Butterflies accumulate enough static electricity to attract pollen without contact (press release) University of Bristol
Killer Whales Sink Yacht in Med: ‘Knew What they Were Doing’ Daily Beast
When private equity buys a hospital, assets shrink, new research finds WaPo
Private Equity Professionals Are “Fighting Fires” in Their Portfolios, Slowing Down the Recovery Institutional Investor
Top BlackRock executive benefits from unusual ‘points-style’ bonus pay FT
The Olympics
COVID-19 hits Paris Olympics: Athletes forced to withdraw and mask up AP. “Team Canada’s chief medical officer Mike Wilkinson, said his team ‘continued to implement many of the infection prevention protocols that proved successful during the Covid pandemic including hand washing, sanitisation and good hygiene practices.'”
U.S. Olympic Swimmers David Johnston, Luke Whitlock Test Positive for Covid-19 in Paris Swim Swam
Olympics Triathlon Goes Ahead In River Seine After E.Coli Cliffhanger Deadlinel
* * * “Main character energy”:
The most "Main Character Energy" I've ever seen in my life from Kim Ye-ji (Republic of South Korea) casually breaking a world record and winning the gold medal #Olympics2024 #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/mlTGZQappE
— The Something Guy 🇿🇦 (@thesomethingguy) July 30, 2024
* * * Quote of the Day, Olympic Edition: “They’re Enjoying Themselves at Our Expense, and They Expect Us to Applaud?” China Digital Times
Olympic ‘Last Supper’ scene was in fact based on painting of Greek gods, say art experts Guardian
Climate
Permafrost thaw accelerating climate change, studies warn BNE Intellinews
The Rush to Shore Up the Power Grid Against Hurricanes, Heat and Hail WSJ
NIFC: When all the West is on fire at once, this is who deals with it Wildfire Today
Decolonisation, dependency and disengagement—the challenge of Ireland’s degrowth transition Center for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity
These 17th-century drawings of the sun by Kepler add fire to solar cycle mystery Space.com
Syndemics
Cruisers contracting COVID-19 during summer surge as healthcare recommendations change FOX35
China?
China’s factory activity contracts for third straight month FT
China’s cash-strapped small banks face limitations amid shake-up, with no easy fix South Cnina Morning Post. Commentary:
4/4
banks or into national-level banks?), the state in which it leaves bank balance sheets, and the ways in which financial responsibilities will be divided up, will all matter hugely to the evolution of China's long, difficult economic adjustment.— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) July 31, 2024
China’s Tianqi contests Chilean regulator’s move to hand over lithium reserves to state S&P Global
Ahead of the Times: Flag-Waving Communication and Japan’s Dōjima Rice Exchange Nippon.com
India
How A Lawyer Used Race & Caste To Get American Citizenship Madras Courier
Africa
Volume and Shape New Left Review
Dear Old Blighty
Thugs hijacked Southport and families’ grief, MP says BBC
Misinformation about Southport attack suspect spreads on social media Guardian
New Not-So-Cold War
Talking Ukraine on “The Duran” (video) John Mearsheimer
Ukrainian society is inclined to make concessions (Google translation) Vzglyad
SITREP 7/31/24: Die Welt Reveals Dire NATO Camp Outlook for Ukraine Simplicius, Simplicius the Thinker
Would the U.S. Consider Assassinating Putin? Foreign Policy
* * * Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion profile quietly removed from Stanford extremist group list Noir. Commentary:
Nazified extremists like Azov are useful as motivated killers for warfare, but a frankenstein's monster when you need to switch to ceasefire/peace mode. Azov way too big now (and just one of many extreme-right military formations) to put back in the bottlehttps://t.co/zMjziZ5C3c
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) July 30, 2024
* * * * * * Ukraine businesses furious over government-proposed tax hikes to fund fight against Russia Kyiv Independent
Lithuania condemns Hungary’s decision to ease entry conditions for Russians and Belarusians: it threatens EU security Ukrainska Pravda
Russia to legalise cryptocurrency in attempts to circumvent sanctions Ukrainska Pravda
South of the Border
Fresh protests in Venezuela as anger grows at disputed election result BBC. Commentary:
BREAKING: Venezuela’s opposition and US media outlets claim there was "fraud" in the election based on an exit poll from US government-linked firm Edison Research.
Edison works with CIA-linked US state propaganda and was active in Ukraine, Georgia, & Iraqhttps://t.co/HsHglYbUtF
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) July 29, 2024
Lula and Biden call on Venezuela to release full presidential election results France24
National Lawyers Guild electoral observers praise Venezuelan election process MR Online
Syraqistan
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is killed in Iran by an alleged Israeli strike, threatening escalation AP
Israeli Attack Kills Hamas Leader in Tehran: F-35 Precision Strike Suspected Military Watch
Israel carries out rare strike on Beirut that it says killed Hezbollah commander AP. Commentary:
It's telling Israel (allegedly) can conduct pinpoint operations thousands of kilometers away to a capture target with precision, yet just two kilometers from home, they use 5-ton bombs on families to eliminate minor threats.
PS the hostages are still in Gaza. https://t.co/mfmWZ3l8Ki
— Etan Nechin (@Etanetan23) July 31, 2024
More:
Israel just bombed Beirut, killing civilians including at least two young children of 6 and 10 years old, in what it claims was a strike against a Hezbollah commander. It's very simple: All of Tel Aviv is a legitimate target to strike to take out Israeli commanders. All of it pic.twitter.com/XsKlYVDl86
— ☀️👀 (@zei_squirrel) July 30, 2024
* * * ‘More horrific than Abu Ghraib’: Lawyer recounts visit to Israeli detention center 972 Magazine. Sde Teiman. Long thread of commetnary:
The military police had come to arrest nine of the soldiers – apparently all reservists – who serve at the camp. They were wanted for their involvement in the gang rape of a prisoner who was subsequently taken to the camp’s infirmary with severe rectal injuries.
— Mouin Rabbani (@MouinRabbani) July 30, 2024
A day of chaos in Israel as far-right protesters storm military bases Axios. “[A] Hamas operative who was detained at the facility was rushed to a hospital after bleeding from one of his intimate parts of his body.” Commentary:
I feel stupid and ashamed. In May, an expose came out on CNN detailing the abuses in Sde Taiman. Then, the NYT released their own article on it. Both were backed up with Israeli sources, crossed with Palestinian ones.
I dismissed them because my government sources and Israeli…
— Shaiel Ben-Ephraim (@academic_la) July 29, 2024
Biden Administration
The Non-Compete Revolution Begins Wealth Management
Supply Chain
Red Sea crisis hits volumes at port of Piraeus Seatrade Maritime News
Trump’s radical reforms could put a spanner in US supply chains Seatrade Maritime News
Digital Watch
OpenAI endorses Senate bills that could shape America’s AI policy TechCrunch
W3C says Google’s cookie climbdown ‘undermines’ a lot of work The Register
Instagram to allow users create their own chatbots through AI studio Business Standard
Zeitgeist Watch
Imperial Collapse Watch
US needs more nuclear subs, mobile ICBMs and tactical nukes: Heritage report Breaking Defense
Catholic group Opus Dei accused of recruiting children FT
Class Warfare
For Big Companies, Felony Convictions Are a Mere Footnote WSJ
WhatsApp Mutual Aid Grassroots Economic Organizing
The problem of busy work activism Chloe Humbert, Teams Human
Florida HOA Decides It’s Above State Law, Won’t Let Residents Park Trucks at Home The Drive
What Is Left Of The Mind 3 Quarks Daily
Antidote du jour (Adrian Pingstone):”
And a bonus (AM):
AM writes: “The third generation of the exotic escapee goose family in Roger Williams Park is doing well. They are cousins, I think. The slightly larger one is about 2 and a half weeks older than its 3 younger relatives. The other adults were nearby – a total of 10. One missing. Hopefully still around.”
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
198 comments
Comments are closed.
KAMALA!
(melody borrowed from Camelot from the musical Camelot by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner)
Yahoo! Yahoo! Joe Biden isn’t here!
And Kamala’s been given the all clear!
Celebrity comes not from what you know, dear
Please try to keep up with the changing plot
In politics we’re putting on a show, dear
Hey Kamala!
Your words must not pour out like from a blender
You can’t sound like you’ve caught what Biden’s got
Don’t drop one hint that you are a pretender
Hey Kamala!
Kamala! Kamala!
You’ve been our second string so far
But now Kamala! Kamala!
You’ll be our guiding star
Some kid just tried his hand at gunning Trump down
It’s great that he just nicked poor Donald’s ear
Reports say had he got a more accurate shot
You’d have a simpler time of it this year
Hey Kamala!
Kamala! Kamala!
We’ll show you how to use your claws
Listen Kamala! Kamala!
You must get more applause
Don’t ramble on until you find you’re tongue-tied
Your words must make some sense that people hear
If voters boycott you’ll lose your only shot
They’ll back whomever can assuage their fear
Hey Kamala!
Not enough hopey-changey perfection? Back to Kennedy 1?
MAGA wants to make Murica Camelot-
She has breathed new life into the Delusional Cognitive Dissonance blender. Maybe an opportunity for some Emerson Lake and Palmer word-salad surgery. My creative capacities are non-existent.
Do you have a particular tune in mind?
My money would be on a US strike, carried out from Syria.
But the delay in admission of responsibility will hang over this event like a dead skunk for several days or possibly weeks. Ambiguity is to US/Israeli advantage now, inviting Iran to make the mistake of retaliating against the “wrong” target, giving the “unjustly attacked” party and its allies carte blanche to escalate.
‘Leonid Ragozin
@leonidragozin
Azov Movement’s Dmytro Kukharchuk (currently battalion commander at the 3rd detached assault brigade) calls for executing those who “consciously or unconsciously” promotes enemy agenda. Various Azov personalities have been recently expressing outrage at the authorities in Ukraine tentatively lifting the taboo on discussing peace talks and territorial concessions.’
Should it be mentioned that this is the same unit that right now is going around Europe to raise funds, host information evenings and recruit new people? They can’t be all bad if the EU gave them the green light to do so because, you know, EU values-
https://www.brusselstimes.com/1155091/ukraines-azov-battalion-cancels-controversial-recruitment-session-in-brussels-tbtb
This is going to be an issue for years, maybe decades. They have access to so much money and weapons right now, and no doubt the CIA is helping.
