which is then copied by other localities. This makes the economic environment incredibly dynamic as it allows the state to move in unison with the economy, as opposed to slowing it down as is often the case in other countries.
So what’s the role of the central government in all this? The key role, Keyu Jin argues, is setting broad objectives as well as personal management and promotion. And this is what makes the whole system work as therein lies the incentive for localities to compete with each other: because local officials know that if they do a better job than their peers, they’re on track for promotion by the central government. In “China Inc”, the central government is the board of directors and HR, presiding over an army of local CEOs with immense degrees of autonomy over their own “companies”…
* https://twitter.com/i/status/1745297976409620837
** Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
11:13 PM · Jan 10, 2024
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1745297976409620837
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
Keyu Jin gives the example of the solar industry. There was at some point (around 2005) a directive by the central government to develop the solar industry. The graph she shares in her talk is incredible: within a few years you had solar companies as well as patents related to research on solar technology pop up literally everywhere in China. With the result we all know about today: China today completely dominates the solar industry and solar technology (according to the International Energy Agency, China’s share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels exceeds 80%).
As she explains, this makes the Chinese system somewhat paradoxical as it is at the same time incredibly decentralized but also incredibly effective at mobilizing the country for centrally-decided objectives, in fact she goes as far as comparing this effectiveness to the country being in a constant state of “wartime mobilization”. An interesting comparison would be if you had all the countries in North America, the European Union and North Africa (altogether roughly the population of China) all united under a common leadership deciding on common objectives and on the career path of all these countries’ officials, based on how well they achieve these objectives in their respective countries.
We’re seeing this system being mobilized in its full strength today on leading edge semiconductors after US sanctions, and this is why these sanctions will undoubtedly ultimately prove so self-defeating: once the Chinese “wartime mobilization” machine is given an objective – and you can be sure this objective is prioritized very highly – the fight is essentially over, you can consider it done. Once you have hundreds of thousands of PhDs, companies and officials all at the same time competing and working within the same broad “China Inc” roof to make something happen, it will ultimately get done. If you want China NOT to develop a technology, the very last thing you want is to make them mobilize the full strength of the machine on it. With the sanctions the U.S. effectively told China: “please we beg you, do dedicate your formidable economic mobilization power to becoming a semiconductors powerhouse as fast as possible”
Another particularity of the system that Keyu Jin highlights – and I’ll end on this – is that this system also allows China to “allocate losses to certain groups of people, interest groups and sectors” in order to “enact system-level changes”, something she says is “very difficult for other governments with more political constraints to do”. For instance we’re seeing this play out in real-time with the real-estate industry: China recognized there was a housing bubble and Xi issued its “houses are for living in, not for speculation” directive. We’re since witnessing an engineered deflating of the bubble, ensuring to the extent possible that the losses are borne out by real estate developers and speculators, and not too much by society as a whole. This is part of the reason why China has never suffered a recession in the modern era: it does controlled demolition when necessary but tries to ensure it doesn’t suffer massive crises like we’ve repeatedly witnessed in the U.S. for instance…
11:13 PM · Jan 10, 2024
Sounds like a successful version of Mao’s “…policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science.”
Sounds like a successful version of Mao’s “…policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend…”
[ Interesting and useful surmise. Actually Joseph Needham had described just this approach in recognizing centuries of Chinese gains in the sciences. This in 27 magnificent volumes:
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/18/books/the-china-the-west-knew-nothing-about.html
April 18, 1982
The China The West Knew Nothing About
By Jonathan Spence
SCIENCE IN TRADITIONAL CHINA: A Comparative Perspective.
By Joseph Needham. ]
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/20/archives/joseph-needham-the-real-thing.html
June 20, 1971
Joseph Needham, the Real Thing
By Richard Boston
Our vocabulary for describing what is great has been so impoverished by the misuse of Hollywood publicists (Stupendous!!! Colossal!!!) that it is hard to find suitable words to describe the real thing. And Joseph Needham is the real thing: he is one of the great intellects of our time. Merely to call him a polymath gives no idea of his achievement: a fellow scholar at Cambridge University, a man who is not given to making rash judgments and who is well‐versed in the British art of understatement, recently commented to me that you have to go back to Leonardo before you can find anyone with such a grasp of the whole of human knowledge. History, philosophy, religion, mathematics, astronomy, geography, geology, seismology, physics, mechanical and civil engineering, chemistry and chemical technology, biology, medicine, sociology, economics…. just to list the topics covered in his massive “Science and Civilisation in China” * would take more than the space of this article (the summary of contents in the publisher’s prospectus covers more than 12 closely printed pages.) And, at the same time as dealing with China, throughout the work Needham compares and contrasts with what was going on all over the rest of the world…
* Twenty-seven volumes (1954-2008)
i sure hope she covered this also, if not, she is a fraud.
https://thediplomat.com/2018/05/why-china-wont-abandon-its-controversial-trade-policies/
Why China Won’t Abandon Its Controversial Trade Policies
Protectionist policies play a key role in China’s national strategy.
By William Weightman
May 24, 2018
There is nothing new in this, its long been recognised that the Beijing made a conscious decision not to mimic the highly centralized model of ROK, Taiwan and Japan used for their rapid post war development back in the 1980’s, there are several books that delve deeply into this. At the time it was a pragmatic response to perceived weaknesses in links between different levels of Party organisation, so it grew into a policy of promoting active competition between regions based on deliberately vague Five Year Plans. This is in contrast to ROK and Japan which promoted large integrated manufacturing companies and set them in competition against each other in foreign markets (they usually co-operate in domestic markets). The differences in the three countries are largely responses to local conditions, not differing strategies. In many ways China follows the Rhineland model of competing Lander, just without the national plans.
The strength of this system of course is that it allows for China to pursue multiple paths in any one industrial sector over the Plan period, and then spend a few years reflecting on which one was best, before making it national policy. The weakness is that it has provoked often wasteful replication of effort and has made some types of national infrastructure (especially electricity) very hard to co-ordinate (a very similar problem Germany has found). There is also the key issue that the very weak local taxation system has made the levels of local government very dependent on land sales and other forms of indirect revenue raising, which is by nature pro-cyclical in the absence of Beijing being willing to bail them out, which is precisely the fiscal problem they find themselves in right now.
