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Links 9/12/2024

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‘Miracle’ Japan penguin found two weeks after escape Channel News Asia

Self-medicating gorillas may hold new drugs clues BBC

Soft Landing? New Left Review

Top US Fed official broke central bank’s trading rules, watchdog says FT

Climate

‘Never believed it would happen’: Residents flee from explosive Bridge fire LA Times. Commentary:

As Fires Burn And More Wildfire Regions Talk Job Cuts, Congress Argues Over 2025 Budget The Hotshot Wake Up

Brazil grapples with fire pandemic as climate woes intensify BNE Intellinews

Defund Indonesia’s Deadly Peat Fires The Diplomat

* * *

More than 375,000 without power in Louisiana as Hurricane Francine moves through Times-Picayune

* * *

Hard to make and inefficient to use, hydrogen won’t save the climate BNE Intellinews

The Next President Will Be a Climate-Disaster President The Atlantic

Everyone’s heads are in the sand Heated

Water

Innovative air-to-water tech using liquid desiccant makes affordable, renewable water Monga Bay

Wrecked rain gauges. Whistleblowers. Million-dollar payouts and manhunts. Then a Colorado crop fraud got really crazy. Colorado Sun

Quantifying Winters Rights (PDF) 48 William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review 659 (2024)

Syndemics

Sequencing-Based Detection of Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus in Wastewater in Ten Cities NEJM

How did a Missouri resident catch bird flu spreading in livestock? What we know so far Kansas City Star. Meanwhile:

>

Novavax or Nothing? For Some, It’s Their COVID Vaccine Choice WebMD

Mask bans are dumb, dangerous Editorial Board, Star-Ledger

China?

Why are young Chinese lying flat? They need hope and opportunities South China Morning Post

How China has ‘throttled’ its private sector FT

China’s firms seek to avoid pitfalls in search of key EV metal in Latin America: analysts South China Morning Post

Myanmar

Making Sense of the Mess in Myanmar’s Shan State The Irrawaddy

India

One-Way Traffic London Review of Books

Africa

Instability in Somalia Endangers the Entire Horn of Africa Black Agenda Report

Syraqistan

ICC prosecutor seeks ‘urgent’ arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders FT

Inside the Movement to Settle Southern Lebanon Jewish Currents

Israeli Historian: This Is Exactly What Genocide Looks Like Jacobin. From July, still germane.

Dear Old Blighty

The NHS must ‘reform or die’, says Sir Keir Starmer – as he promises the biggest overhaul of the health service since it was born eight decades ago after surgeon’s damning new report Daily Mail

New Not-So-Cold War

France, Germany and UK condemn export of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia – as it happened Guardian. Commentary:

UK will allow Ukraine to strike Russia with Storm Shadow missiles Ukrainske Pravda

* * *

Ukraine’s Kursk Incursion Is a Two-Edged Sword The American Conservative

Russia claims it prevented Ukrainian attempt to take control of Black Sea drilling rig Anadolu Agency

* * *

Individuals Over Institutions: Ukraine’s Government Reshuffle Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Nuland fuels theory that Western powers killed 2022 peace deal Responsible Statecraft

2024

Debate in nuclear-armed former colony fails to reassure global community Al Jazeera. More:

The Great Debate: Trump Talked Substance But Kamala Won on Tone and Looks Pluralis

Trump’s message of American decline resonates with pivotal voters BBC

RFK Jr. suggests independent support for Trump will drop in wake of debate The Hill

California considers first-in-the-nation phone discounts for undocumented immigrants Politico

Haitian immigrants fleeing unrest and facing exploitation find ‘Alabama is the best place to live’ AL.com

Our Famously Free Press

My Youtube Channel Deleted for Hate Speech Larry Johnson

9/11

At Least Two Saudi Officials May Have Deliberately Assisted 9/11 Hijackers, New Evidence Suggests ProPublica

The War on Terror Was Not a Morality Tale War on the Rocks

The World Trade Center Attack September 11, 2001 Susan Sontag. Still germane.

Police State Watch

The NYPD Is Tossing Out Hundreds of Misconduct Cases — Including Stop-and-Frisks — Without Even Looking at Them ProPublica

Digital Watch

As major web browser makers snuggle up to AI, these skeptical holdouts remain The Register

Groves of Academe

In the spirit of libearal inquiry:

Supply Chain

What keeps shipowners up at night? Splash 247

Imperial Collapse Watch

Why America Should Drop Its Obsession With Being No. 1 Foreign Policy

Class Warfare

US child poverty nearly tripled between 2021 and 2023 Polygraph. Handy chart:

Critical labor contract vote for Boeing, IAM 751 today Leeham News and Analysis

Strike Concerns at U.S. Ports Looms Large Over Shipping gCaptain

Can a National Strike Save a Closed Plant? A Town Depends On It. Workday Magazine

Worker Solidarity Is the Best Strategy to Defeat Rising Fascism Labor Notes

The Aral Sea Volcano Café

Antidote du jour (Charles J Sharp):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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About Lambert Strether

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

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188 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Is Iran supplying ballistic missiles to Russia for the Ukraine war?”

    Does it even matter? Doesn’t Iran have a sovereign right to export arms to whom it chooses? Right now the entire Collective West have just about emptied out their armouries to ship them to the Ukraine. That is the thirty-odd NATO nations plus another several nations like Japan, Australia, South Korea, etc. The idea behind the outrage exhibited by some is that one group of nations is allowed to ship any and all weapons that they want to a conflict zone but if a few others nations do so for the other side, then they must be punished or something though not sure why. Must be written in that International Rules-based Order that we keep on hearing about.

    1. MRB

      The oddity about this is that the missiles supposedly being supplied are short-range missiles which Russia has an enormous superfluity of, and which it scarcely needs since glider-bombs are performing the duties of such missiles with no readily-tracked rocket trails and at far less expense. The other oddity is that in response to alleged supplies of unnecessary short-range missiles, the US is proposing to supply long-range missiles which obviously are in a completely different category.

      In addition, the “new” sanctions imposed on Russia and Iran are essentially empty and will do no real harm to either country.

      It does look as if the US government needed to come up with something to attract headlines and outsourced the propaganda to the B Team.

      2. Polar Socialist

        Isn’t it about every six months there are news in The West about Russia (desperately) needing Iranian missiles? Most of those missiles seem to be stored in the same place with the Iraqi WMDs…

        On the other hand, the alleged missile in the alleged delivery is quite new Iranian product, and since it has a short range and can’t be “tested” against Israel, there’s a plausible case for the Iranians offering to loan a battery and some engineers to Russia for “field testing” purposes.

      3. at the speed of smell

        Arnold Toynbee once said civilizations are not murdered, they commit suicide.

        The Russian Central Bank predicts GDP growth to be between 0.5% -1.5% in 2025. Interest rates are approaching 18%. The labor market is stretched as far as it can go. “Forced substitution” in manufacturing is number one obstacle to profitability. The gov’t is no longer publishing data on refined petroleum production, having become a target for drones. Russia’s pivot to downstream markets in Southeast Asia is hobbled by increased rail transportation costs.

        Russia’s natural gas infrastructure is entirely unsuitable for any market other than Europe. China found the proposed gas pipeline from Siberia through Mongolia to be cost prohibitive, much more so given secondary sanctions risks for Chinese Banks stack with each settlement with Russia.

        A peace agreement with Ukraine will not lift the sanctions on Russia anytime soon. Even with the increased investments in capital assets by Russian businesses to meet war production quotas, the price tag for sustaining current production keeps getting larger. Corporate profits are eaten by an array of new taxes, making the investments mentioned above possible only by increased borrowing from State Banks at usury interest rates. Russia’s bond yields are higher than Uganda’s, a bad omen which portends the inflation goblin around the corner despite truly Herculean efforts by the Russian Central Bank.

        So the Western Alliance may not have done “real harm” to Russia. Russia did it to themselves and Russians know it.

        1. lyman alpha blob

          Sure they “did it to themselves” – if you ignore the Western looting of Russia in the 90s, the subsequent coups in neighboring countries, broken treaties, military buildup on its borders, and various other provocations. What should they have done – just hand over the keys to the country to the West and tell them to take whatever they want?

          But yeah, other than that, they did it to themselves.

        2. Skip Intro

          All that growth! Yikes poor Russia. Inflation may even kick in, given all that prosperity trickling down from the leaky, overtaxed owner class. I bet they envy deindustrializing Europe, with all that excess labor, and healthy GDP drops to counter the massive rise in energy prices.

        3. Polar Socialist

          Russia’s natural gas infrastructure is entirely unsuitable for any market other than Europe. China found the proposed gas pipeline from Siberia through Mongolia to be cost prohibitive, much more so given secondary sanctions risks for Chinese Banks stack with each settlement with Russia.

          “Entirely unsuitable” is, of course, a huge exaggeration, as proved by the enormous amounts of hydro-carbons Russian exports to non-European countries.

