A Global War Regime New Left Review
The liberal international order is slowly coming apart The Economist
Climate
MST Brazil: “The Crisis is Not Just about Food or Climate. It’s a Civilizational Crisis” Internationalist 360°. MST = Landless Rural Workers Movement. Interviewee from this NGO.d
Decarbonisation of shipping could create up to four million green jobs Hellenic Shipping News
Justification for Air Conditioning in Tool & Die Shop Practical Machinist. Many millions of decisions just like this one being made….
Pandemics
Bird flu keeps rewriting the textbooks. It’s why scientists are unsettled by the U.S. dairy cattle outbreak Helen Branswell, STAT. Well worth a read. The complacency of the authorities is not surprising, but it is worrisome.
Future pandemics will have the same human causes as ancient outbreaks − lessons from anthropology can help prevent them The Conversation
When antibiotics fail: More people seek bacteriophage therapy in Georgia JAM News
China?
China Moves to Rein in Battery Boom Amid Overcapacity Concerns Caixin Global
Is China financially decoupling? Brookings Institution
Xi Jinping’s Plan To Save China Through Science The Scholar’s Stage
The View from China: Perspectives on the West in the Xi Jinping Era Pekingology
Chinese scholars suggest official line between entrepreneurs, capitalists to jolt private-sector spirit South China Morning Post
I Went To China And Drove A Dozen Electric Cars. Western Automakers Are Cooked Inside EVs
How China is regulating robotaxis MIT Technology Review. From January, still germane.
Another Historic Year for the PLA Navy U.S. Naval Institute
Philippines, US simulate mock invasions in largest ever war games Al Jazeera
Re-inscribing propositions: historic cartography and Philippine claims to the Spratly Islands (PDF) Territory Politics Governance.
In fiery speech, Aussie defense chief urges support for ‘extraordinary’ AUKUS subs Breaking Defense
The Koreas
Commentary: A surprise South Korean boom is going unnoticed Channel News Asia
What is a friendship marriage? From pals to platonic partners, Japanese couples embrace unions without romance or sex South China Morning Post
India
Asia’s billionaire capital: What Mumbai’s rise means for India? Anadolu Agency
Syraqistan
Israel finally goes too far The Racket. I wouldn’t say the US worm turned, but it twitched, and even then the Israeli leadership totally lost their sh*t. After all we did for them, too.
‘Fight with our fingernails’: Israel’s Netanyahu defies US weapons warning Al Jazeera
Looks Like Aid to Israel Can Be Conditional After All Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect
Prof. Amos Goldberg: “Yes, It Is Genocide” ScheerPost
* * * Frustrated Israeli north plans to secede into ‘State of Galilee’ The Cradle
Hamas Actually Believed It Would Conquer Israel. In Preparation, It Divided the Country Into Cantons Haaretz
* * * Red Sea rerouting causing Asian port congestion Seatrade Maritime
European Disunion
Hungary cashes in on its friendship with China Politico
Israel qualifies for Eurovision final amid protest against its participation over Gaza France24
Dear Old Blighty
The Bank of England used the inflation crisis to boost the wealth of the wealthy, but did nothing at all to control inflation Funding the Future
New No-So-Cold War
How Much U.S. Aid Is Going to Ukraine? Council on Foreign Relations. “A large share of the money in the aid bills is spent in the United States, paying for American factories and workers to produce the various weapons that are either shipped to Ukraine or that replenish the U.S. weapons stocks the Pentagon has drawn on during the war. One analysis, by the American Enterprise Institute, found that Ukraine aid is funding defense manufacturing in more than seventy U.S. cities.” So we have an industrial policy after all. Handy chart:
Russia could open new front as Ukraine remains weapons-poor, say officials Al Jazeera
Russia’s seemingly endless stockpiles. How many long-range missiles does Russia have left, and how have its tactics for large-scale strikes changed? Ukrainska Pravda
* * * Source: Ukraine strikes Russian oil refinery 1,500 kilometers from border Kyiv Independent. Source is SBU.
* * * Zelensky fires bodyguard chief over foiled assassination plot France24
Two Ukrainian ministers sacked as Zelenskyy reshuffle continues Politico
Dominic Cummings: Zelenskyy’s no Churchill and Ukraine’s corrupt Politico. Original.
* * * Victory Day: Anxiousness Grows Amid Stirs in the North Simplicius the Thinker(s)
Victory Day celebrations mask simmering tensions inside Putin’s Russia CNN
Putin’s one tank victory parade is a timely reminder Russia can be beaten The Atlantic Council
* * * Ukraine’s parliament cracks down on draft dodgers Reuters
Poland preparing to build bunkers, trenches along borders with Russia, Belarus Anadolu Agency
Biden Administration
House GOP drafting Biden impeachment articles over Israel aid cutoff threat FOX
Distrust in FDIC leadership drives more staff to consider exits, data shows Reuters (Furzy Mouse).
2024
FBI watching if US support for Ukraine will spur Russian risk taking in 2024 election CNN
Groves of Academe
What America’s Student Photojournalists Saw at the Campus Protests Time (Furzy Mouse). Many photos, lots of detail.
* * * University of Chicago:
BREAKING: 1500+ alumni of the University of Chicago sign public letter of solidarity with student organizers and pledge to withhold donations after @UChicago Police raided the encampment on Tuesday. Read the full letter: https://t.co/46GdSiVP5K pic.twitter.com/1YrRIzI53p
— Maira (@mairaka) May 9, 2024
DePaul:
Good evening, and welcome to the DePaul University Gaza solidarity encampment which, at 9 days (!) now, is the longest standing Liberation Zone in all of Chicago!! Here, students are learning about organizing and horizontal strategy. pic.twitter.com/EgfIuyLlOu
— 🍉Prof. Thrasher is with our students🔻 (@thrasherxy) May 10, 2024
GWU:
NOW: GWU/DMV students erect new encampment outside GWU Admin building while protesters protect tents from police on both sides. #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/EOT5jhE2yX
— #StopCopCity (@ChuckModi1) May 10, 2024
Amsterdam (1):
A comprehensive little video showing the unbelievable violence unleashed by the @UvA_Amsterdam board on their own students. https://t.co/H9LobrXJV9
— Harry Pettit (@HarrygPettit) May 8, 2024
Amsterdam (2):
This is a statement written by @UvA_Amsterdam staff condemning the extreme violence exercised by the board on their own students. I've never seen anything like it from a university. A staff walk out has been called for Monday 13th at 11am. Let's make this a NATIONAL walkout pic.twitter.com/se5VdXPKKR
— Harry Pettit (@HarrygPettit) May 9, 2024
* * * UAW workers establish ‘Union Village’ as hundreds rally for Rafah on Sproul The Daily Californian. Members of UAW 4811, as opposed to local, let alone national, leadership.
* * * Media Scorn Gaza Protesters for Recognizing Corporate Reporters Aren’t Their Friends FAIR
Digital Watch
MR WRONG: Fact-check, please! Indigity. Horrid Google AI-driven search result example.
When AI Gets It Wrong, Will It Be Held Accountable? RAND. More to the point, will the AI’s owners be held accountable?
And it begins. OpenAI mulls NSFW AI model output The Register
Supply Chain
An Evaluation of the Safe Port Obligation in the Light of Smart and Autonomous Ships (PDF) NUS Centre for Maritime Law Working Paper. “[T]he widespread adoption of such [smart and autonomous vessels] will necessitate the development of smart ports equipped with complementary advanced technologies, infrastructure, and processes to accommodate them safely. This need is especially critical in the context of the charterer’s contractual obligation only to send the vessel under charter to safe ports. This strict obligation will likely compel charterers to avoid sending any smart and/or autonomous ships under charter to ports that cannot safely accommodate them.”
Our Famously Free Press
A Call From the Journalism Academy for an External Review at The New York Times Literary Hub
Class Warfare
The Rise of Monopolies & Oligopolies Manufacturing.net. Note the source.
If You Build It, Will They Come? The New Atlantis
The Diaper Revolution Splice Today
Antidote du jour (via:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
179 comments
Comments are closed.
RAFAH
(melody borrowed from In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company by The Dead South)
Israelis kill like mad berserkers
They shoot our doctors and aid workers
Mass graves filled up by haughty smirkers
Their weekend warriors are a nasty crew
Israelis let their hatred smolder
Resistance only makes them bolder
They’re angry when we’re one day older
If you’re not dead you’re right there in their queue
Ten thousand kids dead, more bled, none fed, run free diseased
There are no hotels, clean wells, how tell images like these?
You see our souls hurt, no girth, deep dirt, and grass all we eat
With all our houses knocked down, we’re waiting here to die in the street
Palestine has seen a million murders
Emptied towns due to racist orders
Huge fences on imagined borders
They cut down every olive tree we grew
Each time the IDF gets vicious
Oblivious or too amibitious
They pay a price to our militias
They don’t have real soldiers like we do
Ten thousand kids dead, more bled, none fed, run free diseased
There are no hotels, clean wells, how tell images like these?
