A little girl said monsters were in her bedroom. It was 60,000 bees BBC
Climate
The Flooding Will Come “No Matter What” ProPublica
On Rereading A Sand County Almanac Fossils and Other Living Things
China?
China’s problem is excess savings, not too much capacity Michael Pettis, FT
China’s slow April factory, services activity dents economic momentum Channel News Asia
Commentary: China’s GDP grew more than expected, but is its data reliable? Channel News Asia
Elon Musk Can’t Solve Tesla’s China Crisis With His Desperate Asia Visit Wired
Tesla clears key Chinese regulatory hurdles during Musk visit France24
Chief scientist in China’s COVID-19 vaccine project under probe amid graft crackdown on healthcare sector Channel News Asia
Malaysia’s KFC closes over 100 outlets amid boycotts linked to Gaza conflict Channel News Asia. Good. Southeast Asian cuisine is world-class. Let’s keep it that way.
India
Rural Labour in the Modi Years People’s Democracy
India denies ‘unwarranted’ report linking spy official to killing plot in US Anadolu Agency
Syraqistan
Scoop: Congress threatens ICC over Israeli arrest warrants Axios. Johnson: “[U]se every available tool to prevent such an abomination.”
The Memo: Potential arrest warrant for Netanyahu gets pushback from White House The Hill
US says ICC lacks jurisdiction amid potential arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials Anadolu Agency
* * * Israel’s army ready to invade Rafah in 72 hours if no cease-fire deal reached: Israeli media Anadolu Agency
US finds Israeli military units violated human rights; withholds consequences The Hill.
* * * Temporary aid pier off Gaza to be operational in May: Pentagon Anadolu Agency
Arab states reticent as U.S. pushes postwar plan for Gaza WaPo
* * * Journalism professors call on New York Times to review Oct. 7 report WaPo
Gaza Encampments
Scoop: Democrats turn up the heat on Columbia University Axios
Universities Face an Urgent Question: What Makes a Protest Antisemitic? NYT. Commentary:
Misleading new @nytimes piece on the protests titled "What Makes a Protest Antisemitic" alludes to students threatening to "kill" Jews but neglects to mention that the person who said "kill the Jews" was a *zionist* protester waving an Israeli flag. pic.twitter.com/2UoAleSHSA
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) April 29, 2024
‘This Weaponization Is Meant to Shift Focus Away From Gaza’: FAIR
* * * Two, three, many Gaza encampments: Veteran of 1968 Columbia strike speaks out Liberation News
Mapping pro-Palestine college campus protests around the world Al Jazeera. Another map; with fewer sites than listed at NC.
* * * “Take a Building Challenge”:
Ingenious!
Columbia:
NEW
Student protestors at Columbia have broken into Hamilton Hall and occupied it.
They’ve also unfurled a banner naming Hamilton Hall “Hind Hall” after Hind Rajab.
See next tweet for article. pic.twitter.com/nGrdqDiSaZ
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) April 30, 2024
Cal Poly:
Everyone has seen the bonk video, but it's worth watching the full thing to see how Cal Poly kids pushed out riot cops. Look at the brave people in the front, faces literally pressed against shields! Look at how everyone's holding onto each other so no one can get grabbed away! pic.twitter.com/RLSsibX9qo
— Calla (@CallaWalsh) April 29, 2024
“Marginally more forceful” than Occupy, as I said.
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine Retreats From Villages on Eastern Front as It Awaits U.S. Aid NYT
Kicking the can down the crumbling road in Ukraine Responsible Statecraft
Biden admin isn’t fully convinced Ukraine can win, even with new aid Politico
Another US precision-guided weapon falls prey to Russian electronic warfare, US says Defense One
Another US pilot confirms F-16s in Ukraine are toast InfoBrics
* * * If Russia demonstrates that it’s genuinely willing to negotiate, we’ll certainly be there – Blinken Ukrainska Pravda. This guy really is dumb as a rock.
* * * Parallel economy: How Russia is defying the West’s boycott Al Jazeera
‘Russian fertiliser is the new gas’ for Europe, top producer warns FT
European Disunion
Trial begins for German far-right group accused of plotting coup France24
Europe’s Core New Left Review
Portugal’s forgotten revolution MR Online
South of the Border
ICJ to hear Mexico’s dispute with Ecuador: All you need to know Al Jazeera
Global Elections
The European Union will reportedly open a new investigation into Meta over election policies Engadget
Biden Administration
Digital Watch
A.I. Start-Ups Face a Rough Financial Reality Check NYT
Managing Up Ed Zitron, Managing Up. Good clean fun:
[W]hile rot economics are responsible for making technology products manifestly worse, this transformation was only possible thanks to the interventions of a managerial class.
This is the management consultant mindset that dominates tech — trapping users in terrible experiences by monopolizing industries, then making their products worse once they know that their users can’t go anywhere else. Yet their massive success only seeks to inspire generations of useless founders, obsessed with creating profitable pain-boxes over useful products. And as we speak, one of the more loathsome one of them all is rising to power.
I am, of course, talking about Sam Altman.
Dovetails neatly with Doctorow’s enshittification cycle by fingering the class executing the enshittification. And speaking of Sam Altman–
* * * Jensen Huang and Sam Altman among tech chiefs invited to federal AI Safety Board The Register
Critics question tech-heavy lineup of new Homeland Security AI safety board Ars Technica
Military is the missing word in AI safety discussions FT
* * * OpenAI slapped with GDPR complaint: How do you correct your work? Tech Register
Meta is offering some creators thousands of dollars in bonuses for Threads posts Engadget. I loathe that term “creator” with every fibre of my being (synonym: “platform-dependent”). Was Rembrandt a “creator”? Mozart? Heck, Keith Richards?
How an empty S3 bucket can make your AWS bill explode Maciej Pocwierz, Medium. AWS, in essence, makes you pay for wrong numbers. At scale (like a DDoS) that adds up fast.
Apple targets Google staff to build artificial intelligence team FT. Son of Boeing buys McDonnell Douglas?
* * * Temporary policy: Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT) is banned StackOverflow. “The primary problem is that while the answers which ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies produce have a high rate of being incorrect, they typically look like the answers might be good and the answers are very easy to produce.” One year ago, unchanged to date.
Debugging Tech Journalism Asterisk Magazine
Pre-crapification:
NEW VIDEO – Rabbit R1: Barely Reviewablehttps://t.co/CqwXs5m1Ia
This is the pinnacle of a trend that's been annoying for years: Delivering barely finished products to win a "race" and then continuing to build them after charging full price. Games, phones, cars, now AI in a box pic.twitter.com/WutKQeo2mp
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) April 30, 2024
Imperial Collapse Watch
War or Nothing A.R. Moxon, The Reframe
Guillotine Watch
Apollo Accused in Lawsuit of Illegal Human Life Wagering Scheme Bloomberg
Class Warfare
Going Meta on Culture Wars Crooked Timber
Finding Your Self: Desire Paths In Identity Space 3 Quarks Daily
Why do people hear their names being called in the woods? Live Science
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
BIBI BUSTED?
(melody borrowed from I’m Looking Over A Four-leaf Clover as performed by Willie Nelson)
Bibi’s lookin’ over both his shoulders
There’s war crimes to answer for
Crimes that arise from his Gaza campaigns
He’ll pass away with his ankles in chains
While he was reigning he kept complaining
‘Lets launch an atomic war!’
Bibi’s lookin’ over both his shoulders
His neck’s getting mighty sore
He can’t be lazy — some Likud crazy
Could shoot Bibi dead for sure
Hamas is waiting Mossad’s in that queue
The Hague is much safer for someone like you
There’s no denying there’s people crying
For deaths that were caused by you
Bibi’s lookin’ over both his shoulders
For martyrs and zealots too
Bibi’s lookin’ over both his shoulders
For grudges behind their eyes
People are plotting because they feel used
He wrecked their futures and they aren’t amused
His weekend warriors — those clerks and lawyers
Lost friends due to Bibi’s lies
Bibi’s lookin over both his shoulders
For enemies in disguise
Bibi keeps dreaming of him redeeming
His fortunes the umpteenth time
Visions of Zion from river to sea
No hungry Arabs and no olive trees
Once he’s arrested we have suggested
Each meal must be Whirled Peas
Bibi’s lookin over both his shoulders
For cops who keep shouting, ‘Freeze!’