“The strength of this system of course is that it allows for China to pursue multiple paths in any one industrial sector over the Plan period… The weakness is that it has provoked often wasteful replication of effort and has made some types of national infrastructure (especially electricity) very hard to co-ordinate…”
Interesting and useful remark. What China has been working on for years is constructing ultra-high voltage transmission lines from locations of prime energy production, such as the plateaus of Xizang across the country. Ultra-high voltage transmission lines allow for carrying electricity over long distances with minimal loss of power.
https://english.news.cn/20231225/1fece32f72474452850c1cdb5dc65dbc/c.html
December 25, 2023
Nine hundred MW photovoltaic project launched on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
XINING — A photovoltaic project with a power generation capacity of 900 MW went into operation on Sunday in northwest China’s Qinghai Province.
It is the second-phase project for an ultra-high-voltage power line that transmits electricity from Qinghai to central China’s Henan Province, according to China Three Gorges Corporation.
The photovoltaic project, located in Gonghe County of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, covers an area of about 1,540 hectares at an altitude of 3,000 meters in the northeast part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the corporation said.
This project will generate about 2.1 billion kWh of electricity on average a year, equivalent to saving about 640,000 tonnes of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.74 million tonnes.
Located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Qinghai is rich in clean energy resources, such as water, wind and solar power, making it an ideal place for the development of the new energy industry.
Your last point is very important, PK. That is precisely the fight that is occurring now and in fact has been building up for the last few years.
The need for localities to finance their spending by selling land has led to housing becoming financialized, instead of the government taxing the rising land-rent of location — which Sun Yat Sen advocated. If the government did this, how would localities finance their deficits — unless they themselves now received the land-tax revenue.
My colleague Wen Teijun has written a good book about this in his 2021 book “Ten Crises: The Political Economy of China’s Development, 1949-2020.
Michael Hudson, thank you:
https://mronline.org/2021/12/12/ten-crises-the-political-economy-of-chinas-development/
December 12, 2021
Ten Crises: The Political Economy of China’s Development (1949-2020), Wen Tiejun
By Ken Hammond
When the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was proclaimed in October 1949, the country’s economy was in a shambles, devastated by decades of war and ravaged by inflation triggered by global forces beyond local control. The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the new revolutionary government faced tremendous challenges in restoring order to rural and urban areas, securing the country’s territory from foreign influence or invasion, and establishing conditions of stability and security within which the people could pursue their livelihoods. The new leadership was dedicated to the long-term goal of developing China into a modern, industrialized, socialist economy, but had to undertake that endeavor in a context of institutional limitations, complex social conditions, and an uncertain geopolitical environment. The CPC had a membership of around 1,000,000 and faced the prospect of guiding the governance and advancing the economy of a population of more than 450,000,000…
Thank you for the recommendation, Prof. Hudson, I’ll order that book, it sounds very interesting.
It’s actually an Open Access book, available under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Democrats Can’t Keep Ignoring Covid in 2024
B-b-but daddy said… !
New Republic slips in an ad from Liz Cheney shrieking about “sleepwalking into dictatorship,” as they remind readers they’ve been “defending American democracy” since forever and commence with a $25 shakedown to defeat the evil orange man.
Please.
These people have been thrown in the trash by the Dem party and are now trying to raise their voices. Lol
“The Clash Over a Secret Tunnel Under a Synagogue on Eastern Parkway”
Watching the video in that article was like watching a bunch of grown-up, self-entitled children throwing a tantrum when somebody turned up to stop their fun. They certainly did not like it when that cop turned the pepper spray on them and I think that they were shocked at this happening which was why they ran. They were lucky that they did not undermine the foundations of the building that they were digging under causing a partial collapse. But if they wanted a tunnel dug professionally that would have been safe and secure, then there are plenty of contractors out there that they could have gotten in contact with. How about Hamas Enterprises or maybe the Hezbollah Constructions Inc?
The past two days has seen the Twittersphere ablaze with this story. Millions of views with all types of speculation on the images of soiled mattresses etc., the timing of this with the ICJ genocide live hearings could not come at a worse time for Israel.
Bravo Rev Kev, Bravo!
A similar true story about Orthodox Jews versus building codes.
When Dad was an inspector on Miami Beach, a Orthodox businessman filed for permits to turn a single family house in the middle of lower Miami Beach into a ritual bath house for ‘religious’ Jewish women, a mikvah.
See: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/mikveh#:~:text=The%20mikveh%20is%20a%20ritual,%2C%20an%20ocean%2C%20or%20rain.
The plan called for removing a large part of the interior slab to make room for the bath proper. Dad was not alone in calling the plan foolish. So much of the slab was to be removed that the structural integrity of the building would be compromised. The plans were rejected.
The people applying for the permit then decided that planning and zoning had no authority over a religious institution, and proceeded with the work clandestinely. How the City was kept out of the loop here is murky at best.
Then the roof began to collapse. One of the outer walls was pulling away from the centre of the structure. Magical Thinking meets the Laws of Physics, with predictable results.
The building eventually had to be demolished entirely.
Those would be navvys could also have gone all DEI and hired Menelek Civil Engineering.
Magical thinking meets laws of physics. I wish we had more of that!
It reminds me of an old urban legend in Dublin about one somewhat renegade member of the Jewish community, who was, as they say, fond of a pint. He died, but for some reason the synagogue refused to allow him to be buried in the Jewish cemetery.
At his wake in the local pub, some of his inebriated friends decided to rectify this injustice by taking his body and burying it without permission in the Jewish burial ground. But the cemetery was locked at night, so they couldn’t get in. Undaunted, someone got some spades and they tried to dig a hole from outside the wall. But after a few hours exertion, they couldn’t get in, and were too tired to bring the body back, so they buried him in the half dug hole under the boundary wall. ‘Oh well’, said one. ‘He was only half Jewish anyway’.
Interestingly enough my eldest son was informing me last night that some Twitter/X rightwing sort was posting, almost a year ago, about hearing people speaking Yiddish under his apartment. Repeated his claims more than a few times over and over …
This immediately was met with accusations of being antisemitic and a classic case of racial hatred manifesting everywhere …
Now that he has been vindicated, him and his, now use this to buff all their other views against the previous naysayers in the dialectal bear pit set up for them.