Now that Ukraine is arming and training Al-Quaida, Mali and Mauritania being mightily annoyed, maybe USAFRICOM should have a word with the CIA?
Popular legends refuse to admit that we created Bin Laden in Afghanistan for the same reason, to harm Russia.
Oligarchs had “militias” long before the 2014 coup. Some may or may not have been neo Nazis. From 2014 on US “black budget” spent up whatever military Ukraine has.
During the bombardment of Donetz after the 2014 secessions to 2022, European volunteer neo Nazis were present!
After 1945 the Soviets spent 6 or 7 years rooting out the fifth columns many Nazis.
Overlapping districts between Poland, Hungary and Rumania are dens of revolt.
Regarding the truck-in-driveway ban in Sarasota: “McIntire is free to park his Silverado inside his garage of course, but he says the full-size Chevy doesn’t fit. That’s a bummer, but it’s also beside the point.”
This is exactly the point. The American pickup truck has hypertrophied into a dangerous, gas-guzzling monstrosity to the advantage of Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge (Ram) and to the disadvantage of everyone else. This poor soul should have bought a bigger house with a bigger garage in a better neighborhood. /s
Love to know if he uses that truck for anything a car cannot do. Doubtful.
This. You see many so-called light trucks on the roads in my area. Large majority of them show little dust or dirt, much less the everyday wear and tear experienced when actually used as a work tool. We are a nation of posers.
And farmers and ranchers are generally pissed that a vehicle they actually need is now so overpriced. The Asian mico truck market is now real in rural America, along with larger and larger AWD ATVs.
aye!
i often see giant shiny duellies(sp-2) with one, usually petite, woman driving it…to get a fancy coffee.
my truck, a 2002(?) dodge ram,1 1/2 cab, shortish bed, and with only 4 tires…actually looks the part,lol….dented and dirty and with the dashboard falling to bits since i got it.
no ac…hand crank winders…and millet and corn sprouting in the bed after it rains.
rumbles and rattles and squeaks.
ill back that dude up to near a dead tree, for to attach a chain to the headache rack and about 12 foot up said tree, to make sure it falls where we want…and the upper stick branches scratch the dude up even more…ie: i cause trees to fall on my truck,lol.
we cut up the bigger branches inside the bed…so as to not hafta lift twice.
Ha!
those petite wimmens dont know hard core when they see it.
And if you ever find a creek deep enough to drive into that covers the cab you can just roll down the windows!
Undoubtedly, he needs it to get to work at his office [snark].
Notice that the beds are about one foot shorter than the trucks 20 years ago in order to make room for the back seat of the crew cab. Around my suburban neighborhood it seems that most of the truck beds are permanently covered, meaning they are rarely, if ever, used to haul anything that could not fit into the truck of a sedan.
Travelling a major Chicago expressway recently and up ahead was a guy in an old 70’s era pick-up. It was comical seeing it dwarfed by the 2 story pick-ups of today. Back in day, pick-up trucks were “big”.
The only thing more comical are the commercials for todays monstrosities showing guys & gals climbing glaciers in snowstorms and off-roading over treacherous mountains during hellacious hailstorms.
I just watched Blood Simple for the tenth time. Released in 1984. Almost every character in that film would be driving a pickup today, but, even though the whole movie screamed Texas, not one. The iconic vehicle was a VW bug.
Effing brilliant.
Shaiel Ben-Ephraim at 6 PM yesterday tweets about his shame and stupidity at having believed his government’s claims that what international media says about Israel are the lies of antisemites. 4 hours later he’s tweeting “hats off” and “redemption” at Israel bombing Beirut. Not sure what to make of Mr Ben-Ephraim.
I wonder what he was tweeting when Israel was under bombardment by the Iranians not long ago. Was there any signal in the bomb shelter that he was probably hiding in?
Actually, I think everyone goes through this shift at some point in their lives if they are lucky. It may be when they are a kid, or a teenager or it may be when one is much older. Certainly, we are mostly brought up to believe that the dominant information system is accurate and true. It takes some divergent info to shift this childhood belief.
I remember sometime in the late seventies sitting in a pub reading a fanfold computer printout (!) of an article by Philip Agee, the CIA defector. I remember walking out of there, pale and with shaking hands.
Thanks, Phillip, wherever you are.
Kamala, you’re in the run now
Running after somebody, you gotta get him somehow
I think you’ve got to slow down before you start to blow it
I think you’re headed for an Alf Landon beat down, so be careful not to show it
You really don’t remember, was it something that he said?
Are the voices in your head calling, Kamala?
Kamala, don’t you think you’re fallin’?
If everybody wants you, why isn’t anybody callin’?
You don’t have to answer
Leave them hangin’ online, oh oh oh, calling Kamala
Kamala (Kamala), I think they got your number (Kamala)
I think they got the puppeteer (Kamala) that you’ve been living under (Kamala)
But you really don’t remember, was it something word salad you said?
Are the voices in your head calling, Kamala
A ha ha, a ha ha, Kamala, how’s it gonna go down?
Will you meet him on the debate stage, or will you catch him on the rebound?
Will you harry us for money, make a presser in the afternoon?
Feel your innocence slipping away, don’t believe it’s comin’ back soon
And you really don’t remember, was it something that he said?
Are the voices in your head calling, Kamala?
Kamala, don’t you think you’re fallin’?
If everybody wants you, why isn’t anybody callin’?
You don’t have to answer
Leave them hangin’ online, oh-oh-oh, calling Kamala
Kamala (Kamala), I think they got your number (Kamala)
I think they got the puppeteer (Kamala) that you’ve been living under (Kamala)
But you really don’t remember, was it something word salad you said?
Are the voices in your head calling, Kamala?
Gloria, by Laura Branigan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXx0pWpszKg
It’s a blast from the past…I can remember hearing this one as a young kid. The voices in her head… something something “Trump weird”…yeah let’s run with weird for $200, Alex.
2012. Guns and religion.
2016. Deplorable, or learn to code.
2020. Our Democracy.
What is “2024. Our New Democracy”?
I defer to satire and cynicism of where to go next. “2024, Welcome to Thunderdome. Two candidates enter, one leaves”. I think the Bee article has it fairly accurate, just my two pennies worth.
https://babylonbee.com/news/exhausted-journalist-finally-gets-to-bed-after-long-day-of-copy-and-pasting-democrat-talking-points
Maybe we’ll get a decent soundtrack. Oh, you forgot to frame it as a question, heh heh.
Love ! This song and its history::
The National Hockey League’s (NHL) St. Louis Blues began using Branigan’s cover version of “Gloria” as its unofficial victory song when they went on a franchise-record 11-game winning streak during the 2018–19 season; on January 6, a couple of Blues teammates were at a bar with a DJ, and according to defenceman Joel Edmundson, “this one guy looked at the DJ and said, ‘Keep playing “Gloria”!’ so they kept playing it. Everyone would get up and start singing and dancing. We just sat back and watched it happen. Right there we decided we should play the song after our wins.” The following day, goaltender Jordan Binnington made his first start for the Blues that season and won the game with a shutout.[37][38] The song was played at Enterprise Center every time the Blues won a game in the season, leading to “Play Gloria!” becoming both a meme and victory chant for Blues fans. “Gloria” reappeared on the iTunes singles chart thanks to the trend, reaching number three after the Blues won the Stanley Cup.
Putin speaks. Is anyone listening? ( Shout out to Bishop Berkeley).
https://x.com/OlgaBazova/status/1818583872923119997?t=frfl3YBC5EqI7_SjoyOjAQ&s=19
I completely agree with the Chinese. Athletes who can make a living from sports are a privileged class, different from the general public. It is a waste of taxpayers’ money for the state to train them. And why should we be grateful for the bad taste of the French aristocracy and bourgeoisie of a century ago to recreate ancient Greek celebrations in modern times?
About the above linked Guardian article – with the headline phrased in this way – Olympic ‘Last Supper’ scene was in fact based on painting of Greek gods, say art experts
That is the headline. I saw this whole entire “Feast of the Gods” theories all over the place this weekend – so I did some research. I found rather extensive discussions of this painting a few places this weekend. In both websites, it was discussed in detail how actually this painting itself was a recreation of “The Last Supper” by daVinci – just using Greek mythological figures instead. I went to my own library – and my public library – and found largely the same thing in the books.
The writers of this Guardian article actually alluded to this fact as well – The Magnin Museum did, however, acknowledge similarities between the work and The Last Supper, which was painted more than a century earlier before the Protestant Reformation, which rejected Catholic art and even destroyed many works.
The actual text of the article is not nearly as strident in the conclusion as the article headline – the Olympics fiasco was “in fact based on The Feast of the Gods” which is of course what everyone in the iPhone generation will read. And that is literally factually only half the story. The books I read could not be more clear that The Last Supper was the inspiration for this painting.
Alas – when I have gone back to get the links for the sites I was looking at this weekend – they have been completely scrubbed of any reference to the Last Supper – even though there were paragraphs there this weekend just like in my books.
I do get scared by this stuff. This is very dangerous. History, art, literature are all being rewritten in real time. All to fit the narrative of the day. Orwell would be so proud.
I feel like I am living in a hall of mirrors.
Blasphemy is a manufactured crime punishable by death in both Sharia and old Canon law. Like all the other culture war trespasses it offends some individuals and humors others. Pretty much a victimless crime unless it interferes with the indoctrination of your children. We must protect them from reality.
DaVinci’s painting is not scripture. It has been parodied greatly. Of course the producers of the Olympic skit are going to look for something to hide behind because they are now targets. I am daily amazed at the cognitive dissonance collectively displayed by Christians considering the philosophical difference between the old and new testaments. Most of them live in the old testament and give lip service to the new. It is all intolerance writ large. Would Jesus be offended or humored?
I think we pass parody when testicles are hanging down in front of little girls. But that is just me and a lifetime of seeing how sexual abuse plays out over time in people’s lives.
And no the painting The Last Supper is not Scripture. That is my opinion and apparently yours. However, I do not criticize or judge others for what they feel. And I certainly do not live my life to make fun or denigrate other people’s religion.
