Longtime manatee researcher knows hundreds of sea cows by name at Florida’s Blue Spring State Park Orlando Sentinel
Do apes have humor? Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
At the Money: Is War Good for Markets? Barry Ritholtz
Climate
The climate crisis: corporations are gambling with our lives Reports from the Economic Front
#COVID19
The CDC is finally going to loosen Covid isolation guidelines. Here’s why that’s a good thing. Vox
Scientists grapple with long Covid puzzle as millions fall sick FT
Water
American Water Hickman’s Hinterlands
Global Elections
Prabowo Subianto: What can Indonesia expect from its new strongman leader? BBC
Meta is cutting funding for fact-checking on WhatsApp ahead of elections The Hindu
China?
China’s Wang Yi to champion ‘equal and orderly multipolar world’ at Munich Security Conference South China Morning Post
Swarovski’s revamp, China strategy test luxury market success Jing Daily
In Hong Kong, abandoned villages have been reclaimed by nature CNN
US Pacific Fleet to stand up second unmanned surface vessel squadron this year Breaking Defense
India
India’s Supreme Court scraps electoral bonds, calls them ‘unconstitutional’ and What are India’s electoral bonds, the secret donations powering Modi’s BJP? Al Jazeera
Here’s Why India’s Swimming Camels Are Facing Extinction Madras Courier
Syraqistan
Military operation into Rafah would be catastrophic: Australia, Canada, New Zealand Anadolu Agency
The ‘Philadelphi Corridor’: A goal for Netanyahu, a red line for Egypt France24. Long post on the Corridor from the Israeli perspective:
–––The Philadelphi Problem for Israel
Israel's security concern over the Philadelphi Route centers on the prospects and implications of a porous border between Gaza and Egypt. The discovery of 3-5 ton lathes in Gaza's munition workshops during IDF operations in Khan Younis… pic.twitter.com/c6keBmJnqX
— dan linnaeus (@DanLinnaeus) February 9, 2024
* * * Escalation In Northern Palestine Moon of Alabama
A look at the arsenals of Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia as cross-border strikes escalate AP
* * * The Path to October 7: How Iran Built Up and Managed a Palestinian ‘Axis of Resistance’ Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Pentagon Analysis Confirms Iran’s Role in Enabling Houthi Attacks gCaptain
The Palestinian Human Rights Cause Must Mature Beyond the Extreme Left Lee Fang
New Not-So-Cold War
How the US broke Kosovo and what that means for Ukraine Politico
Trump’s advisers discuss possibility of bringing Zelenskyy and Putin to negotiation table – Bloomberg Ukrainska Pravda
* * * Putin says Russia prefers Biden to Trump because he is ‘more experienced and predictable’ ABC
Ukraine and its allies face off against America’s tribal politics WaPo
* * * Vladimir Putin surprised by lack of ‘sharp questions’ in Tucker Carlson interview Guardian
Biden Administration
Asked for update on Biden promise to speak to press, KJP says 7 times she doesn’t ‘have anything’ to share FOX. So which White House reporter — the crème de la crème of our press corps — is going to ask this: “Mr. President, would you please count backwards from 100 by sevens?” (To be fair, the West Wing would totally prep Biden and plant the question. But you never know!)
Juul’s internal playbook opens a rare window into influence in Washington STAT
Johnson forced to delay House vote on controversial surveillance tool after GOP mutiny threats FOX
US House Republican warns of security threat over Russia’s nuclear capability in space France24
Spook Country
‘Political espionage campaign’ targeted Trump, Russia collusion tale a ‘WMD-style story,’ journalist says FOX. “Information about the alleged cooperation reportedly lies in a 10-inch binder in Langley, Va., home to the CIA’s headquarters, according to Taibbi, who added that if true, espionage and election-related laws were then broken.”
U.S. Government Is Hiding Documents That Incriminate Intelligence Community For Illegal Spying And Election Interference, Say Sources Public. The deck: “Former CIA Director Gina Haspel blocked the release of ‘binder’ with evidence that may identify her role in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.”
* * * FBI director makes unannounced trip to Israel, meets counterparts Anadolu Agency. Hmm.
Antitrust
Koch’s Purchase of Fertilizer Plant Prompts Antitrust Concerns Exposed by CMD
Healthcare
Delays in dealing with complaints against drug companies are growing, BMJ finds BMJ. The UK.
Digital Watch
Torching the Google car: Why the growing revolt against big tech just escalated Blood in the Machine
Maker of Tinder, Hinge sued over ‘addictive’ dating apps that put profits over love NPR
New York City sues social media companies for negligence, public nuisance Axios
* * * Can OpenAI create superintelligence before it runs out of cash? FT
Asking GPT for the Ordinary Meaning of Statutory Terms (PDF) University of Chicago Law School
Airbnb sees AI as its ticket to become a sprawling Big Tech giant The Register
Airbnb host sent guest’s wife image of him with another woman in scheme to extort him: lawsuit FOX
The Bezzle
Issue 51 – It’s quiet… too quiet Citation Needed. Crypto roundup.
Police State Watch
Illusions of Safety The Baffler
Our Famously Free Press
“A New Voice for the Times”: Is “The Morning” the Future? Vanity Fair. Covid disinformer Leonhardt quoted prominently.
Gunz
An American tragedy turns KC Chiefs’ parade into day of mourning in Kansas City Kansas City Star
Valentine’s Day Post-Game Analysis
Valentine’s Day spending projections in US top $25 billion for second straight year Anadolu Agency
Can’t spell love without vole: How Colorado researchers are using the monogamous rodents to study human relationships Colorado Sun
Date night strike: Thousands of US, UK delivery, ride-hailing drivers stop work on Valentine’s Day AP
The Truelove: Poet and Philosopher David Whyte on Reaching Beyond Our Limiting Beliefs About the Love We Deserve The Marginalian
Class Warfare
Private equity should share more wealth with workers, says US pension giant FT. CalSTRS.
America’s poorer counties are new investment boomtowns: study Axios
AI won’t take our jobs and it might even save the middle class The Register
The mediating effect of the need for cognition between aesthetic experiences and aesthetic competence in art Nature. “The findings indicate that individuals reporting intense aesthetic experiences have a higher aesthetic competence if this relationship is mediated by a high need for cognitive effort.”
Write, Rinse, Repeat: Text and Context in Derrida’s SEC and in Literary Studies Nonsite.org
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote:
— smol silly cat (@Catsillyness) February 14, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
142 comments
Comments are closed.
YOU CAN TRY
(melody borrowed from Doctor My Eyes by Jackson Browne)
Martyrs have gone beyond our tears
It’s been nearly 80 years they keep dying
As the Jews rob us of land
We’ve tried to stop them when we could
As they steal each neighborhood now we’re hiding
In the last place that we can
Hear Gaza cry!