          As for the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, the price has nothing to do with the friction. China’s problem is that they don’t want Russia (or Gazprom) to gain too much influence in Mongolia (which the new pipeline would bring), and yet Gazprom doesn’t want to involve any Chinese companies in the project (and lose total control). So, Mongolia, being a smart, small country between two of the biggest on Earth, doesn’t make a move until the Bear and the Dragon have agreed on how to proceed.

          The fact that Power of Siberia 1 is already flowing cheap gas to China, so the price of the gas is already settled. Who gets to pay, construct and control the pipeline (and influence Mongolia with the transfer fees) is the question yet to be solved.

          Other than that, even the western experts predict Russia’s gas export will recover by 2030 at the latest (Power of Siberia 2 would reach full capacity only in 2035, anyway), by replacing European clients with other.

          Or, to put it the other way, EU has only a few years to make amends with Russia, if EU ever again wants to have cheap energy.

        4. Kouros

          As far as i know, former Schumberger, the biggest oil services company in the world has refused to leave Russia, for once.

          Once the war is over, and it will be over, the workforce will be less stretched and the consumption sector, including construction sector will be booming.

          There will be enough know how russia can borrow from others, legally and illiegally (why pay for IP, no?) to do most of the things Russia needs. It is quite easy to become an autarchy there…

          And once the war is over, US guns will be more and more aligned on China, and that will make the Chinese much more amenable…

      1. JohnA

        Sweden has already announced they are ending six fast military assault craft to Ukraine. But western weapons are allowed to Ukraine, no questions… So that is all right.

  3. vidimi

    ICC prosecutor seeks ‘urgent’ arrest warrants for Nazi and Jewish leaders.

    There is no saving international law. Something new must be birthed after the perpetrators have been punished. Only problem is that too many are guilty.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      Israeli government officials are now using the zombie, dead cat ceasefire talks as a kind of interference ploy to deflect the ICC:

      One said the new push focused on the destabilising impact that Israel argues the warrants would have on flailing talks brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar to secure a ceasefire, a swap of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and an eventual end to hostilities between Hamas and Israel.

      Yet another humiliation of Blinken. Obviously Bibi is using him and all the negotiators as tools. Bibi could obviously care less about those talks and is actively undermining, delaying, and stalling for time. He knows once there is a ceasefire, his government falls apart.

      You have to almost admire his cunning and Machiavellian ways. Blinken looks like a 3 year old trying to play chess with Gary Kasper.

      1. Wukchumni

        Blinken kinda looks and acts as if he was Chamberlain’s ne-er-do-well doppelgänger, that is if Neville knew a few chords.

          1. The Rev Kev

            Makes you wonder if Operation Sea Lion was a success and Germany had taken over the UK, whether it would have been easy for them to co-opt the Royal family to still be the titular heads. Certainly Edward VIII was in contact with the Nazis with this idea in mind which was why they had to ship him to the Bahamas. And you do not want to know how many Nazis were in Prince Phillip’s family

        2. ChrisFromGA

          Blinken needs to learn to play “The Dead Cat Boogie.” I hear the chords are easy. Donald can join in on the harmonica.

          1. Wukchumni

            Duckin’, got my chips cashed in
            Keep duckin’, like the Bibi man
            Together, more or less in line
            Just keep duckin’ on

            Operation Shield & Arrow flashing marquees out on Gaza Strip
            Gaza City, Rafah, Kerem Shalom and it’s all on the same street
            Your typical city involved in a typical bad daydream
            Kill ’em all and see what tomorrow brings

            DC, got a soft machine
            AIPAC, too close to ways and means
            New York got the magic beans
            But just won’t let you be

            Most of the diplomats that you meet on the streets speak of true loathe of what the USA is doing
            Most of the time they’re sittin’ and cryin’ at home
            One of these days they know they gotta get goin’
            Out of the door and down to the street all alone

            Duckin’, like the Bibi man
            Once told me, “You got to play your hand”
            Sometimes the human discards ain’t worth a dime
            If you don’t lay ’em down

            Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on he
            Other times I can barely see
            Lately it occurs to me
            What a long, strange trip it’s been

            What in the world ever became of sweet little Israel?
            She lost her sparkle, you know she isn’t the same
            Livin’ on dread, revenge, and genocide
            All a friend can say is, “Ain’t it a shame?”

            Duckin’, down to Port-au-Prince-laying low
            I been thinkin’, you got to mellow slow
            Takes time, you pick a place to go
            And just keep duckin’ on

            Sittin’ and starin’ out of the jet window
            Got a tip they’re gonna start cease-fire talks again
            I’d like to get some sleep before I travel
            But if you got a warning, I guess you’re gonna come in

            Busted hopes, down on the Knesset
            Set up, like a bowlin’ pin
            Knocked down
            It get’s to wearin’ thin
            They just won’t let you be

            You’re sick of hangin’ around and you’d like to travel
            Get tired of travelin’ and you want to settle down
            I guess they can’t revoke your soul for tryin’
            Get out of the door and light out and look all around

            Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on he
            Other times I can barely see
            Lately it occurs to me
            What a long, strange trip it’s been

            Duckin’, I’m a goin’ home
            Whoa whoa baby, back where I belong
            Back home, sit down and patch my bones
            And get back duckin’ on

            Truckin’ by the Grateful Dead

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48eW3VL-95g

            1. ChrisFromGA

              Awesome! Take a bow on that one.

              Blinken better get to the woodshed to hone his chops. I want to hear him sing it live in ten cities!

      2. Kouros

        Yup, never heard Bibi ever participating directly in said negotiations…

        They really think we are stupid.

  4. Zagonostra

    >Nuland fuels theory that Western powers killed 2022 peace deal – Responsible Statecraft

    The full story of that short-lived diplomatic interlude is unlikely to be unraveled until after the war, in no small part due to the obvious political sensitivities at play. But there is now what appears to be, even in the most conservative estimation, a large body of circumstantial evidence that Western actors, quite possibly hailing from the UK and other countries which were designated as “guarantors” of Ukraine’s security under the Istanbul draft treaty, expressed reservations about the Istanbul format.

    The extent to which these Western reservations were decisive insofar as they constituted a hard veto over the peace talks is a trickier question. One can reasonably surmise that Ukraine would have found it difficult to ink a deal that did not command at least tacit support from the Western countries on which it overwhelmingly relies, but it is no less true that the talks were fraught and, though there were positive signs of a slow convergence between the Moscow and Kyiv on key issues, the two sides were a considerable ways off from fully harmonizing their positions when the deal was terminated.

    I’m surprised that “conspiracy” was not in the title, just “theory.” This somewhat reminds me of the attempts to obfuscate the details and conclusions that one can draw from the Nord Stream pipeline terrorist attack. There are “obvious political sensitivities at play,” oh my, please elucidate. There is a “large body of circumstantial evidence?” What is “circumstantial about it? There are first hand accounts of it, and I believe Putin was even showing the document detailing the Istanbul agreement agreement. Oh yes of course, there is that “trickier question” we have to be careful with, the one that clearly identifies who is running the show, we don’t want to pierce the illusion that Ukraine is able to come to decisions autonomously. And, what is the proof the author has that “the two sides were a considerable ways off for fully harmonizing” the deal. The Istanbul was a done deal until the Hegemon nixed it.

    I don’t know anything about the source of this article, Responsible Statecraft, but the casuistry is astoundingly irresponsible.

    1. MFB

      It’s named after John Quincy Adams and claims to be an Eisenhower-style organisation devoted to trying to promote diplomatic initiatives rather than military initiatives in the US government.

      Probably at the extreme non-neoconservative edge of the US right-wing policy establishment.

      1. hemeantwell

        The Quincy Institute is more centrist. I leave out a left modifier because the guy who organized it, Andrew Bacevich, at least in the past, would offer what would sound like good criticisms of US foreign policy while avoiding talking about what drives it. It’s as though foreign policy should be conducted rationally, free of self-centered “hubris,” without unnecessarily resorting to aggression, in a manner detached from material interests, e.g. markets, resource looting.

    2. Ignacio

      The more important problem this created, and the true relevance of the “theory” is that any negotiation now is nearly impossible. These actions implicated that the war would have to be conducted to its bitter end when one of the sides manages to inflict total defeat on the other.

    5. Aurelien

      I never thought this was particularly hard to understand. Ukraine was initially negotiating from a position of great weakness, and would have been obliged to make a whole series of unattractive concessions, notably in the size of its armed forces. But then the West comes along, and promises Ukraine an endless supply of weapons, plus, I presume, intelligence and similar support, and more importantly tells the Ukrainians that the Russian Army is rubbish and will soon collapse, and that sanctions will bring Russia to its knees in weeks or months, bringing about a new government in Moscow. And there’s every indication that western capitals believed that’s exactly what would happen. Any rational Ukrainian government, swept up in the West’s delusions, would have made the same decision.

