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Links 5/31/2024

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Aposiopesis’: Watch 12-year-old win US Spelling Bee BBC

How the Guinness Brewery Invented the Most Important Statistical Method in Science Scientific American

JP Morgan Launches Fractional Shares For Self-Directed Investors Finance Feeds. “With the latest capability, investors can buy a fraction of a stock or exchange-traded fund for as little as $5, said the announcement.” Awesome. Taxi drivers, hairdressers, and the like.

Climate

We’re All Roadkill Now Salon

Angry homeowners in affluent California city demand faster action on insurance crisis San Francisco Chronicle

Coevolution a driving force behind biodiversity on Earth (press release) Australian National University

Global tourism is booming. These people would rather it wasn’t BBC

Syndemics

A third U.S. farmworker infected with bird flu is the first to experience respiratory symptoms STAT

We Know How to Eradicate TB. We Just Need the Will. Governing

Dengue fever, once confined to the tropics, now threatens the U.S. NBC

* * *

Acute and post-acute respiratory complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection: population-based cohort study in South Korea and Japan Nature. N = nationwide claim-based cohorts. From the Abtract: “The risk of acute respiratory complications or post-acute respiratory sequelae is significantly increased in people with SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to the general population…. [W]hile the excess post-acute risk diminished with time following SARS-CoV-2 infection, it persisted beyond 6 months post-infection.”

Three-year outcomes of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 Nature. From the Abstract: “Here we built a cohort of 135,161 people with SARS-CoV-2 infection and 5,206,835 controls from the US Department of Veterans Affairs who were followed for 3 years to estimate risks of death and PASC.” And the Discussion: “n aggregate, our findings show reduction of risks over 3 years of follow-up but persistent increased risks of major adverse outcomes among hospitalized individuals.” Commentary:

More commentary:

The High-Risk/Low-Risk Fallacy: Part 1 Pandemic Accountability Index (AK). Part 2. Word of the day: vexillology.

China?

The pivot to China, a long thread from the experts:

China’s volunteer programmers work in the shadows to set the internet free Al Jazeera

The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2023 The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China. Horrid formatting, but the “Next Page”-style links do work. “Long-standing disparities in the distribution of income between labor and capital have resulted in the most severe wealth gap since the Great Depression of 1929.” Where’s the lie?

Britain’s century long Opium trafficking and China’s century of humiliation (1839-1949) MR Online

Why Dollarization Is the Solution to Laos’ Economic Woes The DIplomat

Africa

Zimbabwe Set to Be Invited to Join BRICS InfoBRICS

Where wealth is concentrated in Africa BNE Intellinews

Syraqistan

Joe Biden’s Terrible Israel Policy Is Really About Getting in Bed With Saudi Arabia The Intercept

Israel won’t end war for deal to free all hostages, PM’s aide said to tell families Times of Israel

Israeli forces ‘categorically’ ignoring court orders, killing people, says charity Anadolu Agency. Save the Children, ffs.

How Israeli Security Nixed Haaretz’s Report Into Alleged Mossad Extortion of International Court Prosecutor Haaretz. “I was explained [sic] that if I publish the story, I would suffer the consequences and get to know the interrogation rooms of the Israeli security authorities from the inside.”

Nothing Is Off the Table in Netanyahu’s Mafia State of Israel Haaretz. “Who’s being naive, Kay?”

Haaretz stories cast doubt on health of Israel’s ‘democracy’ Al Jazeera

New Not-So-Cold War

Why the US is giving Ukraine the green light to attack inside Russia The Atlantic Council

U.S. Lets Ukraine Fire Ballistic Missiles Deep Into Russia: Will Missile Early Warning Radars Be Their First Target? Military Watch

Germany Says Ukraine Can Hit Russia Using Western-Supplied Arms Bloomberg

* * *

A major ammo supplier to Ukraine says poor quality parts are impacting half the shells it’s trying to deliver Insider

* * *

US to offer Ukraine security pact as tensions rise between allies FT

‘Ukraine Has Gone Through a Terrible Period’: A Q. and A. with Frederick and Kimberly Kagan NYT. If the Kagans are slithering out from their viper’s den into the light, we are in for a bad time.

* * *

Russian FinMin introduces first corporate and personal tax hike in two decades BNE Intellinews

South of the Border

Border Traffic Phenomenal World. Ecuador.