Another flaming dawn
Our wells are dry
The Jews are here to ‘mow the lawn’
All the homes and farms they’ve burned
And they say we can’t return hope is fading
As they carry out their schemes
They don’t pause before they kill
Murder is run-of-the-mill now they are raiding
Our last stocks of food it seems
Hear Gaza cry!
How can you not see?
You watch us die
When all we ask is to live free
Hear Gaza cry!
You leave us here to die
You just stand by
Is there not something you can try?
Well done!
“US House Republican warns of security threat over Russia’s nuclear capability in space”
‘The United States has told Congress and allies in Europe about new intelligence related to Russian nuclear capabilities that could pose an international threat, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.’
You wonder what the briefing was that they showed those Congress people and NATO allies. Maybe they showed them the 2000 film “Space Cowboys” where a Soviet communications satellite turned out to have six secret nuclear missiles installed. Is this a way to increase funding for the US Space Force? Or perhaps they are softening the ground so that the US can put nukes in orbit before the Russians have a chance to. Certainly some powerful people are unhappy on the restrictions of nukes in space under the provisions of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty
Is this a plot to a James Bond movie, where the villain has built a space station? It’s on the level of a Sir Roger Moore entry called Moonraker. I remember being a kid, and not having many options beyond WTBS on cable I’d absorb a lot of those movies in the mid 1980s.
In addition to Roger Moore, this actor is sort of iconic as well, the actor Richard Kiel. For being very tall and sporting that awesome mouth of metal. I can’t keep up which crazy pants American political party is the more absurd, it alternates almost daily. “More for defense! More for wars! Less for the homeless and retired! Less for the sick and dying!” What a time to live.
I found the satellite very impressive considering it is supposed to be 1980s Soviet tech which used stolen American tech from Skylab. It was very much a suspension of belief film-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLbh7T1mPZ4 (2:48 mins)
Since Russians already have two systems (A-235 and S-500) that can knock out satellites using conventional warheads what would be benefit of having a third system with practically the same concept of operations but a way more expensive and auto-degrading warhead?
You’re asking our Congress to both make a logical analysis AND really be concerned with America. Hahaha.
Don’t spoil their cunning plan, aka bs excuse, to spend a lot of money ordering weapons in space from their donors for billions with logic that the public might understand.
Pure speculation, but if I’m reading it right, not only would the space nuke destroy nearby satellites immediately, but would degrade/eliminate communications and GPS for weeks (months?) through signal interference from radiation.
That would make an offensive against Russia impossible.
Polar Socialist: What would be benefit of having a third system with practically the same concept of operations but a way more expensive and auto-degrading warhead?
Since you ask, a nuclear EMP (electromagnetic pulse) in orbit could: –
[1] Knock out large numbers of US satellites and all communications thereunto;
[2] If positioned at the right point and distance above the middle of the US, put out of action permanently much electronic equipment on the US surface, with all that would entail (perhaps temporary or permanent civilizational collapse).
See —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime
Let me stress: you asked your question and that’s one obvious theoretical answer. But I’ve no supporting evidence for this supposition at this time.
Let me also stipulate that the US worrying about this contingency is like the pot calling the kettle black, since the US runs a couple of Boeing X-37 robot mini-space shuttles on absolutely classified orbital military missions that sometimes last 900-odd days and nobody else has any idea what they’re doing up there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37#Speculation_regarding_purpose
EMP is not new and doesn’t require “secret Russian program” for it. Fermi “knew” about it even before the first nuclear detonation.
Anyway, EMP weapons generally use the stratosphere to create the big pulse. The detonation releases gamma rays, which ionize the air, and thus released electrons then react with the Earth’s magnetic field creating much bigger EMP than the device itself can do.
In space the effect is very limited in range, and to add some more speculation, all satellites are periodically attacked by a nuclear electromagnetic pulses emanating from the Sun – a.k.a. solar flares. They are either shielded or know how to shut down for the duration.
Targeting a few satellites, and sizzling off half a hemisphere’s worth with a single EMP are different. Those dead satellites would quickly ‘kesslerize’ useful orbits, and take out the remaining satellites over time. It seems more like a ‘he who can destroy a thing controls that thing’ scenario, and the end of an escalatory scenario.
No real need to put nukes in space. A tungsten “crowbar” dropped from orbit has quite the kinetic energy without the pesky radiation.
A tungsten “crowbar” dropped from orbit has quite the kinetic energy without the pesky radiation.
Correct.
Rods from God.
Wolfram Jack?
“All the ‘hits’ Coast to Coast!”
Few in “polite society” mention said “Rods” because there is, at present, no known counter measure against them. No anti-missile technology, except perhaps nuclear tipped counter missiles, can stop them. Deploying nuclear tipped anti-missiles does the ‘job’ for the “adversaries.” A literal Mutual Assured Destruction strategy. The radioactive fallout would circle the globe with the upper atmospheric winds and render “friend” and “foe” devastated alike.
The militarization of Space was ‘banned’ for very good reasons.
The Chinese control almost all of the production of tungsten in the world, can we afford a mine-shaft gap?
Hmmm…. You’ve got me thinking about a “mime shaft gap.” Silent and deadly.
Kinetic harpoons — I’ve read one sci-fi author term them. One of Peter F. Hamilton series I believe.
“crowbar dropped from orbit” – what a rabbit hole
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/exactly-what-yield-is-a-literal-crowbar-from-orbit.192617/
Of course a depleted uranium crowbar would be just as heavy and just as eutectic as a tungsten crowbar. And it would be cheaper.
So if we deploy a Rods from God crowbars-in-space program, it will use depleted uranium crowbars rather than tungsten crowbars.
I’m with Niven and Pournelle on this one. As they laid out in their “The Mote in God’s Eye” (1974) the ‘Moties’ conducted intercontinental warfare with plain old boulders dropped from space. “The Expanse” used the same conceit in describing the Belter’s campaign against the Inner Planets.
The scary part is that it would be dead easy to pull off. Talk about “punctuated equilibrium!”
While on the gripping hand…
The Mote in God’s Eye stuck with me, mainly for the above phrase. It has helped me step away from dichotomous thinking and helped me force myself to consider alternate options besides any obvious two (On the one hand…on the other hand). A lot of good sci-fi in that one.
Although I didn’t necessarily buy into the birth control arc. Then again, I am from a generation that experienced first both the effects of the Pill, and legalized abortion. I do sometimes wonder if the reason I’m still alone is because the person I was supposed to partner with got pilled or aborted before they even had a chance to exist. FWIW, Gen X is half the size of each of the Boomer and Millennial generations. It’s not the reason (Aspie, trust issues, a face made for radio, intellectual arrogance, ad nauseum…), but I do sometimes wonder…
Read in parallel with this article it makes a lot more sense. Per usual, the finger that points always has three pointing back at it:
https://spacenews.com/spacex-launches-u-s-missile-defense-satellites/
This terrifying new Putin death threat caused jake sullivan to rush to the podium to reinforce the NEED for tens of billions more in ukraine “aid” NOW.