Son said its just so on the nose for the way things are these days … mirth …
Jimmy Dore show hosted by the two due dissonance guys. utube.
Tunneling Hasidic Jews Culture Explained By Jew!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUA-Ho5ZytQ
Indi, spicy as ever. Boeing and the crash of capitalism article. Worth a read.
Indi, summing up: “Boeing was the quintessential American company, and in it you can see what America has become. A manufacturing powerhouse turned a financialized laughingstock. Boeing doesn’t make planes, it just makes money, and the same could be said about the American economy. In the short-run this is an orgy for oligarchs, but in the long-run it’s ruin.”
Yep.
Retired.
I heard Boeing ‘contracting out’ manufacture and assembly of major segments of it aircraft in the early oughts!
Looks like Boeings assembly plants are bolting things together and “integrating”, which is a huge source of delay and mal-quality.
Spirit Aerosystems is a former division of Boeing that was sold off back in 2005.
I remember reading during the MCAS debacle that shims were regularly used ti correct the alignment of mating assemblies.
I am so old that I remember the FAA requiring the original designer maintain compliance control over their drawings, materials and processes for components.
Designated engineering authority to help decide a part is “serviceable”.
I don’t know how that works today with divestiture and repair stations all over the world.
Shims!
Integrity of structures…..
I’m always a bit envious of people who can pack so much punch into so few words. Unfortunately, I am more of the “why say something in 10 words when you can say it in 1000 words instead” sort of person. A once great company, the USA, and the current powers-that-be all accurately ripped to shreds, in 4 sentences.
The indi.ca article on Boeing is excellent but contains at least one BAD typo. The following sentence lacks the word “NOT” before “continue to be sold.”
In any sane market, this product would continue to be sold, after proving so fatally flawed (literally)
I sent an email to the author, but thought I would note it here, as well.
I’ve been trying to find an article that came out around the time of those Boeing crashes a few years ago.
I think it was a former engineer saying he expected something to got wrong with one of the Max model’s floor assembly (if I remember correctly). It had something to with latches or bolts that he saw as problematic. That was another Max model.
Indeed. There is a problem in the sky.
Its curious to see the hard money sorts bang on about MMT/Fiat yet never a word about making magic profit out of pumping equities via the perverse incentives built up over the years to the C-suite/PE/Hedge players … and too think it all started off with denying labour its share of productivity … largely based on the ideological notion of the Natural Order[mt] of Humanity …
That was – FORCED – from the top down with a side of Locke e.g. surrendered = likes it that way …
Yes, DJG, the Indi article sums up Boeing nicely: Boeing doesn’t make planes, it just makes money.
My aeronautical engineer husband spent his entire career with McDonnell-Douglas which became Boeing. Being, by nature, frugal, he tucked away the annual maximum amount of his salary into his 401(k), in company stock. We watched in awe, beginning in the Stonecipher era, as the stock-splits kept happening and his retirement account skyrocketed.
In 2018, the year after his retirement, we flew low-cost Norwegian Air from NY to Bergen. (Yup, still frugal!) As we crossed over the long airbridge at Stewart International Airport, he glanced out the window, stumbled and, I swear, turned pale. Me, the nervous flyer, grabbed him and asked what was the matter. He shrugged it off, mumbling something about seeing the plane we were about to board.
He told me after the flight, that he had not realized that Norwegian flew the 737 MAX models, which he characterized as aerodynamic nightmares, having slapped enormous engines onto a pre-existing airframe designed for smaller engines and shorter flight. He heroically did not mention this to me before the flight, figuring that I would have a total melt-down if I had full disclosure.
Norwegian should not really be allowed to keep that name, as it keeps giving the nation a bad rap.
And yeah, they were one if the big early buyers of the MAX. And almost went under thanks to the one two punch of the MAX grounding and COVID.
> Greyhound Day: World War II Combat Tactics Return To The Red Sea gCaptain
A lot of interesting stuff in that one. It claims that the reason the army, air force and marines aren’t involved in Op Prosperity Guardian (when they ought to be and are needed) is that their respective chiefs know it’s a chit show micro-managed by the White House and they don’t want to get any of that on them. Spain, Italy and France declared themselves out, other nations are providing very little to the operation, and it seems they are joined by much of the Pentagon too!
Another theory from the dark crevices of the net: we’re not stopping the Houthis because this is part of a plan to starve Egypt of Suez canal revenue. This, in turn, persuades Egypt to take in the Gazans. Let’s see if the Houthi threat disappears if Egypt starts accepting Gaza refuges.
With tonight’s attack, so much for this theory…
Yeah, .Tom, definitely interesting stuff. And even more interesting is the framework within which the writers (and us Westerners as well) view these events.
The authors mention the necessity of maintaining the flow of goods from Asia to Europe: goods including petroleum, food, consumer goods, fast fashion (hello to Jeri-Lynn!) … a Polish retailer bewails the possible hold-up of their spring fashion line.
I did some virtual digging on Yemen, whose Houthi faction are causing all the tantrums. Yemen, always in the background for the past decade, as a country being devastated by the Saudis, with the complicity of the US. Civil war, killings, bombings, starvation. But no one really wanted to mention it. Reports are cloudy as to who are the ‘good’ guys and who are the ‘bad’ guys. The country has ‘sufficient’ oil and gas reserves, but these are controlled by the US/Saudi coalition, apparently.
Yemen was once wealthy because they exported frankincense and myrrh and, beginning in the 1500’s (or earlier) grew and exported excellent coffee. Fun fact: Mocha comes from the name of the Yemeni port, Al Mahka. Apparently the Yemenis controlled their own myrrh and coffee resources in the past.
But, back to the Red Sea and the Bab el Mandeb. The Red Sea, bordered by Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Yemen: what words come to mind when we mention Sudan and Somalia? Not ‘vacation destination,’ surely! And, Djibouti? Host to US Military base, Camp Lemonnier, since 2003, giving the US access to its port and airport. Eritrea? The country is on the US’s hit list: run by dictator, human rights and civil liberties restrictions, etc. Nice bit of real estate along the Red Sea coastline though.