The Caribbean

Haiti’s new prime minister vows to seek unity after he is selected by transitional council AP

Global Elections

Narendra Modi eyes India ‘hat trick’ as world’s biggest, longest election ends and Cyril Ramaphosa’s future in doubt after disappointing South African election FT

India’s National Elections—A New Ingredient in the Mix RAND

Democracy Was a Decolonial Project Boston Review

2024

Guilty on all counts Politico. The headline is deceptive. Trump was convicted on all the business records charges, which are misdemeanors. However, Merchan structured the jury instructions such that we do not know which of three “object offenses” Trump was guilty of: campaign finance violations, paying off a mistress, or a tax violation where the government made money. These were the crimes that raised the business records charges to felonies, and yet we don’t know which of these crimes Trump was convicted of. It would seem to me that voters would and should want to know what the object crimes were — and that giving voters that information would be paramount in a functioning democracy — but Merchan concealed that information. “Our law,” “our democracy!”

Hush-money trial was Trump’s to lose. Here’s why he did BBC

The prosecution used meticulous documentation to show falsified business records, but the evidence that Trump actually intended to commit or conceal that all-important second crime was “thin to nonexistent”, Randall Eliason, a professor at George Washington University Law School, told the BBC.

Trump’s team did not focus on hammering this weakness, though in his summation, Mr Blanche gave the jury a list of reasons for reasonable doubt. Instead, they argued that the central events of the case never happened, or that witnesses had lied.

From the reporting, this is correct. Lots of hammering on Cohen; nothing that attacked the architecture of the case. Caveat that the reporting was dreadful, and the relevant transcripts have not yet appeared.

* * *

Everybody has won, and all must have prizes. –Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Best Liberalgasm: Trump Convicted of Fraud to Cover-Up Fucking a Sex Worker emptywheel

Runner-Up, Liberalgasm:

Best historical perspective:

Best Dry Humor:

Runner-Up, Dry Humor:

* * *

DJT stock drops 8% after Trump found guilty in hush money trial Yahoo Finance

All Quiet on the Western Front Spy Talk. An odd article. “[Hayden] also took for granted that secret services were the only real measure of a nations political health, the only real expression of its subconscious.” –John LeCarré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The Supremes

SCOTUS National Bank Act Preemption Ruling Adam Levitin, Credit Slips

The Supreme Court Could Make the President a King Politico

Digital Watch

AI Is a False God The Walrus

* * *

The ugly truth behind ChatGPT: AI is guzzling resources at planet-eating rates Guardian

Computational Law and Epistemic Trespassing (PDF) Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law. “Legal experts have a responsibility not to defer mindlessly to technologists’ claims.”

OpenAI content boss: ‘Incumbent’ on us to help small publishers, not just the giants Press-Gazette. “Tom Rubin also clarified a common misconception about the partnerships being signed between OpenAI and news publishers: they are ‘largely not’ about training but are instead focused on the display of news content and use of the tools and tech.” So therefore it’s all about the training sets and small publishers will be destroyed (if possible).

* * *

Google’s AI Search and “Web” View Michael Tsai

Our Famously Free Press

A national network of local news sites is publishing AI-written articles under fake bylines. Experts are raising alarm CNN

The Groves of Academe

‘We’re seeing Universities following a corporate agenda to get favor with donors’ FAIR

Healthcare

Thousands of cancer patients to trial personalised vaccines BBC

Boeing

Boeing Sets Its Own Quality Targets Under Pact With FAA WSJ. What a time for FAA to go soft!

Boeing releases Executive Summary of FAA plan (Update with FAA comment) Leeham News and Analysis

Imperial Collapse Watch

John Mearsheimer on Ukraine, Gaza & escalation dominance (video) SpectatorTV, YouTube

Class Warfare

Mercedes’ Use of Union-Busters in Alabama Highlights the Need for Disclosure Reform On Labor

Fifa warned players could go on strike BBC

Stop Asking For Validation Connor Wroe Southard, A Lonely Impulse of Delight. Part 2. On the publishing industry (and getting published).

The Federalist No. 1: Annotated JSTOR Daily

Antidote du jour (Patricio Mena Vásconez):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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109 comments

  1. Antifa

    STORM
    (melody borrowed from Dream  by The Everly Brothers)

    The hurricane belt of the Atlantic Ocean is hotter this season than it has ever been.
    This summer’s hurricane season will be wild.

    Storm storm storm storm
    Storm storm storm storm
    The ocean blue is raging warm
    The clouds it brews will drown our farms
    We’re all gonna see a major weather coup
    Storm storm storm storm

    So head inland turn out the lights
    The tide will rise to dizzy heights
    This weather will crush you
    Bid your house adieu
    Storm

    Sea breeze smells of brine cast your fishing line
    Paradise every day
    But when the sky turns pink — whatcha think?
    High time to run far away

    So please don’t wait for violet sky
    Get well inland somewhere up high
    Or you’ll be a body for the rescue crew
    Storm storm storm storm
    Storm

    No more living fine by the waterline
    This all gets washed away
    Anyone who lives the storm forgives
    But then there’s more storms are on the way

    So please don’t wait for violet sky
    Get well inland somewhere up high
    Or you’ll be a body for the rescue crew
    Storm storm storm storm