Plus, that pesky cia binder story is starting to break through and some hastily scraped together counterprogramming became an imperative.
Look no further than that for an “explanation” of this “warning.”
A new phase in counterpunching, branching out from the Indictments?
Sad that the attention span and news cycle are brief, to be exploited in advance of the next fresh hell.
Methinks they missed ‘powered’ deliberately off this story. I can’t remember the name of it, but Russia has already said it has nuclear powered missile system that has almost unlimited scope to sit in orbit waiting for its destination. I presume this system is just as capable as knocking out satellites as it is earth bound targets.
Fear factor dialed up to eleven.
Whatever the briefing was, it was almost certainly along the lines of “Russia bad, Russia scary! Oook, ook, eeek, eek, *chest thump* postureposture, cuz God save America, “they hatessssss usss!!! cuz we’re so awessssomessss!!!”” Followed by audience replying with similar chesthumps, a bit of jumping about, knuckle drags and such, and everyone agreeing violence is surely the solution.
Like every such briefing.
I don’t know what’s up there, but just to be on the safe side I’m wrapping my phone in aluminum foil with whatever is left after I make my new hat. My phone will survive anything and I’ll be able to communicate with other foilers/foilies. Sweet dreams ahead.
The great thing about a Reynolds Wrap toque is that if you do it just right, it’s actually waterproof and can be used as a dinghy for your hamster if floods threaten.
With climate change flooding it’s good to have a store of items like shiny wrap with multiple uses. It can even be art as I’ve witnessed in several high class restaurants. Bored after Armageddon? Make some cute animals with foil! Express yourself!
What about the cell towers?
About 30 years ago a friend, just returned from Novosibirsk, showed me a vial of greasy looking powder. I recognized it as diamond dust, and asked what it was for, polishing?
Nope. It was Russias’ answer to Reagans’ Star Wars. Spread it around orbital space, and watch it tear every satellite to bits.
The teachings were revealed through the Ancient Greek Mystery Schools, by Plato, by the Neoplatonists, and by those traditions connected to them , e.g., the ancient Gnostics (Christian and otherwise) Kabbalists, and Sufis. Later on the teachings were seen in different versions from the newer western esoteric traditions e.g., Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Martinism, Hermetic Orders, etc., during and after the Renaissance. Most if not all were claiming to be presenting the earlier esoteric traditions, often claiming to be descended from them by some supposed ancient documents, a hidden lineage, or even by direct communication from “Hidden” or “Ascended Masters.” From The Secret Teaching of All Ages
Thanks for this link. Ever since I read Frances Yate’s books, I’ve been studying this fascinating topic/history. Michael Hoffman, too, often pillared for his analysis of the Talmud, delves into Hermeticism, and figures such as Marsilio Ficino, the renaissance in general and its relation to the Catholic Church.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Yates
https://www.amazon.com/Occult-Renaissance-Church-Rome/dp/0990954722
Dame Frances Yates’s book “Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition” is a major influence.
Before Champollion actually deciphered the Rosetta Stone, people thought that they could read Egyptian hieroglyphics. Much of this book is devoted to what Renaissance magicians *thought* the Egyptians were saying, which was often more amusing than the context of the Egyptian texts themselves.
I just was at the statue of Giordano Bruno, in Campo de Fiori, and will visit again on Saturday, Feb 17, the 424th anniversary of his burning.
Remind me to steal a copy of the Hoffman book.
A good write up. Note, the Medium post title is from Manly P. Hall’s work, The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928), which remains relevant reading on this subject matter.
James Webb wrote two outstanding histories, Occult Underground, and Occult Establishment. No need to steal as they’re both freely available from the Internet Archive.
Arthur Versluis is a great contemporary guide to this subject. I particularly like The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance. He calls it a “detective story.”
Your somewhat runaway first sentence reminded me of Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. Thank you.
I had to look for it, but I did find it among the books one of my kids has put aside to “borrow” on his next visit. Gotta start re-reading now.
Yes, do read Foucault’s Pendulum, it was an enjoyable book, if a bit esoteric.
If you want another weird book in a not dissimilar vein, try Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. It’s an introduction to philosophy using fiction that apparently has readers testing in philosophy at the level of first year students. If you want more philosophy, try the Action Philosophers graphic novel, a sardonic romp through the history of philosophy. Both fun reads.
Oh, and I’m pretty sure Foucault’s Pendulum is where I learned about tetrapyloctomy, or splitting hairs four ways.
>The Palestinian Human Rights Cause Must Mature Beyond the Extreme Left – Lee Fang
A Palestinian solidarity movement rooted in patriotic American values would be more likely to move the critical mass of people needed to end the current war in Gaza and then bring about the pressure needed to force Israel to accept that the Palestinians have the same right to freedom that they do.
I don’t think so. “Patriotic American values” are malleable. They can be manipulated by those who control the prevailing/controlling narrative. It has nothing to do with Left/Right for right-thinking people. The “Extremism” is top down, not left right.
91 red balloons: I was expressing my dismay and outrage over Biden allowing and abetting the Genocide in Gaza to a relative who lives in Vancouver, BC. Her response was that Trump has 91 indictments and so at least Biden isn’t Trump. I live in this country and that number is not affixed in my brain. Yet this morning as I’m scroll threw my twitter feeds, I see that number again, 91. The digital blob skillfully insert memes, data, images, stories that structures our thinking about a particular ongoing news event. It’s has nothing to do with “maturity.” I am as subject to it as my untutored relative, a retired teacher and caring mother/grandmother.
That Zaid Jilani article seems to me to be a massive strawman. In my carefully curated bubble, the Palestinian cause is championed by the likes of the Grayzone, Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss, Caitlyn Johnstone, Glenn Greenwald, Katie Halper, Norman Finkelstein, and now hordes of Muslims and Arabs outraged by the atrocities. If anything, the above skew increasingly right. The split isn’t so much left or right it’s establishment vs anti-establishment, imperialist vs anti-imperialist. The traditional right is more receptive of these ideas than the liberal left which is why someone like Judge Napolitano is now so much better than the likes of Bernie Sanders or the squad.
None of those individuals are on the right.
Some of the Muslims may be.
I agree that they are not right wing. Their audiences increasingly skew that way, though.
All those individuals or media outlets you mention are unknown by most people. I am a suburban mom and know many sympathetic to Palestinians. But no one is attending a protest. Or looking at the websites of far left groups claiming to live on Turtle Island. The real change is that many Americans now view Israel in a whole new light and it’s reputation will likely never recover.
Has she heard of the Hur investigation conclusion that Biden is definitely guilty but too demented to prosecute?