      1. Skip Intro

        And that presumed ‘rational Ukrainian government’ may have had its mind focused by the assassination of its negotiators by their own nationalist cadres.

        1. Polar Socialist

          That’s my current understanding of the events back then. One sect in the Ukrainian leadership (security forces controlled by the ultra-nationalists) wanted (or needed, as per Arestovych and Danilov) this war, while the other sect (mainly Rada, even after banning the opposition) wanted peace – and managed to get a pretty good deal to that end.

          So the war sect literally killed the peace deal by a public execution of a negotiator. A rather strong message to the other sect on how this thing was to be played out. No need for the wise words from Bozo the Clown.

    6. cfraenkel

      Even putting aside the ick factor surrounding anything she does or says…. the reason she states in the article why the proposed **peace** treaty wasn’t “a good deal” was literally that the terms would prevent UKR from having a useful military force!!! As if that wasn’t the whole point.

      Hard to say what’s worse, that she doesn’t realize what an own goal admission of bad intent this is, or that the myopia generated by the DC echo chamber kept the editors from seeing it either.

    7. Kouros

      Experience indicates that while it was evident from the start to any common sense person that the only security guarantees Ukraine needed were from Russia (to not be attacked and yes, to be defended), only a very, very good trashing will convince the Ukrainians of this basic truth. As such, I do hope that for the sake of a longer peace, this war continues until there is no electricity available in Ukraine, no man to catch on the streets, and most of Kiev and Lvov are turned into rubble (as opposed to Gazans, Ukrainians can seek refuge in the west).

      Then, any warmongering nut will keep quiet in order to not be skinned alive by a mob of single women turned into harpies.

  5. The Rev Kev

    “Inside the Movement to Settle Southern Lebanon”

    ‘Since October 7th, the drive to war has been widespread within Israeli society—especially in the country’s north, where mayors and heads of local municipalities facing Hezbollah attacks have been demanding that Israel enter Lebanon, destroy its southern region, and occupy parts of the country as a means of ensuring security.’

    So if this happens, does that mean that in a few more years that they will demand that Israel enter northern Lebanon to occupy it as a means of ensuring security? And so they still want to take parts of Syria and Iraq because their God happened to be a real estate agent who put it in their contract? I wonder if Woodie Guthrie is popular with this mob?

    ‘This land is your land, and this land is my land
    From Gaza to the West Bank
    From the Sinai sands to the Litani waters
    This land was made for you and me’

    1. ambrit

      The underlying ‘theory’ that I perceive here is that old Racialist standby, Lebensraum.
      The present day Hebrew Ultra population not only learned from the Nazis, they have become them.
      All this “movement” will accomplish in the long term is the re-demonization of Jewery as a group. “Right makes might?” This bunch is soon going to find out that “civilized” diplomacy as a replacement for plain old extortion exists for very good reasons. They are not the biggest power players in the world. If the Middle East goes up in an atomic pyre, the rest of the world will carry on somehow.
      My continued exhortations to “stay safe” are taking on some of the characteristics of farce lately.
      Stay as safe as you can.

    2. JMH

      The conquerors dilemma: There is always another border. Perhaps Israel should look into the career of the Roman empire in this regard. Does expanding Israel into southern Lebanon presuppose that the US will support such a move, supply it with weapons and ammunition? Does it presuppose that the world will turn a blind to any “excesses” as is the case currently?
      It is wise to remember that there is no security for one if there is not security for all.

      2. Wukchumni

        Once upon a time winning a war gave you more territory and a buffer zone, not to mention all the wealth you could make off with, their women and livestock, it was a win-win.

        Now winning a war really only produces expenses for the short duration you’re there, and there are seldom buffer zones. Said countries are often riddled with debt-nothing to take there, the infrastructure needed major improvements circa 1975 that never happened, and women aren’t hep on Laissez-faire fraternizing these days. You can have the cows though, ok?

    3. gk

      More likely Jabotinsky. Here is his song for Betar (later Likud), “The Jordan has two banks. This is ours, and so is the other”. No translation, but you can get an idea from the maps, or try the refrain from the lyrics in Google.

    4. Safety First

      It’s worse than you think.

      About six months ago, The New Yorker (boo, hiss) posted an interview with one of the leaders of the Israeli settler movement, some woman, forget her name, who’d been involved with the project since the 1967 war. This was one of their smaller pieces, by the way, not a full-fledged article.

      The concept of “from the river to the sea” came up” – except that the settler woman corrected her American interlocutor. Israel, she said, should occupy the area “from the river to the river“, i.e. from the Nile to the Euphrates. She specifically said this. Which leads me to suspect, that within the lulu-coco-bananas segment of the Israeli right, Israeli settlers, Israeli nationalists, whatever you want to call them, this is an actual thing, the notion that Israel should, whether for reasons of security or otherwise, stretch from modern-day Egypt to modern-day Iraq. Lebanon and Syria are gimmes, if this is the view one adopts.

      Now, obviously, the Israeli government thus far is focusing on the river-to-the-sea area, to secure which not only must the Golan Heights be held, but southern Lebanon must be…dealt with. [And after that, northern Lebanon, and I get the distinct feeling we’re back in 1982.] But in any case, the basic principle is that if a state acts with hostility towards all its neighbors, and their neighbors, and so on, there is no limit to its security requirements. Which has always been one of Israel’s core strategic problems, that to be truly secure it needs to cleanse or subjugate not only the Palestinians, but every country within a 500 mile radius. Which kind of sort of worked for a while, actually, thanks in no small part to America’s shenanigans in the region, but is highly unlikely to last into the new multipolar era.

      1. Kouros

        Just because the Jews were enslaved in those parts, either in Egypt, or in Mesopotamia, doesn’t mean they actually ruled and it was theirs…

    5. wilroncanada

      The version I heard, from back in the 1960s:
      This land is MY land
      This land is MY land,
      From the Arab border
      To the Arab border,
      From the Arab border
      To the Arab border,
      This land is made for ONLY ME.

  6. Zagonostra

    >My Youtube Channel Deleted for Hate Speech- Larry Johnson

    Well, the thought police came for me today and deleted my You Tube channel.

    I suspect that Utube is infiltrated by Deep State actors more than Twitter ever was. What is interesting is that the recent suspension of Judge Napolitano’s and Candice Owens indicates that we’ve reached the point where the platform will not allow discussion of topics that are sensitive to the “inner circle.” I remember thinking when they removed the “thumbs up/down” counter that something was afoot.

    This reminds me of the The Open Society and its Enemies has extensive endnote on the paradox of tolerance from Wiki:

    the idea that “unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Society_and_Its_Enemies

    1. The Rev Kev

      I wonder what the trigger point is for the powers-that-be to de-platform critics. Is it criticism of Israel or criticism of the Ukraine. Or is it both? These are not the actions of a confident country and we are seeing the same in the UK and the EU. Resistance is not so much futile as it will not be tolerated. Never thought that I would live to see the “Free West” turn into the old USSR and yet here we are.

      1. Jester

        Old USSR had free healthcare and education, and family values. Also, people did not believe the news, and were not fueled by hate. “Free West” is nowhere near there yet.

      2. ChrisFromGA

        Private sector doing that which the government is barred from doing, violating the Fifth and First amendment.

        Of course, we know that it is the government really pulling the strings. Musk cleared all the rats out of X but Google is infested with them.

      3. Carolinian

        They are not the actions of a “country” at all but rather the attempted repression by a bunkered ruling class of the millions who surround them. Deep down they know they’ve got it coming.

        The mind control won’t work of course and ever more drastic repressions can be expected unless we can vote at least some of these people out of office. Some think this means another civil war but I doubt the “joy” crew have the appetite for it. They prefer to wreak mayhem on people who are safely an ocean away.

      4. t

        I suspect they have algos to suggest which channels are well funded and they also flag anyone who’s come at them with lawyers, and those are untouchable.

        Far aa I can tell, Tim Pool’s channel is still up.

        1. lyman alpha blob

          Pool did recently call Putin mean names so perhaps he’s gained a temporary reprieve and is still in the Kool Kids Klique.

      5. Mark Gisleson

        With Israel, it used to be any mention of their Apartheid policies.

        In January 2005, the server farm hosting my old blog was hit with a massive DDOS attack. My blog, Norwegianity, had a daily readership of about 500, peak numbers spam adjusted never in excess of 5000. With the notable exception of fellow Minnesotan PZ Myer’s Pharyngula blog, I never got any A List blog links to my site. I was a Class C blogger, a nobody.

        But previously at City Pages then more so at my blog, I shared every link I could find about Israeli Apartheid policies. At City Pages,Village Voice Media (the owner) defunded our incredbily successful online startup,Twin Cities Babelogue. We took City Pages from 40,000 on Alexa to 5,000 in just rhree months. All unpaid writers doing it for the exposure and VVM defunded the project.