Perhaps the deletion of Netanyahu might be long-deferred payback for his foundational role in the assassination of Rabin. The Mossad may have a decades-long institutional memory. And there’s lots of “no fingerprints” methods if sending a message is not the primary goal.
“Another US pilot confirms F-16s in Ukraine are toast’
Certainly that will be true if they use Ukrainian pilots. The group that they are presently training are still not up to scratch as far as learning the English language is concerned. And I won’t even mention the difficulty of them trying to forget their in-built reflexes for flying Russian-built fighters versus learning new reflexes flying US-built fighters. As of a week ago, they are up to the stage where they can take off from an airbase, fly it to another airbase and land there. So maybe we are looking at the Flying Tigers 2.0 instead?
Reminds me of the scene in the film ‘Gravity’, where the heroine manages to board a Russian space vessel and needs to press some button within so many seconds or else. Except the entire control panel labels are in Cyrillic characters. She ums and ahs, to up the tension, before pressing one button at random. Da da, it turns out to be the right one! Phew and she makes it back to Earth.
In the case of a Ukrainian F16 pilot, the controls will be labelled in Latin characters. Oh the tension when they make that film, will the pilot press the right button to avoid getting destroyed by the nasty Russians… or maybe not, I cannot see a happy ending in this case.
There was an absolutely hilarious news photo of the USA attacking an “ISIS” oil convoy in Syria just after the Russians arrived in 2015.
The US fighter-bomber’s screens were displaying Cyrillic letters.
No worries. Tom “Maverick” Cruise will be flying one of them F-16s soon enough, if a wunderwaffen is not enough, you can always add some Hollywood star power to more than even the odds. With Tom + Scientology finally joining the battle, I predict Russia will be joining the Union by this Christmas.
Well Scientology did once have a fleet of ships manned by their own Sea Organization. So maybe they can branch out into an Air Organization with a dedicated squadron of Scientologist fighter pilots. The mind boggles at how that could be turned into a film starring guess who.
What’s the military equivalent of a DC-8?
;)
Today? That would be a V-1.
Then those scientologists need to update their “book” if our actor friend is gonna save us!
(I had made a lame joke about the scientologists planes referred to in their “stuff”)
“There once was a thing called a V-2
To pilot which you did not need to.
You just pushed a button, and it would leave nuttin’
But stiffs and big holes and debris, too.”
–Rocket Limericks, Thomas Pynchon
The real Scientologist actor who flies is John Travolta. He is qualified up to multi-engine jet aircraft and owns a few, including a 707.
It must be nice being the Pharoah of Florida.
And this one “Another US precision-guided weapon falls prey to Russian electronic warfare, US says”
Use to be a big deal to capture functional Soviet weaponry and reverse engineer it so we could maybe neutralize it in the case of the theoretical land war. Have to remind myself how corrupt Ukrainian society was, and we are just throwing stuff over the fence hoping they can use it and hoping fingers crossed they won’t be selling units on the black market for, I don’t know, spare transformer parts or something.
It is something how quickly the Russians are able to adapt. Good thing our weapon development system is so robust.
The EW in question is basically GPS jamming. This cause the ground launched glide bomb to fall back to inertial guidance (basically a gyroscope and compass) that depending on distance will cause considerable drift. That is if they HIMARS launcher is not stuck in mud somewhere, and can’t reach the target in the first place.
Keep in mind that both Russia and China has their own GPS equivalents in orbit. Most likely your phone is equipped to receive all of them.
Frankly this is the first time in decades that US weapons and tactics are tangling with a peer opponent.
The again US military has shown multiple examples of hubris since the wall came down.
F-117 wonder plane shot down from violating basic mission planning procedures.
Predator drone video getting intercepted by Iraqs setting up a consumer sat receiver near the ground station.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202311/16/WS65563158a31090682a5ee9b3.html
November 16, 2023
Beidou system recognized as a global standard
By Luo Wangshu
The International Civil Aviation Organization of the United Nations has officially recognized China’s Beidou Navigation Satellite System as a global standard, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China on Thursday.
Beidou has become one of four global satellite navigation systems recognized by the UN, along with the United States’ GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and the European Union’s Galileo. It has served users in more than 200 countries and regions worldwide.
The domestically developed system meets the requirements for providing global civil aviation applications and is compatible and interoperable with other satellite navigation systems…
Ah yes, Galileo. I keep forgetting about that one. Maybe because i wrote it off after reading that they neutered its supposed impressive accuracy after pressure from USA, who feared it would be used by “insurgents” for targeting.
The Russians are fighting to survive.
The professionals in the Pentagon brainquarters are working for salary, benefits, promotions.
This is apples and oranges comparison.
The group that they are presently training is probably trying to not die. The prospect of going against Russians in F-16 can easily make one instantly forgot English language, and everything else.
Recently a remote control F-16 was demonstrated. Depending on how it is configured, I suppose remote controlled/autonomous F-16s could be operated from Ukrainian bases … by USAF pilots from outside the Ukraine.
It would fare no better than the mentioned glide bombs in the EW environment Russia is broadcasting.
It would be cheaper to try to send in Predator drones…
As I said, if an F-16, remotely piloted or otherwise, soaks up Russian missiles, then it will have done its job as far as NATO is concerned.
Basically using surplus F-16s as expensive wild weasel drones?
It’s not as if cost matters.
For that matter, NATO is indifferent even to human cost, as long as it doesn’t affect voters in NATO countries.
Cost doesn’t matter. Innability to produce new things in quantity matters…
There are literally thousands of mothballed F-16s.
Mothballed F-16’s are collected to furnish refurbishable spare parts for air-worthy fighters, not to be made air-worthy themselves.
An F-16 intersecting with a Russian missile is not likely to be refurbishable.
If you think that those F-16 cannot be made flyable, you are whistling past the graveyard.
And that is before touching the thousands of flyable F-16s.
So then… Ukraine and the “West” could easily win if they just tried harder? Why are they dithering?
In my misspent ‘youth’ I had the great honor of hanging out with USAF fighter pilots.
At the time F-16 was new. One seasoned F-4 pilot was sure he in an F-4 would beat an F-16.
That pilot was assuming the F-16 pilot was qualified.
I doubt any Russian fighter pilot fears anyone in an F-16.
Has a lot to do with experience in the aircraft!
The F-16 then and the F-16 today are different beasts.
The original intent of it was a cheap day time fighter for NATO members to police their air space.
That said, Russian jets have not stood still either. While the airframe of the latest SU is very similar to the original SU-27, the EW capabilities and such seem to even give a F-35 trouble.
IIRC, when I was small, the best fighter weapons squadrons were ANG squadrons, still flying F-4 Phantoms. They regularly beat regular USAF squadrons flying F-16s and F-15s.
This was because the ANG pilots were mostly Vietnam vets and had more time and combat experience.
Just pointing out that moving remaining fighters around is pretty much what Ukrainian air force does nowadays – so they’re good to go.
As for the rest, F-16 is a weapons delivery platform, don’t let anyone to tell you otherwise. You take off, you fly to a point where you release your ordinance, you return to base. Or, in the case of Ukraine, you take off, and three minutes into the mission you get slammed by a long-range air-to-air missile launched by a Su-35 250 kilometers away. Even the lucky Ukrainian pilots will never, ever see a Russian fighter – not even on their radars.
And it’s not like Ukrainians will have that many weapons to select from, or the radars with that many functions in them, or an AWACS feeding them the battlefield situation. So most of the “capabilities” of F-16 are pretty useless to them. If they ever have a chance to deploy any of those fighters it won’t be in fours or even pairs – so they can skip the leading/following part.