    Storm storm storm storm
    Storm storm storm storm
    Storm storm storm storm

    1. CA

      https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1796167861989470524

      Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

      You probably didn’t know this, but every year China issues a “Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States”. This year’s was just released:

      https://english.news.cn/20240529/9bd5fa29443e497fa45c7b9e9f1e812e/c.html

      They’re extremely detailed about it and often quite spot on. To me the most interesting aspect about it is that you always hear the US lecture everyone about human rights but never the contrary: this highlights the fact that all countries have their own human rights issues, and also often brings much needed reflection on what human rights are. Let me post the foreword of this year’s report:

      “The human rights situation in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2023. In the United States, human rights are becoming increasingly polarized. While a ruling minority holds political, economic, and social dominance, the majority of ordinary people are increasingly marginalized, with their basic rights and freedoms being disregarded. A staggering 76 percent of Americans believe that their nation is in the wrong direction.

      Political infighting, government dysfunction, and governance failure in the United States have failed to protect civil and political rights. Bipartisan consensus on gun control remains elusive, contributing to a continued surge in mass shootings. Approximately 43,000 people were killed by gun violence in 2023, averaging 117 deaths per day…

      9:12 AM · May 30, 2024

      1. zagonostra

        I went out to dinner last night with a PMC NPR listening acquaintance who was in town. She was speaking about her daughter who graduated from Harvard and is an environmental lawyer. I asked her if her daughter mentioned the Nord Stream terror attack by the U.S., she hadn’t. It went all downhill from there. Putin came up, she said if someone blew up the pipeline it was probably Putin since he is “evil.” When I challenged her on that she said “evil” is subjective…and there it is there is no objective truth for these people.

        That the U.S. has serious Human Rights violations would come as a surprise to her, thanks for the links.

  3. Joker

    Why Dollarization Is the Solution to Laos’ Economic Woes The DIplomat

    It should also join EU and NATO.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Also appoint a leader that is WEF trained and institute an economic program designed by the IMF.

      1. Ignacio

        and…

        A “pre-bunking” scheme.
        Eliminate coins and paper money
        …
        (feel free to add)

    2. nippersdad

      They could sell all of that unexploded ordinance left lying around after the VietNam war for the effort in Ukraine. All NATO would have to do is just come pick it up! It would be good for foreign exchange…..*

      * Handy use of the word of the day, vexillology.

    3. CA

      “Why Dollarization Is the Solution to Laos’ Economic Woes (The DIplomat)

      It should also join EU and NATO.”

      Brilliantly funny.

  4. none

    Healthcare professionals are taught that acute infections as short-term events with health effects that manifest around the time of infection.

    AIDS sericonversion?

    Epstein-Barr leading to multiple sclerosis decades later?

    Rheumatic fever (ok bacterial) damaging the heart?

  5. zagonostra

    Everybody has won, and all must have prizes. –Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

    Best summary of the the Trump trial saga I’ve seen…thanks.

    1. Big River Bandido

      It’s an excellent description of college teaching today, “prize” meaning “grade”.

  6. Zagonostra

    >Why the US is giving Ukraine the green light to attack inside Russia The Atlantic Counci

    Facing pressure from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO allies, the Biden administration has changed course, but it has “done so in its now well-known overly cautious way,” John tells us.

    I had to stop reading the article after the first bullet point above. Zelensky (they spelled his name with two “y’s”) has no leverage over the “Biden administration” unless he has information on Biden and his son’s Burisma dealings that he is threating to reveal. But if that were the case Zelensky would be dead. No, this is simply a false framing of what is happening and the only interest in reading the Article is to see what the Atlantic Council is up to.

    1. timbers

      Doctorow was guest on Judge Napolitano. They discussed Putin’s recent comments on escalation and brought up Nikita Khrushchev and his alleged show banging and “We will bury you” moment. It’s been exaggerated and seems he didn’t say “you” but “it” (Western colonialism) plus no shoe in sight.

      Things certainly have changed since then, with The West openly saying they are and will continue to directly attack Russia thru Ukraine. Maybe Putin should practice a Nikita Khrushchev moment.

      1. Alice X

        Thanks for reminding me about Gilbert Doctorow, he is a very impressive speaker. I watched (they didn’t say that Khrushchev didn’t bang his shoe on the table, but that Putin hasn’t banged his shoe on the table and thus suffers with credibility for his otherwise profound statements, specifically the ones just made in Tashkent)

  7. Stephen V

    Cory Doctorow’s latest has a major shout out to Yves !
    https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/30/posiwid/#social-cost-of-carbon

    He’s blasting Silicon Valley style *innovation. *
    Quoth:
    Silicon Valley is the land of low-capital, low-labor growth. …
    It’s also the natural next step for an industry that hates workers so much that it will pretend that their work is being done by robots, and then outsource the labor itself to distant Indian call-centers (no wonder Indian techies joke that “AI” stands for “absent Indians”):

  8. Colonel Smithers

    Thank you, Lambert, especially for the link regarding Blighty’s role in drug trafficking.