You see our souls hurt, no girth, deep dirt, and grass all we eat
With all our houses knocked down, we’re waiting here to die in the street
We’re waiting here to die out in the street
We’re waiting here to die out in the street
RE: Poland preparing to build bunkers, trenches along borders with Russia, Belarus Anadolu Agency
Oh joy another Maginot line. That works so well, let’s try it again.
But what if Russia does what those cunning Huns did – and go around it?
Just to repeat the obvious first – Maginot line was designed to force German to go around it and be destroyed by the much more heavily armored French divisions in Belgium.
Now, for what purpose Polish are building these bunkers avoids me completely. There’s a school of military thinking that every system should have a “Concept of operations” – basically answering the question “what is the purpose and objective of the system?”. I don’t think there’s a clear answer to that question yet. Or ever.
‘Maginot line was designed to force German to go around it and be destroyed by the much more heavily armored French divisions in Belgium.’
Which would have worked except for the part where the Wehrmacht went through the Ardennes like they would four year later in the Battle of the Bulge using their Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) plan. Before the war, German officers posing as tourists would go on bicycle tours of this lovely region and sorted out exactly where they could go and with what forces when the time came.
Is this the reason folks are so belligerent toward bicyclists? I know many cyclists are scofflaws, but it can’t account for all of the deep-seated antipathy of the folks using their mirrors like Gordy Howe and his sharp strong elbows…
My theory is that Terran humans are reacting to the stealthy infiltration of ‘Wheelers,’ a sub-species of humans that originated in the Free State of Oz.
{See: Blavatsky et. al. “Wheelers-Dealers: Rise of the Transactional Empire.”}
Wheels within wheels as the Philosophers say.
I have a theory it has roots in military/spies/revolutionaries using bombs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_bomb
There was an incident, I want to say Lebanon? a bike bomb did or almost made it on to a US base, early 1980s.
I have been disallowed through a Drive Thru at fast food places because “policy” or “security”; there was ONCE an armed robbery from a bicycle, so all bicycles are now banned … never armed robbery from car LOLz.
And thanks to that, German tourists have a bit of a reputation to this day…
The French knew the Germans would come through the Ardennes, which is why they had an entire Army deployed there. What they were not sure of is whether the thrust through the Ardennes would be the main thrust, or the subsidiary one. They guessed the latter, and were wrong only when the Germans eventually adopted their final plan. The idea of making the main thrust through the Ardennes (let’s say it’s not ideal tank country) was at best brave and at worst utterly insane, and the Germans were very lucky that it worked at all. It really is time to retire this silly meme.
‘The idea of making the main thrust through the Ardennes (let’s say it’s not ideal tank country) was at best brave and at worst utterly insane, and the Germans were very lucky that it worked at all.’
And they did it twice!
Then they’d be playing into Western maneuver style warfare. Watch the European border countries begin preparing the same three layer deep defensive lines as Russia is doing in Ukraine —.thereby *forcing* Russia to fight a maneuvers war.
Except Russia has nothing to gain from conquering the Baltic countries or Poland. But it has a lot of missiles that can bypass the defense lines, no matter how layered they are.
Not to mention the Kaliningrad Enclave. Sort of like if the Germans had had a militarized ‘possession’ in Normandy in 1914.
Not to hear the baltic states tell it.
Russia’s main interest west of Belarus is that Kaliningrad remains undisturbed.
If NATO ever did anything reaching that level of stupid in Kalingrad, Russia could/will push through the Baltics.
Yhe Baltics are essentially city-states, just with more land…a wall at the Poland border is security theater, only useful if Belarus looks the other way as being an illegal migrant transit country
I agree, except that Belarus doesn’t have to look the other way for migrants to transit – there’s no agreement between Belarus and Poland or EU that Belarus should stop people travelling trough Belarus.
Actually, while there’s no legal definition of a migrant, everyone should have their human rights respected, and stopping someone from harmlessly transiting would indeed be a violation. Aren’t we demanding Lukashenko to respect human rights and all?
The Maginot Line actually worked very well. Its the reason why the Germans went through Belgium and not take the direct route as they’d done in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870.
It was the ‘stop the Germans taking the long way round’ part of the Allied strategy that didn’t work so well.
The ever-elastic power of narrative to contradict and twist is never more fully on display than when someone asserts “actually (obviously) the Maginot Line worked (as designed)”.
The Maginot Line was sold to France as a means to allow France to defeat an invasion by the larger German Army. In the event, the Maginot Line was completely ineffective. France was invaded and defeated in a matter of days after many months of inactivity in a fully declared war. You do not get to place the performance of the Maginot Line in any other context than France’s near-total defeat in military operations that unfolded in a matter of a few weeks. The Maginot Line did not accomplish squat for French military strategy or operations. It did not delay the German forces. It did not make French mobile forces more powerful, effective or better positioned. The Maginot Line was the anchoring foundation for a French strategic approach to the challenges of its conflict with Germany that proved to be wholly ineffective. The symbolic use of “Maginot Line” as an example of gross strategic misconception and ultimate failure in the contest of arms is fully justified by the history.
Tone down the hubris, please. Of course we get to say that the line did exactly was it was supposed to do, and you just can’t disprove that.
Prey tell us how would the battle of France have proceeded if the was no Maginot line? The smaller French army would have somehow been, by magic, able to stop the bigger German army on a wider front?
For instance, the French had more and better armoured forces. Their tanks were cutting edge for the time. Their failing here was in outmoded and ineffective military doctrine. Not for nothing are Guderian, Model, von Manstein held up as ‘visionary’ generals. {To be fair, if Plan Yellow had failed, we would be making fun of them today. But the plan worked, so, here we are.}
The main strategic effect of the Maginot Line that I can see from my worms eye view is that the Maginot Line absorbed a large amount of time, treasure and manpower that the French could have used to better effect elsewhere.
The main use of fortifications in warfare that I can see is in the implementation of attritional warfare. Fortifications slow down the attacking force and impose conditions conducive to higher rates of casualty. Here is where superior resources comes into it’s own. Static fortifications are bait for a trap, the trap of slow and grinding combat. This assumes that one’s opponent takes the bait. In France in 1940, the Germans did not ‘take the bait,’ and the rest, as savants say, is History.
Prey tell us how would the battle of France have proceeded if the was no Maginot line?
My meta point was precisely that counterfactuals should never be put forward as a contradiction and disproof of the factual. That is simply foolishness. Counterfactuals can be helpful in analysis but a counterfactual, unlike the factual, is not evidence and doesn’t contradict evidence.
The proof of the failure of the Maginot Line as a key component of French strategy lies in the factual failure of the strategy as a whole. It was an abject failure, not one turning on some trivial accident.
You can say, as someone commented, that the French held the Line with relatively few troops, but it is also true that the Germans were able to face the Line with an even smaller investment and commitment. The French strategists appear to have failed to see that a “wall” can work both ways and that the German defensive on that flank might benefit. You can say, well the French “knew” the Germans might attack thru the Ardennes, but the French supposed the Ardennes was a natural barrier nearly equal to the Line in effectiveness, sure to slow the German advance, which was, of course, not true. The French considered extending the Line along the Belgian border, but feared the Belgian reaction. And on and on through the factual history of French military strategy. And in that factual history the Maginot Line failed as the overall strategy of which it was a key component failed.
If you want a counterfactual strategy that plausibly could have worked for the French, it was to attack and invade deeply in September and October 1939, advancing rapidly and deeply into Germany in support of its ally, Poland. The Maginot Line, a massive investment in an entirely defensive posture, represented a huge opportunity cost, working against development of the French military capacity to execute such a strategy and also against the political psychology necessary to prepare such a capacity and use it at the opportune moment.
No, it was designed to allow that sector to be held by few troops, and direct the German attack through the Ardennes.
The decisive error was Gamelin’s, who chose to commit everything in the north in forward positions, leaving no reserve available when the Germans successfully cut inside of those forward elements.
The problem was compounded by French doctrine which moved the tanks with the main columns and had no separate armor/mechanized units when it turned into a race for key crossroads.
The French did have some effective reserve elements available, but failed to use them properly in time to make a difference. De Gaulle staged a significant counter-attack against Guderian’s headquarters position at Mont Cornet, and had success, but when the Luftwaffe checked him and de Gaulle called for infantry units to reinforce his armoured units in the battle, he was denied assistance by the French Command. This one counter-attack came very close to inflicting a major defeat on the attacking German units.
Agree about the obsolescence of French armoured doctrine. The French had plenty of good tanks, but dispersed them as support elements for the infantry. De Gaulle at Mont Cornet showed how effective French armour when used competently could be.
Don’t quote me on this but a believe that for a time there was no direct communications between French HQ and the front line.
Its a public works project for farmers who have been hurt by the cheap Ukrainian grain.
But, but, isn’t it a works project for all those Ukranian refugees inside Poland?
“Kiev by Spring!”
Military utility isn’t the point. The point is to signal that Poland is preparing for a fight and to remind Poles of their traditional enemy.
Everybody who borders Poland is it’s traditional enemy.