Six weeks, six months or sixteen months of training won’t make much difference. Ukraine lacks all the rest needed for successful air war – resources, logistics, command and control, functioning strategy and an achievable goal.
The UKR doesn’t need an AWACS, they’ll be using a NATO feed from one flying *just* over the Polish border.
No airborne radar has been build that can see more than third of Ukraine from Poland. Or from Romania or Black Sea for that matter. Ground clutter, radar horizon and all that physics stuff makes things very difficult beyond 230 mile range.
The radars that can see beyond horizon bounce the waves from atmospheric layers and are too big for any aircraft. The latest are too big for even an airfield…
The hopium is strong in you!
Or maybe those Ukrainian pilots will curse in English when the S-300 locks on…
Mayday! Mayday! Blyat!
For a second i read that as splat…
If those F-16s can soak up a few Russian missiles before NATO openly and directly intervenes, then they have done their job as far as NATO is concerned.
After all, voters in the West don’t care how many Ukrainians are killed.
After all, voters in the West don’t care how many Ukrainians are killed., Come on finster, you’ve crossed into fantasy land when you say “voters”, at least here in the US where voters and their votes are an abstract idea used to manufacture the desired outcome. Surely you don’t believe election results here reflect the will of the people.
Good point. How about “nobody of influence and authority in the West cares how many Ukrainians are killed.”?
That sounds accurate.
Elections? Oh, you mean the ritual that Americans go through every 2, 4 and 6 years to convince themselves they have a democracy. They always get the same result – another shyster politician controlled by the elites!
Data can’t be reliable if they don’t include prostitution and the sale of illegal drugs in their counts of economic output.
China is just balancing the books on the Opium Wars.
“Data can’t be reliable if they don’t include…”
This remark may well be a joke, but the remark is severe prejudice and highly offensive to the 1.4 billion.
It’s a joke that is funny ’cause it’s true.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/drugs-prostitution-they-are-part-gdp-too-u-k-says-n118286
https://www.vox.com/2014/6/20/17587412/gdp-formula-ever-changed
Experts say that, if you want to fix the economy, you need to go and get some.
What’s not a joke, is pretending that GDP is an accurate measurement of anything.
P.S. Are you a Karen of some sorts? A joke police? You surely ain’t Chinese.
On that note, i seem to recall a recent article claiming China had stopped using GDP internally to measure economic performance. And instead focused on actual output amounts from factories etc.
So it’s okay to make a personal attack in a comment (Are you a Karen?) after making an offensive comment and claiming it was a joke?
Highly offensive. Extremly offensive. Beyond any rhyme and reason offensive. As offensive as Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Western civilisation is going down for a reason, and it is way overdue.
“Data can’t be reliable if they don’t include…”
This is a severely prejudiced comment, meant to be demeaning. The comment is meant to be offensive to the 1.4 billion.
Ah, so you are the official Chinese collective sentiment police then?
That account is certainly a one-note piano.
For whoever is behind that account…. the obsessive China focus is enough to make me skip over the post if I notice the account name. It’s not doing you much good when people just ignore you for standing on a soapbox. I appreciate the Chinese perspective (and would certainly welcome more Chinese voices here) but not when it veers into reflexive propaganda. Just my 2 cents.
It begins to seem like “hansbara” . . . to coin a word.
– ‘US finds Israeli military units violated human rights; withholds consequences’ – The Hill.
“Under the federal Leahy law, the U.S. government is barred from providing weapons to foreign militaries or security units that are found to have engaged in human rights abuses or violated international humanitarian law.”
“State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel argued Monday that the administration is in compliance with the Leahy Law despite not imposing any restrictions on military assistance to Israel.”
But we are ready to take action – against the ICC and any country that supports it if they dare do their job and raise a finger against Israel’s genocidal leader.
This is the leader of your “rules based” global order in all its glory. We are a nation of laws – it’s just that we can ignore them whenever we feel like it.
we can ignore them whenever we feel like it.
To a large extent that is because a significant section of the population is, as Col. Douglas McGregor has pointed out multiple times, not paying attention. The “we” is the ruling oligarchs, the “controller” in Huxley’s “Brave New World,” the “Party” in Orwell’s 1984. It certainly does not include the “me” typing this.
I spoke with two friends this past weekend that I have not spoken to in months and neither of them knew about the college campus protest. I was goobsmacked. I live in a world that includes reading NC and multiple non-MSM sources every morning. They live in a world where the news clips they get are mediated/curated to NOT provide information. They live in a world where there interest (music, literature, etc.) can be dialed at anytime to while away the time.
It bears repeating. Laws are meaningless. Enforcement is all that matters.
Finster’s First Law readeth thusly: “There is no such thing as law. There is only context.”
The difference lies in the consequences. Such a ruling rendered by the ICP against BIBI and its henchmen is outside the direct influence of the US. Sanctions intended to be imparted directly from the US against one of the ultra-Orthodox battalions of the IDF are instead of the complete disposition of Washington’s interests. This would ensure that they send a “hopeful” message to the public opinion of a country full of demonstrations, while urging Israel to de-escalate against Iran. This is a sign of the “rules-based international order” in full action.
Tomorrow is May Day. Just sayin’
The 9th of May is Victory day in Russia with the usual parade. The guys at The Duran have been suggesting that the Ukraine and the west will see this as an ideal opportunity to again try to destroy the Kersh Bridge with missile attacks. Yes, it is a civilian bridge which is why the two previous attacks ended up killing innocent civilians but there has been this obsession with Crimea and the Kersh bridge for a very long time in both the Ukraine and the west. They really do want to see this bridge destroyed, no matter how many civilians they have to kill.
Further, since Russia now has a land bridge to Crimea, destroying the Kersh Bridge is a vengeful publicity stunt, exactly what one would expect from Ukraine’s leadership. No doubt they will invest their first trance of wunderwaffen in it, just as they spend precious shells bombarding civilians in Donetsk.
It is almost as if the western world is ruled by wicca, where performative rituals are key…
“…where performative rituals are key…”
Hmmm…. You just described Western Electoral Politics to a Tea Party.
indeed…
Bruh, theatrics is the very essence of the state and has been since Plato.
“Fascism is the aestheticization of politics” wrote the entirely overrated Walter Benjamin, in which case Ramses II and Louis xiv fall under the rubric of fascists.
They just need a container ship loaded with useless crap to run into the bridge. That will take it down in a minute. Think FSK bridge Balrimore.
They tried that when the bridge was being built claiming an accident but the Russians were on top of that with tugs – and a lot of weaponry aimed at the bridge of that ship.
And decades earlier the Baltimore bridge would have been crawling with seabees within a day. But these days everything is sub-contracted through multiple layers of retired officers.
Bob Wilson was one of the veterans who resided at my late mom’s assisted living place, and one morning over breakfast I asked him, ‘Tell me about your WW2 experience?’
He lived just outside of Philly and the day after Pearl Harbor he went to enlist in the Navy, but demand was so great it took almost a fortnight to get him in, and if you enlisted in the Navy in Philly and your last name started with the letters S through Z, you became a Seabee.
He related that he’d been to just about island in the South Pacific it seemed, and after a year of it, he decided he wanted a transfer to active duty, so his plan was to write the Department of the Navy every day, requesting said transfer, and after a year of his letter writing campaign received a letter from the Dept of the Navy which read:
‘Dear Ensign Wilson, you are a Seabee, stop sending letters.’
Sounds a little sketchy. Seabees didn’t exist until Jan 42 and I don’t think meaningful recruiting for the first construction battalions occurred before March. Initially they only recruited men with experience in the trades. I don’t know the make up of an NCB, probably a supply corps officer and chaplain, but all the other officers would be civil engineer corps. So if you weren’t in an NCB you would probably be in Public Works or equivalent of what today is called Resident Officer in Charge of Construction.
That there was an official reply sounds very suspect.
And to further the sense of deja vu with regard to stunts timed to sadden victory parades, apparently Zelensky has ordered Syrsky to hold Chasov Yar until after May 9 at any cost. Operation Meatgrinder v5.0.