    The article does not mention the British firms and families that made their money from such trading and remain prominent in public life to this day, Jardine Matheson, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Rothschilds and Sassoons, Keswicks and Camerons.

    Earlier this week, retired diplomats now employed by the above houses met Foreign Office and Treasury officials and suggested dialling down the rhetoric and measures aimed at China.

    1. CA

      https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1795610887363125276

      Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

      This is a very interesting study by King’s College London on the coverage of China in British media.

      https://kcl.ac.uk/news/british-media-china

      No surprise, it found that coverage of China is systematically negative across all mainstream media outlets, with an “almost total lack of any positive coverage of China in the British media”.

      And interestingly whilst you often hear the media defend themselves by saying they criticise “the government, not the people”, the study found that’s not the case at all: “it is China, not just the Communist Party of China, that is framed negatively in the British media”.

      They also looked at whether having journalists based in China made the coverage more balanced and found they emphasized the negative just as much as their colleagues in Britain. An example is The Economist’s Chaguan’s columns, written by David Rennie who’s Beijing-based: their analysis “identified negative coverage in 84% of Chaguan’s columns, with only four reports (1.5 %) being coded neutral-to-positive, and none clearly positive.”

      Even the Financial Times, often considered the most nuanced media out there, was found to be stunningly biased. The study looked at 133 “Big Reads” on China written during a period of 4 years (2019-2022) and found that just 2 (1.5%) had been positive versus 115 (86%) negative, and the rest neutral.

      As the study notes, this “has important implications for Britain’s policies towards China” because”if media coverage is predominantly negative, public opinion is bound to sway the same way. This, in turn, makes it more likely that the UK will adopt a more critical policy toward China”.

      In other words, what we’re looking at here is what Chomsky calls “manufacturing consent”. Think about that next time you are tempted to think the West has a “free press”…

      8:19 PM · May 28, 2024

    2. digi_owl

      The more one look into it’s history the more it seems like England/Britain was basically a pirate nation from the day the age of sail took off.

      1. Colonel Smithers

        Thank you, both.

        China is just the latest to be targeted.

        Digi_owl is not wrong. There are families descended from 16th century pirates still wealthy in the UK, e.g the descendants of Sir Walter Leveson.

      2. Kouros

        Romans took it from Britons, Saxons from Roman-Britons, Normans from Saxons, Danes had a go at it for a while, etc… The tradition of taking things got entrenched. And then they formally privatized it during Queen Elizabeth…

        But I am sure that the same way Russians said never again, with respect to losses during WWII, same way the Chinese said never again with respect to the century of humiliation.

        1. steppenwolf fetchit

          Weren’t the Saxons satisfied with a smallish kingdom in part of Britain? Weren’t Wales and Scotland and Ireland unconquered at the time of the Norman Conquest? And wasn’t it the Normans who turned their conquered Saxon kingdom into a platform for conquest of Wales and Scotland and Ireland and then lands beyond the British Isles themselves?

      3. steppenwolf fetchit

        Didn’t the age of England/Britain as a pirate nation really begin with and after William the Conqueror’s Franco-Norman/Viking invasion and conquest of Harald’s Saxon Kingdom?

        It wasn’t until the Franco-Normans completed their conquest and subjugation of Saxon England that they then turned it into a platform for conquest of the free parts of Celtic Britain ( Wales, Scotland and Ireland ) and then spread beyond Franco-Norman conquered-and-occupied Britain itself . . . conquering conquering conquering and pirating pirating pirating.

        Or am I wrong?

      1. Carolinian

        Since the whole process including the actions of the judge are clearly political I supposed it depends on how far they want to go with this. And that may depend on public reaction to what has happened so far.

        Which is to say that if the judge does restrict Trump’s movements right before the convention where he is to be nominated then the outrage meter would go to well above ten.

        1. neutrino23

          The only thing political about this is the Republican response. The judge bent over backwards to give Trump every chance to defend himself. Trump had a cadre of expensive, qualified lawyers. They empaneled a jury without strong feelings about Trump. The evidence was heard and he was found guilty. Trump never testified on his own behalf. The defense declined to call witnesses, probably because they would have made things worse. Trump was unrepentant and shows no remorse. He should go to prison.

        2. pasha

          For five weeks I checked in regularly with a few websites that narrated the trial minute to minute. I found Justice Merchan actually quite mild with the Defense attorneys, carefully crafting his evidentiary decisions to avoid reversible error. Also read all 55 pages of his juror instructions, which were filled with admonishments to avoid bias and base conclusions only on facts presented, not speculation.