I know the Polish mentality well. Poles don’t think of Lithuanians or Slovaks as enemies. They aren’t crazy about Czechs but don’t hate them, not anything like the white hot rage with which they hate Russians.
They worship America and Americans, although not a neighbor, to the point that they are disappointed to learn that I speak Polish. An American should not stoop to their mean level, any more than Taylor Swift should politely ask a couple of starstruck teenyboppers if she could maybe hang out with them for a bit.
To be fair, I’ve also heard more expressions of random antisemitism in Poland than anywhere else.
For that matter, I don’t know a Polish family who didn’t lose one or more family members to the Ukrainian Nazis. Still, since Ukraine is America’s Special Little Buddy and it allows them to spite Russia, All Is Forgiven, please Mister American pat me on the head and tell me I am a good dog!
Where the fuck are the moderators?! Calling Poles dogs is not only racist but an ad hominem.
Please read our Policies. Comments go into moderation only if they hit a tripwire. “Poles” and “dogs” are not tripwires. And he is not calling them dogs, he is saying they are subservient like dogs. Lordie. When I was in Oz, during the pre-Iraq war protests, one of the best signs of sorts was a large Uncle Sam doll. Behind it on a track was a dog with its body painted in an Australian flag with a pretty good rendering of then PM John Howard’s face on its head. The dog would slide forward and back on the track, simulating kissing Uncle Sam’s butt. So this is a VERY common political trope.
Poland is usually called ‘hyena of Europe’. So, not dogs. Also, many humans like to be called “good dog”, and you are anti-LGBT++ for not acknowledging that. That’s borderline hate speech.
P.S. I would expect f**k to trigger the moderators.
“In fiery speech, Aussie defense chief urges support for ‘extraordinary’ AUKUS subs”
After reading this speech by Gen. Angus Campbell, I know where he can go and what he can do when he gets there. Those AUKUS subs have nothing to do with Australia’s defence strategy but everything to do with America’s defence strategy – and we are paying top dollar for it. People like Campbell sold this country out and now he claims that we have to give it a go because that is the sort of people that we are. Since he is retiring shortly, I wonder if he will be offered a lucrative job with a defence industry somewhere.
After reading ‘I Went To China And Drove A Dozen Electric Cars. Western Automakers Are Cooked’, if I were a country looking for the most advanced subs to buy I’d probably go with China. With the Aussies being so physically close to China, they must be seeing this advancement and making obvious comparisons, would the US have lost to China in terms of Australian thinking of which country is more advanced if AUKUS wasn’t in the bag?
Another original sin: the reworking of the language that has turned “offense” and “aggression” into “Defence/Defense.”
Like “War Department” into “Department of Defense.”
Which should be “Department of Converting National Wealth Into Feckless Extravagance.”
“Turn your worthless resources into valuable defense contracts!”
Weren’t the Germans there first? Reichswehr, Bundeswehr etc. Then copied by the Israelis
So basically the same as the F-35. Welcome to the circus. Help yourself to the red noses and white makeup.
Is there a delicious danger that genocide might unite Americans against their owners and managers?
As much as all the previous genocides did.
Exactly. The hopium pipe is red hot with these student protests. The USA is built on genocide, it’s the entire business model.
Give it another month for the kiddos to go to their internships and forget about the time they wasted getting pepper sprayed in a tent.
At least they are trying to stop the genocide. I don’t see a lot of other Americans doing that.
I don’t think they’ll be voting for Genocide Joe, either.
A difference worth pointing out is the social positioning of some leaders within the Palestinian diaspora, as juxtaposed with that of Yemeni people. KSA/UAE indiscriminate bombing and starvation campaign lasted years, and the crickets were audible. That slaughter could well have been live-streamed; I couldn’t tell you, as I didn’t see it like I’ve seen the Israeli genocide. A major contributer to the health and staying power of the solidarity movement here in my state has been the influence and material resources available to some leaders from the Palestinian community. It ain’t over yet, is all I’m saying.
Nope. Recall Jay Gould, looter extraordinaire, who famously said “I can hire half the working class to kill the other half,” https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/10-truisms-of-capitalism-from-the-mouths-of-robber-barons/.
Don’t see much in the way of necessary class consciousness needed to defeat Gould’s successors.
Zackly. If anything, working class Americans are all-in for more genocide. Wishing otherwise don’t make it so.
Republicans are going all-in on supporting genocide – and this includes their fearless orange-haired leader. The Fox News story above about those “bratty,” spoiled, privileged Columbia kids holding a poor working-class janitor hostage (a black woman yet) nicely illustrates how the protests are framed for their Red Team constituents. And Biden and the Democrats are threatening to turn their backs on a loyal ally in favor of the terrorists! Treason!
It will be interesting to see whether the usual partisan sheep-herding works on this issue. I’d like to be optimistic, but…
Some Republicans have totally wigged out about supporting Israel. A coupla Republicans want to introduce a bill into the House designed to send college protesters to Gaza. Yes, you read that right. Just grab some college protestors, put them on a plane and air drop them into Gaza where they will be expected to provide community service-
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/09/rep-ogles-introduces-bill-to-send-college-protesters-to-gaza/
Just when you think that Republicans cannot get any more stupider, a bunch of them will turn up and shout ‘Hold my beer!’
I also saw a bill to deport foreign students that take part in any protests. About 69 kinds of illegal, but who cares?
Team D and Team R alike compete as to who can be more slavish towards Israel.
We are, “Like Samson, at the chip factory, amongst guest workers.”
It’s Golden Calfs all the way down baby!
I think the US reality managers will fabricate (another) Pearl Harbor event before it gets to that point. I guarantee Biden, fancying himself an FDR, is right now exploring options to bring the US properly into WW3 on all fronts.
I also imagine the Pentagon is finding itself in a weird position of having been sabre rattling and warmongering for so long, now that it finally is on the verge of getting what it wants, lots more yummy wars to fight, now realizes it’s in no position to win them, needs to stand down and rethink….
“Israel qualifies for Eurovision final amid protest against its participation over Gaza”
What a difference a year can make-
Sweden 2023: ‘Hey, we got Eurovision next year. We should hold it in Malmö as it is such a left-wing city. They’ll eat it all up and give great coverage. It will be glorious’
Sweden 2024: ‘Aww crap. We had to let Israel stay in and now all those left-wingers in Malmö are tearing us a new one and are booing the Israelis live on camera. Do we still have to let them win?’
Sweden in 1974 (Waterloo): why TF did the UK jury give us nul points?
Irony number 1: UK jury heard “Waterloo” only in Swedish language during rehearsal and didn’t “get it”.
Irony number 2: President Pompidou of France had just died and France withdrew due to national state of mourning. Sweden’s victory might not have happened if France had voted…. Their margin of victory was smallest in “old Eurovision” history. Sweden won cause Napoleon never turned up and despite the UK judges being idiots!
Its been a political circus pretty much from the day it was introduced.
I suspect that if one were to map out the yearly votes, one could see the major blocks across time based on who for 12 pointers from who.
Xi was in Budapest yesterday and so was I. We walked across the Elizabeth bridge which was lined with alternating Hungarian and Chinese flags with a few much smaller EU flags at the bottom of a few poles. Looked like a dis to me and quite funny. There was a tiny free Tibet protest with four young people waving one flag and shouting through a bullhorn and dozens on bored-looking police.
The protest was tiny because of the anti-NGO law.
And here I was, thinking “civil society” would stand up for itself!
“Explainer | What is a friendship marriage? From pals to platonic partners, Japanese couples embrace unions without romance or sex”
Sounds like a cross between Friends Without Benefits and an open relationship to me. But if it works for them then who cares? I sometimes think that marriages licenses should be like dog licenses. People would be better behaved in a marriage if they knew that at the end of the year that it could be simply not renewed. :)
Since Virginia’s supreme court said gay marriage was marriage, it occurred to me that we would have common law marriage claims in a few years as Virginia fairly reasonable common law marriage rules, basically cohabitation for so long.
Seems like one those “keeping up appearance” workarounds for calcified cultural expectation. Japan has a lot of those from what i can tell.
Diapers! Talk about “getting our sh*t together.” Now to breed dogs that won’t want to eat one’s crotch. Cats won’t give a damn.
Who knew The Two Creeps(tm) Don and Joe would be prescient early-adopters and leaders?
We need to DROP the stigma of the underorganized evacuation!
January 6 was simply Trump’s Little Deuce Coup! You don’t know what I got…….
Appreciate the China coverage in links! The warmongering the Empire in decline is fomenting against China leaves us blindsided to what our own future holds.
Always watch what ROK is doing – they keep getting the big questions right (despite often having leaders who are dumb or vicious).
There is a lot of talk about industry policy these days – what is usually overlooked is the fundamental difference between the approach of big economies and small to mid-sized ones. The former can afford to make a few mistakes, take risks. Smaller economies don’t have that luxury – one big mistake can set a country back decades or even lead to its extinction. ROK, along with Singapore, show what can be done if you ignore the noise and just focus on getting the big questions right. ROK are quietly taking control of key niches in a range of industries, from electronics to EV’s to shipping, not to mention weaponry – they are positioning themselves to be a key supplier to the US.