What countries comprise Operation Prosperity Guardian? US, UK, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Korea, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand: all fitting the definition of ‘prosperous.’ And all kind of far away from the Red Sea. On the other hand, the countries bordering the Red Sea (with the exception of Saudi Arabia) are poor. And, they’re not (that we know of) part of the OPG.
So, we have a bunch of rich countries, awash already in ‘stuff,’ (however unequally that ‘stuff’ may be distributed, ) concerned that their flow of stuff, from energy to air fryers, is going to be cut off, patrolling in what is essentially a big bay (which it would revert to if the Suez Canal were to become inoperable) surrounded by countries whose resources the West is extracting, most of whom are hanging on by their fingernails. There is so much wrong with this picture.
Don’t really see what role those services would play, unless there’s going to be ground action. Had a laugh about “modern” guns having an anti-air capability; as soon as aircraft were invented navalists worked on how to shoot them down. The WWII-era proximity fuze (VT) was a major advance and treated as a “secret”.
You mean like a WW2 era Fletcher had 5 dual-purpose 5″ guns and 7 double-barrelled 40 mm Oerlikons for air-defense and a modern Arleigh Burke has 1 (one!) 5″ and 1 (one!) 20 mm Phalanx.
That’s 19 tubes vs 2. Not saying that Phalanx isn’t impressive, but you’d need 8 Arleigh Burkes to pour our the same weight of fire in 10 seconds than 1 (one!) Fletcher was capable of.
The gCaptain article detailed what the other services would do. I’m not qualified to critique that stuff.
I suspect that Putin and Russians in general understand more clearly than most that what we desire deep down is stability and predictability. That tomorrow will be similar to yesterday and today. But that horrifies western leaders, as they were brought up to believe themselves thought leaders not custodians.
Alaska Airlines offers passengers $1,500 after mid-air door plug blowout Daily News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It isn’t all bad news regarding Boeing, look at how they are making the GDP go up on the basis of 2.5x Biden promise sorry notes.
You think that when those investigators turned up to that teacher’s place to pick up that door plug, that they might have asked him ‘Hey pal. Didn’t happen to find any bolts that went with this door by any chance, did you?’
Actually, I have not see that much mention of the bolts that were meant to keep that door secured in the media.
Do you think Joe might be holding off on sending the checks out in 2024, say, in October?
Sounds like one weird trick that just might work.
Nah. The Democrat Party has form in this. Voters will receive detailed forms showing how they can apply for access to the sequestered $600 USD.
Who wants to bet that in exchange for that $1500, passengers have to sign a form agreeing not to sue Boeing over negligent infliction of emotional distress, or some other tort?
The theme of Fight Club, aside from the satire, was making fun of corporate America and the prevalence of consumerism tendencies. And from the film, our supposed protagonist and narrator (Travis? Cornelius?) being portrayed by Edward Norton is employed by a large US auto manufacturer, and he flies to and fro investigating “accidents and mishaps”…
“If I had a tumor, I’d name it Marla…”
>ISRAELI ACTIONS IMPLEMENTED IN BATH UK
I saw this the other day on X, I’m glad to find it here. It certainly makes the point.
Bath and North East Somerset Council put out a statement saying that this woman was only seeking to defend herself against a violent squatter and will not follow up with an investigation.
But if it were really a close to life situation, wouldn’t the cops or military be standing in the background with guns and looking kind of menacing but not really doing much? And maybe some other people with guns backing up the woman?
I studied there in the 70s ! I’m very fond of the place, though I’d call it Georgian Bath, because of all the dandies who came down from London during THAT Georges time.
It’s had quite a bohemian atmosphere sittingly uneasily beside a tony priggish one in the 70s.
Maybe without intending to, the video raises an important issue: at what point (if ever) are land claims based on ancestry extinguished? If a Palestinian knocked on an Israelis’ door and said “This house belonged to my great grandfather, get out” would his claim be any more valid? Why?
The Palestinians can make specific reference to land and property taken by force 75 years ago, and thereafter. Some vague claim of situations thousands of years have long since expired.
Nahum Goldmann in his 1978 book the Jewish Paradox wrote this:
That is indeed an interesting question. However, it seems to me that the point of the video is that it’s wrong to behave like this now, in real time, as Israel is doing. Trying to empty Gaza and the West Bank and East Jerusalem by brute force by claiming a 1500 year old deed from God. Wouldn’t you agree?
Imo yes. Likely grandfather had an actual deed of some sort that specifically identifies the land on which the house sits and the grandson might be able to establish the direct link to himself. Otoh Jews cannot either identify the bit of land an individual might claim, ownership at year 0, or their direct link. Their claims are simply that Jews were kicked out 2000 years ago and they are Jews, which imo is pretty nebulous.
1948 is not that long ago, I was alive then, granted my recollection is hazy. So a claimant might even have been born in the house they’re claiming… that seems germane to me.
If I remember correctly some people who’s family had lived in the area that became Israel went to court in Israel with pre-1948 land documents to maintain their claim to the properties. Supposedly this went as well as some Native American court cases that are awkward to the US government.
In the UK it used to be that if you could occupy land for 12 years, without the owner trying to evict you, it was yours. Obviously, if you evicted the owner first it didn’t count. I believe the Tories have repealed this ancient law in the last decade or so.
Gods old and new: Japan’s many kami. The story of Amaterasu and the goddess Amenouzume, who engaged in burlesque to bring the great goddess back to the world and to bring sunlight back to the land.
There’s kinduva strip-tease — sacred strip tease — side to the spell cast by Amenouzume. A breaking of normal ideas of “seemly” display.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amenouzume
Well, believe it or not, there is a parallel story in the West. Baubo, whose burlesque and obsene-o-ritual freed the great goddess Demeter (and who is greater than the goddess of the land?) from mourning for Persephone. Who had been carried off by Hades just below the city of Enna in Sicily.
https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/baubo-goddess-0010863
There is a strong resemblance between Japanese religion and its eight million kami and Roman religion, which had a god or goddess for everything. And any proper house had a shrine to the lares, just as any Japanese house should have its kamidama.
And this ritual/divine porno, obviously highly effective, is a long way from Methodist youth camp.
Which reminds me to head off on a walk to the church of the Gran Madre di Dio (Demeter in still another form).