          Who knows what went on in the minds of the jurors to reach their decision? Perhaps some will be forthcoming as to their deliberative process.

          I do know that appeals can only be based on issues raised by the Defense at trial.

        3. JP

          I would agree Bragg and the indictment were politically driven. The judge played it fairly straight given the difficult perp. He is obviously not a Trump voter but then Canon is obviously not a Biden voter. A lot of what I am reading now is manufacturing outrage ahead of any actions negatively affecting Trump. No one has restricted his movements. No one convicted him of anything he wasn’t charged for.

          Stepping a little further from the process, and I have said it before, everyone knew Al Capone was a murdering mobster but it was hard to prove, so they got him on tax evasion. Everyone knows Trump for what he is. They got a rope around the part that was easy. It was also the part that huge sums of money failed to delay until after the election. Would he be convicted of the other charges that have yet to come to trial? well probably. They will be less contrived and more concrete, harder to manufacture the outrage.

          The whole circus makes a great example of why democracy is failing not just in the US but the world around. Other then that, it makes great entertainment if you don’t mind the thinness of the plot. Certainly none of this, no matter which way it comes down, will be to the benefit of the common citizen.

          1. Carolinian

            Turley says no punishable crime was actually proven and the judge in any other circumstance would have given a directed verdict of case not proven. And he’s not the only one saying this.

            After all if what Trump did was supposedly so terrible then why not a trial years ago rather than conveniently just before the election?

            Of course the people who say the trial was just are the same ones who said for years that Trump was working for Putin. I guess they think of lying about Trump as white lies–all in a good cause.

    2. JP

      I guess if there is enough time and money any verdict is appealable to the supreme court. So far Turley’s prognostications about the trial have only demonstrated his real lack of insight.

      1. witters

        “So far Turley’s prognostications about the trial have only demonstrated his real lack of insight.”

        True, silly bastard thinks “the Rule of Law” means something.

  11. Erik Jan

    Britain’s century long Opium trafficking and China’s century of humiliation (1839-1949)

    For a, frankly, fascinating history of the opium problem check out:
    Derks, Hans (2012): History of the Opium Problem: The Assault on the East, ca. 1600-1950, Sinica leidensia ; v. 105

    Description

    Download (open access)

    In History of the Opium Problem, Hans Derks describes and analyses the history of the ‘Opium Problem’—from its first emergence in the 1600s to 1950, as opium was transformed into a luxury item, a mass product and a defining element of imperialist aggression (p. 47). The book traces that history in seven parts: ‘The Opium Problem’; ‘British Assault’; ‘Dutch Assault’; ‘French Assault’; ‘New Imperialists’; ‘Victims’; and ‘Story of the Snake and its Tail’. Parts Two to Six contain valuable ‘Reflections’ sections that reiterate Derks’ assertion that the opium assault on and in ‘the East’ was essential to the imperialist, state-sponsored ambitions of the Portuguese, English, French, Japanese and American states. The Dutch assault, a fascinating and important case study of more than 200 pages (perhaps the strongest contribution of the volume), is argued to have been the worst, by setting precedents for subsequent imperialist doping of Asian populations.

    It’s a bit of a long read (824 pages) but as far as I know the only comprehensive source for this important part of the colonial history between South-East Asia and the west.

    1. nippersdad

      It is ironic that our mandarins so consistently squeal about the Chinese importation of opioids as we circle the drain into our own century of humiliation. One might almost say that it is karmic.

    2. CA

      “Britain’s century long Opium trafficking…”

      Reference to the history by Hans Derks of “The Assault on the East” is necessary and much appreciated.

  12. The Rev Kev

    “Israel won’t end war for deal to free all hostages, PM’s aide said to tell families”

    This is Netanyahu telling Israel that those hostages are as good as dead as far as the government is concerned and hinting that perhaps that it would be better if it were so. That for the government, they are an unneeded distraction. I honestly believe that when the IDF gets a report of a place where there might be a hostage, that they bomb it so that they can kill the Hamas guards. Tough luck if you are one of the hostages though.

    1. Trees&Trunks

      Most likely because the first freed hostages witnessed how Hamas were treating them really well on all levels of the Maslow pyramide.

    2. JohnnyGL

      It’s got to be a serious revelation to a lot of the Israeli population…between, the callous disregard for the lives of the hostages…the 10/7 Hannibal doctrine by the IDF on the music festival fans…

      I really wonder how many Israeli citizens are realizing that the biggest danger to their health and well-being is….the Israeli state!!!

  13. digi_owl

    “China’s volunteer programmers work in the shadows to set the internet free Al Jazeera”

    Windows XP, seriously?! Someone need to update their stock photos by a few decades.