The only cloud on the horizon (apart from the current midwit they elected as President), is a very big property bubble and an even bigger growing demography problem, although they share those with most of developed Asia.
South Korea is not “booming” (even at the conglomerate-level) — that commentator is flat out wrong, or it was a slow news day and his editor wanted a fluff piece.
When China is still growing at 5%, Korea should be doing better. Korea’s big mistake is that the current president threw in his poker chips w/the US and Japan (over Ukraine) instead of trying to juggle 4 plates (US JP CN RU) in the air and stay neutral.
Korea has proven itself to be a fickle partner for China, Russia—-hitching its wagon to the US-Atlantic world just as the world is pivoting in the other direction.
That said—if the EU or US had Korea’s “problems”, it would be a vast improvement for Europeans and Americans.
YMMV.
You can’t compare GDP growth rates to economies at different stages of the development cycle – GDP (even adjusted) is not that accurate a measure (not least as it does not measure either productivity growth or the debt contribution to spending). Even its inventor, Simon Kuznets, acknowledged this. There are other issues with it on the monetary side, as MMT theorists tend to point out.
During a rapid catch up phase, developing countries regularly have GDP growths much faster than is possible than a developed one. A steady 2-3% growth over several years is good for a developed economy – this is more than the average growth of Britain during the industrial revolution. It is the components of GDP growth that matter over the short to medium term as Minsky demonstrated.
Even if you do compare them, if you take pretty much any date as your starting point, South Korea has consistently outperformed China in GNI (GDP adjusted for inflation). Plus, in more recent times, ROK has shown stronger overall growth in exports.
None of the lower or middle classes here in Korea, think the economy is doing well. There has been a lot of food inflation, especially fruit and vegetables.
And four of the five biggest hospitals are on the verge of shutdown due to a junior doctor’s strike, caused by the intransigent president.
The New Left Review piece is
South Korean filmmakers must be really good at dystopian narratives for a reason.
South Korea had better not get too successful or the US will do to it what they did to the EU. The trouble is that you have a two bit leadership class that cannot stand one bit of competition. Look at Chinese EVs and how the US is frantic that they cannot compete with them so seek to ban them.
As long as South Korea is a loyal vassal and knows its place, they will be fine.
My best friend is senior member at Tokyo University and did his PhD on Japanese war stuff (which he himself translated into Japanese to great acclaim). He directly sees what South Korean students feel like: it’s not good. Their “hyper capitalist society” has destroyed their self worth. We in the west like to think that South Korea is one of our “aircraft carriers”. Don’t bet on it.
The young uns don’t wanna fight our proxy wars. They know which way the wind is blowing. They may not like China but they sure as heck won’t fight for “the west”. What happens when all the locals, upon call up, say “meh”
Nobody will ask them what they want.
Again, what does “nobody” cover? Are you in it?
Loyal vassal perhaps but with its liege lord happening to have all sorts of troops and armaments within its borders. Rather like Germany in that regard.
USA still have that DMZ to toy with on Korea.
That said, i think USA “recently” (my sense of time is a mess and a half these days) moved their major SK base out of NK artillery range.
Too bad they can’t move USA out of range of new toys NK recently acquired.
Best i can tell, it is a company nation. They are deeply eager to crank everything nuts about Japan to 11, yet at the same time they have a on again off again antagonism with said nation (comes and goes as the rocket tests out of NK ebb and flow it seems).
EV’s and Israel
The EV article is incredibly revealing. Another clear view into the real world of Chinese products. I was particularly surprised ( and I thought I followed cars) about the US brands PHEV has platforms in China. They really are just treating us like mushrooms. ( keep us in the dark and feed us sh#t).
It’s interesting how Biden appears to have screwed himself over the “pause” in bombs to Israel now that Congress has passed and he signed into law. I forgot that’s what they tried to impeach Trump on. No coherent strategy if there even is a strategy?
Try reading the comments, the amount of cope there is just breathtaking. Everytime someone from the West says something positive about China, you’ll get the usual “how much are the CCP paying you?” The thing about there being more competition in China than the US completely flew over the heads of the Anything But China crowd.
A properly regulated market is a dynamic market…
I think this is really a good video explaining the so called “overproduction” from the Chinese point of view. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W_7HPMuwYo. The first interviewee argued that overproduction itself is a false proposition and he laid out the following argument, “Only through overcapacity, can industrial production be triggered, technological progress be promoted, monopolies eliminated, and prices lowered”. The US however is on a different path altogether where through undercapacity, prices can be raised, and oligarchs can maintain their comfortable way of life.
Yeah i have argued in the past the personal computer happened to to the space race, as it lead to a massive expansion of IC production capacity. That in turn meant the cost of a CPU dropped until they became affordable to hobbyists.
And i think we are seeing this with Shenzhen in a big way, as much of the startup scene there seem to happen in the shadow of the parts and tools supply chains set up to feed Foxconn and like.
Silicon Valley seems to have had a similar dynamic going on back in the day, with flee markets where someone could pick up tools etc.
Funding the war effort in the Ukraine, yes the chart is quite useful and instructive. The article disappoints somewhat, as in lacking the detail around what the category of budget / financial support encompasses. Is that aid direct transfer payments to the Ukrainian economy or is it more along the path of financial grants with strings attached? I have an impression given the war time situation, that their economic system would perhaps implode without such a large volume of this combined US and western government aid.
Merely finance details, I’m sure our best and brightest have those answers. You know I can trust the US government to tell us the truth….\sarc
No chart detail on how many megabucks of “aid” go directly into the deep pockets of 404’s kleptocacistocracy class. The looters do it openly. And of course Dear Hunter/The Big Guy and their friends are in for a tranche.
For reasons unknown I have music from the metal band Megadeth rattling through my mind this week…some of these bands actually write reasonably intelligent music…
Peace sells but who’s buying..
https://youtu.be/rdEupVsL07E?si=u80LK5Q6prbAPgwb
Dave Mustaine is not the most pleasant individual, but he is not dumb.
Joe Rogan interview with Dave Mustaine was surprisingly refreshing and stimulating. He did discuss learning and growing from his past behaviour
“Israel finally goes too far”
The Israelis went feral when they heard that somebody had told them no. One female politician said that if they could not use precision bombs on Palestinians, then they would use regular bombs instead. Doesn’t really matter as they slaughter people indiscriminately either way. But there was no gratitude for all that the US had done for them. It’s like the US has to be loyal to them each and every day without pause.
Say, did you guys catch Dr. Phil’s interview with Netanyahu? I heard that Dr. Phil was with police before they cracked down on some college campus and wondered why he was there. Now I know. If you listen to Dr. Phil’s introduction, it sounds like it was written by Netanyahu himself and after 5 minutes had to turn it off. I would rather listen to Tucker Carlson’s 22 minute interview with Tara Reade. Anyway, here is that Dr. Phil – Netanyahu interview for those who want to see it. The comments section is a bit suspect too as they are all pro Israel with a few saying ‘I live in Iran and I stand with Israel’. Yeah, right-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX6Mk0HndLs (49:11)
Waiting for Netanyahu to call B an anti-semi. / ;)
Maybe like Zelensky, they will accuse the US of not sufficiently supporting them and even betraying them.
Yes, “Stabbed In The Back” will provide a useful and familiar narrative for their fascist behavior when they’ve no choice but to come to the US and other sponsor countries.
“But there was no gratitude for all that the US had done for them.”
Brings to mind a quote attributed to 19th century political boss Simon Cameron: An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought. Biden has clearly transgressed.
Next up: the Israeli version of Dolchstoßlegende.
/snark
Harold Meyerson and the America Prospect are neoliberal tools, and have been for decades. Hadnt read his tripe in years and thought this piece might have been worth reading. Couldn’t make it past a few paragraphs beyond his explanation of contemporary Israeli politics.
I can make any group of humans into roaring @ssholes. Just give them rights and no responsibilities.
I’m not clear what problem the creation of a new state in Galilee would solve. Presumably those settlers fled of their own volition, and if they had wanted to stay they would have created their own militias. That not having been done seven months ago, it seems unlikely that they could do so now using the diminished resources that a new fledged state would have access to. This just sounds like something different to complain about rather than any serious effort to solve anything.
But I wish them well when Hezbollah comes over the hill. It strikes me that they will be far more forgiving than Israel has ever been, and perhaps therein lies the answer to the impetus behind this faux separatist movement.
I found that article intriguing, though. Not because it’s a viable threat, but more of a howl of desperation from an influential political faction that is accustomed to getting their way, and what they’re demanding is not achieveable.
Max Blumenthal, Scott Ritter and only a few others have made the point about how, geographically, Israel has functionally shrunk because of the threat from Hezbollah and Hamas. There are buffer zones that have been evacuated to provide safety that extend for quite a few miles The present situation is deeply unsatisfactory to quite a number of powerful factions in Israel and there’s no military solution to the problem. Diplomacy is still completely unacceptable, politically.