In the article above, AI might save the middle class. Yeah, I am a bit unsure on that; I mean to say yes there are a few outcomes worth projecting into the next 5 to 15 years. The last paragraph puts a certain FDR quality spin to what AI can do for us. Oh, please tell us more.
From a paragraph nearer to the end, “AI can improve the quality of life…reduce healthcare costs, lower climate change concerns, heal the sick and cure blindness…”…Okay I submit a small edit from my own personal version. \ SARC
So could congress. But they don’t. It’ll be weaponized by the elite for rent extraction like everything else.
The hype is unrelenting.
Like this: https://jet.ai/
The elites’ new scam to tell us how “green” using private jets can be.
It’s a hoot. Give it a read.
When you look at it from their perspective, based on that calculation of their time value versus the operating cost of the jet, it all makes sense.
Hidden within that brief calculation is that the time value for anyone else obviously does not count, let alone health value, freedom from jet noise value and all-around tranquility. /:
“Trump’s advisers discuss possibility of bringing Zelenskyy and Putin to negotiation table – Bloomberg”
This is not so simple as Trump thinks it is. For a start, Zelensky would have to repeal the decree saying that it is illegal to negotiate with Russia under Putin. Trump’s idea is to make the Ukraine negotiate or else he will throttle military aid. He also plans to threaten Russia by saying that unless they negotiate, he will increase aid to the Ukraine. I suspect that the Russians would say to him ‘We don’t care.’ You give into that sort of blackmail, then Trump would do the same in the negotiations themselves. They know the hard limits to what the Ukraine can do with diminishing military aid and few troops to send to war so only have to wait. Trump is a bit naive with stuff like this. He said that all that money given to the Ukraine should be done as loans. He said ‘Do it this way. Loan them the money. If they can make it, they pay us back. If they can’t make it, they don’t have to pay us back.’ But we all know here that a loan here is as good as a gift-
https://www.rt.com/news/592478-us-trump-ukraine-aid-loan/
I suspect if the Orangeman somehow stays out of jail and wins, we’re all going to remember the reasons we hate him very quickly.
Stein, or West are my only two valid choices. RFK Jr. is a no-go because of his defense of the genociders.
Yes, Kennedy turned out to be a terrible disappointment. Not that my vote
matters since I live in the reddest state. Still, I would like to be able to add
my tiny voice to others who reject the loathsome Trump and Biden.
here’s another valid choice – write-in
Party for Socialism and Liberation
https://votesocialist2024.com/about-the-candidates
I was talking to a Green party organizer yesterday about the potential for providing the Arab and Black voters’ “abandon Brandon” campaigns a locus for a protest vote rather than just sit it out. Lots of tiny voices can add up, and there would be the added bonus that when Hillary et al start whining about third parties being spoilers they might actually have a demonstrable point that works to our advantage.
Michigan and Minnesota would be great places to start if there are any Greens up there that know the parties involved. I wonder if it is something that could be done through CAIR?
No lie.
Will Stein or West know how to fight bureaucracy, bi-partite Congress/Senate, Treasury, Feds, DoD, AIPAC, Media, etc, etc, etc?
Only Nixon could go to China. Only Trump can to to Kiev, where he will make a great peace and be tragically assassinated. The USA, Ukraine and Russia will all blame Mossad and Hamas and everybody will live happily. There will not be an opera.
Hmmm…. “Bibi Dances?”
WOuld US declare war to Ukraine if Trump is assassinated in Kiev?
Torching the Google car: Why the growing revolt against big tech just escalated Blood in the Machine
Up next: Person-less Presidents, Congressman, Cabinets, Press Secretary, top management in government and corporations. And we’ve had some recent problems with making sure the Secretary of Defense is properly manned up leadership wise. It should also be included along with the Pentagon.
First, start with the Office of the President because the current non AI carbon unit is so obviously compromised, anything that replaces it will be an improvement, and will be noticed as such. Ditto Pelosi, McConnell, Romney, Graham, the entire Senate House leadership.
“Reporters” from corporate owned MSM can send AI bots that look like humans to question the AI bot White House Press Secretary. The questions and answers will always be perfectly circular and have pleasant satisfactory conclusions.
It’s time SkyNet take it’s first step in running the world.
The Lee Fang posted article is frankly disgusting to me. Managing to slander both the Palestinians and the millions of peaceful Palestine solidarity protesters who often risk arrest and doxing for expressing their desire that Palestinians be free from institutional racism and genocide of the Israeli regime.
The article is just a litany of lies and distortions about 10/7 and the Palestinian solidarity movement that goes far beyond a fringe left movement. A majority of Americans support ceasefire for months now despite incredible anti-Palestinian media bias, Fang and others with more media visibility has almost no coverage of these massive protests considering of hundreds of thousands or millions in major Western cities. And leftist critiques about the American empire are factually valid and gaining a wider audience quickly, they are the only logical conclusion for why America is funding and arming the genocide in Gaza.
Now that enough people are waking up to this horror and conducting proper analysis, people like Lee Fang and Jilani are undermining the movement, criticizing tone while blithely overlooking that an American supported genocide is happening over our smartphones.
IDF has been using American supplies bombs to kill whole families and intentionally starving the rest to death. Palestinians in the US have been killed and gunned down in cold blood for being Palestinians. That doesn’t horrify Jilani but the tone of the solidarity activities to try stopping the deaths, that’s just so terrible. Because we know softening the criticism of Israel and the AIPAC bought Western politicians is what’s going to give Palestinians freedom and peace.
I will never give another cent to Lee Fang again, no matter what good work he may have done elsewhere. I hope any decent person who read that article will agree with me on that.
yeah, spot on. Never have I come across references to a Turtle Island in pro-Palestinian / anti-genocide activism.
Felt compelled to look into this. A quick Goog:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68236439
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/officials-investigate-potential-hate-crime-after-3-palestinian-students-shot-in-vermont
Palestinians have to be stabbed or at least sprayed with skunk water and vociferously complaining to get a case opened up for them. Meanwhile peaceful protesters are arrested for wearing t shirts with image of a paraglider and for chanting “from River to the Sea”.
2 University presidents were fired for allowing freedom of speech for Palestinian solidarity activities on campus. Hundreds of universities have shuttered their pro-solidarity student groups. People have been fired for liking a pro-solidarity tweet. Meanwhile we’ve seen media minimize Palestinian suffering to absurdity – 9 year old ”young lady” detainees and journalists’ heads making unfortunate encounters with bullets of unknown origin.
But for the likes of Fang and Jilani, the problem is the tone of the anti-genocide (thus automatically anti-Zionist and pro Hamas, even if they are pacifist Jewish grannies) side.
The use of the term far left is an immediate tell. My respect for Lee Fang was tempered sometime ago, and now likewise his cohort Zaid Jilani. Not one mention of the ICJ initial finding that it is plausible that Israel is conducting a genocide. The Israelis daily cement the certainty of the finding. Absent a reference to that what can you have? Not much!