If this was not a big deal, why has the Olympics dropped it from its website?
But, that is not even what really offends me. You even allude to my whole concern about this in your reply – WE MUST PROTECT THEM FROM REALITY. How is scrubbing factual information from online sources protecting people? You completely ignore the entire point of what I was saying – We have an entire industry it seems scrubbing history, arts, literature – all to PROTECT PEOPLE FROM REALITY.
Let’s not talk past one another. Clearly the reality I referred to was the context of the painting and how it relates to ones religious indoctrination necessary to the concept of blasphemy not the media PR reaction to the Olympic faux pas.
Funnily enough I spent much of the few days following the opening ceremony wondering if I had Covid brain fog. I knew I had not seen the presentation of Dionysius IM Doc described. And could find only stills of that when I had time to look. By happenstance I had taped the live presentation of the ceremony NBC broadcast on its network knowing that I would occasionally have to work. Days passed before I had an hour to kill to watch it. I went back and forth through that section. Now NBC cut away often and spent much of the time doing fluff interviews from the USA boat. But I hadn’t missed it. The gnome in blue on the chafing dish was not there. (If someone has a correction and can direct me where to find it I will happily take the correction). And maybe the later edited version had something different, but that first airing…
I have wondered since, if someone in the directing booth was smarter than expected and tried to save NBC by distracting from the bridge and just not cutting to that bit. It was for nought, but I do think anyone with any art history would go Last Supper, and realize it was a powder keg with their audience and that athletes on boats, and pointless interviews were the way to go.
Would Jesus be offended or humored? He’d be sobbing into his cup of wine. Because “Why is the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony so long?”. Honestly, who knows how the last supper went down. Maybe it was a rager. Do the Vegas Rules apply?
i’m right there with ya, Doc.
surreality and a totalising absurdity…such that ive felt compelled of late to revisit Camus.
ergo…i find that i’m laughing a whole lot more, out here at the Wilderness Bar reading through the “news of the world”.
X makes me laugh a lot(people more cynical than even I,lol)…but things like Foreign Policy(mag) and The Hill make me scare the cats and barnyard fowl.
“stupidest timeline…” running on track 8 of my mind, sotto…
that FP thing this am, for me, regarding whether or not USA, inc. should attempt to assassinate Putin…had me howling and laughing maniacally.
at 3:30 am, no less.
theres prolly a shrink name for this behavior/phenomena….but i cant think of it at the moment…finally knocked off work at 10:30…after an almost 7 hour sorta intense bout of puttering around the place,lol.
so now im high as a kite…drinkin frellin pseudosangria…and laughing at all y’all’s superirony and high level snark(thanks, Lambert,lol)
Whatever, but (speaking as someone growing up as a Christian) I couldn’t care less about any Christian getting upset over the scene. To think of all that is going on in our country and the world, this is what people have to complain about?
The same can be said for the other side – instead of solving problems that matter to the world – and dealing with things like genocide – we instead make sure at every turn that the most important issues are drag queens and transgender stuff and calling anyone who thinks otherwise “weird”.
Long ago I learned as a physician that I absolutely better pay attention to things around me that are insulting large groups of people. Because if there is one lesson to learn from that – it would be I AM NEXT.
When the western world’s richest and most powerful decide broadcasting adult entertainment with no warning into millions of home, to millions of families and children, it’s about more than bad taste. It’s something else.
I have never seen Fellini’s 1960’s move The Satyricon broadcast on over-the-air TV. I have seen the movie. I found myself thinking about that movie. It won awards. It was an adult entertainment movie, not a family movie.
So this scene at the Olympics is harmful to children?
If it was based on ‘feast of the gods’ all of them should have worn halos. My take on the thing is that it was an in-your-face assertion by the new global power owners of just what they think of the rest of us: they think nothing about the rest of us and they want us to see how little they regard us. What else can such elaborate, expensive, mockery and gaslighting be about? / :
Thank you flora. I’ve struggled to say what you just articulated so well.
yes, Flora…this right here.
this is a stick in the eye to a good portion of euroland…because they can…and want their serfs to know that they can.
thats the Occam’s Razor version.
i just thought it was icky…and i am no prude, by any means,lol.
Folsom Street Fair is one thing…long history…prudes know to avoid the area already, especially for that period….similar with that fantasy thing in florida…or the various sexbeaches on or around the Iberian Peninsula….its a known thing…likely mentioned in the brochure…so anyone bringing their kids or their fragile sensibilities to such events/places have no real right to complain overmuch.
like taking yer kid to a titty bar and bi%chin about all the tits.
but broadcasting all that nonsense in the clear?
lol.
not an accident…this is Language.
not an accident…this is Language. Yes, this. We can accuse the artists/performers of bad taste, but one should look further up the food chain to hear this language spoken fluently. And with authority.
Agreed.
There is a similar issue going on with the latest release of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed video game “Shadows” that is trying to promote the idea of “the first black samurai” Yasuke being a pivotal figure in history during the Warring States period in Japan.
Not only does Ubisoft break their previous rule of not having any of the main characters being an actual figure from history, but they make one of them non-native to the region in the game’s setting.
To be fair, there is a great deal of uncertainty if Yasuke actually held the formal position of samurai, but what is not in doubt is that he was not key to Japanese history. Most reputable works appear to indicate he was a “gift” to Oda Nobunaga by the Portuguese, and that Nobunaga was fond of him. From there it looks like he was returned to the Portuguese a year or so later.
What makes the whole situation so maddening is that most of the “history” Ubisoft uses is sourced from a British professor Thomas Lockley at Nihon University, College of..wait for it..Law. So not a historian. Even worse, he released a book on the subject, but two versions: one for Japan and one for the rest of the world. The Japanese version stressed that what he was writing was historical fiction. The other claimed that this was sourced from historical documents.
Fair to say the whole thing has now devolved into a CYA fest that even a conservative member of the Diet has tried to turn into a nationalistic cause.
What we were is literally disappearing before our eyes.
For IM Doc:
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2024-07-31/China-makes-breakthrough-in-treating-hypertrophic-heart-disease-1vG8eMhCqtO/p.html
July 31, 2024
China makes breakthrough in treating hypertrophic heart disease *
Chinese researchers have made significant strides in treating hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a condition that has posed a global health challenge since the late 1950s. Their breakthroughs have garnered worldwide attention and recognition.
For nearly four decades, there has been a dearth of specific drug treatments available, while the existing HCM medications can only manage symptoms rather than addressing the root cause of myocardial hypertrophy, according to professor Xie Xiaojie from the Department of Cardiology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University…
* https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacasi.2024.01.005
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/labour-disputes-in-china-europes
‘The Something Guy 🇿🇦
@thesomethingguy
The most “Main Character Energy” I’ve ever seen in my life from Kim Ye-ji (Republic of South Korea) casually breaking a world record and winning the gold medal #Olympics2024 #Paris2024’
Absolutely zero ***** given. She must have practiced this a thousand times, even in her sleep. My digital hat is off to Kim Ye-ji. Speaking of the Olympics, the French had a brilliant idea-
‘As part of Paris’s commitment to a greener Olympics, it was decided that air conditioning would not be installed with officials instead promising that the athletes rooms would be kept cool through a geothermal water system pumping cold water underneath the buildings. The Paris Games is aiming to reduce its total carbon emissions to half the level of previous Olympics.’
Well a heat wave has hit Paris and the athletes are sweltering causing them to go buy fans and air-cons for their rooms. Those small rooms sound like ovens. But not all rooms apparently. Certainly not for the French national team-
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/30/hot-air-con-paris-2024-denies-claims-of-two-tier-games-in-searing-olympic-village-rooms
It’s a green Olympics alright, just like all of ’em… showering of advertising dollars and the corporate partners lol…or as the NCAA here in the states puts it, Corporate Champions. Blech.
Reading how the Seine river is now dramatically cleansed to sufficiently lower levels of e coli, hey let’s go swimming in the now very much cleaner and not filthy water. I heard a US radio commentary yesterday, comparing this set up for the athletes to how attendees were treated at Woodstock 99. The last such festival to be called that, and it was a doozy!
Try and think of the athletes as doing synchronized sweltering training, i’d have to go with the Africans as the ones to beat.
They were supposed to hold the Men’s Triathlon in the Seine yesterday but had to delay it because the Seine river was still too polluted. Too much bacteria. But not long ago they restarted the Triathlons again so all that bacteria must have gone poof and disappeared-
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a61668416/paris-olympics-poop-protest-seine-river/
The Bio-alertathon is still on, though?
Maybe we have a chance to witness the beginnings of a new Marvel superhero!
PeePee L’Pool?
I just got a horrid flashback to an episode of So Graham Norton back in the days when he could do what he liked (and so was actually funny) on Channel 4 around the turn of the millennium and had a segment investigating some dark corner of what was the “wild west” of the internet.
Madame PeePee.
Turns out Graham got a lot of his (frankly unbroadcastable these days) material from Carrie Fisher who he’d met at a random Hollywood party when he was just “some nobody who’d appeared in a couple of episodes of Father Ted”. She revealed, on her first appearance on his show, that they emailed almost daily and most of the really dirty stuff came from her, not from any of the paid production/editorial staff at Channel 4! Those were the days.
That’s laugh out loud funny. Thanks.
The TV commentator on the video says “here in Baku”, and the mostly empty seats, and the sign in the background. I’m not sure the video has anything to do with Paris 2024.
That the world’s best shooters can remain perfectly calm during the highest levels of competition doesn’t surprise me a great deal. The Something Guy is the second twiterer to disappoint today. (Btw, I’m not on XTheEverythingApp. I only see tweets here at NC.)
South Korean shooter Kim Ye-Ji indeed won gold in January in Baku in 25 m pistol by breaking the world record. She also won silver in air pistol on Sunday in Paris…
It probably says more about my priors than anything else, but when I first saw that I thought to myself ‘classic psychopathic trait‘.
Now I just want to know about these priors PK. Are you an author of that paper?
Our current Dark Triad here in the USA: Trump, Obama, Harris.