So, how do we resolve these contradictions? Will Israel launch a suicide war against Hezbollah? Or, will it tell the settlers to go pound sand? Doing the latter really rips the guts out of the zionist project. Netanyahu can’t do it. How long before the hard right in Israel loses patience with his inaction in the north?
“How long before the hard right in Israel loses patience with his inaction in the north?” I think you may have answered your own question when you said that “what they’re demanding is not achieveable.” But there is nice sort of schadenfreude in seeing them stomp their feet and bleat about it.
What would be fun to see is if all of those Palestinian refugees presently holed up in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan were to fill the void left by those settlers. They should take their right to return into their own hands, and I feel certain that Hezbollah would be happy to accommodate them. The TikToks would be glorious. Kind of like the Russians a couple of years ago, with their videos of gas stoves going that had to be purged from social media when gas became unaffordable in the EU, imagine all of those Nakhba returnees taking videos of themselves lounging around settler built pools.
If there is a state going wanting in Israel already, I know exactly who should be occupying it.
“They should take their right to return into their own hands, and I feel certain that Hezbollah would be happy to accommodate them.”
Amusing as the prospect might be, Israel would, of course, consider that an invasion by Hezbollah, and massive retaliation would ensue. We know what a vindictive regime the Israeli government is, so I don’t think it’s crazy to expect that the IDF would bombs all the settler houses before letting them get taken over by former refugee families.
In any case, Hezbollah is far too careful to make a move like that. I think they’re more likely to adhere to the Napoleonic quote of “never interrupt your enemy while he’s making a mistake” and just let Israeli society continue to tie itself in knots. It seems like Israel is edging closer to internal conflict, perhaps even internecine political violence?
Israel’s Arab neighbors would much prefer to sit back and let them destroy themselves, rather than subject Beirut and Damascus to another round of airstrikes.
Just spitballing, here:
You are prolly right, but, looking at the map, it seems like the new state of Galilee would include the Golan heights (?). Seems like the Russians have taken up positions on the Syrian border, so it would not have to just be Hezbollah defending the Nakhba returnees. Would we be in a position, illegally occupying a third of Syria as we do, to say anything to Russia were they to “secure the peace” in New Galilee by providing the kernel of a two state solution that has been found to be so evasive over the years? It is not like any of the Israeli settlers would have to be moved, as they have voluntarily decamped already.
Further, Hezbollah, now being a part of the Lebanese government, might find it to be a good buffer state from the newly reduced Israel as well. How many fatal encounters with angry, vengeful neighbors can they afford?
Anyway, fun idea to send to the UN and watch comprador heads explode.
If Zionists can have their Jared Kushner plans for beachfront property in Gaza, there may be Russian (?) counterparts who might want the same thing for Galilee. Their condo projects would have a nice view of the Holy Land from the heights of Golan, after all.
OK, so “Decarbonisation of shipping could create up to four million green jobs” is all about e-fuels, but I have to confess that my first thought was “oh, that’s how many rowers they need”, which made me chuckle.
I also admire the courage of all those who demonstrate and camp out against genocide.
>The liberal international order is slowly coming apart -The Economist
At first glance, the world economy looks reassuringly resilient. America has boomed …
Look deeper, though, and you see fragility…the effect on the economy of a breakdown in norms could be fast and brutal.
Of course, the surface and the substructure. The former shaped and framed by propagandist representatives of the “liberal international order,” i.e., The Economist, and the “substructure” where few actually delve and have to expend much effort to untangle and connect to historical antecedents.
What are the “norms” and values the Economist fears that will redound negatively to the status quo? Could it be the widespread disgust with the ruling class to which it is wedded and on whose behalf it spews out misinformation? Could it be why censorship and the National Security State are gutting the 1st Amendment? What a pitiful attempt at tweaking what Jacques Ellul referred to as “Pre-propaganda,” which is the mission and function of The Economist and other cheerleaders of the “Liberal International Order.”
This type of propaganda must always include a sentence or passage exhalting American exceptionalism.
That’s usually the big tell.
re. Justification for Air Conditioning in Tool & Die Shop Practical Machinist. Many millions of decisions
I worked in a machine fabrication shop outside New Orleans one summer. Of course there was no AC. I also works around various metals and machining factories, but not as a laborer. Most of these places lacked decent ventilation, much less AC. But for a smaller machine shop, i do believe AC is practical and provides a huge quality of worklife and productivity benefit.
The billions of bad energy decisions, IMO, are things like drive-thrus, idling cars for long periods for no apparent reason than stupidity and excessive residential and commercial AC (sweaters and down comforters in July are de rigueur in the sunbelt). These are the really, really bad decisions…
Most of the comments in the article dealt with the comfort of the workers but there are some instances where AC is needed. It also helps prolong the life of controls systems and provides accuracy in machines. CNC routers work with vacuum transmitted through a ‘spoiler board’ which are sheet(s) of particle board. The vacuum goes through that board and holds the work piece being machined flat. The top of that board is machined to produce a flat surface which is the zero datum point in the Z axis (vertical). Humidity (more than heat) can change the thickness of this board and change the datum point for height. I helped set up and train operators of a new CNC router for a company in KC and the technician sent by the company was quite angry when he discovered there was no climate control in that building. I later discovered why he was upset when separate parts did not match each other.
Sounds like that place had a serious issue with quality control. But that bit about separate parts not matching each other sounds extreme. No wonder that techie flipped out.
What QC? The parts were fiberglass countertops for laboratory environments and the ends of the segments were keyed together by a spline. They were to be ‘glassed’ together in seamless lengths so as to allow for thorough cleaning of contaminants and chemicals. The previous material used was stainless steel counters which allowed hiding places and gaps for contaminants. You can easily feel the thickness of a piece of paper on a table (.002″) by rubbing with your finger across the edge. Fred says below that good fits are in the tens of thousandths (.0001″) The misalignment was more than paper due to wood growth on the router bed. Even salesmen can feel a bump and accountants are more sensitive.
Liked the interesting reference to the the thickness of a piece of paper, for comparing tolerance.
I remember old survey days. We used an equation for temperature correction, when measuring distance with a Steel Surveying Tape. Coefficient of thermal expansion. Significant difference, on hot summer days!
I’ll second this. Years ago worked for an automotive supplier who made pistons for passenger car engines. When it got too hot in NE Tennessee where the plant was, they had to turn on the AC on the shop floor, this in order to be able to hold the +/- 0.005mm (5 microns or less than 2/10,000ths of an inch) on some essential dimensions. These pistons were aluminum alloy and the machine tools couldn’t temperature-compensate for the greater thermal expansion, so forth. The manufacturing VP told me a story of how he had to go to the IRS to defend the company’s write-off of the manufacturing expense of running AC in the plant. He took a piston with him, along with a portable highly sensitive mic. He measured the piston as he took it out of his brief case (probably the DN, the piston’s bingo skirt diameter), and then held the piston in his hand as he laid out the case to the IRS people. After a few minutes’ talking, he measured it again, and showed them the piston drawing and made clear that the part had expanded to the point where it was now out of drawing spec. Case won. At least he said he won them over.
Thanks. Great example of thermal expansion.
US submarines during WW2 were among the first to be air conditioned on systemaric basis in any navy. The reason (at least what I read) was for the sake of equipment rather than the sailors.
I’m not quite sure why that link was posted. The comfort of the working class is not as important as a New Green World? Maybe that’s why the workers hate the elites who have three Teslas parked in the garage of their 8000 ft square home?
“The billions of bad energy decisions, IMO, are things like drive-thrus, idling cars for long periods for no apparent reason than stupidity….”
Field sighting: Just yesterday I was sitting in the car in the parking lot of a medical clinic while my partner underwent a minor procedure. Over the course of an hour and a half two other cars near me sat for extended periods of time with engines idling, presumably to run the AC. It was 85 degrees out with low humidity and a slight breeze, in other words, not what can be characterized as unbearably hot.
I know I need to get out more, but I was kind of shocked at the stupidity, not to mention selfishness.
The American babies are averse to any slight discomfort. Mother Nature will teach them their lesson soon enough. Watch SSTs this summer.
“The liberal international order is slowly coming apart — The Economist”
Lovely, how soon can we expect this??!!? Can we expedite???
“FBI watching if US support for Ukraine will spur Russian risk taking in 2024 election”
So will not being supportive of the Ukraine get you on a FBI watch list? Will taking down the Ukrainian flag from your social media account make you look suspicious? Frankly, this sounds like the Biden White House once again using the FBI for political purposes with here trying to stop support for this was hemorrhaging away in the homeland.
They really hate that tank.
But the nearby exhibition of captured western armor drew pretty good crowds.
https://fair.org/home/media-scorn-gaza-protesters-for-recognizing-corporate-reporters-arent-their-friends/
“I was on a bench taking notes as a group of young women, all in sunglasses, masks and kaffiyehs, walked by. “Friends, please come say hello and tell me what you think,” I called. They marched past, not making eye contact, save one, a beautiful girl of about 20. “I’m not trained,” she said. Which is what they’re instructed to say to corporate-media representatives who will twist your words. “I’m barely trained, you’re safe,” I called, and she laughed and half-halted. But her friends gave her a look and she conformed.”