That’s always the way with Democrats. Their problem isn’t that you’re drowning in student and medical debt, spend most of your income on rent, forced to drive for Uber on nights and weekends to make ends meet, and helplessly watch your government abet the genocide of women and children in Gaza. The problem is that you’re just too strident about it. You’re starting to make important people slightly uncomfortable. You’re starting to hurt Starbuck and McDonald’s quarterly earnings… Then if they give you a crumb, the narrative becomes about how magnanimous they are and why aren’t you people all happy and voting for our AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politicians?
They’re never going to change. All we can do is disengage from their stupid game and figure out how to be effective elsewhere.
More and more it feels like the left of NA and Europe as reverted to a behavior seen around WW1.
Perhaps because labor oriented left lost its legitimacy as USSR stagnated and ultimately disintegrated.
You mean division between the SDP and the Spartacists? I think it’s very different dynamics underneath – WWI Europe was the industrial heartland and the imperial Metropole of the world. Europe today is rapidly deindustrializing back to its former status as an unimportant appendage on the Eurasian land mass. And may soon have the climate of Siberia but can’t afford to pay for the LNG required to heat their homes.
North America is far more resource rich but we are the most brainwashed population in the world and have more guns than people, so it’s going to be interesting.
USSR’s downfall is ultimately a failure to understand the necessity of creating a dictatorship of the proletariat that explicitly resists any encroachment by capitalists and imperialists. Whatever one thinks about life in Cuba or the DPRK or Iran, they persisted even through very hard times because they resist whereas more accomodationist regimes like Yugoslavia and Gorbachev’s USSR fell.
The labor oriented left didn’t lose its legitimacy because of the USSR as most alienated themselves from USSR after Khrushchev’s secret speech against Stalin, it lost was because their leadership compromised with capital to weaken their connection with the greater society and later generations via two tier wage structures, and then their jobs were sent abroad or lumpenized via gig jobs.
>>> it lost was because their leadership compromised with capital to weaken their connection with the greater society and later generations via two tier wage structures, and then their jobs were sent abroad or lumpenized via gig jobs.
I believe it is more accurate to say that it was less accommodationist and more greed as the leadership accepted the bribes to sell out their membership.
If Soros buys Audacy, the second largest radio station owner, count on further audio waterboarding. How is that for a timely mixed metaphor?
Thanks for reading the Lee Fang so I don’t have to. Sounds like those who said the failure of Occupy Wall Street was all about the drum circles rather than the determination of runway foamer Obama to suppress opposition. Obama–someone who was selected to run through a kind of central casting process–was the ultimate PR president designed to gull the public with “hope and change” in order to deliver the opposite. As some here have pointed out, Obama’s narcissism is doubtless what encouraged that ultimate narcissist and PR guy, Trump, to say “I can do that.” This paybacks are hell result provoked fury among the PR schemers.
It’s the superficiality of our ruling class that needs to be fixed..
Obama was an op in utero.
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/10/01/a-company-family-the-untold-history-of-obama-and-the-cia/
“A look at the arsenals of Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia as cross-border strikes escalate”
You sometimes think that the Israelis and Hezbollah should just go at each other. The Israelis are obviously keen and Hezbollah are not afraid. But then there is the Dahiya doctrine. So Hezbollah hits an Israeli base causing casualties. In return, Israel hits a bunch of civilians as payback. Why yes, it is a terrorist tactic but you can’t really talk about it-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahiya_doctrine
The Nazis did something like this in WW2. ‘In some occupied areas in which the Nazis had to contend with well organized and active guerrilla units, they applied a simple rule: they would massacre one hundred nearby civilians for every German soldier killed; fifty for every one wounded. Often this was a minimum that might be doubled or tripled. They thus killed vast numbers of innocent peasants and townsfolk’
https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NAZIS.CHAP1.HTM
Well, if I had to bet some money I wouldn’t put my chips on the IOF, I’ll say that much. I suspect the thinking people inside it probably agree with me, and Nasrallah is too strategic to let his organization’s actions be dictated by the insanity of the zionists, so thankfully Beirut stands mostly intact. In case of a generalized full-scale war, I expect the complete collapse of Israeli civil society (you can’t do the “Ukrainians in Kiev” thing when Tel Aviv is a few hours drive from the border and very much in the range of lots of missiles), and the degeneration into complete chaos very fast.
At the Money: Is War Good for Markets? Barry Ritholtz
~~~~~~~~~~
Barton Biggs wrote a book in regards to how the various stock markets fared during WW2, very interesting approach as one seldom thinks of the German and Japanese stock markets during that time and how they were effected by turning points in the war, along with analysis of the allied stock markets as well.
Wealth, War & Wisdom
Through some strange serendipity, my comment below works better as a reply to yours.
Both the Germans and the Japanese issued money after they took over a country, and almost all German-occupied money was in the form of coins made out of junk metal, whereas the Japanese occupation money was almost all banknotes.
Very little of it has any collector value as the Japanese were into creating hyperinflation by issuing tons of currency, in particular in the Philippines.
The Germans were a bit cruel with the design on the Netherlands 10¢ coins issued from 1941 to 1943. It was made out of zinc (the pre war version was made of silver) and had a design of a tulip on one side, a snide reminder of the Dutch tulip bubble, in particular the black tulip-the most desired one-which the coin looked like in color.
https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/netherlands-10-cents-km-173-1941-1943-cuid-1084564-duid-1431205
My dad was 14 when the goose-steppers came in without knocking to Prague and 20 when they split. He told me that cigarettes were ‘the money’ during the war as far as he was concerned, but then again everybody smoked like chimneys.
That isn’t how hyperinflation happens though.
There isn’t 1 tried and true way of getting to hyperinflation, and the Greek and Hungarian variants in 1944-46 weren’t textbook examples either.
A very long time ago, when I took intermediate macro in college—taught by Olivier Blanchard, no less—I was faced with an exam question about whether a national economy should be expected to increase or decrease its capital stock over the course of a war.
It was immediately clear to me—dutiful student that I was—what the standard macro theory answer was. But I also had a visceral reaction of disgust at the question, so I prefaced my answer with the statement: “That depends entirely on where the bombs fall.”
My college career was well before 9/11, when it was even more taken for granted that the bombs would never fall on us. I stand by my now 40 year old statement, and suggest that we should be reminding ourselves that a portfolio balance is of little consequence if your nation and your people are destroyed by violence.
(Rant over.)
Germany and Japan are now both in “technical” recessions. “Technical” is a qualifier that economists use when they want to control the narrative. In this case, they want you to think “’tis but a flesh wound!”
Meanwhile, the worlds greatest bezzle economy keeps on rolling. It’s only the middle class that are in a depression, with some mezzanine CMBS holders possibly joining them in the bread lines.