Not so PK. I have a book by an Aussie who was in the Olympics – John Bertrand – and he wrote long about this. He messed up in the Olympics when he saw a competitor bearing down on him in his boat so tried something knew and it all went haywire. So he studied long and hard about this loss and said that you have to get into a state where your emotions will not mess up your concentration & performance but you have to perform like clockwork on demand. And that is what that young girl did. No nervousness, no wobbles, no second-guessing herself but simply doing a sequence of events that she has practiced again and again and again until she could do it in her sleep. I bet that you could have filmed her in final practice and the videos would have been near identical with her final performance. And may I say to Kim Ye-Ji an Aussie ‘You bloody ripper!’
This applies during competition (even then, psychopaths find this easier – this is why so many fighter aces and snipers are known to have some of those traits, (although it is controversial as to whether the diagnosis is appropriate) – but we’ve seen numerous clips of very cool and focused athletes go absolutely crazy within seconds of finishing – in fact, its obviously the norm to release energy that way. You see this with both ‘physical’ athletes like runners and swimmers, but also those who need complete muscle control, like snooker players or golfers. It does in fact seem to be a very necessary form of release (I believe some sports psychologists actively encourage it).
It may be that she was just ‘in the zone’ and for whatever reason may have held it there – she may even not have realised that she had the record or had won it. But an unnatural coolness is a known identifying trait of psychopathy.
i can attest that “lack of affect” can be a learned behaviour…i did it…sort of accidentally, beginning in junior high…to frell with the bullies….while concurrently Being Jane Goodall and studying the bastids as if they were primates.
its habit, by now…turned on when its appropriate.
did wonders in discombobulating the cops, too, back during my outlaw days.
my mom is a covert narcissist(only learned that diagnosis after stepdad died, and i again became the Scapegoat)…so ive, intuitively and purposefully, strove to Not Be Like Her…as in the Dark Triad thing…Tam thought i was successful in this…as does my hot shrinklady over yonder hill.
but that doesn’t preclude one from purposefully emulating some of those behavioural traits as a defense mechanism.
I watched the clip on my phone inline on NC, but she seems exhausted. Not sure she likes being filmed. Too late to call SK today. Wondering if she’s a celebrity at home.
In order to reduce greenhouse emissions, why not eighty-six the purposeless entertainment event which requires tons of plane travel? If this is a climate emergency, ought not we all to focus more on bare necessities, and be expected to make some sacrifices? No? Just the poor? Got it.
The most Main Character Energy i’ve witnessed, has to be that mass murderer in Pavlovegas who killed some 60 while wounding 600.
(place ‘Vegas Strong’ sticker on the rear echelon of your vehicle, to compensate for lack of sane gun rules)
I am a solipsist. I am the Main Character Energy.
But if I would be a solipsist, wouldn’t I then have more MCE than your Pavlovegas-dude? Or is shooting something/someone a necessary feature of Main Character Energy?
As far as I know, there aren’t any moving target Olympic shooting events, but there ought to be in the 2028 LA games.
Trap and Skeet Shooting are moving target events in the summer Olympics.
https://www.outdoorlife.com/guns/olympic-shooting-events-guide/
The Winter Olympics have the “Ski and Shoot” event. So why not the Summer Olympics haveing a Triathashoot event? Singles and team versions. The “competitors” start from the Olympic Park and thread their way through Los Angeles hoods and homeless encampments and back to the park. What happens during “the journey” can be almost anything.
seems like there have been a few movies…and maybe even a series…about something like that…the purge, perhaps?
that arnold schvartzenegger(sp-5)thing based on heinlein?…from the 80’s?
or hunger games, of course….
i prefer european cop shows and period pieces.
and im really glad that i ended up way the hell out here,lol.
Just adjourn to Kherson or Krinky. Lots of shooting in motion there.
What is this Main Character Energy anyway? Some new term that, like OG, comes from over-online millennials that we need to accommodate or risk seeming old and frumpy?
Kinda similar to everything in the Olympics, Main Character Energy essentially means ‘sticking the landing’.
The term OG has been in use, at least in California, for a very long time and is a street term who’s first meaning that I know of was original gangster.
Since the late nineties it has become the name of a wildly popular strain of cannabis called OG Kush, with the OG referring either to ocean grown (a hat tip to California where it was popularised), or original gangster, depending on who’s origin story you believe. OG Kush is the backbone of many of the most widely acclaimed cannabis strains coming out of California.
Funny, I always though it meant Old Guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBHXbCn9hQQ
Mass. governor: “Nothing I can do” to stop Mass. health closures
Everyone, here’s your democrats in action! The best and brightest here in true-blue MA! Super-majority in state legislature, standing by while hospitals get shut down by private equity barons. The big name pols (Warren, Markey, Lynch) are throwing out useless ideas that don’t fix the problem.
And, to add the cherry on top, laying of lots of workers who are poor, minority, immigrants. You know, the people they claim to cherish?!?! It’s SO important to elect a woman of color as president, but a whole lot of women of color who do real jobs like nurses are getting ignored.
“Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic.” -The Carter Center.
Quelle surprise!
Does the United States meet international standards of electoral integrity? The fact that several States have made it illegal for international observers to be anywhere near a polling station would indicate no. Going by memory here, I believe that the Carter Center used to be a regular observer of Venezuelan elections and found them fair until a few years ago when somebody leaned on them to stop going.
I assume United States sets the international standards of electoral integrity. No, not by example, let’s not be ridiculous! but by statements from think tanks and Department of State.
I’m pretty sure that it would be all covered under the International Rules Based Order. (rolls eyes)
How could the election meet the standard? Our guy lost. Do I not recall that the 2016 and 2020 Us presidential elections were imperfect, unfair, fraudulent, stolen, manipulated … at least according to the losers … and that the 2024 election is being prepared for similar charges? What about the international observers who observed a well-run election? Were they all blind or biased or paid off? The US have been trying to subvert Venezuela since Chavez, or was it from before that. Sanctions, NGOs, all kinds of pressure. It is bullying behavior and I find it disgusting.
Te Kamalacrats will find a way to win even if they lose.
Ya gotta problem with Roberts Rule of Order?
You must not have been paying attention.
right now, you seem to be spewing the propaganda line out there.
At venezuelanalysis.com, they published an article on july 23, about the plot the opposition was going to use when they lost the election.
This was written before the election, and this is what is happening. Ben norton has been all over it,
edison research and the plot out of Miami, where the opposition resides; made up a fake election poll. And all these propaganda outlets are using these fake numbers as the “real ones”.
I would guess that only people not really paying attention, or that are trolls of some sort, would really fall for such a transparent attempt.
After all, elon musk is one of those people who are spewing the propaganda. You can see it on X.
Someone who wasn’t paying attention for the last twenty years, would think this is somehow new. The rest of us, would be more hesitant to believe unfounded accusations of voter fraud. Where is the proof? made up numbers from Venezuelan traitors who live outside the country. They have to do better than that. But wait… the us has been failing all these coup attempts for twenty years now.
Nationalizing the oil industry, makes long term enemies. proven once again.
Here just to point out and applaud Venezuela’s resiliency over these last 20 years of blatant US colonial intentions.
What a blazing piece of hypocrisy.
Indeed. It’s not until the end that they mention they had any observers on the ground, and even then they do not mention any anomalies that the observers saw – just some vague notion that “efforts were undermined”.
And the way they claim the candidates were covered in the media sounds awfully familiar to this USian.
Wonder if they would have put out this blatant propaganda if the center’s namesake were hale and hearty and not in hospice care right now.
Dear Mr. Blinken,
My name is Gretchen, a 10 year old girl living in Caracas, Venezuela. My family and I are suffering daily with severe shortages of Democracy. When we go to the supermarket, there are is no Democracy on the shelves. When we go to our local Mercedes dealership, there is no Democracy there either.
My family’s situation is dire. Please send a highly armed contingent of American Marines and F35 squadrons.
Sincerely,
Gretchen Machado
I’m sure Martin sees the comments here as simply the response of close-minded ideologues who refuse to accept empirical facts that counter their beliefs. I don’t blame him. We are all susceptible to confirmation bias. He exhibits this himself by citing every article that supports his own beliefs about Maduro and the elections. What he apparently doesn’t grasp is that some of us have been at this a long time. We’ve seen blatant lies over and over again asserted as fact and then exposed as the real story gradually trickles out. In our younger days we often accepted these statements at first, since surely government officials and our most prestigious media would not lie *this* blatantly. But over time we have learned that yes, indeed, they DO lie this blatantly, and we have come to recognize this propaganda based on long experience with its forms and sources. This process has occurred over and over again with regard to Venezuela.
So for most of us our default mode is to *assume* this old narrative is simply a lie. Personally, I am willing to be convinced otherwise. Perhaps some of these Carter Center charges are true; given the tremendous pressures against the government it’s possible. Who knows, maybe THIS time the story is true. But for now I fully expect the Grayzone, Ben Norton, or some other source that long experience has led me to trust will come out with an expose on how the Carter Center was compromised. Martin will write it off. I’ll believe it. Biased? Yes. But my bias is based on long experience.
Aye, Pjay…ive been at this for a long, long time, too.
pre-internet, when the local library had yesterday’s foreign press(as in newsprint) put in those slotted wooden rods…and the bookshelves at the various headshops around north houston, of course…
most of the “conspiracy theories” have been proven Conspiracy Facts, by now…if one cares to look(aside from moon landings as hoax and the whole flat earth and/or new age happy happy joy joy thought.)
ive also accidentally bumped into a lot of high powered folks…and even a few events(oklahoma city, waco, etc)..that just confirmed, de facto, that there was at least more to it than we were told.
after 40 or more years, its hard to not be cynical about all of it.
but, like you said, convince me otherwise!
falsify this alternative narrative framework!
Thank you for cutting me some slack. I do not see comments here the way you say, or at least I try not to (some are harder than others). I do believe I haven’t posted that many articles, and I do make an effort in not posting garbage, which as we know abounds. And I do read replies and the articles that they link back to me (at least what time allows for). My own biases differ from many in this site, if I wanted to confirm them then I wouldn’t be here.
“Thugs” and “Misinformation”. These are the first words in the two headlines of articles about the Southport slayings and resulting violence. I’m thinking these two words accurately describe their publishers, The Guardian and BBC. I wager most readers here can name which publisher used which word without looking.
Thank you Mrs YK and Lambert.
Please have a look at: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/07/31/is-the-bbc-aiding-the-far-right/.