        I believe it was because I was writing about Israeli Apartheid. A year after I left and started Norwegianity, the message was made even more clear with the DDOS attack.

        I gave up blogging in 2010 (’11?) because I could never get links in, and could never build my readership. All my readers pretty much followed me to Twitter but almost immediately it was obvious that following me didn’t mean you got to see my tweets. In 2016 when I outed Russiagate as fraud the same day Robbie Mook ‘broke’ that story, my Twitter traffic went from high double digits/low three digit views to the current maybe a dozen, two dozen views at most.

        That is what deplatforming looks like. Not saying I would have been famous or gotten rich, but my voice was silenced. I doubt like hell I am the only American whose voice was silenced because of their criticism of Israeli Apartheid.

        Of course I can prove none of this save the fact of the DDOS attack. My Twitter account gets pretty cranky at times but if you’re on X, try following me. I’m tweeting every day but my guess is you won’t see my tweets unless you go to my profile page.

        Not sour grapes. I appreciate having been given the opportunity to see how our democracy works under real conditions and now I realize we don’t live in a democracy or anything like one. Democracy is a platform that amplifies every voice, mine included.

        Oops, forgot to mention getting booted off X for year for linking to The Saker stories about Ukraine!

          1. Mark Gisleson

            Thx. Let me know if I actually show up in your feed.

            Tbh, I don’t have 1000k followers. I’m just behind on my pornbot blocking.

    2. tegnost

      re paradox of tolerance
      I expect if/when the dims install themselves in the coming national tally that, as with the aca, they will adopt project 2025 for it’s “good ideas” insisting that just a few (and I mean a very few) sensible regulations will make the surveillance, censorship, and punishments more better because everyone (you know who they are) knows that something must be done to control the hoi polloi (otherwise known as all the stupids who should be asking for a cut in pay to save the economy)

    3. begob

      I often wonder when they’ll come for the Duran. Surely studious avoidance of any mention of the N word cannot delay the blow indefinitely.

    4. bertl

      When I was a student, we only used “The Open Society and It’s Enemies” as an 60% random and flawed précis of some of Marx’s basic ideas. Of course Popper’s interpretations of Plato and Hegel were idiosyncratic in a sort of semi-delirious, offbeat kind of way, as if he’d read the odd precis or two and tried to summarise them on the basis of his experience with Adler (much repeated at his “ain’t I just the strutting peacock” LSE lectures) and his own notions of the virtues of testability in a world in which testability can’t be scaled up given that the past is never really past, as Faulkner and a zillion historians have – successfully – argued, and it follows that the future is likely to be a little less predictable than the past,

      The real paradox of tolerance is that the “tolerant” are the most whacked out intolerant righteous bastards of them all, and I’m not just thinking of Ms 360 degrees. Karl Popper, was obviously the most intolerant of the tolerant, who made a career out of one simple idea which is just, well, a simple idea which defines a two dimensional view of the reality of scientific methodology and a zero dimensional view of how society actually works.. It is interesting that Leo Strauss, who I tend to regard as a thinker of the Left picked up by the Right, made sure that Popper never got the job he wanted at the University of Chicago, not least because Popper sort of made up Plato as he went along and was not a credible thinker about real thinkers, let alone a philosopher worth the time and effort for students to waste a few precious minutes glancing over his works or listening to his nonsense.

  7. ChrisFromGA

    UK will allow Ukraine to strike Russia with Storm Shadow missiles Ukrainske Pravda

    I just watched Dima’s latest Military Summary Channel video, and he says there is contradictory info.

    “According to information we have, Downing Street says that there is no change in our position on the use of the storm shadow missiles in Russia, but added that a few hours later the Guardian contradicted that story.”

    Who knows what the truth is, but Dima also reported that there is no meeting with Zelensky and Biden. Blinken essentially blew Zelensky off.

    2. Chris Cosmos

      There is no advantage for NATO (and certainly not for Ukraine) in striking population centers in Russia which is what Ukraine wishes to do out of hatred and spite and in the hope that Russia will overreact and cause NATO to enter the war which it, in the main, does not want to do because they lack the force structure to seriously damage the Russian military operation. Or so it appears. If thousands of people die as a result of these missiles in Russia, Putin will be forced to attack NATO forces in places like Syria, Iraq, or in Europe. I would suggest Ramstein.

      1. Ignacio

        According to Zelensky’s selling pitch they want to attack military objectives. I am not sure about this but the West would have control over the target coordinates and the guiding, so if the missiles hit residential buildings Zelensky wouldn’t be the one to be blamed but the Western handlers. Besides, missiles, unlike drones, are too expensive and too scarce to be spent in terror attacks.

        1. Chris Cosmos

          Well, we wills see. Ukraine has lost the war so whatever “military targets” are struck won’t matter than much. On the other hand the Ukrainians are entering the bargaining stage (Kursk) and want to assure Russia that it means business if it doesn’t get a good settlement and terror attacks would be the result of not getting what they want. Again, the only thing that can save Ukraine is a NATO offensive of some kind. There are also forces within the NATO leadership that want such an outcome, including WWIII.

          1. Bsn

            Here’s another “we will see” option. Let’s say Ukraine hits something serious in Moscow with a large western missile. I wonder if Lavrov or another high ranking official would call a German base and say, politely “Make suer that at 2:00 p.m. your facility is empty of soldiers including maintenance and custodial services. It will be destroyed at that time.”

      2. Kouros

        I would prefer the US military bases and installations in Romania. This way Russia clears the air to more safely occupy Odessa oblast…

    4. Skip Intro

      Typically some neocon functionary will release a story, amplified by complicit media, that the ‘responsible’ parties have to walk back. This moves the Overton window and presages the next escalation from the west, all aimed at inciting further escalation from Russia, and so on.

  8. Zagonostra

    >Worker Solidarity Is the Best Strategy to Defeat Rising Fascism Labor Notes

    MAGA is built on sentiments meant to divide us. It offers a very narrow definition of what is normal or acceptable, and blames every problem on outsiders or people who are different. But solidarity and diversity have always made the union movement strong.

    Combating Trump can’t only be done by arguing facts with people. You have to practice solidarity at the worksite, and be the example of how a good unionist thinks and acts.

    I’m no MAGA enthusiast but I think the author is incapable of nuance. MAGA doesn’t blame “every problem on outsiders” it blames them on “insiders.” It posits that the MSM is corrupt and the people in power have an agenda in allowing unregulated immigration.

    Based on painful first hand experience, where a yesterday family member shared her effusive take on how well Kamala did against Trump in the recent debate, I tried to using “facts,” specifically about the unhinged support Kamala’s support for the ongoing genocide in Israel. It got me nowhere. Jacques Ellul and others on the subject of propaganda, meticulously documented based on historical events that “arguing facts with people” rarely alters their thinking/belief.

    1. marym

      Rank and file MAGA (and their own corrupt government, media, business, and religious elite) may blame the Blue segment of the elite for immigration, and immigrants for a laundry list of grievances. However they also blame many other segments of the working class. Rarely does one see a call for the rank and file demographic currently known as MAGA exhorted from within to show some solidarity.

      1. k

        The “airing of grievances” is never ending. Are they always wrong? – no.

        It would nice to see Trump and the MAGAists offer some solutions. Getting folks ginned up and angry is easy. Solving problems – not so easy.

        1. t

          Sure it is. Take care of “these psychos” and school shootings are over. Close the border and fentanyl, and also ham trafficking, is gone. Traditional gender roles based on biology and the Bible and we’re all set. Those are the solutions. Just ask my Mom!

        2. Pat

          See the Democrats on that solving problems aren’t easy.
          Learn to code, access to healthcare rather than healthcare, unaffordable education and student loan issues (have enjoyed watching the pretend illegal solutions that the Democrat most responsible for the atrocity, Joe Biden, put in place), so many not real solutions . Even on things they supposedly care about the pretense is off the charts doubling down on fracking and the Paris accords come to mind. Shall I go on?

          Time to stop pretending that the other side is the evil useless one.

          Remembering John Edwards shocking Obama and Clinton with the way his two Americas campaign resonated. The anointed ones hadn’t even bothered to notice the disaster globalization had wrought, and were never interested in solutions. The MAGA movement might not be all that, but it has been coming for a long time and is as much the result of the Democratic Party’s perfidy as the Republicans.

    2. Chris Cosmos

      In my experience and, as I read somewhere, social science research the more you provide facts to your interlocutor the more the person will insist he or she is right. That’s why the a type dialogue is key–find what you can both agree on and go from there rather than the issue at hand. When we discuss issues it just becomes a battle of wills in this historical period at least–this is particularly true because we clearly live in a post-rational era where emotion is everything and logic is, at best, reserved for math and programming.

      1. Mark Gisleson

        This has been studied but frankly I’ve always questioned this study(ies?). Social scientists have a remarkable capacity for getting these things wrong.

        The trick is not to give people your research but rather to trick them into doing their own research. This ties in to my recent comments about Trump getting things wrong but when you google him you find out he’s only partially wrong.