Perhaps if the attack is successful Vlad will decide that’s enough and send a couple of Khinzals to pay a visit to the main span of the Oresund bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden.
I’m sure Ukraine wants to inflict a big PR hit on Russia before May 21, when Zelensky’s legal tenure in office expires. Because things may get really dicey for them after that. Has anyone seen Zaluzhny in London being the good little ambassador that he’s supposed to be? I would bet that his Right Sector “mates” may have some nasty plans concocted for dealing with Zelensky next month. And the Verkhovna Rada participation seems to keep shrinking every time you look at it.
Meanwhile Russia slowly grinds on. They remind me of the huge battering ram, Grond, that the orcs brought to the battle of Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings. Soldiers pushing it are killed and others take there place, arrows rain down on it, but still it continues, till it finally breaks the unbreakable gates of the fortress-city.
Everyone not involved in the fighting knows how Russia should have done it better. And every slowdown or stumble gets derided. “Oh, you haven’t taken Berdychi yet?” So Russia flows around Berdychi and takes Ocheretyne first before catching the smaller point of resistance on the backhand. With drones everywhere, it’s hard to be unpredictable. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the supposed breakthrough in Kharkov and Sumy turns out to be a diversion that pulls Ukraine defenses away from a big assault across the river in Kherson. But maybe not. It’s a lot easier for map watchers than soldiers.
Thanks, I had my calendar upside down! :-)
In less than an hour from now, it will be May 1st in Oz – definitely May Day – so in a way you were right.
Tomorrow is May Day indeed. Anyone else seeing the division on opinions Gaza falling along economic strata? If this crystalizes there will be riots.
In much of America the May Day awareness, to the extent that exists, will be drowned out by the Cinco de Mayo advertising.
Yes for some, and I’m not saying tomorrow. I’m thinking during the upcoming hot, hot summer of discontent. As an aside, I an wary of underestimating the intellect and knowledge of Zoomers.
Tomorrow is the day Taibbi and Kirn are livestreaming the winners of their contest. / ;) No paywall.
Livestream, Wednesday, 5/1, 6 pm ET: Matt and Walter Review “Deep State is Awesome” Video Contest Entries
Too much humor to leave to one announcement.
https://www.racket.news/p/livestream-wednesday-51-6-pm-est
Gooooooooood Moooooooorning Fiatnam!
In a rather unexpected turnabout, the President opted to redirect the 25 billion or so that Congress decided to give to Israel, to arm the student protesters with HIMARS and Iron Dome on every campus where activists are, along with using facial recognition to nullify each student loan of those involved in intensities in tent cities in ten cities.
Tense it is in tents.
I wonder if the corresponding campers in Canada could have their current accounts clobbered.
I feel confiscation in the Gulag Hockeypelago would be more politely done than here…
‘Remember the money you had in your banking account?, we are putting a hold on it for your safety, eh.’
Shades of that Cyprus bail-in from earlier this century.
We went from Love-Ins in the 60’s to Bail-Ins in the 10’s, progress.
The Cyprus bail-in was just a test run in a country few could locate on a map. If the world’s economy really came unstuck, then bank holidays and bail-ins would be the order of the day. Even easier for those countries who have weaned themselves away from cash.
Highly unlikely. These are demos. No big deal as Canada is not as complicit in genocide as the USA. It’s annoying a couple of university admins but it’s highly unlikely the federal gov’t really gives a {whatever}.
You need to do something really egregious such as advocating the overthrow of the gov’t and receiving foreign funding to upset the Canadian Gov’t.
+1 for the reference to the Nuge, aka Terrible Ted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L14t87fzF2g
Where did all that energy come from, an where did it go…
Cotton-Eyed Joe?
What does KJP have to say about that!
Groan, not intentional i swear.
One part of my ill spent youth living rent free in my head i guess…
Spontaneous House combustion
Marge, you set my heart aflame
Salted in the fire
Marge you set my heart aflame
Burnin’ sacrifices
Yeah – where every loss is gain
Spontaneous House combustion
Know that Mike ain’t got no stones
No wood or hay or stubble
Just the pure before your throne
A sellout that never quits
Yes where heaven is my home
Spontaneous House combustion
Spirit shakin’ me inside
A holy band of angels
Campin’ round on every side
Comin’ for a wedding
For a true and spotless bride
Well I don’t know where they come from
But they sure do come
I know they’re comin’ for me
And I don’t know how they do it
But they sure do it good
They say politically, i’m history
They say i’ve got Scratch Off a Dog Fever
Scratch off a Dog Fever
Well the first time that I killed something
I was just 10 years old
I did in the kitty next door
Well I went and killed a goat too
And the neighbors chickens
I think I got it some more
They give me Scratch Off a Dog Fever
Scratch Off a Dog Fever
I got it bad scratch fever
Scratch Off a Dog Fever
It’s nothin’ dangerous
I feel no pain
I got nothing to cha-cha change
You know you get it
When you’re goin’ insane
It makes a considerate person cry, cry
Oh won’t you make me Veep (sigh)
Well I make a pistol purr
With the stroke of my hand
They know they’re gettin’ it from me
And they know just where to go
When they need dispatchin’ man
They know I’m doin’ it for free
They give me Scratch Off a Dog Fever
Scratch Off a Dog Fever
I got it bad scratch fever
Scratch Off a Dog Fever
Scratch Off a Dog Fever
Scratch Off a Dog Fever
Scratch Off a Dog Fever
Scratch Off a Dog Fever
Scratch Off a Dog Fever
Scratch Off a Dog Fever
Humor aside, those police snipers seen in the vicinity of protests are a clear attempt at intimidation.
As in “We may just shoot you if you do not stop protesting.
Were they IDF? / joke, joke.
Actually, the snipers thing is so over-the-top this is starting to have the feel of some kind of higher level orchestrated … what… a color revolution or a setup for this summer’s planned pre-election mayhem or something, (BLM was used last pre-pres election). Charlottesville mayhem was used in 2018 pre-general election. (Dems have form.) I’m starting to wonder why so many of the tents look exactly alike. Was there a sale on particular models at some big box outfitter’s store? Odd there’s no brand prominently printed on the tents. Maybe they’re cheap knock-offs. I’m starting to wonder if the organic street protests of earlier have been co-opted by election politics and moved to the campuses where it can be more easily contained and… uh… narrated. / signed, old and cynical
adding: I read one of the UT students’ statements. It seemed more like a 3-way mashup of 1960’s campus Marxist boilerplate complaints + Occupy statements + invitation to a fun street party. Not too much about the Palestinian cause. Maybe that was assumed to be understood. idk.
Except color revolutions are designed to overthrow governments that the West does not like.
Here the goal is to suppress those who object to the policies of the United States and its puppets.
“India denies ‘unwarranted’ report linking spy official to killing plot in US”
If caught at this, Modi could claim that they are only doing what the US does. The only difference is that the Indians use a bullet while the US uses a drone. Seems that the Indians have been getting aggressive about their spying, including on allied countries. In Oz tonight, it was just revealed that a ring of Indian spies were kicked out back in 2020 for spying on Indians living here, trying to steal secrets about sensitive defence projects and airport security, as well as classified information on Australia’s trade relationships. So now after 4 years they finally got around to telling everybody about this. I do wonder at the timing-
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-30/modi-government-operated-nest-of-spies-in-australia-/103786892
The present student demonstrations are in opposition to human slaughter, blood and suffering, death and destruction, the impending destruction of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, not to mention the Israeli pressure on Genocide Joe and other US politicians and law enforcers to shred our First Amendment rights and suppress dissent. Occupy was entirely different, focused on the One Percent, laudable and bloodless. Any comparison strikes me as belittling to those forcing the Israeli crimes in Gaza into the public sphere, as well as the Palestinian victims. The encampments and demonstrations as a whole reference Hind Raja, as so respectfully and poignantly demonstrated by Columbia students.
re Hind Raja
For those interested to review some details of Hind’s final day, read Jeff St. Clair’s piece at Counterpunch.