Thanks Colonel and RM. Once again we see narrative is more important than factual reporting or the welfare of communities amongst our MSM noisemakers.
This thought just occurred to me. Shouldn’t it be “ hooligans”, not “thugs”?
It seems to me that the authorities never learn their lesson about incidents like this.
As with the incident in Ireland last year when children were attacked and the attacker was immediately arrested, when the police refuse to say anything about the perpetrator, everyone makes assumptions, and inevitably rabble rousers of one type or another will fill in the gaps in social media. When I read about the attack, and saw that the police would only say that the suspect was a ’17 year old male’, I immediately made a few assumptions (rightly or wrongly, I don’t know yet). I’m sure everyone else did too.
There really is no excuse for not being open and transparent. Sure, if it turns out the kid is from an ethnic minority and there is an immediate backlash in the community, bad things can happen. But trying to suppress the information if anything makes things worse.
There’s no suppressing rumor in the digital age. Transparency would seem to be the best defense.
Rightly or wrongly, the reason given for not disclosing more information about the person arrested for the stabbings, is that he is 17 years old, and therefore still a minor.
I accept that argument, but if they can say ’17 year old male’ as opposed to ‘a minor’, they can add more general information too.
George Galloway said very similar and he is obviously the opposite of a far right agitator.
https://x.com/georgegalloway/status/1818379632456221056
“The news management of the slaughter of innocent children in #Southport is beginning to backfire.
Extremist information/misinformation/disinformation is filling the vacuum.
Yesterday the child killer was Ali Al Shakati (which translates as Ali the Apartment) who arrived on a dingy last year. Today he’s ‘Cardiff-born’ of Rwandan parents (Rwanda is not a Muslim country).
Tonight a mob is laying siege to a mosque in Southport and police are under attack.
It is time for the state to come clean with everything they know about the identity and purpose of this monster.”
—
Fwiw: the BBC said the killer had “no connection to islam”. By that point it was like spitting in the wind as the EDL bile machine was drowning out all sense. That, and few trust the media anyway.
Re: ‘More horrific than Abu Ghraib’: Lawyer recounts visit to Israeli detention center
So, the Zionists have a torture camp at Sde Teiman. Horrible indeed, but is it really surprising?
For many years now, Israel has also had prisons for children. Think about that for a moment.
Wikipedia claims that “the United States incarcerates more of its youth than any other country in the world”.
But the data is old. It appears that the US has cleaned up its act, as it no longer seems to see a point in collecting data on the topic:
https://www.aecf.org/blog/what-is-juvenile-detention
I doubt Israel records the Palestinian kids as Israeli youth, though. Just terrorists, detained indefinitely without trial for security reasons.
Unless, I guess, they are killed (allegedly) in an Arab attack, ehen Israel needs to make a stink.
The USA prison statistics are terrible on so many metrics. I hope this video isn’t region-blocked because QI is such a funny show.
Plus they drew attention to the fact us Brits are hardly paragons of virtue.
If it’s blocked where you live then looking up “where are 1% of all americans” on YouTube will probably find you a local copy.
re Guardian/Olympics all just a big misunderstanding
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/28/sports/olympics-opening-ceremony-last-supper-paris.html
So shorter program director Jolly: program notes vs your lying eyes. It seems likely that anyone familiar enough with art to know about The Feast of the Gods would also spot the Leonardo resemblances. So call it an exercise in implausible deniability. And even under the best interpretation an offense against good taste rather than world religions not necessarily a career burnisher, much less an Olympics burnisher.
I laughed at the headline. The Guardian is announcing their gaslighting in their headlines? / ;)
This is a more realistic and witty assessment, imo.
The Paris Olympics are the most French thing ever – for better or worse
https://swentr.site/news/601830-paris-olympics-outrageous-opening-ceremony/
Was thinking about the initial reaction over the weekend and since greatly discussed and theorized what exactly was being depicted. I also consider again, why many on the Christian right were very inflamed about the scenery, as well maybe any non practicing agnostic. Two example options to take.
First example. Complain and do so loudly. Well you’re a bigot since you disprove the display, and blasphemy of the Christian faiths and very core historic figures is just so a French thing to do. You cling to your religion, and the rest of us don’t care.
Second example. Say nothing and present zero opposing opinion. Means that implicitly, well we are Christian-leaning faith followers of different and often broad groupings and no impact will come of this display seen across the globe. Yeah I guess we’re going to just live with that. Kick sand in our face.
Concluding idea… Jesus would admonish his followers to perhaps ” turn the other cheek “; however he also charged into the Temple and threw out the money changers. So a universal approach to every single infraction may indeed, vary by the instance or degree.
re: jesus storming the temple: i make a point of asking my bank presnit buddy every easter: “have you been flogged yet?”
As a once upon a time resident of Texas but north in the Dallas suburbs of Plano. I’ll attest the region is a vast sea of people, and there are many a vast complex of large churches, and related buildings of education for the shaping of young hearts and young minds.
When I do think of the money changer angle in the NT, I’m wondering how say an Osteen or a Kenneth Copeland would be welcomed by the visitor from Nazareth. “Prosperity gospel, can you direct me to my very teachings on that subject please?”
Eh, I should probably work on myself come to think of it. Casting stones from a keyboard…but nursing the first beer of the day.
It reminds me a little of when a residents association in an upmarket suburb in Dublin appealed to the local authority to stop a resident from parking an ice cream van on his driveway. They said it was taking down the tone of the neighbourhood (the local Council declined to intervene).
Also, a friend who lived in Germany said he once came out onto the street to his car to find a very polite note from the local residents group asking that he keep the car a little cleaner, as it was also, taking down the neighbourhood tone.
In Japan you simply don’t have a default right to park a car anywhere. You have to prove you have a carpark (sometimes an enclosed one) if you want to tax your vehicle. This is the primary reason why Japan specialises in domestic kei cars – super small cars are occasionally exempt from this requirement. It does have the unfortunate side effect of making carparking sometimes more expensive than owning a car, which is why so many high value urban plots of land in Japan are reserved for parking only, many with an elderly gentleman making sure everything is in order. While it makes city life in Japan much more pleasant and safer that streets are kept clear of car storage and houses generally don’t have cavernous carspaces, this economic incentive is still highly damaging.
US needs more nuclear subs, mobile ICBMs and tactical nukes: Heritage report
No. No we don’t, thank you.
The report may be notable less for its ideas than for who is putting it out. The Heritage Foundation has established itself as the policy center for a potential next Trump administration, particularly through its work on Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for the next president helmed by former Trump administration officials. Sigh
The last thing anyone needs is more nuclear weapons. You have to have a profit motive or be a fool to think so or would it be only a fool with a profit motive would think so.
Relax john, AI will make them as safe!
Not to worry, unless Elon Musk gets the contracts none of the medium, and long range missiles land or submarine will work!
The idea of mobile ICBMs! MX aka Peacekeeper was such a success it was deployed in the 1990’s and is now retired. The MX mobile ICBM charade was based on game theory, more for your money from RAND.
By the way, RAND hosted a review paid by Senate Commission on National Defense. House being republican is not so into upping the MIC/Pentagon take!
Anyway it is RAND report number MSA 3057-4.
It talks about all the threats around the world to US national interests, a DNC shill for more war!
It is likely broader than Heritage’s screed for more nuclear devastation in case national interests are threatened enough to run planetary suicide over.
RANDies for their democrat sponsors are all for a lot more money, along with reinventing how the US fights and acquires MIC profits!
As if they ever want a GAAP type audit in the MIC!
I am giddy about the image of mobile ICBM’s!
On trains, on trucks, on barges, how many decoys per real missile? How many decoy shleters all separated enough that no one shot takes out two or eight!
Will they come up with anything that was not rejected for MX?
The cold warrior in me!
Went through all that back in the day. One “basing” option for the MIRVed missiles was a fleet of thousands of (Boeing) 747-size jets with rear ramps with a missile in each. All fling around tendon routes so the Sovs would not be able to take ‘em out. Would require a 15,000 foot heavy duty landing strip every 10 miles on a grid all across the fruited plains, again to reduce the game-theory-generated “necessary uncertainty” into Soviet targeting calculation. Would have cost twice the GDP for five years, used the entire concrete and steel reinforcement capacity of the US for maybe ten years. Proponents included the construction and trucking trade unions and of course the concrete and steel producers. MAD ness indeed, and the people running “defense policy” now are all from the same kindergarten.
This is catastrophic. The loss for Hamas is as always endurable; this isn’t the first time that they have had leaders martyred. But the fact it happened in Tehran as a guest for the inauguration of the new president is tremendously insulting and necessitates that Iran respond with prejudice. I suspect the response will be greater than before. And, of course, the fig leaf of negotiations has been ended for good: it is certain that the end for the genocide will only come with the end of “Israel’s” capacity to do war. Thankfully, the climate of civil war there is worsening, and perhaps it will collapse soon. God willing.
The way Israel has been using F35’s lately smack of US MIC advertising, after all the blows they took lately. I wonder how long it’ll be before we see a shot down F35 wreckage.
The mission did not have to get anywhere near a hostile surveillance radar! The release was likely 300 km from Tehran.
They probably launched 4 F-35’s.
That way one of them was likely to get to the release point without a hard break forcing them out of the mission.
Sadly, if F-16 they likely sent 4 as well.
yeah…the Jewish Holy Books are literally filled with stuff about G^d getting pissed at them for screwing up so badly…and punishing them, forthwith,lol.
much like our own bible trowing set, who forget about just about everything Jesus supposedly said, in favor of Paul and Timothy and the Old Testament…the “jews” in the zionist camp have apparently never read to the end of a chapter,lol.
“do not do to others what is hateful to you…the rest is commentary…go and study”-Rabbi Hillel, a long time ago.
What if there isn’t much, if anything, that is hateful to that person? Plenty of room for psychopaths.
>Would the U.S. Consider Assassinating Putin? Foreign Policy
There are also significant bureaucratic hurdles to lethal operations. For the moment, at least, the U.S. practice of covert action is dictated by the rule of law.