Lots of foreign banks also hold US CRE debts, https://wolfstreet.com/2024/02/12/even-banks-in-asia-pacific-apac-on-the-hook-for-us-office-cre-fitch/.
Should we invite all of those stuck foreigners to this year’s Xmas office party?
Hu boy, i guess “we” learned nothing from 2008…
Oh yeah, I have seen that. For a while a building in town was actually owned by the Swedish Sovereign Fund.
Apparently they learned precisely nothing from 2007 …
I’m not an expert, I’ve been seeing rumors that the oil price has been artificially kept more or less stable despite the substantial chaos in West Asia (Philip Pilkington was pointing out as much, anyway). If this is the case, and it has been held to place because it is election year or some such, then when it gets released the impact would be that much stronger and sudden. I expect some financial chaos this year, and the massive layoffs in tech might be the canary in the coalmine.
There’s an oil boom in Africa now. Are prices artificial? Or is another source being ignored out of habit? aka, oil only comes from the places we have until now expected oil to come from. Africa isn’t on the list of expected places, as far as I recall. / my 2 cents
A Drilling Boom in Africa
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/A-Drilling-Boom-in-Africa.html
My take on all this is that oil isn’t going away, no matter what the West does. However, if the West starves itself of reliable energy sources it leaves the future to other nations. (This isn’t an argument against more efficient use of energy or continuing research into cleaner reliable energy, it’s an argument against the net-zero fantasy that’s seeing the impoverishment of Western European countries. How’s Germany doing?
Oh, thanks for sharing this info! I wasn’t aware at all. That would explain the lack of severe shock in prices, or at least less of a need to artificially keep it down. I do recall reading a bit about the NIGAL pipeline when the Niger coup occurred, which I think is still scheduled to be made, and would legitimately be a game changer. I wonder if some West African countries can use oil wealth to become a bit more sovereign, or if most are going to end up like Nigeria, falling apart even as revenues grow.
Yeah i think Biden has been tapping the petroleum dole quite heavily of late.
Can’t help think that is also why the LNG exports got curtailed recently.
Reading the economic rah-rah narratives, one would think the US companies didn’t have customers/clients in other countries.
Prabowo Subianto: What can Indonesia expect from its new strongman leader?
I am no big fan of Prabowo, although I did predict Jokowi playing the role of Kingmaker in getting the former elected in the following comment https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/09/indonesias-wait-and-see-approach-towards-joining-brics.html#comment-3927532. The Jokowi Effect, as some are calling it in Indonesia, results in PDI-P, the major party backing Jokowi in the last two elections, losing their traditional strongholds of Central Java, and Bali. In fact, Ganjar Pranowo, PDI-P’s candidate for the President, used to be the Governor of Central Java, but voters largely abandoned him for Prabowo based on Gibran’s (Jokowi’s son) candidacy.
As to Prabowo being a xenophobic, that’s just sour grapes from Western media. At one time, Prabowo had raised some concerns about foreign capital playing too big a role in the development of Indonesia’s e-commerce market, in particular he raised the possibility of local capital leaving Indonesia, which is a valid concern given the amount of capital flights Indonesia has experienced in the past.
One rumor that is going around is that Prabowo will hold the presidency for just two years before giving way to Jokowi’s son. If that really happens, then The Wizard of Kalorama™ should take a couple of remedial lessons from Jokowi while eating his favorite Indonesian food, nasi goreng.
CNBC coverage this morning on a topic du jour from the heady days of 2008 to 2009. It was 15 years ago today, that Allen Stanford got the perp walk and his $7 billion empire tumbled to dust. If anyone wishes to recall the scam, it involved hubris and an offshore bank entity based in Antigua. The ruse was perpetrated to wealthy and retirees as a “high yield insured CD” which is like a unicorn, in that it’s imaginary. These schemes come to light once the winds begin to shift, much like Madoff ponzi, and the tide begins to turn against the schemes of these cheaters.
Fast forward. Reporting today on CNBC, Stanford is enjoying a lifetime of orange jumpsuits as he was charged and sentenced to life in prison. He is still, to this day, gumming up the last $1+ Billion to those he cheated and harmed. No shame I guess. Appealing without end…what a country. Adding on, the article linked below is the most recent item I could seek out.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/27/business/td-bank-ponzi-scheme-stanford-settlement/index.html
“FBI director makes unannounced trip to Israel, meets counterparts”
‘Christopher Wray, counterparts discussed ‘current and future threat landscape facing both Israel and the US,’ says statement.’
Yeah, I am going to be taking liberties with what really happened. So Wray went to Israel where the Israelis gave him a list of individuals and organizations that they want him to crack down on. It does not matter to Wray that these are his own fellow Americans who are exercising their right to protest and dissent. if they are against what Israel is doing then likely they are against Biden and the Democrats so that makes them fair game. First Amendment? What’s that?
Was Christopher Wray summoned to Israel to bend the knee and accept his tasking ?
How does one support genocide and sleep at night?
… The path of Dark Brandon is beset on all sides
By the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men
Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will
Shepherds the weak into the valley of darkness
For he is truly Netanyahu’s keeper and the killer of lost children
And I will strike down upon thee
With great vengeance and furious anger
Those who attempt to poison and destroy my reputation
And you will know my name is the game
When I lay my vengeance upon thee
Nobody (family blogs) with a Biden!
(bang-bang shoot-shoot)
Caitlin Johnstone has an answer for that-
https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/continuing-to-support-israel-at-this-point-just-means-youre-a-garbage-human-being-694adf21570f
Prosperity gospel?
In and out of government, we are ruled by persons whose behavior is indistinguishable from that of sociopaths (in the popular sense of the term, which I am told is conflated and confused with “psychopath”).
To my mind, the failure of Dating Apps is mostly baked into the cake.
There are close to 50 season of the tv shows Bachelor and Bachelorette on the book (48?). Recall this is a show that is designed to end in a marriage or something close to it. Even with all that, there are only 9 couples still together. And of those, all put one are from a decade ago.
The formats adjust expiations upward, leading to almost inevitable disappointments.
The formats adjust expiations upward
I love it. “Adjusting expiations upward” explains so much of what is going on and is definitely more refined than the old “beatings will increase till morale improves”.
I encourage everybody to use that expression. Seriously.
Talking of manatees, I used to watch Snooty the Manatee at South Florida Museum on Snootycam back in the day. He sadly died in an accident at the tender age of 69 a few years ago.
Animal cams might be the only good thing about the internet.
There were a few collectible bubbles in the early 1970’s, Hummel figurines went crazy, while in coins, the Israel commemorative silver coin bubble was quite something to behold, especially since it was my first bubble of many to be an eyewitness to.
The State of Israel in 1958 started issuing what are termed ‘NCLT’ which means non circulating legal tender coins strictly for collectors and some of them had fairly low mintages and attractive designs, and by about this time 50 years ago there was a rather feverish market for all of them.