“And this ritual/divine porno, obviously highly effective, is a long way from Methodist youth camp.”
Oh good Reality Czar, you have not yet been initiated into the “Back Way of the Lord” have you.
As for good old time religion, Thomas Hart Benton’s “Susanna and the Elders” is about as methodist as it gets. Why, there’s even a recognizable church in the background!
See, (third one down,): https://thevcs.org/susanna-and-elders
Charles Hugh Smith , OfTwoMinds.
The Chinese Connection: Here’s Why Inflation Won’t Fall to 2% and Stay There Indefinitely
https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan24/inflation-China1-24.html
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2023/October/weo-report?c=223,924,132,134,534,536,158,186,112,111,&s=PCPIPCH,&sy=2007&ey=2022&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1
October 15, 2023
Inflation Rate for Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States, 2007-2022
2022
Brazil ( 9.3)
China ( 1.9)
France ( 5.9)
Germany ( 8.7)
India ( 6.7)
Indonesia ( 4.2)
Japan ( 2.5)
Turkey ( 72.3)
United Kingdom ( 9.1)
United States ( 8.0)
I am not sure what those statistics say w.r.t. Charles Hugh Smith’s thesis.
During the great moderation, the US exported a lot of inflation to places like China. Now, he says that is over. Maybe the low inflation in China could be supporting his thesis.
“Are You Bullish or Bearish in 2024?” Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture
Now read:
“The Fed Launched a Bank Rescue Program Last Year. Now, Banks Are Gaming It.” Wall Street Journal
Looks like Barry missed a big part of of “the big picture”.
And while reading the WSJ, remember market “arbitrage” games with interest rate cut projections isn’t an actual announcement by the Fed on when interest rare cuts are coming. There has been no official announcement by the Fed that there will be interest rate cuts next year.
“Minuteman III Missiles Are Too Old to Upgrade Anymore”
I have to confess I didn’t actually read the article, but the title made me laugh thinking that the solution to this problem is to turn them over to Boeing. I mean they’ve proven how good they are at upgrading aging designs, just look at their latest line of 737’s!
Historically, developing a major new line of aircraft meant betting the company’s future on its success. Boeing’s gone the way of Ford etc in the 1950s. Why take a chance on innovation? Stick new fins on last year’s model and sell it as the latest thing.
What could go wrong?
Obviously you can, if you have to: look at the KC-135R.
“Alaska Airlines offers passengers $1,500 after mid-air door plug blowout” Daily News
They should demand at least $2,100. :) :)
“UN Security Council demands Houthis stop Red Sea shipping attacks”
But the UN Security Council demanding that Israel have a cease-fire has not been so successful. And did the UN Security Council step in to stop all the slaughter of all those people by bombs and starvation in Yemen only a few years ago? But Ansar Allah will just ignore this bit of politicking.
US claims huge portion of the ocean floor, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic InfoBrics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
O beautiful for spacious sea floors,
For under waves of gain,
For exploiting majesties
below what used to be rain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good, we own the underground ‘hood
From sea to shining sea!
From With COVID on the rise, your at-home test may be taking longer to show a positive result
more stupid alert:
(bold mine)
If you’re immune, then how do you have COVID again? I mean wtf.
Recommendation from the article is that for more accurate results from the home kits one should test 4 days after onset of symptoms. But by that time the window for successfully treating the disease with antivirals is near closing. I know several people who have had what they describe as terrible and persistent colds who did the two test protocol, the second being 48 hours after symptom onset, with negative test result.
In other Covid news: A discovery in the muscles of long COVID patients may explain exercise troubles NPR
The mitochondrial malfunction hypothesis discussed in the article has previously been put forward in relation to ME/CFS.
Immunity means resistance, and in this case he would have been better off using that term.
In any case, it was drilled into my head that rapid tests tell you whether or not you can infect others, not whether or not you yourself are infected. This message may or may not have been broadly understood but with PCR tests at 100+ who is going to have one?
Another proclamation of the new definition of immunity (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) WTF?
I will continue to ignore narratives such as yours and perform my own assessments in light of the failure of our systems to provide accurate guidance.
And people geting siçk over and over again, when they haven’t before, seems to me a sign of reduced resistance.
All that has been seen is for sure is a virus that adapts.
Ultimate word salad of incompatible ingredients? (Apologies for losing the bold)
“The delay in accurate test results is probably a result of people having accumulated immunity from COVID-19 over the years, whether from vaccinations or previous infections, Hudson said.”
Really? Let’s break this down to the simplest sentence, dropping the least important words, like we were taught in middle school English:
**** The delay in test results is a result of people having immunity from COVID-19. ****
So having immunity delays test results. Did they pick the words the way lottery numbers are picked?
A man died and another person was injured in an avalanche Wednesday morning at Palisades Tahoe, a ski resort in Olympic Valley, California.
“The avalanche caused one fatality and one injury,” the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said in an update about four hours after the snow slide.
On Wednesday night the man who died was named as Kenneth Kidd, 66, who lives in the Truckee and Point Reyes areas of the state.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/avalanche-tahoe-ski-resort-palisades-rcna133336
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kinda remarkable as there wasn’t much snowpack going on in Tahoe, that you’d think an avalanche was even possible, but shift happens.
The deceased would have been classic Dartful Codger material, as our band of merry sliders are aged from 62 to 73.
There was no reason to be out and about yesterday, other than to take a few runs on the lower slopes to pad your skiing day numbers on the year. Conditions were simply horrible, with sideways snow and heavy winds and not much visibility @ Mammoth.
But if you’re paying $200/day for lift tickets and $300-$400 per night for lodging and only have 2-3 days to ski, then maybe you are out there. I spent 3 days in Colorado a couple weeks ago (at a “peakier” time in the calendar), and the costs of skiing are just outrageous for those who ski only a couple times a year. Skiing makes Disney World look cheap. I suppose with a skiing season pass it might be bearable, but flatlanders like me and my kids can only get to the slopes once a year.
Sadly for some, the sum is outrageous…
$239 was the walk-up price for a daily lift ticket yesterday~
IT worked out to $35 a day for yours truly last year using an Ikon pass.