— Peggy Noonan sounds creepy as hell. If someone I’ve never met comes up to me on the street and starts a conversation by calling me ‘friend’ and assuring me that I’m ‘safe’, I’m holding onto my wallet, and keeping my distance.
Watch last night’s (i.e. 9th May) broadcast of first episode of what is to be 9th & final season of Inside No. 9 on BBC if you can access it.
Chilling (as most episodes are). And they’re really going for the jugular this time.
Just wanted to mention, there’s an excellent episode of Chapo Trap House up. The interviewee is an ex-communication director who had worked at two of the universities in the news lately for student protests. The speaker is anonymous, so definitely take with a grain or two of salt. But, if you want a really dire picture of what’s going on at these universities (and another example of how teaching students is nothing more than a side mission in these places), prepare to be depressed.
Student protests and a rise in initial jobless claims, I am sensing a new stock market high!!! USA, USA, USA!!!
Now it’s time to guess what the “sell the news” event will be.
They just need to convince themselves of the truth that they are just imagining being jobless. /Snark
The Due Dissidence guys on Univ. of Chicago protest, utube, ~14 minutes.
Student Protester SCHOOLS Media on SOLIDARITY and Civil Disobedience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJpML0QBcMk
Re: Russia could open new front as Ukraine remains weapons-poor, say officials
It seems that last night Russia bombarded the living daylights out of the Ukrainian positions on the border between Kharkov and Belgorod. Most of the day there has been news from the Ukrainians side (including Zelensky) that Russian troops are advancing apparently at least on two main axis across the border on 50 km front.
The news on Russian side are alternatively confirming and denying advance, albeit admitting the heavy shelling and some probing actions by special forces.
“Chinese scholars suggest official line between entrepreneurs, capitalists to jolt private-sector spirit” South China Morning Post
Chinese academics have recommended an official line be drawn between entrepreneurs and capitalists to restore business confidence.
“…In a recently published book, Views on China’s Private Economy, economists Teng Tai and Zhang Haibing argued that private business owners are not “capitalists” as originally theorised in the works of Karl Marx. Instead, they said, entrepreneurs are “enterprise managers, innovators, investors, the final risk bearers of enterprises and socialist builders”.
Reminds me of the 90s in the USA. It’s a variation of the “market populism” spiels of that era, which led to nothing but accelerated rising inequality.
So much like the tripe from corps, economists, and govt leaders quoted in Thomas Frank’s “One Market Under God.”
Antidote du jou: Another bird that makes me chuckle because it reminds me of the Bronteroc from the movie “Don’t Look Up.”
“Putin’s one tank victory parade is a timely reminder Russia can be beaten”
The coping is strong at the Atlantic Council. By now the Russians are confident of their victory in the Ukraine against NATO. They don’t need to have huge tank parades as those tanks can be used elsewhere. But there is something that happened at that parade that had huge significance for the Russians and you can see it in that image of that T-34 tank. If you look closely, you will see snow falling and the Russians would have remembered this happening as the Wehrmacht was knocking at the doors of Moscow. Saying that ‘Putin’s once vaunted army has seen its reputation plummet and has suffered a series of stinging battlefield defeats while failing to achieve a decisive breakthrough against its much smaller neighbor’ is deliberately misjudging the strategy of the Russians in this war but sooner or later, the Atlantic Council will see it bear fruit as the whole of the Ukrainian army collapses. And those ultra-nationalist formations like Azov? Based on their performance the past few weeks, I would expect to see them racing for Lviv or even the Polish border when that happens.
I started reading that article because I couldn’t believe that anyone would claim that Russia had no tanks to spare for a parade. But, yes, that was indeed the claim. How ignorant can the entire college educated class be? I am flabbergasted.
Those journos should’ve made an effort and visited some city other than Moscow. T-90Ms were in Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd (the one that once was Stalingrad), Tagil, and that’s just a cursory search. Also, a lot of other interesting stuff, not just tanks.
In general, big parades with lots of tanks were a Soviet thing, and they were conducted in November.
My “joke” on Twitter was that all the other tanks were racing to demolish the fascist bit of Ukraine (aka all of it).
What strikes me is the sheer dignity of having a single enemy tank as the parade. No boasting, no bluster, no swagger. Just a captured single enemy tank trundling alone. The ultimate victory parade. And a warning.
“What is a friendship marriage? From pals to platonic partners, Japanese couples embrace unions without romance or sex” South China Morning Post
The writer is referring to traditional romantic love relationships as “traditional marriage.”
In the much larger, grand historical scheme of things, what these particular Japanese couples are doing now is closer to “traditional marriage” with the main thing missing being the “arrangement” part.
And the only thing modern or novel about the relationships: “If they decide to have children, they might decide to use artificial insemination.”
Yeah now that you got me thinking about it, it seems the romantic love thing is a Hollywood romcom creation.
For most of human history, and still ongoing once outside of the North Atlantic thought bubble, some level of arrangement has been involved for various reasons.
The student protesters camping in tents are also in solidarity with the homeless in tents and perhaps preparing for what the vicious neoliberal order has in store for them.
A comprehensive little video showing the unbelievable violence unleashed by the @UvA_Amsterdam board on their own students. https://t.co/H9LobrXJV9
— Harry Pettit (@HarrygPettit) May 8, 2024
From those links, the video appears to have been removed from circulation. Anybody else get a look?
“Another Historic Year for the PLA Navy”
In contrast, here is how things are going for the US Navy-
https://asiatimes.com/2024/05/us-navy-too-slow-too-outdated-to-match-chinas-surging-fleet/
It took the leadership class of Congress and the US Navy decades to do this but by god, they did it.
I’m so old I remember the 600 ship navy.
ETA: The current strength is about 300 and falling.
RE; Justification for Air Conditioning in Tool & Die Shop Practical Machinist.
Some 20 years ago, I toured LeBlond Makino’s facility north of Cincinnati, where they produced high precision machining centers and lathes. One of the key points they stressed was that the entire interior air space was so carefully controlled that no single square meter of air varied from any other by more than one tenth of a degree in temperature. This air conditioning was absolutely essential to maintaining the ultra-precise tolerances built into LeBlond Makino’s products.
I would have thought that any manufacturer dealing with modern industrial precision would use climate controlled manufacturing facilities.
I read that when Edsel Ford and Charlie Sorenson visited Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego in preparation for taking on the contract to build B-24 Liberator bombers (for which Ford Motor Co. designed and built the legendary massive Willow Run facility), they found that Consolidated finished assembly of the bombers outside. As in, out of doors, on a tarmac, in full exposure to the elements. Just the variation in temperatures between night and day was wreaking havoc on manufacturing tolerances, and ALL B-24s produced by Consolidated were essentially custom built by hand, with bulkheads, fuselage panels, and other parts of the aircraft custom fit, often including having to drill new bolt and screw holes when parts did not align properly.
You can imagine what this did to the supply chain needed to maintain B-24s in combat theaters. Ford-built B-24s probably ended up costing taxpayers a lot less money just because maintenance depots did not have to struggle to deal with custom built airplanes.
Btw, the World War 2 industrial mobilization was not initially supported by Henry Ford, who was an isolationist, Anglophobic, and hated Roosevelt, unions, and the New Deal. Also anti-Semitic. It was Henry’s son Edsel, and FMC chief engineer Sorenson, most responsible for FMC’s massive contribution to the industrial mobilization. When Edsel died of cancer a couple years later, and it appeared that FMC would be run by Henry again, the Navy released Henry Ford Jr. from active service so he could run FMC. If I recall correctly, the pressure on the Navy to release Deuce came from as high up as the White House.
Sorenson was the brains behind Ford. My Forty Years With Ford was a classic book about factory design.
IIRC, the Roosevelt Administration threatened to nationalize Ford Motor Company if Ford didn’t go along with industrial mobilization.
Ford was many things, and many of those things were ugly things, but he also was a pacifist.
Ol Henry billed himself as a “pacifist” during the first part of WW1, and did the much mocked and ballyhooed peace ship stunt. But when the war dept contracts came he happily scarfed them up and became the biggest supplier of engines for aircraft and small ships.
As long as the opponents were workers wishing to bargain collectively, his tactics were notably non-pacifist, violent, and sometimes fatal.
In WW2 he notably dragged his feet on British orders, though the divisions in Germany and Vichy France had no similar qualms about building trucks for the Wehrmacht.
I find nothing on the record about threats from Roosevelt being needed to get him on board with American rearmament as long as there were contracts to be had. He broke ground on the big b-24 plant early in 1940, and boasted of the high production levels it would hit.
Given the moribund state of American auto sales throughout the depression (it wasn’t until a few years after the war that there were as many autos on American roads as there had been in 1929) this decision was a no-brainer.