Coins about the size of a silver $ were fetching $50 to $500 half a century ago, and then the bubble popped and today most of those same coins are worth the silver melt-down value, nobody cares.
“The Path to October 7: How Iran Built Up and Managed a Palestinian ‘Axis of Resistance’”
Have bookmarked this as it is so long and requires at least one cup of coffee to read. But I was just thinking. Can you imagine an equivalent British publication from 200 years ago with the title-
“The Path to 1783: How France Built Up and Managed an American ‘Axis of Resistance’ with the 13 States.”
“Military operation into Rafah would be catastrophic: Australia, Canada, New Zealand Anadolu Agency”
But will they actually do anything about it? I’d be glad if they did, but I suspect that they will just spout the diplomatic equivalent of “thoughts and prayers” and meekly fall into line when the American Master snaps his fingers?
Obviously ‘to the current security establishments’ was excised from that sentence.
Here in jockistan, the the creepy ‘community security trust’* are all over the news, perhaps because of the now undeniable ‘recession’.
*I love one of the mission statements:
Promote good relations between British Jews and the rest of British society by working towards the elimination of racism, and antisemitism in particular..
An American tragedy turns KC Chiefs’ parade into day of mourning in Kansas City Kansas City Star
~~~~~~~~~~~
The kill-ratio of the shooter in this latest instance only got into the low single digits-which would hardly make the news these days, as ideally you want double-digits at a bare minimum, but this was different, a mass shooter utilizing a celebration to cause mayhem, killing a woman and wounding many.
…but what if the shooter had killed Kelce?
Low kill ratio means gang-related with poor shooting and lots of collateral damage (can you say glock switch) and not a active shooter with mass murder on his mind. Strong possibility the actual targets weren’t hit.
Not that it matters to the victims.
I understand it was just a disagreement where some 50 or so shots were fired, probably over nothing.
Re: Zaid Jilani’s exhortation that the Palestinian solidarity movement ‘grow up’, on Lee Fang’s site:
Jilani’s use of the term ‘maximalist’ to refer to the bad habits and the worst excesses of the activist left is appropriate; more mature movements should moderate their messaging so as not to silo themselves. However, we don’t have to conflate ‘growing up’ with moving to the right, which Jilani seems to be suggesting in asking us to appeal to right-of-center suburban moms. While I am open, tactically, to making a persuasive appeal to a broader audience in order to gain support for the goals of the movement (like ending U.S. military aid to Israel), Jilani seems to reject, at least for political purposes, the notion that American values are on full display in the country’s treatment of this disaster, and also in Palestine. His suggestion, aside from dropping the ‘Turtle Island’ stuff, seems to be to frame Israel as a Middle Eastern country, and thereby to alien-ize and other-ize it. I understand that many in America like to think that their country is wonderful; this is a major problem we face in attempting to change anything about it.
It’s another instance of a dysfunction very common to liberals; George Lakoff mounted passionate defenses of his ideal America, which, apparently, was founded on ‘nurturant parent values’. This is ahistorical, and also dangerous, if we agree that bad analysis leads to bad strategy.
A further example from the piece: in a defense of U.S foreign policy, Jilani asserts that the U.S. military “takes pains” to avoid civilian casualties, but where is the evidence for this? 300,000 Iraqi civilians might disagree, if they were alive.
So, ought we to ignore history, put on our Uncle Sam outfits, and Orientalize Israeli settlers from New Jersey; hypocritically decry as un-American a racially and religiously motivated war of settler-colonial expansion; engage in the political form of ‘respectability politics’ so as not to offend the sensibilities of a cohort of people who would never join us in the streets; and add some garnish to the resumes we then hand in to neoliberal think tanks? No thanks. Instead, I’ll be in the streets, side by side with some very intelligent and strategically-astute people, as well as the usual assortment of nutjobs, fruitcakes, and fools.
From the piece:
Credit to Israeli strategy, by not mentioning the ICJ? Which the author does not do either.
Middle America has been so propagandized by the Hasbara Program as to be incapable of critical thought.
Zaid Jilani is trying to have it both ways.
Most liberals are similarly incoherent, dating back to John Locke, who bloviated about ‘freedom’ while being a founding member of, and the third largest shareholder in the Royal Africa Company. One should always ask “for whom” of the ‘freedom’ and ‘rights’ these people talk about.
The political class in the U.S. is shockingly out of touch on this, moreso than usual. While others around the world have moved beyond the language of ‘ceasefire’, and some are even are starting to demand sanctions, like John Boyd in Ireland, here, we are still being chided by those who think of themselves as the adults in the room for our humanitarian sentiment.
When, or, I should say if, the representatives of this class of people are at Nuremburg-like trials, I will not heave a sigh or a wish for them. They have made their values quite plain.
.
Re: Article by Fang and Jilai
~The Palestine Human Rights Cause must mature beyond the extreme left.~
I find these prescriptive articles quite interesting and often a complete waste of time.This, I think, is the crux of the chaps argument.
‘But it must be said that too much of the movement is captured by maximalist sloganeering and fringe ideology that is ultimately undermining the cause of Palestinian freedom. Like many other movements that find their home on the left, it often argues in an echo chamber’
This may be so but what I found refreshing is that quite a few youngsters after the 7th of October apparently decided to research on their own via Tic-Tok with 20 million hits on Bin Laden’s,Letter to America.Intrigued I read it for the first time and I think his analysis of America would hold true for most of the current NC readership.I imagine it also rung some bells for the young.
Shortly after this The Guardian, that has published his letter for many years, took it down.
Anyway I think my point is that people,especially the young,will do their own research and the Palestine Human Rights Cause is maturing on it’s own well enough and their is plenty of evidence for Messrs Fang and Jilai outside the echo chamber if they really want to look for it
Re torching the Google car–twice now in my town I have been caught by the lens of the Google Street View car that has been cruising around my neighborhood and town for seemingly weeks. You have to wonder whether the thing is as much about Google advertising but I don’t recall signing a waver on my upcoming fame (presumably faces are blurred).
These futurists are getting to be a pain.
Heh, now you reminded me of a pair of comedians when the street view car first visited Norway:
https://www.theregister.com/2010/02/10/street_view_frogmen/
From AI won’t take our jobs and it might even save the middle class
?
This guy must be smoking crack.
It’s burdened physicians with endless computer facing record keeping during patient encounters; not sure why this would be less of a debacle for NPs? I suppose maybe it enables them insofar as it makes physician time even more scare.
Also, so fewer younger MDs going into primary care that it’s a real challenge in regions that are sprawling with new overpriced boxes to find a PCP taking new patients. Specialties are financial no-brainers when a couple of extra fellowship years piled onto their debt load can lead to at least double the pay and ideally no on-call as a hospitalist.