“South Africa’s genocide case against Israel lays bare Europe’s feeble power”
What is this Europe of which you speak? It has no more political cohesion or significance than a rabble of owners of market stalls in a bazaar.
Their political institutions are a collective delusion.
Nonsense. european political institutions are united as never before, competing to who can be the most subservient to their American Master.
🛎️ 🛎️ 🛎️
I migrated from a former Warsaw-Pact country to the US, via Austria. Back in those days the US used to have quotas for countries as to how many people they can take. In order to get to the US, the US embassy in Wienna had to approve my entry and in addition, I had to have a sponsor in the US. Once in the US, I received the I-84 status that allowed me to receive a Green card and subsequently, US citizenship.
I didn’t think then, or now, that this process had been unreasonable. Maybe, just maybe this process for asylum seekers should be restored. I am all for legally migrating to the US, but this flood of illegal aliens should be stopped.
– Arguing Alone: On Alexandra Hudson’s “The Soul of Civility” Los Angeles Review of Books –
Sounds like a good read per the review. I particularly liked the author’s critique of the interplay of personal action vs collective action in modern civil society as discussed by Hudson.
I don’t know how many NC people have been a part of a labor union, but as former member, I have to say… I’m not so sure the path forward is through greater union participation. Anyone who lived through the US union heyday should likely be aware that the people in charge of any given union are just as equally prone to abuse of power, authority, self-dealing, corruption, favoritism as any other institution that can claim to have a popular mandate.
There are also certain union idiosyncrasies, such as seniority, that (I would guess) wouldn’t play well with people of my generational cohort. I’ve worked other non-union jobs where seniority played a role in promotions and shift preference, and it never really bothered me all that much – I would characterize it as something akin to an itch you can’t scratch, a mild irritation that’s always there keeping your blood pressure just slightly elevated but never really prompting a trip to the doctor… until you’re 55 and realize you’ve spent your best years working a graveyard shift because the a-hole on day shift was hired one week before you 25 years ago.
People can also cry and moan to management, circumventing union process entirely, in order to get preferential treatment, which calls into question the efficacy of unions, so… dunno man…
– “Anyone who lived through the US union heyday should likely be aware that the people in charge of any given union are just as equally prone to abuse of power, authority, self-dealing, corruption, favoritism as any other institution that can claim to have a popular mandate.”
Ah yes, the old “iron law of oligarchy” argument, and not without some obvious truth. But you left out a rather significant point – that anyone who lived through the US union heyday should *also* be aware of a time when union workers made middle-class wages and could buy homes and cars and aspire to a “middle-class” lifestyle and a better life for their kids. That was *because of unions* – warts and all. My grandfather dropped out of school in eighth grade to support his family, which suffered greatly during the depression. He was able to gain a comfortable, if modest, middle class life after WWII because of his union membership (to which he was devoted his entire life).
Churchill supposedly said that democracy was the worst form of government – except for all the other forms. Unions have demonstrable problems – so what form of capital-labor relations is superior for maximizing worker benefits and minimizing exploitation? I think Robert Michels, who coined the “Iron Law” phrase, eventually went with Mussolini. To me there’s a lesson in that somewhere.
I wouldn’t argue with you that the threat of collective action against corporate interests played an important role in establishing the middle class of the post-war years.
And respect to your grandfather for making a lifetime commitment to his union. There certainly are advantages conferred to the people who pay their dues and toe the line.
Unions have a role, but speaking solely from my experience with the union i was briefly a member of, they are far from a panacea. I felt more coerced, to the point of feeling borderline hazed, by my coworkers and superiors at the union position than at any other non-union position I’ve ever worked.
In fairness, I do tend to cut against the grain no matter where I end up.
In safety sensitive industries I think being in a union is preferred. A weak link is poor leadership in the union and in corporate management. Supposedly Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines preferred to have a unionized operation as it was easier to direct, but Herb had leadership chops, like several others in the same time period. A unionized workforce does not deal well with weak management.
About fifteen years ago I was impressed with news reporting in Detroit about the CEO or president of Ford getting a bonus. The man had come from Boeing and replaced a dancer-and-prancer/metric-polisher that was discovered to have left disasters in his moves upwards. A local Detroit news station was interviewing factory workers as they left the gates and the workers were all saying the new guy deserved the bonus for the work he had accomplished at steering the ship.
I am sympathetic to FDR’s conundrum about government employees being unionized.
My mother was a very late convert to the need for unions. She spent years at one of the Baby Bells in a local management position. She fought and hated unions for years. She was also very smart and loved contracts. If she hadn’t rebelled and gone to a local college when young I have no doubts she would have been a decent lawyer.
Anyway through some not so smart choices late in her life she found herself working in a drone position at a satellite company to a major tech company. She also ended up advising those who were trying to unionize. When I teased her she had to admit that she finally knew that everything she got in her position at the Bell had been because the Union negotiations got the employees she managed the contract they had. And that as weak as unions were it really was the only way that most employees would have any protections and advancement.
Unions aren’t perfect. But the decimation of their legal rights and the destruction of their reputation was pivotal to the rise of the rentiers and the massive income disparity in America. It wasn’t the only reason, but still essential. It eliminated one of workers few tools to help them secure reasonable compensation for their labor.
The only thing worse for labour than being in a union is not being in a union …
My father lived through the US union heyday, much of it as a first level supervisor at a large power electronics manufacturing company. The company also had a large farm tractor division, so was organized by the UAW. UAW had a big thing about contract parity with other companies that didn’t take into account the company’s situation in the industry. As supervisor my Dad had direct, constant battles with his steward and grievance procedures (one of his favorite gripes, the phrase “not in my job description” followed by “I’m going to the steward”). The company responded to cost pressure by cutting back the engineering function until it became unable to do its own design work, ended up buying designs from a German company. In the end the Germans picked up the pieces of what was left in bankruptcy, and what had been a huge manufacturing facility is now retail shops. I suppose the UAW workers are now happy working as stock clerks.
the german company was most likely unionized:)
Apologies if this has already been posted. The next screw job on the American people;
Millions to lose affordable internet unless Congress extends subsidies
Link to original program;
Affordable Internet Program
I know quite a few retirees who are on this program. Saves you 30 bucks a month on your internet fees if you qualify. Something to keep an eye on from congress. My guess is they will let it run out. They only care about money for wars, war toy makers, their donors, and of course their own wealth and power. As Carlin said; they don’t give a F about us.