Doesn’t seem like there are any “bureaucratic hurdles” to killing Trump. And it’s not the “US”, it’s is rogue elements of the permeant bureaucracy, the “inner circle” that are behind the assassination domestic and foreign. Wasn’t Christopher Wray’s father a member of the Atlantic Council? You have Deep State actors, even bloodlines, that lurk in the shadows. What is FP trying to do? Legitimize/normalize assassination, bring it out of the dark? I think there is a subtext. When they write “when it comes to killing Putin or any prominent adversary, the biggest challenge is not necessarily if it can be done, but whether it should be done are they talking about Trump as well.
Seems odd how the attempted assassination of Trump kind of disappeared from media converge. You would think there would be daily Congressional hearing. No, under the cover of incompetence and the firing of token head of SS, it is apparently no longer any interest. It’s curious how the article ends: As The Wire’s Omar Little said, paraphrasing Ralph Waldo Emerson, “When you come at the king, you best not miss.” Oblique reference to anyone?
By asking the question, they are suggesting the answer is “yes”. Especially given the US’ wholehearted support for Israel which is assassinating opponents and targeting embassies at will and so far without repercussion.
The fact that they think they can do this and that there will never be blowback shows once again that we aren’t dealing with the sharpest tools in the box.
Congressional hearings are underway but I know this only because of youtube pundits (in this case Danny Davis, retired army armor officer and McGregor’s second in command in Iraq war).
It hasn’t disappeared. You still see some stories trying to figure out if Trump was actually injured or not. The facts seem to be that a white, angry, Republican kid wanted to make a splash in the news, not unlike many before him. He had researched other targets, Trump was the easiest to get to.
Big question is whether Trump received and accepted what seems to me to be the Message, and will guarantee “nothing will substantially change” in exchange for continuing to breathe. He’s not, to my knowledge, got a cadre of black ops actors protecting him and potent enough to send any horsehead in the bed messages on trump’s direction.
Killer Whales Sink Yacht in Med: ‘Knew What they Were Doing’
One of the whales was seen wearing an “Eat the Rich” t-shirt.
I really wish Gary Larson was still at work, it would make for a great Far Side cartoon.
Can’t get by without my daily glance at The Far Side-
https://www.thefarside.com/
I like to think that the whales are Far Side fans and are practicing life imitating art.
I don’t doubt that they know how to sink a boat. Why and to what end are more important questions and I don’t think we can answer them.
They probably tell each other that boats are hard on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside. :)
People on boats have been doing things to them.
>Catholic group Opus Dei accused of recruiting children FT
Interesting timing for this article. It comes on the heels of the blow-up and outrage of the Olympic opening ceremony. Speculation on my part, but could it be that they had this story cued up for just the right moment. Was this story lined up for when the Vatican or Catholic Church starts to get uppity. Why don’t we go back and dig a little deeper into Dennis Hastert or the alleged numerous accusations of all sorts of illicit sexual/moral misdeeds.
NIFC: When all the West is on fire at once, this is who deals with it Wildfire Today
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One of the cabin owners is a fireman in Ventura County, and he’s often out on fires elsewhere during the fire season, and was explaining the beat down effect of the new aegis of longer seasons, in that it would be tantamount to asking NFL players to do 26 games a year in the regular season.
Everybody gets worn out, and then add Covid into the mix as an added bonus.
My buddy from Tucson gets the hell outta there around May and does a quite Steinbeckian Travels with Charlie road trip around the west with Dusty the Adventure Dog, and he’s off in a few days and options are on the sucky side as smoke from a myriad of fires is making a mess of best laid plans, combined with Cali about to have another week of mostly hades-but it is hades not @ Point Reyes, so that’s where they are headed.
“Olympic ‘Last Supper’ scene was in fact based on painting of Greek gods, say art experts”
If this was true, then they would have pointed it out several days ago when things blew up. Inspired by a 17th-century Dutch painting of the Greek Olympian gods? That painting from the 17th century would have been inspired from artwork depicting the Last Supper going back centuries. All Jan van Bijlert did was to do the Last Supper but with a classical twist so it is still the Last Supper. That excuse from art experts is not going to cut it.
I’d read that this was the case the day after the ceremonies. Does it matter? I’m inclined to say no. It’s the optics that count. If it looks like the Last Supper, so it is. That excuse from the artist is not going to cut it.
Right. They are pulling our leg with the “oh we had no idea it looked like The Last Supper” argument.
The don’t take responsibility era has percolated from the US and the Biden administration over to France. Also, when in doubt blame Putin.
I’m surprised that a “drag queen” cos-play of Vladimir Vladimirovitch wasn’t in there somewhere. (And a Bernie analogue of Judas?)
Wasn’t Bernie arguing over the bill for the Last Supper, and similar to bills of his that go nowhere in Congress, nothing was resolved.
There’s something just so perfect about that article – bring in an academic to muddy the waters with some disingenuous bullshit so some liberal leaning people can counter the criticism with “Well, actually, experts say…”
Peak “fact checker” culture.
When making a reference to an existing piece of art, one should perhaps pick a work that is familiar to the majority of the targeted demograpgics, and not just a couple of curators on an unsignificant Asian peninsula.
But maybe that’s just me. Frankly, I wasn’t offended by the mis-reference, but the overall bad taste and amateurish implementation. Or maybe it was a homage to Roger Corman and I missed it…
It was classic Dada.
if it’s classic, can it be Dada?
It was the classic French metrosexual élite version of laïcité which is now used to attack any manifestation of any and all forms of religious belief, most notably Catholisism and Islam, and is indicative of the contempt that for the majority of the poor sods who live in the Real France and have suffered from declining living standards for years.
Lots more information to come on this I’m sure, but it does look like Israels long range strike capacity is better than most thought.
There have been steady stories since 2018 of Israel flying F-35’s into Iran and even around Tehran, but most observers seem to have concluded that these stories were deliberate psyops. The F-35 can theoretically fly that far, but it would most likely have to refuel and would have to go over Syria or other technically unfriendly States to do so. The Israelis have done a lot of specific work on their F=35s – they have their own electronic warfare variant, so its not impossible they have developed stealthy external tanks and/or stealthy external weapons. Even then, it would be impressive if they managed to avoid detection. There has always been a strong suspicion that the F-35’s are a lot more capable than we know from open sources and no doubt the Israelis would have access to the best US aid on this. Some new variants have been spotted with what looks like a brand new stealth coating, and there are the usual rumours of various forms of electronic radar suppression.
The other possibility of course is that they used some other means – they may have used civilian transponders for part of the attack (the Iraqis did this in the Iran-Iraq war in order to carry out attacks in the Gulf), or they may even have shadowed civilian airliners as cover. Its also possible they used a ‘friendly’ country such as Azerbaijan to launch the attack. Its also conceivable they have a stealth cruise missile nobody knows about.
Whatever the method, it is undoubtedly a blow to Iran, I don’t think anyone thought the Israeli’s were capable of this.
One of the military YouTubers, not Ritter, said in just the past week that stealth technology was becoming passe, opponents had figured out how to detect the once stealthy planes, or at least detect them well enough to make them vulnerable.
So maybe Military Watch got suckered by some F-35 hype to extend its sell-by date?
There is an enormous amount of nonsense written about stealth (for and against) – which is inevitable in a topic which the cutting edge (in both stealth and stealth detection) is so hidden behind both secrecy and deliberate misinformation. And as with any military tech, behind the scenes there is a constant cat and mouse game between all sides to gain any sort of advantage. And this of course includes public misinformation. Throw in misinformation from the sales people of various non-stealthy systems, and you get a recipe for pure confusion. They only certainty is that anyone who makes a definitive ‘stealth doesn’t work’ or ‘stealth will win wars alone’ statements almost certainly don’t understand the topic.
Stealth is for the most part not about being invisible – its having low observability from specific types of sensor (passive and active), in specific circumstances. It also can’t be disentangled from other forms of camouflage or deception, electronic and otherwise. Making aircraft or missiles ‘stealthy’ cannot be disaggregated from the entire range of technology and techniques used by all sides to ensure they can get the first accurate shot in, during any combat, or for that matter, getting defences to shoot at the wrong target.
That said, it does seem that the F-35 does have the ability to evade older model air defences – there is plenty of evidence that the Syrians (even with Russian help) have struggled to identify and track F-35’s, although they may at least have had a near success a couple of years ago, although this may have been through Israeli carelessness.
Discussions on stealth are a little like arguments about how supposedly aircraft carriers are out of date and just big targets. If this is the case, then you have to ask why every single major power, and aspiring regional power, are spending countless billions building them (this includes Russia and the Chinese). They may all be stupid, or they may all have done the same modelling, and are coming to the same conclusions. It should also be pointed out that nearly every single potential Gen 5 aircraft under design, including ones from Japan, Russia, South Korea and Turkey (we don’t know much about Chinese designs) focus heavily on stealth, despite the enormous extra cost involved. They may all be stupid or… they may have done their homework and know that it is worth the investment.
I know its the done thing here to diss the F-35. In many respects it is a woefully misconceived project for many reasons which are both obvious and less than obvious. But the reality is that when it has been made available to just about any country who can afford it, it is chosen over and above cheaper US and other western alternatives. Similarly with the stealthy Su-57 even though thats not been made more widely available on the open market. The reality is that it has capabilities that are beyond anything else we know (of course, we don’t know nearly as much about Chinese and Russian alternatives), and this may well include additional electronic masking capabilities which could make it functionally invisible during specific missions against specific defence systems (for example, F-35s and F-22’s are known to fly specific angles and flightpaths to minimise detection from specific radar bands).
Now I’ve no idea how the Israelis carried out this strike. Its possible that they did it using something more mundane, like a cruise missile launched from an unconventional direction or even something smaller launched from within Tehran using their local proxies or agents or even a masked civilian aircraft (as I mentioned above, this is a trick the Iraqi’s pulled off to launch exocets undetected in the 1980’s). Its also possible that this was just an enormous screw-up by the Iranians, who don’t exactly have a great reputation for co-ordinated air defence, as the unfortunates on Ukraine Air 752 discovered in 2020.
But from the available information, it does seem that Israel has demonstrated a strike capacity few thought they had. If it was a long distance air strike, it seems that for some reason neither Iran nor Syria detected it either coming or going. There must be a reason for this.
Far as I know, Russia has no active plans to build aircraft carriers. I believe most of their focus is on incorporating hypersonic missiles in smaller surface vessels and submarines. They do continue production of a new class of nuclear powered ice breakers and their most modern SAM systems supposedly have an anti satellite capability.