I would proffer that St Clair’s piece could be scrutinized, but am not so sure his piece could be discredited. I welcome correction on my opinion.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/16/a-cry-in-the-darkness/
Some quotes:
“Hiding with her [Hind’s] 15-year-old cousin Layan Hamadeh…Layan had grabbed her dead father’s phone and called the Red Crescent Society. She begged them to come rescue her and Hind. ‘They are shooting at us,’ Layan pleaded… ‘The tank is right next to me’….Then there was the sound of gunfire and the line went silent. …”The Red Crescent operator called back. Hind answered. She told them Layan had been shot. The dispatchers told Hind to keep hiding in the car. They told her that an ambulance was coming…
Before the ambulance was dispatched, the Red Crescent Society told the Gaza Health Ministry and the IDF about Hind’s call…the RCS dispatched an ambulance crewed by two paramedics: Ahmed al-Madhoon and Youssef Zeino. As Ahmed and Youssef approached the Tel al-Hawa area, they reported to the Red Crescent dispatchers that the IDF was targeting them, that snipers had pointed lasers at the ambulance. Then there was the sound of gunfire and an explosion. The line went silent….
It would be 12 days before the Israelis withdrew from Tel al-Hawa; 12 days before anyone reached Hind, whose body had been left by the Israelis to decompose in the black Kia next to Layan and Layan’s father and mother and her three siblings (also children); 12 days before anyone discovered what happened to the ambulance sent to rescue her; 12 days before anyone found Ahmed and Youssef, left where they had been shot.
Re: Why do people hear their names being called in the woods? Live Science
This reminded me of a great little adventure novel about missionaries in the Pacific Northwest, called “I Heard the Owl Call Me Name,” by Margaret Craven.
Correction: my name
“me name” is fine as it is for a lot of us in the northern part of the Midlands and the north of England generally.
Also a great film. From 1973. Starring Tom Courtenay.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070206/
Running water often speaks to me, nothing meaningful or sensible, just a random word softly murmured now and then.
Running water tangent: I often start to hear “I Remember Jeep” playing in the sound of the fan running in my bathroom, once it’s been going for a while. ;-)
I live in country that is 3/4 forest. Most people I know have spent their whole lives in or very near a forest and, honestly, this is the first time ever I hear of this phenomena. Forests are so full of all kinds of noises and sounds* that you really don’t need to make up any.
* except in the winter, when a snow packed coniferous forest can be eerily silent
In my forest for the trees, the Brobdingnagians are a brooding bunch that don’t say much, but when they do its all 4 and 5 syllable words.
I would imagine it mostly happens to people who bring their fear of the forest with them to the forest. Or, who for the first time, encounter a biology in homeostasis so much larger and profound than their lived experience it feels spiritually transcendent.
Like Polar, though, when it dawns on a human the woods are you and you are the woods, the voices that emanate from it are all identifiable and familiar friends.
I could say the reverse is true of rural people in an urban environment. I was in NYC a year or two ago and auditorily hallucinated that every vehicle in the city was honking at one another at the same time.
Thought for a second it was the horn of the apocalypse.
Given the gravity of the situation in the Big Apple, if I was a denizen of Baghdad-on-the-Subway (hat tip O. Henry) and wanted to buy a new car there, I’d definitely opt for the extended warranty on the horn.
This whole nature speaking human names thing sounds silly. The fact that I can hear electricity (with the right
dosageconditions) doesn’t mean electricity speaks to me or ever calls my name. That would be silly.At any rate, for name calling I have the neighborhood dogs whose barks sound like ‘mark mark.’ Maybe they should take a look at the names of the people doing the reporting, there might be a lot of Marks, Ralphs, and Bob Whites.
I lived in Japan for a while. Because of the structure of Japanese language they find it easier to “hear” spoken syllables in nature than Americans do.
Thank you for the gift-post on “Rereading ‘A Sand County Almanac!'” As a Wisconsin native, I was affected by that book as a youngster, and it has never left me. And, lucky me, I’m in the process of writing an article on Bur Oaks.
It deeply touched me as well. I’m the environmentalist I am today because of that book. I, like Aldo, grew up hunting. Thinking Like A Mountain brought me to tears as a young man. I’ve seen that fire in the eyes fade to black because of my bullet. I read that and hated myself for the times I had killed other living things for “sport.” Today, barely a day goes by that I’m not reminded of Aldo as the geese fly overhead to the bottom pasture honking their musical reminder of one of the greatest humans to ever walk the face of this fine planet.
Nicely put. I, too, stopped hunting in my old age for the same reason, even though I had only hunted for food.
P.S: “The Immense Journey” by Loren Eiseley is another exquisitely written book on a similar theme. Both authors were intellectuals who also worked with their hands.
RE: “profitable pain-boxes”
Yesterday, I performed a search on YouTube on my TV, using the remote’s voice recognition. The search results jumped out of YouTube to some web site or other. I repeated the VR search, and saw on the bottom of the screen you now have to click a box to have the search results actually return YouTube videos.
Has anyone else noted this?
This does not occur on my cell phone. Yet.
And, has anyone ever filed a complaint with the FCC and / or FTC and can provide some pointers on the process?
I’d quit using the VR myself. Who knows what google, or whoever hacks them, might do with your voiceprint?
For a second i thought you meant virtual reality, and thought about the ongoing debacle of the Apple headset. Pain box indeed.
The story on the AWS s3 bucket has convinced me to delete my AWS account. I originally was using an S3 bucket as a place to backup some directories and was going to play around with other AWS free tier stuff, but I’ve been feeling overwhelmed at how to configure things to guarantee that I wouldn’t get some crazy surprise bill. I think it’s clear that an individual can’t guarantee this for herself; you need a whole company with a dedicated monitoring team to manage this.
It’s sad that it’s such a prevalent technology stack, but not really open to hobbyists unless those hobbyists are rich enough to handle a surprise bill.
If you want hobbyist these days, the net and the cloud is not the place. It has gone from being CB to being cable TV.
“Arab states reticent as U.S. pushes postwar plan for Gaza”
‘They envision day-after involvement by Arab neighbors as part of a larger deal that would also include normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia and a binding framework for an eventual Palestinian state. Officials say they are making progress in hammering out the outlines of a deal.’
US wheeler dealers are spending a lot of time trying to get Saudi Arabia to sign onto a deal with Israel under the Abrams Accords, people like Lindsey Graham. Of course it was these negotiations that helped trigger the attack by Hamas last October to stop the Palestinians being sold out by the Saudis and other Gulf States. But the hitch in the present deal is the Palestinians who refuse to go quietly into the night and Saudi Arabia can hardly sign a deal with Israel as the Israelis continue with their genocide in Gaza. But Lindsey Graham is still keen saying ‘If we can get a deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, it ends the Arab-Israeli conflict, it isolates the Iranians, it creates some hope for the Palestinians, it provides security in a real way to Israel.’ Of course it actually ends all hope for the Palestinians but Graham sees that as a plus. I did see this odd bit-
‘Oil-rich Saudi Arabia claims to have 7% of the world’s uranium reserves. Graham said plans call for the US to control enrichment of those reserves as part of the proposal for Riyadh to recognize the state of Israel.’
The only way that makes sense is if the US lets Saudi Arabia develop their own nuclear industry which I read elsewhere is part of the deal too. You think that the Israelis would let Congress pass that one? If I were the Saudis, I would wait until that nuclear facility was up and running and only then sign any agreement-
https://www.rt.com/news/596734-senator-graham-israel-saudi-normalization/
“US says ICC lacks jurisdiction …”
Because? Not even going to try and polish that lie, Jean-Pierre?
Isn’t this the same group of clowns that said that the ICC had jurisdiction to charge Putin with war crimes, even though like Israel, Russia isn’t a party to the ICC?
That is some next-level dishonesty. The lengths they go to in order to shill for Bibi!
Bald-faced lies!
Have you ever heard such bald-faced lies?
No children have died
Gaza’s not genocide
Whistling tunes that Pol Pot sung, you know
Bald-faced lies!