More fuel for the [Israel + Ukraine + M.I.C.] > [Tangible Material Benefits For Americans] fire.
… light it up!
“Minuteman III Missiles Are Too Old to Upgrade Anymore, STRATCOM Chief Says”
The obvious solution is to junk them. Both the Russians and the Chinese know that they are unreliable antiques and they probably have the means to shoot them down anyway. So shut them down, recycle the warheads into nuclear power plants, find a place to dispose of all that radioactive material, re-allocate all the personnel to other branches where they are needed anyway due to recruitment shortages and maybe flog off the silos. But of course they will do none of that because it will make the US look ‘weak.’ Better that they keep these duds going so that the US only looks stubborn and stupid instead.
“…they probably have the means to shoot them down anyway.”
“Probably” is quite a strong word to use in this context. Does that mean that you have confidence in modern ballistic missile defense?
It’s an important question. If the answer is, “yes,” then we’re living in a post-MAD world, in which methods of nuclear attack and defense take their due place among all the other various methods of attack and defense in war.
Assuredness is the whole essence of MAD. Ballistic missile defense is all about eliminating assuredness, and returning to the fortunes of battle.
Which way do you think it is? Me, I don’t know (if I knew, I’d be telling people, not asking them.)
Don’t know about the Chinese, but the Russian’s are showing the world an expertise in air defense that induces a level of comfort.
The Wonderhussy Good News Report: Live From Hepatitis Springs!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_93KRVOPok
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our friend Wonderhussy came down with a nasty bout of Covid, and she can’t mention it by name on YouTube, lest she risk de-monetization by the man, so she calls it ‘cocoa puffs’.
Is that for real? That you can’t mention if you have Covid on YouTube?
Who knows? The demonitization guidelines themselves say they are prone to change – intending to mean that they respond to new threats or concerns to protect the delicate publics and to keep people from going Boo hoo me subscribe now and also join my patreon because newsworthy tragedy happened to me.
Contradictions are rife. Gun nut videos might last forever, while gun control videos might be demonitized – or yanked – for reviewing a monetized gun nut video.
The Urban Rescue Ranch has joke animal cruelty thumbnails all the time. (They are hilarious and often have a parenthetical saying a specific animal died or was eaten.) This is a clear violation of written policy and a rare example of a giant corporation understanding humor.)
Ann Reardon of How to Cook that has mentioned her husband having Covid. Jenny Nicholson talked about it when she had Covid. I don’t know if True Anon’s YouTube is monitized so Brace Belden talking about having Covid might not be a point. Someone might be worried about being dominitized for saying “I have Covid” and it’s probably happened to YouTubers. Whatever the advertisers want.
Gun videos and gun channels get demonetized or banned quite often, and “shadow-banned” very often.
For example, consider the travails of the channel “C&rsenal,” which covers the history of the small arms of the Great War (i.e. more than you ever wanted to know about the design of bolt-action rifles). Not “gun nuts.” Just history of technology, and done to a pretty high standard. But YT has given them a lot of difficulties, with no established standard for them to meet. YT has more than once arbitrarily removed most of their subscriptions. And while YT runs ads on C&rsenal’s videos, the makers of the actual content receive nothing.
Or Mark Novac’s gunsmithing channel, “Anvil.” The videos are almost all about the preservation or restoration of antique firearms. It’s really just video of woodworking and metalworking techniques, with some classroom whiteboard stuff. As an occasional feature, a restored gun will be briefly demonstrated on range (the Chauchat was a treat). Nevertheless, Novac gets harassed by YT quite often.
BTW if you’re a Myers-Briggs fan, Novac seems like a classic ISTP.
Another example: Paul Harrell’s channel. Harrell is certainly a firearms enthusiast, but his videos are mostly about testing the ballistic performance of different guns and ammunition types. Sober stuff, often quite dull, such as minute after minute of recording muzzle velocities, or examining bullet deformations in various kinds of target.
Maybe there’s the pattern: YT might just hate the firearms-related content that is non-sensational and evidence-based.
In case you haven’t heard, two of “our” most august lawmakers, marsha blackburn and thom tillis, have introduced the Safe and Open Streets Act, “legislation that would make it a federal crime to purposely obstruct, delay, or affect commerce by blocking a public road or highway.”
With her characteristic eloquence, blackburn explained this morning that this “law” was necessary to keep people safe, since blocking roads blocks “people who assist people.”
I would personally like to express my gratitude to the people of tennessee and north carolina for keeping these thoughtful stalwarts in their positions. There surely must be a special place in hell for those who protest genocide by standing in the middle of the street.
https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2024/1/blackburn-tillis-introduce-bill-to-make-blocking-public-roads-a-federal-crime
Funny, that pesky 1st Amendment grants the right to peaceably assemble. Perhaps our betters think it is no longer needed.
I may need to double check, but I don’t seem to remember any extra verbiage about exactly where these rights were operative….
Regarding the Scientific American article on the language of astronomy, does anyone think that altering the language is actually going to address the ills the author lists? Will changing “strangulation” to “embracing” lead to less violence against women? Will dispensing with”tearing apart” lead to a more peaceful, loving world? It seems much more likely such cosmetic changes will mask more than they alleviate.
That article was so ridiculous, imo, to focus on standard terminology instead of the science. (I understand terminology can be offputting. I learned this when using terms like SCSI – pronounced Scuzzy – and dongle and other computery hardward terms to a non-IT person. They thought I being shocking rude and deliberately puttting them on.) But back to the article, I wonder if the writer can possible understand how funny this anti-woke comedy bit is, this spoof of woke pearl clutching.
Oh man, Y’all ain’t ready for a new generation of anti-woke comedy.
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1744809827195363764
I’m imaging young wokesters growing into old age as the next version of Dana Carvey’s SNL character Enid Strick, aka The Church Lady. / ha
“That article was so ridiculous, imo, to focus on standard terminology instead of the science.”
I wonder if that is the point oftentimes. The author gets his? her? their? name in in a big time publication like SA, but not for their work. No, it’s to scold the profession and present some silly language game as being the route to a kinder, better world. I look forward to hearing from this person when they have added to the body of human knowledge rather than offering a morality fable.