And with American entry into the war and the rationing of metals, rubber, and gasoline that came with it, there was literally next to no way to make or sell civilian cars.
This story is profoundly disturbing. And I have colleagues all over the country right now letting the rest of us know that their work is completely paralyzed.
This is WAY more chatter than I have ever seen before when these attacks have just happened on one or two hospitals. This is an entire system.
What could possibly go wrong? Patients admitted to the hospital unable to get meds? Medication dispensing systems completely down? Unable to order anything in the chart….docs that work remotely at several hospitals unable to access or do anything with critically ill post op patients…..meds not being sent to the pharmacies…Unable to chart notes or anything in the EMR….
I am hearing about it all right now.
Interestingly, these massive security breatches like this always seem to involve EPIC. I wonder why that is?
This is a critical national security issue.
This hospital system, Ascension, is basically made up of hundreds of old Catholic hospitals that used to be run by nuns. As I have said previously many times, when the nuns were in charge, the goal was patient care. And it was done. Marcus Welby style. Now that “non-profit” corporations are in charge like Ascension are in charge, all that matters is profit and executive and physician compensation. Is that not ironic? Notice the Orwellian name “non-profit”.
Well, we will soon see how long this breech lasts. We will soon find out how long these “profit centers” take to crater without their EMR, aka cash registers.
It has been an interesting week in private equity hospital land. I know of a single hospital in a major city, and an entire PE owned chain that went belly up in just this week alone. Rural hospitals all over America are in deep deep trouble. I cannot believe what I am seeing.
“Interestingly, these massive security breatches like this always seem to involve EPIC.”
Groan, the same EPIC that is now being foisted on Norwegian healthcare?!
I had to sign a legally binding document declaring I could not sue my local hospital for ANY malpractice because they had none of the medication I took and required daily and thus my own supply was deemed “inadmissible”. The medication went off patent around 1970.
Welcome to the modern NHS hospital.
Article also mentions: “A third of Americans may have had their personal data swept up in the hack.” (?!)
The salary of each of the upper management of all ‘non profit’ hospitals should be capped at $100,000. Expenditures for fancy atriums should be disallowed.
More woes for Boeing* with three new international mishaps.
Do they put these planes together with duct tape?
(*Well, actually for anyone who would fly in their damn planes.)
Nah, too expensive. Sellotape will do…
Oh, brother!
lol
– ‘A Call From the Journalism Academy for an External Review at The New York Times’ – Literary Hub
This is the letter calling for an investigation of the Times mass-rape stories. If you haven’t read the text I’d recommend it; it is very good. Most NC readers would be familiar with the problems listed here, but one passage caught my eye:
“In 2003, Rick Bragg, a staff reporter for The Times resigned from the paper after news of his heavy and misguided reliance on an inexperienced freelancer for reporting.”
Bragg was a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter (no comment) who was indeed dismissed for this offense. But his name was familiar to me for something else. Remember Jessica Lynch? She was the center of a major propaganda storm in the early days of the Iraq invasion. She had been captured after an ambush, and was said to have been raped and tortured by Saddam’s soldiers. This was all made up. She was treated well in a hospital (whose doctors actually saved her life and shielded her from the military) and “rescued” in a completely staged and unnecessary propaganda stunt by US forces. The story was debunked later by the press and by Lynch herself.
But later in 2003 Lynch’s biography comes out. Turns out she *had* been raped! The military claimed there was evidence that Lynch had been abused while unconscious in the hours after she was severely injured. The Iraqi doctors said this was impossible, that there was no sign of rape, that she had been brought in wearing full gear and uniform, and that in her condition such brutality would have killed her. Lynch herself had no memory of this. But no matter- the “rape” story was resurrected at a time when people were starting to ask questions about what was going on in Iraq. It was a big part of the PR campaign for the book.
The author of the Lynch biography? Rick Bragg.
Heads up! Tonight and tomorrow in North America the northern lights, the aurora borealis may be visible as far south as Iowa and Nebraska. 4 large sun corona mass ejections (cme) occurred and the energy from the cme will hit the earth’s atmosphere tonight through tomorrow night, creating the northern lights in the upper atmosphere.
So keep looking up.
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-viewline-tonight-and-tomorrow-night-experimental
Here too, in the under down under.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/auroraaustralis/permalink/1753455521355990/
Yes, I know it’s Friendface, but I could see the photos without logging in.
Beautiful. Thanks.
Climate, China?
Pacific heatwaves linked to lower factory emissions from China
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/pacific-heatwaves-lower-factory-emissions-china-224259726.html
New FLiRT COVID variants could create ‘perfect storm for a wavelet’
https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/flirt-variants-summer-covid-wave-19445209.php
“The emergence of a new set of coronavirus variants, known colloquially as FLiRT, is sparking concerns about a potential summer uptick in COVID-19 cases after an extended period of calm and a relatively mild winter.” Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle — 5/10/24
Yup. That’s my experience with this variant. People are not yet talking about KP.2 and KP.1. I’ve been whacked with this variant three times on low exposure. These variants’ ability to evade the immune system is going to cause problems. The symptoms are not as acute as other infections, but the body aches and fatigue are debilitating. It won’t go away, and each additional minor exposure requires more recovery time. KP.2 is going to ruin people’s summer vacations. People are going to fly somewhere for two weeks. The airport terminals are going to be full of KP.2. They are going to be sick for the entire two-week vacation. They’ll be sick for another week when they get back home.
“This is a statement written by @UvA_Amsterdam staff condemning the extreme violence exercised by the board on their own students….”
Further proof, if any were needed, that the violence isn’t just an American thing.
for all who say – “Genocide Joe”
“House GOP drafting Biden impeachment articles over Israel aid cutoff threat FOX”
This is be – Donald the Destroyer of worlds!
Yet another move in the War Party’s “bad cop, worse cop” game, in which our “two-party” political system pretends to be competitive but continues to ratchet policy in one direction only. The Dem-Lib faction of the Uniparty says “hey, let’s see how long we can keep our clueless constituents believing that Trump is an agent of Putin and was elected by Russia and is planning a fascist coup.” Then it’s the Rep-Con faction’s turn, and they say “hey, we’ll go you one better. We’ll charge genocide Joe with supporting the Hamas terrorists in Israel! Let’s see if we can get our clueless constituents to believe that whopper!”
Laughter ensues on both sides of the table.
“House GOP drafting Biden impeachment articles over Israel aid cutoff threat”
Talk about clueless! Read the room, bozos.
Should be impeaching Gen Joe for violating 3 or 4 different laws with the weapons shipments to date, but no one at all in Congress wants to actually exercise power.
They read their campaign’s bank account statements. The “room” has nothing to do with their vote. / ;)
https://theintercept.com/2024/01/20/israel-aipac-house-mike-johnson/
Thank you, SC for your Citizens United decision. / ;)
Adding, when MTG pushed to oust Johnson more Dems than Reps voted against her motion. The uniparty in action, or inaction.
Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
American politics is mostly about know who to sell out to. / ;)
A lot of people are comparing this year to 1968, particularly in regard to the Dems holding their convention in Chicago.
I remember that year well, and two phrases I first heard that year still stick in my mind, “The job of the police is not to create disorder, the job of the police is to preserve disorder” and “The one who can get you a gun is a Fed.”
I suspect their will be quite a few looking back at the “Days of Rage” and the trial of the Chicago Seven, but I wonder how many will recall the study done of the outside agitators who incited most of the violence?
Those outsiders either worked for or were assets of the FBI, the CIA ( Because RUSSIA!!!), the Army CID, Naval Intelligence, State Police, local Police and County Sheriff’;s departments.
Estimates of their numbers run from 20% to 25% of the rioters.
Police these days are much more militarized,, surveillance is much more pervasive, the laws are more repressive and the Biden administration has made it clear that they will brook no dissent and that they have no use for the Law except as a tool to punish their enemies.
It won’t be a boring summer.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/10/us/politics/us-biden-china-tariffs-electric-vehicles.html
May 10, 2024
U.S. to Announce New Tariffs on Chinese Electric Vehicles
The administration could raise tariffs on electric vehicles from China to 100 percent in an attempt to protect American auto manufacturers.
By Alan Rappeport and Jim Tankersley
The Biden administration is set to announce new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other goods as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter, as President Biden looks for ways to protect America’s nascent clean energy sector from a surge of cheap Chinese imports.
The move comes amid growing concern within the administration that Mr. Biden’s efforts to jump-start domestic manufacturing of clean energy products could be undercut by China, which has been flooding global markets with cheap solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles and other products.
The long-awaited tariffs are the result of a four-year review of the levies that former President Donald J. Trump imposed on more than $300 billion of Chinese imports in 2018. Most of the Trump tariffs are expected to remain in place, but Mr. Biden plans to go beyond those by raising levies in areas that the president showered with subsidies in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
That includes Chinese electric vehicles, which currently face a 25 percent tariff. The administration is expected to raise that to a much higher rate in order to make it prohibitively expensive to buy a Chinese EV. The administration has been considering tariffs as high as 100 percent, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.