Our leaders dish them out like “freedom fries”
Don’t apologize
To anyone they’ve slaughtered today
You’d think there’s a better way
Fantasize
On waning power trips they fantasize
Their days are numbered, just like summer fruit flies
They’ve sold their souls for a pocketful of gold
Old man, he and his wardogs will soon buy the farm, man
His grip on power can’t be pried off his cold, dead, hands
As the mourners walk by, weeping tears of joy … joy
Feels so good … feels so good, you know I wish I could
Stop these clowns from lying
La-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da
Mystery … like this and many others in history
A burning village glowing in the night with the bald-faced lies!
Bald-faced lies!
They ring so false, it’s frightening, wish I could
Stop these clowns from lying …
La-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da da da … da-da-da-da-da!
Sung to the tune of, Southern nights by Glen Campbell
“Stop these clowns from lying.” Yes, please.
Credit where credit is due Dept. While beautifully performed by Glen Campbell “Southern Nights” was written and performed by NOLA music titan, Allen Toussaint.
“The primary problem is that while the answers which ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies produce have a high rate of being incorrect, they typically look like the answers might be good…”
Among other things, AI seems to be the functional encoding and widespread deployment–reification, I suppose–of a deep-seated PMC anxiety around ‘getting the A.’ AI might be better thought of as AN: Algorithmatized Neurosis.
Putin said last year that the west is an Empire of Lies and when I watch the TV news or scan newspaper articles on the net, I have to admit that he is probably right. So what if – stay with me here – what if this constant barrage of lies actually succeeded in infecting ChatGPT, hence all the bs that it pumps out with made up references and locations. It would be funny if it were true.
Nah, those LLMs are incapable of intent. The whole thing is long chain statistics.
Thus when they produce something true sounding but incorrect, it is because a couple of key words were switched out thanks to statistical weight.
Not that LLMs are the only problem here. Didn’t we see some years back a number of made up social science articles getting published in big name journals? Demonstrating that even accredited reviewers struggled with deciphering the jargon?
LLMs respond as they are trained.
You mean how the weights are tweaked?
There have been several notable occasions where a paper consisting of meaningless social-science-y gobbledegook was submitted for such purposes of demonstration:
https://www.thecut.com/2016/02/can-academia-solve-its-gobbledygook-problem.html
They produce bullshit, not lies. Lies would be almost as unattainable as truth.
These types of algorithms could only have been introduced, in this manner, into a culture already flattened, homogenized, dumbed-down, etc. by decades of the influence of corporatism.
The article in the links, “Managing Up” by Ed Zitron, hints at this long running theory of mine.
~Scoop: Congress threatens ICC over Israeli arrest warrants
They already have the Hague Invasion Act.
We live in a parallel Universe.
If an arrest warrant went out on Bibi, it would curtail his travel plans a bit. Countries would refuse entry to him rather than be put in a position where treaty obligations say that they have to arrest him but the US is threatening sanctions if they do. Best not to let him in.
I’m sure BiBi will get assurances that nothing will happen to him (with the American thug lurking silently but ominously in the background, thwacking his billy club into the palm of his hand as if he is just itching for the change to use that club on someone) and he can travel to his usual haunts, free as a bird.
The Act gives the president power to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court”.
But it seems it doesn’t say anything about aprehension orders…
Breaking: Trump held in contempt of court
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/30/trump-trial-hush-money-case-resumes-with-testimony-from-michael-cohen-banker.html
A thousand bucks a pop? Sheesh, such a deal. His lawyers cost him that much for a half hour.
Chump change for the Orangeman, no doubt. But, the next time he pops off, he’s Hoosegow bound.
(Now that I think about it, that might give him a nice bump in the polls.)
When he’s elected, he should have bars put up over the windows of the White House. Classic performance “art.”
And snipers on the roof.
Wait. Aren’t they already there?
He’ll need new snipers to cover the ones already there.
Oh, and hire Martha Stewart to oversee and coordinate the “Prison Amenities” within the White House. She does have the relevant ‘experience’ for the job.
“Why do people hear their names being called in the woods?”
Because the person in woods is named Eric, and the woods have catbirds in them.
More than once I’ve been fooled.
I’ve taken to just calling them “Eric” birds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfWx6W7B1V0
“Israel’s army ready to invade Rafah in 72 hours if no cease-fire deal reached: Israeli media’
The Israelis have already made plans to set up check points so that no Palestinian men can leave Rafah but will remain trapped there when the Israeli army goes in. Now why would that be?
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-israel-planning-ring-checkpoints-prevent-men-fleeing-rafah
That would be a Srebrenica 2.0, Israeli style. Perhaps they will forgo the bussing of the men away and just dump them straight into pits?
Definitely not genocide, right? You can trust us.™
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/usda-test-ground-beef-us-states-outbreaks-bird-flu-dairy-cows-rcna149831
This is finally in the news. Up till now, we’ve been pretending that dairy cows go to a retirement home, I guess.
(I cannot do links, apparently.)
Daily Mail is reporting widespread fullblown flu symptoms (not just conjuctivitis) among farm workers. Given this comes after news that infected cows were also displaying multiple, systemic symptoms, including respiratory distress, anyone who’d spent a day on a dairy farm would expect this.
Noteworthy that the human symptoms are being described by vets who were attending sick cattle.
The way this news is being rolled out stinks. Personally I think something that won’t remain concealable has probably already occured. Is there anything short of human-to-human transmission that would fit the bill?
Apollo ghoul wagering combines with AI for new-age tontine. Film at 11:00.
Where is the public tribunal to provide the opportunity to see and hear those involved? That could bring out their thought processes, rationales and even some emotional awareness, or not. /:
‘Calla
@CallaWalsh
Everyone has seen the bonk video, but it’s worth watching the full thing to see how Cal Poly kids pushed out riot cops. Look at the brave people in the front, faces literally pressed against shields! Look at how everyone’s holding onto each other so no one can get grabbed away!’
Watching that video was like watching a group of Hoplites in battle but those kids really played it smart. They selected the inner doors as a choke point for police and littered the annex with desks and chairs to restrict the police’s ability to deploy their numbers. The police could only put in a limited amount but I bet the kids on the other side could deploy more muscle power as they had more room. It took only minutes for the police to exhaust themselves as they could make no headway and in the end there were only about four cops trying to push them back. In the end those exhausted police were pulled back and those kids immediately set to crowd that annex full of desks and chairs again. Surprised to see that they did not try tear gas but that would have obscured what those cops could have seen.
That’s how the kids were trained in school to deal with “active shooters.” Which is what cops are, when you think about it. Not only are we bringing the war back home, it’s already here, and has been for quite some time.
Wait till those kids start researching what happened in Hong Kong a few years ago and what lessons that they can take away from the rioters back then.
Go long leaf-blowers!
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/protesters-leaf-blowers-portland/
Heads up, this is from the 2020 BLM protests
Right, but I believe that they got the idea from Hong Kong protests.
I didn’t think Israel trained American cops will be nearly so orderly and professional as the Hong Kong police or PLA soldiers.
Shocker: Walmart finds that healthcare is not a money-making business
AP: Walmart to close its 51 health centers, virtual care service
https://apnews.com/article/walmart-9efab27776a4aa0875a89b8f0d57066c
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/opinion/health-plan.html
January 31, 2018
The 3 Giants’ Health Plan
To the Editor:
“3 Giants Form Health Alliance, Rocking Insurers”: *
Before spending lots of time, effort and money developing a new health care “product,” Warren E. Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase should realize that using a market approach to health care has failed miserably in this country.
They should go with Mr. Buffett’s earlier assessment. He suggested that despite “limited knowledge,” he thought that single payer is probably the best system, adding: “We are such a rich country. In a sense, we can afford to do it.”
Instead of reinventing the wheel, they should consult a group of experts who understand the needs of patients and populations and who have for many years studied the public policies that can best fulfill these needs. Physicians for a National Health Program, on whose board I sit, would be glad to oblige.