    1. The Rev Kev

      It might very well be true. Windows XP was one of the last versions of Windows that did not have an inbuilt keylogger. That would be seen as an advantage to those working on privacy projects.

      1. Ken Murphy

        I so miss Windows XP. Haven’t even hooked up my new computer to the internet…just don’t trust it

          1. Alice X

            I have Parallels on my Mac, I can run XP (there is one program I would use) through Windows 11 (I only have 10). But I never get around to them. I do run later Mac OSs when I need them.

  14. digi_owl

    “Global tourism is booming. These people would rather it wasn’t BBC”

    As the cruise season sets in once more, they have my sympathy.

  16. The Rev Kev

    “Joe Biden’s Terrible Israel Policy Is Really About Getting in Bed With Saudi Arabia”

    The Intercept are losing their minds with this article. Look at this for example-

    ‘As part of the deal, the U.S. would commit to militarily defending Saudi Arabia, a repressive dictatorship that has been a destructive force in the region for years.’

    This was the deal reached under Roosevelt so is nothing new. The author could have used Wikipedia to find that out. But then this sentence takes the cake in trying to disguise a genocide-

    ‘Since then, the U.S. has remained committed to supporting Israel’s regime change war, providing generous military assistance and unconditional political and diplomatic support.’

    So the complete destruction of nearly every building in Gaza as well as the murder of over thirty thousand people are just by-products of a regime change war? But for Saudi Arabia, this deal would be unworkable. It would includes demands that they trash the reconciliation with Iran and cut off trade with China and Russia while abandoning the Palestinians and line up with the country massacring them. That would be how you get regime change in Saudi Arabia long-term that.

  17. flora

    re:SCOTUS National Bank Act Preemption Ruling – Adam Levitin, Credit Slips

    If I understand the brief outline of the ruling, it sounds like a win for the states to be able to protect their residents from abusive TBTF bank practices. BoA, Wells, etc.

  18. The Rev Kev

    “A national network of local news sites is publishing AI-written articles under fake bylines. Experts are raising alarm”

    This is going to be an ongoing problem with the internet. That it will be more and more populated by articles and content generated by an AI that cannot even tell if it is writing patent rubbish or not. If you had a human proof-reader checking it before publication it might pick up some real howlers to eliminate but that would be seen as an unnecessary additional cost to be cut back on. By 2030 the internet may have been turned into a type of television as it would to a large extent be only about entertainment.

    1. digi_owl

      Effectively the net has become what they thought it would be back during the dot-com fervor, cable TV with a pay-per-view return channel.

    2. t

      Excited to consider that there’s no reason this is limited to online publishing!

      Really looking forward to AI created nutrition labels, drug inserts, and manuals for heavy machinery.

      1. hk

        I think we are already there.

        CA has to have all sorts of legal disclaimers on many things etc. in multiple languages–required by law. However, translations from English to several languages literally make no sense–unless you translated English dsiclaimers in already-convoluted legalese word by word. I have a hunch that may of these things were (badly) machine translated, i.e. by AI. Given that the person on the other hand has to agree to these things (and affirm that they have been provided with the information and understand what it means) this causes potential conundrum for many. Obviously, these things are potentially serious (government stuff and all that).

    3. Glenda

      I happened to go to my Ancestry.com “hint” and found a 1912 news clipping about my great-grandmother’s support of Mexico and her membership in the Socialist-Labor party.
      That was good, but….. then came the AI hints that had names of “supposed” family members that were totally twisted with paternal name as a maternal last name. What garbage.
      At least I was ‘warned’ that it was AI and “might” be mistaken. I shudder to think what his will do to future “research” on ancestry.

  19. LadyXoc

    Re: Kagans. tl;dr but have to say that every time I try to read the nyt I am struck by what I have come to call “easter eggs” in the articles. These are casual statements of non-fact that one is supposed to swallow whole, without reflection, and which gradually build the foundation of lies on which US foreign policy rests. In this article, Zelensky is referred to as the President of Ukraine, when his elected term has now expired. And Mrs. Kagan refers to a “civilian shopping center” when photo evidence shows that the parking lot was completely empty, giving the lie to that assertion and credibility to Russian claims that the facility had been repurposed as a munitions depot.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Hey, now wait a god-darn minute. In that video that you linked to fast forward to about the 1:14 mark where that bar is erupting at news on the screen. So your video came out 7 months ago, right? In Links today there is a video in a tweet from the Lincoln project. Yeah, those guys. Here it is again-

      https://x.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1796294195830755334

      Its the same scene and you can tell by the clothing of the people in that scene. Look for those wearing red. They just digitally added a news screen into that video to make it look like it is new. I’m shocked, shocked that the Lincoln Project are just a bunch of lying ******.

      1. B Flat

        Bingo. This is what I meant to convey. My system isn’t booted with enough caffeine yet!