        Also be willing to look at their research. Makes it a lot easier to nudge them by saying, “well, much of this made sense to me but I couldn’t help but notice that all of this comes from the same group of folks. Do you have anything about this from someone more mainstream?”

        Keep pushing them to do research and the truth will reveal itself to them eventually.

        Note: none of this works if you are the party who’s wrong about the issue.

        1. Kouros

          A Canadian academic teaching at UofTexas, on climate change adaptation and communication suggests the same thing. She recounted how, adopting the Socratic method, managed to elicit positive responses from many a rightist/conservatist/denialist person… Was an interview on CBC some 2 or so months ago.

  10. Ben Panga

    A bit of Hunter S. Thompson (from a column for ESPN a week after 9/11)

    We are At War now, according to President Bush, and I take him at his word. He also says this War might last for “a very long time.”
    Generals and military scholars will tell you that eight or 10 years is actually not such a long time in the span of human history — which is no doubt true — but history also tells us that 10 years of martial law and a war-time economy are going to feel like a Lifetime to people who are in their twenties today. The poor bastards of what will forever be known as Generation Z are doomed to be the first generation of Americans who will grow up with a lower standard of living than their parents enjoyed.
    That is extremely heavy news, and it will take a while for it to sink in. The 22 babies born in New York City while the World Trade Center burned will never know what they missed. The last half of the 20th century will seem like a wild party for rich kids, compared to what’s coming now. The party’s over, folks. The time has come for loyal Americans to Sacrifice. … Sacrifice. … Sacrifice. That is the new buzz-word in Washington. But what it means is not entirely clear.
    Winston Churchill said “The first casualty of War is always Truth.” Churchill also said “In wartime, the Truth is so precious that it should always be surrounded by a bodyguard of Lies.”
    That wisdom will not be much comfort to babies born last week. The first news they get in this world will be News subjected to Military Censorship. That is a given in wartime, along with massive campaigns of deliberately-planted “Dis-information.” That is routine behavior in Wartime — for all countries and all combatants — and it makes life difficult for people who value real news. Count on it. That is what Churchill meant when he talked about Truth being the first casualty of War.

    1. Jester

      The poor bastards of what will forever be known as Generation Z are doomed to be the first generation of Americans who will grow up with a lower standard of living than their parents enjoyed.

      I guess those born around 1929 had it better than I thought, or they don’t count because they eventually got a nice war to fix the economy.

      1. CA

        I guess those born around 1929 had it better than I thought, or they don’t count because they eventually got a nice war to fix the economy.

        [ Forgive me, but this is seriously incorrect.

        What fixed the economy in the wake of the Depression was the New Deal. New Deal programs were radically successful from the beginning. Economic growth sharply increased, productivity increased at the fastest rate in the entire century, employment steadily and sharply increased. ]

        1. Wukchumni

          In 1929 the USA was…

          The largest manufacturer
          The largest creditor
          The largest oil producer by a wide margin

          1. The Rev Kev

            Can you imagine what would have happened if those old-timey factory owners had, in the 30s, shipped their factories and all its machinery to the rising power of Japan to increase their profits?

            1. Wukchumni

              About 30 years ago I came across a ‘Paperclip-German’ in Santa Monica, and I knew enough about airplanes to make conversation, and he related that he was on the team that came up with the swept wing concept for the ME-262, and we talked a bit more and he asked:

              ‘Where do you think we got the airplane engines for early 3rd Reich airplanes?’

              He uttered they were built licensed under American airplane manufacturers, who most certainly took a slice, no?

              1. hk

                Ford was a major truck supplier to the wartime 3rd Reich (Ford’s factories in Germany kept churning out trucks for the Germany). Ford even sued the US government for damages to their plants fron strategic bombing after the war.

              2. Jeff V

                In the early years of the Soviet Union, when they desperately needed to build an air force up from scratch, western companies – including American ones – were only too happy to sell them enough planes to tide them over until they could develop their own aviation industry.

                I don’t know the timing of Lenin’s famous quote about “The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them” but I do wonder if he might have had this in mind when he said it.

              3. Bugs

                And IBM kept the ovens hot. Actually sending repairmen to Auschwitz itself to make sure those tabulating machines were running smoothly and all the deplorables were counted. When I was at Big Blue, I was warned not to look at that stuff (the litigation files) by higher ups. I think Watson was probably pissed that it didn’t work out for them.

            3. spud

              just think Rev, they would have done the same with the fascist central europeons. fascist germany would have really enjoyed free trade with the u.s.a. during the great depression.

              its why wallace would have been such a disaster, he was for lowering tariffs all through the great depression.

            1. Wukchumni

              It was our ability to spend on social programs that enabled us to crawl out of the Great Depression.

              A tale of 2 CCC’s

              The CCC was by far the most popular of FDR’s programs, it taught young men (only 1 camp for women) skills and paid them $30 a month for their effort, including decent food (most recruits gained weight) and lodging.

              In Canada they were called Relief Camps and it was more of a place to get rid of single men into the hinterlands. Pay was $6 a month, and food and lodging not so great. They were kind of a national shame.

              1. Kouros

                This is why they revolted and tried to take the trains on mass to Ottawa…

                I don’t know a bigger scrooge than the Canadian federal government…

            2. spud

              FDR got suckered once, almost twice. we were well on our way out of the depression, when he fell for that austerity crap peddled by his secretary of the treasury.

              he almost got suckered twice by wallace and his free trade scams.

              this is the best compacted over view of the pre-depression, and depression years up to the end of WWII.

              it clearly debunks the war brought us out of the depression, it clearly proves no need for a war. just dig ditches and refill them. that is simple terminology, but even the simple have troubles understanding simple things.

              really the depression started in 1928, they just did not know it. like today, the clinton/obama depression started in 2001, and has not abated one bit, except a tiny bit was reversed under trump.

              https://aliveness.com/kangaroo/Timeline.htm

              “1928

              The construction boom is over.

              Farmers’ share of the national income has dropped from 15 to 9 percent since 1920.

              Between May 1928 and September 1929, the average prices of stocks will rise 40 percent. Trading will mushroom from 2-3 million shares per day to over 5 million. The boom is largely artificial.

              1929

              Herbert Hoover becomes President. Hoover is a staunch individualist but not as committed to laissez-faire ideology as Coolidge.

              More than half of all Americans are living below a minimum subsistence level.

              Annual per-capita income is $750; for farm people, it is only $273.

              Backlog of business inventories grows three times larger than the year before. Public consumption markedly down.

              Freight carloads and manufacturing fall.

              Automobile sales decline by a third in the nine months before the crash.

              Construction down $2 billion since 1926.

              Recession begins in August, two months before the stock market crash. During this two month period, production will decline at an annual rate of 20 percent, wholesale prices at 7.5 percent, and personal income at 5 percent.

              Stock market crash begins October 24. Investors call October 29 “Black Tuesday.” Losses for the month will total $16 billion, an astronomical sum in those days.

              Congress passes Agricultural Marketing Act to support farmers until they can get back on their feet.”

              “1937

              The Supreme Court declares the National Labor Relations Board to be unconstitutional.

              Roosevelt seeks to enlarge and therefore liberalize the Supreme Court. This attempt not only fails, but outrages the public.

              Economists attribute economic growth so far to heavy government spending that is somewhat deficit. Roosevelt, however, fears an unbalanced budget and cuts spending for 1937. That summer, the nation plunges into another recession. Despite this, the yearly GNP rises 5.0 percent, and unemployment falls to 14.3 percent.”

              “ECONOMIC TIMELINE

              The following timeline shows the order of economic events during the Great Depression. Notice the effect that deficit spending had on economic growth:

              Receipts: Tax receipts as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product

              Spending: Federal spending as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product

              GNP: Percent change in the Gross National Product

              Unemp.: Unemployment rate

              Tax Federal GNP Unemp.

              Year Receipts Spending Growth Rate

              ————————————————-

              1929 — — — 3.2% < Hoover era, Great Depression begins

              1930 4.2% 3.4% – 9.4% 8.7

              1931 3.7 4.3 – 8.5 15.9

              1932 2.9 7.0 -13.4 23.6

              1933 3.5 8.1 – 2.1 24.9 < FDR, New Deal begins; contraction ends March

              1934 4.9 10.8 + 7.7 21.7

              1935 5.3 9.3 + 8.1 20.1

              1936 5.1 10.6 +14.1 16.9

              1937 6.2 8.7 + 5.0 14.3 < recession begins, May

              1938 7.7 7.8 – 4.5 19.0 < recession ends, June

              1939 7.2 10.4 + 7.9 17.2

              1940 6.9 9.9

              1941 7.7 12.1

              1942 10.3 24.8

              1943 13.7 44.8

              1944 21.7 45.3

              1945 21.3 43.7"

              1. Procopius

                My father always insisted the Depression really started in 1921. The cities’ economies recovered, the farmers’ did not. I go with Keynes — although there was much discussion of “excess production,” the problem was insufficient demand. People didn’t have enough income to buy.