One can only hope. Maybe that article can be held up as ‘peak-woke-ness’. I mean, you can’t come up with a ‘victim’ that is less likely to be helped in any way by your awoken use of language than another galaxy.
And that was the whole point, wasn’t it? Drape yourself in do-gooder vibes while doing less than zero to materially help anyone.
That one started off good – a galaxy hug really is a much more apt description of what would happen when two galaxies meet than “collision”.
Getting rid of the “violent” language, I’m fine with. Trying to claim that this language is also sexist is a step too far. I mentioned a bar fight the other day – if you haven’t seen drunk and stupid grown men trying to strangle each other drunk at a club, well you haven’t really lived.
Of course Scientific American decided being woke was more important than science several years ago now, and has become increasingly tedious to read, and is better ignored these days. i won’t be re-upping my former subscription any time soon.
On the Alaska airlines flight, one of the early reports I read said that it was an emergency exit that blew out. Since then I’ve only read that it was a door plug that was unused. I’m more inclined to believe that it was an emergency exit but they don’t want to say that. How else would there be a door plug on a flight?
With door plugs, Boeing can use the same fuselage design for several seating configurations.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/airlines/a46333193/alaska-airlines-door-plug-blowout-explained/
Different airlines want different configurations, I don’t think that’s an issue here at all.
I was reading years ago that different airlines want different outlays in how their cockpits are made. So you might have a highly experienced airline pilot use to flying one sort of plane which is good. But then comes the day that he has to fly that model but for one reason or another, it has been leased from another airline and the cockpit is laid out differently. So then before take-off he has to go through the manual to find out where everything is placed on this particular plane. Don’t know to what extent this remains to be true to be honest.
DC-3 aircraft had reverse locations for fuel shut-off and carburetor heat levers depending on whether Pratt & Whitney or Wright engines were installed. What could go wrong?
In the jet age some airlines standardized on round radio altimeter indicators and some on vertical indicators. Engine gauges could be ordered as vertical tapes or round gauges. Most operators tried to standardize the flight decks and avionics as much as possible. There were usually several options for avionic equipment installations. There were a few times when inadvertent mismatches/intermixing of avionics equipment led to close calls.
As a maintenance person at an airline with lots of 747s procured from different sources it could take a long time to locate switch and circuit breaker locations. It was always disconcerting to start and taxi these airplanes due to the different configurations, which was usually at night and in bad weather for me.
Still, at a large airline, over time even if the airline is the original orderer and operator of the aircraft there develops sub-fleets with their own characteristics. A 1980s 757 is not the same as a 1990s 757, for example. An early A320 is not the same as a mid A320 or a late A320 or an A320 NEO.
Holographic camera, Digital Camera World
Took repeat readings of the above to realize that who’s fear is not the author’s.
My eye did something here. I think it was a twitch, but much stronger.
‘Some early evidence.’. ‘Just at the beginning of learning…’
We, collectively, are so screwed if this genuinely where our mainstream doctors and medical scientists are at.
re: From the Archives: (2019!)
This is great stuff. You know, Counterpunch & Cory Doctorow routinely repost materials from their respective archives that remain remarkably relevant. I know NC does too (I especially appreciate when Yves quotes huge slabs from Econned and when Lambert justifiably preens about his COVID prescient coverage), but I would urge you to be more intentional about it, i.e. regular separate posts FTA featuring original material as well as curated pieces. As NC seeks to attract a new audience, it might be a way to document the great work going on here through the years and encourage new readers to feel they’ve found their forever news home.
“Kremlin says Russia sees no progress in peace process around Ukraine war” Anadolu Agency
One of the metrics I intend to use to judge whether any serious peace deal is coming: Has Zelensky and some others stopped talking about taking Crimea?
>Pentagon report finds failure to track $1 billion in weaponry for Ukraine
So where is the accountability for all those Congressional representatives who voted against creating an Inspector General for Ukraine aid?
More than $1 billion worth of sophisticated weaponry sent to Ukraine by the US was poorly tracked, according to a new report by the Pentagon’s inspector general.
https://www.rt.com/news/590463-everything-wrong-with-ukraine-aid/
Hedge funds vs PE is not, “Godzilla vs. Mothra,” it’s Mao vs Stalin.
It seems to vary from case to case. #Landback proponents seem to think that all of the Americas is rightful Indian clay and that it and all the wealth that ever came from it ought to be returned to its “Native stewards.”
…and the only place to read about these two monsters is the pink paper. FT is really quite illuminating about PE particularly. With the “high interest rates”…ugh, I mean no more free money the price of many if not most PE portfolio companies has declined. This makes it…um, unsavory to off-load the ‘new and improved’ version of the parasitic mark.
Continuation funds to the rescue! Here a definition from White and Case: General partner-led restructurings and, in particular, continuation funds, have been viewed as one of the potential means to bridge the gap in providing liquidity to managers and their investors. Continuation funds are typically set up and managed by the same manager selling the asset(s). Instead of selling the asset to a third party, the manager of an existing fund sets up a new vehicle and rolls the asset from the existing vehicle into the new one. Yep, looks like special purpose vehicles to me. I’m sure they will work well for the plutocrats. And if they don’t? Just complain to BNY Mellon and they will fix everything.
Yah, gotta love the SPIVs…perfect name for hiding the crap. And now we have ‘whitelists.’ Perfect.
#USOilExportsBenefittingFromRedSeaAttacks
“The ongoing attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthi rebels are causing chaos for the world’s supply chains — but American oil exports appear to be benefiting from them.
That’s because international demand has shifted to ample US shale oil supply — which is the “safer and cheaper way to procure supply, especially for EU customers,” Robert Yawger, the executive director for energy futures at Mizuho Securities USA, wrote in a note on Thursday, per MarketWatch.”
Well color me shocked!!! #WellNotShockedActually
The warmongers seem to be getting two-fers at every turn. Mind that supply chain, though … remember, it’s an election year.
#OceanFloorGrab
What the entire family-blog?
Showing the whole world what US Leadership™ really means … Ugh
#MexicoOvertakesChina
Ok, then hol’ up … maybe the warmongers do have a plan for that supply chain … foolish me!