        2. Katniss Everdeen

          Welcome to the pathetic future of the world’s most glorious banana republic.

          I am not much of an X user, but from what I understand, something called “community notes” is supposed to police shit like this. I don’t know how to post to “community notes,” but if you do…

          Matt Taibbi was all over this lincoln project scam several months ago. Since I’m a subscriber, I’ll probably have more luck sending it to him and letting him run with it.

          Thanks for the heads up, B.

  21. Donald

    From the Turley post—

    “ I am always shocked by such scenes. There is a dehumanizing element of these moments as people celebrate not just the first conviction of a president but a person. Rage is addictive and contagious. That was vividly evident outside the courtroom.”

    This is so precious. I wish Trump and Biden and Obama and Bush were convicted of war crimes and I would celebrate if it happened.

    The problem here is the triviality of the crime. That’s why I wouldn’t be one of the people on either side outside the courtroom, but I also wouldn’t be Turley , all heartbroken over poor Trump.

    1. flora

      “There is a dehumanizing element of these moments as people celebrate not just the first conviction of a president but a person. Rage is addictive and contagious.”

      Triumph of the Wilteds.

    2. Carolinian

      Turley is a mixed bag but his legal analysis as a prof and working trial lawyer seems sound to me at least. I think the main point in all of this is that those who spend the most time talking about democracy and the sacredness of the law are the ones who have the least respect for both and therefore doth protest too much.

      Corruption has always been a feature of American politics but now it is out of control. By making Trump into some kind of martyr they are daring the public to object. It’s time for all of us to object. Gaza shows what happens when the powerful have no restraints. Ukraine too.

      Some of us have always thought that American foreign policy was what TPTB would do in this country if they could get away with it. The point with Trump is not whether he is a good guy but rather to turn the divide and conquer tactic against the elites themselves. TINA is the real danger.

      1. flora

        re: “those who spend the most time talking about democracy and the sacredness of the law are the ones who” … claim ownership of ‘the democracy’.

        Sort of like claiming ownership of ‘the science.’

    3. Big River Bandido

      I don’t care about Trump, but I do care about the evisceration of due process and the rule of law. If a kangaroo court can do this to a billionaire, no one outside AIPAC and The Blob is safe.

      Never voted Republican before but very well may this fall. Certainly will never again vote Democrat.

      1. Carolinian

        Hear hear. For some time the Dems as a party have been “about nothing” other than keeping control of the process so “nothing will fundamentally change.” Since we already have a conservative party that makes them redundant and ripe for being abolished.

        1. hk

          But the Dems are always fighting for X, Y, and Z (even if they never do anything them)!

  22. digi_owl

    “Where wealth is concentrated in Africa BNE Intellinews”

    I guess those Nigerian scams are paying off…

  23. pjay

    – ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ – Spy Talk. An odd article.

    Indeed. I wonder if Jeff Stein meant to encode the same message I decoded?

    “Woodward and Bernstein, greatly responsible for this turn of events [i.e. taking down Nixon], are at their desks, typing away, not paying attention. They’ve got more work to do.”

    My reading: the intelligence community, greatly responsible for taking down Trump, shrugged and went back to work. After all, “they’ve got more work to do.”

    Maybe he did. As an “intelligence correspondent” and former intelligence officer he would naturally want to hat-tip his two hero-groups: “investigative reporters” and spooks. They’re just too hard-working and dedicated to take a victory lap themselves.

  24. Wukchumni

    Re: Cali home insurance

    I’m on the fence in regards to paying through the nose, and my 1977 (came with disco ball in the living room) 2,500 sq foot house is now costing me $7,200 a year, up from around $3k a few short years ago.

    We live in an oak savanna with no pine trees to speak of, and unlike pine needles, oak leaves just smolder when on fire.

    The real issue being that if I opt out of insurance, nobody will ever insure me in the future, a quandry.

  25. Wukchumni

    We are at Mono hot springs, my first visit here and Kaiser pass road is quite something with it being a 1-lane road for about 20 miles, you might have to back up and find a pullout when a car is coming the other direction.

    We drove through many scorched acres from the 2020 Creek Fire, some areas with devastation as far as the eye could see, and we only saw the tip of the 300,000+ acre conflagration.

    I remember the day it started, had walked to White Chief Canyon in Mineral King and noticed something odd in the air, as winds aloft were seemingly coming from every direction, fanning the flames to the north of me.

    We got a break last year with only 350k acres burned in wildfires in the state, and who knows what is in store for us this summer?

    1. Carolinian

      I hear there are some fires near the Phoenix Salt River lakes–all human caused of course. Meanwhile back East on recent trip I popped into a state park office where they were selling firewood. I’m glad I didn’t stay there and be choked by fifty campfires. The public do love them some fire.