  11. Wukchumni

    As Fires Burn And More Wildfire Regions Talk Job Cuts, Congress Argues Over 2025 Budget The Hotshot Wake Up
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Imagine Navy Seals living in their cars?

    That’s how elite Hotshots are, inserted into the heat of battle as a striking force that can’t be replaced all that easily, these are the best firefighters in the land-bar none.

    Now while Congress is being niggardly in regards to paying them a living wage, the Fire Industrial Complex has no such issues and pays out like a compromised slot machine to private bulldozer operators cutting line (almost 20 miles worth in our ongoing Coffee Pot Fire now up to $43 million in cost) water tender trucks, fire camps where the firefighters eat, sleep and rest, all those fixed wing and helicopters dropping water & retardant, not to mention spotter planes keeping track of the action, its one hellova payday and to be fair-their services are needed on a strictly haphazard fashion and hardly at all if ever for about 2/3rds of the year, you make bank during fire season only.

    Large Hot Age practically guarantees we will need all the firefighting support we can get, and money is seemingly no object to large aspects of it, except the most important part.

    Samoan Firefighters Raise Spirits On Fire Lines With Song

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46_PJpVY7lU

  12. midtownwageslave

    Rosatom’ Uranium One, YLB sign contract to build lithium carbonate plant in Bolivia

    https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/105810/

    Rosatom and Bolivian state company sign agreement to build lithium carbonate plant. Previous agreements between parties regarding lithium extraction we for feasibility and research, iirc.

    Will this bring material benefits to the Bolivian peoples? And at what cost?

    More here:

    https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/bolivia-seals-14-bln-lithium-deals-with-russias-rosatom-chinas-guoan-2023-06-29/

    1. CA

      “Rosatom and Bolivian state company sign agreement to build lithium carbonate plant…. Will this bring material benefits to the Bolivian peoples? And at what cost?”

      When possible, please explain what the question “And at what cost?” refers to. The Economist uses this question when the intent is to belittle and demean Chinese spending on any project.

      https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/bolivia-seals-14-bln-lithium-deals-with-russias-rosatom-chinas-guoan-2023-06-29/

      June 29, 2023

      Bolivia taps China, Russia’s Rosatom in bid to unlock huge lithium riches
      By Daniel Ramos – Reuters

      LA PAZ – Bolivia has signed lithium agreements with Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom and China’s Citic Guoan Group, the South American country’s government said on Thursday, as it looks to develop its huge but largely untapped resources of the battery metal…

      1. midtownwageslave

        “And at what cost?” – externalized costs…

        Is this Western style imperialism under a different flag?

        https://apnews.com/article/costa-rica-homicides-drug-trafficking-4a8f6ecfe7d23fc83708033dc20e05df

        “In 2018, the government privatized its container port, giving the concession to a Dutch company.

        Antonio Wells, secretary general of the dockworkers union for Costa Rica’s Atlantic ports, said some 7,000 jobs were lost in the port privatization, which he blames for Limon’s social problems.”

        1. CA

          “And at what cost?” – externalized costs…

          Thank you so much for explaining.

          There was indeed such a Bolivian “external” cost problem with privatizing the water system at the expense of indigenous Bolivians, which led to protest and the presidency of indigenous leader Evo Morales. Now, there will be public control of mineral supplies. The Chinese and Russians will be plant designers and builders and resource buyers, not resource owners. Bolivian indigenous miners are supported by the current president.

    1. Jason Boxman

      Wow. I was wrong. Under Liberal Democrats, they tripled childhood poverty, not doubled. Well done, Team Democrat!

    2. Lena

      This is heartbreaking and should be criminal.

      I have an elementary aged child. She has told us how terrible the free lunches are at school , moldy fruit, expired milk.

      We’re lucky a d can provide her with healthy food but there are many in our community who cannot. (We live in MA, a strong school district.)

      Just awful.

      1. CA

        “I have an elementary aged child. She has told us how terrible the free lunches are at school , moldy fruit, expired milk.

        We’re lucky and can provide her with healthy food but there are many in our community who cannot. (We live in MA, a strong school district.)”

        This is devastating.

      2. CA

        “I have an elementary aged child. She has told us how terrible the free lunches are at school, moldy fruit, expired milk.

        We’re lucky and can provide her with healthy food, but there are many in our community who cannot. (We live in MA, a strong school district.)”

        This is an important and distressing comment.

    3. lyman alpha blob

      Even without this recent data, Trump should have nailed Harris on this at the debate. I believe it was at the debate I heard her talking about increasing child tax credits or something. Trump could have asked her why Biden rescinded the child tax credit his administration had implemented.

      1. k

        Huh?
        CONGRESS rescinded the child tax credit.
        Joe Manchin voted against expansion (what Biden wanted), wanting a work requirement added. Manchin is from a state that Donald Trump won in 2016 and 2020 by about 40 points. He’s not going to go far out on a limb when it comes to big gov spending….

        1. lyman alpha blob

          It went away on Biden’s watch then – better?

          Not buying the ‘blame Manchin’ schtick – there’s always a recalcitrant Democrat to take the blame (used to be Lieberman was the excuse for why we can’t have nice things), and absent that, it’s the Republicans fault.

          If Biden, or whoever has their hand up his rear end, wanted to keep the tax credit, they would have twisted arms and got it done.

  15. The Rev Kev

    “Russia claims it prevented Ukrainian attempt to take control of Black Sea drilling rig”

    Almost certainly true. Zelensky is about to meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy so orders a high-risk mission with only short term results that will enable him to announce some sort of victory. Instead a fiasco ensues and dozens of Ukrainian troops die in an attempted PR stunt. You see this again and again.

    1. sarmaT

      Those dumb enough to get on the rubber boat assault squad, without bringing a big white flag, deserve to become a fish brunch. What are they thinking? That this time it will be different?

      2. Chris Cosmos

        I think it is important to understand other cultures. Why do (chiefly) men do stupid highly risky stuff and feel good about it? It’s a way of finding joy and comradship for one thing. Somehow the Ukrainian men are more loaded with maleness than other peoples. This war has shown how brave and fearless Ukrainian troops are considering they should have lost completely by now considering Russian superiority in most areas.

        Men from the US and Western Europe are only that way with a load of a alcohol and even then less than it used to be when bar-fights were more common when I was a young man.

        1. sarmaT

          If you praise Banderites, then you are way off the mark in understanding other cultures. Ukrainian men are not loaded with manliness more than others, but with hate towards what they were yesterday, and desire to prove themseleves worthy to their masters. All convertites are like that. The result is Darwin Awards galore for them (and prostitution for women and children left behind).

    2. John Wright

      It’s as if actor Zelensky is asking “can we have another take?”.

      But these “takes” have real consequences.

      Maybe Z will ask to continue filming in Florida?

  16. Darthbobber

    Child poverty triples since 2021.

    Note in the chart that 2021 is an artificially low baseline. 2019 was well over 12%, then temporary covid related measures began to take effect in 2020 and maxed out in 2021.

    All the temporary measures were allowed to expire, so we’re back to the relentless upward climb.

    1. ambrit

      That chart demonstrates that reducing childhood poverty is possible, and at a reasonable cost. This shows conclusively that childhood poverty is a deliberate policy of the Ruling Elites.

      1. Joker

        Ukrainian experiment have shown that poor children are more easily lured into Bandera youth, or a “free candy” van.

    3. flora

      The child expanded tax credits were allowed to expire in December 2021, when the Dems held both houses of Congress.

      (Dems keep saying “hold their feet to the fire.” Well, I’m glad to. / ;)

      1. Pat

        Some will say that not having a super majority with extras in the Senate (can’t forget Manchin and Sinema) makes that untrue.
        I will say that watching Biden and his administration fight and connive for Ukraine funding versus the crickets for continuing the expanded tax credits speaks volumes especially considering the vast disparity in the numbers. Let’s just say that keeping children out of poverty would have cost the US taxpayer a whole lot less than keeping Zelensky in missiles and t-shirts. Oh and actually provide more benefits for the country as a whole.

      1. anahuna

        Any links to support your assertion that undocumented migrants were documented enough to be counted in surveys of child poverty?

          1. anahuna

            I see from that article that 40% percent of children in poverty are the children of immigrants, and about half that number have at least one undocumented parent. Most of the children concerned are legally citizens themselves. (The article is mainly concerned with the barriers to aid that partially undocumented families encounter.) What I don’t see is anything that tracks the arrival of undocumented immigrants per year in relation to child poverty and particularly in relation to the cut-off of Covid-era aid to families.