* https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/technology/amazon-berkshire-hathaway-jpmorgan-health-care.html
ELIZABETH R. ROSENTHAL
LARCHMONT, N.Y.
The writer is a dermatologist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/technology/amazon-berkshire-hathaway-jpmorgan-health-care.html
January 30, 2018
Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Team Up to Try to Disrupt Health Care
By NICK WINGFIELD, KATIE THOMAS and REED ABELSON
SEATTLE — Three corporate behemoths — Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase — announced on Tuesday that they would form an independent health care company for their employees in the United States.
The alliance was a sign of just how frustrated American businesses are with the state of the nation’s health care system and the rapidly spiraling cost of medical treatment. It also caused further turmoil in an industry reeling from attempts by new players to attack a notoriously inefficient, intractable web of doctors, hospitals, insurers and pharmaceutical companies…
Yes, it’s amazing how the lack of a single-payer national healthcare system handicaps both individuals and for profit businesses in the US. Why, if we had that, they might not even have to send our jobs abroad! But we have to appease the tiny sliver of businesses selling private health insurance despite how it makes all our other businesses uncompetitive. What a country!
Dunno. I’ve talked to small business owners who think the government is so screwed up that anything it does will just end up costing them more money. On the other hand, if a government healthcare program was successful, it might lead the commoners to wonder what else the government could do for them. Guaranteed jobs, livable retirement? It’s a “slippery slope”.
Appeasement or bribery (lobbying) by the FIRE?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/business/walmart-health-centers.html
April 30, 2024
Walmart Is Shutting Health Centers After Plan to Expand
The 51 locations, next to Supercenters, proved too costly to be profitable, the retailer said.
By Jordyn Holman
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, said Tuesday that it was shutting down its health care centers, a network that only last year it said it planned to expand.
The retailer said in a blog post that its 51 health centers across five states would close. The centers were next to Supercenter locations. The plans won’t affect the more than 4,600 pharmacies and more than 3,000 vision centers within Walmart stores.
Walmart started the health clinic initiative in 2019 in Dallas, Ga., with centers providing primary care, labs, X-rays and electrocardiograms, counseling, and dental, optical and hearing services. Many were in smaller towns where customers might lack access to quality care, and the company had said it was focused on affordability. In 2021, Walmart started offering a virtual option when it acquired MeMD, a telehealth provider.
“This is a difficult decision, and like others, the challenging reimbursement environment and escalating operating costs create a lack of profitability that make the care business unsustainable for us at this time,” the company said Tuesday…
https://open.substack.com/pub/jonathancook/p/the-israel-us-game-plan-for-gaza?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=476450&post_id=144161622&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1cc3o&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyMjU1MTcyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxNDQxNjE2MjIsImlhdCI6MTcxNDQ3NDUxMiwiZXhwIjoxNzE3MDY2NTEyLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItNDc2NDUwIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.B_uES0wXm0_gXSCBwRxhg9tcWhEWNkC5ntPfIwuZKvw
Worth reading in full, simply because it spells out the obvious in black and white.
I wholeheartedly agree with that author’s analysis. Spot on. It’s all Kabuki theater to set the stage for the long-awaited Rafah operation, which will probably kick into high gear by the weekend.
If folks only used common sense they would question things like, why is the US given any credibility as a spokesman for sham negotiations, when they are in fact a party to the conflict?
Reminder, kids:
1. Biden sent lethal weapons to Israel including JDAMS used to kill civilians in Gaza
2. Biden has Bibi’s back
3. Speaker Johnson said that God told him killing kids in the name of bringing about the rapture is hunky dory. Israel is more important than his own country he was elected to represent.
Now, if Switzerland or Botswana were mediating, maybe we’d get a real ceasefire. But this is all too obviously a setup for Hamas to be blamed for the “ceasefire” falling apart, and now they must die. die, die!!
Looks like Biden can’t use that escape hatch. The Israelis just said that they won’t accept any kind of ‘ceasefire’ and will invade Rafah no matter what.
Yep, statements like that from Bibi are a reminder of who wears the pants in that relationship.
This is an insult to both men and women.
Sociopathy, psychopathy, messianism, exceptionalism, and barbarism, while more frequent in men, they are not a sign of manhood, but of deviancy, for which only penal colonies, not mental asylums provide the right respite for the majority.
Both men and women are “xpaths.” Wearing pants most certainly covers various sorts of genitals, so, both x-geese and y-ganders are worthy of insult.
Have you noticed that the “Organs of State Security” have begun to treat the generality of America as a Penal Colony? If I may say it, I consider the District of Colombia and Wall Street as the Mental Asylums now.
Still, Biden and his mouthpieces will claim that they really really tried.
For his part, Bibi can’t even be bothered to play along with the charade.
Maybe it’s time for additional unfortunate car accidents to occur, a la Michael Hasting.
…i’d prefer something along the lines of Harold Holt
Include payback for Count Bernadotte.
Now, if Switzerland or Botswana were mediating, maybe we’d get a real ceasefire.
Switzerland is one of the countries that promptly suspended the payment of its contributions to UNRWA when the Israelis claimed the organization was in cahoots with Hamas.
Despite the fact that the Israeli accusations have been thoroughly debunked, and other countries have resumed sending financial help to UNRWA, Switzerland still refuses to do likewise.
Ignazio Cassis, who took over the department of foreign affairs in the Swiss government about six and half years ago, is well-known to be staunchly pro-Zionism and hostile to the Palestinian cause. In 2018, he already argued that UNRWA was part of the problem, not of the solution. A majority of members of the Swiss parliament (from the center, center right, and right-wing parties) share his opinion.
I doubt that you can expect any kind of good faith, unbiased mediation in the Israel-Palestine conflict from Switzerland.
I agree. Switzerland ceased to be a neutral country in any manner whatsoever long ago. It’s just a money grubbing racist country from what I hear from people who lived there.
Ukraine Retreats From Villages on Eastern Front as It Awaits U.S. Aid
Biden admin isn’t fully convinced Ukraine can win, even with new aid
How is it possible they’ve missed their own and worldwide reports that the 4/20 pkg contained two things: a) payment for weaponry already shipped or delivered, and b) weaponry to be manufactured from scratch, years away from delivery? There’s no flight and flotilla of transports arriving in Ukraine in days or weeks with significant stocks.
Just silly, dumb framing and headlines. This dross is the ‘misinformation problem.’
My news feed this AM was filled with glowing tales of Ukrainian heroism, victory is surely in sight now, all we gotta do is keep shoveling more weapons, more money, more more more!
Anyway, Spain was ordered to hand over its Patriot batteries to the Ukrainian regime. After a few murmurs of protest, Spain folded. To the surprise of precisely nobody. Greece will get a healthy application of carrot and stick, and they will fold as well.
And don’t think that will be the last. Russia shouldn’t have delayed while it had the advantage and Ukrainian air defenses were depleted. The problem is that Russia really does not want this war, while the West is absolutely spoiling for a fight.
I think Spain only handed over missiles for the existing Patriots left in Ukraine (a significant number have been destroyed.)
Even if true, Ukraine still has enough launchers to make use of those missiles.
And those won’t be the last.
They apparently make 500 missiles per year. That sounds like an absurdly low number frankly, especially given the vast expense of the MIC.
Comrade Finster is correct I suspect, and we should expect many more begging tours to come to scrape together whatever else they can get as the well runs drier.
Oddly enough, since the Patriot system has had its weak spots highlighted by both Russia and now Iran, getting rid of the obsolescent systems now, while some good will can be conjured up from so doing is a logical thing for a nation to do. Time for a visit to the next St. Petersburg annual “Military Manufacturer’s Bazaar” for the relevant nation’s procurement functionaries.
All Spanish and Greek missiles in theatre will be destroyed, just like all the rest.
T-Mobile US net income for the twelve months ending March 31, 2024 was $8.751B, a 129.26% increase year-over-year. T-Mobile US annual net income for 2023 was $8.317B, a 221.12% increase from 2022. T-Mobile US annual net income for 2022 was $2.59B, a 14.35% decline from 2021.