It’s called the Shtorm class, detailed designs and models have been displayed, but I don’t know if its been given the formal go-ahead yet. There are alternative lighter designs also being considered, but they would still be as big at least as the existing French and UK carriers. They’ve also been offering carriers to India. My guess is that they will decide they are too expensive, but they are certainly putting resources into their design.
For years the Russian MoD, Russian Navy and design bureaus have been bouncing around the idea of picking up where Yak-141 stopped and developing a new generation of short/vertical take-off fighter.
I guess nobody still has solved satisfactorily the basic dilemma of such a fighter having either short legs and/or limited weapons due to the physics. Just the kind of fighter the navies don’t need.
Should it be solved, I gather they could use the amphibious assault ships as light carriers.
Surprise is a tactic! Assassination is an “operation”!
If you have to defend everywhere, all the time, you defend nowhere.
Who would have thought the Israelis would go after an assassination just west of Tehran? Or that house in Beirut? Or in Damascus?
Follow the road from Amman to Baghdad, likely no one was going to track them! Not close to Syria. If they used a standoff weapon they likely released west of Hamaden. Looking at the maps. Not too much time over Iran.
Certainly could have had ECM support maybe on the tankers that refueled them.
US tactical missions are flown under autopilot, with a ‘mission execution system, that is loaded with threats and routes to get around the threats. Some missions have 100s of “way points” that must be reacted to work loading the human beyond capacity. I am sure Israeli aircraft use this maybe with some improvements.
Soviet era long range early warning radars are still used today. They are U/VHF and do the early warning job but do not perform target classification or discriminate decoys. They pass blips to more modern radars with S 300 and S 400 which like THAAD SPY 2 are longer range, certainly longer than the Patriot radar. Engagement radars track and cue missiles to shoot the target.
US long range early warning radars have evolved at great expense to actively steered arrays using high frequency, S and X bands. The drawback is they require a lot of power, but shorter wavelength and they can “see” the target pretty well. I do not know if they can “see” stealth.
Most of the US’ new radars are S, X bands: Aegis SPY 1 soon to be replaced in new Arleigh Burke Flt III ships by SPY 6, THAAD TPY-2, new large fixed radar in Alaska (which turned out too expensive/risky for Japan) etc. Patriot radar are similar with a new one being designed.
Large investments in radar are threatened by Electronic Counter measures and tactics.
All that said, strategic bombing is almost never worth the costs. What strategy has assassination as an operational mode? How hard is it to replace the chief negotiator for HAMAS when Israel won’t give in anyway? How many seconds are ready to take over for Hizbolah commander?
This is evil! Possibly expecting to broaden the struggle!
The Soviet UHF radars developed in the late 1950’s can see stealth aircraft easily from hundreds of kilometers away. The main purpose of the stealth is to delay the enemy fighters from getting a firing solution with their air-borne fire-control radars.
And as far as I know, there’s no form of electric warfare that can make a fighter not appear on a radar screen. All the current methods are based on flooding the receiver with false signals so that it’s impossible to find the correct one and infer the target information.
That, of course, also means that the jamming fighter is emitting on radar frequencies like a new sun signaling it’s presence to the air-defense network. There are also clever counters, usually based on variable length pulses which the receiver can with relative ease filter out from the noise. Or just using more power, which the airborne platform can’t really match.
Multistatic radars seem to be the latest development, and Chinese have announced huge steps in this area. Jamming those would require a special EW aircraft relatively close. But I doubt Iran has them yet, though.
Regarding the Israeli F-35, I understood some years ago, that they received a special permission to compile their own mission data packets, or even completely replace that part of the software, as the facility Locheed-Martin forced eveyone else to use had about 6 months delay – which doesn’t work well if you have to operate in a dynamic, hostile environment.
UHF certainly can detect stealth although I’m not sure it provides much useable information – its not just a case of targeting, its also identifying what the ‘blip’ might me, and UHF picks up an enormous amount of clutter at distance, especially in anything but perfect weather. I assume sophisticated software can help, to what extent I don’t know. Its also possible that the F-35 flew very low to evade long distance radar, but that has range implications for any attack. But there are always smart ways around this, as the Iranians themselves proved a few decades ago when they hit Iraqi airfields with F-4’s despite this being supposedly way out of their range.
Stealth aircraft can also be detected, allegedly quite easily, by using radars from multiple angles – its widely claimed that the Eurofighter has been able to track F-22’s in exercises doing this. Of course, we have to take the Luftwaffe/RAF’s word for this.
Its also known that most western attack planning includes multiple aircraft to fly a range of roles, including aircraft on silent ‘passive’ mode feeding target information to stealthy aircraft in ‘active’ mode further back, with actual missile launch possibly from further away using non-stealth aircraft. And add into the mix various decoys and jamming. And as you say, the Israelis have developed their own tech specifically for the F-35, and since they have the advantage of knowing their enemy very well, they may have come up with some novel solutions.
From what I know, most stealth aircraft focus on specific angles to the radar to minimise detection, and the attack course will be designed to maintain precisely the correct angles to minimise detection. Even non-stealthy aircraft can be ‘invisible’ from some angles, especially from the side. If you have a lot of information on the defenders (and presumably, the Israelis have very detailed knowledge of Iran’s capabilities), I wouldn’t rule it out that they could have worked out a very specific route to minimise detection. They could also have used civilian aircraft as cover during some parts of the attack.
What I can’t explain is how the aircraft retreated without being detected – the F-35 is far less stealthy when pointing its rear end at radars or IR detectors. Perhaps they flew low to a ‘friendly’ nearby airfield.
I can’t help thinking that there is an Azerbaijani connection in all this. They have some very strong connections with the Israeli establishment, including doing some weapons testing (using the Armenians as a handy test subject). Azerbaijan is a lot closer to Tehran than Israel.
But of course, its possible that the attack involved something else entirely – maybe an unknown low level stealth drone, or something launched from within Iran.
Even if the latest generation Russian UHF and VHR radars are claimed to be capable of locating stealth aircraft, they indeed don’t claim much more. I believe both use active scanned arrays to avoid clutter and jamming.
The VHF version’s main tasks is supposedly detecting ballistic missiles and early detection for S-300/400 systems. The UHF version allegedly is able to give mid-course updates to missiles, but the missile is expected to go active in the final approach, since the UHF is just not good enough for fire-control.
Be it as it may, the Russian do brag they achieved new record last week when a Russian Su-30 killed an Ukrainian Mig-29 from 213 km away – with the help of a An-50, but still further away than has been expected from the missile (R-37) and on-board radar.
And, yes, until more information is published, I’ll assume the missile was launched from a vessel on the Caspian Sea, or something cloak and dagger-ish like that. Putting a F-35 into a hostile airspace for 20-25 minutes would be a huge risk (if it’s even possible considering the distances). The payoff (a member of political Hamas killed) in this case is not high enough compared to the loss of face and credibility if Iran managed to shoot down the plane.
That 200+km kill was amazing. I think its clear that the days of dogfighting are nearly over, its all about range and kinetics now. I found myself recently going down a rabbit hole of online discussions about who has the longest reach now in an air battle. The Europeans thought they had a game changer in the Meteor, but even that looks a little puny now. The USN AIM-174 (an air launched version of the SM-6) looks to be the potential winner of a range fight, in the unlikely event they can manufacture enough of them to make a difference. Typically though, it doesn’t fit in the internal bay of an F-22 or F-35.
The main point is this. The Israelis launched a lethal attack on Tehran, the capital of Iran. Remember what happened when the Israelis destroyed an Iranian Embassy in Syria? If the Iranians do not launch a major attack on Israel, then the Israelis will be attacking Iran all the time like they do in Syria. Then again, with a lame duck US President and organizational chaos in DC, Netanyahu figures that this would be a great way to spread the war and to get the US directly involved in the fighting.
Bibi wants to drag the US into war, imo.
As Gerald Celente said in January this year, when US incumbent presidents are down in the polls heading into a re-election race they take the country to war.
Clinton sure did with his bimbo-bombs in Yugoslavia
Road repair, cheaper gas and war. Must be an election year. American culture, the envy of the world.
As you are aware, my sarcasm is always on.
my barely concealed sarcasm seems to be always on when talking with just about anyone – they’re all trapped in a propaganda silo defending one position or the other and think they are taking a side when in the end they are all on the same side with the capitalist oligarchs – but it can never be admitted….oh no….you can’t believe that? – yeah, kinda difficult to turn off the sarcasm –
Indeed. Unless we speak of family, pets and fruit trees. Best garden I’ve ever grown this year. Hoping it’s not a swan song. The peach tree and the Northstar cherry are making up for two lost years. Our golden ray of sunshine pupper Roxie has recovered from tick-borne anaplasmosis and is back on four paws. The cat pride is my pride. They three are a fascinating lot. You can get a look at Jean Claude, a most handsome pudding. He’s the antidote this past June 1. All the best.
I feel Israel wants a war with Iran and not with Lebanon. Iran can be nuked from a distance and it will only give Israel a more colorful sunrise. It might also scare the neighbors. They would like to nuke Lebanon but that would compromise all that valuable beach property. Gotta have your priorities.
One of the biggest threats to F-35 completing a mission is it breaks a lot!
They likely sent several on the long run.
The IAF has refueling and the mission did not have to get near Syrian airspace.
F-35 has a lot of avionics compatible with F-16 IAF may have “hung” some of those on their F-35. For its size it has similar “real estate” for avionics as F-16.
Part of the US aid is F-35 and F-16 spares ahead of anyone else.
Even Turley weighs in on the big Olympic show.
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/07/31/olympic-christ-threatens-to-sue-critics-over-last-supper-backlash/
“the LGBTQ activist who was the center figure in the controversial “Last Supper” Paris Olympic scene is threatening to sue those criticizing her”
“Thomas Jolly, the artistic director for the opening ceremony of the Olympics, clearly wanted to be provocative in these scenes. He succeeded. Clearly, such provocative elements will spur debate and discussion, including heated opinions. Use of criminal sanctions for those expressing opinion would make a mockery of the display of fealty to French liberties that Jolly features in his ceremony.”