  17. CA

    https://responsiblestatecraft.org/china-cold-war-2669160202/

    September 11, 2024

    House passes $1.6 billion to deliver anti-China propaganda overseas
    Somehow it’s a crime when Russia does it to us, but good ‘information ops’ when we want to discredit Beijing’s Belt & Road initiatives worldwide
    By Marcus Stanley

    Since at least 2016, foreign interference in American elections and civil society have become central to American political discourse. The issue is taken extremely seriously by the U.S. government, which has levied sanctions and called out foreign adversaries for sowing “discord and chaos” through their propaganda efforts.

    But apparently Washington takes a different view when it comes to American propaganda operations in foreign countries. On Monday, the House passed HR 1157, the “Countering the PRC Malign Influence Fund,” by a bipartisan 351-36 majority. This legislation authorizes more than $1.6 billion for the State Department and USAID over the next five years to, among other purposes, subsidize media and civil society sources around the world that counter Chinese “malign influence” globally…

    1. Chris Cosmos

      Look, the Washington ruling elites believe we are at war and only see things within that context. Russian interference is bad (even if practically non-existent) and US interference is good because we are the good guys and they are the bad guys. It’s that simple for these guys.

  18. Wukchumni

    Could a swore this was a Burning Man Rx kitbag…

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    In a cave nestled into the rocky vastness of the Andes in south-west Bolivia, amid rubble and llama dung, in 2008 anthropologists discovered a small leather bag which had once belonged to a shaman from the Tiwanaku civilization – a pre-Columbian empire in the Southern Andes – more than 1,000 years ago. Inside, they found a collection of ancient drug paraphernalia. This included a snuffing tube, spatulas to crush the seeds of psychoactive plants and traces of chemicals ranging from cocaine to psilocin, one of the active hallucinogens within magic mushrooms, and the base ingredients of the psychoactive tea ayahuasca.

    Experts believe that the shaman’s bag represents a unique window into the relationship between ancient civilisations and powerful hallucinogenic drugs. The substances found within the bag are also of growing interest to today’s medical researchers.

    Psychedelics such as MDMA, LSD, psilocybin (another compound found in magic mushrooms) and ketamine have been gaining attention in the Western world as a possible way to tackle burgeoning mental health crises. Their proponents see some psychedelic compounds as a potential new class of blockbuster treatments for psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression and substance abuse, among others. It’s thought that the compounds may help to alter the perspective of individuals with so-called “diseases of despair”, including suicide, drug overdose and alcohol abuse, in conjunction with talking therapy. However, these treatments have also been criticised as over-hyped and potentially harmful.

    https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240910-the-ancient-history-behind-healing-trauma-with-psychedelics

    1. Chris Cosmos

      Psychedelic, believe it or not, begin to connect us to the real world rather than disconnect us. Our civilization with its mindless materialism, narcissism, and hedonism is wildly out of balance for human beings. I don’t want to go “back” at all but I want to get real and re-incorporate the enchanted world that was once a part of the mix.

  19. ChrisFromGA

    AI’s gotta die tonight

    (inspired by Ice T and Body Count)

    [Spoken]

    For every bezzling, corrupt corporation
    Peddling fake AI, it’s a freaking scam!

    Your marketing department is full of thugs
    Sales is a nest of vipers; your PR flack lies like a rug!

    Your fraudulent misrepresentations may fool Wall St clowns
    But they don’t fool us! You’re going down!

    Your “AI” is just old wine in new wineskins; it’s a goner
    A street gang running crooked bingo games has more honor!

    Your stonks may rise, but that don’t make it right
    And I say AI has gotta die tonight!

    AI’s just another scam to separate you from your purse
    Is a kid snatching it on the street any worse?

    White-collar crime now seems to pay
    Where are the cops? Where’s the DA?

    Your balance sheet’s a greasy rag
    Of copyright infringement, you like to brag

    Your stonks may rise, but that don’t make it right
    And I say AI has gotta die tonight!

    When AI dies we shall see the glory
    Of the coming of the crash, an age-old story

    Greed always goes on way too long
    But in the end, the crowd is wrong

    Your stonks may rise, but that don’t make it right
    And I say AI’s gotta die tonight!

  20. The Rev Kev

    “As major web browser makers snuggle up to AI, these skeptical holdouts remain”

    So if I got this right, a lot of the browsers are going to bolt on an AI onto your browser, that will take more resources to run and use up more of your bandwidth for what exactly? If Firefox goes ahead with this I am going to have to bail on it. I have not asked for it nor do I want it and I certainly do not need it. If it was any good it should be offered as an add-on, not made mandatory. The last sentence of that article says this-

    ‘Like it or not, AI has arrived in the browser, or most of them. Choose wisely.’

    But that is the point. Some browsers are not allowing their users to choose but are just going to force it on them. To hell with that.

        1. Mikel

          Just checking out the browser for now. Saw the email option and will set one up later.

          I’m liking the Ghostery-like count of trackers and ads that it blocks.

  21. Mikel

    Self-medicating gorillas may hold new drugs clues – BBC

    The science we need!
    But:
    “Poaching and disease have led to a huge number of western lowland gorillas disappearing in the wild.”

    Have to wonder if the poachers exposed them to diseases the gorillas did not know how to heal.

  22. Carolinian

    Re Larry Johnson–perhaps it’s time for another discussion about Section 230 and the degree to which its provisions have been distorted from a protection of free speech into an excuse for speech censorship.

    Section 230 has two primary parts both listed under §230(c) as the “Good Samaritan” portion of the law. Under section 230(c)(1), as identified above, an information service provider shall not be treated as a “publisher or speaker” of information from another provider. Section 230(c)(2) provides immunity from civil liabilities for information service providers that remove or restrict content from their services they deem “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected”, as long as they act “in good faith” in this action.[4]

    In analyzing the availability of the immunity offered by Section 230, courts generally apply a three-prong test. A defendant must satisfy each of the three prongs to gain the benefit of the immunity:[5]

    The defendant must be a “provider or user” of an “interactive computer service”.
    The cause of action asserted by the plaintiff must treat the defendant as the “publisher or speaker” of the harmful information at issue.
    The information must be “provided by another information content provider”, i.e., the defendant must not be the “information content provider” of the harmful information at issue.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230

    While Google used the “hate speech” excuse in censoring Johnson’s channel they felt themselves under no obligation to explain or defend the very editorial decision to repress third party content. 230’s liability protections have allowed a giant oligopoly called Youtube to arise without obliging it to defend actions that contradict the very free speech motive that sponsors like Ron Wyden claim to have had. Instead, with power now acquired, it’s “two legs good, four legs bad.”

    And having now gotten away with letting giant private platforms do their censoring for them, governments world wide are proposing to do the censorship themselves. It’s Orwell’s upside down world become real.

    Of course it’s possible that Google really has no interest in politics at all but merely seek to curry favor with politicians who can affect their huge presence in the market and therefore their bottom line. This theory says that in America dishonesty is still frowned upon but greed will always be good. A plague on all of them.

  23. Wukchumni

    a 5.1 near Thousand Oaks just recently…

    Big fires combined with a big earthquake would be very Day of the Locust, for those of you playing at home in the SoCalist movement.

  24. JCC

    I switched to Novavax after exclusively using the Moderna vax.

    The first thing I noticed, and why I’ll stick with it, is that my arm didn’t hurt for days afterwards.

    Plus, despite millions of shots, mRNA vaccines are still a new technology, so let’s see what happens regarding them in another 2 or 3 years time, at least

    1. t

      I heard good things about the plant component – way over my head but the gist was expected to have an edge on varients not in the shot.

      Never had any side effects from Moderna or Novavax. (Or flu shots. Which people are complaining about right now.)

  25. more news

    https://t.me/AussieCossack/22609
    ❗️US Vice Presidential Candidate Vance Reveals Details of Trump’s Peace Plan. Key Points:
    ⚡️The most likely outcome of the conflict is along the current front line, along which a demilitarized zone will be created , which will be heavily fortified so that “the Russians do not invade again.”
    🇺🇦Ukraine retains its independent sovereignty
    🇷🇺Russia receives a guarantee of neutrality from Ukraine; it does not join NATO or other allied institutions
    🇩🇪Germany and other countries must finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.

    1. schmoe

      I might be in the minority, but keeping Crimea and a land bridge to it is the most important outcome, or tied with no NATO entrance, Obviously, there would be items such as a DMZ east of the Dnieper firm understanding on any diversions of water flow that need to be included.
      I do not see any plausible situation where Russia takes any territory west of the Dnieper.
      No reference to any sanctions relief or loosened enforcement of sanctions.

    2. ChrisFromGA

      So, when it comes to war, “loser pays” = Germany gets stuck with the bill, ergo they are the loser.

      Why not make the US pay since they’re the ones who egged the Ukrainians on to their own detriment? And adds another “L” to the win/loss columns to go with Vietnam and Afghanistan (Syria is a tie, more or less.)

      Maybe Germany should subtract all the damages from Biden’s destruction of NS2 from their bill and hand it back to the US.