Wow, looks like one third of that 200m fine is really really really gonna hurt…I’d better pay my surveillance bill early and turn on mobile sharing and go walk up and down every aisle in every retail store in town so I can get some targeted ads in order to keep the grifting c suite releasing their effluvium in silk. Bonus points for how patriotic it makes me feel when I think about how the US has the richest rich people ever, proving that our average worth exceeds that of those other bad bad bad people who are poorer…on average, of course
By the way: bernhard at moonofalabama has gone silent for the past 5 days, after announcing a scheduled medical procedure. I believe he planned to switch off comments during his absence, which was done, and then comments were switched back on, but no word from the man himself.
He posted to say the procedure had gone well and a few more articles but none since 4/25.
Recent status check says the site is now down.
Up for me, but no updates.
I really hope this is just a pause for him to “recover strength”. I hate to be “that guy” but the population statistics a lot of us keep close tabs on (big hat-tip to Lambert et al for all the aggregation of datasets etc) are increasingly hitting home on a more individual level – the more “visible” people on the web, along with a multitude of others who are just trying to get by in this stupidest of timelines.
One of my anecdotes is that both my co-authors on the textbook I wrote died suddenly during the first/second phase of the pandemic – one was probably immunocompromised but the other was out of the blue.
My latest fight with clinicians concerns a grossly abnormal protein test which my former colleagues have published clinical papers on…showing it is increasingly regarded as a smoking gun for reeeeeally bad COVID or the big C. We’ve been working on the assumption that it’s the former. People are dropping like flies around here but I’ve decided that there’s no point wallowing. Now, back to funny cat videos :)
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/why-im-resigning-from-the-intercept?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=7677&post_id=144165180&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1cc3o&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
TL:DR The Intercept has become the tame, neutered establishment pet hat it was set up in opposition to.
There is still some.
The Intercept, Ryan Grim:
Cable News Viewers Have a Skewed Attitude Toward Gaza War, Survey Finds – A tale of two Americas.
Which in turns raises the question of what is cause and what is effect?
I don’t watch TV news or subscribe to MSM publications because CNN or the NYT’s reporting makes Pravda’s coverage of the proceedings of the Seventeenth Party Congress look neutral and willing to ask authority tough questions by comparison.
The cause in the case of the Zionist Entity is quite clear, and it parallels the Corporate Mindcraft Program™ in general.
I haven’t watched TV in over twenty years but I do subscribe to the NYT digital for some of their cultural artifacts, which can be of interest. Though it may lapse when my rate goes up in June (currently $8 a month). Their political coverage I hold as the old Soviet people did Pravda, the opposite of what to believe.
With the Intercept, it is what might be true. There are some serious sins of omission there, too.
This piece is useful, IMHO.
A little girl said monsters were in her bedroom. It was 60,000 bees BBC
~~~~~~~~~~
In the early 1970’s, a hive of bees decided that in between the ceiling and the roof of our house was the place to be, and lil’ Wuk decided he’d get rid of them, as I could see the entrance/exit portal, and got a ladder and a paint stirring stick, and it was Wuk 37, Bees 0, until a couple ganged up on me and stung me, causing my head to blow up real good. My mom took me to a Ear-Nose-Throat specialist and once he saw ‘Elephant Boy’ he raced for his Polaroid SX-70 camera to get a photo of me, I was so swelled up.
My parents spent years and lotsa moolah trying to get rid of the bees, but nothing ever worked, and I’d imagine there are still there.
The BBC article says the beekeeper removed 100lb (45kg) of honeycomb. My question is who got all the honey?
Head-in-the-sand department:
Today is the last day U.S. hospitals will be required to report COVID admissions, capacity, or occupancy data to the federal government.
This will make it even more difficult to track the state of the ongoing COVID pandemic, as well as monitor potential pandemics like bird flu.
Protests.
From WSWS:
Democrats demand police crackdown at Columbia University Gaza encampment
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/25/fwco-a25.html
Meanwhile, an elder wise man of the Dem party lectures the young on twtr.
NEW: Democratic strategist James Carville has meltdown, blasts young people for thinking about staying home and not voting for Biden.
https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1784951750262395237
Carvelle is way past his sell by date.
Too true, but at least he stays sold. (No DINO antics for him!)
Look up Carville, Louisiana. (Where he grew up.) It is the site of the former national leper quarantine facility.
See: https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/770
Carville may be right about some of the stakes and the outcomes. But his insulting nastiness will harden more young people in their rejection of voting for Biden than it will convince to vote for Biden.
I’ve been thinking about this. This really is the worst foreign policy team in my lifetime. Despite masses of propaganda and an increasing stranglehold on social media, everyone makes fools of themselves because of ignorance, delusion and magical thinking. Is it just the natural progression of our obsession with credentials over competence or Biden’s fragile ego or some combination of both.
There is a lot of truth to Trump not being ready for the White House and hiring second rate people. If he gets in again it will be interesting to see the difference. The same second rate hack assessment could be made for Biden, and he has been in government and running for President for decades. He hired his cronies, his yes men, people unlikely to challenge him. Or they hired themselves. And since Biden is cunning but not smart, but doesn’t want to admit it, no one is going to tell the emperor he is showing his inadequacies to the world even if they notice.
That is a long way of saying “dumb as a rock” is likely to be a job requirement for top level jobs in the Biden administration. Intelligence and logic not to mention ethics are the exception, hi Lina Khan.
The Intercept org chart that Ken Klippenstein publishes in his “Why I’m resigning” Substack post is quite an eyeful. Any sense of them as a small, scrappy, unfettered team of investigators and reporters will be permanently altered by the overlay of administrators, development staff, lawyers, etc. the org chart reveals. The accounts he gives of editorial interference from the top so as not to offend the powerful are painful to read but hardly atypical of corporate journalism; it has been ever thus.
Gaza/Palestine:
Two videos with two young women that give me an amber of hope for the future:
So.Informed – The account with 3.1 million followers and why it supports Palestine | UNAPOLOGETIC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI4Fpd1bz9c
“Israelism” Documentary Screening and Discussion with Gabor Maté, Naomi Klein, and Simone Zimmerman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TphWlTQFkWE
Yes, they are young and very pretty, but more than that, first and foremost, they are extremely inteligent, very articulate, very grounded, and implacable, like moving glaciers.
Their attitude reminded me of one of Aurelien’s essay about people that put their life on the line, and even died, when confronted with Nazi occupation.
I would say they are a must watch.
The whole student protest is being fomented by the upper class supporters of genocide to distract from the slaughter in Gaza. The police role is to make the protest look violent. And it is working a treat.
To stop this upper class operation, the protesting students should be running videos on big screens of the Gaza slaughter, the Israeli attacks on hospitals, the mass graves of civilians, the interviews with survivors who have lost their familes etc
The media would melt away like snow in summer.
To be successful, the students must not be the story, they must amplify the real story.
The students are being successful. They have got the issue onto the mass media, the other protests and marches in the US haven’t been reported on. That is why the administration and police response is so severe.
It’s easy to criticise. It’s harder to take action as the students are.
Palestine has a right to exist.
They are the story, and the media is running with the big story of antisemitic and violent protesters .
Students are losing the propaganda war big time.
The sea turtle in today’s antidote is incredibly beautiful. Odd to think that this creature can never see the beautiful patterns on its own shell.
Simple observation: Odesa will be West’s Bakhmut. Russia will grind all the West’s remaining good tech.
I find it remarkable that young adults who have so much to lose by protesting here in the United Stasi, seem unfazed by the prospect.
The Vietnam War protests made sense, as the draft loomed large and nobody wanted to be cannon fodder in a war that didn’t mean anything, but as far as I can tell, the main reason for the current protests is empathy for Palestinians in Gaza, remarkable in itself.
The New York Post has cravenly decided to call protesters:
‘Pro-Terror Rioters’
Did the news media get a memo to say the protesters are all Pro-Palestinian and not say they are Anti-Genocide? Is genocide a forbidden term in Western media?
Presstidigitation is akin to Pol Pot calling the kettle black.