Mr. Biden took steps earlier this year to block internet-connected Chinese cars and trucks from entry to the American auto market, including electric vehicles, saying they posed risks to national security because their operating systems could send sensitive information to Beijing…
Chinese cars are the big item today.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/chinas-zeekr-set-debut-nyse-after-upsized-ipo-2024-05-10/
Zeekr IPO’ed in the US today.
As far as I’m concerned, automobile manufacturing is an overcrowded, capital intensive, near commodity market. In other words, not an attractive investment. However, it’s a great story, good for China, and the global environment. The US already has a ‘built out’ 150 million + car fleet. China and the ROW can skip ICE. The US can support its domestic market with the typical trade barriers. The good news is that the restbof th world can modernize with small, cheap Chinese electrics.
“As far as I’m concerned, automobile manufacturing is an overcrowded, capital intensive, near commodity market. In other words, not an attractive investment…”
I understand, but think that we are dealing with logistics proficiency as essential to overall development and environmentally sound vehicle production and operation as necessary.
Also, I understand that general manufacturing proficiency is developmentally necessary for countries needing to be concerned about trade limits or disadvantages. But, using trade as a weapon is unfortunate.
Good point. The car on its own is a luxury item. But it is the end point of a long chain or logistics and infrastructure that also affect military and civilian functioning of a nation. If the infra can fuel a car, it can fuel a truck etc.
And electric infra is the latest in a long chain of power delivery systems that have extended how far apart the collecting/generating location and usage location can be.
Used to be that mills etc needed to sit on a river to siphon off the mechanical energy of flowing water. Then through pipes and such the mill could be moved further away.
Then with steam engine the mill could be anywhere with a ample supply of fuel to boil water.
Now it can be anywhere within reach of the power cables, that in turn can be hooked up to anything that can make a generator spin.
Harnessing the power of the lightning bolt is pretty much a demonstration of divinity. Question is if humanity can hold on to that ability long term.
Maybe I’m just too optimistic, but modern EV’s didn’t exist prior to 10 years ago. Globally, there seems to be plenty of capital allocated to developing the category. Once they become a more stable product category, They will be available in the US, I imagine. It’s too bad that the US isn’t more on top of the curve.
My comment about the profitability of auto manufacturing is just an expression of indifference to the US ‘missing out’. We could, in theory, learn from China. Why not? Technology transfer is pretty fast. The Biden tariffs aren’t fleshed out. What about Chinese cars from Mexico or transplants, or joint ventures? It will be impossible to keep the technology out of the US
Digi and Thomas, these are important comments.
The Chinese can buy data cheaper from Google et al and not worry about using systems on autos.
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1788790272400535798
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
Wow, quite a speech by Viktor Orbán
https://twitter.com/i/status/1788790272400535798
“Now we are living in a multipolar world order, and one of the pillars of this new world order is the People’s Republic of China. The country that is now setting the course of the world economy and world politics.
Hungary has always enjoyed friendly relations with China, based on solid political foundations. We have always believed in the One-China policy. We have always stood on the basis of mutual respect. We have always seen China as a friendly country, and indeed the wheel of history has never turned in such a way that the two countries have been at odds. Sino-Hungarian cooperation is a story of long decades of uninterrupted friendship.
Ladies and gentlemen, the President’s visit was particularly necessary at a time when war is raging in our neighborhood and the world is wondering whether to continue this war or make efforts towards peace. Our voice, the voice of Hungary, is a lonely voice in Europe. Europe today is on the side of war, with the only exception being Hungary, which is calling for an immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations, and supporting all international efforts towards peace, including the Chinese peace initiative presented by President Xi Jinping. We Hungarians are convinced that there is no solution to this conflict, to this war, on the battlefield. On the battlefield there is only death and destruction. We are convinced that the solution is at the negotiating table, through ceasefire and peace talks.”
12:36 AM · May 10, 2024
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=17P8k
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, Germany, Poland and Hungary, 1992-2022
(Indexed to 1992)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=17P8k
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, Germany, Poland and Hungary, 1992-2022
(Indexed to 1992)
Time to figure out if EU can evict a member nation, and that Orban has made sure he has a very very loyal entourage…
Re: A Global War Regime
A lot of problems here. To keep it short, I’ll just focus on that part of the article where they talk about the previous “failures of the war machine” in the context of a “new war regime.”
First of all, it’s rather telling that a paragraph which begins with a clear reference to the US global military garrison switches mid-paragraph to abstract phrasing. No longer the US global military garrison, it simply becomes “the war machine,” in the abstract. That this switch occurs precisely after having asserted that the “US is no longer the imperial hegemon that some still believe it to be” is emblematic of the move that erases or minimizes the significance of the very real “global war regime” that has been in place for the past seven decades as part and parcel of the US global garrison. By one count, that would be 251 military operations since 1991 alone.
Emblematized by the indefinite article (“A war regime”) used in the title, this erasure or trivialization of THE war regime of the past seventy years serves in turn as the basis for that archetypal move of Cold War Liberals, the outright rejection as conspiracy theory of covert state power (“What we discover,” they write, “… is not a cabal of military and political leaders plotting behind closed doors”). What else but denialism could we call the implicit claim that a global hegemon effectively governed as an oligarchy doesn’t avail itself regularly of covert state power to advance its aims and goals? FFS, conspiracy, or covert state power, is a central part of US “global governance.” It not only covers the field of governmentality, it also extends deeply into the epistemic realm, where entire disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences were both formed and informed by the epistemology of covert state power.
It is precisely that kind of spirit of denialism that deflects attention from the fact that conventionally defined notions of “victory” or “defeat,” “failure” or “success,” in battle doesn’t mean shite for the oligarchy. That’s exactly what Julian Assange was talking about when he said that the goal of the War in Afghanistan was simply upwards redistribution of wealth. From the perspective of the oligarchy, the failure of the US/NATO war machine in Afghanistan was still a stunning success as far as upwards redistribution goes. One third to one half of the $14 trillion spent since the invasion of Afghanistan went to US defense contractors.
Which brings me finally to a quick appraisal of the strategy of desertion that Michael and Sandro propose as a solution to the war regime. The oligarchy would probably be thrilled if “desertion” were our only strategy of resistance for the simple reason that they themselves have already thoroughly coopted it. Make no mistake: Desertion is the strategy of the oligarchy.
Finally, there’s the question of timing — something that was dear to the late Toni Negri (who wrote a book about the opposition between kairos and kronos). Could the authors, both close collaborators of Toni, not have not known that their article would be published on May 9, Victory Day for the Soviet Union in its struggle against Nazism’s radicalization of US white settler colonialism? In any case, their silence about the contemporary reverberations of that event in the face of the current radicalization of the settler colonial project in Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan, all carefully and deliberately orchestrated by the conspiratorial US oligarchy, is emblematic of a perspective that runs throughout their “internationalist project.”
I haven’t decided yet what to call it but it certainly represents a perspective firmly ensconced within the familiar comfort zone defined by the Agency. The list of examples for their “internationalist project” looks like it was vetted. Iran: bad. Kurds: cool. Feminist organizations: way cool. Nothing in the article suggests even the slightest attempt to move outside of the Agency-defined comfort zone.
“One third to one half of the $14 trillion spent since the invasion of Afghanistan went to US defense contractors.”
Who likely has US congresscritters, and/or their extended families, as shareholders.
In both parties of the duopoly!
I’ll just focus on that part of the article where they talk about the previous “failures of the war machine” in the context of a “new war regime.”
First of all, it’s rather telling that a paragraph which begins with a clear reference to the US global military garrison switches mid-paragraph to abstract phrasing…
[ This is a really excellent analysis, all through. ]
“First of all, it’s rather telling that a paragraph which begins with a clear reference to the US global military garrison switches mid-paragraph to abstract phrasing…”
When I read the essay, I did not understand the switch from a US to an abstract policy argument. I realized I was lost when Brazil’s Bolsonaro was equated to the Philippine’s Duterte. But evidently the writers always intended to be abstract, and policy abstraction just leaves me confused.
I am grateful for the careful explanation.
Takes me back. I have spent many thousands of hours in machine shops, both with and without climate control. Back in the day, the skill of the operator made a huge difference.
I recall one difficult job in the days of paper tape CNC in a climate controlled shop, when the most skilled machinist on the floor got the job, clamped it up, turned on the coolant soaking the workpiece, and left for a two hour lunch. When he returned and was remonstrated with, he pointed out that it takes a long time for the (large) workpiece to reach even temperature throughout. Then proceeded to flawlessly complete.
Sometimes he would do things i did not then understand, and he was cryptic. I once asked why his silver solder joints for stainless tube through a brass plate designed for cryogenic temperatures were thicker on one side, and he told me that one must always leave flaws in the work or the gods would be jealous. Some time later when i did the same i discovered the hard way that the thermal stress patterns were asymmetric also … he was a difficult guy, but oddly, i got along with him.
These days the five and six axis production centers have their own climate conditioning in large booths for reasons of holding tolerances as others mention.
sidd