Okay, but when people are literally unspeakably ill and go to a hospital to live or die in the care of strangers, it helps to at least have some kind of paper trail to go on.
But those poor put upon doctors…
We’re fighting the last war now with out of date expensive armaments, throwing money at the problem.
To throw more alms & arms @ the Ukraine would be tantamount to doing the same in Saigon about this time in 1975.
Asked for update on Biden promise to speak to press, KJP says 7 times she doesn’t ‘have anything’ to share FOX. So which White House reporter — the crème de la crème of our press corps — is going to ask this: “Mr. President, would you please count backwards from 100 by sevens?” (To be fair, the West Wing would totally prep Biden and plant the question. But you never know!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
My sister’s mother-in-law turned 100 in July and we had a big party at her assisted living place in Orange County.
The assisted living place had a cognitive test they gave prospective residents, and when Jean was a spry 90 her interviewer asked to spell ‘beautiful’ backwards, so she turned around and spelled it forwards & backwards. In like Flynn she was.
It isn’t as if you can fix Genocide Joe, father time has left him far out, man. I wonder if the plan is to keep him in office until they know if Trump can run or not.
Maybe they have a method to test any true genius as they grow older, and it could be like a Wonderlic test for our best and brightest aspiring to the throne…er rather aspiring to reign over all Americans with dark lasers from their eyes…drats this analogy has gone into a pretzel twist I suppose.
The next iteration of Presidential aspirants, looking ahead to 2028 ( hope is we reach 2026, but who knows ) that an R candidate or a D candidate clocks in with a much younger age. Then again that could include a Newsome, or a Buttegieg, or a Youngkin…maybe not a Harris unless there is an alternate candidate named Harris.
What the line from a Don Henley song, End of the Innocence…they’re beating plowshares into swords, for this tired old man that we elected king…
People shooting children are insane. Insane people do insane things.
Three people shooting children in a national televised venue is not a coincidence, it is a planned conspiracy. Conspiracies have end goals.
Wednesday’s violence took place on the sixth anniversary of one of the most notorious mass shootings in recent U.S. history, when 17 people were killed and 17 more were injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
1 in 365 chance this is a coincidence.
Still no names of the shooters. Yup.
I was wondering why the FBI was there before the shooting. Because it’s a train station across from a national monument? Was there some chatter they picked up? Maybe I shouldn’t have read that book Black Mass about Whitey Bulger and the Boston FBI?
I have really resisted this interpretation of events. But the coincidence of this happening when chatter was starting to happen about the Shellenberger reporting and the stories coming from the southern border, it gets hard for me to resist this interpretation. From local news it was 2 or 3 black dudes with backpacks full of ordinance. Said backpacks’ exteriors’ pictures filmed shown against a cement outdoor stairs wall. No picture of the backpacks contents. Ongoing investigation and all that. Still… wtf? I don’t know. None of this makes sense to me. It happened. People were grievously injured. But it seems somehow off. I don’t know.
Adding: KC has a history of violence both local and yes mob related. (Ask me about the River Quay bombings back in the day.) But nothing like this ever before. wtf. It doesn’t feel right to me. At least 2 of the dudes were chased and tackled by regular guys in the crowd who were just there to celebrate like everyone else.
adding: the guys in the crowd who turned into danger and chased down and tackled the alleged perps have my deepest gratitude. Thank you.
Just my spec… granted, Ukraine has attacked Russia, pissing them off, but recently zelensky and Russia seem somewhat aligned.
Zelensky prohibited himself from negotiating (perhaps encouraged by Nazis). Russia might be happy to continue the war until reaching its objectives without having to explain to global south that it’s not ready for peace.
Zelensky and his new top commander like to throw men at lost positions, helping Russia to de-mil Ukraine. Zaluzhny was apparently sacked because he fought that policy.
The recent Russian attack seems to have killed a lot of nazi type Ukrainians soldiers, a group apparently supporting Zaluzhny. This attack may have met both zelensky and Russian objectives.
Imo if Russia wanted zelensky dead he’d be dead. Perhaps Russia thinks he is either useful now or might be in the future. Could the west complain if he remained leader after the war ends?
Not completely serious (ok, not at all serious) a comment, but I really do wonder if Zelensky is a real life version of Stirlitz, from the well known Soviet era show (Stirlitz being a Soviet agent who goes deep undercover into Nazi Germany and rises to a high position in SS intelligence service, all the while secretly serving the Motherland.)
I was thinking about the value of a Human life, particularly what the value of a Human life is to Mandy Cohen.
If I assume her salary and benefits amount to $240K per Annum, or $20K per Month and I further assume that official Covid Deaths stay steady at 10K per month, she values my life and yours at $2, or half the price of a small Cafe Latte.
$4.01k update:
It has been a rough ride and i’m not out of the woods yet having bought in on a $57k per basis on my ground floor opportunity @ Win-Co supermarket’s Coinstar terminal back in the day, but getting there with Bitcoin now fetching over $52k on the coveted open market.
I’m experiencing no FOMO on my modest mid 1-figure investment…
Could the sky be the proverbial limit and are we talkin’ Van Allen belt?
Team Blue texts alert:
“Obama is alarmed “Trump will tear our democracy down to win”
“BREAKING via NBC News: Liz Cheney warns…”
This is from one of their spam emails:
Nancy Pelosi emailed you.
Hakeem Jeffries emailed you.
Hillary Clinton emailed you.
Katherine Clark emailed you.
Jasmine Crockett emailed you.
James Carville emailed you.
Marc Elias emailed you.
Who are they even trying to appeal to? James Carville is in the list. I’ve been getting a bunch of Obama emails lately, so I feel like they are deploying the vaunted “Obama list”.
Turn of phrasing from none other Carville, LSU football enthusiast and raging Cajun that he is…drag a donor list through an upscale residential neighborhood and see who turns up…
Or instead of a neighborhood, maybe through Palo Alto or Manhattan… I’m sure Axelrod is up to something as well… collection of reptiles.
From which server did Hillary send her email? Asking for a friend…
Nitter.cz just posted a closure notice. :-(
Time to find another instance, some still seem to be up.
” Torching the Google car” . . .
How long before organized mobs begin invading and burning down Server Farms and Data Centers?
I would not bet my life savings on that happening. A self driving car is a tangible thing that some people see every day, while most people have never seen server farms and data centers.
Good point. I will revise my thinking on that score. Probably server farms will remain held harmless. Which is good because no server farms equals no Naked Capitalism.
So probably more and more robocars will be torched, and maybe even some cute little robo-food-delivery robo-thingies. One hopes enough people torch enough robocars fast enough in a particular market to shut down the robo-car effort in that particular market area before the police or digi-pinkertons are mobilized to shoot robo-car torchers.
the raison d’etre for the big space announcement is to take gloss off the roaring success that is the Carlson/ Putin interview. the end. -a.v.