      It really makes the case for camping at RV heavy sites where the “campers” are all inside their air conditioned cubes watching TV.

      My brother gave me a book about the Lincoln Highway which was the original national paved road. The impetus for building it was in part those flivver owners who wanted to drive to the West and relive the pioneer experience with their makeshift camping kit. Now many state parks are more like mobile home villages.

      1. Wukchumni

        Feeling guilty about bringing up oak firewood to the Vermillion resort near Lake Thomas A. Edison. where we’ll be camped for a few nights…

        In my defense, its an attempt to lighten my 5 or 6 cords of split wood, even if it represents only a toothpick in the scheme of things-

        Really a cool spot and a major stop on the PCT/JMT trails. I’ve had some great conversations with thru hikers…

        1. Carolinian

          No need for guilt unless there’s a fire ban or you are encouraging the far less savvy public to do it. I’m just “witnessing” on a personal level. Campfires are also more problematic back East because of damp wood and less wind to carry off the smoke. Add in a few dozen fire lovers and it can really make you want to leave. Many are only satisfied with bonfires.

          1. Wukchumni

            I’ve seldom had that experience out west with everybody having big fires

            For a number of years during our prolonged droughts, they weren’t allowed at all.

  26. djrichard

    > Britain’s century long Opium trafficking and China’s century of humiliation (1839-1949) MR Online

    Back when the west knew how to solve the trade imbalance with China /sarcasm

    And I guess turnabout deserves fair play. So where Britain brought “the gift” of opium to China back then now China brings “the gift” of cheap supply chains to the US. /schadenfreude

  27. magpie

    RE Digital Watch, Imperial Collapse Watch

    Honest question: how long before everything Snowden and Assange accomplished is scrubbed from the internet?

    1. Joker

      They can’t scrub stuff from Russian part of Internet. Snowden also got Russian citizenship. They will just declare everything to be Russian propaganda.

  28. JBird4049

    >>>Boeing Sets Its Own Quality Targets Under Pact With FAA WSJ. What a time for FAA to go soft

    Is there a dead pool anywhere for Boeing? Or would that be a murder pool? You know, what, where, when, and how gets it from Boeing.

    I can afford to put a twenty on an apartment building by September using a whole plane.

  29. Jabura Basaidai

    y’all are so good at providing books on subjects how about one that addresses C(alphabet agency) involvement with RFK’s demise – also have always thought that JFK Jr’s wasn’t ‘just’ a plane crash –

  31. flora

    Gonna go way out on a limb here. When QEII died I was very sad for some unknown to me reason. I’m not a royalist or monarchist person by any means. (Glad the US broke away from the UK 200+ years ago. ) Yet, I was very sad when QEII died. Why? I don’t know. Was it her regard for her country, for her citizens of the country, for her refusal accept the then nazi “we will overcome you all, you limited people” nonsense? I don’t know. For her determination that her country and its people came first above all? I don’t know.

    Adding from utube, Handle’s “Zadok the Priest” choiral from the 2002 Proms Palace Concerts. utube. And again, I am no monarchist at all. Not at all.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1W1XJ96y9k

            1. Captain Obvious

              You are praising The Queen for “being against the Nazis”. I’m just sayin’ that the praise is nonsensical.

    2. Wukchumni

      My late mother related that when the royal tour of Canada happened in 1939, all the schoolchildren were given Union Jacks to hold as the procession came through Calgary, and she met Princess Elizabeth, who was about her age.

    3. hk

      She was one of the last holdovers from the past where things seemed, oddly, stable and hopeful? (strange that the era of nuclear drills and such seems like that now…) I never liked Jimmy Carter when he was actively involved in politics (although I’ve come to respect him when he’s not doing overtly “political” things (at least US domestic politics)), but I imagine that I’ll be greatly saddened when he goes.

    4. Pat

      I find the ins and outs of the monarchy interesting. But for me, QEII and somewhat Prince Phillip’s passing was the end of an era. From childhood on duty to the country was part of her life. I didn’t agree with everything she did, but unlike our politicians I truly believe she always attempted to do her best for her country and its people. Charles and particularly Anne attempt to meet that standard, but they will always be overshadowed by Queen Elizabeth. There is just too much history there, from her years during the blitz and taking the throne at such a young age there were decades of stories of her doing just that. She was as much a touchstone as a Constitutional Monarch.

    5. Terry Flynn

      I felt similarly. Totally ambivalent about the nature of head of state for us Brits/Aussies (more important things to correct in society). However she (despite allegations of behind the scenes interference) genuinely did stick to her pledge to serve til end of her life and stay above the fray.

      I think I felt a bit sad because her quiet approach to her bone cancer was exploited to sell a book by someone who is, let’s just say “disliked” by most Brits – the deluge of comments on social media whenever that man is wheeled out to participate in any British tv show is immense.

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