    3. Bazarov

      Any negotiated outcome that allows Ukraine to “heavily fortify” the line along “a demilitarized zone” so that “the Russians do not invade again” is a nonstarter, since “heavily fortify” must mean that NATO gets to rebuild Ukraine’s army. There’s no way Ukraine could “heavily fortify” anything itself after the devastation wrought upon it during this war.

      This plan sounds to me like a ploy for European rearmament, which considering the state of the European arms industry really amounts to a nice, big payday for American arms suppliers. Trumps Peace Plan stinks of Military Industrial Complex influence. Perhaps Trump’s trying to wheedle the arms industry away from the Harris camp.

      1. Mark Gisleson

        Probably a good time to share a rumor that was making the rounds this summer:

        Due to Ukraine’s devastating loss of population, it may be repopulated with displaced Israeli settlers (most of whom are ethnically from that part of the world).

  26. Ranger Rick

    NHS reform: if you go back and read NC from several years ago when Parliament started defunding it, Lambert called it as the precursor to forcing privatization by inducing deliberate degradation of service to “build a case” for reform. Looks like that time has finally arrived.

  27. IMOR

    re: Ecacuation of Wrightwood in Bridge fire.
    Per Wikipedia, this is the third evacuation order in eight years for Wrightwood.

  28. ChrisFromGA

    Apropos of nothing, has anyone seen or heard from Mitch McConnell?

    Even Joe seems to be out and about, in his MAGA cap.

    You might think the Senate Majority leader would come out and make a statement or something before Nov. 5. Could he have been eaten by Haitians?

  29. Tom Stone

    Whoever ascends the Throne is going to have an eventful four years…
    And neither candidate is competent to handle what is clearly coming in the next Months and years.
    Even a Lincoln or Putin would be hard pressed to muddle through the combination of War, Climate Change and Covid which the World is beginning to experience.
    Trump or Harris?
    I have a better chance of winning the lotto.

  30. Lena

    So I was reading about who ” won ” the debate. And decided to watch a few minutes of it myself.

    I didn’t watch the whole thing (there’s no way I could handle it), but in my very limited opinion, all I heard was “she doesn’t have a plan… he doesn’t have a plan”. Back and forth.

    Instead of saying that the other person doesn’t have a plan why don’t they just lay out their plan?

    I can’t stand the stupidity of everything these days.

    1. Chris Cosmos

      Pols act stupid so that they align with the majority of the population which is functionally stupid to an ever more increasing degree. Fortunately, the twenty percent of the population that is capable of thinking is getting a bit wiser. This fact is why I no longer believe in democracy. It requires an educated and committed public and that ain’t happening anytime soon.

    3. Wukchumni

      What I wanted to hear:

      Moderator: Its pretty obvious that climate change in the guise of heat will bake our cities, what do you propose to do?

      Either one: The obvious answer is to construct heat fallout shelters a minimum of 10 feet under the ground, and once elected into office, we will start implementing a plan for both individual and neighborhood heat shelters across the country. This will benefit the USA in that there will be hundreds of thousands of new jobs that come with this construction.

      What I heard instead was high school level oneupmanship over bupkis.

  31. Lena

    This is Lena in the Ohio Valley. I notice today that another Lena is posting. I don’t see anything she has written that I disagree with but I wanted to point out that we are not the same person.

    As I have written about before, I am dealing with a serious terminal illness. I’m not well enough to comment often. But I am still here, reading the always insightful NC links and comments! Thank you for this site.

    1. Skip Intro

      It is hard for those of us who use our real names, when there is a collision. Hopefully your doppelganger is in a distinct geographic region :-)

    2. aletheia33

      thank you for the clarification.
      i was wondering, as things the other lena has said about her life did not sync with your sharings over some time now, including on your serious illness.
      i’ve welcomed and learned from your sharings.
      best wishes to you with your situation.

    4. Alice X

      Dear Lena, perhaps you could use Lena (the original) or some other sort of reminder, if the other Lena doesn’t update hers? I, for one, will not forget you, however it goes!

      Edit – the other Lena just commented.

  32. more news

    https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1834179789072335246
    🇵🇱🇷🇺🇺🇦‼️🚨 FULL TALK: The Polish foreign minister spills the beans in this prank with Vovan and Lexus, a must see!

    Checkpoints:
    – 0:46 mobilization decision took long
    – 1:36 Poland wants to send Ukranians back to fight
    – 3:35 corruption can lead to end of support by the west
    – 4:16 problems with electricity can make Ukraine uninhabitable
    – 5:00 don’t involve many countries in peace negotiations, they don’t care about Ukraine
    – 6:54 USA cannot pull out if Ukraine, its credibility is at stake
    – 7:38 Trump wants to threaten Russia to get a deal
    – 8:56 NATO does not get involved directly, not even shooting down missiles
    – 10:05 Poland can train a brigade or two for Ukraine
    – 11:04 Ukraine can’t join NATO, until it wins. The membership is a bargaining chip for the west with Russia.
    – 12:32 Putin must wonder what NATO could do, so it’s not clarified
    – 13:42 Joining the EU will take a decade
    – 15:52 EU membership is a question of power, Ukraine and Poland would have more votes than Germany
    – 16:44 Poland signed the deal at the Maidan knowing the Ukrainian government will collapse soon
    – 18:10 The Polish president wants attention and talks about nukes, but Poland does not want US nukes
    – 20:24 Ukrainian nukes were not Ukrainian but Russian
    – 20:50 USA knew about NordStream and did not stop it!
    – 22:04 Belarus and Russia invite migrants and send them to Poland, up to 400 a day
    – 22:44 Belarus cannot be coupled until Russia is not regime changed, Belarus is step two not one
    – 24:12 Bye inshallah

    Sikorsky thinks he’s talking to former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and really says it all. That’s probably the most important prank of them all!

    3. The Rev Kev

      Vovan and Lexus keep on pretending that they are Petro Poroshenko and western leaders fall for it again and again and again – even if they have met the guy and talked to him. idjuts.

  33. Skip Intro

    It is hard for those of us who use our real names, when there is a collision. Hopefully your doppelganger is in a distinct geographic region.

  34. Tom Stone

    There certainly is a difference between Bird Flu and Covid.
    With Bird Flu we can watch it infect multiple mammalian species as it adapts to Humans while with Covid it jumped from bats to Humans and from Humans to multiple other Mammals.
    Which seems curious unless a lab leak was involved.

  35. Maxwell Johnston

    The Aral Sea — Volcano Cafe

    In summer 1995, on a business trip from Moscow to Tashkent, my airborne window seat on a sunny day gave me a perfect view of the Aral Sea (or what was left of it). I was aware of its problems and knew exactly where to look, but still I was shocked to see how much it had shrunk. A very sad story, with no happy ending in sight, I’m afraid.

    Following up on my comment of 2 days ago, and for the sake of good order (for those interested): James Howard Kunstler is now on Substack, as his site is down for unspecified reasons. Hacked? Who knows…..

    https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/

  36. failed pote

    >far-white extremists

    gathara gives it away right there.

    It is has never been about “far” or “right” anything.

    Those words are just spells of command, spoken to trigger conditioned responses in well-meaning (and mostly white) leftists who don’t understand that once their useful idiocies have been performed on behalf of globalism, they are next.

    What it is about is the native peopes of Europe attempting to preserve national self-determination in the face of totalitarian globalists who import and priviledge non and anti-whites.

    1. JP

      What is it about colonialism that brings it all home? This is the result of globalism that started 300 years ago.

  37. failed pote

    Fire season is fire season.

    The real question concerning the US Forest Service is how it ended up in $200-300 mil budget hole less than three years after Biden showered it with money.

    Some would say expanding the agency mission to include diversity as an end in itself and then going on a hiring frenzy to staff a DEI bureaucracy that wouldn’t know a ponderosa from a pulaski might have something to do with it…

  38. Kouros

    The War on the Rocks never fails to dissapoint. It is like reading an Israeli argument that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is just…

  39. chris_gee

    Are we not seeing a repetition of the goading and baiting of Russia which led to this Ukraine business that is failure to appreciate Russian concerns and pushing them in a distorted view of an alleged Russian threat? Having Scandinavia Poland and the UK pushing the edge on supposition Russia won’t respond because Nato and it could mean nuclear war is classic bullying.
    Oh sure wise heads will prevail.
    It seems US speeches often end with God bless America – maybe it should be God help America or the rest of us. If I were God I might ask what ya going to do about it?

  40. CA

    Are we not seeing a repetition of the goading and baiting of Russia which led to this Ukraine business that is failure to appreciate Russian concerns and pushing them in a distorted view of an alleged Russian threat?

    [ This was precisely what Princeton scholar Stephen Cohen was saying in 2014, * and for years before that, as Russia was being increasingly threatened. Cohen was paid no attention or rather was dismissed:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/opinion/a-russia-scholars-views.html

    A Russia Scholar’s Views ]

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