And still more–Paris is a temporary police state with huge police presence and movement restrictions.
https://scheerpost.com/2024/07/31/french-police-arrest-journalists-covering-anti-olympics-activism/
I was kind of rapt by the Olympics when I was a kid, but have long since lost interest, why not be the athlete yourself?
That said, i’ve watched a scintilla worth and it kind of strikes me as very Logans Run-like, nobody over 30 for the most part, a celebration of young adults who never get older, every 4 years.
Go to the equestrian events. Even the better horses are older. ;)
Maybe the Olympic committee is a lot smarter than one would think.
Maybe they let this “controversy”, run as a sort of “head fake”., so all the pearl clutchers will have something to gripe about. Something the negative nellies can complain about, and write op eds about… while the Olympics go on.
All as a ruse.
So no one who has a serious problem with the Olympic committee allowing Israel , which is run by war criminals, carrying out atrocities as we watch the games, murdering women and children and young and old. The controversy around a stupid skit, while the real anger of allowing a country which should be shunned by the world, is effectively covered up…
Maybe the israeli’s olimpic team can win a gold medal for sniping toddlers, or crippling children? What about killing the most civilians. Shooting the most refugees in a barrel… something like that.
I think commenters here (me) have complained about the Israel inclusion vs Russia exclusion. Arguably the ceremony’s inclusion defense is part of the same hypocrisy you mention. “Inclusion” means exactly what they want it to mean, nothing more, nothing less.
There is no inclusion without mocking that outmoded religion.
Now athletes puking after the triathlon, complaints about food and coffee… France is showing itself the ultimate Eurotrash country.
re: “And still more–Paris is a temporary police state….”
Let’s hope it’s temporary and not a dress rehearsal/live exercise for turning Paris into a 15-minute city. / I’m kidding,(I think)…
‘Shaiel Ben-Ephraim
@academic_la
Today was the best day of the war for Israel in months. Getting the No. 2 in Hezbollah and the No. 1 in Hamas within 24 hours (assuming it was Israel). Hats off to Israeli intelligence. They have utterly redeemed themselves.’
What makes him think that it is Israeli intelligence? No seriously. Is he sure that they were located by Israeli intelligence? The Brits are doing constant recon flights from their base in Cyprus and the US has made available their intelligence network to help the Israelis pick targets. So again, what makes him think that it is Israeli intelligence here.
The intelligences services work together but separately from government, with the likely exception, in this case, of Israel, so Israeli intellgence would have taken the information, analysed it, and created a series of options for the government to consider.
This is not to underplay the role of the Brits and the US in gathering and passing on the information required to undertake any operation by the Israelis.
This really seems to be the beginning of the end of the Israeli colonial experiment. And those that are left will be doing an über-Millwall and bitching about the fact that everyone hates them as Jews and are hated so much just because they are exceptional and they have an historic rite to genocide others.
“The problem of busy work activism” = hurry up and get ready = never doing anything –
Opus Dei is supported big-time by Thomas Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza and Ave Maria University – reading that piece couldn’t help but think of scientology and Sea Org –
“Killer Whales Sink Yacht in Med: ‘Knew What they Were Doing’ ” Daily Beast
I wonder if any of the Orcas have ever been held in captivity.
Nazified extremists like Azov are useful as motivated killers for warfare, but a frankenstein’s monster when you need to switch to ceasefire/peace mode. Azov way too big now (and just one of many extreme-right military formations) to put back in the bottlehttps://t.co/zMjziZ5C3c
Blowback finally on people’s mind.
The first year of Ukraine/Russia conflict, I think I said something like Ukraine was a bit like an Eastern European School of the Americas.
At any rate, they’re going to make other well-armed, proxy insurgents of the past look like poseur militants.
And the places they’ll have access to…oh my, oh my.
Arm them today to fight them tomorrow. Yes, indeed it applies with these fanatics.
While the US continues to appear interested in provoking crises with Russia, China, and Iran, the Commission on National Defense Strategy published a July 2024 report highlighting a lack of readiness to sustain a conflict anywhere, or to keep pace with the growth of Chinese capabilities. For reasons familiar to regular readers here.
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2024/commission-on-the-national-defense-strategy-report_rand_20240730.pdf
ive been busy, busy, busy…so dont know if this has been linked, but i find it hilarious…Woke’s Long March Through the Institutions!
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/07/30/grayzone-pr-fiasco-us-govt-regime-change-leaked-emails/
one of the things that stuck and mentioned previously in NC – after reading Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben was the convective loop he describes as the permafrost begins melting in his 2011 book – science caught up with him in 2020 –
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75481-z
Shake your Houthi
(Sung to the tune of, “Shake Your Booty” by K.C. and the Sunshine Band)
Another freighter, on the seafloor, let’s dance!
Don’t test God’s helpers, give yourself a chance
Oh, you’re in our lake
Big mistake!
Boat go boom-ey!
Love, your Houthis
Oh, in our lake
Your stuff we’ll take
It’s our duty
Now our booty
We know what you’re up to, very well
Your navy’s not first-class, we can tell
Oh, you’re in our lake
Big mistake!
Boat go boom-ey!
Love, your Houthis
Oh, in our lake
Your stuff we’ll take
It’s our duty
Now our booty
Oh, shake, shake, shake, shake 2x
[Repeat catchy chorus]
Oh, shake, shake, shake, shake
Shake your Houthis, we’ll take your booty
Oh, shake, shake, shake, shake
Shake your Houthis, oh, you’ve got no chance
Shake, shake, shake, shake
Shake your Houthis
You can do it, do it
70’s clip with Dolly Parton intro
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-07-31/jd-vance-is-the-real-sucker-punch-for-trump?srnd=homepage-americas/
JD Vance Was Supposed to Be a MAGA Heir. Now He’s a Liability.
Make of it what you will (it’s election time after all), but I recall the some of the statements they attribute to Vance.
Have you seen him in action? Like “What’s Kamala done for the US where she has the standing to accuse me of being a traitor? I joined the marines for my country. I fought in Iraq for my country. I started a business for my country. My running mate took a bullet for this country. What has Kamala done?” She thinks “You’re just weird” is sufficient? I predict her party is gonna have another fit after her debate performance and the election will be a disaster for them.
Re: rise in people fascinated by violence
More on one of the sources, Rebecca Weiner, here:
Columbia crackdown led by university prof doubling as NYPD spook
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/05/02/columbia-crackdown-university-nypd/
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/30/business/sullivan-cromwell-israel-protests.html
July 30, 2024
Ralph Nader Assails Law Firm’s Vow to Exclude Some Campus Protesters
In a letter to Sullivan & Cromwell, Mr. Nader and two other prominent legal figures condemned its efforts to screen job applicants for their participation in antiwar protests.
By Emily Flitter
[ Remember that the words of Lawrence Summers were enough to end a Harvard presidency for not being sufficiently opposed to a student-faculty peaceful antiwar protest. ]
‘Quote of the Day, Olympic Edition: “They’re Enjoying Themselves at Our Expense, and They Expect Us to Applaud?” China Digital Times’
“China Digital Times” is an American news site with a sole apparent purpose of vilifying and ruining China.
Here the article is meant to show a supposed “Chinese” disdain for Chinese Olympic athletes. However, actual Chinese are overwhelmingly proud of the team and athletes, just as the French are properly proud of French athletes.
What a terrible thing to demean Olympic athletes for political purposes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/31/world/asia/china-propaganda-travel-influencers.html
July 31, 2024
Why Chinese Propaganda Loves Foreign Travel Bloggers
Videos by influencers documenting their trips have been widely promoted on Chinese media — if they tell a certain story.
By Vivian Wang
[ The US media animosity for China is such that Americans who travel to China and try to reverse the animosity are treated as villains. I am deeply saddened and frightened.
Remember that when the Princeton and NYU scholar Stephen Cohen wished to warn of the danger of a war in Ukraine, New York Times reporters referred to Cohen as a villain:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/opinion/a-russia-scholars-views.html
March 11, 2014
A Russia Scholar’s Views ]
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6p20dl71jpo
So a judge gives Anjem Choudary 28 years for his “skills as an orator rather than as a man who uses violence personally”, even as his King’s Counsel, who appears to live in the real world, pleads:
“We are left with dense theological lectures which are not particularly accessible,” he said.
“We do not see that the court is in a position… to conclude that Mr Choudary was gathering the masses. It was a failed organisation.”
Yet Boris Johnson walks away with a big inflation proof pension, (a) book deal(s), his newspaper column and his speaking fees.
And I can’t bring myself to think about the benefits Crazy Joe, Blinken, Sullivan and Nuland will receive for their roles in fomenting war and their complicity in war crimes.
“Funny old world”, as the Blesséd Margaret muttered when the Tories tired of her.
Re: What is Left of the Mind
It rails against ‘Illusionism’, the notion that consciousness is a delusion, but doesn’t point out what seems to me its obvious flaw:
It is self-contradictory. Rocks (I will confidently assert) cannot be deluded. A delusion, of consciousness or anything else, is a state of consciousness.
Edward Snowden gave the opening speech at the Bitcoin conference. I like Snowden, but don’t think Bitcoin is a solution. About 30 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3NBhSXtE5g
I love AAHNPI food…
I do too. There is indeed such a thing. It’s called SPAM. Quite delicious, enjoyed throughout the Pacific region from Honshu to Hawaii. Why, I only recently enjoyed a delicious SPAM Musubi out here on the Pacific Rim (a SPAM slice served on a generous lump of sushi rice, doused with teriyaki sauce and wrapped in seaweed nori). Kamala knows what SPAM Musubi is…
China:
Time magazine is beginning to notice…
The Real Future of Flying Cars
My first contact with Chinese flying cars, or electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL), proved to be indicative in the years since. China has flown high with the nascent technology. One of the biggest developments came in April when the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) awarded a “production certificate” to EHang’s EH216-S, the first time an eVTOL received such approval anywhere. The move opens the door to a commercial rollout. But other firms are also eyeing the skies. The CarryAll eVTOL from AutoFlight, another Chinese firm, obtained a “type certificate” in March from CAAC, a key step toward regulatory approval. Other homegrown Chinese competitors like XPeng and Vertaxi are also creating buzz.
https://time.com/7005776/china-us-evtol-flying-cars/